Communication with an Influence

The art of environmental activism demands a high level of strategic communication, one in which those who are attempting to persuade others to believe the way they do must use specific tactics to not only draw attention to an issue, but convince others to have the same passion. As discussed in lecture, strategic communication is using the skill of communication to inform, persuade, or influence a selected audience in order to achieve a specific outcome. Understanding strategic communication is an essential tool as an environmental activist and through extensive consideration; different activist groups can build effective campaigns to help their cause.

Greenpeace, a globally recognized environmental activist group commonly uses ‘‘shock value’’ to bring attention to issues they see as important. Although some may not agree with the way Greenpeace attempts to rally people around and issue, they use strategic communication to reach a broad audience through their outrageous campaigns.

The following is a less violent video created by Greenpeace which uses a mock police investigation as a way to draw attention to David Koch, the Vice President of Koch Industries and oil billionaire.

In this video, Greenpeace uses a much less violent approach to get their message across. They strategically target multiple groups with this commercial, explaining who David Koch is (an oil billionaire who funds environmental and historical exhibits and uses those to tell the public that drilling for oil is not harmful to the environment.)

Greenpeace creates it’s own opportunities to communicate their cause in the video and their use of repetition on the issue of David Koch’s attempts to cover his damage to the environment engraves a strong message in the viewer’s mind about Koch Industries. The goal of this video is to make the public aware of the issue at hand and because of this mild approach, it is much more likely to be shown to a wide variety of people.

Although the audience most likely cannot stop Koch Industries from continuing to drill for oil, Greenpeace exposes areas outside of the oil industry where David Koch is involved. It is effective because after watching the commercial, anyone can be left more informed than they were before. This video is refreshing to view because it is a peaceful demonstration of Greenpeace giving knowledge to the public about how misleading Koch Industries’ mission is and can motivate people to seek the truth.

By: Karissa Bodnar

Whale Wars

While environmental activists have always been negatively labeled as radical, spontaneous, and sometimes dangerous, the media has profited off of their controversial tactics in the hit television series Whale Wars. This show not only highlights the travels of this group but the producers frame this series to show the activists as environmental heroes protecting the future of whales and dolphins.

The documentary follows of the travels of activist group the Sea Sheppard Conservation Society aboard their ship The Steve Erwin. This group is passionate about the conservation and protection of the ocean’s ecosystems by ending the destruction of the habitat and the slaughter of wildlife in the oceans. In this television series, TV crews follow the radical group as they stalk the Japanese whaling fleet in the Antarctic waters in attempts to stop their whaling efforts by any means necessary. This group targets the Japanese because the Japanese have found a loophole in the treaty that lets them whale as much as they want in the means of “scientific research.” This series brings viewers aboard the vessel and into the day-to-day action of this group’s effort to stop the excessive whaling of the Japanese.

While this documentary follows the action of this controversial activist group, Animal Planet is put in the middle by framing the series to show the Sea Sheppards as heroes and the Japanese as insensitive murderers. Similar to the ideas in Robert Entman’s article Framing: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm, the producers use the two concepts of framing, salience and selection, to appeal to their viewers. For salience, Animal Planet has chosen to follow this group and depicts the controversial tactics of the Sea Sheppards to be a bigger deal then they are. This can be seen in clip #2 showing the drama of seeing a whale being killed and dismembered. The producers highlight the concept of salience in this clip by showing that a whale dying is a horribly tragedy, as well as hearing the commentary of activists for a dramatic spin. Animal Planet utilizes the concept of selection by choosing exactly what footage to be shown to the public. This specific footage makes these interactions between the conflicting groups to look extremely tense. Animal planet also tries to select footage to show the Japanese as heartless and violent while the activists continue to be shown as modern day heroes fighting for a cause. This kind of selection is shown in the clip #3 where the Japanese start to throw grenades at the Sea Sheppards during a confrontation.

This series while framed in favor of the Sea Sheppards, has given activists the kind of positive attention that they strive for. The increasing popularity of the show has educated viewers on the exact message that activists try to convey and more is being done to stop excessive whaling. For more information about this series check out the website:

http://animal.discovery.com/tv/whale-wars/

http://animal.discovery.com/tv/whale-wars/sea-shepherd/

~Andrea Osterhout

Friends of Earth

Demonstration

Commercial

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