ABSTRACT
Environmental communication campaigns (ECCs) are a common fixture in contemporary society. Daily we receive messages attempting to persuade our knowledge, perceptions, and/or behavior with regard to environmental issues. We are warned about the risks associated with toxins such as polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) (Agency, U. S. E. P., 2012), the emerging crises from global climate change (Leiserowitz et al., 2009), widespread loss of water resources due to unsustainable consumption and pollution (Agency, D. I., 2012), among other issues. So commonplace are these messages, we may forget that they often are part of highly orchestrated and persuasive campaigns by private, public, and non-profit organizations. In simple terms, ECCs provide information and persuasive messaging about environmental issues to various segments of the public. And, there are good reasons for their prominence in contemporary society. Most environmental issues are rather complex problems both in basic science and public policy. PCBs, for example, involve over 200 congeners or specific biphenyl structures, are now measured in parts-per-quadrillion (a quadrillion being roughly equivalent of a single human hair to all hair on all humans in the world today (Ecology, 2013)), and essentially are pervasive in the environment including oil, hydraulic systems, some voltage regulators, fluorescent bulbs, adhesives, inks, and caulking. As such they contaminate fish, water, and humans (Agency, U. S. E. P., 2014). These and other factors make communication of important scientific information extraordinarily challenging yet absolutely critical. Our objective in this chapter is to outline some of the principal developments and questions within ECCs. Given the space constraints, we do not attempt to fully summarize public information campaign literature, as such summaries are already available (Atkin and Rice, 2013; Day, 2000). Our hope is to integrate literatures in ways that are theoretically coherent and practically useful. In the remainder of this chapter we (1) discuss conceptual aspects and types of ECCs, (2) outline select methods for public segmentation processes, and (3) punctuate what we see as four especially fruitful ‘frontiers’ of campaigns research and practice. A point of caution: it is difficult to clearly delimit environmental campaigns from health or other campaign processes. This is due both to the nature of campaigns and the interdependence of environmental with other human problems. There is good reason, however, to parse out the analytical considerations of various environmental, health, and environmental-health issues. We briefly discuss some of these dynamics in the final section of the chapter.
