Love or Loss: Effective message framing to promote environmental conservation

Jacobson, Susan K.; Morales, Nia; Chen, Beida; Soodeen, Rebecca; Moulton, Michael P.; Jain, Eakta

doi:10.1080/1533015x.2018.1456380

Cited by 85 publications

(81 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Additionally, scientists may want to proactively write editorials for newspapers, to make their research and knowledge more publicly accessible. In addition, scientists and journalists can together craft media messages that communicate individual and collective responsibility for people to adopt strategies to coexist with bears and value their ecological role or economic potential (Boan et al, 2018;Freeman & Jarvis, 2013;Jacobson et al, 2018;Lakoff, 2010). Borrowing from behavioral sciences, messages could be crafted using loss aversion techniques, for example, that focus on bear safety without over-dramatizing the nature of a bear or humanbear interactions (Gal & Rucker, 2018;Lopez-Baucells, Rocha, & Fernandez-Llamazares, 2017;Lu, Siemer, Baumer, & Decker, 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We sought to (a) understand the framing and attention focused on grizzly bears by news media, (b) quantify categories and typologies of messages, including overarching attitudinal sentiments and representative anecdotes, and (c) relate the potential influence of news stories to grizzly bear conservation efforts. Results of our study help to clarify the importance of news media in conservation, including how news stories might influence public sentiment, and identify the roles that scientists, conservationists and journalists can play in crafting effective, factual stories about bears (Houston et al, ; Jacobson et al, ; Kaczensky et al, ; Reese et al, ; Veríssimo et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

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From human invaders to problem bears: A media content analysis of grizzly bear conservation

Hughes

Foote

Yarmey

et al. 2020

Conservat Sci and Prac

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Across their North American range, grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) occupy a special place in human imagination, as icons of nature's rugged and raw power, to representations of safety risks and economic costs of living with carnivores. Different bear representations can also be found across news media, from controversial and sensational descriptions of attacks, tragic events and conflicts, to scientific accounts of conservation research. News media certainly has the power to pique curiosity, spark debate, or elicit emotional responses through framing and repetition of content. In turn, news stories can influence how people might interpret and internalize information about grizzly bears. Using media content analysis, we examined newsprint stories on grizzly bears across their North American range between 2000 and 2016, to understand message framing and attention cycle, as well as attitudinal expression and representative anecdote conveyed to the readership. We found that human–bear conflict stories are over‐reported compared to other narratives, where a single incidence garners more attention than a story about new scientific findings. We also found articles that included hunting frames largely originated in Alberta, likely due to the threatened species listing and hunting moratorium. Attitudinal expressions included ecological, negative or neutral, and moral sentiments toward bears. The most common representative anecdote conveyed to the readership reflected the dire state faced by grizzly bears. The bear eco‐gossip expressed in the articles we reviewed, which included clear protagonists and antagonists and the occasional man‐bites‐bear surprise, appears to be the diet of manufactured information fed to the public. Results of our study can help scientists and conservationists understand how news media portrays grizzly bears to the public and how this might influence public sentiment toward their conservation, but also identifies the roles that scientists, conservationists and journalists together can play in crafting effective, factual and engaging news stories about bears.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

From human invaders to problem bears: A media content analysis of grizzly bear conservation

Hughes

Foote

Yarmey

et al. 2020

Conservat Sci and Prac

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“…Below we suggest a set of principles for maximizing the conservation potential of the tourist experience (Figure 1), based on findings derived from the academic literature. We particularly draw on the extensive body of literature showing that virtually all aspects of cognition are affected by emotion (Jacobs, 2012), including perception (Dolan, 2002), motivation (Izard, 2009) and decision-making (Winkielman et al, 2007) Promote positive messaging: It has been reported that people are generally willing to donate more money and time to conservation organizations associated with positively framed messages (Filep & Laing, 2019;Jacobson et al, 2019). This sits well within the growing academic literature flagging the importance of well-informed optimism in motivating societal change towards sustainability (Balmford, 2017;Balmford & Knowlton, 2017;Knowlton, 2018).…”

Section: Embark Ing On a Ne W Chap Ter Of Con S Ervati On Me Ssag Ingmentioning

confidence: 86%

Principles for including conservation messaging in wildlife‐based tourism

et al. 2020

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There is growing evidence that wildlife‐based tourism can be a valuable pathway to transform the environmental knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of tourists, if complemented by effective conservation messaging and proactive interpretive experiences. Yet, such conservation messaging is not always a priority for many wildlife‐based tourism operators, who often avoid exposing happy tourists to the daunting biodiversity crisis. In this paper, we argue that failing to encourage tourists to do more on behalf of wildlife represents a missed opportunity for conservation. Based on a comprehensive review of the academic literature, we show that conservation messaging is virtually absent from many mainstream wildlife‐based tourism operations, often failing to connect global audiences to conservation issues. We found that the scholarly literature on the effectiveness of different techniques, approaches and contents of conservation messaging in wildlife‐based tourism is meagre at best. Yet, alternative forms of communicating conservation‐related messages are opening new avenues to broaden the conservation potential of wildlife‐based tourism. We suggest a set of principles for improving the implementation of conservation messaging in wildlife‐based tourism operations in order to maximize their educational potential. We end by calling for further research efforts on the factors implicated in effective conservation messaging in wildlife‐based tours in order to pave the way for a new era of conservation‐oriented tourism.

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“…Recent examples of experimental environmental research stem from Zelenski et al (2015) [17], Janpol and Dilts (2016) [18], Shreedhar and Mourato (2019) [19], and Jacobson et al (2019) [20]. Zelenski et al (2015) [17] conducted three in-lab randomized experiments showing students nature documentary films versus architectural videos.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The results show that those who saw the material on lions donated somewhat more of the experimental endowment to a nature conservation fund than those who were exposed to the material on bats, suggesting that charismatic species (lions) elicit more donations. Jacobson et al (2019) [20] conducted an online survey with 524 students from the University of Florida. All participants saw six 1-2 min videos that were either positively framed (showing the beauty of nature) or neutrally framed (one video) and two videos that were framed negatively (showing that nature and species are endangered).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can Climate Skeptics Be Convinced? The Effect of Nature Videos on Environmental Concern

Franzén

Mäder

2020

Sustainability

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Much research has demonstrated that videos can function as primers or nudges that influence attitudes and behaviors. Studies to date suggest that this includes influence over individual pro-environmental attitudes. However, the existing evidence all stems from samples comprised of university students. In this paper, we describe the results of a randomized online experiment in a sample of 468 climate skeptics. We presented 3-min nature documentary videos that highlighted either the beauty of nature, the endangerment of nature by humans, or a mixture of both. The results suggest that the mixed stimulus video, which shows first the beauty of nature and then its endangerment by humans does indeed increase environmental concern by almost half a standard deviation. However, none of the video treatments increased donations to pro-environmental organizations. Still, the results suggest that nudging by video also works in samples of climate skeptics, which demonstrates the external validity of former findings.

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Love or Loss: Effective message framing to promote environmental conservation

Cited by 85 publications

References 27 publications

From human invaders to problem bears: A media content analysis of grizzly bear conservation

From human invaders to problem bears: A media content analysis of grizzly bear conservation

Principles for including conservation messaging in wildlife‐based tourism

Can Climate Skeptics Be Convinced? The Effect of Nature Videos on Environmental Concern

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