As media, politics, and civic activity shift online, a new cadre of opinion leaders is stepping forward to shape public discourse about nature protection and pollution control. This week, I’ll interview five of them — individuals who make their mark on community opinion through participation on blogs, listservs, social networking and bookmarking sites, and other online forums where people gather to exchange news and views.
I hope that Water Words That Work fans can use this information to identify the characteristics they are looking for when they want to groom one of their own to become an online community opinion leader, and also to develop more successful relationships with the online community leaders that have already emerged.
The individuals interviewed for this series live in different corners of the country, focus on different issues, and participate in different online communities. Nevertheless, some common themes emerged in these discussions. These individuals are:
- Avid & Influential. All five expressed stronger identification with the “environmental movement” than most Americans do. They relish using the Internet to share their opinions with dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of their fellow citizens.
- Self-Directed & Independent. Despite generally favorable attitudes towards mainstream environmental organizations, all five have elected to participate in their online communities on their own terms. Two started their own organizations. One turned down opportunities to blog for pay. Another adopted a pseudonym in order to operate independently of his employer, a nonprofit environmental group.
- Collaborative & Provocative. All five reported a strong desire to hear different points of view – and some reported deliberately provoking others to get them to speak up.
- Methodical & Curious. All five have achieved their influence through a steady commitment of time each week. Most reported well-developed routines for gathering and sifting through information from around the web to contribute to their communities.
- Specialized. All five have settled on a community or two that suits their circumstances. None reported wide participation across many different types of communities.
The Interviews:
- Monday, June 18. Joy Towles Ezell. An electronic heiress to Erin Brokovich’s legacy, Joy uses a suite of Yahoo! groups to rally her neighbors and hound polluters in her rural Florida community.
- Tuesday, June 19, Tom Elko. Combining his original reporting with news he gathers from around the web, Tom proves that environmental journalism will survive — even if newspapers don’t.
- Wednesday, June 20. Glenn McAnamana. With just a Meetup group and a simple website, Glenn has formed a convincing civic organization in New York’s Upper East Side.
- Thursday, June 21. Ginny C. Special education teacher by day, environmental newshound by night, Ginny C. has transformed her Care2.com account into a potent forum for advancing the causes she believes in.
- Friday, June 22. the_real_yaki. A one-man truth squad, the_real_yaki haunts the Craigslist environmental board, dispelling myths and assisting the curious.
An electronic heiress to Erin Brokovich’s legacy, Joy Towles Ezell uses a suite of Yahoo! groups to rally her neighbors and hound polluters in her rural Florida community. She’s today’s interview guest.
“I can build a following on the Internet where people can get the real truth… without it being whitewashed and without parts of it being left out.”
That’s the belief that has motivated Joy since the first days of the Internet in early 1990s. Today she maintains the “Hope for Clean Water” Yahoo! listserv and two others about environmental threats to her Florida community.
Joy turned to the Internet to connect with others who shared her interests as far back as 1991, when going online meant making a long distance call to California. The first issue to awaken her inner-activist was dioxin – which laced the effluent discharged by a local paper mill. As her neighbors started dialing in, she realized the Internet had become a viable alternative to her hometown newspaper, which treated this large employer with deference.
“The environmental movement has really evolved from… people talking to each other,” Joy says. And like other online community leaders, she sees great inherent value in dialogue and debate. “I like ‘em to be lively. I like people to post things and I like people to discuss different sides of an issue and really get it out in the open.”
“We know they’re watching, and this is good,” she says about polluters. She sees her thriving community as a show of community strength to “to scare the hell out of them.”
Joy feeds discussion on her listservs with an elaborate system of Google News alerts that she has set up. Each night, she spends an hour or more sorting through stories to share with her lists.
“It’s where democracy is really practiced now,” Joy says. “It used to be that to practice democracy, you had to go to the courthouse steps and get together with a bunch of people and you had to discuss things that way. Now you can still do that, but you don’t get to talk to as many people.”
Download or listen to the full interview: click here
To ask Joy a question, leave a comment below
Carolyn, who blogs at Good Green PR, critiques “The Mend of the World” website, created for World Environment Day on June 5.
Idealware explores how the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, South Yuba River Citizens League, the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council keep track of who their members are. Idealware is a great resource for nonprofit organizations seeking advice on all things Internet.
Robert over at WaterCrunch used the “Google Trends:” feature to find out where people seem to be most interested in drought. Is your town one of them?
Reflecting on a trip lobbying trip to the nation’s capital, Mark at blogfish asks himself insightful questions about blogging and his lobbying efforts. I’m also struck by what he didn’t ask himself: “Did the people I meet with really understand everything I said?”
The EPA is launching a survey to assess the condition of America’s lakes and reservoirs. Michael at the Lake Stewardship blog has gathered some useful materials to help nature protection and pollution control experts explain the effort to the public.
Those adventurous souls over at Food and Water Watch will launch their first podcast today. If you think that’s cool, wait till you watch me go head-to-head with one of their staff in a special episode soon. (Spoiler: She gets the better of me).
Jeff Brooks at Donor Power Blog calls out some bad nonprofit advertising in a post called “Return of stupid nonprofit ads.” Be warned — he’s meaner than me. I wonder what he’d think of the Oceana video?
The Oceana video I profiled last week revealed the shortcomings of trying to shock people into action without offering any suggestions about what that action might be. This video, prepared by labor unions, makes no such mistake. After you watch it, you will know exactly why they’re mad — and what they want you to do about it.
