Photo Credit: 802 via Flickr
Here’s some good news. Will Baker, top dog at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, recently published an optimistic Op-Ed in the Baltimore Sun, titled “A New Day for the Bay.” Yeah! In his piece (generously sprinkled with words that work), Baker wrote:
CBF and its partners have successfully championed new investments in farm conservation practices. At the federal level, an unprecedented $440 million has recently been approved for agricultural conservation practices to reduce pollution in the Chesapeake Bay region over the next five years. When matched with state and farmer dollars, and with other programs and funding in place, this could achieve almost two-thirds of the region’s nitrogen pollution reduction goal.
So here’s the bad news: Placing the Op Ed in the Sun is a much smaller success than it would have been just a few years ago. In fact, Baltimore Sun circulation and ad revenue are slumping so badly that the paper recently announced it will cut 100 jobs — mostly from the newsroom. This is a desperation move for the Sun — laying off journalists will almost certainly lead to further losses in circulation and ad revenue.
When the Baltimore Sun is gone, how will CBF send a message to citizens around the Bay to stay the course, because their efforts are making a difference, and these investments will pay off with a cleaner, healthier bay for future generations to enjoy?
And by the way, how’s your local newspaper doing?
Dang, if you’ve got online skillz, the big nature protection and pollution control groups are hiring!
Defenders of Wildlife is looking for a highly-motivated and talented Online Marketing & Communications Coordinator to help manage our online Wildlife Adoption Center, assist with Google adwords campaigns, help maintain social networking site profiles, and assist with other Online team activities. This is an entry-level position that’s an excellent opportunity for someone interested in establishing a career in online marketing and communications.
Oceana is looking for an E-activism Fellow to help recruit and activate Oceana’s online supporters, affectionately known as WaveMakers, and raise funds to support Oceana’s campaigns. The ideal candidate will put his or her technical skills into practice to make the WaveMaker program a reality. Principal duties include formatting, testing and sending e-mail communications; managing and updating supporter contact information; formatting and uploading web content; building relationships via social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook; responding to WaveMaker inquiries; and tracking and analyzing online statistics.
Greenpeace USA is recruiting Grassroots Online Organizing Interns for
Fall 08! As a Greenpeace Online Organizing Intern you can build expertise in the most cutting edge online organizing strategies and tactics, launch a renewable energy revolution to combat global warming, stop the destruction of ancient forests, hold corporations accountable use online tools like Facebook, MySpace, You Tube, Flickr, and blogs to promote and publicize priority Greenpeace campaigns.
Thanks to everybody who attended my presentation at the 2008 Government and Social Media conference today. As promised, here is the PowerPoint presentation:
Photo Courtesy of memekode via Flickr
Pardon the Pink Floyd reference. I couldn’t resist. Marcia in Wisconsin e-mailed a question last week. It often comes up in workshops, so I secured her permission to make a blog post out of it:
In one of your recent posts, you reminded us to not use “elite” words. We’ve often been careful to use the correct terms (i.e., “aquatic plants,” rather than “lake weeds”) to help curb misperceptions and try to educate the public. How do we use correct terms without being “elitists”?
Here’s the conundrum. Vocabulary that is satisfyingly precise for professionals is often way over the head of everyday citizens. Vocabularly that is meaningful to everyday citizens strikes professionals as uncomfortably imprecise.
And while it makes sense at one level to try to bring the masses up to our level, in practice, this is often a mistake. Here’s why:
- It won’t stick. If somebody has made this far in their adult life without knowing the term watershed or other professional jargon, that’s because nobody around them is using those words. That’s a recipe for low retention.
- It often backfires. If you tell everyday citizens they need to learn a bunch of professional vocabulary before they make a difference, it sends the message that protecting the water is a job for experts, not for people like them.
So let me put the question back to you — if you swapped the term “lake weeds” for “aquatic plants,” who would actually object? The everyday citizen reading your flier/brochure/webpage? Or one of your peers?
