Here’s a bit of found wisdom I stumbled across on YouTube one day.
Earl and Janet, a self-described pair of “old hippies” from San Francisco, explain their views on nature protection and pollution control. Watch their home movie and note how they completely ignore the scientific and policy information we so often push out to the public. Instead, they connect the environment to being a good person and responsible citizen.
There are tens of millions of Americans like Earl and Janet who would be happy to pitch in to make a difference — if they can connect what you say or write to their values of “better people, better planet.”
Those funny guys at JibJab have produced another riot, this time it’s a sendup of the TV news business.
After you stop grinning, though, consider their point and what it means for nature protection and pollution control: the news media has become a sensationalistic industry that has lost a great deal of public trust and esteem over the past decade. Your ability to accomplish anything positive by working with journalists is slowly but steadily eroding.
Source: Pew Trends 2005
In fact, most of you reading this blog have more credibility when you speak and write directly to the public than when your words are relayed via the press. The chart below is from California, but the basic pattern is well established in other research.
