Archive for the ‘Wildlife & Water’ Category

I’ve been saving this great picture for weeks, just waiting for the right moment to blog about it — but communications guru Andy Goodman beat me to it with a dead-on critique in his Free Range Thinking newsletter.

But I won’t begrudge Andy for scooping me. I’ve been reading his newsletter for years and I’m a big fan. In fact, I have modeled much of the approach for this blog — blending research, theory, and critiques of concrete examples — on Free Range Thinking. It’s an enduring and constructive approach to addressing the community’s PR needs, a welcome contrast to flash-in-the-pan blowhards like Lakoff, Shallenberger, Nordhaus, Mooney, and Nisbet who dispense criticism so freely and offer useful suggestions so rarely.

To see back issues of Free Range Thinking and subscribe yourself, click here. You’ll be glad you did.

To read Goodman’s insightful take on the photo above, click here.

Generally speaking, I frown on trying to squeeze an environmental education into news story soundbites or 30 second public service announcements, but an hour long documentary is something else entirely. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department produced a striking and ambitious film this February that reminds me what a powerful educational tool video can be — if you give yourself enough time to do justice to a big story.

It’s a joy to watch. The film was narrated by Walter Conkite and the beautiful videography is ready for the big screen plasma jumbotron TVs that dominate the American living room these days. After watching it, I’m suddenly very self-conscious about the tiny, grainy, jerky Internet video and amateurish narration you get here at Water Words.

The content and interviews are also well balanced — problems to get your attention, solutions to inspire hope, and profiles of real people making a difference. People of the “if they can do it, I can, too” variety. You can learn a lot about good conservation communication by watching this video — and comparing it to Leonardo DiCaprio’s well-intentioned but otherwise awful “Water Planet.”

I’ll blog about this video again, but for now I’m tipping my ten gallon cowboy hat to the TPWD. So here’s a question for the producers: why did you mail me the DVD anonymously? Who are you? Show yourself!

Visit the companion site
Download a trailer for the film
Buy the DVD

A couple of other people have blogged about the film:

Shaine Mata
nat