Social MediaA Handy Tool for Green

Changemakers

A Talk for National University of Singapore

Masters in Environmental Management (MEM)

By Bhavani Prakash

www.ecowalkthetalk.com

www.greencollarasia.com

How I live, think, breathe and share

Social Media Landscape

The Mobile Revolution

Photo: http://kish.in/mobile-revolution-in-india/

The computer in your cell phone today is a million times cheaper and a thousand times more powerful and about a hundred thousand times smaller [than the one computer at MIT in 1965]

Politics SocietyCultureEconomicsTechnologyEnvironment

How Change occurs

How Change occurs

How Change occurs

How Social Media catalyses

Democratisation of Information

Social Media Trigger Points

Below the iceberg: Loss of Trust

Arab Spring - Egypt

Khaled Said

Occupy Wall Street

September 17, 2011 Zuccotti Park

Micheal Moore on police heavy-handedness, “ Everyone’s a filmmaker, everyone has acamera. You can’t get away with this kind of thing anymore.”

Anna Hazare : The Anti-Corruption Bill

Frameworks to understand how social media works

1:9:90 rule

Conversation >Co-creation >Collective action

Members +Relationships around social object

ReputationRecommendation

*Tastemakers (Collaboration to Community) *Participation (Community) *Unexpectedness (Content)

How Change OccursTipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

Law of the Few (Tastemakers – Collaboration to Community)a few key types of people must champion an idea, concept, or product before it can reach the tipping pointConnectors, Mavens and Salesmen

Stickiness Factor ( Unexpectedness- Content)the quality that compels people to pay close, sustained attention to a product, concept, or idea

The Power of Context (Collaboration to Community)Groups of certain sizes and certain types can often be uniquely conducive to achieving the tipping point

Social Media Campaigns

Applying 4C to Kony 2012

Which elements come out strongly and how?

13.5 million supporters recruitedon www.barackobama.com

$500 million raisedYouTube video “Yes We Can” had 1 million views on first day of release 17 million views by 2008

Citizen media

Green Behaviour Change:Some ideas

What shapes our identity?1. Values and life goals Consistent across cultures: Wealth, rewards, achievement and status

People who endorse/prioritise self-enhancing, materialistic values also express negative attitudes towards non-human nature

2. The groups we belong to Race, gender, nationality, profession, political leanings, religion

A cross country study of 14 nations how that those who have an environmental identity and feel a part of nature are more likely to foster pro-environmental behaviour

3. How we attempt to manage threats to our existence, self-existence and integrity of identity Limit exposure to information, avoiding future thinking, seeking pleasure in the present, denial of guilt, projection of guilt, doing small things to assuage guilt, indifference

Some coping strategies increase the likelihood of destructive environmental behaviour

A few identity campaigning strategies• Frame environmental messages that promote intrinsic values, rather than

extrinsic, self-enhancing, materialistic ones

• Promote the development and use of alternative indicators of national progress that include values other than materialism

• Address the societal influence of advertising, for example by supporting: (i) media literacy programmes; (ii) the removal of advertising from public spaces (especially natural settings); (iii) bans on marketing to children; and (iv) policies to tax advertising at higher rates

• Create community groups to support the adoption of materially simple and ecologically sustainable lifestyles. Creating a safe environment where participants are given permission to openly express their deepest fears about environmental issues will be important here

• Build an awareness that humans are themselves part of nature, and confront society’s stories that legitimise prejudice towards non-human nature.

For Policy makers

Material ComponentNuts and boltsof the policy

Cognitive Component How people think about the world, their concerns

and motivations

Joe Brewer: Cognitive Policy Expert

Thank you!

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