Three Big Takeaways: Communicating about Water
The Current Webinar 44: Communicating about Water featured three professionals in water research and conservation who discussed their findings and insight for water communication. How we relate to water, how we value water, and how different agricultural audiences perceive water-related conservation activities all have implications for the way we communicate about this precious resource.
Miss the webinar? Watch the full recording on our YouTube channel. Don’t have time to watch the recording? Not a problem – here are three big takeaways:
- Amy Skoczlas Cole from The Water Main discussed how Americans relate to water. Research from The Water Main demonstrates that people feel water connects to their life through personal hygiene, health, food, personal safety, recreation, cost of living, and spiritually. From these results, three audience groups were identified based preliminary core interests and values related to water – the outdoor recreation enthusiast, the day-to-day user and the social impact citizen.
- David Metz with FM3 presented on the language of conservation and how to talk about water. Research conducted by Metz and colleagues demonstrates that most of voter’s high-priority conservation goals are connected to water. Metz also discussed conservation messaging. Survey results show that water-related messaging and images are critical to mobilizing the public around conservation goals. Some of the strongest conservation messages focus on clean drinking water and public health.
- Ben Gramig, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, discussed farmer’s perceptions of water. Achieving positive water quality and quantity outcomes through agriculture involves adopting a number of conservation best management practices. Gramig outlined a few ways to foster this change including peer-learning and online social networks, working with landowners who control farmland leases, and working jointly with producers and conservation organizations.
You can watch the full webinar recording on the Network’s YouTube Channel. For more information on our speakers and the work presented in this webinar, please contact the presenters:
- Amy Skolczlas Cole, acole@americanpublicmedia.org
- David Metz, dave@fm3research.com
- Ben Gramig, bgramig@illinois.edu