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Changing Public Behavior > Themes > Audience Information

71 Total Findings

To craft a water outreach program, determine public interests in advance by gathering information about the following, and how those opinions might be influenced by age, sex, length of residence in the state, community size:

  • opinion of local groundwater quality;
  • personal efforts to enhance groundwater quality or quantity (by reducing chemical usage in yards, recycling used motor oil, correctly disposing of household chemicals, use of water-saving applicances, reduced household water use, reduced water use in yards, reduced water use in car washing);
  • who should be responsible for protecting water quality in communitites (federal government, state government, county/city/town, individual citizen);
  • how rural residents prefer to be informed about water; where residents have gotten information; and
  • what sources of information might have changed their behavior.
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To craft a water outreach program, determine public interests in advance by gathering information about the following, and how those opinions might be influenced by age, sex, length of residence in the state, community size:

A decision-making process that accepts the assumption that the people most involved with a particular issue are the ones best equipped to make decision is likely to lead to constructive solutions to land use concerns.

A decision-making process that is constructed based on local perceptions for how to make decisions can lead to grower acceptance of specific land use actions.

Address farmers' perceptions of risk. Acknowledge the tendency for farmers to be "adverse to additional risk ". That is, a new practice or technology must not add to current risks, or it must reduce risks to productivity incurred through other practices in order to be viewed favorably

Assess audience concerns and preferred method for receiving information prior to developing outreach or education initiatives.

Assess patterns or organizational similarities that may facilitate the linkage among organizations to coordinate their actions at the river basin or ecosystem scale.

Assess watershed organizations to channel future research and to better approximate the organizational dynamics, issue concerns, and information needs unique to the organization.

Assure that intervention programs are relevant to the cultural milieu of the subgroup, such as ethnic or culturally-related farm-structure differences.

Before designing training, survey local officials to learn if they:

Capable institutions are an essential element of effective integrated water resource management.  An institutional assessment process investigating policy, organizational and operational elements, are effective tools when designed and analyzed by stakeholders.  Assessment criteria include:

Capture the social dynamics of grounds maintenance operations units including social, physical, and environmental responses to watershed management concerns to reveal key decision-making points in the system. Develop a framework of these dynamics, to illustrate activities needed to implement sustainable watershed and environmental management at large institutions.

Carefully tailor the water conservation message to address the specific circumstances of the target audience.

Check with stakeholders concerning which approach to environmental assessment on the ranch they perceive as most effective.

Collect and assess data about the following, prior to developing the outreach program:

Collect and assess data about the following, prior to developing the outreach program:

Collect and assess data about the following, prior to developing the outreach program:

Consider target audience issues such as time, skill, and direct experience with saving money over time

Create information, communication and education design to address research-based information about farmer characteristics, such as:

Determine whether teachers can implement topics. Check if:

Develop a strategy that reflects the fact that effectiveness of new educational programs may be hindered by insular nature of communities in which producers live. NOTE: This finding is not generalizable due to small sample

Each type of stakeholder group (e.g. customer, researcher, water utility manager) may value risks related to water management choices differently, and value who is most likely to best represent their interests differently.

Emphasize "place", by creating a local Board for example, has potential for broad impacts on locally identified environmental problems.

Gather data about policy maker skills and preferences prior to designing training

Gauge public preference at an early stage of planning and design, or at least at the point where possible options are being considered

Generate local information:

How a watershed group is formed may influence its effectiveness.

Identify characteristics of landowners that could influence interest in conservation practices.

Identify key target audiences and acknowledge individual grower characteristics, perceptions of problems, current use of practices, and preferences for educational formats.

Identify specific education needs, for example the percent of households with drinking water that does not meet public health standards.

Identify specific locally-defined problems related to water conservation. These may not be what an expert would typically expect due to unique cultural or situational needs.

Identify the need for education or outreach based on audience characteristics (e.g. understanding of the problem, socio-economic characteristics) and/or details about the specific local environmental concern (Varlamoff, 2001).

Identify the need for education or outreach based on audience characteristics (such as what they know and understand) and/or characteristics of the local environment

Identify the need for education or outreach based on audience characteristics (understanding of the problem, socio-economic characteristics) and/or details about the specific local environmental concern (Schwartz, 1998).

Implement a program design survey to

Implement a program design survey to

In designing outreach programs that strive to link environmental concern with recreational behaviors

In designing outreach programs that strive to link environmental concern with recreational behaviors, attend to:

In designing outreach to encourage participation in outdoor recreation programs, attend to:

In designing outreach to encourage participation in outdoor recreation programs, attend to:

In developing conservation programs, planners should not assume homogeneity of landowners. Uniform solutions might not apply. Motivation variables differ according to the specific conservation practice. In Oregon, those who adopted conservation practices in watersheds were characterized by several variables:

In landowner or renter situations:

Investigate watershed council community involvement characteristics to promote effective engagement:

Local understanding about place and identity can provide coherence and justification for the creation and function of an organization as well as for individual or policy decisions about land use.

Match the information technology delivery mechanism to the computer work style of the landowner. How does the landowner already use the computer?

Participation in water management decisions can be improved by assessing stakeholder perceptions of the risk of potential problems, and the impact on other stakeholders of these perceptions.

Pay attention to unique factors of cultural groups, but programs that focus on efficiency and productivity in decision-making are likely to succeed, whatever the social characteristics of the farm group

Provide one-on-one communication with a person engaged in the targeted activity to enhance the knowledge they gain and their interest in acquiring more information.

Recognize that audiences are often already aware of important issues. Outreach materials should:

Recognize that issues and context for different geographic regions impact educator and natural resource manager priorities for the relative importance of selected concepts, skills, and values. Tie water and water resource education to local values and needs of:

Specify audiences by need.

Specify audiences by need.

Tailor drinking water education materials to the learning style, educational level and potential vision problems of a relatively uneducated, elderly audience.

Test the audience at the beginning of the workshop to improve instructor ability to enhance subsequent learning

The process of learning about the community of learners is as important as the content of the learning.

There is a need for the government to reach beyond traditional means of communication and design programs that recognize the unique features of a local community. This can only be done by being interested in the citizens themselves - by learning who the affected citizens are, by listening and responding to citizen concerns and by offering real alternatives to those citizens who may be negatively impacted in some way by government action.

To assess customer satisfaction with community water conservation programs, consider evaluating: effectiveness in reducing water use; effectiveness of enforcement; fairness; overall satisfaction with the program; necessity of the water use restrictions; and necessity of the water use bans.

To encourage sustainable practices in application of fertilizers and pesticides on lawns

To enhance participation in water resource and watershed management, assess small landholder water related needs to orientate the public participation process.

To gauge landowner willingness to engage in riparian zone management, assess identified predictors of landowner intentions: willingness to consider the recommendations of groups such as governmental agencies and watershed associations, beliefs that riparian management would be beneficial, and past and current riparian management behavior.

To improve integrated water resource management by addressing existing views held by various local entities and insufficient involvement of outside researchers in local decision making process, scientists need to work on two key fronts:

Understand "opportunity costs" and social norms relative to the content or practice focus of the outreach.

Understand the roots of the environmental management problem and select your target audience based on a specific need. For example, if economic activity is most closely associated with the environmental problem, outreach initiatives should relate to the needs and interests of the target audience engaged in the economic activity

Use a comprehensive pre-survey; conservation plans, soil tests, workshops, and farm visits during the growing seasons as a basis for developing relevant land and water education programs.

Use a test or an advance activity to learn information about students, in order to enhance the likelihood of an increase in student knowledge about a specific water topic through presentation of the topic in a way which is interesting and relevant to students and builds motivation to learn

Use audience assessment strategies to identify which, if any, water and watershed governance strategies interest households and landowners. Build participatory opportunities around specific topics of interest. Consider household and landowner response to strategies such as: pollution control, lowering prices, protecting flood plains, improving storage facilities, improving repairs and maintenance and introducing enforced metering.

Use direct surveys and interviews to gauge public opinion as opposed to relying on "representative" stakeholders (direct representation may highlight factors not previously considered or lead to unexpected interests or concerns)

Use in-depth discussion and interviews to provide a useful finding about target audience interests and preferences about farm management topics.

Use key informant interviews of local leaders to aid understanding for how to engage leaders in planning for conservation of open space.  Consider attitudes, issues, and obstacles.

When encouraging or facilitating the activities of a watershed group, consider group purpose and needs.  Distinguish whether the group wants to focus on educational and social benefits, the ability to influence policy, or create on-the-ground improvements.

When involving the public in green space planning: use survey responses to group residents according to their interest in recreation, in planning participation, or no interest.

When involving the public in green space planning:


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