Resource Type: Research & Articles

What are the key audiences you need to reach and activate to build power? What does the evidence say is the most effective way to reach them? During this webinar, we will dig into audience-specific messaging research for key constituency groups and workshop specific messages to test within the context of our climate campaigns.
*Note: This webinar is the third in a series of 3 webinars on Communicating for Climate Action.

From August 2018 to November 2018 during the mid-term elections, approximately 5000 unique OUTVOTE users were able to send out approximately 132,000 GOTV messages. Treatment in this study was definited as receiving a GOTV message from an OUTVOTE user. Using statistical analysis, the study team wanted to dtermine the outcome and impact of friend-to-friend text messages on voter turnout using queue position in texting and the level of confidence in the voter file match. Individuals messaged by friends were 8.2% more likely to cast a vote, while those who were sent a mesagge by a field organizer had an increase of only 0.29%. 

Consider the range of motivations that bring people to climate protests when designing events and outreach. Interviews with 64 attendees at the September, 2019 climate strikes in Europe and North America revealed a great deal of variation in their knowledge levels, emotions and motivations. A surprising number were not very knowledgeable about climate change, only half had been involved in previous climate protests before, and a substantial minority were motivated by a general sense of solidarity and desire to be part of a protest movement, and not necessarily specific concern about climate. Among a diversity of emotions regarding climate change, fear and hope were the most common. The authors therefore developed a typology of climate protestors: Frontline, Responsible, Latent, Disengaged, Opportunistic, Parallel, and Sceptical.
 

This report is an analysis of public opinion about climate change among the regular U.S. audience (American adults who frequently watch, read, or listen to the content) of each of six major U.S. news sources: CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, NPR, the Weather Channel, and the national nightly network news (on CBS, ABC, or NBC). It finds that large majorities in most news audiences are interested in news stories about a wide range of global warming topics, but that majorities in all news audiences feel they are not very well informed about global warming. Additional findings can be seen in the Executive Summary and throughout the report.