Building narrative power helps to achieve three important things: building a future where frontline narratives are dominant narratives; shifting who owns and run the narrative ‘means of production’; and making community-led policy change and culture change durable. To design narrative research, begin by understanding the narrative landscape within which an issue or dynamic is operating and assessing the collective capacity to drive narrative change; then test narrative interventions, like mini-campaigns. Employ advisors on our research projects is helpful to understand the nuance and complexity of a policy agenda or a lived-experience. Choosing research participants who are typically engaged in the issue area being explored is helpful (for example, organizers with a local organization managing volunteers, a policy advocate for a specific community or issue area, a lawyer who utilizes the legal system to highlight solutions for the challenges workers and migrants face, an artist who uses their craft to raise up voices and awareness). Moreover, interviews are key to understanding what is needed to build and hold a shared understanding of the narrative landscape in which these communities exist.

The narratives swirling around us right now are potent, messy, and constantly shifting—and that’s exactly why we need to make sense of them, together. This resource analyzed the narratives leading up to the 2024 election, focusing on economic issues, immigration, voting rights, race and gender justice. The mood and tone in election conversations were agitational, authoritative, urgent, concerned, informative, hopeful and empowering. Core values included equity, accountability, compassion, justice, empowerment, autonomy, integrity, community, safety and security. It is clear movement strategists, organizers and allied formations must: pool resources, invest the time and capacity together, expand reach, and tell better stories.

Polling 201: utilizing public opinion research in your communications ca

A new climate campaign is testing whether relentless civil disobedience can stop Citi from backing the fossil fuel industry. It is an experiment: Can sustained disruption play a major role in toppling support for the fossil fuel industry from a big bank like Citi? First of all, it’s about a wide range of constituencies being disruptive. Also, to sustain disruption, we need more people, period, which requires many recruitment methods. Specifically, this campaign has partnered with community-based organizations to activate existing membership bases, and with grassroots groups and NGOs small and large to send email blasts to recruit supporters into mass calls and meetings. The campaign has also hired campaign fellows and activated volunteers to phone, text bank and flier, sticker and put up posters. This campaign is an organizing project that seeks to recruit and empower many more people and groups to step into escalated risk and disruption.

Cats, cars, buildings and vehicles kill about 6,000 times more birds than wind turbines do. The biggest killer of birds in the U.S. by a long shot is domestic cats. After cats, building collisions due to glass (599 million bird deaths annually, on average) and vehicle collisions (214.5 million annually) pose the second and third biggest threats to birds. Poison kills an estimated 72 million birds each year, and collisions with electrical lines result in 25 million deaths annually. Then, way down at No. 9 on the list of threats to birds is wind turbines, which caused an average of 234,012 bird deaths annually. Audubon and other conservation groups have been working with wind energy companies to study bird deaths and other effects on wildlife, and through their bird-monitoring efforts, we’re learning more and more about how to keep birds safe around turbines. Sometimes, it’s as simple as changing the height of the wind turbine to avoid the altitudes birds migrate at and where they forage for food.

Climate communicators have better information than ever before on what the public knows about climate change. Here are some trends that can help all climate communicators reach people where they are, with information and perspectives that will help on the road to a decarbonized society. Climate solutions are looming larger in people’s lives: there are far more questions about solar panels and tree-planting than about hurricanes and droughts. Change is worrying—even when it’s positive change: Most questions people have about these solutions are cautious, if not outright skeptical. People want to go deeper on the science (and it’s not about persuasion). Curiosity is an opportunity: that pivot—from responding to people’s curiosity, to gently reminding them that climate change is an urgent challenge—is possible with almost every climate question.

National TV news largely failed to connect Hurricane Beryl, the first hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic season, to climate change. From July 1-8, corporate broadcast and cable news networks aired a combined 701 minutes across 343 segments about Hurricane Beryl, with only 15 segments (4%) mentioning climate change. Cable news networks — CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC — aired a combined 520 minutes across 234 segments about Hurricane Beryl, with 9 mentioning climate change. Corporate broadcast TV networks — ABC, CBS, and NBC — aired a combined 181 minutes across 109 segments about Hurricane Beryl, with 6 mentioning climate change. 32 segments mentioned rapid intensification, a climate signal.

An analysis of the top 100 EV-related posts on US political pages found that the vast majority of them were critical of the technology. Between January 1 and June 1, 81% of the Facebook posts analyzed were related to sales setbacks, performance or charging issues, or other negative press. These posts had over 1.3 million interactions, accounting for 79% of total interactions related to EVs. Posts related to automakers or car rental companies rolling back their commitments to selling EVs made up over a third of this content. Another popular topic focused on performance issues sometimes exacerbated by cold weather, which made up 20% of posts related to EVs. Nearly three quarters (74%) of EV-related posts on nonaligned pages (neither left-leaning or right-leaning) had a negative framing. These posts generated 83% of all interactions on EV-related posts from nonaligned pages. Out of the top 100 posts related to EVs on right-leaning pages, 95% were negative. Of the negative posts, 43% were related to automakers or car rental companies rolling back their commitments to selling EVs -- these posts earned over 477,000 interactions.

Emotions wheels have long been a valuable tool for psychologists to help people better understand and interpret their feelings.

Grounded in a commitment to fostering deeper understandings and connections, this theory-to-practice handbook aims to support mindful and proactive navigation of the escalating impacts of climate change on individual and community mental health and wellbeing.