Effective communication about forests and trees: An analytical framework for communication among segmented audiences

Abstract

A vast amount of literature from communication science deals with the questions if and how communication can evoke changes in an audience. This is closely related to communicative persuasion and social influence. Based on audience-oriented approaches to media effectiveness, it is argued that in order to be effective, communication efforts have to match the desires and requirements of the audience. In this context, this paper proposes three conditions that must be met for a communication effect to occur: selection, understanding and acceptance of the information. Drawing on approaches from communication science and media effectiveness studies, variables that influence selection, understanding and acceptance are identified and an analytical framework for effective communication is proposed. Based on the framework, survey questions were developed and a survey representative for the German public was conducted in cooperation with Sinus Institute – a market research institute that groups the German public into ten sinus milieus based on common socio-psychological characteristics – to find out about forest-specific communication needs and p for each milieu. The empirical survey results were analyzed and together with already existing material about sinus milieus were fitted into the analytical framework, resulting in templates for effective communication about forest-related topics for each sinus milieu.