Part III of Putting 'Relations' Back Into 'Relationship'
Without first considering what's in peoples' heads, you'll rarely move pubic discourse in the direction you had intended. That's why understanding public perception is so important. Knowing and understanding what people value and why they value what they value is valuable information.
Noted political scientists Nelson Polsby and Aaron Wildavsky have said that most people are not interested in most issues. It's PR's to get a targeted public interested and motivate to engage in finding solutions or buying into possible solutions of a social issue. That's where message framing becomes important.
In a recent project I undertook, my team developed a communication plan to address the ever-shrinking Indiana poll worker pool. While this affects most state nationwide, we found several values Hoosiers held:
- Feeling that those who have more should help those with less.
- Helping individuals meet their material needs.
- Giving back to society.
From these values we crafted message points to frame information in speeches, blog posts, news releases, editorials and other communication tools. These were our message points:
- You have the time; you have the resources, now it’s your turn to be a poll worker.
- Without new poll workers many people will be cheated out of their right to vote. New volunteers ensure every citizen who wants to vote can.
- Donating a day from your busy week is making an investment in your community.
We also recommended a few delivery points:
- Keep information simple.
- Be explicit about how the information impacts the target audience. Explain in lay terms.
- Stick to voting and poll worker related volunteerism themes.
- Carry the same message, no matter which part of Indiana you target.
Deriving message points from the values of a public creates a sticky mixture for the information we would like to communicate. When the information is mixed with a group's values, that makes social concepts and ideas about an issues more concrete. They're more believable because the new information seems familiar. At least that's what 40 plus years of cognitive linguistic research has led us to believe. People only remember facts when they are framed in a pre-existing frame, or points of view, of the public. If we communicate information without framing it first, we can be assured of one thing. People won't remember what we tell them, and they surely won't change their behavior either.
So what is a frame, anyway? Point of view might be a more familiar term. These points of view [frame's if your into the academic literature] are socially shared, persistent, symbolic and help us structure meaning in a world jammed with information galore.
So when we wrote a PSA script for the client, we considered all our research on perceptions to craft the following:
THE GREATEST GENERATION BORE THE HARDSHIP OF THE DEPRESSION AND WORLD WAR II. THEY HAVE BEEN THE BACKBONE OF POLL WORKERS FOR MANY YEARS – STEPPING TO THE FRONT LINES EVERY ELECTION DAY TO MANAGE OUR DEMOCRACY IN ACTION. NOW IT’S YOUR TURN. BE THE NEW GUARDIANS OF DEMOCRACY. DONATE YOUR TIME TO BEING A POLL WORKER. CALL YOUR LOCAL COUNTY ELECTIONS ADMINISTRATOR FOR MORE DETAILS, OR THE INDIANA SECRETARY OF STATE’S OFFICE AT 317-XXX-6513.
With this radio PSA script, we touch the heart of what Hoosiers value. While I haven't received data about the success of this ad, I'll keep you posted. The state agency for which this PSA was written has a new communication director. We'll give him time to get up to speed.