Transcript A pinch of the personal, a cupful of trusted celebrity (meta

A pinch of the personal, a
cupful of trusted celebrity
(meta-frame) & careful
measures of heavy and light
Social media strategies to
encourage the body
politic to engage with
sustainable and other hot
button issues
Judy Friedlander,
Institute for Sustainable Futures,
University of Technology Sydney
Agenda-setting theory:
Agenda setting studies point to the correlation
between prominent media coverage and issue
priorities and frames
(McCombs & Valenzuela, 2007)
Reporting of meat’s
environmental impacts
* Australian study (Friedlander, Riedy & Bonfiglioli,
2014): five years of leading Australian newspapers: Less
than 1% of climate change stories relate to
meat/livestock
Coding list: Meat, cattle, sheep, livestock, beef & cows
Most common frames: Animal welfare, the economy &
food
•US study (Neff et al., 2009): 16 leading US newspapers
(2005 to 2008) found that of 4582 “climate change”
articles, only 2.4% mentioned food or agriculture, with
0.5% mentioning food animal contributions.
Why meat as an
environmental issue?
Environmental impacts
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Greenhouse gas emissions
High levels of water use
High levels of phosphorous
Biodiversity
Health impacts with high
consumption
• Heart disease
• Cancer implications
Animal welfare issues
Social media strategies for raising the
agenda of an inconvenient message
• Using the conflict frame strategically
• The value of the “good news story” and humour in
“selling” the environment
• The value of the visual pun
• The importance of the “meta-frame” prominent
individual, celebrity or institution as a cultural
intermediary in helping to meld, connect and engage
a larger collective aligned with a cause; and
• Incorporating “larger than self” intrinsic values in the
promotion of environmental messaging
Muffling the echo effect:
Connective and Collective Action
Insert small
image of
echo effect
Agenda melding
• Umbrella or meta-frames or cultural intermediaries
can connect and build a larger collective
• These meta-frames incorporate different
complementary messages or frames
Jamie Oliver as meta-frame/cultural intermediary
•
Jamie Oliver’s organization, brand or name achieved the greatest success in the
2015 Meat Free Week campaign in likes and total engagement on Facebook
and Instagram
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Most popular posts incorporated multiple messages on food, health, animal
welfare & the environment
• The celebrity chef’s meta-frame may enable different
audiences to engage with the meat reduction message
and play a vital role in creating a larger collective:
“I like a nice steak or a roast chicken. But I like my veggies
too. I think it is a good idea and healthy!! Makes a nice
change”
“Tried it… loved it”
•
Academic researchers interested in how social media not only connects but also
contributes to a collective identity, and its potential to bring in, meld or enable larger
groups and incorporate disengaged individuals, groups and outliers
A value proposition
• The Common Cause value theory argues that
celebrities can reinforce concerns about status
and wealth & erode concern for universalism
(larger than self) values
• The “common good celebrity”: An effective vehicle?
• Research on social media campaigns shows that sending
messages that are regarded as intrinsic – that is larger than
self or concern for the common good – to participants results
in more sustained support & deeper attachment to campaign
objectives and individuals (Common Cause Food Values Report,
2015)
• Barnes’ (2014) research identified Jamie Oliver as the most
trusted chef in the United Kingdom through using his celebrity
status to “do good”
Social media: Symbols & saturation
• In our media saturated world,
we require symbols,
metaphors and frames to
negotiate meanings
• Celebrities or high-profile
individuals can convey a
bricolage of concepts and
embody an integration of
complex ideas
• Visual metaphors
• More convenient
messaging…