Download Communications for Social Good

Communications for Social Good
By: Susan Nall Bales and Franklin D. Gilliam Jr.
Practice Matters: the Improving Philanthropy Project
April 2004; The Foundation Centre
The current communications approaches employed by philanthropic foundations and
their grantees are often characterized by a weak reliance on communications theory and
the utilization of a miscellany of tools and practices. Communications, however, can be
used to achieve long term changes in public understanding and maximize the impact of
foundations’ programs. Uniting theory with practice is the first step towards effectively
incorporating the insights from the scholarly community into the communications
strategies selected by foundation program managers. This is especially important given
the overwhelming influence of the news media in shaping public opinion.
Three core concepts sum up what is known about how the news media influences public
opinion. The first, agenda-setting, is a strategy through which the media identifies
certain issues as worthy of public debate and action. Ultimately, agenda-setting attempts
to affect the choices of policymakers by building a public constituency for action on an
issue. Whether or not an issue is deemed an appropriate story for the public depends in
part on the conventions and practices of mainstream journalism. The second core
concept, framing, refers to the way in which a story is told. In particular, framing affects
whether or not attributions of responsibility are public or private, and thus the types of
solutions to a social problem that are proposed. Frames are extremely powerful
constructs that beget habits and expectations, which in turn are used to configure new
information on an issue. Finally, persuasion represents the ability to recognize and
intentionally manipulate attitudes. Focusing on factors such as rewards within the
message and source credibility, persuasion campaigns target an individual’s behaviour.
While agenda-setting is used for issues that have public solutions and targets the
individuals who have political power to change the problem, persuasion attempts to
influence individual behaviour by targeting the individuals who actually have the
problem. The frame of the problem determines which strategy should be employed.
Several models for intervention have been developed, which link the theory outlined
above to the practice of communications. These models generally fall into two
categories: the commercial perspective (or interventions that targets individual
consumers); and the political perspective (targeting the mass public). Commercial
perspectives include public relations, public service advertising, and social marketing.
Political approaches attempt to influence policymakers directly through media advocacy,
grassroots mobilization, and policy campaigns. The final model, strategic frame analysis,
utilizes insights from both commercial and political approaches to enable policy
advocates to systematically work through challenges (such as the influence of various
frames or worldviews) to a new legislation or policy.
Ultimately, the most important lesson learned from communications theory is the
importance of intentionally analyzing the problem, audience, message, messenger,
medium, and desired outcomes to develop targeted and effective communications
campaigns. Integral to this process is enhanced collaboration between scholars, policy
advocates, and foundation program officers.