Failure to Communicate
The scientific community assumes the same rules of communication are always applicable and rational, that people are attentive, open minded, persuaded by facts and believe that those who are presenting information are people of goodwill, and not deliberately trying to manipulate them. But none of those things are true.
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Yankelovich and Rosell have identified a process that they call the public learning curve that describes maturing public opinions, where people's views evolve from poorly informed reactions to more thoughtful conclusions. The three-stage process begins with building awareness and consciousness (where advocates and the media typically do a good job). The seecond stage involves working through wishful thinking and denial, resistance to change and mistrust, grasping at straws, deliberate obfuscation and lack of urgency (which is where dialogue comes in). The third part of the learning curve is when people come to resolution (which is handled by decision-makers and government institutions). "Much of our work focuses on improving the 'working through' stage, which our society does not handle well and where critical issues like climate change can get stuck for years or decades," said Rosel.
- James Hoggan, I'm Right and You're an Idiot: The toxic state of public discourse and how to clean it up, chapter 1 with Daniel Yankelovich and Steve Rosel
It is not a wise strategy to define a situation as inevitable or out of control. "This is a negation of politics-because you don't do politics with inevitability," explained Latour. If you send a message to people that there's no other possibility, that it's too late-the result is inaction. Latour suggested that the message must give them the will to find a way out of the dilemma.
- ibid., chapter 7 with Bruno Latour
This entry was originally posted at http://flwyd.dreamwidth.org/368384.html - comment here or there.
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Yankelovich and Rosell have identified a process that they call the public learning curve that describes maturing public opinions, where people's views evolve from poorly informed reactions to more thoughtful conclusions. The three-stage process begins with building awareness and consciousness (where advocates and the media typically do a good job). The seecond stage involves working through wishful thinking and denial, resistance to change and mistrust, grasping at straws, deliberate obfuscation and lack of urgency (which is where dialogue comes in). The third part of the learning curve is when people come to resolution (which is handled by decision-makers and government institutions). "Much of our work focuses on improving the 'working through' stage, which our society does not handle well and where critical issues like climate change can get stuck for years or decades," said Rosel.
- James Hoggan, I'm Right and You're an Idiot: The toxic state of public discourse and how to clean it up, chapter 1 with Daniel Yankelovich and Steve Rosel
It is not a wise strategy to define a situation as inevitable or out of control. "This is a negation of politics-because you don't do politics with inevitability," explained Latour. If you send a message to people that there's no other possibility, that it's too late-the result is inaction. Latour suggested that the message must give them the will to find a way out of the dilemma.
- ibid., chapter 7 with Bruno Latour
This entry was originally posted at http://flwyd.dreamwidth.org/368384.html - comment here or there.