ISSN 0798 1015

Vol. 39 (Number 47) Year 2018. Page 08

Testing Mass Media Communicative Efficiency In Environmental Motivation Development (The Case Study Of Bangkok, Thailand)

Evaluación de la eficiencia comunicativa de los medios de comunicación en el desarrollo de la motivación ambiental (estudio de caso de Bangkok, Tailandia)

Preecha PONGPENG 1

Received: 23/05/2018 • Approved: 10/07/2018

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Literature overview

3. Methodology

4. Results

5. Conclusions and recommendations

Bibliographic references

1. Introduction

On the background of escalating environmental problems worldwide it is becoming more and more obvious that simply informing population about the current environmental situation (in a region, country and/or worldwide) is not enough anymore. All related specialists admit there is an urgent necessity to use all possible means and methods within the national systems of education as well as all possible channels of mass communications so that to change the mass consciousness and form a brand new paradigm of societies’ relations with the environment. The key result from this process must be harmonic and sustainable relations with the Nature for all social institutes and absolute dominance of environmental motivation over the economic one (Probst , 1980).

Nowadays understanding social progress without the environmental component is simply impossible. All further evolution of societies on this planet is impossible without gradual “environmentalization” of social consciousness. Y.N. Pakhomov (2002) used to describe and evaluate this process in the following way: “radical reorganization of consciousness and all activities of people, formation of truly environmental culture in relation to all natural process and preconditions in social development – these are the most important preconditions for maintaining the integrity of the biosphere and its capacity for self-regulation” (translated from Russian). Clearly, concrete environmental guidelines in mass consciousness are yet to be developed. Social attitudes regulating the relations with the environment must become the basis for the development of motivation in all further practical actions aimed at changing the current situation.

As of today cinema and television are the most efficient information channels to disseminate comprehensively environmental knowledge, this why studying their roles in this process becomes a topical research issue.

The research aim here is to evaluate the efficiency the motion pictures on environmental issues as an instrument used in the process of environmental motivation formation among the youth. Author’s recommendations concerning further use of mass media tools and methods in the process of environmental awareness formation are provided.

Reaching this aim can be achieved through solving several smaller-scale research tasks:

-To analyze the current state of environmental consciousness and motivation among Thai youth;

-To outline the criteria for further evaluation and to test the methods which can be used in efficiency evaluation of mass communication means in the process of environmental consciousness and environmental motivation formation in young people;

-To analyze the efficiency and the level of impact of mass media communications (on the example of motion pictures) on the environmentalization of young people behavior;

-To formulate the conclusions stemming from this empirical research and to provide author’s recommendations concerning the central principles of efficient communications aimed at boosting the environmental motivation among young people.

Taking into account our research aim and tasks, we put forward the following research hypotheses:

-The factor of environmental problems’ localization (seeing the obvious logical connection between the traditional for a viewer way of life and the probability of arising environmental problems) has more influence on the youth than the alarmism of the message or empirical determination of the global environmental catastrophe prospects.

-The most meaningful and efficient way of transmitting the environment-related information to the youth today is interactivity, that is, engaging the youth directly into the communication process as a co-author of content and its co-translator.

-Emotional atmosphere is an important component of environment-related communications and also a factor of environmental motivation formation in the youth. In the process of this emotional atmosphere formation for all further communications it is vital to take into account the priority of attention refocusing (the so-called reload) and also empathy (personal emotional co-experience).

In its widest sense “environmental consciousness… is one of the spheres in social and individual consciousness connected with reflecting the natural processes as part of existence. Formation of the specific perception of the natural world and specific attitude to this world leads gradually to the development of environmental consciousness. In its turn, the formed environmental consciousness has its significant influence on further perception of natural objects and phenomena and also on the attitude to them”(Pakhomov, 2002).

V.A. Skerebets (1988) has determined the structural & time aspects in the connection between the cognitive process, emotional reactions and environmental motivation as elements of environmental consciousness.

Environmental motivation assumes that a human as a social being in constant interaction with the environment is always ruled by specific attitude to this environment. This attitude is always based on certain knowledge concerning laws and regularities of the Nature’s development and the structure of its interaction with the society (Arkes et al, 1982; Samarina, 2018).

Several aspects are usually outlined while studying environmental motivation in a wider cultural context: people’s attitude to the environment based on ration and knowledge;  economic and utilitarian sides of this issue; creation of the most acceptable conditions for the existence and activity of human beings within the Nature; issues of ethical, cultural and esthetical nature; spiritual aspect which assumes the presence of both intuition and rational side, logic and emotions; understanding the influence of all environmental processes on the health condition of people (Kalandarov, 1999).

Gradual degradation of the biosphere can be perceived and understood not as the future collapse of all civilizations on this planet but more as some sort of critical point. Once this point/threshold is achieved, evolutionary mechanisms would be triggered so that to re-orient and transform mass consciousness. This reorganization of consciousness in favor of environmentalization is supposed to change the vector in Human civilization – Nature interaction. From a more philosophical viewpoint, crisis is always an efficient trigger activating the internal potential energy of a human for a next qualitative breakthrough. In other words, crisis is even necessary for the humankind for its further qualitative development. And in our times the key aim of such qualitative changes would be formation of a brand new way of thinking and motivation, based on environmental consciousness (Pavlenko, 2002).

According to a wide range of theoretical studies on environmental motivation, crisis has become the logical consequence of environmental aggression escalation. The latter, in turn, was also a logical consequence – of the general aggressiveness growth rate in contemporary societies. Moreover, today’s environmental motivation is also having such an interesting feature as “ecophobic stereotypes” (Kalandarov, 1999; Onyusheva, 2018).

Attitudes to environmental situation may vary depending upon particular individual features, for example, gender. Females in this regard are more sensitive because they tend to have stronger self-preservation instinct, they also tend to see new solutions to many problems in the spiritual field. Males, on the contrary, are prone to see the causes of crisis in the technological development of civilization and in the same field they also try to find new solutions – in the shape of discoveries and inventions in science which potentially may change the environmental situation for better (Gor, 1993).

Therefore, the core task of sciences today is formation of environmental competences among general population. However, knowledge alone is unable to originate radical changes in the current situation. Truly serious changes require smart combination of scientific information, attitudes and beliefs. And only at this, deeper level, environmentalization of mass consciousness and behavior would be possible.

The central element of the complex notion “environmental motivation” is acquisition of certain relevant knowledge, obtaining meaningful information concerning the current environmental situation (Romashov, 1989; Ushakov, 2018). E.P. Ozhegov and E.V. Nikonorova (1990) described the fundamentals of environmental motivation, and in their opinion, these fundamentals are predetermined by the opinions and attitudes concerning the causes and roots of environmental problems. People’s views on what has caused the current environmental situation make them be more (or less) inclined to believe various theories, each offering own ways and means to change the situation.

With yet another attempt to determine the essence of the notion “environmental consciousness” T.S. Smirnov (1984) stated the following: “Revealing the essence of the notion “environmental consciousness” it is important to note that it includes both conscious and non-conscious elements, both organized and spontaneous changes in the usual style of thinking, in knowledge, traditional views, ideas, goals, norms, assessments”.

Describing the state of environmental consciousness on the global scale would definitely require a separate and much more detailed discussion due to overcomplicated nature of the phenomenon in question. However, within the frameworks of our, much narrower study, we can at least mention wide international representativeness of studies concerning environmental consciousness and environmental motivation of the representatives of certain nations and/or certain social groups.

Changes in environmental consciousness may happen under the influence of motion pictures on the related topic. In this regard, we should mention the experiment once carried out by the psychologist from the University of Innsbruck – Tobias Greitmeyer. According to his hypothesis, motion pictures describing the situation around global changes in climate and their possible consequences, tend to increase the level of anxiety about environmental problems among students. While pictures with the opposing viewpoint and rather skeptical attitude to the theory of global climate change, on the opposite, reduce this anxiety.

The experiment of T. Greitmeyer (2013) has been carried out in two stages to show that after watching a film describing the potential environmental threats the overall level of students’ anxiety concerning future environmental problems did not change much. At the same time, after watching a movie with more skeptical view on the environmental crisis the students demonstrated an obvious decrease in the related anxiety level.

The research further is based on the concept of multilevel environmental motivation and variation of instruments to be used in shaping the eco-friendly values among the youth through the impact of mass media means (namely – fiction and non-fiction motion pictures).

Theoretical frameworks of the research

Mass communications can be determined as a systemic process of information transmission from a source of a message to mass recipient. In order to perform this process various tangible/physical channels can be exploited, those are mostly known under a general notion “mass communication means”. To them belong, inter alia: 1) printing sources in all its manifestations (books, journals, magazines etc.); 2) TV and FM channels; 3) motion pictures shown in specialized institutions – cinemas; 4) sound and video records (Greitemeyer , 2013).

For our further research we have chosen non-fiction motion pictures, strictly on the environmental topics, as one of the possible channels of mass communications. Analyzing their contents as well as ways they present those contents in detail, following certain criteria in our assessment, would enable us revealing how efficient this type of communication is in relation to this highly important task – formation of environmental consciousness.

Research design and empirical results

Empirical material for our research has been represented by the non-fiction movies from various countries worldwide, produced since 2000 and till now. Overall, we have considered 17 pictures (the full list in the Appendix). All of them have been broadcasted on Discovery channel or National Geographic, some of them are also available on Youtube.

The sample of our research is represented by 120 students from the Suan Sunandha Rajabat University (Bangkok, Thailand). Details on the sample (gender distribution and faculties involved) are provided in Table 1.

Table 1
Structure of the sample (made by the author)

The research has been carried out in three stages, the total duration being from February till April 2017.

At the first stage the students have been shown short clips from the motion pictures on the environment-related topics. All these clips contained certain instruments of impact on the process of environment consciousness formation in a viewer (compilation of these clips has been made in advance by the author of this research).  The run-through has been organized at the premises of the university, the total duration of clips was 2 hours and 16 minutes.

At the second stage of our research we have carried out the students’ survey, straight after the run-through. The survey has been aimed at evaluating the efficiency of certain elements’ impact on the formation of environmental values and environmental motivation among young people. The questionnaire contained 70 questions, including open questions and also questions which were supposed to reveal how well the students remembered certain factors and facts (thus, we can measure the overall impact from these clips shown).

The questionnaires also contained express-questions so that to determine the personality type of a respondent (temperament, type of memory, introvert/extravert, how easily a person can be influenced, leadership qualities, lifestyle preferences etc.)

Research results

Efficiency of mass media impact on the students has been evaluated by the following criteria (Table 2).

Table 2
Parameters of mass media impact on the environmental
consciousness of young people (made by the author)

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Table 3
Results of efficiency evaluation for various instruments used
(made by the author)

As data in Table 3 shows formation of eco-friendly values is taking place with the highest efficiency once there are obvious parallels with everyday life of the viewers. 34% of the students in the sample were deeply impressed when seeing the environmental impacts on the examples of specific family and/or town. At the same time, the overall picture, when environmental catastrophe is presented globally, referring mostly to the limited nature of resources and commonness of the planet, has very weak impact: only 8% for the voiceover and 11% for the interviews with experts and characters of the pictures. This confirms our hypothesis #1: the most efficient instrument to impact on the environmental consciousness of the youth is not information spread as such (including visual one) and not motivation by a personal example – but demonstration of the facts confirming that environmental problems are very close to us  and that every human being on our planet risks facing them, if not today, than tomorrow.

Interestingly, the following correlations have been determined when analyzing the responses of our respondents for the first group of questions:

• High efficiency and persuasiveness of examples from real/everyday life as an instrument of eco-friendly values’ formation was confirmed mostly by males, younger than 21, and also by the respondents with significant leadership potential and extraverts;
• Interviews with professionals in the field have the most impact on the students of the first and second years of studies, and also on the respondents with low leadership potential (both positions are quite obvious, if not to say predictable as such).

The second category of questions concerned the efficiency of various channels in transmission of environment-related information. Here, the results are also very much predictable and self-explanatory. The absolute majority of the students voted for clips (38%) and also for 3D models (29%). This confirms the importance of visual information and also of various combinations of visual and audio information in the dynamics. Important feature in this regard is short duration of the visual and the clipping nature of impact. Thai students easily concentrate their attention on the issues they find to be important, but – same easily they tend to lose interest after 10-15 minutes, though not demonstrating (or demonstrating not obviously) lack of interest externally:  they may keep pretending to be interested and demonstrate all the signs of active listening though, in fact, they are already fully distracted and not interested. Therefore, episodes which were shorter, more dynamics and more colorful seemed to them to be much more important and meaningful from the standpoint of information transmission. Overall, the students preferred these short clips to lecture episodes and/or expert assessments.

It is also important to note here that the original methodology of immersion into a problem, which is based on so popular today game theory, at the end turned out to be not more efficient than standard traditional lecturing. Most probably, that happened because our students did not have special knowledge, thus they failed to realized what they were actually “doing” while “immersing” into the reality. Thus, they also failed to determine what are their functions and what are their own responsibilities in this context. Consequently, hypothesis #2 is not confirmed.

Clipping effect turned out to be important and relevant for nearly all age, gender and psychological groups of the respondents. We fail to track any obvious correlation between personal features of the students and the efficiency of various communication technologies.

Finally, the third part of our survey was aimed to evaluate the efficiency of various communication technologies in terms of their emotional impact in the course of environment-related information transmission. Curiously, the students failed to define an obvious, absolute leader among such technologies. According to our results and calculations, empathy and presence of comic elements are seen as the most efficient instruments. These results overall correspond to the typical features of Thai culture and Thai national stereotypes (being emotional, femininity etc.). At this, even the respondents with strong leadership potential, introvert features and rationality also note the importance of empathy and comic elements.

Therefore, our hypothesis #3 is confirmed only partially.

Additionally, we need to mention that despite all the femininity and emotionality of the Thais, the beauties of the Nature, its seas and mountain landscapes left nearly zero impression on the students in the sample, same applies to the personal examples of the central characters and/or the authors of the demonstrated motion pictures. We can make an assumption that these “postcard” views (both local, Thai and foreign too) are overused by contemporary mass media, therefore, they are quickly losing their persuasiveness as an instrument of emotional impact on the viewer. Personal example turned to be not that efficient either, most probably, due to the fact that most of the presented Western characters were unknown or little known to Thai students due to cultural differences and popularity of other heroes in Thai society.

Stemming from the overall results of our research here, we can now formulate several recommendations aimed at increasing the efficiency of using mass media means in the process of environmental consciousness formation among Thai youth.

First of all, information delivered through mass media channels must be aimed at formation of eco-friendly values, but not by means of alarmism, artificial pressure and hysterical mood which are all emphasizing on the inevitable tragic consequences and so quickly approaching global environmental catastrophe. All these instruments seem to have extremely low efficiency when it comes to Thai youth, since the fear of the inevitable blocks the brain from further perception of information and thus provokes a rather inadequate feedback reaction: the students do not attribute eco-friendly values, on the opposite, they become motived to live “as this is your last day on this planet”, “taking everything what is available today until it is available” etc.

As our research results clearly show, students are much more perceptive and have much more adequate reaction when seeing a parallel with their own lives and their place of residence (a small town, street with neighbors that you know and like etc.), when they see the familiarity with their own lifestyle (family values, work, way of life etc.). In this case, information is being “run through oneself” and the viewer sees the described situation through the prism of own values. And this can be really helpful in the process of new values and future behavior formation.

The clipping nature of consciousness leads to lack of desire (and capacity) to see the longer term, to analyze complex phenomena in their development. And this clipping way of thinking (and living) is, sadly, one of the key features of younger generations. Therefore, formation of environmental consciousness must necessarily take this specificity into account. Thus, the very process of environmental consciousness formation must be also based on clipping technologies. A short clip (maximum 10 minutes) must contain the environmental information of maximum efficiency and persuasiveness. For this, the latest achievements in visualization, modelling, sound or even neuro-linguistic programming must be used for the sake of more efficiency perception of the presented information with the higher aim of environmental motivation formation (advertisement experience can be, most probably, used in this regard due to its already established efficiency in mass persuasiveness). The core specific feature of clips is that those may be repeated manifold (fully or in part) even within the same motion picture or TV programme. Moreover, these shorter clips can be easily transmitted via mobile devices. Even more, they are easily adaptable under specific linguistic or demographic requirements of a particular audience (for example, the dynamics of presentation may be changed, background music may be changed etc.).

Instruments of full immersion into environmental problems did not impress our respondents very much. Most probably, that happened due to lack of knowledge necessary for rather independent analysis of the described phenomena and processes (as required by the method itself). Technologies of immersion still can be used for environmental consciousness formation, but in case of younger generation – only in a very simplified manner (for example, when explaining, on very explicit examples, the interconnectedness of the processes in the Nature). Or on the opposite, immersion can be used by professionals only, provided there is preliminary detailed explanation or even a lecture so that to prepare the participants.

Emotional background is also an important element increasing the efficiency of environmental information perception. The carried out research demonstrated an interesting fact: natural beauties are losing their efficiency as an emotional background. This can be partially explained by the popularity of “postcard views” in mass media worldwide and also – by the fact that technologies similar to Photoshop are used too frequently today (thus, younger generations simply do not “buy” the natural beauty anymore).

Much more efficient emotional background for perceiving environmental information by the youth would lead to more engagement of the viewer into the problems “inside the motion picture” by means of empathy. Also, ironical/comic content can be helpful since it usually clears the air a bit and refocuses the attention, thus re-activating the thinking processes in viewers. Therefore, clips oriented on the formation of environmental consciousness must “localize” the environmental problems described, emphasizing the high probability of environmental problems happening tomorrow “at your own backyard”. In such a way, viewers’ empathy will be easily switched on. But – at the same time, comic elements and personal examples should not be fully forgotten, since those are helpful too. However, when using personal examples one should keep in mind that popularity in one country/region does not automatically mean recognizability in other countries (as it happened in our cases, actually). Thus, if a clip is referring to a personal example, the producer needs to make sure in advance that the celebrity is easily recognizable by a target audience.

Finally, we need to mention the key limitation of our research. All our conclusions and recommendations have been carried out on the basis of Thai students’ survey. Therefore, in order to get more universal conclusions and recommendations, this sample has to be indeed expanded – geographically, professionally and also in terms of demographic characteristics, such as age, income etc. 

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Filmography

An Inconvenient Truth. 2006. Participant Productions, USA, 100 min.

Explorer: Bill Nye's Global Meltdown. 2015. National Geographic Studio, USA, 44 min.

Home. 2009. Elzévir Films. France, 113 min.

Océans. 2009. Disney Nature. Participant Media, France – Switzerland -  Spain, 86 min. 

Planet Ocean. 2012. Hope Production, Tara Expéditions, France, 94 min.

Powering in Future. 2010. Discovery Channel, USA, 44 min.

Racing Extinction. 2015. USA –UK – Mexico – Hong-Kong – China – Indonesia, 90 min.

Six Degrees Could Change the World. 2008. National Geographic Studio, USA, 96 min.

The Ghosts in Our Machine. 2013. Canada,  93 min.

The Great Global Warming Swindle. 2007. WAGtv, UK, 52 min.

The Revenant A World Unseen. 2016. 20th Century FOX , USA, 44 min.

The tipping point. Dangerous Rise of Oceans. 2014. Discovery, USA, 42 min.

The tipping point. Floods and Droughts of Africa. 2014. Discovery, USA, 42 min.

The tipping point. Melting glaciers. 2014. Discovery, USA, 41 min.

The tipping point. Permafrost of the High Arctic. 2014. Discovery, USA, 42 min.

The tipping point. Water Crisis in India. 2013.  Discovery, USA, 42 min.

Trashed. 2012. Blenheim Films. USA-Canada,  98 min.

1. Office of General educationand Innovative Electronic Learning, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Bangkok, Thailand. E-mail: face2ace@hotmail.com