Browsing by Author "Scott, Kelly"

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    Exploring the role of storytelling in environmental communication : a documentary campaign aimed at South African millennials
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2020-03) Scott, Kelly; Schulschenk, Jess; Feront, Cecile; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. School of Public Leadership.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY : As we enter the Anthropocene epoch, humanity’s impact on the planet has resulted in environmental effects that cannot be allowed to continue unabated. Researchers concur that scientific advances alone will not be able to solve these issues and that behaviour change is critical. Communication is a fundamental aspect of how the environment and environmental issues are understood and learned about. Therefore, in order to affect behaviour change, communication practitioners need to create materials that are as engaging and effective as possible. Narrative structures, or stories, have the ability to provide explanations and concrete examples of otherwise abstract and inaccessible facts. When considering the audience for these communications, the millennial generation is arguably the most important as the largest segment of the global population. My research aims to explore how storytelling can optimise environmental communications to reach a millennial audience in order to drive behaviour change through the study of a documentary campaign targeting South African millennials. This campaign provides a rich context for this study as, even though people in the global south are likely to experience more severely the consequences of environmental issues, there is scant empirical evidence concerning (young people’s) engagement with sustainabilityrelated issues in Africa. Informed by my pragmatist position, I draw on grounded theory methodology and employ a qualitative approach to conduct and analyse data obtained from 20 semi-structured interviews. Regarding the current engagement of South African millennials with sustainability-related issues, I find that there is a disparity between their high levels of awareness, literacy and concern about these issues on the one hand and their limited behavioural response on the other. I suggest twelve key reasons, grouped into internal and external barriers, to explain what might be holding South African millennials back from taking action to address specific sustainability-related issues. I explore the effectiveness of four storytelling elements employed in the creation of the documentary campaign. My research findings contribute to an emerging understanding of the role of storytelling in the environmental communication literature, and also provide practical insights for practitioners regarding the use of these techniques to engage South African millennials specifically.