Time to show problem are a social issue
THE FrameWorks Institute has a list of partners and support in the USA which it works with on social problems and public issue campaigns.
The Institute’s partners include Harvard University, Bill Gates Foundation, Unicef and the Office of the Mayor of New York City.
Nat Kendall Taylor, FrameWorks CEO who has been in Glasgow delivering the workshops with Dr Moira O’Neil said the objective was not to develop campaigns but to help organisations frame their message to reach their taget audience more effectively.
Mr Kendall-Taylor said in Scotland there seems to be a greater level of social awareness and collective responsibility than in the USA.
Getting people to understand how a problem affects them is crucial to the effectiveness of the message, he said.
He said a major issue was when: “People don’t see the issue as a social problem. Where people see a ‘they problem’ not a “we problem’.”
He added the effective message will change that and people see a collective responsibility and a re- sponsibility of government. He said: “When anyone has a problem we all have a problem.”
Workshops included examples of campaigns in the US on issues like poverty, smoking, isolation and loneliness among the elderly and reducing accidents among teenage drivers though changing the law on licences.
The messages seen to be most effective focused on the wider issues around a problem, not just an individual’s story, and how a solution would benefit society as a whole, not just those most directly and immediately affected by it.