Addressing divergent audiences in conservation communication: an examination of land trust websites in Northern California

In a world rich with a diversity of stories and values, successful conservation must not rely on everyone thinking and feeling the same way. Values are the foundation of the cognitive hierarchy of human behavior and are relatively fixed and unlikely to change. As a result, environmental communication that is reliant on a particular set of values may cause polarization around conservation issues. The reasoned action approach offers a way to explore communication techniques that address the cognitive hierarchy of human behavior at its most malleable point, behavioral intentions. Because land trusts work with historically divergent audiences who are often polarized by conservation issues, they are in a unique position to provide insight on how to bridge this divide. This project examines the websites of sixteen land trusts operating in Northern California through the lens of the reasoned action approach. The result offers land trusts and others engaged in the broader environmental communications insight into the current website communication practices of land trusts and to how website narratives and structures can work towards building of community through the well-balanced treatment of these diverse audiences