Harnessing the Science of Social Marketing and Behaviour Change for Improved Water Quality in the GBR: a documentary analysis of Reef Trust Tender (Burdekin) and Reef Programme

The intention of the documentary analysis is to assess the way that messages to land managers about water quality in the Great Barrier Reef are presented in terms of their readability, message framing and message tone. Two programmes were selected: (1) the Reef Programme; and (2) the Reef Trust Tender (Burdekin). The programmes selected for evaluation had been marketed within both the wet and the dry tropics, and they had been designed for both graziers and cane farmers. The readability analysis has shown all three programmes to be written at a similar level well above the recommended reading level of grade / year 9. The documents associated with the Reef Programme (Burdekin), with a SMOG score of 13, were slightly more readable than documents associated with the Reef Trust Tender (Wet Tropics) (17) or the Reef Programme (Burdekin) (18)