Media Channels for an Environmental Advocacy Campaign

MEDIA CHANNELS FOR AN ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCACY CAMPAIGN

by Antonio C. Antonio

November 17, 2014

Financial support is the single biggest problem of advocacies… environmental advocacy included.  It is for this reason why environmental advocates and activist prefer to use social media because of its relative cost efficiency.

In September 23, 2013, I, together with Michelle de Leon and Jabez Flores, created the Facebook Community Page “Landscape Ecology UPOU”.  This Facebook page was originally intended as a venue where environmental information can be posted and environmentalism can be popularized.  At first, only photos and images of beautiful landscapes were being posted.  This was the initial strategy to attract attention to the Facebook page.  I also posted the same pictures on his personal Facebook page.  After a month of posting beautiful landscape photographs, I moved on to posting photos of beautiful landscapes with accompanying literature on the subject.  This is where interest for this type of posts started increasing from the netizen community.

In October 16, 2013, de Leon, Flores and I created the Facebook secret group “UPOU ENRM Uplanders”.  This was to be the Facebook page where UPlanders could network and share materials for posting on the Landscape Ecology UPOU page.  The UPlanders is an informal group of students and faculty in-charge (FIC) from UPOU.  I should mention that both Landscape Ecology UPOU and UPOU ENRM UPlanders were inspired by Dean Innocencio E. Buot, Jr. of UPOU.  With an increased interest in informative posts on Facebook, it was time to expand again.

In April 8, 2014, I created the blogsite “antonantonio.blogspot.com” where I started publishing pro-environment articles.  The theme of the blogsite was: “This blogsite contains articles, papers and reports on the subject of environment and natural resources management together with economic development and human interest stories every now and then.  This blogsite intends to increase the level of awareness on environmental issues and concerns aimed at inspiring individual and/or collective action towards protecting Mother Earth.”  Most of the articles in this blogsite were lifted and based on my academic work at UPOU.

In June 30, 2014, I created another Facebook Community Page “Pro EARTH Crusaders” where netizens can join.  It appeared that netizens were apprehensive to join Landscape Ecology UPOU because of the perception that it is a school-based community.  The purpose of this additional Facebook page is “This Facebook Page intends to promote pro-environment posts aimed at engaging other netizens towards individual and/or collective action to protect Mother Earth.”  Steadily, the page “likes” started coming.  With the creation of Pro EARTH Crusaders, I now had three Facebook Pages and a blogsite where I posted and published pro-environment articles.

At present these social media outlets have the following status:

• Landscape Ecology UPOU has a membership of 402 and a daily readership of about 65 per post.
• UPOU ENRM UPlanders has a limited membership of 36 and contributions are regularly being posted.
• Pro EARTH Crusaders has a membership of 270 and a daily readership of about 80 per post.
• Anton Antonio (my personal Facebook page) has 1,040 friends, an average “likes” of 70, and an average “share” of 8 per post.  Facebook “shares” can no longer be accounted in terms of “likes” since only the person who “shared” the post gets to know how many more additional “likes” and “shares” are made.  But this is what makes a post “viral”.
• antonantonio.blogspot.com has a readership of  15,500 (worldwide).

The top ten most read articles published are:

1.     Achievements of the Earth Summit (http://antonantonio.blogspot.com/2014/04/achievements-of-earth-summit.html)

2.     Ferdinand Magellan: Was He the First Man to Circumnavigate the Globe? (http://antonantonio.blogspot.com/2014/04/ferdinand-magellan-was-he-first-man-to.html)

3.     An Inconvenient Reality (http://antonantonio.blogspot.com/2014/04/aninconvenient-reality-byantonio-c.html)

4.     Climate Change (http://antonantonio.blogspot.com/2014/04/climate-change.html)

5.     Causes of Deforestation (http://antonantonio.blogspot.com/2014/04/causes-of-deforestation.html)

6.     Human Ecology: Ecosystem-Based and Actor/Actress-Based Models (http://antonantonio.blogspot.com/2014/07/human-ecology-ecosystem-based-and.html)

7.     Masdan Ang Bukas Ko (The Making of an Environment Advocacy Song) (http://antonantonio.blogspot.com/2014/04/thistechnical-paper-was-published-in.html)

8.     Typhoon Yolanda (http://antonantonio.blogspot.com/2014/04/typhoon-yolanda.html)

9.     The Benefits We Derive from the Forest (http://antonantonio.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-benefits-we-derive-from-forest-by.html)

10.  Critical Thinking: Tatak UP (http://antonantonio.blogspot.com/2014/04/critical-thinking-tatak-up-antonio-c.html)

Countries covered by articles publish through the blogsite:

1. Australia
2. Belarus
3. Belgium
4. Bhutan
5. Bolivia
6. Brazil
7. British Indian Ocean Territory
8. Canada
9. Chile
10. China
11. Ethiopia
12. Fiji
13. Finland
14. France
15. Germany
16. Ghana
17. Hungary
18. India
19. Indonesia
20. Iraq
21. Japan
22. Kenya
23. Kuwait
24. Macedonia
25. Malaysia
26. Mexico
27. Netherlands
28. Philippines
29. Poland
30. Qatar
31. Romania
32. Russia
33. Saudi Arabia
34. Singapore
35. Slovakia
36. South Africa
37. Taiwan
38. Thailand
39. Turkey
40. Ukraine
41. United Arab Emirates
42. United Kingdom
43. United States
44. Vietnam

The top ten blogsite readers (by country) are:

1. Philippines         -           32%
2. United States     -           31%
3. Saudi Arabia      -             6%
4. Iraq                  -             4%
5. France              -             2%
6. Germany           -             2%
7. Ukraine             -             2%
8. Turkey              -             2%
9. Russia               -             2%
10. Poland               -             2%
11. Others               -           15%

As part of a continuing effort in environmentalism, I was able to network with other environment advocacy groups such as:

• Zero Waste Recycling Movement of the Philippines;
• Philippine Native Plants Conservation Society;
• Clean and Green Makati;
• Yakap Kalikasan;
• Laking Tarlac City Ka Kung;
• Kids2Forest;
• Masters in Environment and Natural Resources Management; and,
• Cordillera Indigenous Knowledge on Agriculture, Forestry and Biodiversity;

There really are no fast and perfect structure in designing an environment advocacy campaign.  The only operative word that could serve as some sort of guide: Doability.

These are just some of the possible media channels for an environmental advocacy campaign.

Just my little thoughts…

(Please visit, like and share Pro EARTH Crusaders and Landscape Ecology UPOU on Facebook or follow me at http://antonantonio.blogspot.com/.)