Beth Karlin Center for Unconventional Security Affairs

University of California, Irvine

Transformational Media: A New Approach to Sustainability

Center for Unconventional Security Affairs Mission:

The Center for Unconventional Security Affairs (CUSA) addresses the human and environmental security challenges of the twenty-first century through innovative research and education programs that integrate experts from the public and private sector.

Unconventional Security Research

Group

Transformational Media Lab eARTh Studio

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Transformation - change in form, appearance, nature, or character

Media – means of communication that reach large numbers of people

Lab - Place, situation, or set of conditions conducive to investigation/experimentation

System

Social

Individual Community

Industrial

Transformational Media Lab

Underlying Assumptions 1.  Technology and new media are changing how people

interact with our natural, built, and social worlds.

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Underlying Assumptions 1.  Technology and new media are changing how people

interact with our natural, built, and social worlds. 2.  There are potential opportunities to leverage these

changes for pro-social / pro-environmental benefit.

B. Karlin

Underlying Assumptions 1.  Technology and new media are changing how people

interact with our natural, built, and social worlds. 2.  There are potential opportunities to leverage these

changes for pro-social / pro-environmental benefit 3.  A psychological approach provides a theoretical base

and empirical methodology to study this potential.

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Transformational Media Lab Mission:

Our lab studies how technology and new media are (and can be) used to transform individuals, communities, and systems.

Documentary Film

Campaigns

Home Energy Management

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Energy Feedback “Information about the result of a process or action that can be used in modification or control of a process or system”

Oxford English Dictionary

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Energy Feedback

1888

�  Average frequency: monthly (approx. 12 data points/year)

�  Average frequency: hourly (approx 8,760 data points/year)

Energy Feedback

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Kempton and Layne, 1994

How much energy does your washer use?

How about your whole house?

Energy usage tells its own story...

Powe

r Con

sum

ptio

n (W

atts)

Small Changes, Big Impacts

$9.24 $5.28 Savings: $3.96 43%

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And the computer is still plugged in…

(uci@home project)

Savings Add Up

“…without waiting for new technologies or regulations or changing household lifestyle.”

Dietz, Gardner, Gilligan, Stern, & Vandenbergh (2009)

“Household actions can provide a behavioral wedge to rapidly reduce carbon emissions …”

•  5-12% reduction in 5 years •  9-22% reduction in 10 years

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Public and private interest

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Over 200 devices on the market

(Karlin, Ford, & Squiers, in press) B. Karlin

Feedback is effective… �  100+ studies conducted since 1976 �  Reviews found average 10% savings

�  Mean r-effect size = .1174 (p < .001)

•  Significant variability in effects (from negative effects to over 20% savings)

Darby, 2006; Ehrhardt-Martinez et al., 2010; Fischer, 2008; Karlin & Zinger, under review B. Karlin

Feedback is ✗ can be effective… �  100+ studies conducted since 1976 �  Reviews found average 10% savings

�  Mean r-effect size = .1174 (p < .001)

Darby, 2006; Ehrhardt-Martinez et al., 2010; Fischer, 2008; Karlin & Zinger, in preparation

•  Significant variability in effects (from negative effects to over 20% savings)

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Feedback is It depends…

✗ can be effective…

Moderators identified in meta-analysis

•  Study population (WHO?)

•  Study duration (HOW LONG?)

•  Frequency of feedback (HOW OFTEN?)

•  Feedback medium (WHAT TYPE?)

•  Disaggregation (WHAT LEVEL?)

•  Comparison (WHAT MESSAGE?)

Karlin & Zinger, in preparation B. Karlin

Feedback is ✗ can be effective…

Ehrhardt-­‐Martinez,  Laitner,  &  Donnely.,  2010  

It  depends.  .  .  

10%  15%  5%  

2%   20%  average    savings  

•  Monthly 12

•  Daily 365

•  Hourly 8,760

•  Continuous 31,536,000

Data Granularity

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blu-ray netflix streaming

Data Granularity (up to 6.3 trillion data points/year)

200 microsecond sampling

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Feedback is ✗ can be effective…

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Information Overload

B. Karlin, 2012

What is Framing?

Presentation of information in a way that encourages certain interpretations & discourages others.

“There is no value neutral way of presenting people with information.” - Elke Weber, APA 2012

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1079 KwH/year

65.9 Billion

5.8% of average home

How much energy does your washer use?

$$$

$.25/load

$85/year

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Feedback is It depends...

✗ can be effective…

Impacts of leaving your router on when not in use

1

2

3

4

5

Leaving your router on wastes energy.

Turning your router off when not in use saves .07 kWh per day.

If all Americans turn off routers, we would save over $800 million/year.

A router left on all day uses the equivalent of 37 AA batteries.

If you turn your router off when not in use, you can save $2.63/year.

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There are benefits to simplicity…

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But it’s not always that easy…

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Transformational Media Lab Mission:

Our lab studies how media is (and can be) used to transform individuals, communities, and systems.

Documentary Film

Campaigns

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Home Energy Management

History of Documentary

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“We believe that the cinema’s capacity for getting around, for observing and selecting from life itself, can be exploited in a new and vital art form”

John Grierson First Principles of Documentary, 1932

History of Documentary Romanticism

historical

cinéma vérité

Propagandist

Documentaries Today

“docu-ganda”

Director as subject

Philanthropic ventures

Theatrical release

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Documentaries Today

B. Karlin Britdoc, 2007

Documentaries Today

"specific social action campaigns for each film and documentary designed to give a voice to issues that resonate in the films” (Participant Media, 2010)

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A Recipe for Success?

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Film Campaign

Social Change

If you build it, they will they come.

Many Films on Sustainability

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Food Films

- Food Inc

- Fresh

- Food Fight

- Ingredients

- Food Matters

- Supersize Me

- The Future of Food

- The Garden

- King Corn

- What's on your plate?

- Deconstructing supper

Water Films - Flow - Blue Gold - Tapped - Thirst - Blue Legacy - Story of Bottled Water - Last Call at the Oasis

Climate Films - Everything's Cool - An Inconvenient Truth - 11th hour - No Impact Man - Collapse - Radically Simple - Blind Spot

Transportation Films - Who Killed the Electric Car? - Revenge of the Electric Car - Fuel - Crude

“We often see multiple films on a very similar subject or with a similar social change goal.

Within the range of storytelling, some methods truly speak to an audience by sparking real emotions...and others do little more than entertain or inform.”

Emily Verellen, 2010

The Fledgling Fund

Different Outcomes

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What are we missing?

What is a campaign?

What is going on here?

How do we measure change?

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Film Campaign

Social Change

If you build it, they will they come.

Film Campaign

Social Change

From Recipes to Models

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Film Campaign

Social Change

From Recipes to Models

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Ingredients Key Activities & Processes Metrics

From Recipes to Models

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Ingredients Key Activities & Processes Metrics

Film Campaign

Social Change

From Dichotomies of Power

1.  Opportunity

2.  Compelling story

3.  Charismatic leaders

4.  Infrastructure

Builds on existing theory

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Learns from observation

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And closer investigation

To Develop Models of Change

Storytelling

- Show and Tell

Engagement -Target and Reach

Activism - Involve and Activate

Change -  Measure and Assess

Three Key Insights

Storytelling

- Evoke Morals

Engagement - Dimensions of Viewer Experience

Activism - Leverage Existing Networks

Evoke Morals

B. Karlin Five Moral Foundations, Haidt et al.

Evoke Morals

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�  Don’t be afraid to take a stand and engage moral arguments.

�  Incorporate sanctity and purity into discussion of climate.

�  Use a variety of opinion leaders and authority figures.

Evoke Morals

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1.  Where is the viewer? (spatial)

2.  Who are they with? (social)

3.  Do they have to pay? (financial)

4.  Is it part of an event or experience? (organizational)

Dimensions of Viewer Experience

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Dimensions of Viewer Experience

1. Theatrical 2. Festivals 3. Event release

4. DVD 5. Product Sales 6. Screenings

7. Broadcast 8. Digital 9. Viewing parties

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Dimensions of Viewer Experience

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1. Theatrical 2. Festivals 3. Event release

4. DVD 5. Product Sales 6. Screenings

7. Broadcast 8. Digital 9. Viewing parties

Dimensions of Viewer Experience

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1. Theatrical 2. Festivals 3. Event release

4. DVD 5. Product Sales 6. Screenings

7. Broadcast 8. Digital 9. Viewing parties

Leverage Existing Networks

Social Media ≠ Social Networks B. Karlin, 2012

Leverage Existing Networks

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Leverage Existing Networks

Leverage Existing Networks

�  Schools

�  Places of worship

�  Community groups

�  Online forums

Leverage Existing Networks

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Closing Thoughts “It is far better to adapt the technology to the user than to force the user to adapt to the technology.”

– Larry Marine

Beth Karlin Transformational Media Lab

University of California, Irvine Email: bkarlin@uci.edu Web: www.cusa.uci.edu