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Coral Bleaching In Public Communication

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The communicative tools professionals within the different sectors utilise, influence the discourse within the public sphere. This idea is established when analysing the contemporary media issue regarding the coral bleaching occurring on the Great Barrier Reef caused by the changing climatic conditions and human interaction with the reef.
Public communication through verbal or non-verbal means has enabled individuals to convey a range of messages to one another with this exchange allowing for the establishment of meaning behind the messages (Alberts, Nakayama & Martin 2016). Within the public communication realm, two main forms of communicative methods, being public relations and advertising are used to present and relay messages between …show more content…

Therefore O’Neill 1989 defines not-for-profit organisations as those targeting issues for “the good of the society” (Salamon & Anheier 1992, p. 134). Within this sector the public communication industry involving both public relations and advertising strategies contribute to influencing the debate of the public sphere. Particularly as these organisation are “…heavily engaged in media relations…” (Morris & Goldsworthy 2012, p. 78), therefore public relations within this sector are prominently seen through online media articles when discussing the issue of coral bleaching. For example the Australian Marine Conservation Society’s media release through their ‘Fight for the Reef’ campaign (Appendix D). The use of online media is an effective communication method when targeting the public sphere as it has the ability to “influence and engage multiple target publics” due to the online presence, whilst remaining low budget as this is a challenge often faced by the not-for-profit sector (Collins 2016, pers. comm., 5 …show more content…

Subsequently communications professionals have the ability to expose the public to a specific aspect and viewpoint of an issue (Weaver 2007) determining “…how we think about it” (Scheufele & Tewskbury 2007 cited in Perloff 2013, p. 321). An influential factor contributing to the debate type of debate evident within the public sphere. For example the article published by The Guardian (Appendix F) uses framing when depicting the issue of coral bleaching through the use of descriptive and emotional language, “mourning” and “disaster” in the title to instantly engage the reader whilst revealing the view of the organisation. Similarly direct quotations from Professor Justin Marshall, reveals strong emotion when discussing the issue. Combined with multiple visuals of bleached coral throughout the article and the inclusion of video footage, aids in shaping the publics perception of this contemporary issue by predominantly conveying the severity of damage to the reef. Therefore the negative tone and connotations associated with the state of the reef will consequently influence debate within the public sphere to focus on the negative aspects of this contemporary issue. Similarly it has the ability to spark debate regarding the involvement of the government

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