Communicating conservation

Excerpt

PUBLIC information in the soil and water conservation movement is neither simple nor orderly. It is big, complex, disorderly, and decentralized, with a number of different goals and many ways of operating. The work calls for a variety of technical skills because the roles of information people are forever changing.

When they report the results of a snow survey, for example, they are a straight news source.

When they write up an interview with a farmer about his experience with no-till, they are farm reporters.

When they publish a pamphlet on how to build a pond, they are technical writers and editors.

When they put out a book of teaching materials, such as Conserving Soil, they are in the education business.

And when they write a speech to try to persuade more people to adopt conservation tillage, they are salespeople.

They are also public speakers and photographers and artists and ghost writers and radio-television producers and public relations practitioners.

In any one week, it is not unusual for an information worker to play all these roles: reporting, informing, persuading, explaining, educating-and shoot a few pictures besides. Every conservationist shares some cf these roles with the professional information …