Skrivanek Coral Reef Conservation Infographics

Alexa Skrivanek

Climate Change Communication

Final Project Blog Post

Coral Reef Conservation Infographics

For my Culminating Action and Communication Project, I decided to bring awareness to the effects climate change is having on our coral reefs. To do this, I made a series of four infographics that each covered a coral related topic such as coral bleaching, ocean acidification, and more. Early on in the spring semester we read “Dire Predictions: Understanding Climate Change” by Michael E. Mann and Lee R. Kump and the book had a short section on feedback loops. One example of negative feedback loops was ocean acidification. The section explains that ocean acidification is caused by uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere which results in a reduction in the pH of the ocean over an extended period of time (Mann & Kump, 108). This section of the textbook really got me thinking about coral and how climate change is affecting it.

Once I had a general topic in mind, I had to decide on a target for my project. I decided that I wanted to bring awareness to people who interact with coral reefs a lot but might not know too much about what is happening to coral as a result of climate change. My target audience for my project were people who have a vested interest in coral reefs but might not have really thought about what is happening to coral. These people included scuba diver interest groups, coral advocate groups, and people in the tourism sector. My next question was to figure out how to reach this audience. My first idea was social media. I was inspired to use social media by chapter nine of. “What We Think About When We Try Not To Think About Global Warming: Toward a New Psychology of Climate Action” by Per Essen Stoknes. Chapter nine was titled “The Power of Social Networks” and it looked at just how much influence social groups have on an individual’s thinking. I was particularly intrigued by how social media groups are used. This idea was further solidified by a guest lecture by Morgan Folger, who gave a presentation about “Designing Petitions and Social Media for Climate Messaging.” Her presentation discussed the process of a successful campaign but also tools that are helpful in creating a campaign. From the way it was described, Facebook was a perfect media platform for my needs. I also added aspects of another presentation we had by Dan Xie on how to plan campaigns. One suggestion they had was to make measurable goals and clear expectations. I decided that I would create four infographics and post them on Facebook and gauge group interaction and interest through likes, comments and shares. I made the rough goal of getting somewhere between 5 and 10 comments, likes, or shares on each post. 

Overall my project went well. I created four infographics with topics ranging from why coral reefs are important to what coral bleaching is. The issues I ran into were all connected to Facebook. I have never had a Facebook account before, so I only had a vague concept of how to use it. But apparently if you try to join too many Facebook groups at a time, your account will get flagged and you won’t be able to use the platform. Apparently Facebook thinks you are a spam account. I wish I had known that joining a number of groups would result in me getting flagged but I had no clue until it happened. Because my account was flagged I couldn’t use it for a couple of days. Eventually I got the response that my account was deleted along with the results of my first two infographics. What I now know is that I should have taken a photo of the responses my posts got but I never thought to do it. My suggestion to anyone would be to make sure that you do not join too many Facebook groups at once and that you take photos of things like how many comments/likes/shares a post got if those are your metrics of success. If I remember correctly, the first infographic on coral bleaching got four comments/likes/shares while the second, which was about what divers can do to protect coral reefs while visiting them, got seven comments/likes/shares. The comments I received were pretty positive saying that it was an interesting piece and that it made a somewhat complex topic like coral bleaching easier to understand.

Overall, aside from my issues with Facebook, my project went well and was interesting to me. I truly do wish I had been able to get the results for my other two infographics but it wasn’t possible. 


Citations:

Folger, Morgan. “Writing & Marketing an Effective Petition.” Eckerd College, St.

Petersburg, Florida 2022.

Mann, Michael E., and Lee R. Kump. “Part 2: Climate Change Projections.” Dire 

Predictions: Understanding Climate Change, 2nd ed., DK, 2016, pp. 108–108. 

Stoknes, E. P. “What We Think About When We Try Not To Think About Global

Warming: Toward a New Psychology of Climate Action.” Chelsea Green Publishing. 2015.

Xie, Dan. “Planning Campaigns: How to pick them, how to plan them, and why.” 

Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, Florida. 2022.







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