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V. Odell et al.
referred to as ‘wicked problems’. This is attributed, to their complex nature with
complex solutions that are not immediately available, nor solvable (Rittel and Webber 1973). The SDGs provide the opportunity to collate these ‘wicked problems’ and
outline the specific goals to end them. However, due to the complexity of the issues
covered there is a danger to overwhelm and in fact disengage people. According to
Shome and Marx (2009) people have a limited capacity to worry, thus only using a
few of the global goals during the visual displays is significant.
Using visual aids prompts engagement from students and staff with the SDGs
in a positive manner for them to work towards the targets, without exasperating
public disengagement with sustainability issues. Chapman et al. (2016) discusses
how visual mediums may be a potentially powerful way to connect people with
issues of climate change [and sustainability issues] by contextualising less familiar
concepts through images. Creative visualisation has been argued to be helpful with
communicating sustainability issues (Adomßent and Godemann 2011; Manzo 2010),
however, using frightening, sense of fatalism images should be avoided, as they may
draw attention to the issue, but they are likely to disengage the public further and
disempower them. This view is also supported by O’Neill and Nicolson-Cole (2009)
who recommend that using personal changes that the individual can make will likely
increase self-efficacy. Communication for social change must consist of efforts to
increase student and staff motivation and help lower the barriers (Moser and Dilling
2007) to the realisation of the SDG targets.
Djordjevic and Cotton (2011) summarise some of the communication barriers that
the visual displays have sought to overcome. Complex messaging that is not contextualised for the intended audience can be prevented through including students during
the development phases. The problem of shared understanding about sustainability
is overcome using the SDGs framework. Ensuring that the message sender does not
lack authority, as Nisbet and Kotcher (2009) highlight, these ‘opinion leaders’ are
important to accelerating behaviour change, the person communicating the message
not only needs to have knowledge of the issues to tailor the information for individuals they also need to have charisma. Working in collaboration with other teams
such as NTUs Global Team and Sustainable Development team (estates focused)
help combine efforts to prevent too much noise in the channel which causes confusion and feelings of being overwhelmed with messaging. Finally, the last barrier
mentioned is focusing too much on electronic communication rather than in person,
highlighting the importance of being at different events across the institution.
The supporting research and behaviour change models used for the SDG visual
displays are not intended to be exhaustive. As Ballantyne’s (2016) research highlights climate change communication is suffering from ‘conceptual confusion’ where
communication is far more complicated than the theories advocate. For the intended
purpose of creating awareness campaigns of the SDGs through the visual displays
project, mixed approaches are applied to frame messaging with students and staff
values in mind and develop best practices. Each visual display will provoke a recognition of large-scale problems, contextualising the less familiar (Chapman et al. 2016)
and highlight the tangible benefits to try and leverage social group norms (van der
Linden et al. 2015).
V. Odell et al.
referred to as ‘wicked problems’. This is attributed, to their complex nature with
complex solutions that are not immediately available, nor solvable (Rittel and Webber 1973). The SDGs provide the opportunity to collate these ‘wicked problems’ and
outline the specific goals to end them. However, due to the complexity of the issues
covered there is a danger to overwhelm and in fact disengage people. According to
Shome and Marx (2009) people have a limited capacity to worry, thus only using a
few of the global goals during the visual displays is significant.
Using visual aids prompts engagement from students and staff with the SDGs
in a positive manner for them to work towards the targets, without exasperating
public disengagement with sustainability issues. Chapman et al. (2016) discusses
how visual mediums may be a potentially powerful way to connect people with
issues of climate change [and sustainability issues] by contextualising less familiar
concepts through images. Creative visualisation has been argued to be helpful with
communicating sustainability issues (Adomßent and Godemann 2011; Manzo 2010),
however, using frightening, sense of fatalism images should be avoided, as they may
draw attention to the issue, but they are likely to disengage the public further and
disempower them. This view is also supported by O’Neill and Nicolson-Cole (2009)
who recommend that using personal changes that the individual can make will likely
increase self-efficacy. Communication for social change must consist of efforts to
increase student and staff motivation and help lower the barriers (Moser and Dilling
2007) to the realisation of the SDG targets.
Djordjevic and Cotton (2011) summarise some of the communication barriers that
the visual displays have sought to overcome. Complex messaging that is not contextualised for the intended audience can be prevented through including students during
the development phases. The problem of shared understanding about sustainability
is overcome using the SDGs framework. Ensuring that the message sender does not
lack authority, as Nisbet and Kotcher (2009) highlight, these ‘opinion leaders’ are
important to accelerating behaviour change, the person communicating the message
not only needs to have knowledge of the issues to tailor the information for individuals they also need to have charisma. Working in collaboration with other teams
such as NTUs Global Team and Sustainable Development team (estates focused)
help combine efforts to prevent too much noise in the channel which causes confusion and feelings of being overwhelmed with messaging. Finally, the last barrier
mentioned is focusing too much on electronic communication rather than in person,
highlighting the importance of being at different events across the institution.
The supporting research and behaviour change models used for the SDG visual
displays are not intended to be exhaustive. As Ballantyne’s (2016) research highlights climate change communication is suffering from ‘conceptual confusion’ where
communication is far more complicated than the theories advocate. For the intended
purpose of creating awareness campaigns of the SDGs through the visual displays
project, mixed approaches are applied to frame messaging with students and staff
values in mind and develop best practices. Each visual display will provoke a recognition of large-scale problems, contextualising the less familiar (Chapman et al. 2016)
and highlight the tangible benefits to try and leverage social group norms (van der
Linden et al. 2015).