What is public interest communication?
In short, it is the art and the science of changing the world.
Public interest communication is an emerging discipline which uses research-informed and evidence-led communication interventions to generate structural social change. Public interest communication draws from multiple academic disciplines, including behavioural science, psychology, marketing, public relations, neuroscience and journalism. The purpose of public interest communication can be to raise awareness, change attitudes, perceptions and behaviours, and/or motivate people to take political action. The end goal is to influence policy, allocate resources, move social norms or other structures, in order to advance issues that are in the public interest.
A public interest communication campaign is a planned sequence of communication activities and other interactions which use a compelling narrative over time to deliver a defined and measurable outcome among a defined audience. This is why it’s important to start any public interest communication campaign with a clear picture of your intended outcomes.
In the past, public interest communication approaches have often required a lot of resources such as finance, staff time, expertise, and data. However, we want to show in this guide that these approaches can also be used by more resource-constrained organisations and communities, including those who have never before run such a campaign.
In this brief guide, we will cover topics such as:
- the phases of developing a public interest communication strategy,
- how to use principles learned using research methods to enhance your campaign,
- and how to use change models to keep track of the big picture.
