Understanding Communication Needs: A Marikina Barangay Experience Linking Flooding to Climate Change Communication

Abstract

Potential impacts on extreme weather events have been used to underscore the relevance and urgency of climate change. Our research on a local Marikina community’s understanding of extreme flooding events shows that such events are salient to the local community, and can therefore be used as a means to make climate change more relatable. Thus, insights from science communication related to flooding events can be useful in informing climate change communication efforts. This research on a Marikina community’s understanding of extreme flooding demonstrates how messages rooted in empirical research and using “simple language” are not enough. People want to receive practical rather than conceptual, knowledge-based messages in order to take action. This study therefore recommends that researchers should investigate different stakeholders’ understandings of what constitutes good climate change communication and determine the needs of different audiences and their unique cultural standpoints before crafting knowledge-based materials. This research also hopes to encourage further scholarly discussions on striking the balance between giving people what they want to know vs. giving people what science thinks they need to know.