Strange Days and Hidden Connections

Sea Studios has undertaken the daunting task of motivating the American public to engage in solving some of the Earth's most challenging problems. Initially, Sea Studios' efforts focused on bringing significant environmental challenges to light. More recently, the organization's work has explored ways of communicating challenges facing natural systems with consequences in seemingly "unrelated" issue areas like poverty, globalization, and health. This task is formidable for a number of reasons. First, many of the problems Sea Studios is addressing are global in nature. As a result they seem very remote and disconnected from the average American's life. It would be easy for a viewer to find a story very interesting, but not to feel any personal responsibility to address the issue. Additionally, Sea Studios has chosen to highlight complex, emerging issues that are not yet completely understood by scientists, let alone lay people. To educate and engage the public, Sea Studios has created an enormously valuable asset in Strange Days on Planet Earth. From a production standpoint, Strange Days is exceptional. It has mesmerizing visuals, captivating storylines, and stellar narration. These assets are a strong foundation, but other aspects of the content and presentation are also critical to motivating the public and changing its thinking. In its first season, Strange Days emphasized mystery and the unknown as a storytelling device. In its second season, Strange Days is attempting to foreground connections. The Topos partners' research experience clearly indicates that connection is not only a desirable storytelling device, it is essential to learning and public action. Connections help people understand how an issue works and how a problem developed, and even more important, it allows them to see their role in addressing it. Problematically, however, connectedness is not a default understanding for most Americans. As a result, this key concept merits special attention from a communications perspective. This paper is intended to provide Sea Studios with the principles it needs to keep in mind as it creates new episodes of Strange Days as well as materials for other media. The paper is divided into four sections: Executive Summary - a summary of the central ideas in the paper Chapter 1: Connectedness - a discussion of this key idea, including distinct elements of Connectedness and examples of the role of Connectedness in Americans' thinking on various (non-environmental) issues Chapter 2: Issue Focus - an overview of specific aspects of the cluster of issues at the focus of Sea Studios' work, including a discussion of public response to the idea of Connectedness on environmental issues Chapter 3: Specific Guidance and Recommendations - a discussion of communications Traps (common and counterproductive patterns of understanding that people can easily fall into, and that obstruct understanding and action), recommended approaches, and thoughts on the material that has already been produced.

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