| dc.description.abstract | Despite the widespread availability of information available to the public regarding major environmental issues like climate change, communicators have faced difficulty in generating the levels of public engagement necessary to make meaningful positive changes in society. This master’s thesis explores the potential role of visual environmental communication in addressing barriers that general audiences might face in engaging with environmental issues. In order to explore this issue, in-depth, semi-structured interviews with open-ended lines of questioning were used to collect qualitative primary-source data from image creators and other professionals working with visual environmental communication. This data was sorted using thematic analysis and compared to relevant existing literature to unpack potential interactions between visual environmental communication and barriers to engagement with environmental issues. The interviewees described a number of specific strategies that they used to engage their audiences, including addressing issues of attention and accessibility, using storytelling to encourage feelings of connection, and providing next steps for their audiences. These strategies were further contextualized by discussion of the interviewees’ roles as topical experts and translators, the importance of integrity and contextualization in communication, and the participants’ frustration with the difficulty of measuring the impact of their work. Comparison with existing literature supported the potential of the strategies cited by the interviewees to increase audience engagement. Overall, the findings suggest that the professionals interviewed were actively developing specific, intentional, and informed strategies to engage audiences in their work. However, most of them felt that it was difficult to accurately evaluate how well their current strategies were working and expressed a desire for better clarification regarding best practices for audience engagement in visual environmental communication. | eng |