Communicating solutions for a greener world : a case study of the Bellona Foundation’s communication process within the Hydrogen Project

Abstract

The world is facing increasing energy and global climate change problems. Facing future depletion of fossil fuels and the threat of increased temperatures on earth due to air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels, there is a need for a clean alternative. The Norwegian environmental organization The Bellona Foundation believes that hydrogen as an energy carrier coupled with hydrogen technology is the solution and the only road to a 0-emissions society—a hydrogen society. Under the slogan, “From Talking to Walking the Hy-way,” Bellona is through their Hydrogen Project working to achieve this green society. In a case study of Bellona’s Hydrogen Project, this thesis aims to examine how Bellona communicates with the intended target groups within this project and how the organization perceives the communication process. As the slogan suggests, in order for the Hydrogen Project to be completely successful, Bellona has to not only inform people about the hydrogen solution but also convince them and get them to begin implementing hydrogen technology. This is conducted through a communication process. The communication process includes both internal and external activities and is divided into four stages: translation, strategy, channels and feedback. Through contrasting the communication process with science communication models, the need for an interactive, multi-directional approach that makes problematic the receiver and recognizes the receiver as an active participant in addition to adhering to the correlation between message and context of the receiver. The case study aims to look at how Bellona conducts and perceives the different stages in the communication process and find out whether Bellona recognizes these features in or adheres to these factors within the Hydrogen Project.