J840 Communicating Social and Environmental Initiatives

A funny thing happened when I went home to Arkansas a few weekends ago. I was having lunch with a friend from high school when we got to talking about my job and my classes. Obviously, I couldn’t not mention Media and Environment to him. The conversation went kind of like this:

Him: What’s up with that weird polka-dot can in your purse? Do you carry that thing everywhere?

Me: I don’t want to have plastics leaching into my body every time I want to drink water! This aluminum can is cleaner and better for the environment.

Him: Leach? Is that the right word to use? Wouldn’t leach mean, like, sucking something out of you, not putting something into you?

Me: Shutup.

Him: So, is this whole environmental thing real, or is it just a fad? Is someone paying you to do this?

Me: It’s real! I’ve made a big turnaround the past year, because of my job, my classes and where I live.

Him: You’re a hippie now.

It’s a typical conversation with my friend, a comedian-type. But it made me open my eyes: These stereotypes really do exist. Before, I figured that people, especially young people, were catching on to the environmental movement faster than ever because of the exposure and education on it. But still, there are skeptics. I don’t think my friend is a skeptic, but just someone who has to be convinced. Of course, my shutup response to him wasn’t one of engaging conversation, but that’s kind of how our relationship is.

Maybe it’s not evident from the above, comedic conversation, but this class has taught my how to talk about the environment every day with people who care and people who could care. My friend is a smart, receptive guy, and we did get into a more intelligent conversation about energy use, the nuclear power plant in Arkansas and other green issues. I was taken aback by how I was able to roll with the punches in our 1-2 conversation.

That same weekend in Arkansas, I was speaking at a high school journalism convention in Rogers (Rogers, Bentonville, all of where I’m from = Wal-Mart Country). During my stay at the Embassy Suites, I noticed that the Wal-Mart Sustainability Conference was going on as well.

Normally, I am unenthusiastic about anything that has to do with Wal-Mart (I come from a town that has three SuperCenters and a Neighborhood Market, so you can see how refreshed I am living in Lawrence where there is SuperTarget and local business), but I was intrigued by this conference. Of course, I wasn’t able to sneak in and catch a glimpse of Adam Webach or any other Wal-Mart SuperHeroes, but I was impressed that I knew that if I did run into somebody like that at the hotel, I would be able to have a conversation with a little depth.

And that’s the biggest, most important thing that I will take away from this class: The power of conversation. Not lectures, not discussions, not talks. Conversation. From Wiki:

Conversation is the verbalization of concepts involving abstractions and concrete objects which make up the world we live in.

A conversation is communication by two or more people, or by ones self. Conversations are the ideal form of communication in some respects, since they allow people with different views of a topic to learn from each other.

I can’t wait for these conversations to catch fire even more. It’s going to be an exciting adventure in the world of environmentalism. Soon, “the world” will be able to mean the same thing as “the world of environmentalism.” I’m so happy to have had a running start because of this class. We just need to keep the conversation rolling.

My best,

Kim Wallace