Final Project Cover Memo

Project Title: What’s The Risk—Tripping the Alarm for Climate Change


Genre: Podcasts, Radio Programs

Publication: Public and College Radio Stations

Audience: I’m trying to reach out to citizens who are concerned about climate change but whose interest in the issue may have waned. I want to focus the audience’s attention not on the risks of climate change, but on the way that they think about those risks. Hopefully, this will help to move the climate change debate beyond scientific and political grumblings and increase our understanding of the issue in a way that will move us to action. Ideally, listeners will think differently about climate change after listening to these short programs.

Analysis: Climate change is an abstract issue. I want to bring that issue down to earth and make it conversational and understandable. Because climate change talks usually consist of abstract predictions and figures, it’s easy for people to tune out the real implications of ignoring it. The conversational and personal nature of radio makes the discussion palatable and friendly. Also, because I’m steering the discussion away from the figures and predictions, I hope that the audience will find that they can reach a more nuanced idea of climate change that doesn’t consist solely of financial figures or gloom and doom forecasts.