Elements that enhance the engagement of young people with pro-environmental narratives

Abstract

This study analyzes the opinions of undergraduate students (N=296), -from Education and Communication degrees- on the educommunicative capacity of three pro-environmental storytelling, the emotions they generate, and the involvement they promote, identifying their engagement. The research is empirical, descriptive, non-experimental, exploratory and analytical. We analysed and compared the students' opinions collected after the viewing using the validated Assessment of Engagement with Proenvironmental Storytelling instrument. The results confirm that all promote a high engagement, prioritizing clear and proactive messages with testimonies whose protagonists facilitated the diffusion. They prefer the voice-over to prompt them to take actions that can be transformed into daily behaviours. Emotional appeal gains relevance to ensure pro-environmental commitment. The interest in environment among young people is evident. They demand guidelines to become involved in pro-environmental projects. In addition, it seems desirable to incorporate in their training contents and tools that allow them to create their own audiovisual proposals.