written for EUPRERA Highlights
I used to tell my students, that change and communication
are undeniably intertwined. Without change, who needs to know what’s happening
and make sense of it all? Monitoring a changing environment, bringing change
about, innovation and adapting to change all require communication. Nowadays, change
is even more pervasive in society and this will take the profession to a new
level. Change causes pressure but also stimulates creative thinking. Disruptive
change will challenge us all, especially new technology related to energy
transition, mobility and robotics.
Recently, Uber was criticised when an automatically driven taxi
car was involved in an accident. A video showed that the driver, present for
safety purposes as the technology is still new, was looking at his phone and, just
like the car sensors, he did not take action to prevent a collision when
someone crossed the street. New technology may not have made a difference in
this case, as the victim crossed the street suddenly in the dark, right in
front of the car. Of course, it did not help that the man behind the steering
wheel was looking at his phone. It reminded me of another road incident in my
country where a traditional car suddenly hit a bicyclist from behind on an
otherwise empty road. The car driver was suspected to have used WhatsApp. In
the first case, the use of automatic driving was debated in public, whereas in
the second case it was the suspected use of WhatsApp behind the wheel that
caused discussion. Both incidents relate to human-technology interaction, sense
making of new technologies, and communication about risks.
New technology brings new risks and induces market change. Where
disruptive change is ongoing, a chaotic period follows with tensions between
the old and the new system. New industry struggles to gain a foothold, while industry
at the end of its lifecycle maximises creating new affairs, for example, by
reopening polluting energy extraction sites or continuing to sell ‘clean diesel’.
Fierce competition leads to extensive use of lobbying, propaganda and ‘alternative
truths’, as was duly noted in Facebook discussions among professionals. Earlier
we investigated the Volkswagen diesel affair.
Notably, such car manufacturers still have wide support of politicians and car
buyers alike, notwithstanding the growing perception gap between fans and
critics. These are strange but exciting times, not only for us as communication
experts.
Similarly, the change process of energy transition has
consequences on many levels, all of which needing communication. Promotion of
renewable energy is urgent, especially in the Netherlands where the gas extraction
needs to be brought to a halt in the coming years, as its negative consequences
increasingly burden the region. Thus, on the ministry level, contracts with big
national and foreign clients are being renegotiated. Energy tariffs and
subsidies are in place to steer behaviour, while rethinking the local energy
infrastructures and related consequences for users. Naturally, the
negotiations, ways to influence behaviour and impacts of infrastructure changes
call for strategic communication. Moreover, there also is the level of
communities. For example, the apartment building where I live has a green
energy committee of volunteers engaging all inhabitants, as both collective and
individual actions will soon be required. It’s interesting to be involved in
such bottom-up initiatives.
Thus, change is pervasive and creates challenges that our
field of communication can greatly contribute to. In other words, we can help
shape the future by communicating about such changes and engaging people in an
inclusive manner. It is great that BledCom
2018 chose the theme of crisis and change. Communication in turbulent
times, indeed! My latest e-book, free to download, may provide more inspiration.
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