The Medium Matters: How CAPI is Adapting to Changing Communication Trends for Policy Research

Back when people gathered to watch TV networks, you regularly saw Heritage Minutes, one of which proclaimed, “The medium is the message.” The short video profiles University of Toronto academic Marshall McLuhan and starts with him saying, “TV sucks the brain right out of the skull.” It didn’t seem very easy to grasp at the time, but the changing communications landscape has driven home how it is not just what we say but how we say it that matters.??

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McLuhan’s ground-breaking communications theories revealed how artifacts, including the printing press or television, affect how content is received and understood. Effectively, the same message will be received differently depending on how it is communicated. In the 50s and 60s, when McLuhan was at the University of Toronto, it must have seemed like the medium was changing incredibly with the move to television and global communications.??

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However, the change in the medium, and the corresponding impacts on the message, seems like it has never happened faster than today. This impacts us all, and organizations like CAPI are trying to adapt. This kind of adaptation can be challenging in an organization whose history is grounded in in-depth policy analysis, including research that values the importance of nuance. Policy research may not seem well suited to today’s new communication methods, but in an era of polarization, increasing risk and complexity, policy research may never have been more critical.?

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New channels are changing how we communicate and reinforcing other trends. For example, the increasing polarization, where the two sides of an issue seem to often refrain from engaging with each other, and shorter attention spans make it harder to communicate to a broad audience. When people seem reluctant to engage with each other, it can be hard to get them to engage with policy research and analysis.???

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These are some of the reasons for an increasing focus on knowledge mobilization. Knowledge mobilization has at its core a recognition of the need to use a variety of activities and outputs to build awareness and enable the use of research. In addition, there is growing awareness of the role that it can play in advancing policy dialogue and solutions.??

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Recognizing the medium can be as important as the message, CAPI recently rolled out two new approaches to presenting policy-relevant research, analysis and thought leadership.??

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First, CAPI partnered with RealAgriculture to launch the Ag Policy Connection podcast. In our first season of the podcast, we profiled six policy issues that have defined recent agriculture policy in Canada. The episodes brought individuals together who were involved in the decision to understand the context the decision was made in, the factors that decision-makers considered, and to analyze the impacts of the decision and whether the intended objectives were achieved.?

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The series helped show how decisions are made and how policy development and implementation are practiced in reality. The opportunity to hear from individuals, including former senior civil servants, political staff, farm leaders and academics who were in the room, was interesting, but for CAPI, the shift in medium from a research report to a podcast was a significant step.?

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While some may prefer to sit down and digest a report, a broader audience is interested and engaged in policy but may not be interested enough to dive deep into a report. We hope the Ag Policy Connection reaches out to that broader audience and engages them in a dialogue about policy development.?

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Second, CAPI recently launched a series of policy pop-ups, short videos intended to summarize the research and analysis that CAPI is undertaking. These minute-long videos are not intended to replace the in-depth research and analysis we do but to provide a starting point for people to connect and engage with it.?

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The policy pop-ups grow out of the new era ofr short attention spans. Within the latest social media reality, where some argue our attention spans are down to eight seconds, you need to be able to communicate concisely if you want to communicate broadly. These policy pop-ups acknowledge the critical need for knowledge mobilization that connects audience members who may only have a short, transactional relationship with the information we share.?

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If McLuhan thought TV sucks the brain right out of the skull, it would be interesting to hear his thoughts on what social media is doing today. At a minimum, it drives communication into shorter content delivered in more eye-catching ways. CAPI is trying to make the most of these new channels. Please check out our new communication tools and let us know how you think we are doing.??