Looking for research on how to frame an issue on a certain topic area? Here is a collection of research, guides and recommendations for framing, narrative and messaging on a range of issues including climate, crime, equality, nature, poverty and health.
It is easy to forget how mysterious and mighty stories are. They do their work in silence, invisibly. They work with all the internal materials of the mind and self. They become part of you while changing you. Beware the stories you read or tell; subtly, at night, beneath the waters of consciousness, they are altering your world. – Ben Okri, Author
Note: The brief summaries of each report have been taken from the source documents with some minor edits. Click on the heading of each item to access the full resource. Some clicks will result in a download of a pdf while others will direct you to another website.
Resources from the State Voices Reproductive Justice Spokesperson Training – Creating and Delivering Your Message: Reproductive Justice (Part 1), Agenda, Slide Deck,Recording, Closed Captions
Creating and Delivering Your Message: Reproductive Justice (Part 2) – Slide Deck, Agenda
What Next? Podcast with Anat Shenker-Osorio, “The Evolution of Pro-Choice Messaging” Podcast / Transcript
The Together For Yes coalition was able to broach what many in Ireland saw as an untouchable topic by listening closely to their target audiences and rewriting the playbook on how they described abortion and the people who have them. The podcast probes into the various pitfalls and messaging challenges inherent in not just debating abortion, but driving voters to turn out in support of it.
Common Cause Australia, Southern Melbourne Primary Care Partnership, Et al. [Aus], 2021, Guide
Based on national message research undertaken by Common Cause Australia in 2021, this message guide contains recommendations that will help you talk about age, ageing and issues that affect older people in ways that reduce ageist attitudes and behaviours.
People over 50 have long been misrepresented in media—or left out entirely. This new research from the FrameWorks Institute and AARP provides recommendations for using images that reduce the prevalence of ageism and advance a more authentic picture of aging and older people.
Human perception can depend on how an individual frames information in thought and how information is framed in communication. For example, framing something positively, instead of negatively, can change an individual’s response. This is of relevance to ‘positive animal welfare’, which places greater emphasis on farm animals being provided with opportunities for positive experiences. However, little is known about how this framing of animal welfare may influence the perception of key animal welfare stakeholders. Through a qualitative interview study with farmers and citizens, undertaken in Scotland, UK, this paper explores what positive animal welfare evokes to these key welfare stakeholders and highlights the implications of such internal frames for effectively communicating positive welfare in society.
Emily Buddle & Heather Gray, Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics (32), [Aus] 2019 Journal article
Analysis of media frames can reveal how issues are being made public and identify the cues that audiences are given to help them make sense of complex ethical issues. The researchers analysed articles published in the mainstream press in Australia between 2014 and 2016 related to farm animal welfare, and identified two dominant frames: that governments and the farm animal production industries cannot be trusted to ensure good farm animal welfare; and that consumers can act to improve animal welfare through ethical consumption. These frames have implications for how the Australian public interpret and understand the roles and responsibilities of different actors in the food production system.
Miriam Sullivan & Nancy Longnecker, 2010, Conference Paper
Animal welfare organisations use multiple communication frames, but it is unclear which ones are most effective in promoting attitudinal and behavioural change. This paper reviews framing techniques that draw on shocking imagery, measures of animal intelligence, societal norms and celebrity promotion. Societal norms and celebrity promotions have the greatest potential to modify attitudes and behaviour as they are accessible and relevant to the general public, unlike frames promoting animal intelligence. Shock frames are also effective, but should be avoided as they may provoke audience backlash and reduce the credibility of the organisation.
Carework is at the core of how we function as a society and how we relate to one another—yet it is often misunderstood. Recent findings from our Culture Change Project show that carework appears to be salient in the minds of the American public, but the skills and infrastructure involved in carework tend to be overlooked or deemphasized because of a prevailing conception of “caring” as a character trait. What kind of effects might this conception of care have on our public discourse? Our care infrastructure? Public policy? If care is all about individual carers, is there room to improve systems? Also watch Reshaping the Narrative About CareWork – Instagram Live.
The Workshop for The Policy Observatory, Auckland University of Technology, [NZ], 2018, Report
Telling a new story about “child poverty” in New Zealand explores common core stories or cultural narratives about child poverty. The report discusses why these stories and narratives may hamper efforts to convince the public and policymakers to accept expert solutions. Importantly, the report highlights the double burden our stories can create for children and parents living without enough. The key purpose of the report is to help construct narratives that are more effective in promoting policy change. The report presents alternative frames and stories to tell, ones that will help the public and policymakers act on the expert solutions that are needed to ensure all children and families thrive. It is written as a resource for those working in child poverty research and policy.
Frameworks Institute, [UK], 2015, Report This Message Brief summarizes findings from a set of studies of how the British public thinks about child maltreatment, and lays out a powerful, tested narrative that communicators can use to reframe public understanding of how social conditions contribute to early adversity in general, and child neglect in particular.
Frameworks Institute [UK], 2015, Report This report details the results of a survey experiment testing the effectiveness of Explanatory Metaphors and Explanatory Chains for enhancing the British public’s understanding of child neglect: what neglect is, what causes neglect, and how neglect can be addressed through programs and policies. The results of this framing experiment demonstrate that the Explanatory Metaphor “Overloaded” and the Explanatory Chain “Equipping Parents” in particular increase knowledge about child neglect and increase public support for effective policy solutions. These framing strategies represent an important part of an emerging Core Story for communicating about child maltreatment in the UK.
Frameworks Institute, [UK], 2014, Report This report details the results of an experimental survey of more than 6,500 Britons that explores the extent to which values-based messages and narratives affect attitudes about child maltreatment and support for relevant policies. The experiment demonstrates the power of the value of Social Responsibility to move attitudes and policy support about these issues in productive directions. It also describes how this value is particularly powerful when paired with facts about child maltreatment and discussion of effective solutions.
This toolkit helps civic space actors counter negative perceptions, strengthen public engagement, and effectively communicate their mission using hope-based storytelling. It includes practical worksheets, case studies, and guidance on reaching key audiences while fostering positive narratives.
350.org, Climate Justice Coalition, et al, 2023, Report
Communicate about climate-linked migration through justice-based framing to counter dangerous anti-migrant narratives. Dangerous narratives use fear- or threat-based language or framing of migrants in an attempt to accelerate climate action, while scapegoating the most vulnerable people. This report also includes other “do’s” and “don’t’s” when communicating about climate and migration.
This interactive guide answers why climate communications hasn’t delivered on the promise of engaging the masses, who has been left out of the conversation, and how to reach people more effectively.
Astrid Vachette, Robyn Gulliver, Sarah Boddington, [AUS], 2023, Journal article
This paper seeks to examine how Australian environmental non-governmental organisations (ENGOs) communicate about and mobilise their supporters for climate justice. ENGOs play an important role in raising awareness and changing values, attitudes and behaviours related to climate justice. However, while many Australian ENGOs have begun incorporating language around climate justice in their communications, it remains unclear how this concept is framed and enacted in practice. To find out more see these 2 articles about the research:
One of the by-products of climate change being so multifaceted is that there are almost infinite ways to discuss it. You can focus on risk or opportunity, jobs or generations, humans, or the natural world, and so on. This begs the question: which of these many stories is the most powerful in building permission for climate action with ordinary voters?This paper sought an answer to a straight-forward question: Which thematic narrative or message performs best to increase permission among UK voters for government action on climate change?
This booklet has communication advice and examples to help generate narratives and stories specific to climate and transport action. The advice is based on narratives for change theory and research by The Workshop and other framing organisations internationally. The guide can be used to construct climate and transport stories that can reflect narratives about climate, environment and transport, that help to deepen thinking and shift mindsets. The guide provides specific narratives, values, metaphors, explanations and messages to use, and others to avoid, in generating stories and creative content for communications and campaigns.
Feminist Green New Deal Coalition and Amanda Novello, [US], 2021, Report
The Feminist Green New Deal Coalition and Data for Progress released new polling finding that a strong majority of respondents believe care should be central to climate, workforce, and infrastructure policies, and that respondents believe care work are green jobs. In the midst of intersecting economic crises, climate crises, and the ongoing infrastructure fights, these findings reiterate that people support bold economic investments that center care for people and the planet. Key findings from the polling include:
“Green” jobs should refer to all jobs related to the well-being of people and the planet, and that includes care. 69% of all respondents agree that green jobs are any job related to the well-being of people and the planet.
Polling shows that, although there is initially a bias against care jobs being perceived as “green jobs”, that bias erodes when exposed to specific narratives demonstrating that care is climate work.
However, respondents find messages around care work being critical, green work and care infrastructure being critical to an equitable green economy persuasive and popular.
A 12-month project bringing together organisers from across the climate movement to tell the stories that matter, and strengthen our movement in the fight for justice. Hosted by PIRC, 350.org & NEON.
This toolkit is based on research conducted by The Workshop on behalf of Oxfam New Zealand. It is designed for people working to achieve meaningful climate action. Its purpose is to help us use more-effective strategies to create hope, improve people’s understanding of the causes and solutions of climate change and motivate people to act in meaningful ways.
The Workshop & Oxfam New Zealand [NZ], 2019, Toolkit
This toolkit aims to support the use of strategies that inspire hope, build connections between people, open doors to people developing more productive understandings of the causes of climate change, and encourages collective action on evidence-informed solutions, across local and international settings. The authors have drawn on on many disciplines from cognitive psychology, implementation science through to cognitive linguistics. The science of story takes us beyond repetition of the facts and framing of fears, and into the realms of storytelling with science.
This PhD thesis examines a dimension of framing theory that has long been acknowledged but not adequately explored – the influences of sources on media news stories and the concept of framing sponsorship. Using triangulated data from media content and textual analyses, source interviews and a public opinion survey, this study examines how the Carbon Tax was framed in its first three months as a policy direction in Australia.
Anthony D. Barnosky, Et al. [US], 2016, Book chapter 9 from Bending the Curve: Ten scalable solutions for carbon neutrality and climate stability
This book chapter discusses findings from recent research on communication strategies that suggest the need for appropriate framing of the issues for diverse constituencies that have not been effectively reached. The authors suggest that by targeting specific audiences with appropriately framed information, the societal balance can be tipped from the current condition of a majority who are apathetic to a majority who become receptive to the reality of harmful climate disruption and the need to avoid it.
Communities of color and communities with low-income levels and wealth have been unrepresented in the mainstream environmental narrative. Considering climate change is an issue of economic and racial injustice, it is critical that the solutions and vision come from the communities most. This toolkit puts forward a values based unified narrative to fill that gap. It includes talking points and strategies based on research and interviews with leaders and members from the community.
ecoAmerica’s climate messaging project develops and disseminates market-tested messages on climate solutions designed to engage Americans across political and demographic groups. The project employs qualitative and quantitative research methods to test specific words, phrases, and narratives that link climate change to mainstream American values and concerns. This project also tests narratives about climate tailored to people in faith, higher education, health, communities, and business.
This paper reports on the first phase of a larger research project looking at how to reframe the public conversation about crime and justice in Aotearoa New Zealand. This report summarise research undertaken by The Workshop to understand how experts understand and frame criminal justice, how the public also does so, and where the opportunities for building new, more effective narratives may lie.
This strategic guidance outlines a set of practical framing recommendations for advocates working to build public support for a system-oriented to rehabilitation, not punishment. The findings offer insight into narrative structure, values that reframe the purpose of the criminal justice system, and Explanatory Metaphors that help the public appreciate the problems associated with a punitive approach and the promise of a more restorative approach.
This toolkit offers a compelling alternative to the divisive, fear-driven narratives that block progress. It helps changemakers build messages based on solidarity, promoting a multiracial democracy that is powered by community and sustained by justice.
This message guide provides an actionable set of tools to help apply the new narrative and three examples of issue specific message frames that can be customized and applied to increase support for liberal democracy. Explore related and accompanying resources by Metropolitan Group:
This report provides an in-depth analysis of dominant and salient pro-authoritarian and pro-democracy narratives in the United States, 10 recommended values, qualitative testing findings, and a preliminary U.S. narrative.
In this quick-start guide, we’re sharing recommendations for reframing your communications to build support for needed reforms to our democratic system. In addition to these recommendations, you’ll find an overview of the research we’ve conducted into how members of the American public think about democracy.
Open Society US, Women of Color Advancing Peace and Security, Othering and Belonging Institute, US, 2023, Principles and Video
A set of five principles and a video which envisions a future where the earth and its inhabitants are put before the interests of the state and corporations. The focus of the project was to develop a set of principles for reframing the public discourse on nationalsecurity which could be widely adopted. This project was principally led by Open Society-US in partnership with Women of Color Advancing Peace and Security, and the Othering & Belonging Institute, with assistance from the Narrative Initiative.
Australian Conversation Foundation, Australia, 2020, Cheat Sheet
This cheat sheet is a summary of research by an alliance of Australian civil society organisations, working together to achieve legislative changes that limit corporate influence on our political system. It is designed for people working across civil society who are advocating for change that involves democratic decision making and participation. Its purpose is to help us talk more effectively about government, democratic participation and reform, and to motivate people to get involved.
Want to know how to frame communication about the government and the economy in a way that will be of benefit? Here is useful research that was presented at the conference Virtual Progress 2020 (Australian Progress) by Lily Spencer from Australian reMADE.
United, we will defeat the MAGA segregationists, protect our freedoms, our families, and our futures, and push our country toward the unrealized dream of liberty and justice for all – no exceptions
Alcohol and Drug Foundation, Uniting NSW/ACT, New Zealand Drug Foundation, Common Cause [AUS & NZ], 2020 Guide
The Drug Stigma Message Guide will help you talk about drugs and people who use them in ways that build support for policy reform while reducing drug stigma. The guide is based on a discourse analysis and dial testing project funded by the Alcohol and Drug Foundation, Uniting NSW/ACT and the New Zealand Drug Foundation.
This message guide has been written for people who talk about drugs and drugs policy in Australia, including those who use drugs themselves, and are concerned about the high levels of stigma associated with the issue. See also Reframing drugs as a health issue: Case study
Economy, Economic Justice, Poverty, Race, Class, Jobs
This messaging guide supports the 2024 We Are the Economy coalition campaign, which aims to build a public narrative around public services being the essential foundation of a thriving economy.
ACTU, Victorian Trades Hall Council, [AUS], 2022, Report and Presentation Slides
This guide offers a blueprint for building and sustaining the collective power needed for workplace and electoral wins. However, just like an architectural blueprint, lines on a page on their own do nothing. It is up to organizers, activists and elected leaders to take the guidance herein and apply it when and however you communicate. Presentation Slides.
McKell Institute, Unions WA, Australian Fabians, [AUS], 2022, Webinar
A presentation of research commissioned by the Victorian Trades Hall Council (VTHC) and conducted by the Australian Council of Trade Union Insights Unit on messaging on race and jobs. Presentations are by Edwina Byrne of the VTHC and Simone Rosser from the ACTU. This presentation was recorded via Zoom on 20th April 2022. This event was co-hosted by UnionsWA, the McKell Institute, the UWA Centre for Public Policy and Australian Fabians.
Wellbeing SA, NSW Health, and Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, [AUS], 2022 Guide
This guide contains evidence-based recommendations for messages that motivate workplace leaders to create healthy workplaces. It is based on input from a wide range of workplaces, government agencies and service providers. Importantly, we found that most leaders’ motivation for workplace health and wellbeing stems from their care for others more so than workplace performance or financial benefit. The guide therefore recommends centering messages on care values.
In this report, we’ve collected insights from our research to identify the harmful narratives perpetuated by well-meaning organizations. We focused our attention on the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors to explore how we tell stories about poverty and wealth—and where we can do better.
We offer a set of recommendations grounded in the science of storytelling. To arrive at these recommendations, we conducted a literature review focused on understanding prevalent narratives about poverty, a content analysis zeroing in on the storytelling of anti-poverty organizations on social media, and interviews with practitioners who are doing it well—to highlight bright spots and to answer the following questions:
What are the narratives about poverty and wealth coming from the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors?
Do these narratives demonstrate the best of what we’ve learned from research and practice about how to tell stories that transform systems?
CLASS in collaboration with ASO Communications, [UK], 2022, Report
A report from the think tank CLASS sets out how and why the left is failing with its messaging and what needs to be done to transform its approach into a positive, inclusive narrative.
Developed with Positive Money, this aim of this guide is to support spokespeople communicating the need to prioritise our health and wellbeing instead of economic growth.
Feminist Green New Deal Coalition and Amanda Novello, [US], 2021, Report
The Feminist Green New Deal Coalition and Data for Progress released new polling finding that a strong majority of respondents believe care should be central to climate, workforce, and infrastructure policies, and that respondents believe care work are green jobs. In the midst of intersecting economic crises, climate crises, and the ongoing infrastructure fights, these findings reiterate that people support bold economic investments that center care for people and the planet. Key findings from the polling include:
“Green” jobs should refer to all jobs related to the well-being of people and the planet, and that includes care. 69% of all respondents agree that green jobs are any job related to the well-being of people and the planet.
Polling shows that, although there is initially a bias against care jobs being perceived as “green jobs”, that bias erodes when exposed to specific narratives demonstrating that care is climate work.
However, respondents find messages around care work being critical, green work and care infrastructure being critical to an equitable green economy persuasive and popular.
This report synthesizes the complex body of research around existing poverty narratives and counter-narratives, with practical advice about how to use narratives to create better stories—and, ultimately, to create social change.
In this guide, you’ll find the “Do’s” and “Dont’s” of discussing protests and policing while effectively advancing a racial justice agenda. It offers high-level suggestions for activating the broadest possible range of support for desired policy solutions, inoculating against our opposition’s narrative, and contending with the understandable despondency we cannot risk from our base. The guide features overarching directives, full sample narratives and rebuttals to common objections.
In this resource, you’ll find sample language articulating how to follow these basic tenets of Race Class Narrative messaging:
Lead with a shared value that names race and class.
Name racial scapegoating as a weapon that economically harms all of us.
Emphasize unity and collective action to solve the problem(s).
Connect joining together to achieve desired outcomes. Give a call to action urging people to be an active participant in creating change.
Use this checklist to ensure that your campaign messages and communications materials – whatever they might be for – follow these basic tenets of Race Class Narrative messaging.
This memo focuses on messaging with the primary goal of persuading them toward action and puts together some advice on finding entry points based on research, experience, and the input of partners from around the country. This is by no means a complete list, but it is a starting point for moving these discussions forward.
Want to know how to frame communication about the government and the economy in a way that will be of benefit? Here is useful research that was presented at the conference Virtual Progress 2020 (Australian Progress) by Lily Spencer from Australian reMADE.
The Workshop undertook research to identify messages that: improve the New Zealand public’s understanding of the causes of poverty; improve their understanding of the role of benefits in overcoming poverty; and increase their willingness to act to do something about poverty. Rigorous methodology was used to test the effect of these messages. The findings identify the most effective messages. Recommendations cover values, metaphors, positive vision, and communicating a causal chain. A short user-friendly guide is also available: Talking about Poverty and Welfare Reform in Aotearoa: A Short Guide.
Joseph Rowntree Foundation & FrameWorks Institute, [UK], 2019, Toolkit
Compassion and justice are values that underpin our society – we believe in helping each other out when we’re having a tough time. We need to make sure those values underpin the way we talk about poverty too. This toolkit includes: how to build lasting support to solve UK poverty; a 10 step guide for communicating more effectively about poverty; 5 doodles that help make sense of UK poverty; and how campaigners can tell a different story. It draws on recommendations from the FrameWorks Institute’s research into public attitudes to poverty in the UK, involving 20,000 people.
This podcast hosted by Anat Shenker-Osorio outlines how, through rounds of research and strategic implementation of findings, a coalition of grassroots and labor groups found a narrative that speaks to both race and class concerns. From a 43,000 person celebration of the Muslim holiday Eid-al-Adha, to carefully considered door-knocking operations, to interactive social media memes, the Greater Than Fear campaign showed that we can simultaneously drive turnout from our base and persuade the middle.
This research demonstrates how to energize and persuade a truly multi-racial cohort to vote for progressive candidates and policies. The key for cross-racial solidarity, voter engagement, and policy victories is mobilizing around the connections between racial divisions and economic hardship. Here, for the first time, is empirical data that support tackling racism as a divide-and-conquer tactic that creates distrust, undermines belief in government, and causes economic pain for everyone, of every color.
Public Interest Resource Centre PIRC, Et al. [UK], 2018, Report
The PIRC, the New Economics Foundation, NEON and the FrameWorks Institute have launched two story strategies that progressives can use to shift thinking on the economy. They’re built on values and metaphors that encourage the hope that change is possible and increase people’s support for progressive policies.
Anat Shenker-Osorio shows how to apply research findings around communicating about race and class to the increasing white nationalism, xenophobia and race-based attacks that punctuate politics around the globe.
‘People who help people’ gives a range of practical tips consumer advocates and financial counsellors can use to improve their messaging. Consumer advocates and financial counsellors change lives – by changing the way they use language, they can change even more lives.
Australian Progress analysed the language people in Australia use to speak about economics (and tax, welfare, aid, privatisation, work and more). These new messaging resources will be useful for communicators, campaigners and advocates for more progressive economic policy.
The austerity story can be defeated, if its opponents identify and activate their own powerful frames. The frames must be developed from values and resonate with public opinion. They must be tested and refined based on what works. We outline some frames we believe could be used to build a new narrative and a story that brings them together.
Anat Shenker-Osorio diagnoses economic discourse as stricken with faulty messages, deceptive personification, and a barely coherent concept of what the economy actually is. Cutting through conservative myth-making, messaging muddles, and destructive misinformation, this book outlines a new way to win the most important arguments of our day. The left doesn’t have to self-destruct every time matters economic come to the fore—there are metaphors and frames that can win, and Shenker-Osorio shows what they are and how to use them. Read a book review.
8 videos including Election Framing, Framing emotions, What’s Repeated vs What’s True, Talking about Democracy, Framing Social Issues, Hope and Inspiration.
Public Interest Resource Centre PIRC [UK], 2018, Guide
This guide shows that our choice of words is just as important as any other decision we make in conservation. It explains what framing is and how use it can be used to create a better world for wildlife. Communication with an understanding of framing is more likely to convince, motivate and inspire people to help a cause. The toolkit includes exercises and examples to enable you to put framing into practice, whatever role you play in advocating for nature.
Australian Conservation Foundation [Aus], 2016, Guide
This handbook is the result of over a year’s qualitative and quantitative research on the discourses of the environment movement, industry, government, media and pop culture. The Australian Conservation Foundation’s (ACF) workshopped draft narratives with people from the ACF community and beyond and decided to share their important research and learnings with everyone through this handbook. It introduces some key principles, techniques and tools so you can craft a compelling narrative that will motivate and mobilise communities. It will help you create a coherent story that can engage and strengthen the values that will, over the long term, engage more people more strongly in our cause.
The research is based in the analysis set out in Common Cause, drawing on social psychology and linguistics, showing that there are competing sets of human values within each of us which can be encouraged and discouraged by language and experience. The guide includes recommendations based on these findings: both for communications and for the wider experiences that NGOs create on a daily basis: at reserves, in volunteer schemes, and through advocating for policies that change society.
This guide aims to equip campaigners and communicators to change hearts and minds on equality. There’s a growing body of evidence that we can move the needle on public attitudes if we understand what people really think and feel about an issue and why, and communicate by connecting with deeply held values. This guide applies a strategic communications approach to the challenge of showing inequality as structural – deeply embedded in our society and institutions, rather than the responsibility of individuals. It aims to shift thinking away from the belief that anyone can be a successful ‘self-made person’, and towards a recognition that there are still major structural barriers to equality.
This toolkit is a short guide to strategic communications, based on extensive research and building on the experience of activists and communicators from around the globe. It aims to provide a framework rather than a blueprint; helping you to ask the right questions rather than giving you the right answers. It’s designed to be helpful for anyone who communicates as part of their voluntary or paid work. It’s written with a focus on European LGBTI activists it will be useful to others with a similar vision.
This article outlines the process the US gay rights movement went through to reframe marriage equality. The marriage movement invested in a strategic communications operation, both nationally and in dozens of states. It was this data-driven communications machine—which was always turned on—that caused support for marriage equality to skyrocket 20 points in just a decade.
Funders Initiative for Civil Society, 2025, Report
This report provides helpful advice for civic space actors as it presents evidence-based insights on how values influence public support for social causes, helping organisations refine their communication strategies and foster long-term societal engagement. The report is also available in these languages – Arabic, French, Hindi, Russian and Spanish.
ASO Communications & Research Collaborative [US], 2023, Toolkit
Based on the latest research, this toolkit provides narratives and guidance on the recent Trump indictment, upcoming Supreme Court cases as well as other pressing flashpoints to mobilize our base and persuade the conflicted to defeat fascism and win our freedoms. This toolkit will be updated with the latest guidance as rulings are released. We are planning to add content and messaging to help organizers, campaigners, and communicators shape the public conversation and the political response to this moment.
Dr Jackie Huggins AM, GetUp and Original Power, supported by Australian Progress, 2023, Guide, website
Persuasive messaging to build widespread support for transformative change, like treaties, truth-telling and representation, now and beyond the referendum.
Dr Jackie Huggins AM, GetUp and Original Power, supported by Australian Progress, 2021, Guide, website
Passing the Message Stick is full of rich insights into how to craft a message that is persuasive and wins majority public support. The two-year message research project collected and analysed 3,400+ messages across issues as diverse as – housing, health, land rights, climate, remote communities, gender, systemic racism, identity, representation and January 26 – and took the lessons from this to craft and test messages that work across all issues, and build support for self-determination and justice.
This messaging guide contains recommendations that will help you boost support for gender equality initiatives in Australia. It is based on extensive research undertaken by Common Cause Australia on behalf of VicHealth and the Together for Equality and Respect Partnership with the support of the Outer East Primary Care Partnership.
We envisage the primary users of this guide will be people working to create a more equal and just society for women and girls. This includes those seeking to build greater public support for systemic solutions to gender inequality through policy and organisational change as well as those working on individual behaviour change initiatives.
This message guide contains recommendations that will help you have more productive conversations about masculine stereotypes in Australia. It is based on extensive research undertaken by Common Cause Australia on behalf of VicHealth in 2019 and early 2020. The primary users of this guide will be people working to challenge unhealthy attitudes and patterns of behaviour that stem from adherence to traditional forms of masculinity, and who aim to shape healthier norms and behaviours for Australian men and boys. Whether you are engaging with men and boys directly or with the broader community, the recommendations in this guide should be useful to you.
This message guide has been designed for people who talk about addiction or dependence in Australia, including clinicians, researchers, policymakers, people with lived experience, and others working to reduce stigma and increase support. The guide is based on in-depth message research and testing involving a full discourse analysis, interviews with advocates, and online message testing with over 2,400 Australians. It is designed to support public communications like media, public policy, advocacy, or campaigns, and is not designed for clinical health settings or communications directly with someone experiencing addiction or dependence.
A toolkit to help you communicate effectively about community-led, collaborative approaches to eliminate health disparities. The framing strategies in this toolkit are designed to help community-based organizations and public health entities build understanding and support for policies and programs that address health barriers in communities facing discrimination, economic exclusion, and other forms of injustice.
Frameworks Institute, National Network of Public Health Institute US, 2024
This playbook outlines a new, evidence-based reframing strategy that centers the value of dignity to help build a deeper understanding of health equity and bolster support for more equitable policies and programs, especially in rural contexts.
Framework Institute, National Network of Public Health Institute US, 2024, Toolkit
This toolkit outlines ways to cultivate more curiosity-driven public conversations about health equity with general audiences. It includes tips for creating reports, fact sheets, website copy, social media messaging, press releases, legislative testimony, and other mediums.
VicHealth, Common Cause Australia, AUS, 2021, Guide
This message guide contains evidence-based recommendations that will help you build public support for more walking and bike riding measures. These are ways governments can make walking and bike riding safer and more enjoyable, thereby enabling more people to move around on foot or by bike. Measures include new or improved footpaths, bike lanes and pedestrian crossings, as well as safer speed limits. The guide is written for walking and bike riding advocates and allies who want to create more consistent, compelling and effective narratives on this issue in Australia.
VicHealth, Common Cause Australia, AUS, 2019, Guide
This guide, created for health promotion practitioners on behalf of VicHealth, contains recommendations that will help you craft more persuasive communications across a range of health topics. The guide is based on extensive message testing on topic areas including healthy eating policy, alcohol policy, childhood obesity, and harmful industries. Visit the VicHealth site to access the guide.
The Health Foundation & Frameworks Institute, UK, 2019, Briefing
Despite extensive evidence for the impact of social determinants on people’s health, public discourse and policy action is limited in acknowledging the role that societal factors such as housing, education, welfare and work play in shaping people’s long-term health. There are many reasons for this, but one factor that merits greater attention is the way in which the evidence is communicated to and understood by the public. The FrameWorks Institute has identified a range of ‘cultural models’– common but implicit assumptions and patterns of thinking – that give deeper insight into how people think about what makes them healthy. Understanding which cultural models promote – or obscure – people’s awareness of the importance of social determinants is an important first step in developing effective ways of framing the evidence.
The recommendations in this report can help nonprofit advocates and communicators speak to the field and the public about the importance of meaningfully including people with lived experience of homelessness in their work.
This messaging toolkit provides a valuable resource for advocates, policymakers, and community members working to address homelessness and create more inclusive, thriving communities. By understanding the diverse perspectives of different audiences and tailoring messages accordingly, we can build a powerful movement for housing justice and create lasting solutions to homelessness. With this toolkit, you’ll discover how to craft stories that truly empower communities. It’s not about compromising your values—it’s about meeting people where they are, recognizing that different hearts and minds require different starting points.
Common Cause Australia, Homelessness Australia, 2025, Australia, Guide
The Framing Homelessness Message Guide guide outlines ten top tips for more effective messaging to boost support for significantly more social housing and support services for people in need of homes. The guide also includes sample messages and advice on words to embrace and replace.
This communications toolkit is designed to help housing advocates and experts communicate more effectively about policies and approaches that expand the availability of safe, stable, and thoughtfully designed communities for everyone. By changing the way we talk, we can change the way people see housing.
The guide highlights key findings from national narrative research identifying the current problematic narratives of “personal responsibility” and laying out promising messages that can shift perceptions. See also Framing/Messaging Guidance: Housing/Asylum-seekers and migrants
This messaging guide is a resource to help renters and tenant organizers, homeowners, community leaders and housing policy advocates — any and everyone who cares about housing as a basic human need — talk about housing justice in a way that gets your neighbors excited, wins policy change, and shifts narratives to advance a vision of racial justice and homes for all. This guide includes research-backed messages you can use right away, sample graphics and content to share on social media or use as inspiration, and quick tips on messaging that will attract new supporters and build your base.
The Housing Justice Narrative Toolkit offers a scaffolding for us to stay centered in the future we are reimagining. It supports our ability to speak to a base of individuals most aligned with housing justice—the anti-racist and persuadable base—in ways which are authentic and that they can hear. This toolkit grounds the core truth of housing justice. It guards against the distraction of the opposition by offering opportunities for us to avoid the pitfalls of repeating the same stories we have been told, or that we continue to tell, that haven’t moved us towards housing for all.
This research involved street interviews, face to face testing and a series of experimental surveys with over 10,000 people. It concludes that strategies exist to shift public thinking in new directions can be achieved by telling a new story about homelessness.
This report explores public thinking about homelessness in the United Kingdom and documents how the issue is framed in advocacy and media materials. It offers advocates an initial framing strategy to help expand public understanding of homelessness and build public will for solutions.
Free & Equal, Australian Human Rights Commission, Common Cause Australia (Aus), 2023, Guide
This guide is for campaigners, policy officers, researchers and communicators working on public advocacy to build support for a national Human Rights Act in Australia.
Civil Liberties Union for Europe, (Europe), 2022, Guide, Course
Introducing resources by the Civil Liberties Union for Europe including a guide, How to Message on Human Rights: A Communications Guide for Organisations Promoting Human Rights, and related course. These resources are for organisations in the human rights sector that want to communicate more effectively with the public to build support for human rights-related causes. Also related: ‘How to message on the rights of people from marginalised groups’
This messaging guide seeks to help people and organisations who are advocating for a Charter of Human Rights in Australia to craft their public messages in a way that will energise supporters and convince neutral audiences about the many benefits a Charter will provide to the whole community.
A hope-based communications strategy involves making five basic shifts in the way we talk about human rights: Talk Solutions; What we stand for; Create opportunities; Support for heroes; and Show the “we got this”. This guide includes videos and action steps to spread hope about human rights.
Hope is a pragmatic strategy, informed by history, communications experts, organizers, neuroscience, and cognitive linguistics. It can be applied to any strategy or campaign. A hope-based communications strategy involves making five basic shifts in the way movements talk about human rights. First, talk about solutions, not problems. Second, highlight what we stand for, not what we oppose. Third, create opportunities and drop threats. Fourth, emphasize support for heroes, not pity for victims. Fifth, show that “we got this”— tell a story of change, how we can make our societies better.
JustLabs and the Fund for Global Human Rights (FGHR), [Global], 2019, Report
Changing narratives about human rights requires bold changes in how we think about and do human rights work. Based on work with 12 organizations around the world, JustLabs and the Fund for Global Human Rights discuss the experimentation process for producing new human rights narratives and lay out tactical, organizational, and field-wide changes for making the human rights movement durable and effective.
Using language data from advocacy, opposition, political speech and popular culture, Anat Shenker-Osorio analyzed why certain messages resonate where others falter in the human rights sector in Australia, the UK and the US. Complementing this written discourse were 53 interviews with advocates in these three countries in order to draw out what we wish people believed. Recommendations here also draw upon previous research and empirical testing across issues related to human rights.
The Hope and Courage Collective, [Ireland], 2023, Guide
This resource addresses the moral panic targeting LGBTQIA+ communities, where efforts to disrupt libraries, bookshops, and drag story hours aim to spread fear, cause division, and restrict freedoms. Linked to broader attacks on migrants, people of colour, women, disabled people, and others, it offers a brief, evolving guide to help respond and engage effectively.
ASO Communications, Transgender Law Center, Lake Research Partners, 2022, Guide
New research by ASO Communications, Transgender Law Center, and Lake Research Partners finds that we can cultivate resistance to these attacks, build cross-racial solidarity, and advance a shared vision for the future by weaving together our shared values, experiences, and demands across races and genders. This new approach builds on the Race Class Narrative to tell a convincing story of how our opposition uses strategic racism and transphobia to harm us all; and how, by coming together, we can ensure we all have the freedom to be ourselves and support one another. Using a Race Class Gender Narrative, we can mobilize our progressive base (particularly Black, AAPI, and Gen Z audiences), marginalize our opposition, and move persuadables across race.
A collection of resources from many varied sources about marriage equality campaigns from across the world. It includes lessons learned about the power of stories – framing and language and the power of who is telling the story.
Jackson Fairchild, Marina Carman, Rosanne Bersten and Belinda O’Connor, Produced by Rainbow Health Victoria for the LGBTIQ Family Violence Prevention Project 2019–2021, 2021, Guide
This guide provides additional support to organisations and practitioners in developing effective and appropriate family violence prevention messaging, and delivering this through public campaigns, social media communications and policy work. It also aims to support community engagement in developing and delivering prevention messaging, and specifically engaging with LGBTIQ communities.
Many of the principles and approaches included in the guide are drawn from frameworks used extensively in message development to promote gender equality or prevent men’s violence against women. In particular, it draws on the Common Cause framework, an innovative framework for designing messaging to inform social justice conversations and behaviour change.
Volmert, A., & Gerstein Pineau, M. FrameWorks Institute [US], 2022, Report
This brief offers an evidence-based narrative around peacebuilding—how it works and why we need it—to help peacebuilding practitioners and their allies build public understanding. Based on several years of deep-dive research and the FrameWorks Institute’s Strategic Frame Analysis™, the report also offers five concrete framing strategies for communicating about peacebuilding. These strategies are designed to identify existing mindsets, change discourse, and ultimately build understanding of and support for peacebuilding across the political spectrum.
Australian Progress, Disability Action Network Australia DANA, [AUS], 2024, Guide
The guide – By Us, For Us: Disability Messaging Guide – contains messaging tips that research has shown to be effective in building public support for progressive change, including disability rights. These tips can help advocates make the case for increased resourcing of disability services in the 2024 Australian Federal budget and beyond.
People with Disability Australia, [AUS], 2021, Guide
This guide has been written by people with disability to assist the general public and media outlets in talking about and reporting on disability. The choices people make about language have an impact on the way people with disability feel and are perceived in society. It is important that there is awareness of the meaning behind the words that are used when talking to, referring to, or working with people with disability. Disrespectful language can make people with disability feel hurt and excluded, and be a barrier to full participation in society.
People With Disability Australia, [AUS], 2019, Guide
This guide has been written by people with disability to assist the Australian general public and media outlets in talking about and reporting on disability. The choices people make about language have an impact on the way people with disability feel and are perceived in society. It is important that there is awareness of the meaning behind the words that are used when talking to, referring to, or working with people with disability. Disrespectful language can make people with disability feel hurt and excluded, and be a barrier to full participation in society. [Word document]
350.org, Climate Justice Coalition, et al, 2023, Report
Communicate about climate-linked migration through justice-based framing to counter dangerous anti-migrant narratives. Dangerous narratives use fear- or threat-based language or framing of migrants in an attempt to accelerate climate action, while scapegoating the most vulnerable people. This report also includes other “do’s” and “don’t’s” when communicating about climate and migration
Our journey towards creating new narratives about children and migration began by introducing the hope-based communications method to the Destination Unknown network. We gained further insights into current global and national narratives through a series of creative workshops with civil society organisations and young people. Based on these workshops, we developed sample messaging, narratives and content packages to test through online opinion research. We then used the results from our research to map out possible new directions for telling positive, powerful and impactful stories and shape a better future for children and young people on the move around the world.
This messaging guide is a tool to help the refugee and migrant advocacy sector to think tactically, play to our strengths and win. In this new guide, we take a look at the methodology and messages that can help us carve out a new approach that will be successful in persuading the public that seeking safety is a fundamental human right. The report includes:
A ‘do’s and don’ts’ guide
A messaging format for persuading the people we need to persuade, and energising our base
International Centre for Policy Advocacy, [Germany], 2019, Toolkit
A set of resources for progressive campaigners working to put diversity and inclusion back on the public/policy agenda and counter populist narratives. Includes ten case studies.
Buttefly Lab – Race Forward, [US], Reports and Toolkits
Reports, research findings and Toolkit by Race Forward. Race Forward’s Butterfly Lab, brought together a diverse group of leaders with vast experience and expertise in advocacy, the law, human rights, policy, organizing, and popular culture to build power for effective pro-immigrant narratives that honor the humanity of migrants, refugees, and immigrants.
In 2015, the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) worked with Australian Progress’ Expert-In-Residence Anat Shenker-Osorio and Australian researchers to complete extraordinary new research into the words that work for talking about people seeking asylum. Despite many Australians from all walks of life arguing for more humane treatment of people seeking asylum, bipartisan policy has moved in the other direction and broader community attitudes continue to harden. It is clear that humane and lasting policy change will require changing how we make the case for it. This new research includes tested messages that could reach much more of the community, and our political leaders, to kickstart a new, more hopeful national discussion. The project is also outlined in the Brave New Worlds podcast People seeking asylum – Australia. [Link not found 12 April 2022]
This report illustrates the results of a cross-national study based on in-depth interviews from both experts and average Americans on Sexual Violence. This study comprises the following three components: 1) an analysis of the discourse on sexual violence from expert interviews, 2) one-on-one cognitive interviews with Americans, and 3) a comparative analysis that “maps the gaps” between expert and lay understandings of this topic. The report concludes with a set of recommendations that will improve communications practice around this issue and inform the next phase of research.
Messaging that could persuade and mobilize community members, both current riders and non-riders, to demand more robust public transit. Recommendations to mobilize and move community members to demand fully funded, accessible, and reliable public transit.
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