Marketing the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus

This book helps readers understand the persuasiveness of popular message levels (agenda, knowledge, attitude, and behavioral intention) and factors (sidedness, conclusiveness, and gain- or loss-framing) in communicating critical environmental issues, particularly the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus. The WEF Nexus is a relatively new environmental concept that has been deemed by leading scientists and international organizations as an effective solution to water, energy, and food shortages and crises. It is vital to garner sufficient public support for the concept to function. This book addresses questions such as: How can we strategically and effectively communicate the WEF Nexus to the public to raise necessary public awareness and supportive attitudes, avoid unnecessary politicization, and secure public resources to cope with the water, energy, and food issues before they drastically deteriorate? How can some commonly used message factors affect the persuasiveness of the WEF-nexus strategic communications, and how may those communications be processed by the audience? These questions are answered with data from the National College Student Science Literacy Survey (NCSSLS), a relatively representative survey of American college students in 2016-2018, with a survey experiment included in its second round.

Dr. Qingjiang (Q.J.) Yao, Professor of Communication and Media at Lamar University (Texas, U.S.), obtained his master’s degree in logic from Beijing Normal University (Beijing, China) and Ph.D. in mass communication from the University of South Carolina. He has taught strategic communication and other courses at the University of Iowa, Fort Hays State University (Kansas, U.S.), and LU. His research interests lie in examining the persuasive effects of mass, digital, and social media, publishing in such journals as the Asian Journal of Communication, China Advertising, Environment Systems and Decisions, Environment, Development and Sustainability, European Journal of East Asian Studies, European Politics and Society, Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, Journal of International Crisis and Risk Communication Research, Journal of Internet Law, Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, Journal of Media and Religion, Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, Public Relations Review, Science Communication, and Telematics and Informatics, and other venues.