Module 2
Audience and Value Frames
A perfectly structured story told to the wrong audience, in the wrong frame, through the wrong messenger still fails. This module gives you the social science behind why facts alone don't drive action and the concrete strategies that do: collapsing psychological distance, framing for values the audience already holds, and calibrating emotion so fear produces agency, not paralysis.
What this module covers
Information deficit fallacy
The assumption that more facts will change minds has been tested and disproven. People filter evidence through existing values before it reaches any decision-making layer.
Four distances
Temporal, spatial, social, and hypothetical distance each independently reduce urgency. Collapsing one doesn't collapse the others. Effective communication diagnoses which is active.
Value framing
Conservation, public health, economic, security — same fact, four different entry points. The IPCC Handbook principle: connect with what your audience values, not what you value.
Fear + agency
Fear works when paired with response efficacy and self-efficacy. Without agency, fear produces paralysis or denial. The Story Spine's structure is a psychological calibration, not an aesthetic choice.
Playgrounds
One Finding, Four Audiences
Value-Frame Translator
Enter a single climate data point and watch it reframe for four different value systems: conservation/stewardship, public health, economic, and national security. Same fact. Four different entry points.
Pre-flight Checklist
Audience Diagnostic
Paste any climate pitch, brief, or email and run it against the seven-question audience analysis framework. Identify which psychological distances are active, which value frames are missing, and whether fear is paired with agency.
Downloads
The seven pre-flight questions, the four distances, and value-frame vocabulary — one reference page for any climate pitch, brief, or email.
audience-diagnostic-checklist.md
Paste into Claude Project Instructions to turn any Claude conversation into a value-frame translator and audience diagnostic coach.
value-frame-claude-skill.md