Playground 2

Audience Diagnostic

Module 1 gave you a pre-flight checklist for narrative structure. This is the companion checklist for audience analysis. Before drafting anything, before opening any tool, you should be able to answer seven questions about your audience. Most climate communications fail at least three of them — and fixing structure won't help until the audience analysis is right.

Paste a real climate pitch, email, brief, or presentation excerpt. Use the checklist to self-assess, then run the AI diagnostic to see which dimensions it independently identifies as weak.

The seven questions

These come directly from the IPCC Handbook and the psychological distance research. Each one independently affects whether the communication lands. Passing six doesn't compensate for failing one.

Audience specificity

Who exactly is my audience? 'The public' is never the answer.

Value frame

What do they value? Economic? Health? Security? Stewardship? Justice? Local pride?

Psychological distance

Which distance dimension is the primary barrier — temporal, spatial, social, or hypothetical?

Collapsing strategy

How will I make this feel local, present, personal, and concrete for this specific audience?

Messenger fit

Am I the credible voice here, or do I need to equip someone who is?

Fear + agency

Does my story include both the threat AND a concrete path to action?

Role for the audience

Does my ending give them a specific thing to do, not understanding alone?

Run the diagnostic

Paste any climate communication below. Run the self-assessment checklist first, then compare your read against the AI's independent diagnosis. Disagreements are usually the most instructive part.

Your climate communication

One section or a representative excerpt works best. Under 4000 characters.

Pre-flight checklist — self-assessment

Audience specificity

Is there a clearly defined, specific audience — not 'the public' or 'everyone'?

Value frame

Does it use the audience's value vocabulary — economic, health, security, stewardship — rather than leading with 'climate' or 'environment'?

Psychological distance

Does it collapse the primary distance barrier (temporal, spatial, social, or hypothetical) for this audience?

Collapsing strategy

Does it feel local, present, personal, and concrete — or does it rely on global averages and distant projections?

Messenger fit

Is the messenger trusted by this specific audience, or would a different voice be more credible?

Fear + agency balance

If a threat is raised, is it paired with response efficacy and self-efficacy — or does it leave the audience powerless?

Role for the audience

Does the ending give the audience a specific action or decision — not just 'understanding'?

0/7 dimensions addressed

The AI evaluates all seven dimensions independently — compare its diagnosis to your self-assessment.

›Prefer to run the diagnostic with your own Claude or ChatGPT?

Prompt: run the 7-question audience diagnostic

You are a climate communication strategist.

I have a piece of climate communication I want to diagnose using the Module 2 Audience Analysis Framework.

[PASTE YOUR COMMUNICATION HERE]

My target audience is: [DESCRIBE YOUR AUDIENCE]

Please diagnose this communication against all seven dimensions of the Audience Analysis Framework:

1. AUDIENCE SPECIFICITY — Is there a clearly defined, specific audience? Does it speak to their values and knowledge level, not a generic "public"?
2. VALUE FRAME — Does it use the audience's own value vocabulary (economic, health, security, stewardship, justice, local pride)? Or does it lead with "climate change" or "the environment" in ways that may trigger identity resistance?
3. PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTANCE — Which of the four dimensions (temporal, spatial, social, hypothetical) is most active as a barrier? Does the communication collapse it or leave it intact?
4. COLLAPSING STRATEGY — Does it make the issue feel local, present, personal, and concrete? Or does it rely on global averages and distant projections?
5. MESSENGER FIT — Is the implied messenger credible to this audience? Would a community voice (rancher, doctor, business owner, veteran) be more effective?
6. FEAR + AGENCY BALANCE — If a threat is raised, is it paired with response efficacy and self-efficacy? Or does it leave the audience scared but without a path to action?
7. ROLE FOR THE AUDIENCE — Does the ending give the audience a specific action or decision — not just "understanding the issue"?

For each dimension, give:
- A one-sentence verdict (pass/partial/fail and why)
- One specific suggestion to improve it

Then give a 2-sentence overall assessment: what is the strongest element and what is the most urgent fix.

Take It Further

Two files to keep using the audience analysis framework outside this playground.

Audience Diagnostic Checklist

The seven pre-flight questions, four distances, and value-frame vocabulary — one reference page for any climate pitch, brief, or email.

audience-diagnostic-checklist.md

Value-Frame Claude SkillClaude

Paste into Claude Project Instructions to turn any Claude conversation into a value-frame translator and audience diagnostic coach.

value-frame-claude-skill.md

Worked Example

The example email loaded by default fails five of the seven dimensions. Expand this to see exactly where and why — then compare it to the AI's diagnosis of the same email.