#worldoceansday
We’re gearing up for World Oceans Day (June 8) here at Upwell, and had a good chat with the organizers about how we can support their work. One of the things we’ll be working on next week is to help amplify the #worldoceansday hashtag on Twitter , and the call for folks to upload a photo with their World Oceans Day pledge.
We hope you’ll join us by using the #worldoceansday all next week, and sharing your World Oceans Day photo + pledge.
Radioactive Tuna
On May 28, the AP reported that Bluefin Tuna were arriving in California after a very long swim from Japan, and were carrying small amounts of Fukushima-related radioactivity. This news spread quickly, as a story with “radioactive” in the headline is wont to do.
The scientific takeaways of the tuna study had little to do with the health effects, and much more to do with implications for tracking fish. The amount of radioactive cesium found in the fish was actually far below levels that would be considered unsafe.
Online mentions of the radioactive bluefin tuna story, May 28th - June 1st, 2012
This story hit Upwell’s radar like a hurricane. Our big questions were, how can we expand on this conversation without playing into fears? And, even if we do play into fears, is there a way to pivot the conversation to key people into the other issues affecting bluefin?
Amplification & Reaction
The conversation about this was already happening big. Knowing that the story had hit the mainstream, we decided to make an animated gif to bring the story to new online audiences likely to have lively conversations: Tumblr and Reddit. Our gifs:
We asked our networks for a big Tumblr-er or Redditor. We found some, but Redditors in our network are highly educated on radioactive risks, and viewed further amplification of the news as fearmongering. Reddit founder Alexis also responded to our request for help, letting us know that there are no superstar Redditors.
We shared the gifs with some tumblrs
