Episode 4: Coping with COVID: How do we spread hope? With Thomas Coombes (Part 1)
Communication is powerful. So let’s talk about it!
Communications is critical in a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. But there’s something we desperately need right now, and that is hope.
Listen to this discussion between WiseOwl and Thomas Coombes, a human rights strategist and the founder of the organization Hope-Based Communications.
THOMAS: And I started to realize, we need to show people not just the problem, but the solution. And not just threaten people you know, you need to take action on coronavirus so you won’t suffer. But give people an opportunity to help other people in their community, for example. The darker the situation, the more people need hope.What does the change we want to see look like?
JOZA: Hello, this is Give a Hoot.
OYA: I’m Oya
JOZA: I’m Joza.
MIKA: And I’m Mika.
OYA: We are WiseOwl.
MIKA: WiseOwl is a consultancy firm that specializes in communication for social change.
JOZA: Today, we’re talking about communication in the time of COVID! We’ve experienced it first-hand, communication is critical in a crisis. But there’s something else we desperately need now, and that is hope. So we talked to Thomas Coombes, a communication strategist based in Germany. He worked with orgs like Amnesty International and Transparency International. Thomas is, also, the founder of the organization called Hope-Based Communications.
THOMAS: My name is Thomas Coombes. I’m a human rights strategist and a communications expert. I’ve been working in communications for around fifteen years trying to get a lot of media coverage and I always saw my goal as to try and raise as much awareness as possible about human rights abuses. But over the last couple of years, I had to really confront and change way I do communication.
And so Hope-Based Communications is based on five very simple shifts to look actually are you telling your own story or actually just responding to other people’s story. The reason I did that was I realized that particularly in activism and in human rights, we often let other people set the narrative for us and decide what the story would be. And we are very reactive. But the problem is the more you bust the myth the more you reinforce it.
What made me change was working on trying to get people to welcome and support refugees in Europe. We were struggling to fight fear by telling people about those people suffering. And ideas would be circulating refugees are terrorists or we can’t afford to help refugees. And the problem is even though you’re putting forward facts, you’re actually still reinforcing that fear subconsciously. And so, Hope-Based Communications came about as way to actually think: What are the ideas we need to promote instead?
OYA: Here in the Philippines in our long history of activism when people expose let’s say wrongdoing, is that what you’re say, that by exposing it you’re actually reinforcing it in the mind of people?
THOMAS: Yes, I’m actually working with a neurobiologist and psychologist called Laura Ligouri. And Laura has actually put forward the idea that if we only show the form of behavior that we’re against rather than how we actually want people to behave, subconsciously you may actually in fact reinforce the bad behavior. People start to accept that these abuses are just how it is. And there’s nothing you can do about it. A deeper consequence could be someone you respect like a church leader or a politician saying something racist for example? It starts to actually subconsciously influence you in your behavior.
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So what we’ve been seeing over the last few years, both in the Philippines but also around the world, behavior that we thought had sort of shifted out racist ideas and other forms of violating human rights, they’ve started to shift again into the mainstream.
And what hope-based communications is about is we need to not just say here’s what you shouldn’t do. We also need to say here’s what you should do instead. And this is where narrative and framing comes in. When you say things, people will only understand the words you say based on their own understanding or experience of the world. And events that people see will start to fit a frame of understanding.
So for example, in Gambia where there were elections for the first time in years and the dictator didn’t want to relinquish power. Rather than going to the streets and starting to have violent protests. Activists in Gambia started putting up a message all over the country, which was “Gambia has decided.” And of course it was on social media as a hashtag.The authorities kept trying to take down the message they’d take down a poster but then someone would spraypaint graffiti. But the point was that became the narrative that actually Gambia has decided.
So rather than as we see in the Covid 19 context, leaders using sort of crisis as an excuse to take power. The challenge for us is to say what are our ideas? And how can we make our ideas really stick in the minds of our audience? So when they think of how to understand events happening around them, that actually draw on that. An ex-communications expert called Anat Shenker-Osorio, she has a line that summed it up really well which is “It’s not about saying what’s popular. It’s about making popular what needs to be said.”
OYA: If we apply that to the situation now with the coronavirus crisis, how do you make that hope-based? I see it in me. I see it in my friends. They’re becoming very very anxious because of the uncertainty or the danger. The risk to life. How do you apply a hope-based approach to address that?
THOMAS: So there are two very important levels here. The first one is to really understand the emotions of the people we’re talking to. And this is where you try to bring brain science to bear on activism. People make decisions both rationally and emotionally. Facts are important but if we don’t pay attention to how people are feeling, we may not actually get our message across.
The immediate response to the spread of coronavirus is a great example where first the messages were you have to wash your hands sort of a threat message that you’re at risk if you don’t take these steps. And we saw in so many countries that didn’t quite work. People thought of “well, that doesn’t apply to me I’m young.” And they would still go to the park and go to the pub. And what you saw then was a shift to a different form of leadership, particularly Jacinda Ardern in New Zealand or Angela Merkel in Germany, calling up people to actually take responsibility that you’re not just doing this for yourself. It became a message of solidarity and interdependence.
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But there’s a deeper thing at play that we, as activists, need to be very aware of that how people feel affects how they respond to seemingly very different policy messages and issues. A lot of people have been saying the coronavirus or COVID could be a sort of Chernobyl moment that it exposes leaders who have failed to actually take care of us with their decision-making. So Anat Shenker-Osorio, she said this could be seen as a 2008 moment but also as a 9/11 moment. When the financial crisis happened in 2008, a lot of us are okay this shows that the financial system needs to change so surely we will finally reform it. But in 9/11 after the attack on New York, there was such fear in society that not only did it drive negative effects on human rights but you know governments that we have to take away freedom to fight terrorism.
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It created greater fear in society that actually makes people feel less empathy. We know this from brain science that when you trigger fear, you’re triggering our fight or flight response. So basically, if we want people to care for each other and to see the world from other people’s perspective, they actually need to feel safe and happy. But we may inadvertently be creating this fear in society that you know not only makes people less likely to respond to the immediate crisis, but there’s a danger that there’s gonna be a longer term decline in empathy for other people because this fear just remains in our society.
There’s a great writer called Brene Brown who for example calls terrorism as slow release capsule of fear that remains in our society and makes it hard for us to trust each other. And that’s when you have leaders who start to come along and try and divide us.
OYA: I was thinking about two possible outcomes: either because of fear and anxiety we continue to isolate ourselves from others and just deal with our own stuff and not care about others anymore. But the other one could be we strengthen the spirit of community, of cooperation, compassion. How do you get to that point?
THOMAS: Actually some of the very strong messaging that we have seen came from Wuhan people were starting to spread a Cantonese expression jiayou which means “don’t give up.” And then you know — people in Wuhan singing from their balconies and then that spread to Italy where they also have a message tutto bene which means “everything will be alright.”
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That’s a similar thing that we seen as an effective response to authoritarian populist leaders. In New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern won an election with a message that was “Let’s do this.” We can actually get these progressive changes she was promising done. I think Angela Merkel had the right response during the refugee crisis in Europe. She said in German wir schaffen das which means “we can get this done.” And of course, you had my my biggest hero Barack Obama, in his election campaign said “Yes we can.”
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I’ve done a lot of audience research, on how people think about human rights. People knew that bad things were happening but what they actually need to know from us as human rights communicators is, how does change happen? And how can they be a part of it? So I think a very first step are those kind of obviously we’re in a bad moment. But we need that message telling people that we can get this done. What we need to make them see is that change is actually possible.
OYA: We have to communicate a reassuring confidence in the positive outcome of this mess that we’re in.
THOMAS: Exactly! My eureka moment came from reading a book by an academic called Kathryn Sikkink’s Evidence for Hope. And she had this basic message that actually, when you work on human rights, you’re always looking at the worst things happening in the world. So you have this feeling that you know we live in a terrible world. But she brought evidence to show. Things are actually getting much better. And that made me start shifting in how I think. And I started to realize, we need to show people not just the problem, but the solution. And not just threaten people you know, you need to take action on coronavirus or you’ll suffer. But give people an opportunity to help other people in their community, for example.
The darker the situation, the more people need hope.What does the change we want to see look like? We need to show people that we can get to a better place and try and put a picture in their head. A great example is Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech “I have a dream.” And not only did he not say I have a nightmare but I have a dream in what was a very hard moment for his community. But he painted this beautiful picture in which he talked about little black boys and girls walking down the streets in Alabama, holding hands with little white boys and white girl. And so that’s I think the challenge for us is can we put that picture in people’s mind about what the world will look like after we’ve achieved that change we want to see?
OYA: Thomas, here in the Philippines, there’s also anxiety over aside from the virus itself, the government response. People feel it’s important to put mistakes the government is committing in their response because that’s how you call for accountability. How do you balance that?
THOMAS: I really strongly feel this desire to point out hypocrisy or failure on the part of governments. I do believe that actually the coronavirus has partly been caused by the rise of nationalism in the world, which made leaders fail to work together across borders. But what I’ve learned is that when we just base our communications on criticizing the opponent, basically the opponent becomes the story and we’re just playing a part in their story. What I’m starting to find more effective is we need to sort of set the standard of what they should do instead.
Nelson Mandela was quite good at that. Instead of saying all white people were to blame for apartheid, he actually started to show them empathy. And essentially have faith and trust in their own humanity, which actually then encouraged them to live up to that standard.
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I think what this moment shows more than anything is that actually the job of government is also to take care of us. And what has happened here is that we are always told “oh you can’t do that because we need to have to save money for other things.” For example you have John Bolton, when he was in charge of America’s foreign policy, he cut all the funding for pandemic preparedness because he said “oh health care’s not a security issue.”
And what we need to try and do is actually reinforce the idea that the job of governments is to show empathy for people to care for each other and also push this idea of interdependence. We must obviously always call out mistakes. But it’s about putting them in the context of what needs to happen next and have a strong call to action. For example, why don’t we propose that every CEO gives their bonuses from last year into a common fund and create a global bonus for all the nurses and doctors who are on the frontline?
OYA: Well here it seems the citizens are showing the way. Private individuals, companies, groups who are trying to help out poor communities who are suffering because of the lockdown. So you’re saying that’s the one we have to highlight?
THOMAS: If you want to change the narrative, you have to be the narrative. So basically the actions you take become the story. You’ve really put your finger on it that’s saying people are stepping up. But often our inclination is to tell the story of the inhumanity. We think the awareness of the inhumanity will drive action. But actually, it’s also telling the stories of humanity that drive action. If you want your audience to behave a certain way, you actually need to show them people like them behaving that way.
We need to go and actually trigger this other human instinct which is to tend and befriend. So you know human instinct is to work in groups. Can we make people feel a sense of agency. That you know you’re not just stuck in your house in quarantine, but you can actually do something to help people. And also make people feel a sense of belonging. We need to elevate those stories that show how we want other people to behave. And in a way telling stories of ordinary people going out and caring for each other is the best way to actually push the government to action. For example, if we see a leader trying to grab power for themself using this moment as an excuse, we need to work together why are you taking all the power for yourself? Actually we’re all here, we can all actually face this moment together.
JOZA: Thanks for listening to part 1 of 2 episodes about hope-based communication in the time of COVID. Stay tuned for part 2! Thanks to the people who made this possible, specifically PumaPodcast, the Spark Project, and our backers. Shoutout to Tricia Aquino, our producer, and Mark Casillan — our sound guy.
OYA: I’m Oya.
JOZA: I’m Joza.
MIKA: And I’m Mika.
OYA: Give a Hoot is a podcast for communicators about social change. Please listen to our future episodes. If you haven’t subscribed yet, please do so.
JOZA: And look for WiseOwl PH on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Medium. ou can visit our website wiseowl.ph. And we’d love to hear from you. Send your feedback to hoot@wiseowl.ph.
MIKA: Use your voice. Give a hoot!
Thomas Coombes also recommends listening to Anat Shenker-Osorio’s podcast Brave New Words.
