As the major assessment in the subject of Communicating the Social, at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), we were required to choose an issue for a campaign and design a communication strategy for how we would draw attention to our issue.

Our Campaign

Our campaign is concerned with the environmental, health and aesthetic implications of a number of proposed unfiltered exhaust stacks around Sydney. These stacks have been proposed as part of a number of road tunnel projects designed by the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA). The first of these is the M5 East project, a tunnel linking the M5 at King Georges Road to General Holmes Drive at the Cooks River, with a 25 to 35 metre high exhaust stack in the Turrella Valley. The second is the proposal of a Cross City Tunnel, between Darling Harbour and Kings Cross, linking the Western and Easter Distributors, with a planned 39 metre high exhaust stack next to IMAX in Darling Harbour. The third is the Lane Cove Tunnel Proposal, connecting the M2 Motorway to the Gore Hill Freeway, with the location of an exhaust stack yet to be decided, either at its eastern end or western end.

Our campaign is focused on raising awareness of the adverse effects of these stacks, hoping to generate opposition to their use, as well as pointing out the alternatives to exhaust stacks, which are used in tunnels overseas. Our position is anti-stack, not necessarily anti-the proposed tunnels themselves. However the option of not having the tunnel at all, which would obviously eliminate the need for a stack, will also be explored with regard to the Cross City Tunnel, where extended public transport options have been suggested as an alternative by environmental groups.

Thus, in short, our macro issue is the adverse effect of pollution on the environment and the health of residents of Sydney. Our micro issue is the fight to stop a number of proposed unfiltered stacks emerging in Sydney.

Background and Research around the Issue

Our primary sources of information on this issue have been the Roads and Traffic Authority's (RTA) website as well as a website designed by the Residents Against Polluting Stacks (RAPS) who are fighting the M5 East stack.

www.rta.nsw.gov.au
Information from the RTA, outlines the basic logistics of the proposed road tunnels (what, where, how long it's going to take, and how much it's going to cost), as well as the benefits they are designed to provide. It includes brief discussion of the proposed ventilation systems via a stack, as well as tries to emphasis community consultation.

The major weakness of the information on the site is the fact that it does not discuss alternatives to both the tunnel proposals themselves as well as the use of ventilation stacks. It is also misleading about its efforts for community consultation, if you ask the Residents Against Polluting Stacks.

Nostack.8m.com
The RAPS website provides a somewhat contrasting image to the RTA, highlighting the fight of local residents of Turrella, Earlwood, Arncliffe, Tempe, Bardwell Park and Bexley North against the 25 to 35 metre unfiltered smoke stack set to affect their local area. RAPS outline their position as not against the M5 East Tunnel, but against the stack. Information on their website focuses on reports and studies made on the adverse health and environmental impact of the proposed stack, as well as explaining the possibility of filtration equipment which is in use overseas that could be applied as an alternative to the stack. This alternative is not discussed in the RTA website, the RTA claiming their ventilation system will be within the guidelines of the Department of Urban Affairs and Planning (DUAP) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). However as RAPS point out these guidelines are set for the overall effect on Sydney as a whole, not on local area emission levels. Thus riding on a technicality the RTA is continuing with its current design. The RAPS site also covers the history of the development of the M5 East project, outlining the how the proposal changed and the fight against the stack developed. Furthermore the site includes a calendar of events with media releases and developments since June 1999 to the present, showing among other things a quite contrasting view to the RTA's official line of "community consultation".

The weakness of this site is that it assumes background knowledge of the issue, which serves its purposes as it is aimed to be used as an information resource for the residents who are fighting the stack, and so are already aware of the issue, however for those unaware it fails to give adequate context. Also from our position, the fact that the site only focuses on the M5 East is a limitation, however for the RAPS who are specifically concerned about that stack their site is more than sufficient.

Our Communication Strategy

From this background, comes our communication strategy.

Website
With a view to combine the strengths of both the RTA website and the RAPS website, our aim is to create a website of our own, aimed to be an informative site, thus showing both sides of the story in a manner of speaking, demonstrating the problems in the RTA design of using stacks as a means of ventilation. The site is designed to cover all three tunnel proposals, however the other elements of the campaign are targeted more at the Cross City Tunnel.

Submission Plan
The second component of our communication strategy is a written submission to one of the leading tourism bodies in NSW/Australia, regarding the Cross City Tunnel stack in Darling Harbour. The decision to choose a tourism body rather than the government directly came as a result of research in which we felt that the submissions made by RAPS and local MPs had very little impact on the decision-making processes of Parliament. By targeting a peak tourism body, we feel they will have greater effect in placing pressure on the Government while at the same time raising media awareness on this issue.

To read the Submission Plan click here.

Posters and Pamphlet
The third component of our communication strategy is designed to promote the issue to the wider Sydney community as well promote our website as a resource where people can find out about the issue. Thus we have designed some colour posters as well as a pamphlet for people to print from the site and copy and distribute. Idealy the posters would be printed up in colour as large glossy sheets that could be put up around Darling Harbour in particular as well as other areas in Sydney.

To see the Posters click here.

To see the Pamphlet click here.

Our Audience

In determining our communication strategy we had to consider who our audience was going to be. Thus we asked ourselves, for whom would these stacks be an issue? Obviously there were the local communities, which as can be seen with RAPS may already be aware of the stack proposals. However, for those unaware, we decided we would need something to inform them in the hopes of generating protest and opposition.

We also considered the key players in terms of ministers and government departments. However given that Submissions to the Minister of Roads and Transport, Carl Scully, have already been made with seemingly little or no effect, we chose an alternative angle of the possible threat to Tourism posed by the Darling Harbour stack which we felt might rally the support of Tourism bodies in fighting the stacks.

Finally we decided that these stacks should be an issue for the wider Sydney populace too, which for the most part are largely unaware of the problem. Also in line with the tourism issue, reaching an international audience would also be a great advantage.

Thus given these three different audiences, we needed three aspects to our communication strategy, however with the greatest focus on one in particular: a website.

Why a website?
To reach the extremely wide and diverse audience, to which our campaign is targeted, we needed a medium that would be a form of mass media. Given the options of mass media forms, television, radio, newspapers and Internet, we considered the Internet as best suiting our needs for the following reasons:

- A website allows for a lot of information to be disseminated. Our purpose is to inform the public of the problem of stacks, including establishing the context, current proposals, alternatives and why there is a need for alternatives. A story or ad on television, radio or in the newspaper would be too short to sufficiently cover this, in a non-superficial way.

- Secondly our website would be part of a wider, already existent campaign. There are rallies and demonstrations already taking place without us. Hence it is our objective to provide an information resource on the issue, to allow people to find out what all the noise is about, and why they should be joining in the noise. Furthermore we plan to supplement the website with posters and pamphlets to a alert Sydneysiders to the problem and promote our website as a resource where they can find out more.

- Finally as stated in our analysis of the RTA and RAPS websites, both fail to give the complete picture, thus we believe our site would serve to do just that. We would also include with links to both the RTA and RAPS to give our audience the opportunity to see where we are getting our information from.