Setting Communication Goals

Many practitioners ultimately aim to build public acceptance of their organizations’ activities. However, because communication programmes take time, shorter term goals are needed to show progress and adjust tactics over time.

Stages of communication need to build on existing knowledge. Listening to audiences and understanding attitudes, familiarity and motivation are important. This information can help forecast how best to introduce new details over time. Feedback through stakeholder engagement helps communicators understand what information is needed when and by which audiences.

Successful programmes seek evidence from the outset on how stakeholders perceive a nuclear project, its sponsors and its purpose. This baseline information is collected systematically through online tools, sentiment analysis or market research such as focus groups and surveys. By professionalizing outreach functions, nuclear organizations can recruit talented and knowledgeable experts whose experience in the communication domain will benefit the programme.