DRAFT
Component for Module "Interpreting Critical Resource
Issues and Controversy"
Component:
Interpreting Critical Resource Issues
Objectives:
Identify
critical resource issues;
Determine
appropriate strategies for interpreting critical
resource issues;
Effectively
interpret critical resource issues.
Approach:
Effective
interpretation of multiple points of view requires mastery
of the techniques and applications in Module 340: Advanced
Research and Resource Liaison and Module Draft—Interpreting
Multiple Points of View.
Content
Outline:
What
All
interpretation is critical resource issue interpretation
in that it attempts to raise levels of care about
and care for the resource.
Critical
resource issues are imminent threats to the resource
as determined by management and resource management.
Effective
critical resource issue interpretation raises awareness
of issues and attempts to provoke care about and
for the resource by presenting agency perspectives
accurately and honestly in the same manner as any
other perspective
Effective
interpretation is not "interpreganda."
Interpreganda’s
primary goal is to convince the audience of the
singular validity of a particular ideological
or agency perspective.
Interpreganda
does not recognize the right of audience members
to have and maintain their own perspectives.
Interpreganda
communicates in one direction by discouraging
dialogue.
Interpreganda
assumes the audience is uninformed and ignores the
multiple meanings of the resource.
Intepreganda
oversimplifies facts and skews information to
a forgone conclusion.
Interpreganda
is often well intentioned, but is often manipulative,
didactic, and fails to provide the audience with
the skills to make informed decisions in the future.
Interpreganda
fails to connect the audience to the resource
in a personal way.
II.
Why
Many
audiences want to know about threats, resource
management, and opportunities to care for the
resource.
Agencies
often make controversial decisions in the interest
of preserving the resource and interpretation
can facilitate their discussion and articulate
agency and other perspectives.
Interpretation
can use the agency perspective as one of multiple
perspectives to facilitate connections between
the meanings of the resource and the interests
the visitor.
Interpretation
has the task of protecting the resource through
promoting audience compliance of protection and
safety regulations.
III.
How
Interpreters
coordinate with resource management and site management
to:
Assess
the level of threat to resources;
Minimal
– may one day be threatened
Medium
– currently threatened, but in a general and non-direct
manner
Immediate
– resource is being lost or directly impacted
2. Determine
effective interpretive response;
Minimal
threat requires standard interpretive approach
that:
Respectfully
connects multiple meanings to multiple audience
interests and perspectives, and;
Interprets
multiple points of view, and;
provides
opportunities for audiences to make personal
connections to the meanings of the resources,
and;
elevates
audiences’ level of care about the resource
so that they may support care for the resource.
3.
Medium threat may require an interpretive response
that includes all of the above and:
1. Elevates
audiences’ knowledge of threats to the resource,
and;
2.
Skillfully identifies NPS perspective as one of
several perspectives and;
3.
Does
not proscribe behavior or solicit action.
4.
Immediate threat to the resource may require interpretive
response that includes all of above but may also
suggest behavior or solicit action.
Resources
TBD
Developmental
Exercises
Through
discussions with your supervisor and resource managers,
identify a critical resource issue that might be interpreted.
Research both the subject as well as the potential audiences.
Connect resource meanings to audience interests and
perspectives and develop an interpretive product that
accurately and without manipulation articulates multiple
resource meanings and audience perspectives, establishes
a mutual environment of respect, provokes a greater
understanding multiple perspectives, and identifies,
explains the reasons for, and presents agency perspectives
and actions as one of many perspectives.