Rewriting the Nuclear Story: U.S. Cultural Audit Research Findings

Experts and advocates are seeking to shift narratives to make nuclear disarmament more culturally and socially salient with the U.S. public. The Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) engaged Harmony Labs to examine opportunities to do so while meeting people where they already are in the culture.

In this webinar we will share the research findings, which is intended to both inform the community’s larger theory of change and provide practical guidance for media interventions today.

Harmony Labs examined large datasets, from news and TV to Youtube and Google searches, to answer the following questions:

• What media are the most persuadable audiences consuming when they’re not thinking about nuclear weapons?
• How are nuclear weapons already showing up, and what role are they playing culturally?
• What does this tell us about storytelling imperatives and opportunities?

The briefing will be led by Riki Conrey, Director of Science at Harmony Labs, after an introduction by NTI President Joan Rohlfing. We’ll close with a Q&A for attendees.

The research builds upon 2021 research NTI commissioned on nuclear narratives, which, in part, examined stories people already had in their heads. This research fills out the picture with what are the stories in our culture.