Perceptions of Sharks: Identifying Photograph Preferences for Shark Conservation Advocacy
Abstract
American perceptions of sharks are changing. There has been a shift over several decades
from the view of sharks as dangerous predators to animals in need of conservation.
Simultaneously, shark conservation policies in the United States have developed. Advocacy
organizations have been instrumental in educating and eliciting the interest of the
American public about sharks and the need for conservation. Despite the shift in American
perceptions of sharks, these animals still receive a lot of negative attention in
the media. For this reason advocacy organizations need to select photographs of sharks
to present to the American public with care. Using photographs from the nonprofit
organization Shark Savers, I conducted interviews and surveys to examine the differences
in preferences for photographs of sharks between Duke University Marine Lab students
and the general public of Beaufort, North Carolina. The purpose of this study is to
identify shark photograph preferences in order to inform advocacy groups for shark
conservation campaigns. I investigated four categories of photographs: sharks with
divers, photographs with multiple sharks, the location of the shark in the ocean,
and dead sharks. The majority of the Duke University Marine Lab students did not have
a preference for a diver in a photograph or had a preference for no diver. Most of
the Beaufort participants did prefer to see a diver. The majority of the Marine Lab
students and the Beaufort participants did not have a preference for the number of
sharks in a photograph. Most participants in both sample groups had a preference for
the location of shark: seeing a shark near the ocean floor. The majority of all participants
stated it would be more effective for them to see a paring of live and dead sharks
in an advocacy campaign, rather than only live sharks or only dead sharks.
Type
Master's projectPermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/6808Citation
Duplanty, Ashley E (2013). Perceptions of Sharks: Identifying Photograph Preferences for Shark Conservation Advocacy.
Master's project, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/6808.Collections
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