The Role of Communication Tools in the Knowledge and Diffusion of Sustainable Development Goals: Insights from Multiple Correspondence Analysis

The Sustainable Development Goals are the core of public debate due to their crucial aims of combating poverty, inequality, and climate change. Communication, strategies, and tools play a crucial role in spreading awareness about the 17 goals, but communication campaigns remain ineffective and unattractive. This study aims to analyze the importance and the role that Italians attribute to communication tools for disseminating information about sustainability and the SDGs. In particular, this work seeks to examine whether there is a connection between age and the importance given to sustainability, and how communication tools influence citizens' perceptions of the significance of sustainability. An online questionnaire was carried out to collect responses, which were then subjected to Multiple Correspondence Analysis. The results show how the importance given to sustainability is linked to age and identify the communication tools through which citizens have learned about sustainability and the SDGs. Furthermore, respondents confirm that communication campaigns are still ineffective, and that there is still little engagement from stakeholders in their creation. The study produces implications for stakeholders to create adequate communication campaigns that help raise awareness and encourage citizens to pay more attention to the world around them.