style="font-size:15px;"> 133 Steelman, T. A., McCaffrey, S. (2013). “Best practices in risk and crisis communication: Implications for natural hazards management.” Natural Hazards 65(1):683–705.134 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (2019). Communicating in a Crisis: Risk Communication Guidelines for Public Officials. SAMHSA Publication No. PEP19‐01‐01‐005. Rockville, MD, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
135 Thompson, K.M., and Bloom, D.L. (2000). “Communication of risk assessment information to risk managers.” Journal of Risk Research 3:333–352.
136 Tuler, S.P., and Kasperson, R.E. (2014). “Social distrust and its implications for risk communication: an example of high‐level radioactive waste management,” in Effective Risk Communication, eds. J. Arvai and L. Rivers III. London: Earthscan.
137 Tversky, A., and Kahneman, D. (1974). “Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases.” Science 185(4157):1124–1131.
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Endnotes
1 1 For a full description of epidemiological methods, see the textbook “Risk Assessment Methods: Approaches for Assessing Health and Environmental Risks” written by V.T. Covello and M.W. Merkhofer.
2 2 World Health Organization (2020). Munich Security Conference. 15 February 2020. Accessed at: https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/munich‐security‐conference.
3 3 World Health Organization (2020). “Managing the COVID‐19 Infodemic: Promoting healthy behaviors and mitigating the harm from misinformation and disinformation.” Accessed at: https://www.who.int/news/item/23‐09‐2020‐managing‐the‐covid‐19‐infodemic‐promoting‐healthy‐behaviours‐and‐mitigating‐the‐harm‐from‐misinformation‐and‐disinformation.
4 4 World Health Organization (2020). “Coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) advice for the public: Mythbusters.” Accessed at: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel‐coronavirus‐2019/advice‐for‐public/myth‐busters.
5 5 McNeil, B.J., Pauker, S.G., Sox, H.C., and Tversky, A. (1982). “On the elicitation of preferences for alternative therapies.” New England Journal of Medicine 306:1259–1262. See also: McGettigan, P., Sly, K., O'Connell, D., Hill, S., Henry, D. (1999). “The effects of information framing on the practices of physicians.” Journal of General Internal Medicine. 14 (10):633–642 .
6 6 See, e.g., Covello, V., Peters, R., Wojtecki, J., and Hyde, R. (2001). “Risk communication, the West Nile virus epidemic, and bio‐terrorism: Responding to the communication challenges posed by the intentional or unintentional release of a pathogen in an urban setting.” Journal of Urban Health 78(2):382–391. See also Covello, V. (2003). “Best practices in public health risk and crisis communication.” Journal of Health Communication 8 (Suppl. 1): 5–8; discussion, 148–151; Covello, V. (2014). “Risk communication,” in Environmental Health: From Global to Local, ed. H. Frumkin. San Francisco: Jossey‐Bass/Wiley .
4
Development of Risk Communication Theory and Practice
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
This chapter presents a concise overview of key stages, discoveries, and developments in the field of risk communication. As each development has built directly upon prior work, the chapter emphasizes essential principles through the story of the field.
At the end of the chapter, you will be able to:
describe the basic principles of the field, and
give examples of how these principles were derived from actual high‐impact experience coupled with research and evaluation.
4.1 Case Diary: Origin Story
Every year, I present on topics related to risk, high
