Wiley Handbook of Science and Technology for Homeland Security, 4 Volume Set

RISK COMMUNICATION

MONIQUE MITCHELL TURNER

Center for Risk Communication Research, Department of Communication, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland

SHAWN S. TURNER

United States Marine Corps, Arlington, Virginia

1 INTRODUCTION

In 1987, University of Oregon Psychology Professor, Paul Slovic, wrote “in recent decades, the profound development of chemical and nuclear technologies has been accompanied by the potential to cause catastrophic and long-lasting damage to the earth and the life forms that inhabit it. The mechanisms underlying these complex technologies are unfamiliar and incomprehensible to most citizens” (p. 280). Slovic's words are still poignant. The recent rash of natural and man-made disasters and the ever present threat of terrorist attack abroad and at home demonstrate the ever increasing need for organizations charged with communicating risk to be more proactive in their planning, more strategic in their approach, and more educated about risk communication. Social scientists and communication professionals have long studied how shifts in the ease of availability of information coupled with the credibility of the source and the emotional state of the receiver impact individual behaviors and perceptions of events. Unfortunately, findings from this research are often slow to reach frontline practitioners. For organizations involved in communicating risks to publics, these shifts are particularly significant because they are part and parcel to a dynamic communication ...