Hormesis and risk communication: a comment to Ortwin Renn

2003 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ragnar Löfstedt
Keyword(s):  
Risk Communication ◽  
General Public ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
Chemical Label

Professor Ortwin Renn should be congratulated for authoring the definitive piece on risk communication with regard to hormesis.1 Most of his conclusions I agree with, specifically the importance of labelling hormesis as a possible natural effect, thereby reducing the stigmatization associated with a technical/chemical label. Rather than discussing all the points that Renn raises, in this comment I will focus on the issue of trust, a topic that Renn does examine but which I feel does not get adequate attention and which I do not completely agree with. In so doing, in my conclusions I am more optimistic than Renn is in preparing risk communication strategies regarding hormesis and other new paradigms to target audiences (defined in most instances as the general public and stakeholders).

scholarly journals Government Communication Strategies during Coronavirus Pandemic: United Arab Emirates Lessons

2021 ◽  
pp. 097206342098309
Author(s):  
Ahmed Farouk Radwan ◽  
Sheren Ali Mousa
Keyword(s):  
Health Communication ◽  
Risk Communication ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
The State ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
Communication Model ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Government Communication

Government communication introduced important lessons during the worldwide experience with the COVID-19 pandemic. It is important to apply known efficacious principles of risk and health communication strategies. The purpose of the study is to depict and explore the United Arab Emirates government communication scenario in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic as well as look at the types of strategies, information and messages delivered via digital mediums to handle challenges that are raised based on the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication model. The study includes a qualitative analysis of two government bodies’ digital platforms: ‘The Ministry of Health and Prevention’ (mohap) and ‘Crisis and Disasters Management Authority’. Results indicated that the UAE government used different communication aims and strategies to face the pandemic according to the risk management scenario. In the quarantine phase, communication focused on giving people information about the disease, raising awareness about the disease, motivating health and behaviour change, informing people about government decisions and procedures. In the coexistence phase communication focused on emphasising the necessity of adherence the health measures, providing information on re-work in institutions and commercial centres, involving people in the health and social initiatives, confronting non-compliance with health precautions. Government communication also focused on facing rumours and false information. UAE government communication used digital platforms and social media to address more than 200 nationalities living in the state for ensuring that they adhere to the precautionary measures and coordinate with the authorities. Government communication was committed to a set of values including equality between citizens of the state and residents, societal and individual responsibility, recognising the frontline medical staff and acknowledging their sacrifices. UAE implemented an integrated, coherent and effective scenario to deal with the crisis. It developed risk communication strategies in health communication to manage the COVID-19 crisis by following international standards and also took into account its own political, economic, social and cultural features. The UAE government used many strategies to inform and convince people including clarification of measures strategy, reassurance strategy, ambiguity reduction strategy, behaviour efficacy strategy, correcting misinformation and rumours, advising strategy.

scholarly journals Communication During Bushfires, Towards a Serious Game for a Serious Matter

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carole Adam ◽  
Charles Bailly ◽  
Julie Dugdale
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
General Public ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
Modelling And Simulation ◽  
Serious Game ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
Valuable Insight ◽  
Communication Model ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Agent Based Modelling

Australia is frequently hit by bushfires. In 2009, the ''Black Saturday'' fires killed 173 people and burnt hectares of bush. As a result, a research commission was created to investigate, and concluded that several aspects could be improved, in particular better understanding of the population actual behaviour, and better communication with them. The authors argue that agent-based modelling and simulation is a great approach to provide tools to improve mutual understanding: let managers test communication strategies, and let residents understand the managers' perspective. Concretely, they extended an existing simulator with a theoretically-grounded communication model based in social sciences; they added user interactivity with the model and investigated gamification to turn it into a serious game to involve the general public. The authors present the results of first experiments with different communication strategies, providing valuable insight for better communication with the population during such events. Finally, they discuss future extensions and generalisation of this simulator.

scholarly journals Communicating the Risks and Benefits of Human Urine-Derived Fertilizer

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (23) ◽  
pp. 9973
Author(s):  
Alex Segrè Cohen ◽  
Nancy G. Love ◽  
Joseph Árvai
Keyword(s):  
Risk Communication ◽  
Human Urine ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
Consumer Acceptance ◽  
Public Acceptance ◽  
Global Challenge ◽  
Urine Diversion ◽  
Phosphorus And Potassium ◽  
Nitrogen Phosphorus

Ensuring long-term access to nutrients needed for food production is a growing global challenge. Human urine diversion and recycling is a viable and energy-efficient means of recovering nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium from wastewater. Before implementation, however, it is critical to understand how communicating differently about human urine-derived fertilizer may influence its public acceptance. This study tests how different strategies of communication (video compared to texts), as well as different amounts of information, impact public acceptance. We also explored how specific characteristics, such as age and education level, may impact the usefulness of the different strategies of communication. The results indicate that short and long videos are the most useful risk communication strategies, and age fully moderates this relationship. This research may serve as a jumping off point for future studies focused on how risk communication strategies may affect consumer acceptance of other emerging food technologies.

scholarly journals Designing a risk communication strategy for health hazards posed by traditional slaughter of goats in Tshwane, South Africa

2014 ◽  
Vol 85 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel N. Qekwana ◽  
Cheryl M.E. McCrindle ◽  
James W. Oguttu
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Risk Communication ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Risk Mitigation ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Communication Strategy ◽  
Demographic Profile ◽  
Ancestor Veneration ◽  
Risk Mitigation Strategies

In African societies, traditional slaughter is linked to celebrations like weddings or births, as well as funerals and ancestor veneration. Participants in traditional slaughter of goats are at risk of exposure to hazards during slaughter, food preparation and consumption of goat meat. For risk mitigation strategies to be implemented, identification of the population at risk is required. This study is based on the premise that the demographic profile of people involved in traditional slaughter of goats is important for risk communication. Both structured and informal interviews were recorded and analysed using a thematic analysis. A total of 105 people were interviewed at taxi ranks in Tshwane, Gauteng. Of these, 48 were women and 57 men. The median age of women and men was 40.6 years and 44.3 years, respectively. The majority of respondents (61.9%, n = 65) interviewed were from the Gauteng Province. Sixty percent (n = 63) of respondents had a secondary education, whilst less than 4.81% (n = 5) of respondents had no formal education. This study demonstrated that interviewing commuters at taxi ranks gave access to a cross section of gender, age, language and origin. It was found that both genders were involved in traditional slaughter of goats. Risk communication strategies should thus target women as well as men. Communication strategies to mitigate the risks of traditional slaughter of goats should take into consideration the dynamic nature of demographic and cultural norms. In light of the wide demographic profile of the respondents, it was concluded that it should be possible to use taxi ranks for successful dissemination of food safety and occupational health risk mitigation messages.

Segmentation of Chinese parents based on food risk perception dimensions for risk communication in rural area of Sichuan province

2016 ◽  
Vol 118 (10) ◽  
pp. 2444-2461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiajie Li ◽  
Nan Li ◽  
Lang Luo ◽  
Yanan Ren
Keyword(s):  
Risk Perception ◽  
Risk Communication ◽  
Rural Area ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
Sichuan Province ◽  
Demographic Characteristics ◽  
Target Audience ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Risk Dimensions

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate risk dimensions affecting food risk perceptions and to develop effective risk communication strategies based on their risk perceptions dimensions. The reason for writing this paper is that applying single risk communication strategy for public often fails because food risks are systemic risks and public perceptions toward them consist of multiple dimensions. Launching an effective risk communication need to investigate the perception dimensions of the target audience. Design/methodology/approach A total of 2,673 parents of 3-14-year-old children from the rural area of Sichuan province in China were chosen as target audience. Based on the survey conducted about parents’ food risk perceptions, this study used factor-cluster analysis method to segment parents to sub-clusters with significantly different risk perception dimensions. Parents’ representative demographic characteristics within each cluster were further identified through cross-tabs analysis with χ2 tests. Findings All the parents could be segmented into four sub-clusters, namely, sensitive parents, dependent parents, familiarity-oriented parents and institutional distrust parents, according to their risk perception difference on five dimensions. A series of risk communication strategies were specifically designed for each cluster based on their risk perception features as well as demographic characteristics. Originality/value The insight derived from this study described a deeper image of public risk perceptions and provided suggestions for risk communication launchers to pinpoint the risk perception as well as perception dimensions of the target audience and accordingly develop effective risk communication strategies.

scholarly journals Risk communication strategies: state of the art and effectiveness in the context of cancer genetic services

2003 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 725-736 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Julian-Reynier ◽  
◽  
Myriam Welkenhuysen ◽  
Lea Hagoel ◽  
Marleen Decruyenaere ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Communication ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
Genetic Services ◽  
Cancer Genetic ◽  
Cancer Genetic Services

Responses to the outbreak of novel influenza A (H1N1) in Japan: Risk communication and shimaguni konjo

2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 133-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Shigemura, MD ◽  
Koichi Nakamoto, MD, PhD ◽  
Robert J. Ursano, MD
Keyword(s):  
Risk Communication ◽  
Influenza A ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Collective Behaviors ◽  
The Public ◽  
Cultural Effects ◽  
Influenza A H1n1 ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Novel Influenza A

In Japan, national outbreak of novel influenza A (H1N1) triggered serious social disruption. The public perceived overwhelming fear and their behaviors were severely affected. Countless events were put off, with massive economic losses due to activity cancellations. The heightened fear may have been a mixture of risk communication consequences, geographic characteristics (island nation), and culture-bound fear related to shimaguni konjo, or “island mentality”; according to a Japanese cultural norm, the “outside” is considered “impure” and is often covered-up, criticized, and avoided. These consequences shed light on cultural effects on collective behaviors, along with the importance of risk communication strategies.

Effective Risk Communication for Early Flood Warning in West-Africa

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martijn Kuller ◽  
Francisco Pinto ◽  
Kevin Schönholzer ◽  
Judit Lienert
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Risk Communication ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
Stakeholder Analysis ◽  
Early Warning Systems ◽  
West African ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Return Periods ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Emergency Managers

<p><strong>Introduction</strong></p><p>Flood early warning systems (FEWS) have the potential to reduce human and financial losses caused by flooding (World Bank, 2011). FANFAR (www.fanfar.eu) is a FEWS currently under development for 17 countries in West-Africa. The success of FEWS depends heavily on the effectiveness of communication between the system and hydrologists on the one hand, and the target audience on the other (UNISDR, 2015). Although the effectiveness of risk communication receives increasing research attention, what this means in the West-African context remains unclear (Perera et al., 2019). Our research aims to uncover effective communication strategies for FANFAR considering content, format and pathways.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Research Approach</strong></p><p>FANFAR is co-developed with around 40 hydrologists and emergency managers from 17 West-African countries during four one-week co-design workshops. We apply qualitative and quantitative research methods to elicit information about stakeholders’ understanding and preferences regarding various communication options. Qualitative methods include stakeholder analysis as well as surveys and group workshop sessions during three of the workshops in 2018–2020. Our stakeholder analysis (following Lienert et al., 2013) allowed us to better understand downstream stakeholders. We systematically assessed and discussed risk representation content, format and communication pathway during two workshops. Quantitative methods will include (online) questionnaires among other stakeholders including e.g. civilians, farmers, businesses and media.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Findings</strong></p><p>In the stakeholder analysis, 31 participants listed 249 stakeholders, which we merged into 68 stakeholder types. We analysed them according to the “importance” of considering their interests in the FANFAR co-design process, their “influence” (power), and how strongly “affected” they would be by a well-functioning FEWS. Stakeholders that were perceived as being of “high” importance on these three dimensions were: “resource planning” (mentioned by 31%), “economic service and operations planning” (25%) and “rescue aid” (18%).</p><p>A survey among emergency managers in a co-design workshop in 2019 indicated that return periods were not very well understood or interpreted, resulting in underestimation of flood risk and insufficient response. This result is significant, as return periods are the primary risk communication format used by most FEWS (Waylen et al., 2011), including FANFAR. Preferred and better understood were statistical information about expected impacts in the form of text, as well as infographics. Our ongoing research aims to uncover the most effective combinations of content, format and pathway to communicate flood risks to different audiences. Thus, we enable the development of tailored communication strategies that trigger the intended response from recipients. Ultimately, this research should lead to more successful implementation of FANFAR and reduced impact of floods in West-Africa.</p>

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