Improving Risk Communication (1989) / Chapter Skim
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7 Recommendations for Improving Risk Communication
7 Recommendations for Improving Risk Communication
Pages 143-182
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From page 143... ...
recommendations that pertain to the content of individual risk messages; (3) a call for a "consumer's guide" that will enhance the ability of other groups or individuals to understand and participate in risk management activities; and (4)
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From page 144... ...
We emphasize in particular that we have tried to fashion recommendations that, while addressed to government and large corporations, will attack the problems of recipients as well. Our goal is not then to make those who disseminate formal risk messages simply more effective by improving their credibility, understandability, and so on such an approach might serve their interests but could well degrade the overall quality of risk communication if it meant that they would merely advance their viewpoints with more influence.
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We are aware that such resources will not be adequate in many instances. One r~.c:~,rr~ in particular time-is crucially lacking for some of the most difficult risk communication efforts, as when emergency conditions leave no possibility of consulting with outside organizations or assembling complete factual information.
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From page 146... ...
While it is important to improve risk communication practices, no one should expect such improvements to end public controversy over risk management. Risk managers should understand and accept that, even when they have done all they can to ensure the integrity of their risk messages, public skepticism of their motives and their honesty will likely persist.
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Thus we are led to recommend concurrent attention to several factors in managing the risk communication process and in formulating particular risk messages. No one of these measures, alone, is enough.
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Improvement of risk communication requires that the organizations that disseminate risk messages become simply more deliberate in their communication efforts. At their best, risk communication efforts can be expected to affect the risk management process itself.
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This section is addressed to risk managers- those senior officials who have the overall responsibility of determining their organization's action. These risk managers also oversee the preparation of risk assessments and risk messages associated with the action to be taken.
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Practical goals should be established that explicitly accommodate the political/legal mandates and constraints bounding the process and the roles of the potential recipients of the organization's risk messages. Explicit consideration of such factors encourages realistic expectations, clarification of motives and objectives (both within the source organization and among outside groups and individuals)
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Realistic assessment of factors affecting message preparation, transmission, and receipt can be an important contribution to an organization's effective participation in the risk communication process. Safeguarding Openness In many cases risk communication efforts have founclered because public trust and credibility were damaged because risk management was conducted behind closed doors or because of a patronizing attitude toward interested outside groups.
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If a corporation decides to locate a new facility in a community, it can draw community groups into discussions of the nature of risks presented by the facility and take steps to control such risks. Risk messages will prove much more Biscuit to convey when recipients believe they were excluded from risk management decisions that affect them.
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From page 153... ...
They should not be surprised if people are more interested in matters of trust, credibility, and fairness than in the technical details of risk estimates and risk reduction options. They should not expect outside participants to know, or to necessarily accept, the legal or other practical boundaries that constrain the risk decision.
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When participants are asked to contribute to the development of a risk message itself, they may want to explore different strategies for dissemination and additional target audiences. Where time and legal considerations permit, participants may productively help the risk manager to develop new or refine extant risk management options.
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or in changing the decision process itself. Some participants may feel that discussing risk messages without addressing the risk management decision itself is beside the point.
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prepare and release a White papers on the risk assessment and risk reduction assessment for comment. Accountability Distortion can enter at two stages: in the preparation of the expert analyses that form the basis of a risk message and in the composition of the message itself.
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They may be just what the public prefers experts to do when confronting uncertainty. However, they need routinely to be made explicit if audiences are to interpret the resulting risk messages appropriately.
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Nuclear Regulatory Commission, November 1987~. Independent Review To help ensure that choices made in perforrn~ng the risk assessment do not introduce errors or analytic assumptions that conflict with areas of current scientific consensus, organizations should routinely subject the underlying assessments, and when feasible the ensuing risk messages themselves, to independent peer review.
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From page 159... ...
Message Preview When possible, drafts of risk messages and the information on which they are based should be made available to selected outside individuals for their preview and comment. Previews by partisans is a proven method of identifying intentional and unintentional slants in risk messages: if value judgments have inappropriately intruded to produce distortion, groups that hold contrary values are certain to proclaim the misstep.
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deliberately considering the makeup of the intended audience and demonstrating how the choice of media and message reflects an understanding of the audience and its concerns; attracting appropriate communications specialists and train~ng t ethnic al staff in communications; . requiring systematic assurance that substantive risk experts within the organization have a voice in producing accurate assessments and the derivative risk messages; .
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Risk managers should expect those who prepare risk messages to construct a communication plan that clearly links the choice of channel and customized messages to an understanding of audience
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Scientific/l~echnicat Accuracy and Completeness Upgrading the staff that coordinates the preparation of risk messages to a professional level does not mean that substantive experts within the communicating organization can be shunted away from the process. They must remain involved in order to ensure that factual errors are not introduced.
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To prevent this, risk managers should require that senior technical staff have an opportunity to evaluate the quantitative and qualitative accuracy of risk messages and that any exceptions are clearly reported. Evaluation and Feedback Even when communications professionals help design and guide the risk communication effort, doubt will remain about whether and how the intended audience will apprehend the message.
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It can, however, make the difference in reaching the intended recipients. Some Notes on Handing Risk Communication In Crisis Conditions Many risk situations require that risk messages be delivered immediately: examples include emergency conditions, challenges to an organization's positions before the organization is prepared to respond, and intense and contentious public controversy.
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We concentrate here on four generic matters audience awareness, uncertainty, comparative risk, and completeness that have been the source of difficulty in the past over a broad range of risk communication efforts. Relating the Message to the Audiences' Perspectives Risk messages are often based on the information in special analyses prepared for internal organizational purposes (e.g., to assess whether a particular risk exists or what risk management option to choose)
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From page 166... ...
Selecting information relevant to individual choice is particularly important for risk messages-health warnings are prime examplesthat are intended for an audience that is not already motivated to listen. The existence of such risks may mean little if it is not made clear what practical measures an exposed individual might use to avoid or reduce them.
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The message preparer's goal should not be to gloss over the complexity and uncertainty of a risk but to reflect those qualities in plain language. Those who prepare risk messages should expect that their attempts at brevity will provoke protest among those who fear it will lead to greater m~sunderstanding.
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Use of ~Inpuence Stralregies~ Those who prepare risk messages, and particularly those in government organizations, need to be circumspect about using "influence strategies" in their risk messages to influence recipients' beliefs or actions, and they should expect their audiences to suspect attempts to influence even when the intent is simply to inform. Americans are usually most comfortable with risk messages that, in Jefferson's words, "inform their discretion," but that do not attempt to advise them how to act in response.
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When influence strategies are used, risk messages should attempt to distinguish the analytic function of describing risk from the
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The way that risk messages treat this uncertainty can have a major influence on the effectiveness and credibility of a communication effort. A major difficulty is avoiding unnecessary confusion between scientific uncertainty on one hand and policy disagreement on the appropriate risk management approach on the other hand.
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In general, those preparing risk messages are best served if they have available to them a statement of the scientific conclusions of the assessment of a professional quality that might be used for materials intended for expert peer review, such as papers submitted to professional journals; this will help ensure that uncertainties and necessary qualifications are adequately conveyed from the experts to those who prepare messages. A form of sensitivity analysis can be helpful.
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More work needs to be done to develop constructive and helpful form of risk comparison. In theory, at least, comparative information should be an attractive element of risk messages.
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risks, for example, is rarely a good idea. More generally, those who prepare risk messages should appreciate the weakness of risk comparisons as a means of placating people about risks that are calculated to be small.
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There are major advantages in putting the information base into written form as an adjunct to the rislr message. Those who prepare risk messages should ensure that the messages are complete.
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FIGURE 7.1 Risk message checklist. 175 reduce risk.
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A CONSUMER'S GUIDE TO RISE AND RISE COMMUNICATION A major theme of this report is that risk communication should be understood to be a two-way interchange between source organizations and those, including the public and its representatives, who are the intended recipients of risk messages. In the previous pages we have directed many recommendations about the process and content of risk communications efforts to source organizations, specifically government agencies and large corporations.
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From page 177... ...
The process of writing it would advance national discussion about areas of current controversy among players in an often adversarial process of making risk management decisions. The guide would also articulate the basis for public skepticism that sometimes causes consternation among those responsible for risk management and the design of risk messages.
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Project Management Editorial control of the guide should be exerted by a steering group in which the views and concerns of the lay recipients of risk messages are paramount. It should not be difficult to identify individuals who reflect an appropriately broad range of lay perspectives.
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Accuracy Factual base, track record, consistency, self-serving framing, use of influence techniques, misleading risk comparisons Legitimacy Standing, access, review, due process justification Interpreting Advocacy Comparing competing arguments, seeing where information has been omitted questioning message sources . FIGURE 7.2 A consumer's guide to risk and risk communication.
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How do people respond to alternative ways of characterizing risks, including alternative treatments of uncertainty? Role of Message Intermediaries We need a better empirical base for understanding the role of intermediaries in carrying and translating risk messages.
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The information in risk messages is useful only if recipients can Incorporate it into their prior thinking about the risk and its management. Only by better knowing how recipients conceptualize risks and their risk decisions can people create more effective messages.
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In particular, retrospective case materials should be prepared that: . Examine risk communication processes, including such topics as the role of experts and others in message preparation, whether and how outside groups were involved in risk management and risk communication decisions, and the role of intermediaries in message · e transmission.
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