Moderator: Barbara Vogt Sorenson, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Recorder: Marlys Mason, Oklahoma State University
Discussants: Suzanne Frew, The Frew Group; Joe Golden, NOAA/Forecast Systems Laboratory; Rocky Lopes, American Red Cross; Christopher Mayhorn, North Carolina State University; Kevin Simmons, Austin College
Barbara Vogt Sorenson opened the session by highlighting the importance of risk communication in providing both pre-event preparedness and post-event information. She posed several questions to the panelists related to the techniques, approaches, and technologies that are needed for designing effective risk communication; the presentation of complicated information in an understandable manner; and whether the different issues apply for communicating risk in an age of terrorism.
Suzanne Frew addressed the increasing challenge of communicating hazard information in a complex and global world. She suggested that terrorism has had significant psychological impacts upon individuals and risk messages related to terrorism need to be designed with the recognition of the emotions (such as fear or anger) that the message may elicit. Frew also suggested that major demographic and cultural shifts are a very large challenge to effective risk communication and advocated the need to extend beyond traditional messages and modes of delivery. She recommended and offered international examples of new and alternative ways to communicate hazard messages in order to extend across broadly diverse cultures and worldviews.
Joe Golden identified several technological advancements that have improved the forecasting of natural hazards and discussed a new technology being tested to improve the dissemination of warning information. A relatively new type of public warning, Reverse 911, is tailored to communicate a warning message to as many as 11,000 telephones in 30 seconds. Golden suggested that this technology enables focused targeting to citizens directly impacted by the hazard and allows an alert to be communicated at hours when individuals may have turned off traditional mass media. The Reverse 911 technique will be tested in two cities, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Houston, Texas, to communicate flash flood and tornado warnings.
Rocky Lopes discussed the National Disaster Education Coalition's release of Talking about Disaster: A Guide for Standard Messages. This free, updated guide was produced with collaboration from 20 disaster preparedness organizations in the U.S. and attempts to provide consistent, accurate information on various types of disasters to the public. It includes standardized safety messages on 20 natural, technological, and human-induced hazards as well as general disaster preparedness and safety topics. The guide can be downloaded at http://www.disastereducation.org/.
Christopher Mayhorn spoke about the importance of designing risk communications that can be understood by the growing segment of elderly citizens. Age-related declines in perception and cognition raise issues that must be considered in the design and dissemination of warning messages. Vision and auditory difficulties suggest a need to avoid specific fonts, color shades, and frequencies, while cognitive declines require an emphasis on reducing distraction and not overtaxing working memory.
Kevin Simmons discussed the positive impact that Doppler radar has had on the effectiveness of tornado warnings. Based on data tracking of more than 15,000 tornadoes from 1986 through 1999, Doppler radar has improved the percentage of tornadoes that are actually given a warning and significantly increased the lead-time of warnings before the disaster. When compared with socioeconomic data from the U.S. census, it was noted that fatalities and injuries also went down significantly given the Doppler technology. Tornadoes occurring at night and the presence of mobile homes were the two critical factors associated with death and injuries despite Doppler radar warnings.
Audience questions centered on the impact diverse individual characteristics may have on communicating through the new technologies. Comments were also made about the communication source's appeal to the individual household and issues of appealing to broader community levels.
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Updated April 30, 2007