{"id":747,"date":"2019-08-22T15:42:37","date_gmt":"2019-08-22T22:42:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/jhodson\/?page_id=747"},"modified":"2019-09-17T12:39:45","modified_gmt":"2019-09-17T19:39:45","slug":"communicating-risky-topics","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/jhodson\/communication-in-the-public-interest-resources\/science-communication\/chapter-2-tips-and-challenges-for-science-communication\/science-communication-tips-and-challenges\/communicating-risky-topics\/","title":{"rendered":"2.2.1. Communicating Risky Topics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Some science pertains to topics that may have an element of risk to them &#8211; such as how many chemicals might be safe in a certain environment, or topics related to global warming, emissions, or cumulative effects. Though these topics initially seem to be mainly about evidence, to many information consumers, the element of risk means they are very emotionally and psychologically loaded. This means they are complex topics to communicate well.<\/p>\n<p>Arizona State University offers a series of three videos to help scientists think through the best way to communicate science related to risky topics.\u00a0 The first video (Part 1) shows why it&#8217;s necessary to move beyond evidence when engaging in this particular type of science communication:<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Why risk communication is about more than just the science\" width=\"660\" height=\"371\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cm0b3mknhAE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In their second video (Part 2), the ASU team discusses the relationship between risk communication and emotion, and how emotion can impact the way people hear a message about risk:<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Fear of the unknown, and how feelings affect how we handle risk\" width=\"660\" height=\"371\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/p2xmszq2VGc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Finally, in part 3, the ASU team discusses a specific strong feeling: Dread, and how this emotion in particular can impact how people perceive risk. It&#8217;s important to understand how people relate to risk since the way many scientists manage or perceive risk is quite different from how members of the general public do.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Dread! Talking risk and feelings with Brian Zikmund-Fisher\" width=\"660\" height=\"371\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JqircxqILrQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>All three videos are part of a video series from Arizona State University called &#8220;Risk Bites&#8221; which provides bite sized videos about risk and risk communication. To access any of the videos above, plus more, check out the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/riskbites\">Risk Bites YouTube channel at this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Risky or not, no matter what you&#8217;re communicating, certain approaches will help make your communication efforts stronger. Next I&#8217;ll discuss the importance of using plain language summaries whenever you publish your science.<\/p>\n<h6>&gt;&gt;Next: <a href=\"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/jhodson\/communication-in-the-public-interest-resources\/science-communication\/chapter-2-tips-and-challenges-for-science-communication\/plain-language-summaries\/\">Plain Language Summaries<\/a><\/h6>\n<h6>&lt;&lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/jhodson\/communication-in-the-public-interest-resources\/science-communication\/chapter-2-tips-and-challenges-for-science-communication\/\">BACK TO CHAPTER 2 TOPIC LIST<\/a><\/h6>\n<h6><a href=\"http:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/jhodson\/communication-in-the-public-interest-resources\/science-communication\/\">&lt;&lt;&lt;BACK TO MAIN TABLE OF CONTENTS<\/a><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some science pertains to topics that may have an element of risk to them &#8211; such as how many chemicals might be safe in a certain environment, or topics related to global warming, emissions, or cumulative effects. Though these topics initially seem to be mainly about evidence, to many information consumers, the element of risk [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":184,"featured_media":0,"parent":745,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-747","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/jhodson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/jhodson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/jhodson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/jhodson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/184"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/jhodson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=747"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/jhodson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1078,"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/jhodson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/747\/revisions\/1078"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/jhodson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/jhodson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}