Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Idea Model: Designing Earthquake Early Warning Messages Using Instructional Risk Communication, Nigel D. Haarstad

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

The goal of risk communication is to inform people about the risks they face and to encourage them to take appropriate action in response to that threat. To achieve this goal, risk communication scholars continuously examine the messages surrounding crises and disasters, and engage in message-testing to evaluate theory-driven message designs. Recent communication scholarship recommends that messages should including instructing information (Coombs, 2012), and should take into consideration established pedagogy based on instructional communication research (Sellnow & Sellnow, 2010). This dissertation continues to build on research which applies instructional communication scholarship to risk communication messaging. Using message-testing, this dissertation examined …

The Challenges Of Communicating Low Probability And High Consequence Risk: Recommendations For Earthquake Pre-Crisis And Emergency-Risk Communication, Emina Herovic

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

The Crisis and Emergency-Risk Communication (CERC) model is effective in providing communication recommendations for public health agencies and shows potential for use by other agencies with similar crises characterizations. The current study explores the challenges of earthquake scientists in communicating earthquake risk during the pre-crisis stage in order to grasp experts’ experience and gain insight into the complex and multifaceted world of communicating earthquake risk. The researcher integrates the in-depth knowledge with the recommendations of the pre-crisis stage of the CERC model. This study employs qualitative interviewing with earthquake scientists (N = 21) from the Southern California Earthquake Center …

The Role Of The Message Convergence Framework In Obstetricians’ Clinical And Communicative Practices, Kathryn E. Anthony

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Over the past few years, the rate of elective interventions in pregnancy in the United States, including elective inductions of labor and elective cesarean deliveries, has increased dramatically. While scholars attribute some of the increase in elective interventions to the female patients who request elective procedures from obstetricians, some literature contradicts that notion and suggests physicians are actually the primary perpetuators of the growth in elective procedures. Although pregnant women may seek elective interventions because of desired convenience, physicians can also claim the benefit of convenience in scheduling deliveries. In addition, elective procedures provide physicians greater monetary compensation than labor …

Communication At Superfund Sites And The Reification Of Division: Toward A Convergence-Building Model Of Risk Communication, Anna G. Hoover

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

This case study evaluates government communication practices at Superfund sites. I describe agency communication practices in Superfund communities, paying particular attention to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's

Seven Cardinal Rules of Risk Communication and its role as a model for federal agencies engaged at these sites. Situating the study within a theoretical milieu that includes sensemaking and symbolic interactionism, I examine whether current practices deepen divisions among stakeholders, reducing the possibility for communicative convergence.

I implement textual analysis and narrative inquiry to examine written and spoken communication about the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant National Priorities List Superfund site. Through …