News & Terrorism

Journalism's Challenge: Communicating About Risks and Threats to Public Health and Safety

A May 2003 Harvard School of Public Health seminar brought together a group of media organizations, public health agencies and others to address potential communications crises that might arise in situations affecting the public's health and safety. Paul Irvin, 2001-2003 project director, RTNDF's News Content and Issues Project, provides the following report:

Journalists covering critical incidents or stories with the potential to frighten or panic the public will improve their reporting if they understand how and why people perceive risk. How the media present these situations will affect, and have an impact on, public perceptions. Specifically:

Risk Perception:

• People respond to risk on an emotional basis, weighing feelings versus facts. Humans are "wired" biologically to fear first and think second.


• Because journalists choose images the public will see and decide how often to air those images, electronic media play a critical role in how people perceive risk.


• Perception factors are like seesaws - they can make fear go up or down. As the public's trust of information increases, their fears subside.

Several factors influence our perceptions:

• Control - Do we feel as if we have some control over a situation, or is the opposite (lack of control) a dominant feeling?


• Choice - Is the situation imposed or did we voluntarily select it?


• Dread - Do we fear something over a prolonged period of time or is the situation catastrophic, coming in one major, sudden episode?


• Uncertainty - Is this a case where we don't know what to expect?


• Personal Involvement - Are we or people close to us directly involved?


• Familiarity - How well do we recognize the threat?


• Helplessness - If we are, for example, very young or elderly, do we fear being victimized or helpless in the face of an emergency?

Tips for Journalists

• Build relationships and vet experts in advance of a crisis - News organizations will do well if they develop sources and establish contacts with law enforcement officiials, health experts and civic and business leaders before news breaks.


• Carefully select images that accurately reflect the story - In crisis or high-risk stories, viewers may pay only partial attention to details and often make up their minds based on emotions conveyed in sound and pictures. Images that inflate or exaggerate stories, or fail to put stories in proper context, most likelly will damage media credibility.


• Stick to facts and report stories in their proper context - In order to minimize fears, journalists should steer clear of speculating as to what may happen next or what officials are planning.


• Choose words and their placement in the story carefully - Reporters often are urged to put the most newswothy information at the top of the story. But words and their placement in stories have the potential to inflate the importance of a situation or convey emotions that ultimately may contribute to misunderstanding and fear. News managers also should consider how a story is promoted; does the promotion accurately reflect its newsworthiness?

The public depends on news stories that are fair and accurate, and placed in proper context. In everyday situations and in times of crisis, news organizations that offer even-handed and credible information are where the public will place its trust.