Читать книгу Communicating in Risk, Crisis, and High Stress Situations: Evidence-Based Strategies and Practice - Vincent T. Covello - Страница 20

Technological, economic, and social changes have upended many of the traditional ways that risk‐related information is communicated. Changes in communication technologies have radically transformed the way risk information is shared and transferred and how it is used.

Changes are occurring at both the societal and personal level that affect risk communication. Three of the biggest impacts of these changes are:

1 experts and authorities are less trusted;

2 whom to trust is now a central topic in virtually all risk, high concern, and crisis communications; and

3 the way the people seek information about risk, high concern, and crisis issues has shifted from traditional broadcast and print media to online sources and social networks.

Because of changes in the communications landscape, information about risks, high concern issues, and potential or ongoing crises is now readily available 24/7. The streams of information have increased exponentially. Websites of many news organizations update their information every few minutes.

On a personal level, powerful communication changes have resulted from the extensive use of social media and mobile device technologies. People exchange emails, send text and voice messages, make video calls, and share images, videos, diagrams, charts, and emoticons to express thoughts and meaning to what’s going on in their world and lives. Messages posted on a vast array of social media platforms communicate instantaneously to multiple recipients or mass audiences. Mobile communications allow people to connect from almost any location. People schedule and conduct virtual meetings with anyone in the world who can connect with them through the Internet or cellular network.

The wide use of social media and virtual interactions are making communications less nuanced as there are fewer face‐to‐face interactions. As a result of these impersonal interactions, information communicated with nonverbal cues makes it difficult to interpret the sender’s intended message. These changes are also influencing writing. For example, people are less likely to spell carefully and write complete sentences because of their increased use of text messaging and social media platforms. Their mode of communication more typically relies on short sentences or fragments, simple tenses, and a limited vocabulary, using phonetic spelling and little or no punctuation. As a result, texting and social media platforms encouraging brief messages are replacing traditional conventions in writing that enabled fuller explanation.

Changes in communications and communication technologies increase the volume of messaging about all topics. Email and texting are currently two of the most popular forms of online communication, even after discounting the large volume of spam messages sent. Beyond even normal increases based on ease of email/text use, many people are addicted to checking and sending email or texts. Billions of business and consumer emails are sent each day. Information overload increases, which also hampers communication. Dependence on continual online interaction also makes communications by individuals and organizations more vulnerable to problems such as mass power outages, disruptions, scams, identity theft, and cyberattacks.

These and related changes affect every aspect of risk communication. On a macroscale, they shape major social institutions (e.g. economics, politics, religion, family, education, science, technology, and legal systems). On a microscale, they shape values, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.