Читать книгу Communicating in Risk, Crisis, and High Stress Situations: Evidence-Based Strategies and Practice - Vincent T. Covello - Страница 85

The first stage was simply to ignore the public. This stage was prevalent in the United States until the late 1960s. The approach was built on the assumption that many people were apathetic about most health, safety, and environmental risk issues. As a result, they were willing to delegate decision‐making to technical, engineering, and scientific professionals. Under these conditions, the best communication strategy was to ignore the public, or, when necessary, mislead them. Protect the public’s health, safety, and environment, but do not let them take part in the decision‐making.

For a long time, the public was content to be ignored regarding risk issues. But this approach stopped working, particularly in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Movements focused on taking back power and participating more directly in risk‐related decision‐making. Increasingly, when risk management authorities ignored the public, controversies became larger. This was the experience for many industries, including the nuclear power, pharmaceutical, and chemical industries. For example, in the early 1960s, thalidomide, a widely used drug for the treatment of nausea in pregnant women, was taken off the market due to massive pressure from the press and public. Experts estimated that thalidomide led to deaths and serious birth defects in thousands of children.