Risk Communication and Public Health

by Bennett, Peter; Calman, Kenneth

• ISBN13: 9780192630377
• ISBN10: 0192630377
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-07-08
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Controversies about risks to public health regularly hit the news, whetherabout food safety, environmental issues, medical interventions, or "lifestyle"risks such as drinking. To those trying to manage or regulate risks, publicreactions sometimes seem bizarre. To the public, the behaviour of thosesupposedly "in charge" can seem no less odd. Trust is currently at a premium.This volume brings together a wide variety of perspectives on riskcommunication, from the health professions, academia, campaigning organisations,government and its advisory committees, and independent consultancies and thinktanks. It should be of interest not only to those involved in risk assessment orcommunication but to anyone interested in the role of science and the media inthe political process, and how one sector of "the system" is responding todemands for greater openness and participation. While each chapter isself-contained, the discussion moves progressively through an introduction torisk communication as a topic of research; studies of prominent cases and thelessons to be drawn from them; contributions to the wider debate aboutprocedures, power and institutions; proposals for promoting "good practice" inrisk communication, in government, the Health Service and elsewhere.

Table of Contents

Preface	v
List of contributors	xiii
Biographical notes	xvii
Part 1: Research perspectives: what do we know and where are the frontiers?
Understanding responses to risk: some basic findings	3	(17)
Peter Bennett
Public risk perceptions and risk communication	20	(13)
Lynn J. Frewer
Public reactions to risk: social structures, images of science, and the role of trust	33	(18)
Ian H. Langford
Claire Marris
Timothy O'Riordan
Public and professional perceptions of environmental and health risks	51	(14)
Emma Green
Simon D. Short
Raquel Duarte-Davidson
Leonard S. Levy
Public health communication and the social amplification of risks: present knowledge and future prospects	65	(16)
Nick Pidgeon
Karen Henwood
Bryan Maguire
Part 2: Lessons from prominent cases
The media and trust: E. coli and other cases	81	(14)
Hugh Pennington
The British Government's handling of risk: some reflections on the BSE/CJD crisis	95	(13)
Robert J. Maxwell
Experiences in risk communication	108	(9)
Ronan A. Lyons
Dorothy Wright
Benchmarking in government: case studies and principles	117	(16)
Tony Taig
Part 3: Institutional issues: some perspectives
Perception of risk-is the public probably right?	133	(7)
David Fisk
The recent excitement over genetically-modified foods	140	(12)
Derek Burke
Political risk culture: not just a communication failure	152	(18)
Ian E. Taylor
Consumers and risk	170	(13)
Sheila McKechnie
Sue Davies
Negotiating risks to public health: models for participation	183	(12)
Anna Coote
Jane Franklin
The identification and management of risk: opening up the process	195	(12)
David Coles
Part 4: Pulling the threads together
Risk communication as a decision process	207	(15)
Peter Bennett
David Coles
Anne McDonald
Risk communication in government and the private sector: wider observations	222	(7)
Tony Taig
The relationships between the media, public beliefs, and policy-making	229	(12)
David Miller
Sally Macintyre
Improving risk communication: scenario-based workshops	241	(13)
Simon French
John Maule
Learning from experience: the need for systematic evaluation methods	254	(13)
Simon Gerrard
Index	267