Identifying and Addressing Challenges in the Communication Environment

Identifying and Addressing Challenges in the Communication Environment

The Public Health Risk Communication guide is designed to address challenges in the communication environment. A communication environment (or context) refers to the circumstances that affect how a message is interpreted and understood. These challenges may affect your communication strategy:

• Scientific uncertainty

• Misaligned risk perception (i.e., when experts perceive risk differently than the public)

• Inaccurate health information

• Trust in sources

Assessing the Communication Context for Challenges

These contextual factors can be thought of as the background information for your risk communication—that is, the events, beliefs, and dynamics that occur in the broader public health environment and are largely outside of your control.

To gain this baseline understanding of your communication context, you can do the following:

• Review data from multiple sources to understand what has already been communicated about the health risk and what your audience thinks and feels about the health risk. These sources could include social media posts and comments, online surveys, focus groups, and town hall meetings.

• Consult with subject matter experts on where to identify new and historical data about the health risk. Subject matter experts may include community partners who know and represent the aspects of your community. Also, identify experts and community partners that traditional media sources may turn to and prepare them with up to date and accurate information.

• Use artificial intelligence tools with caution. These tools can make analyzing large volumes of blogs, tweets, and news reports faster and easier, but they're not perfect and shouldn't replace human review.

By assessing the communication context, you can begin to identify which challenges may affect your communication strategy. The following sections describe four communication challenges identified by a team of researchers based on a review of recent risk communication literature and conversations with public health communicators.

Scientific Uncertainty

Risk situations almost always involve some level of uncertainty. This is especially true when a public health situation is new and evolving. Uncertainty plays a role in other situations, too. For example, uncertainty can arise when a public health emergency has subsided, but certain risks persist (like risks after a flood). Uncertainty is also common when the science is evolving.

When dealing with uncertainty, it is important to identify the source. Consider these questions: Is the uncertainty due to the absence of information or evolving information? Is it due to conflicting evidence or disagreement among experts about how to interpret the evidence? Knowing the source of the uncertainty can help you effectively communicate about it.

Misaligned Risk Perception

People process and use the same risk information in different ways. Some may interpret a risk as highly likely or very serious, while others will interpret the same risk as unlikely or insignificant. This inconsistent interpretation can make communicating about risk tricky and can lead to some people misunderstanding or misinterpreting their risk and when they should take actions to protect themselves and others.

Communication challenges also arise when people's perceptions of risk do not align with what the evidence suggests is the real or actual risk. This imbalance requires careful communication so that your audience can better understand the risk. Consider the following:

• When people perceive a threat as much more likely or more serious than it really is, emotions and outrage may run high and people may be stressed and scared. Managing their outrage and emotional reactions is important, as is communicating frequently—but with caution—so you avoid heightening people's fears and exaggerated perceptions of the threat.

• When people perceive a threat as less likely or less serious than it really is, they may dismiss your messages and not take protective measures with an appropriate sense of urgency.

Presence of Inaccurate Health Information

The spread of inaccurate health information is an important and growing public health concern. Often, rumors take root because people have questions or concerns they want addressed, and inaccurate information or misinterpretations can appear to address those needs. Other times, people or organizations intentionally spread false information to deceive and mislead audiences. It's important to look out for both with inaccurate health information.

You'll almost always find some level of inaccurate health information about a public health situation. The key is to watch for and address both inaccurate information and audience questions and concerns before rumors can start. Importantly, not all inaccurate health information needs to be addressed. Determine how prevalent or widespread the inaccuracy of health information is and whether it is influencing your audience's thoughts and behaviors.

Trust in Sources

Trust is an important factor that can influence people's confidence in the sources providing public health recommendations. If people don't trust the advice given to them, they might be less likely to follow it, which can affect their health. It's also important to consider whether your audience has had historical experiences that would lead to mistrust in your organization or in other public health agencies. How the public perceives an institution or organization affects trust.

These four challenges can make risk communication difficult. The Public Health Risk Communication guide describes five core risk communication principles to apply in messaging to address each of the four challenges.