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of 2020–2021 as described in the last section of this chapter. This book draws on new, and established, valid, and reliable research and applies it to relevant, complex, and difficult communications environments, including lessons learned in the extraordinary global public health crisis of the pandemic.

      1.4.1 New Literature, New Research

      The scientific literature on risk, high concern, and crisis communication has expanded considerably in the past three decades. From modest beginnings, there are now more than 8,000 articles published in journals and more than 2,000 books focused on risk issues. The research spreads across fields, drawing on the work of behavioral scientists, social scientists, engineers, economists, statisticians, medical scientists, toxicologists, epidemiologists, industrial hygienists, lawyers, media studies, neuroscientists, and a host of other disciplines. The field has benefited from these new understandings and insights.

      The material needs to be selected, synthesized, and interpreted for practitioners, integrating new findings into concrete recommendations for application.

      I wrote this book to give you that synthesis.

      1.4.2 Changes in the Communications Landscape

      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.

      1.4.3 Changes in Journalism and the Perception of Facts

      The profession of journalism is radically changing, in part because of changes in communication technologies. The models on which modern journalism was founded, including fact checking, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press, are no longer universal norms. Even the definition of journalist is evolving. These changes are forcing many news organizations to cut staffs and scale down operations. Misinformation is rising and trust in traditional broadcast and print media is declining as alternative sources of information become readily available. Basic assumptions about truth in journalism are being increasingly challenged by accusations of fake news, hyperbole, and the existence of alternative facts. Confirmation bias – whereby people search for “facts” that confirm what they already believe and discount information that is inconsistent with their beliefs – has become epidemic. Citizen journalism and peer‐to‐peer communication often replace information from professional journalists and other central or “authoritative” sources.

      1.4.4 Changes in Laws, Regulations, and Societal Expectations

      Right‐to‐know and right‐to‐participate laws and regulations have increased. Many public and private sector organizations have made risk and crisis communication and consultation an obligatory task of risk and crisis management. Citizens increasingly expect risk and crisis managers to recognize that (a) people and communities have a right to take part in decisions that affect their lives, their property, and the things they value; and (b) the goal of best communication practice is not to diffuse concerns or avoid action but to engage people in a dialog that produces informed individuals and organizations that are involved, thoughtful, solution‐oriented, and collaborative.

      1.4.5 Changes in Concerns about Health, Safety, and the Environment

      Public concerns about exposures to potentially toxic substances, physical agents, and hazardous events have significantly increased in recent decades. These interests have led to increasing demands for risk information in crisis and noncrisis situations. Interest and concerns about risks have also resulted in the expansion of risk‐related issues by traditional broadcast and print outlets and on social media channels.

      Inequalities in health, safety, and exposures to hazards between different populations are increasingly being brought to light. The increased understanding of the harm caused by governments and organizations to marginalized, vulnerable, and minority populations has further eroded trust, increased suspicion of “authorities,” and raised demand for more nuanced information and more complete data.

      1.4.6 Changes in Levels of Trust

      The erosion of trust in traditional experts and authorities is driving the need for more effective risk, high concern, and crisis communication. Over the past 50 years, there has been a precipitous drop in trust in institutions overall and with risk management institutions specifically.

      Perceptions that undermine trust include observations that technical experts and authorities are:

       paternalistic and insensitive or dismissive of concerns and fears about risks as irrational;

       unwilling to listen, express empathy, or acknowledge the emotions people feel

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