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to be fully transparent;

       unwilling to share complete and timely information about what they know about a risk;

       unaware they are using bureaucratic or technical language and jargon that people in the public do not understand;

       more interested in protecting their positions of power than in protecting people from harm or adverse impacts;

       often inconsistent in their statements about risks;

       inconsistent in their recommendations regarding preventive and protective actions; and

       often unwilling to allow meaningful stakeholder participation and engagement in the decision‐making process.

      In this distrusting environment, advantages accrue to those with effective risk and crisis communication skills.

      1.4.7 Changes in the Global Political Environment

      In the current global political environment, debates about how to manage and control risks often become hostile. Arguments and polarization often replace compromise and joint problem‐solving. Disagreements among stakeholders arise from many interconnected sources, crossing political and geographical boundaries. Small disruptions often rapidly escalate, due in part to the complexity and coupling of large, complex systems. The principles and practices of risk, high concern, and crisis communication presented here are essential to make effective policies and sound decisions.

      1.4.8 The COVID‐19 Pandemic and the Changed Communication Landscape

      In December 2019, a new viral disease was reported in Wuhan, a city of 11 million people in Hubei Province, China. Initially, Chinese health officials reported no human‐to‐human cases of transmission. However, that assessment quickly changed. Human‐to‐human cases multiplied. Wuhan went into a near complete lockdown, but not before cases began to show up around the world. By March of 2020, the virus had spread to virtually every nation on the planet and entire nations urgently implemented stay‐at‐home orders. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic. In a little over one year, COVID‐19 went on to kill more than 2.5 million people, including more than 500,000 in the United States. Hope did not appear on the horizon until the arrival of vaccines in January and February 2021.

      The COVID‐19 pandemic reshaped the communications landscape in profound ways. Because of the harm being caused by pandemic, the need for effective risk and crisis communication was never greater. Navigating the pandemic called for sophisticated communication skills, not just for public health officials but throughout government – in fact, through all organizations, as change and uncertainty causing high concern became the norm. Even those well‐skilled in crisis communication faced unprecedented challenges. The crisis was global, and few governments were prepared for the communication challenges. Responses and messages were uncoordinated, and too often politicized. Even messages based in science were often confusing and frequently changing, as experts quickly learned more about the disease and its means of spread. And the audience for the messages – essentially everyone on earth – had difficulty hearing and understanding even clear messages, as they were experiencing high levels of stress, uncertainty, and anxiety about their health and every aspect of their lives.

COVID‐19 was the first pandemic in history where social media was used on a massive scale to communicate information aimed at keeping people safe, informed, productive, and connected. Unfortunately, social media also created a communication infodemic – defined as an overabundance of information, both online and offline, that is overwhelming in its volume, largely unstoppable in the speed and breadth of its spread, and which includes as much, or more, unreliable, misleading, and inaccurate content as it does facts and useful advice. The COVID‐19 infodemic undermined the global response to COVID‐19 and cost lives. The communication infodemic jeopardized measures to control the pandemic by enabling and amplifying misinformation, i.e. incorrect information, and disinformation, i.e. information deliberately intended to deceive.

      In April 2020, the UN Secretary‐General launched the United Nations Communications Response initiative to combat the spread of mis‐ and disinformation. At the World Health Assembly in May 2020, the World Health Organization Member States passed a resolution that recognized that effective risk and crisis communication was a critical part of controlling the COVID‐19 pandemic. We continue to learn from the communication failures and successes of the COVID‐19 crisis, and COVID‐19‐related findings, examples, and case studies are contained throughout this book. The experience of the global pandemic profoundly illustrates that successful risk, high concern, and crisis communication plays a critical role in all aspects of human well‐being. The principles and practices described in this book will help its readers achieve a critical positive impact through their communications.

      2

      Core Concepts

      CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

      This chapter defines the fields of risk, crisis, and high concern communication and outlines the broad and varied range of situations that require their application.

      At the end of this chapter, you will be able to:

       describe how risk, high concern, and crisis communication practices can be employed for a wide and varied range of issues;

       explain the terms used in risk, high concern, and crisis communication;

       explain the defining characteristics of risk, high concern, and crisis situations; and

       determine the scope and nature of situations in which you may need to draw on risk, high concern, or crisis communication.

      Good words are worth much, and cost little.

      — George Herbert.

      In this chapter, I define and discuss the core concepts of risk, high concern, and crisis communication. These concepts may appear familiar, but what appears to be a simple concept is often more complex in application. Core concepts provide a framework upon which you can build strategies and action plans. The concepts function as a compass, pointing the user in a particular direction.

      I also include a brief history of each core concept as their meanings have morphed or changed. My hope is these brief histories not only are interesting but also suggest alternative ways of thinking about the familiar. For example, one of the original meanings of crisis was a “turning point in a disease; a sudden change for worse or better.” This original meaning suggests a crisis can cause either a bad or a good outcome. The following case diary illustrates the importance of understanding high concern as a core communication concept.

2.1 Case Diary: Recognizing Change as a High Concern Issue

I was in between trips helping clients when I received an urgent call late one Friday night. On the line was the chief executive officer (CEO) of an organization for which I had often done work related to health, safety, and the environment. We knew each other well. Apologizing for the late hour of the call, the CEO said he urgently needed my help. He was about to announce a major change in his organization: he was in the final stages of negotiating the sale of his company to a much larger company.

      The CEO said the offer to buy his company came suddenly. It was a generous offer and not a takeover but designed to be extremely beneficial to the mission, operations, personnel, and finances of his company. The company making the offer required a prompt response. He had quickly discussed the offer with his senior managers, the board of directors, and lawyers. All agreed they should accept and begin negotiations about details.

      The CEO told me that although negotiations about the sale had to be secret, anxiety‐ridden rumors were already spreading throughout his organization. The rumors were causing staff

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