If Crisis or War Comes: A Study of Risk Communication of Eight European Union Member States

Abstract

How do European Union (EU) member states communicate risks to their citizens? In this study, we define risk communication as the information provided by different levels of government to citizens regarding possible future crises to which the general public might be subjected. We seek to answer the following questions: Are there any patterns in the risk communication strategies among EU member states in terms of the sender of information, the message conveyed, the method used, and the intended audience? Finally, to what extent is the state involved in ensuring the safety of its citizens? To tackle these questions, we examine the risk communication strategy of eight countries: Sweden, Finland, Germany, England, France, Estonia, Greece, and Cyprus. Our data consist of governmental web sites, publications, campaigns, and other modes of communication, such as videos posted on YouTube, with questions centering on institutional actors, methods of delivery, content, and effectiveness. We find that the institutional architecture of risk communication aligns with the broad administrative system of each member state. Countries tend to focus on risks that are specific to their context, with Sweden and, to a lesser extent, Germany having a special focus on consequences and providing guidelines to the public on how to survive for a certain period of time in the absence of the state. Especially in Sweden, though the state is a salient actor in risk communication through the dissemination of information at the agency level, the state retreats while urging the resilient citizen to take control of his or her own crisis management.

Staying at home or going out? Leadership response to the COVID‐19 crisis in Greece and Sweden

“…The message of the responsible individual contributing to managing the crisis of the collective is consistent with the general attitude when it comes to risk and crisis management in Sweden as evidenced, inter alia in the brochure titled “If Crisis or War Comes” sent by MSB to all Swedish households in 2018 (Petridou et al., 2019).…”

Politics and administration in times of crisis: Explaining the Swedish response to the COVID‐19 crisis

“…It builds on the normative notion and an ideal type of mutual trust between the bureaucracy and citizens: the public sector provides reliable information and evidence for the citizens to make informed decisions while the citizens in turn are trusted to conduct themselves responsibly. The situation on the ground of course diverges from this ideal type and even the dispatching of this brochure received criticism for not taking into account the variation within the Swedish population's spatial and socioeconomic specificities, for example (Petridou et al., 2019). Having said this, high levels of political trust alone do not explain the decentralization of the Swedish response, as all Scandinavian countries are high‐trust societies and their responses were far more centralized in comparison.…”

Warning Messages in Crisis Communication: Risk Appraisal and Warning Compliance in Severe Weather, Violent Acts, and the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…It is used by the German government, federal states, and local communities to provide location-based warning messages via push notifications. Hazards to which the app refers include threatening weather situations as well as large-scale emergencies and national or local threats ( Petridou et al, 2019 ).…”