Risk Communication as Government Agency Organizational Practice

Abstract

The dynamics of organizational risk communication is an understudied topic in risk research. This article investigates how public officials at six government agencies in Sweden understand and relate to risk communication and its uses in the context of agency organizational work on policy and regulation. Qualitative interviews were used to explore the practitioners’ views on some key topics in the academic literature on risk communication. A main finding is that there is little consensus on what the goals of risk communication are; if, and how, uncertainty should be communicated; and what role is to be played by transparency in risk communication. However, the practitioners agree that dissemination (top down) to the public of robust scientific and expert knowledge is a crucial element. Dialogue and participation is used mainly with other agencies and elite stakeholders with whom agencies collaborate to implement policy goals. Dialogue with the public on issues of risk is very limited. Some implications of the findings for the practice of risk communication by government agencies are suggested.

How the Health Rumor Misleads People’s Perception in a Public Health Emergency: Lessons from a Purchase Craze during the COVID-19 Outbreak in China

“…The semi-structured component meant that certain key questions were asked in the same way in all interviews. The open-ended component was intended to capture each interviewee’s actual understanding associated with the outbreak and to uncover the real factors that influenced people’s behavior from interviewees’ discourse [ 56 , 57 ].…”

Effective Risk Communication for Public Health Emergency: Reflection on the COVID-19 (2019-nCoV) Outbreak in Wuhan, China

“…The existing literature indicates that a challenge identified in implementing openness in risk communication is that it is difficult to decide what to present and what not to present. For instance, complete transparency causes possibly unjustified fear among members of the public [46]. As we mentioned above, the initial intention behind the Wuhan government concealing information was based on the consideration of maintaining social stability.…”

The Evolving Field of Risk Communication

“…Authors' disciplinary backgrounds range from communication, sociology, geography, and anthropology, to psychology, and the decision sciences (Fischhoff & Broomell, 2020;Rickard, 2019), among many others. Our knowledge extends to the wide-ranging gray literature and unpublished practical experience (OECD, 2016;World Bank, 2013); yet the linkage between scholarship and practice cannot be taken for granted, as empirical evidence shows that many practitioners remain disconnected from academic knowledge (Boholm, 2019). 2 In seeking to comment on, and evaluate, the latest developments in risk communication research, this literature review is organized around two themes that dominated the published literature since 2010.…”