ABSTRACT
The risk communication literature offers a number of commonly held assumptions about individuals’ perceptions of risk, their processing of risk messages, and likely responses to communication strategies (see Covello, Peters, Wojtecki, & Hyde, 2001; Griffin, Dunwoody, & Neuwirth, 1999; Ropeik & Slovic, 2003). Not all of these assumptions have been empirically tested, especially in the context of community risk-management activities, although new advances in communication sciences are beginning to be integrated into systematic research programs designed for communitycommunication risk-management initiatives (Heath & O’Hair, 2009; Hobbs, Kittler, Fox, Middleton, & Bates, 2004; O’Hair, 2005; O’Hair, Heath, & Becker, 2005). A select sampling from that body of research includes: knowledge management, cultural factors, community dynamics, decision-making styles, relationship building resilience, inclusion/exclusion, information flow directions, collaborative process, media preferences, informal networking, and threat mitigators. These initiatives, when integrated with knowledge management strategies, will create a more in-depth understanding of how local communities deal with information and communication in the context of risks and crises. A keystone to the management of risks and disasters is an understanding that these events occur at the local or community level. This chapter focuses on community risk communication by leveraging insights from these areas of research and applying them within a local community knowledge management perspective. Specifically, a community-communication infrastructure approach will take center stage as a means for increasing community resilience against a backdrop of continuing and emerging community vulnerabilities. A community-communication infrastructure is the process of placing attention on a diverse body of stakeholders who are encouraged to participate in the sharing of ideas regarding risks and threats in their communities. Collaboration is established when multiple layers of scientists, practitioners, and the public manage knowledge at levels that are accessible to most of those concerned (Heath, Palenchar, & O’Hair, 2009). Within this context, communication processes can create awareness, educate, and coordinate and evaluate efforts toward managing community
knowledge about risks (Heath & O’Hair, 2009). This chapter isolates knowledge processes involved in preparing the public, media, and risk managers for risks and threats associated with emergencies and disasters in support of a community-based risk communication infrastructure model. We believe that a community-communication infrastructure (Kim, BallRokeach, Cohen, & Jung, 2002; Palenchar & Heath, 2002) approach stands above other ideas for conceptualizing and operationalizing risk and crisis communication in local communities. Because communities are unique and their members and organizations respond differently to communication stratagems, a model or framework such as the one proposed here assimilates the diverse knowledge bases of a community’s unique profile, and recommends appropriate policies and plans (O’Hair, 2004; Rodriguez, Diaz, Santos, & Aguirre, 2006). This approach is compatible with those that emphasize a synergy of different knowledge management perspectives, as advocated by Murphy and Eisenberg in Chapter 15 of this volume.
