ABSTRACT
More than ever before, in the current day, organizations act in a social environment characterized by a high public awareness of uncertainty, threats and dangers. Political organizations, public authorities and corporations have to make and communicate strategic decisions fraught with risk: deliberately or not, they are involved in risk communication. However, what level of risk is perceived as tolerable is inherently subjective and constantly renegotiated in public. Strategic risk communication is confronted with various and contradicting perceptions of risk by actors and groups inside and outside an organization. The purpose of this chapter is to bring theories of risk communication research to the field of strategic communication. Strategy is an under-researched topic in risk communication research (Chess & Johnson, 2010) and, likewise, scholarship on communication management is barely concerned with matters of risk communication.
