ABSTRACT
SCHERER and Juanillo provide an excellent review of the literature on public health communication. In their last section, they devote several paragraphs to a new and emerging area of public health communication research: risk communication (Covello, McCallum, & Pavlova, 1989; Covello, von Winterfeldt, & Slovic, 1986; Davies, Covello, & Allen, 1987; Stallen, 1991; National Research Council, 1989; Sandman, 1985). Because this is one of the fastest-growing parts of the literature on public health communication—with hundreds of articles and books published over the last five years (Covello et al., 1989; Davies et al., 1987; Kasperson & Stallen, 1991; National Research Council, 1989)—the purpose of this commentary is to expand on the material presented in Scherer and Juanillo’s review. By doing so, I also hope to provide the reader with a general outline of the risk communication literature and to relate this work to the larger literature on public health communication.
