Self-study
P1
To many developers of technologies that affect public health or the environment, "risk communication" means persuading the public that the potential risks of such technologies are small and should be ignored. █████ ███ ███████████ █████ ██ ████ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███ ██████ ██████ ██ █████████████ █████ ███ ████ ███ ████
Intro topic ·
Risk communication
People who communicate risks to the public think lay people often ignore mundane dangers, but fear exotic dangers that are highly unlikely to materialize.
P2
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Author's perspective ·
Need clear understanding about how public perceives risk
Lay people's definition of risk ·
Involves subject ethical concerns
Example: small risk to children is more important than large risk to consenting adults.
Lay people's assessment of risk ·
Generally accurate, when not considering ethical matters
Lay people provide reasonably accurate ranks of hazards by annual number of deaths. A study showed that they can understand specific risks of electromagnetic fields.
P3
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Author's perspective ·
Risk communicators should understand what their audience knows and believes about risk
This will increase the chance that risk communicators' message is understood accurately.
Example supporting author ·
Recent study showed effectiveness of risk-communication based on understanding the public
Brochure on risks of radon was developed based on interviews and questionnaires of the public. People who read this brochure understood the risks of radon better than people who had read a different brochure that didn't involve interviews or questionnaires of the public.
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Problem-analysis
1.
Which one of the following ████ █████████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███ ████████
a
Risk communicators are ███████████ ██████████ ███ █████████████ ██ ███████ ████████████ ████ ████ ██████████ ██████ ██ ██████ ██████ ███ ███████
The author never claims that complex technologies have increasing impact on health and safety, or that risk communicators are effectively addressing the situation, so this can’t be her main point.
b
Risk communicators should ██████ ███ ████████ █████████████ ██ ████████████ ██ █████ ██ ██ ████ ██ ████ ████ ███ ███████████ ████ ████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██████████
This is a good paraphrase of both the problem and the author’s recommended solution. The
c
Experts who want ██ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████ █████ ███ ████████ █████ ██ ███████ ████████████ ████ ████████ █████ ███████ ██ ██████ ████ ██ ██ ███████████████
This gets the problem right (effectively communicating risks to the public), but it misrepresents the author’s solution. Her solution isn’t to simplify the message—it’s to tailor the message to whatever the audience’s level of understanding happens to be.
d
Risk communication can ██ █████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ██████████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ █ ██████████ ██████████ ██ █████ ██████
Descriptively accurate, but not the main point. This is part of the background the author gives in P1 on why there’s a problem with effectively communicating risks—people can view risk communication as an attempt to persuade, not inform. But the author then goes on to argue for a solution, and when the author of a Problem-Analysis passage recommends a solution, that solution is the main point.
e
Lay people can ██ ██████ ██████████ ██ ██████████ ████████ ████ ██████ █████████ █████ █████████████ ██████
The author suggests this may be true, but it’s not her main point. Rather, the fact that lay people are influenced by these concerns is merely support for the bigger point the author’s trying to make: risk communicators need to consider lay people’s knowledge and subjective beliefs.