Self-paced
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
3.
According to the passage, it ██ ████████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████ █████ ████ ████ █████████████ ███████ ██ ███████████ ████ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ████████ █████ █████ █ ██████████ ███████████
a
The lay people, ██████████ ████ ███ ████ █████████████ ████ ████████ █████████████ ████████████ ████ ███████ █████ ████████ ████████
Unsupported. The lay people won’t recognize their errors or change their minds—they’ll just
b
The lay people ████ ████ █████████ ██████ █████ █████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███ ███ ████████████
Unsupported. The lay people won’t recognize their errors or change their minds—they’ll just
c
The lay people, ███████ ███ ███ ███████████ ████ █████ ████████ ██████████ ████ █████████ ███ █████████████ ███████████ ████ ███ ████ █████████████ ███ █████████
This paraphrases the author’s prediction. She adopts
d
The lay people, ████████████████ ███ ███ ████████████ ████ ███████ ███████ ███ ███████████ ████ ████ ███████████ ██ ██ █████ ███ ███████
Starts off right, but takes it too far. The lay people will
e
The lay people ████ ██████ ███ █████████████ █████ █ ██████████ ████ ████████ ███████████ ██████████
The author does raise concerns that lay people might sometimes ignore risk communicators’ messages, but she never suggests that they specifically do this with any communication about a technology they consider dangerous, or that they do this whenever they have mistaken ideas about that technology.