Talking points: What you will communicate about?
Discussion is often a precursor to action, so consider how to generate informed discussions among your target audience around disaster risks.
Contents of Disaster Risk Communication Hub
Discussion topics might include:
- how they understand, think, feel or act in response to natural hazards;
- what information people need to make decisions relating to disaster risks;
- what perceptions they have around risk and what influences that;
- uncertainties relating to disaster risks;
- what is considered “normal” within their social circles in relation to reducing their vulnerability to disaster risks. What will help to challenge negative norms and practices, such as avoiding the topic altogether or leaving others to act.
Communicating uncertainty
One of the biggest disaster risk communication challenges is informing audiences of something that may – or may not – occur, its likelihood of happening, and its possible impacts. This communication will affect how people much time, energy and resources they will invest in disaster risk reduction – and how they react when a natural hazard takes place.
It can be difficult to communicate about uncertainty, but don’t shy away from it. Failing to communicate at all can leave an information vacuum quickly filled by rumour. Instead a general rule of thumb is to communicate what you know, what you don’t know, and if relevant, that guidance may change as new information emerges.
Resources to communicate uncertainty:
- Spiegelhalter, D (2017), ‘Risk and Uncertainty Communication’ in Annual Review of statistics and its Application, vol. 4
- Future Climate for Africa (2019), Approaches to communicating climatic uncertainties with decision-makers
Public Awareness Public Education key messages
The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and Save the Children have developed Public Awareness and Public Education (PAPE) messages to help communities improve their knowledge of disaster risks and put in place measures to stay safe.
These concise and practical messages, are designed to be tailored to the specific hazards, vulnerabilities, and capacities of local communities. They can be adapted to include local languages, specific coping mechanisms, and Indigenous practices. The messages draw upon the IFRC and Save the Children’s long history of helping communities build their resilience, are a tool to help communities do just that.
Inform or persuade?
Generally, disaster risk communication should aim to present factual, unbiased information so people can make informed decisions. If your aim is to persuade people, you should acknowledge this and explain why.
If you want to provide information so people can make informed decisions, consider what biases you might bring to this. When choosing what information to share and how, consider how your agenda matches or differs from that of your target audience.
If you want to persuade people to change their attitude or behaviour, be clear about your agenda. By urging audiences to prioritise your issue, will they deprioritise another? What impacts might that have?
Communication that leaves audiences feeling coerced or manipulated into thinking a particular way can undermine trust, and build resistance to future dialogue around disaster risk reduction.
Adapted from Freeman, A (2018), Facts, risks and emotions