To Örebro University

oru.seÖrebro University Publications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Citizens' Communication Needs and Attitudes to Risk in a Nuclear Accident Scenario: A Mixed Methods Study
Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences. Crisis Communication Centre.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-6407-6037
Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences. Crisis Communication Centre.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-7602-0225
Medical Radiation Physics, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden.
2022 (English)In: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, ISSN 1661-7827, E-ISSN 1660-4601, Vol. 19, no 13, article id 7709Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The potential devastation that a nuclear accident can cause to public health and the surrounding environment demands robust emergency preparedness. This includes gaining a greater knowledge of citizens' needs in situations involving radiation risk. The present study examines citizens' attitudes to a remediation scenario and their information and communication needs, using focus group data (n = 39) and survey data (n = 2291) from Sweden. The focus groups uniquely showed that adults of all ages express health concerns regarding young children, and many also do so regarding domestic animals. Said protective sentiments stem from a worry that even low-dose radiation is a transboundary, lingering health risk. It leads to doubts about living in a decontaminated area, and high demands on fast, continuous communication that in key phases of decontamination affords dialogue. Additionally, the survey results show that less favorable attitudes to the remediation scenario-worry over risk, doubt about decontamination effectiveness, and preferences to move away from a remediation area-are associated with the need for in-person meetings and dialogue. Risk managers should thus prepare for the need for both in-person meetings and frequent information provision tasks, but also that in-person, citizen meetings are likely to feature an over-representation of critical voices, forming very challenging communication tasks.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
MDPI, 2022. Vol. 19, no 13, article id 7709
Keywords [en]
nuclear accidents, decontamination, risk attitudes, communication preferences, focus group interviews, mixed methods research
National Category
Communication Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-100308DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19137709ISI: 000822178200001PubMedID: 35805364Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85132395879OAI: oai:DiVA.org:oru-100308DiVA, id: diva2:1685432
Funder
Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, 2017-7043Örebro UniversityAvailable from: 2022-08-02 Created: 2022-08-02 Last updated: 2024-01-02Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full textPubMedScopus

Authority records

Rasmussen, JoelEriksson, Mats

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Rasmussen, JoelEriksson, Mats
By organisation
School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences
In the same journal
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Communication Studies

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
pubmed
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
pubmed
urn-nbn
Total: 166 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf