Panel Session: Mixed Media and Crossed Wires: Challenges and Opportunities Presented by Contemporary and Traditional Media for Disaster Preparedness, Warning, and Response Communication

When: Thursday, June 1, 2023, 14:00 – 15:30 NDT

What: CMOS Congress / ORCA Scientific Meeting Panel Discussion

Title: Mixed Media and Crossed Wires: Challenges and Opportunities Presented by Contemporary and Traditional Media for Disaster Preparedness, Warning, and Response Communication 

Location: Sheraton Hotel, St. John’s NL, Signal

The communication of hazard-related information usually begins with the detection of a potential hazard through observation of phenomena. The data are analyzed and/or modeled and meaning or implications are drawn from the results. Depending on the time scale of the anticipated hazard, this is then communicated in a variety of ways (reports, sirens, alerts, images, simulation, maps, narrative, graphs, numerical equations), to one or many audiences (same agency, different agencies, decision-makers, public). At each step of the communication process, the message format and content can be (or may need to be) altered to fit the audience, channel, or circumstances. The selection of data or model outcome to communicate, the communication of uncertainty or probability, as well as aspects of the message format and content may result in the communication of a meaning different than initially intended or a message that amplifies one aspect but attenuates another. Testing processes and messages with the end-user and obtaining feedback, is critical, but may not always occur. Traditional media (radio, TV, print or electronic media) and social media play a strong role in hazard information dissemination exchange with both challenges and opportunities for interaction, multi-directional information flow, information gathering and dissemination. The panelists will discuss the challenges of maintaining the fidelity of the message meaning for each audience through the multi-step communication process for a variety of coastal hazards such as sea-level rise, flooding, extreme weather events, and tsunamis.