Best practices approaches have guided governmental risk communication efforts at Superfund and other chronic risk sites for more than two decades, playing an important role in the ways in which those most affected by contamination make sense of risk. Such approaches can affect the information environment in two separate but related ways: 1) directly, through the explicit sharing of information, and 2) indirectly, through ongoing stakeholder interpretations of the processes by which that information is shared. To date, the indirect, process-related effects have not been addressed in assessments of communicative efficacy at Superfund sites. Thus, it increasingly is necessary to evaluate not only whether risk communication approaches have been effective for information sharing but if, in fact, their implementation has had unintended consequences for the ways in which stakeholders perceive and interact with each other. Using sensemaking theory as a diagnostic and evaluative tool, particularly when applied to a complex case, provides a promising avenue for identifying and addressing key challenges for sustained communication in chronic risk communities. The myriad environmental, health, and economic risks associated with western Kentucky’s Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PGDP) National Priorities List Superfund site have affected numerous stakeholders for decades. A crystallized case study of risk communication about and regarding the PGDP points to sensemaking constraints across five themes: 1) The Government; 2) The Public; 3) Delays; 4) Secrecy, Deception, and Manipulation; and 5) Competing Risk Perceptions. These findings suggest that a reconceptualization of risk communication is needed that moves stakeholders to the center of the communication model. By acknowledging the multiplicity of stakes in site-related risks and decisions, the proposed model increases the capacity for shared sensemaking while decreasing the likelihood of adversarialism driving the discourse. Over time, this model should promote increased levels of trust, improving stakeholder expectations and creating a more positive framework within which to make sense of risk-related issues.
- Civic and Community Engagement,
- Communication,
- Community-Based Research,
- Environmental Policy,
- Mass Communication,
- Organizational Communication,
- Place and Environment,
- Public Affairs,
- Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration,
- Public Relations and Advertising,
- Social Influence and Political Communication,
- Social Psychology and Interaction and
- Speech and Rhetorical Studies
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/anna_hoover/8/