1. Society of Risk Analysis Annual Meeting Boston - 2008 Communicating Risk: Amplification, Attenuation & Digital Media National Science Foundation, NSF 06-595, #0809470 Nanotechnology Interdisciplinary Research Team (NIRT): Intuitive Toxicology and Public Engagement Information adapted from White Paper: Communicating Risk in the 21st Century David M. Berube with Brenton Faber, Dietram Scheufele and Christopher Cummings, Grant Gardner, Kelly Martin and Nicholas Temple

2. Society of Risk Analysis Annual Meeting Boston - 2008 Communicating Risk: Amplification, Attenuation & Digital Media Public participates in 3 acts: consumption, production and sharing (Shirky, 2008) Comparable accuracy of Wikipedia to The Encyclopedia Britannica for articles on scientific subjects (Nature, Giles, 2005).

3. Society of Risk Analysis Annual Meeting Boston - 2008 Communicating Risk: Amplification, Attenuation & Digital Media

4. Society of Risk Analysis Annual Meeting Boston - 2008 Communicating Risk: Amplification, Attenuation & Digital Media In 2005: 6 % of entire U.S. population had created a blog 16 % regularly were reading blogs Nearly a quarter of Americans (23 percent) say they regularly or sometimes read blogs about politics or current events (PEW, 2008)

5. Society of Risk Analysis Annual Meeting Boston - 2008 Communicating Risk: Amplification, Attenuation & Digital Media Days after 9/11 (Lanfield, 2002) Half of internet users experienced problems accessing traditional news sites Accessed: alternative news sites, international news sites, government and NGO websites (Red Cross) Citizens posted personal accounts, photographs, and video footage of the tragedy Journalists participated in internet chat rooms & online bulletin boards looking for eyewitness accounts

6. Society of Risk Analysis Annual Meeting Boston - 2008 Communicating Risk: Amplification, Attenuation & Digital Media Internet: information flows faster, covers more sources and more accessible (Krimsky, 2007) Traditional media might amplify a message, digital media provides opportunity to attenuate a message Opportunities for risk communicators 1)False or exaggerated info, communicated to public before experts can communicate views 2)Risk communicators have same opportunity to communicate quickly and effectively to the public

7. Society of Risk Analysis Annual Meeting Boston - 2008 Communicating Risk: Amplification, Attenuation & Digital Media Conclusions Make proactive efforts to re-frame messages through various forms of media—traditional and digital Need to consider using untraditional venues entertaining docudramas, social networking sites podcasts, blogs and internet portals.

8. Society of Risk Analysis Annual Meeting Boston - 2008 Communicating Risk: Amplification, Attenuation & Digital Media Thank you! Kelly Martin kelly_martin@ncsu.edu