Using videos in floods and bushfires to educate, signal risk, and promote protective action in the community

•Visuals are a critical component to the public information and warnings ecosystem to translate information about a hazard, associated risk, and what protective action is appropriate.•Videos using actual event footage of the severity and impact of a natural hazard are helpful at informing risk perceptions and coping appraisal, and encouraging preparatory and protective action intentions.•Videos using infographics, concise information, and people’s recounts of past experiences are useful to improve community knowledge about a hazard prior to an emergency.•Some videos are more appropriate for the preparation versus response phase of a natural hazard emergency depending on whether they help shape community knowledge, increase risk perceptions, or offer guidance on protective action. Videos are commonly used by emergency services agencies in natural hazard emergencies to communicate to the public about the hazard, its possible risks, and to promote protective action. To evaluate the efficacy of the videos being disseminated and amplified during an event, this research examined the extent to which different types of videos trigger risk perceptions, promote protective action, and improve knowledge about the hazard and impact. The findings suggest a video containing a smaller number of facts is most useful at impacting the public’s hazard knowledge, visualisations (real-life or infographics) of facts helps improve knowledge, and videos highlighting the impact an emergency is having (or had) through people’s experiences helped improve hazard knowledge, risk perceptions, and protective action intentions. Finally, while footage of a bushfire triggers threat perceptions and some coping appraisal, the style is not as useful for building hazard knowledge. The research extends visual risk literacy knowledge and offers practical guidance for agencies operating in high-risk environments seeking to achieve behavioural compliance. The research argues videos will continue to be an important tool in the public information and warning milieu for any risk event.