Assessing Hazard Information/Communication Programs

Hazard information/communication campaigns are dealing with important objectives, such as advancing knowledge about hazards for health and safety, influencing risk‐related behaviour (both at the workplace and in private contexts), improving emergency preparedness in exposed communities, and facilitating risk conflict resolution. However, are these goals actually achieved by pertinent programs? to answer this question, empirical evaluation with respect to content, process, and outcome criteria is indispensable. Moreover, such research requires a comprehensive psychological model of the information/communication process to be investigated. A review of the risk communication literature, as well as experiences from two case studies (one about technological hazards, i.e., chemical plants, and one about natural hazards, i.e., bushfire), demonstrate that strict requirements are to be met in evaluation studies. Crucial issues include definition of communication aims in advance, sound theoretical conceptualisation of intervention effects, specification of target populations, longitudinal design and appropriate timing of data collection, inclusion of control groups, monitoring implementation and course of the program, control of context influences, and reliability and validity proofs. There is still a lack of comprehensive assessments of hazard information/communication programs, yet evaluation results are the best means to improve respective campaigns. However, as evaluation research is useless if ignored, the comprehensive dissemination of findings is also critical.