In search for opportunities to raise ‘environmental risk literacy’

Mass media are only of limited value in increasing the general audiences’ environmental risk literacy ‐ for two reasons : Firstly, primarily those people who already possess a basic scientific literacy (acquired e.g. during secondary school or college training) attend to scientific topics in mass media. Print magazines or TV programs designed for a broader audience can transmit scientific contents only in highly diluted form. Secondly, a large body of research about ‘learning from news’ demonstrates that the ability of the average recipient to learn complex facts via mass media is quite low.

Reasons for the poor cognitive effects of mass media based environmental education may be seen in the missing specificity of the transmitted information and in a mismatch of information demand and offer with respect to timing and/or topic. The idea that people learn about environmental risks in advance and store information in their brains until it is needed seems to be unrealistic. To be effective, the information offer must meet the actual information demand of the individual ('just in time’ approach).

To increase environmental risk literacy one must look for situations where people are information‐seeking. In these situations useful information must be given in an understandable form. Mass media may be one channel to provide environmental information, but often other (interpersonal) channels will be more effective. ‘Fast‐learning situations’ in which an urgent information demand exists and people are prepared to learn much in little time, may occur e.g. when a new task is taken over (parent role, founding or joining a citizens’ action group) or when people face a new personal risk (plans to build a waste incineration plant in the neighborhood). But situations evoking high information demand may also be created artificially.

The paper argues that providing environmental information to small and specific audiences by means of interactive communication channels may be more effective for raising the populations’ environmental risk literacy than mainly addressing the general public by general news media. It concludes that modern societies already possess a large and differentiated system for information, education and training that may be utilized and extended for the purpose of informing the public about environmental risks.

Key Words:

• Environmental risk
• environmental literacy
• risk communication
• mass media
• television