Applied Risk Communication for the 21st Century
“Dr. Viswanath has done a masterful job of putting together a top-notch risk communications program that offers practical, solid content that all types of risk communicators can use.”—R. Kelly Schwalbe, Partner, Sage Communications
Upcoming Program Information
View detailed information for the upcoming program
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Applied Risk Communication for the 21st Century
This program will provide state-of-the-science knowledge on designing effective risk communication messages to improve communication, increase trust in your organization, reduce public anxiety about an issue, and help key stakeholders make better decisions.
Program Fees
- Standard Price $2,400.00
Program Overview
Online Program Overview
When deployed successfully, effective risk communication is an invaluable tool for engendering trust, helping the public make informed decisions and protecting human health. Every day, public health information, and misinformation is generated and shared with the public about diseases, public policies, new products, or corporate behavior. Risk communication skills are needed now more than ever in our highly complex information ecosystem. With the speed that information travels today through traditional media, online outlets, and social media, many communicators are searching for the best ways to share their messaging accurately and timely—for the public’s safety and benefit.
Applied Risk Communication for the 21st Century, the online program from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Executive and Continuing Education, draws on the latest science of science and risk communication to share frameworks from which to develop communications and messaging to increase trust and reduce public anxiety. You will learn from Harvard faculty and some of the most notable scientists working on risk communication, crisis communication, public health emergencies, decision making, big data, and public health leadership. These authorities will explain how to apply cutting edge ideas in communicating risk in a complex information environment using recent situations involving misinformation efforts targeting vaccinations, climate change, and more to illustrate concepts and explore implications for practice.
This collection of faculty and experts will dive into and explain the risk communication landscape, focusing on topics like:
- How to use the news media in an era where “trusted sources” and “established science” carry less public sway than they did before
- Understanding how emotion and cognition interactively shape risk perception and risk preferences
- Informing your communication strategy using infodemiology—the science research focused on scanning the internet for user-contributed health-related content
- How to effectively address misinformation in science and health
Objectives & Curriculum
- Understand the impact of risk communications on the public’s risk perceptions, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors, including compliance
- The best ways to generate and communicate risk information during crisis and non-crisis periods
- Design effective risk communication messages drawing on the science of strategic communication and health communication
- Become familiar with and practice methods for evaluating risk communication efforts
Major topics to be covered in the course will include:
- The psychosocial and societal determinants of risk communication through the scientific and systematic overview of risk communication literature
- Strategic communication of risk information including audience segmentation, designing messaging, and executing risk communications
- Message construction formats for the communication of risk, including fear, narratives, and exemplars
- Risk communication inequalities and disparities in health outcomes
- Risk communication and decision making
- Communication technologies and risk communication