KU Leuven, Institute for Media Studies, Leuven, Belgium.
Belgian Nuclear Research Centre SCK•CEN, Society and Policy Support, Mol, Belgium.
Risk Anal. 2017 Mar;37(3):570-582. doi: 10.1111/risa.12618. Epub 2016 Jun 20.
The media play an important role in risk communication, providing information about accidents, both nearby and far away. Each media source has its own presentation style, which could influence how the audience perceives the presented risk. This study investigates the explanatory power of 12 information sources (traditional media, new media, social media, and interpersonal communication) for the perceived risk posed by radiation released from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant on respondents' own health and that of the population in general. The analysis controlled for attitude toward nuclear energy, gender, education, satisfaction with the media coverage, and duration of attention paid to the coverage. The study uses a large empirical data set from a public opinion survey, which is representative for the Belgian population with respect to six sociodemographic variables. Results show that three information sources are significant regressors of perceived health-related risk of the nuclear accident: television, interpersonal communication, and the category of miscellaneous online sources. More favorable attitudes toward nuclear power, longer attention to the coverage, and higher satisfaction with the provided information lead to lower risk perception. Taken together, the results suggest that the media can indeed have a modest influence on how the audience perceives a risk.
媒体在风险沟通中发挥着重要作用，提供有关事故的信息，包括附近和遥远地区的事故。每个媒体来源都有其自己的呈现风格，这可能会影响观众对呈现风险的感知。本研究调查了 12 个信息来源（传统媒体、新媒体、社交媒体和人际传播）对受访者自身健康和公众普遍认为福岛核电厂受损释放的辐射所带来的感知风险的解释力。该分析控制了对核能的态度、性别、教育程度、对媒体报道的满意度以及对报道的关注时间。该研究使用了一项来自公众意见调查的大型经验数据集，该数据集在六个社会人口统计学变量方面代表了比利时人口。结果表明，三个信息来源是核事故相关健康风险感知的显著回归变量：电视、人际传播和其他在线来源类别。对核能更有利的态度、更长时间的关注以及对提供信息的更高满意度会导致风险感知降低。综上所述，结果表明媒体确实可以对观众如何感知风险产生适度的影响。
