The IPTS Report - Issue 82 - March 2004

Scientific Advice

Scientific Advice

The role of the media during a crisis reflects its socio-political context. Understanding this environment is therefore the starting point for approaches to handling the relationships between political institutions, the media and their audiences during crises.

Scientific Advice

Science-related crises have become increasingly prominent in the media in recent years. Understanding how scientists' and the general public's assessments of risk differ is crucial to effective scientific communication.

Scientific Advice

During science-related crises the public receives much of its information from the media. Understanding the strategies that reporters follow during a crisis makes it easier to cooperate with them so as to transmit clear and accurate information to the public.

Scientific Advice

Better governance of risk assessment and risk management can help build trust between the public and policy-makers, but this does not always lead to easier risk communication. Understanding how perceptions of risk are formed is crucial for policy-makers, risk assessors and communicators.

Scientific Advice

Public scepticism and resistance can significantly hamper the development of new technologies. As nanotechnology unfolds worldwide into commercially available products, discussions on how to assess and manage the potential risks are gathering momentum.

Scientific Advice

The "tolerability of risk" (TOR) framework has proved to be a flexible and cost-effective way of managing risk by balancing individual and societal risks. Although perhaps not directly applicable outside the context in which it evolved, it can offer useful lessons.

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