Comparing societal narratives and individual risk perceptions

Narrowing the risk perception gap between the general public and societal risk narrative portrayed in the media can help create effective risk communication strategies and policy responses. However, attempting to narrow this gap means being able to first know where the gaps are.

A comprehensive dataset, via a computational linguistics methods, is required to understand how risk is perceived and portrayed by online news media. Subsequent results from the analysis of the dataset can be used to inform policymakers, industry leaders and academic on the trends and variation in societal risk perception represented in the media.

The LRF Institute for the Public Understanding of Risk conducted a review of online news media’s risk narratives derived from the largest cross-culture English corpus from 2010 to 2019. Regional- level results were compared with the 2019 World Risk Poll survey data to assess the magnitude of the risk perception gap between the layperson and risk information presented in different forms of media.

One of the findings highlighted a gap between what the media (newspapers and magazines) report as risks and what the people perceive to be risks in their daily lives. Specifically, the 10-year analysis on the risk narratives on online media source shows that news articles tend to report macro-level risks such as economic crisis or climate change. The general public, on the other hand, is concerned with perils that could occur daily within their communities.

What this means is that the media may not have been very effective in reporting critical and incoming threats but instead focused on distant and abstract risks which may not address people daily concerns. At the individual level, people need to attend to threats and uncertainties around them and their families to survive and thrive.

The first step to addressing this gap is to get journalists and media experts to be trained in risk literacy. Public education campaigns to raise people’s awareness on issues such as climate change and healthcare should also be a priority.

The full report can be accessed here.