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When a newspaper reporter writes a story about a chemical spill or a radiation leak, he is engaging in risk communication. When a television reporter does a story on a new wonder drug like Prozac, she is also involved in risk communication. When a magazine journalist produces an article about acid rain, she is writing about risks. When a television or theatrical movie depicts a family dealing with a disease, it is communicating information about risks. And when a journalist writes a story about a disaster like the Los Angeles earthquake or an act of terrorism like the Oklahoma City bombing, he is also dealing in risk communication.

In sum, risk communication occurs whenever the news or entertainment media depict dangers--potential, imminent, or existing--that could place at least some readers or viewers in a health risk. That risk could be to the physical, emotional, or mental state of the individual digesting the reports of these events.

These dangers run the gamut of personal health problems, public health concerns (such as the spread of AIDS), environmental concerns (such as the deteriorating ozone layer), and accidents involving hazardous materials. But risk communication can also extend beyond these boundaries to stories or shows about natural disasters, acts of terrorism, or impending weather crises, or depictions about such mental, nervous, or emotional problems as schizophrenia or autism.

Risk communication also encompasses depictions of real or alleged medical breakthroughs, new pharmaceuticals, health care services advertised by hospitals, and health care programs offered by the government to extend care to those unable to afford it under the present system.

In the realm of risk communication, viewers may see a television story depicting, for instance, early warning signs of a heart attack. They compare what they see with aches and pains they have had recently, then maybe talk it over with a friend or relative, and soon are making an appointment with their internist or dropping by the nearest emergency room. If that televised depiction was accurate, then the viewer's reaction in the real world was appropriate. If it was inaccurate, then the reaction was inappropriate.

The media have the power to either heighten the awareness of the public to medical and public health risks or to lull it into thinking there is no risk. Sometimes, however, people think there is no risk simply because they don't see stories about a particular issue in the media. In other words, if it's not on TV or in the newspapers, it must not be important. Sometimes that isn't true, however. For instance, some critics have chided the news media for their slowness in reacting to news about AIDS and not treating it as a major story until celebrities like Rock Hudson and Arthur Ashe succumbed to the disease and Magic Johnson tested positive for the HIV virus. They note that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) had established a task force on Kaposi's Sarcoma and opportunistic infections in mid-1981 and its leader had submitted a request for $833,000 to begin research by the end of that year. However, it was 1983 before substantial numbers of stories about the disease appeared in the national media, and late in 1985 when the number of stories on AIDS actually tripled. It was mid-1985 when news broke about Rock Hudson's contracting AIDS.

So the media have the power to (1) portray risks accurately, (2) unnecessarily panic the public, or (3) ignore or downplay real risks and, in so doing, convey a sense of wellness when it doesn't exist. Because the public has grown so concerned about health risks in this country, the news and entertainment media provide news and depictions about these issues. Los Angeles Times writer David Shaw notes:

The media, after all, pay the most attention to those substances, issues and situations that most frighten their readers and viewers. Thus, almost every day, we read and see and hear about a new purported threat to our health and safety. . . . The media are supposed to serve as an early warning system for the public, and they have long fulfilled this function in alerting people to a range of risks, from high-fat diets to cars (the Ford Pinto) to medical devices (the Dalkon Shield IUD).

But, Shaw adds, some critics believe the media give us more than simply essential information and legitimate warnings and instead sound unwarranted alarms for an increasingly susceptible audience, one willing to see risk in almost everything. If this is true, one reason may be the different ethical standards some types of news media operate on. Those with a more bottom-line orientation, which see their function as entertainment as much as--or more than--news, often stretch the data and go for the dramatic punch in a health-related story. Other, more socially responsible media will stick as closely to the facts as possible. Yet even those media, because of the need to engage the reader, will put an individual focus on many medical stories and profile a victim who may or may not be a representative type of the medical problem. Boston environmental reporter David Ropiek explains: "In their zeal to have an impact, journalists are seduced . . . into playing up what is dramatic. But emphasizing stories, suggesting that everything you eat will kill you . . . profoundly colors the public psyche. We start living like Chicken Littles being told the sky is falling."

There are also very different conventions operating among journalists and scientists in their approach to fact-finding. . .

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