Public Reliance on Risk Communication Channels in the Wake of a Cryptosporidium Outbreak |
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| Authors: | Robert J Griffin Sharon Dunwoody Fernando Zabala |
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| Institution: | Center for Mass Media Research, College of Communication, Marquette University, P.O. Box 1881, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201-1881.;Center for Environmental Communications and Education Studies, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706.;College of Communication, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin;Adventist Ecclesia University, Caracas, Venezuela. |
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| Abstract: | In the spring of 1993, about 39% of Milwaukee-area residents suffered through a nationally publicized illness brought about by cryptosporidium, a parasite that had infested the metropolitan drinking water supply. Our study, based on a telephone survey of 610 local adult residents, indicates that worry about becoming ill in the future with cryptosporidiosis relates more strongly and consistently to public reliance on, and use of, media for cryptosporidium information than do a range of risk perception and experience variables. We propose that more studies should take an audience-centered approach to understanding risk communication. |
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| Keywords: | Risk communication risk perception audiences disease sample survey |
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