The Place of Risk Communication in the Environmental Agenda

Abstract

In the study the author considers the stages of formation of environmental communication, defines the main functions, key subjects and essential characteristics. Understanding the features of environmental communication directly affects the work during crises and the decisions made. The causes of environmental crises can be different: competition for resources or natural phenomena. However, the principles of responding to them are similar; first of all, there must be crisis management in place. The study examined not only the nature of the crises, but also provided typology of environmental crisis communication. Any crisis needs to be managed, and environmental communications are a key management tool. The study analyzed the impact of access to information on the quality of environmental communication, the role of traditional and new media in shaping the environmental agenda and environmental discourse. We examined the status of communicators and their level of influence on the situation, the ability of official bodies to quickly respond to unfolding crisis events. The author analyzed crisis environmental communication on the example of an incident off the coast of Kamchatka in September 2020, resulting from an algal bloom. The study investigated the interaction between different subjects, content analyzed the typology information, various levels of communication, and tools of influence. The role of scientific discourse in crisis environmental communications was studied. The result is the construction of a new model of interaction, when all participants in the process have a single goal — the stabilization of the social situation and the identification of the circumstances and the true causes of what happened. The study provided recommendations how to improve the effectiveness of environmental crisis communication.