At the 2024 ICRCC, we had three feature panels that were videoed talking about critical issues facing researchers and practitioners in risk and crisis communication.
This panel begins with the assumption that having high quality, up-to-date evidence is critical for designing effective public health interventions, particularly in the context of RCCE-IM. A challenge is ensuring this information is, in fact, rapidly produced and high quality in nature. This panel will present recent examples of best practice from the WHO European Region of research/practice collaboration to produce rapid response evidence to inform RCCE-IM interventions. The panel will also lead a discussion on how to facilitate more RCCE-IM research and researcher/practitioner collaboration – including work done by the WHO European Regional Office’s Technical Advisory Group on RCCE-IM to scope a research agenda. This moderated panel discussion features practitioners and researchers who are all members of the WHO European Regional Office TAG on RCCE-IM.
While wars are fought using military equipment and trained professionals, strategic communication and public relations are increasingly seen as a powerful, albeit under examined, weapon systems (Halloran, 2007, Khan & Pratt, 2022). Halloran notes that in international conflicts, strategic communication involves persuading allies and friends to offer support, persuading neutrals to remain so, persuading adversaries that you will prevail and persuading citizens to support the effort. Although strategic communication has likely always been a feature of war, conflicts in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq have demonstrated its importance. Dimitriu (2012), for example, conducted an analysis of the conflict in Afghanistan and argued that “The heart of a strategic communication strategy is formed by a strategic narrative, a compelling storyline which can explain events convincingly and from which inferences can be drawn.” Social media and the speed and width of diffusions has made strategic communication an even more powerful force in armed conflicts.
Presenters discussed the development and use of a research strategy to cultivate communities of practice to mitigate the risks associated with the catastrophic effects of wildfires on communities. This panel has two primary goals: (a) contribute theoretically to the understanding and application of communities of practice, specifically around risk management and (b) contribute to understanding in the form of lessons learned from the United States Forest Service.