Flood risk perceptions and the UK media: Moving beyond “once in a lifetime” to “Be Prepared” reporting

Cologna, Viktoria, Bark, Rosalind H. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9876-9322 and Paavola, Jouni (2017) Flood risk perceptions and the UK media: Moving beyond “once in a lifetime” to “Be Prepared” reporting. Climate Risk Management, 17. pp. 1-10. ISSN 2212-0963

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Abstract

In the winter 2015/2016 a series of storms resulted in widespread flooding in northern England, damaging hundreds of properties, disrupting transport and causing public disdain. The flooding was widely covered in the media. This article develops a methodological framework to conceptualise factors influencing risk perception related to flood events, discusses the media's role as amplifier or attenuator of risks, and demonstrates how understanding risk perception can influence the deployment of effective policies to modify and reinforce more accurate risk perception to increase individual and community resilience and create a two-way dialogue between those risk and authorities. Given that climate change induced increased flood risk is a reality and the evidence that this is not yet understood by the public, nor addressed by the media, we suggest an urgent shift from the status quo media coverage based on blame to one of “Be Prepared”. Furthermore, we suggest risk communication be based on better understanding of how at-risk communities perceive risk.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Publisher Copyright: © 2017 The Authors
Uncontrolled Keywords: climate change preparedness,flooding,media coverage,risk perception,united kingdom,global and planetary change,geography, planning and development,atmospheric science,management, monitoring, policy and law,sdg 13 - climate action ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2300/2306
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Environmental Social Sciences
Related URLs:
Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 18 Nov 2021 01:56
Last Modified: 23 Oct 2022 03:18
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/82163
DOI: 10.1016/j.crm.2017.04.005

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