Risk communication scholarship suggests that some incidents (e.g. death by dreaded disease) generate more public concern than others (e.g. death by car accident), even though the latter may generate more societal costs. Understanding perceptions of such events is a complex calculus, accounting for media coverage, government responses, and characteristics of individuals, among other factors. In 2007, a U.S. National Park Service (NPS) biologist working in Grand Canyon National Park (Arizona) died from pneumonic plague contracted from an infected mountain lion, prompting NPS, in partnership with local and federal authorities, to inform various publics about plague risk within park and surrounding community contexts. Overall, the incident attracted limited media attention and public concern about an increased risk of plague. Drawing on the Social Amplification of Risk Framework (SARF), the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication model (CERC), and the related literature outlining “best practices” in crisis communication, we explore how characteristics of this incident may have attenuated, rather than amplified, plague risk. Results are drawn from qualitative data collected at a two-day, facilitated workshop in 2010 with NPS employees involved in the case, and in-depth interviews (n = 27) with these and other individuals (e.g., journalists). Our findings suggest that management actions prior to the event, such as maintaining a relationship with U.S. Public Health Service, during the event, such as designating a single spokesperson, and after the event, such as presenting the case at national meetings, helped limit risk amplification. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of this research, including future directions for pairing CERC and SARF in the context of wildlife disease issues.
Topics: Infectious Disease , Topics: Communication , Topics: Disease Surveillance/Response
