Communicating about Extreme Heat: Results from Card Sorting and Think Aloud Interviews with Experts from Differing Domains

Climate trends indicate that extreme heat events are becoming more common and more severe over time, requiring improved strategies to communicate heat risk and protective actions. However, there exists a disconnect in heat-related communication from experts, who commonly include heat related jargon (i.e., technical language), to decision makers and the general public. The use of jargon has been shown to reduce meaningful engagement with and understanding of messages written by experts. Translating technical language into comprehensible messages that encourage decision makers to take action has been identified as a priority to enable impact-based decision support. Knowing what concepts and terms are perceived as jargon, and why, is a first step to increasing communication effectiveness. With this in mind, we focus on the mental models about extreme heat among two groups of domain experts –those trained in atmospheric science and those trained in emergency management to identify how each group understands terms and concepts about extreme heat. We use a hybrid data collection method of open card sorting and think-aloud interviews to identify how participants conceptualize and categorize terms and concepts related to extreme heat. While we find few differences within the sorted categories, we learn that the processes leading to decisions about the importance of including, or not including, technical information differs by group. The results lead to recommendations and priorities for communicating about extreme heat

You Have to Send the Right Message: Examining the Influence of Protective Action Guidance on Message Perception Outcomes across Prior Hazard Warning Experience to Three Hazards

A long-term goal for warning message designers is to determine the most effective type of message that can instruct individuals to act quickly and prevent loss of life and/or injury when faced with an imminent threat. One likely way to increase an individual’s behavioral intent to act when they are faced with risk information is to provide protective action information or guidance. This study investigated participant perceptions (understanding, believing, personalizing, deciding, milling, self-efficacy, and response-efficacy) in response to the National Weather Service’s experimental product Twitter messages for three hazard types (tornado, snow squall, dust storm), with each message varying by inclusion and presentation of protective action information placed in the tweet text and the visual graphic. We also examine the role of prior hazard warning experience on message perception outcomes. To examine the effects, the experiment used a between-subjects design where participants were randomly assigned to one hazard type and received one of four warning messages. Participants then took a post-test measuring message perceptions, efficacy levels, prior hazard warning experience, and demographics. The results showed that for each hazard and prior hazard experience level, messages with protective action guidance in both the text and graphic increase their understanding, belief, ability to decide, self-, and response-efficacy. These results reinforce the idea that well-designed messages, that include protective action guidance, work well regardless of hazard type or hazard warning experience

Wireless Emergency Alerts and organisational response: Instructing and adjusting information in alerts

In the United States, alerting authorities are authorized by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to notify the public of imminent hazards and threats by sending Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) through the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS). Although recent efforts have been made to examine historical WEA compliance with frameworks such as Mileti and Sorenson\u27s (1990) Warning Response Model, less attention has been paid to information included in WEAs that is not prescribed by message design frameworks from risk communication scholarship. This paper explores the presence of Situational Crisis Communication Theory\u27s (SCCT) instructing and adjusting information in terse mobile alerts. The authors conducted a content analysis of 4777 WEAs sent between 2019 and 2022 to determine how often and in which contexts (i.e., hazard types, 90‐ or 360‐character messages) these strategies are used. We find that the limited definition of adjusting information used in prior research (e.g., direction to mental health resources) is rarely included in WEAs. Additionally, we identify differences in use by message length (90‐ vs. 360‐characters) and hazard type. We conclude that adjusting information in WEAs most frequently takes the form of organisational response information, thereby amending prior definitions of adjusting information to more closely align with the objectives and goals of warning message design

Show Me and What Will I Remember? Exploring Recall in Response to NWS Tornado Warning Graphics

It is critical that organizations deliver timely, effective communication about potential risks and life-saving information. The National Weather Service (NWS) developed a suite of messages known as “experimental graphic products” to be automatically distributed through their local official Twitter accounts at the onset of fast-moving, severe weather events such as tornadoes. However, recent research has suggested messages need to be carefully constructed for audiences to place attention to the content, remember the content, and later act in response to the content. The purpose of this study is to explore what people recall of the NWS Twitter message. We used an online survey instrument, distributed via Qualtrics, to investigate participant responses to three open-ended questions about the message. We performed a quantitative analysis to summarize the frequency of message features recorded by participants, and a qualitative analysis to identify themes that provide a deeper description of what was recalled. We found that participants encoded the hazard type, the time the message was sent and would expire, and the types of impacts that might occur. Graphic design cues elicited attention as they “stood out” to the participants. When asked about importance and what they would tell others, respondents described protective action, indicating participants may have activated prior knowledge of the threat, as it was not included in the message. Risk, disaster, and science communicators can draw guidance about communicating during a disaster. It provides a lens for researching message construction, and the importance of communicating protective action guidance during severe weather events

A Decade of Wireless Emergency Alerts: A Longitudinal Assessment of Message Content and Completeness

Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) provide a direct way for public safety officials to reach at‐risk publics via text‐based messages on their mobile devices. Although WEAs were introduced over a decade ago and can be either 90 or 360 characters in length, we currently do not know what these messages have contained. To address this gap, we quantify the contents of the last decade of WEA messages using the principles of effective warning message design. Specifically, we use quantitative content analysis to conduct a longitudinal assessment of 6080 WEAs sent by Alerting Authorities from 2012 to 2022. We code these messages according to the concepts in the Warning Response Model, which establishes that WEAs need to include information about the hazard, location, source, guidance, and time. Our results indicate that source and timing information are included at a much lower rate than location, hazard, and guidance information. Furthermore, only 8.5% of these messages are complete—or include all five pieces of WRM content. Complete WEA messages can minimise protective action delay while maximising message understanding, belief, and personalisation. We also find that 360‐character WEAs are more likely to be complete than 90‐character WEAs. Thus, those responsible for crafting WEAs should continue to take full advantage of the increased number of characters to write complete messages that warn populations at risk, rather than simply alert them to the existence of a hazard

Communicating Hazard Location through Text and Map in Earthquake Early Warnings: A Mixed Methods Study

The purpose of this research was to examine the effect of presenting hazard location in different formats on key warning message outcomes—understanding, personalizing, believing, deciding, and milling. We conducted two studies using experiment and focus group methods. In the experiment, we compared a standard ShakeAlert earthquake early warning message, which merely implied location, to three enhanced messages that communicated information about the earthquake epicenter via text, map, or a combined text-and-map format. Focus groups explored reactions to warning messages accompanied by different types of maps. Overall, the standard ShakeAlert message was associated with worse message outcomes compared to messages that explicitly stated the hazard location; communicating hazard location via text was associated with better message outcomes than the map or combined text-and-map format. Although participants preferred the combination text-and-map format, the text format was associated with significantly better message outcomes. Findings revealed that providing specific hazard location information leads to improvements in message outcomes; however, the format in which the information is communicated via text is the best strategy

Designing Effective Tsunami Messages: Examining the Role of Short Messages and Fear in Warning Response

Although tsunamis have the potential to be extremely destructive, relatively little research on tsunami messaging has taken place. Discovering whether tsunami warning messages can be written in a way that leads to increased protective response is crucial, particularly given the increased use of mobile message services and the role they play in notifying the public of imminent threats such as tsunami and other hazards. The purpose of this study was to examine the possibility of designing warning messages for tsunamis that improve upon message style and content used by public alerting agencies to date and to gain insight that can be applied to other hazards. This study tested the impact of tsunami messages that varied in length and content on six message outcomes—understanding, believing, personalizing, deciding, milling, and fear. Relative to the short message, revised messages resulted in significantly more understanding and deciding, known precursors to taking protective action under threat. The revised message also resulted in significantly more fear, which is believed to influence behavioral intentions. Findings suggest that shorter messages may not deliver enough content to inform message receivers about the threat they face and the protective actions they should perform. Longer messages delivered with more specific information about the location of impact, threat-associated risks, and recommended protective actions were associated with better message outcomes, including quicker intended response. Recommendations for future tsunami warnings are provided

Public perceptions of U.S. earthquake early warning post-alert messages: Findings from focus groups and interviews

In May 2020, a false earthquake alert message was sent to the city of Ridgecrest, CA, in the U.S.A., an area that just 10 months prior had experienced a significant series of earthquake events. The false alert was followed by a post-alert message, indicating that the message was cancelled and under investigation. This event, the first of its kind in the U.S.A., provided an opportunity to learn about public perceptions of the post-alert message, including what individuals understood about the threat and their safety, and what actions they should take as a result. We conducted individual interviews with 40 persons in the Ridgecrest community, followed by a series of focus groups in Southern California to discuss post-alert messages, and to learn about information people most needed following false earthquake alerts. We found that individuals with and without prior earthquake experience expressed confusion about content describing the investigatory actions of the organization and had a largely negative response toward content that complimented those who took action in response to the initial earthquake early warning. While current post-alert messages are intended to reinforce the good intentions of the organization and the protective actions taken by message receivers, the message issued was perceived by members of the public to be largely ineffective in achieving either objective because it did not provide the information they desired most—an explicit statement about their safety. Instead, message receivers need information that primarily affirms their current level of safety so they can return to normal functionin

The bond we share: experiences of caring for a person with mental and physical health conditions

The purpose of this chapter is to improve service providers’ understanding of how to work with, include and understand the experience and expertise of mental health carers. This information is useful for service providers in clinical mental health, psychosocial rehabilitation across government and non-government, and primary health care settings, and also for managers of services, to help determine training offered to their employees. It may also be useful for carers and carer support organisations, as well as for those who teach undergraduate and postgraduate health professional students

Ember Alerts: Assessing Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) Messages in Wildfires Using the Warning Response Model

When evacuation is necessary in a wildfire event, affected communities must be alerted and warned of the imminent danger and instructed on what to do to protect themselves. One channel available to message providers in the United States is Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) disseminated via IPAWS. Recent wildfire events have shed light on the need to improve WEA strategies and messages when alerting exposed populations of imminent fire threat. The purpose of this article is to assess how, when and where WEAs have been used in US wildfires; whether they comply with guidance set out by Mileti and Sorensen’s Warning Response Model (WRM); and whether the expansion in characters (from 90 to 360) of WEA messages has influenced compliance with the WRM. A quantitative content analysis was conducted of WEA messages sent during US wildfires from January 2020-April 2022. A total of 1,284 messages were manually coded based upon the content and style categories identified in the WRM. Descriptive analyses (and Chi-square tests) were performed to illustrate how 90-character and 360-character WEA messages differ by key content and style features. Results showed that certain content features (i.e., location, guidance, and the name of the hazard) were included more often than others (i.e., source, hazard description, hazard consequences, and timing information) and that the inclusion of most content features increased with increasing message character length. Additionally, when assessing message ‘completeness’, the use of acronyms was prevalent in both 90- and 360-character wildfire WEAs; whereas the inclusion of URLs was linked to increased message length. Wildfire WEAs also displayed inconsistency both within and across states in their use of terminology to trigger evacuation. These findings, among others, have implications for theory highlighting a growing need to confirm that message receivers understand and can act on the messages sent, regardless of the language used. In addition, for message creators, recommendations for effective WEA messages for wildfires are provided