If you’ve ever received an emergency alert warning and didn’t act immediately, there may be a reason for that.
CU Denver Department of Communication Chair and Professor Hamilton Bean, PhD, has spent his career researching national security and public alert and warning systems. He’s found that the process of “milling” is the reason people don’t always immediately act when they receive an emergency warning. The process describes the human need to search the social, physical, and, increasingly, the technological environment for additional, confirming information before they act, according to Bean.
In the context of increasing national disasters due to climate change, Bean’s research is helping communities, states, and counties identify effective messaging structures that are clear, specific, consistent, and accurate so that people can take the right protective action at the right time.
And, he’s helping students understand the importance of that messaging. “We need to have students who see communication not only as the production of messages, but also as the underlying infrastructure that helps organizations and communities build trust, create shared meaning, to help tackle some of these immense problems that we face collectively,” Bean said.
He explains more in the next installment of our Ask an Expert video series.