Ethics, Decision-Making, and Risk Communication in the Era of Terroredia: The Case of ISIL

Risk Communication And Public Safety

The term “risk” involves a focus on potential harm (e.g., Burgess, 2010; Etkin & Ho, 2007). It is considered “a frame that creates contexts which bring together an ‘object of risk’ (a hazard or source of potential harm), an ‘object at risk’ (a target of potential harm) and an evaluation (implicit or explicit) of human consequences” (Mairal, 2008, p. 42). Risk “represents the possible occurrence of a harmful event that has some known likelihood of happening over time” (Comfort, 2005, p. 338). Risk inevitably involves emotional and intuitive responses, which impact the deliberation process of how to deal with, or mitigate risk (Roeser, 2010). Responses to risk can be intuitive, affective, and irrational or deliberative and rational; however, intuition tends to dominate over deliberation, which can lead to either an overestimation or an underestimation of one’s potential risk—in which both are dangerous.