Authors analyze four message formats in risk communications: persuasive, balanced, dialectical, and dialectical with narrative stories. "Preliminary evidence suggests that dialectical messages are successful in increasing respondent critical thinking about risk issues, while not significantly increasing respondent level of concern compared with other message types."
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C19626
Notes:
Pages 113-136 in Sharon M. Friedman, Sharon Dunwoody and Carol L. Rogers (eds.), Communicating uncertainty: media coverage of new and controversial science. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, Mahwah, New Jersey. 277 pages.
