Arsenic and Plague: An Analysis of Risk Communication in Indian Newspapers. Arvind Susarla, School of Geography, Clark University, Worcester, MA
Societal response to hazard events is perplexing. While policies and decision-makers in most countries equate public concern and response to hazard events with the associated potential for injuries and deaths; hazard researchers have suggested social properties (for e.g. fear) that are linked to human experience of risk, responses of hazard management organizations, and the role of media as additional factors to explain how certain hazard events produce intense societal reactions while many others remain dormant. Applying Social Amplification of Risk model (Kasperson et al., Risk Analysis.8(2):166 -186) this paper presents findings of an in-depth analysis on flow of messages or "signals" from newspapers. Further, profiles that show the linkages between the sources and specialized subjects is reported to draw inferences about priority certain subjects have received as opposed to many others. Two hazard events in India -- pneumonic plague in Surat city in 1994 and arsenic pollution of groundwater in West Bengal -- are examined to judge societal processing of risk signals that amplify and attenuate risk and risk consequences respectively. By employing both qualitative and quantitative methods, the content of newspaper articles together with interviews with key personnel and information from secondary sources is analyzed to develop an interpretation on social amplification and attenuation of risk. The results contribute to derive policy implications for risk communication in the settings of India.
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