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Public Risk Communication Strategies: The Case of DuPont's Chemical Release and the Ohio Valley Water Supply

Brooks, Donald R.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou149397691609643

Abstract Details

2017, Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, Environmental Studies (Voinovich).
From the 1950s to the early 2000s, a potentially toxic chemical called “C8” was being released into the Ohio Valley water supply. E. I du Pont de Nemours and Company, more commonly known as DuPont (the company responsible for the chemical release) and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (the environmental regulatory agency) are challenged to communicate the health hazards of C8 to the public in the affected areas of the Ohio Valley. Previous research suggests that the level of outrage the public will experience depends on their perception of risk. Theories suggest that the level of hazard, risk reduction actions, coherence among communicators and engaging the public, influences public perception of risk. The purpose of this research is to examine the case of the C8 chemical release in the context of risk communication. Specifically, it focuses on evaluating if there are mixed messages between risk communicators of DuPont’s chemical release case in the Ohio Valley. The methods involve conducting a content analysis of materials from both DuPont and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) to identify similarities and differences and applying accepted risk communication principles to the messages. The evidence of the crisis communication strategies used in DuPont’s chemical release case is discussed in detail. The result suggests that there are some inconsistencies between DuPont and OEPA in this case.
Michele Morrone (Committee Chair)
100 p.
Environmental Health
Public risk communication

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Brooks, D. R. (2017). Public Risk Communication Strategies: The Case of DuPont's Chemical Release and the Ohio Valley Water Supply [Master's thesis, Ohio University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou149397691609643

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Brooks, Donald. Public Risk Communication Strategies: The Case of DuPont's Chemical Release and the Ohio Valley Water Supply. 2017. Ohio University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou149397691609643.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Brooks, Donald. "Public Risk Communication Strategies: The Case of DuPont's Chemical Release and the Ohio Valley Water Supply." Master's thesis, Ohio University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou149397691609643

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ohiou149397691609643
3,418
© 2017, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Public Risk Communication Strategies: The Case of DuPont's Chemical Release and the Ohio Valley Water Supply by Donald R. Brooks is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by Ohio University and OhioLINK.