I527-290 ESRIF Final Report (WEB).indd - European Commission

together - into enduring working level networks - professionals from diff erent spheres of emergency management activity: Security
and Safety professionals; National, Regional and Local authorities, Public authorities and the Private Sector; Public domain and Volunteer
associations. Actors from all these spheres must be engaged in preparing for response and recovery activities as the consequences of
trans-boundary emergencies will spill across several operative domains.
Strategic direction and priority setting in the face of major emergencies is not possible without a trans-boundary approach to
response and recovery. This capacity must be developed over time and become institutionalised through continuous training.
The focus of the training program will be on interactive exercises and scenario based simulations to strengthen coordination
and create synergies within and between diff erent sectors and levels, well ahead of acute events. Yearly exercises based on
multiple types of hazards scenarios should be conducted.
11.2.2 Mediatisation and mass communications
Mediatisation refers to the autonomy of public events in media representations. Thus, in moments of crisis media cultivate
perceptions that are not in correspondence with the actual situation, this making proportionate political action and trust diffi cult.
Planning for societal security and eff ective emergency management concerns identifi cation of risks and threats, but also
demands understanding of how people perceive and react to these hazards. Changes in the risk panorama of the future
will naturally aff ect public perceptions and reactions. Social trends and shifts in values can also lead to new concerns and
changed reactions to “old” risks. People diff er in how they perceive risk and threat situations, and these diff erences need to be
examined in the context of various individual, demographic and social factors. Diff erent experiences and interpretations of
these experiences infl uence both motivation to prepare and capability to act in crisis situations. It is reasonable to expect that
the more complex and diff use the future hazard panorama, the greater the scope for diff erent appraisals of risks within society.
This in turn highlights the need for a sound knowledge base for identifying vulnerabilities, developing communication and
designing supportive measures.
In the public sector, one potentially serious error concerns emergency planning based on false expectations about human
reactions. A number of myths regarding behaviour in crisis which might lead to such false expectations have been identifi ed
and reasons why these myths tend to be perpetuated have also been discussed. Analyses of experiences after Hurricane
Katrina point to the very real and negative consequences of such disaster myths infl uencing crisis management. Theoretical
underpinnings relevant to this research theme can be found in social science approaches in the fi elds of risk perception, risk
communication, emergency preparedness and crisis management. At the level of personal risk concerns, a challenge for
future risk communication would seem to lie in understanding how people deal with an increasing fl ood of information about
diff erent hazards, and in developing measures to help them cope with this.
Key areas for research include:
1. Studies of factors aff ecting cooperation between on the one hand public authorities, public and private organisations
and on the other hand individuals and groups among the public. Important issues here concern new demands on
risk and crisis communication in the light of new kinds of threat and the accelerating pace and global scope of events
threatening public security.
2. A major challenge for the future lies in fi nding ways to integrate effi cient procedures with public concerns and values. These
concerns are likely to be increasingly diverse, and may shift gradually in response to societal changes or more rapidly in
response to actual events.
3. In the new emerging communicative landscape traditional roles of journalists and media are being challenged and
transformed by the introduction of new information technology. This has happened in parallel to the development
of a new global security situation following the end of the Cold War and the September 11 events. Further adding to
the complexity is the notion of the global ‘risk society’ where risks are no longer confi ned to national borders and can
accordingly not be dealt with by single national agencies and governments. Taken together these broad trends call for
new research approaches that require an integration of media-, security and crisis studies. One of the core questions
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