‘Why’ transforms information transfer into effective communication in radiological protection

As scientists and professionals, we have been trained to present and lecture in front of an audience
of similarly instructed peers, we subject our manuscripts to peer-review, and we mentor the next
generation of radiological protection professionals to adopt the same methods of information
transfer we equate with ‘scientific communication.’ The scientific community clearly has developed
effective and efficient means to share progress in a given field of study. However, current efforts
to improve our success in achieving public understanding of our most important and pertinent
conclusions, and in communicating the ‘risks’ associated with low or moderate exposures to ionising
radiation indicate the realisation that we have not been similarly successful in our interactions
with the general public. We may be getting close to having exhausted our examples, comparisons, and
metaphors. We realise that effective communication in radiological protection necessitates more than
the transfe...

Source: Journal of Radiological Protection - February 20, 2020 Category: Physics Authors: Alexander Brandl and Manfred Tschurlovits Source Type: research