For roughly twenty years now I have defined myself as a specialist in risk communication, not crisis communication. The distinction, I kept telling people, is that risk communicators deal with what might happen, while crisis communicators deal with what just happened or is still happening.

Of course the distinction was always pretty arbitrary. Some of my earliest risk communication work focused on the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear accident. That certainly felt like a crisis, no matter whether the discussion centered on what had gone wrong at the power plant (a crisis communication issue) or on how much radiation might be released (a risk communication issue).

Still, I felt that crisis communicators needed expertise I didn’t really have — running evacuations, coordinating emergency responders, fielding thousands of simultaneous telephone calls, etc. I was comfortable working on “reputational crises,” controversies that felt like crises to my clients, but were simply hot issues to their stakeholders and the media. I was comfortable advising on potential future crises (worst case scenarios) and even past crises (recriminations). But real crises? I wasn’t sure I had much to say.

This changed after September 11, 2001. Like just about everyone else, I desperately wanted to help. After dozens of false starts, I wrote a long “column” for this web site on “Risk Communication and the War Against Terrorism.” Soon afterwards the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked me to help with anthrax communication, and then with smallpox and other bioterrorism communication issues. Other terrorism and crisis communication clients started calling. I found I did have things to say after all.

Roughly a third of my professional work is now focused on terrorism, and on emergencies generally.

My writing on terrorism and crisis communication is spread around the web site — columns, articles by me, articles by others that quote me, even Q&As in my “Guestbook.” For convenience, the links are all collected below. I’ve also included some work that now strikes me as very relevant to terrorism and crisis communication, even if that wasn’t the topic originally. Everything listed here is also in its appropriate place throughout the main web site, with complete publication data.

In May 2004 the American Industrial Hygiene Association released my new CD-ROM/DVD, Crisis Communication: Guidelines for Action. It consists of nearly three hours of video by me and my wife and colleague Jody Lanard, divided into 25 key recommendations. The CD-ROM/DVD is not available on the site; you have to buy it from AIHA. But the handouts from the CD-ROM are on this site.

Jump to Topical Sections

Especially Important to Read
Other Articles by Peter Sandman
Handout Sets
Interviews, Summaries, etc.
Articles by Others
Letters and Answers

Especially Important to Read:

• Empathy in Risk Communication (July 2007)
• “Speak with One Voice ” — Why I Disagree (July 2006)
• Katrina: Hurricanes, Catastrophes, and Risk Communication (September 2005)
• Bird Flu: Communicating the Risk, by Peter M. Sandman and Jody Lanard (July 2005)
• Pandemic Influenza Risk Communication: The Teachable Moment by Peter M. Sandman and Jody Lanard (December 2004)
• Worst Case Scenarios (August 2004)
• Three Mile Island — 25 years Later (April 2004)
• Crisis Communication: A Very Quick Introduction (April 2004)
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• Fear of Fear: The Role of Fear in Preparedness ... and Why It Terrifies Officials by Peter M. Sandman and Jody Lanard (September 2003)
• “Fear Is Spreading Faster than SARS” — And So It Should! by Peter M. Sandman and Jody Lanard (April 2003)
• Duct Tape Risk Communication by Peter M. Sandman and Jody Lanard (February 2003)
• Beyond Panic Prevention: Addressing Emotion in Emergency Communication (February 2003)
• Dilemmas in Emergency Communication Policy (February 2003)
• Obvious or Suspected, Here or Elsewhere, Now or Then: Paradigms of Emergency Events (February 2003)
• Public Health Outrage and Smallpox Vaccination: An Afterthought (January 2003)
• Smallpox Vaccination: Some Risk Communication Linchpins (December 2002)
• Anthrax, Bioterrorism, and Risk Communication: Guidelines for Action (December 2001)
• Risk Communication and the War Against Terrorism: High Hazard, High Outrage (October 2001)

Other Articles by Peter Sandman:

• Handling explosive emotions demands five acts of empathy (May 2008)
• Media Sensationalism and Risk: Talking to Stakeholders with Reporters in the Room (September 2006)
• Crisis Communication Best Practices: Some Quibbles and Additions (August 2006)
• How Safe Is Safe Enough: Sharing the Dilemma (April 2006)
• Risk Communications During a Terrorist Attack or Other Public health Emergency (November 2005)
• Public Reactions and Teachable Moments (August 2005)
• Superb Flu Pandemic Risk Communication: A Role Model from Australia by Jody Lanard and Peter M. Sandman (July 2005)
• A Blind Spot for Bad Guys (June 2005)
• Talking about Dead Bodies: Risk Communication after a Catastrophe by Peter M. Sandman and Jody Lanard (February 2005)
• Adjustment Reactions: The Teachable Moment in Crisis Communication (January 2005)
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• Tsunami Risk Communication: Warnings and the Myth of Panic by Peter M. Sandman and Jody Lanard (January 2005)
• Acknowledging Uncertainty (November 2004)
• Leading during Bioattacks and Epidemics with the Public’s Trust and Help by the Working Group on “Governance Dilemmas” in Bioterrorism Response (Spring 2004)
• Practicing for The Big One: Pennsylvania’s Hepatitis A Outbreak and Risk Communication by Jody Lanard and Peter M. Sandman (December 2003)
• Risk Communication Recommendations for Infectious Disease Outbreaks by Peter M. Sandman and Jody Lanard (October 2003)
• It Is Never Too Soon to Speculate by Jody Lanard and Peter M. Sandman (September 2003)
• When Outrage Is a Hazard (April 1995)
• Scared stiff — or scared into action (January 1986)
• Report of the Public’s Right to Information Task Force of the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island (October 1979)
• At Three Mile Island (July/August 1979)

Handout Sets:

• Handouts from 2004 Crisis Communication CD-ROM
• Terrorism and Crisis Communication (High Hazard, High Outrage) (Note that some handouts are in both sets.)

Interviews, Summaries, etc.:

• How to Lead a Community during Times of Trouble (February, 2003) (roundtable discussion)
• Planning for Bioterrorism Communication (September 2002) (speech summary by Buddy Ferguson)
• Terrorism, Transparency, and Employee Sabotage (June 2002) (interview by Harvey Chartrand)
• CDC Responds: Risk Communication and Bioterrorism (December 2001) (webcast)
• September 11 and Risk (October 2001) (interview)
• Nukes, the Freeze, and Public Opinion (Spring 1984) (interview by Mary Jones)

Articles by Others:

• Crisis Communications to the Public: A Missing Link, from the “Naylor Report” on SARS in Canada, October 2003
• What next? Insanity?, by Judy Gerstel, May 30, 2003
• SARS: How Singapore outmanaged the others, By Alan Fung, April 9, 2003.
• Weighing Your Risks of Becoming a Terror Victim, by John Tierney, March 23, 2003
• Teaching about terror, by Robert Taylor, Fall 2002
• Vaccination Camp, by Dr. Jody Lanard, July 12, 2002

Letters and Answers:

• Was it good or bad crisis communication for Hong Kong to shut down its primary schools because of a flu outbreak? (March 2008)
• Managing outrage about the release of a convicted rapist (December 2007)
• Origins of the risk communication seesaw principle (December 2007)
• Role of leadership in homeland security crisis communication (September 2007)
• Asking people to wait in line for medicine in a crisis (July 2007)
• What’s unique about “counterterror risk communication”? (July 2007)
• Are empathy and compassion really what matters in mid-emergency? (February 2007)
• Is a flu pandemic likely to raise issues of social stigma? How can risk communication help with stigma? (January 2007)
• Risk communication and the legitimacy of counterterrorism (November 2006)
• Is emergency preparedness getting too much attention? (October 2006)
• Telling 9/11 emergency responders to wear their masks — and explaining later what went wrong (September 2006)
• What does it mean to “manage” terrorism — and the fear of terrorism? (August 2006)
• Motivating disaster preparedness (August 2006)
• Notes from the Beirut evacuation (July 2006)
• Homeland Security's color coding as an excuse not to warn people about bird flu (July 2005)
• Getting out preparedness information before a crisis (August 2004)
• Informing the public versus informing terrorists and criminals (July 2003)
• Scaring people about terrorism (July 2003)
• Emergency how-to warnings (February 2003)
• Evacuation feasibility — the attractions of fatalism (February 2003)
• Why the sudden interest in smallpox? (February 2003)
• Smallpox vaccination: Can we trust the government? (January 2003)
• Communication now about possible future terrorism (March 2002)
• Crisis communication versus risk communication (March 2002)
• Anthrax, politicians, and PR (February 2002)
• Risk communication for government emergency responders (January 2002)
• What did Rudy Giuliani do right? (December 2001)
• Bioterrorism and anthrax — candor (even about “what-ifs”) reduces panic (October 2001)
• Aftermath of September 11 — first thoughts on terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, apathy, denial, and risk communication (September 2001)

      

Peter M. Sandman 59 Ridgeview Rd. Princeton NJ 08540-7601	Phone: 1-609-683-4073 Fax: 1-609-683-0566 Email: peter@psandman.com
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