In chapter 10 of Having Your Say by Davida H. Charney and Christine M. Neuwirth, the idea of “A but B” is presented. “A” represents a desired outcome, goal or value and “B” represents the condition that prevents “A” from happening.

These are some examples of “A and B” statements as they relate to access to water and sanitation:

1.  There is plenty of fresh water in the world for everyone BUT, resources are no distributed and allocated equally.

2. Humans have the technology to sanitize water very effectively and efficiently BUT, wealth isn’t distributed in a way that even basic technologies can’t be utilized by all people.

3. Humans need to change the way we use and distribute water BUT, it is hard to change when there is no immediate threat to our life style and it is such a convenient and cheap resource to utilize in our society.

When we discuss risk communication, we have a tendency to want to disregard emotion and discuss an issue in a highly technical and objective voice. I can’t imagine this being the most effective way to convey a message to people. Although objective, technical language is an effective way to communicate a message, throughout history, it’s the stories that live forever.

It is thought that when people are tense, concerned or perceive a threat that they’re information processing abilities are incredibly impaired. When discussing risk communication, communicators want to be objective and want to clearly portray their message. As a risk communicator, it is hard to have your message heard when the audience’s mind is clouded with panicked emotions. So communicators write with an attitude similar to “Just listen, take a deep breath and relax. Just listen to me, follow my directions and everything will be fine. Here’s the problem and here’s what we’re going to do: (insert technical language here).” This would seem like a great approach to risk, it disregards all emotion and gets people thinking clearly, objectively and intelligently. But is disregarding emotion really an effective strategy given that one of the many fuels humans run on is emotions ?

The risks communication usually deals with negative topics; topics with bad out comes for the audience or stake holders like obesity in Americ, a deadly virus, flaws in the health care system and so on. People tend to put greater emotional emphasis on losses than on gains. This means that people’s emotions are stirring strongest about risk communication topics. Playing on these emotions could be devastating for the risk communicator because the negative emotions will cloud the audience’s mind and make it hard from them to receive the message. Why confuse and make people emotional at a time when you want them to be thinking clearly and objectively?

It would seem that keeping a risk communication piece as objective, technical and emotionless as possible would be the best approach to a risk communication piece. But there is another train of thought that says that humans remember messages best when they are communicated through stories. The more elaborate, personal and emotional the story, the better it relates to the listener and the longer it stays with them. Starting when we were younger and our parents told us stories, to impact novels that keep us up late at night; stories sticks with us. Before history could be documented, stories kept history alive. If a piece of communication can touch us personally, stir the correct emotions and provide a contextual story, there can be nothing more effective. People much rather attend poetry slams or gather around a great story teller at a coffee shop than listen some lecture. Culturally, stronger emotions and excitements are stirred from poetry slams and story tellers than from lectures. This same train of thought applies to risk communication. A highly objective and technical piece of writing clearly lays out the information, but stirs no emotion. In fact, it actually evokes emotions of boredom and staleness which makes it hard for information to be effectively communicated. The reader feels no emotional connection to a document. This only stimulates the critical thinking part of the brain and not the emotional part which is like moving at half speed or like cutting efficiency in half.

There needs to be an equilibrium. Too much emotional stimulation, and the reader gets clouded with mental noise, too much technical information and language and the reader’s mind becomes stale and the information doesn’t stick. Although each piece of risk communication is different, this emotional/technical equilibrium is a good blue print for effective risk communication.

    Water deprivation is part of the classic image of a poor African or Middle Eastern family. Many acknowledge the fact that clean drinking water is hard to come by in Africa and the Middle East and that sanitation is a big issue, but few respond to this knowledge. Since it doesn’t effect the Western world directly, it doesn’t get any attention. Only issues that are important and relevant to the Western world get the attention, hype and care needed.

The media world and the blogging world focus on issues like public heath, debt recovery politics and a wide range of issues. Focus never leaves the blogger or the blog reader, issues are always about the two. This makes sense, why write and read about things that don’t concern you? But this is exactly the issue, people and populations are so SELF INDULGED that focus can never turn from themselves. Blogs about the disparity in water access world wide will never get hot because people rather write and read passionately about things that are relevant to themselves instead of other people. Water access is not relevant to the Western world, but is a very important issue elsewhere is the world. There is a lack of attention to the outside world and everyone is just concerned about their own well being.  The problems created by the water access disparity in the world will never become a hot topic in the Western world.

By July 2005, an AOL study showed that about half of blog users in the U.S kept a blog because it served as a form of therapy. People in the U.S are so desperate to have someone to talk meaningfully with and have someone to vent to, that if there is no one, a blog is the next best thing to have. The blog is traditionally used to amplify the opinions of users from a grass roots level. It is used to voice opinions, thoughts, views and emotions that wouldn’t otherwise be heard through main stream media. But more and more, blogs are kept for emotional purposes. Underneath all of the political opinions and slanders, a blogger will reveal personal feelings and emotions. This is because venting on a blog is easier than finding someone who can talk, share and communicate on a personal level with the blogger. The blog has become an emotional outlet, not just an opinion outlet.

It seems silly to pour out one’s soul into the computer and put it in digital form for the world to see when there are plenty of people out there to talk to. But this isn’t so. U.S culture has evolved in such a way that people are too self involved to enter into another’s world. People are to self involved to take the time to listen to anyone and really think about what they are trying to communicate. People are always worried about what their schedule is like or what they are going to say next in a conversation, but never really take the time to listen and think about what a person is communicating, feeling and living. There is so much self indulgence, that it is driving everyone crazy because they don’t have anyone to turn to. So people turn to therapists and blogs to vent.

“Therapy blogging” is the result of the lack of a skill: listening. People across the U.S lack the skill of listening and being able to enter another person’s world and spirit. There for we have a country of normal people driven crazy because they have no one to talk to. SELF INDULGENCE is the product of a modern world and a current U.S. In later blogs, I will discuss some of the causes and dangerous of self indulgence and discuss why the period of Listening is a distant past. The lack of ability to enter another’s spirit and world has started an era of therapy blogging.