This handbook features a line of analysis that connects crisis, risk, and public policy issues into a coherent fabric. Each chapter represents the best available research in these areas with insightful notions of where current research and best practices should move in the future.

Robert L. Heath, Ph.D., is a retired professor of communication at the University of Houston. He has engaged in risk communication studies since the early 1990s, primarily related to the relationship between chemical manufacturing complexes and near neighbors. Dr. Heath's numerous publications include encyclopedia, handbooks, textbooks, edited volumes, and journal articles.

H. Dan O'Hair, Ph.D., is professor of communication and Director of Advanced Programs in the Department of Communication at the University of Oklahoma. He is the immediate past editor of the Journal of Applied Communication Research, and has served as an associate editor for over a dozen scholarly journals. Dr. O'Hair has authored and co-authored research articles and scholarly book chapters in the fields of communication, health, medicine, and business.

Section I: Exploring the Reach of Crisis and Risk Communication

Chapter 1: The Significance of Risk and Crisis Communication-- Robert L. Heath & Dan O'Hair

Chapter 2: Historical Trends in Risk and Crisis Communication -- Michael J. Palenchar Chapter 3: Cultural Theory and Risk -- James Tansey and Steve Rayner

Chapter 4: Risk Communication: Insights and Requirements for Designing Successful Communication Programs on Health and Environmental Hazards -- Ortwin Renn

Chapter 5: Conceptualizing Crisis Communication -- W. Timothy Coombs

Chapter 6: The Precautionary Principle and Risk Communication -- Steve McGuire and Jaye Ellis

Section II: Key Constructs of Crisis and Risk Communication

Chapter 7: Strategies for Overcoming Challenges to Risk Communication -- Vincent Covello

Chapter 8: Risk Communication Education for Local Emergency Managers: Using the CAUSE Model for Research, Education, and Outreach -- Katherine E. Rowan, Carl H. Botan, Gary L. Kreps, Sergi Samoilenko, and Karen Farnsworth.

Chapter 9: Risk and Social Dramaturgy -- Ingar Palmlund

Chapter 11: The Ecological Perspective and Other Ways to (Re)Consider Cultural Factors in Risk Communication -- Linda Aldoory

Chapter 12: Science Literacy and Risk Analysis: Relationship to the Postmodernist Critique, Conservative Christian Activists, and Professional Obfuscators -- Michael Ryan

Chapter 13: Influence Theories: Rhetorical, Persuasion, and Informational -- Jeffrey K. Springston, Elizabeth Johnson Avery, and Lynne M. Sallot

Chapter 14: Raising the Alarm and Calming Fears: Perceived Threat and Efficacy During Risk and Crisis -- Anthony J. Roberto, Catherine E. Goodall, and Kim Witte

Chapter 15: Post-Crisis Communication and Renewal: Understanding the Potential for Positive Outcomes in Crisis Communication -- Robert R. Ulmer, Timothy L. Sellnow, and Matthew W. Seeger

Chapter 16: Risk Communication by Organizations: The Back Story -- Caron Chess and Branden Johnson

Chapter 17: Ethical Responsibility and Guidelines for Management Issues of Risk and Risk Management -- Shannon A. Bowen

Chapter 18: Linking Public Participation and Decision Making through Risk Communication -- Katherine A. McComas, Joseph Arvai, and John C. Besley

Chapter 19: Warming Warnings: Global Challenges of Risk and Crisis Communication -- David McKie and Christopher Galloway

Chapter 20: Risk, Crisis, and Mediated Communication -- Kurt Neuwirth

Chapter 21: Crises and Risk in Cyberspace -- Kirk Hallahan

Chapter 22: Virtual Risk: The Role of New Media in Violent and Nonviolent Ideological Groups -- Matthew T. Allen, Amanda D. Angie, Josh L. Davis, Cristina L. Byrne, H. Dan O'Hair, Shane Connelly, and Michael D. Mumford

Chapter 23: Community Building through Risk Communication Infrastructures -- Robert L. Heath, Michael J. Palenchar, and H. Dan O'Hair

Section III: Contexts of Crisis and Risk Communication

Chapter 24: Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication in Health Contexts: Applying the CDC Model to Pandemic Influenza -- Matthew W. Seeger, Barbara Reynolds, and Timothy L. Sellnow

Chapter 25: How People Think about Cancer: A Mental Models Approach -- Julie S. Downs, Wandi Bruine de Bruin, Baruch Fischhoff, Bradford Hesse, and Ed Maibach

Chapter 26: Killing and Other Campus Violence: Restorative Enrichment of Risk and Crisis Communication -- Cindi Atkinson, Courtney Vaughn, and Jami VanCamp

Chapter 27: Denial, Differentiation and Apology: On the Use of Apologia in Crisis Management -- Keith Hearit and Kasie Mitchell Robeson

Chapter 28: Risk Communication and Biotechnology: A Discourse Perspective -- Shirley Leitch and Judy Motion

Chapter 29: Precautionary Principle and Biotechnology: Regulators Are from Mars and Activists Are from Venus -- Stephanie Proutheau and Robert L. Heath

Chapter 30: Environmental Risk Communication: Responding to Challenges of Complexity and Uncertainty -- Tarla Rai Peterson and Jessica Leigh Thompson

Chapter 31: Knowing Terror: On the Epistemology and Rhetoric of Risk -- Kevin J. Ayotte, Daniel Rex Bernard, and H. Dan O'Hair

Chapter 32: Magnifying Risk and Crisis: The Influence of Communication Technology on Contemporary Global Terrorism -- Michael D. Bruce, Kristin Shamas, and H. Dan O'Hair

Chapter 33: Opportunity Knocks: Putting Communication Research into the Travel and Tourism Risk and Crisis Literature -- Lynne M. Sallot, Elizabeth Johnson Avery, and Jeffrey K. Springston