Japan Geoscience Union Meeting 2022

Presentation information

[J] Oral

O (Public ) » Public

[O-06] Public Relations of Geoscience

Sun. May 22, 2022 1:45 PM - 3:15 PM Exhibition Hall Special Setting (1) (Exhibition Hall 8, Makuhari Messe)

convener:Kuniyasu Mokudai(Tohoku Gakuin University), convener:Saeko Okada(Research Institute for Humanity and Nature), Masahiro OBA(TOHOKU University), Chairperson:Kuniyasu Mokudai(Tohoku Gakuin University), Saeko Okada(Research Institute for Humanity and Nature), Masahiro OBA(TOHOKU University)

2:15 PM - 2:30 PM

[O06-03] Exploring new earthquake science opened up by action research

★Invited Papers

*Satoko Oki1 (1.Faculty of Environment and information Studies)

Keywords:action research, risk communication, science communication, natural disaster

Most of the public relations in science research focuses on 1) how to communicate what the research community wants to communicate to the public in an easy-to-understand manner. Many events such as open houses and lectures fall into this category. Pople who come join those lectures are likely to have a high level of interest in and trust in science.

Earth and planetary science is not only a natural science, but is also expected to contribute to the sustainable society and disaster prevention. From this perspective, the public tend to have high interest such as “Can’t you predict earthquakes?” or “What caused this massive disaster?”. Relating this point, it is necessary for the public relations in Earth and planetary science to play a new role in 2) listening to what society wants to know and answering the questions. This sometimes includes information that the research community is not willing to disclose, such as the limitations and indefiniteness of science. This can put the person or department in charge of public relations in a situation where the public is disappointed by getting the unexpecting answers, and the research community is unhappy because they consider the communication as unnecessary information. However, it is an important public relation in building trust with the public in the long term.

As earth and planetary science is a field that contributes to the safety and security of society and individuals, the communication of information includes not only science communication but also risk communication and crisis communication. In particular, from the perspective of risk communication, it is necessary to 3) identify risks and questions that have not yet been verbalized by the public, and to work together to find solutions. This is called "action research" that goes beyond the category of public relations. Those who engaged in action research continues to interact with a wider range of stakeholders toward a common betterment.

In this presentation, I will introduce the above three cases and their results on public relations, from the point of view of earthquake disaster prevention.