title: Interactive multimedia and risk communication.
abstract: As our understanding of risk factors and their interaction with individual susceptibility to disease improves, general messages designed to communicate risk seem increasingly ineffective and often misleading. Risk messages communicated through the mass media cannot convey an individual's personal susceptibility to preventable diseases or the seriousness of these diseases. The advent of new media technologies allows us to better reach the public with programs tailored to the needs and interests of individual users. Although similar in outward appearance to mass media, programs delivered through the Internet, CD-ROM, and computer kiosks offer the potential for vastly improved efficacy in communicating risk. This paper outlines the potential uses of interactive multimedia within the traditional goals of risk communication. A significant research endeavor, coupled with stronger avenues for dissemination, is recommended to achieve the potential of new media in a timely manner.
authors.affiliation: University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Health Media Research Laboratory, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors.forename: V J
authors.initials: VJ
authors.lastname: Strecher
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Greenwood
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dumont
mesh_terms: D016251:CD-ROM; D003142:Communication; D003194:Computer-Assisted Instruction; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D012307:Risk Factors; D014584:User-Computer Interface