A Review Of American Studies On Risk Communication Since The 21^st Century

This thesis reviewed the developmental process and characteristics of American risk communication research since the 21st century, selected 240 risk communication related articles from the Risk Analysis (2000-2013), as the object for content analysis and bibliometrics analysis. This thesis mainly focused on four dimensions:the developmental process, the main research hot topics, the research groups and the research methods used in the study, to sketch out the overall profile and characteristics of American risk communication research since the 21st century, summarize its main hotspot issues, and predict the developmental directions of future research, explore the status of the research groups and partnership between them, hoping to provide some reference for domestic research.Through content analysis, this study found that the overall development of the US risk communication research showing a wave-like rise. Research agenda mainly focused on three main aspects:the risk communicator and recipient research, risk perception, risk communication process research; research areas covered multiple fields, such as psychology, sociology, cultural studies, etc; researchers came from diverse institutions, among who the most researchers were from university research institutions; researchers from the European and American countries dominated the risk communication studies, Asian regions’ risk communication researches were emerging gradually.Based on articles’keywords clustering analysis, the author summarized the US risk communication research hotspots as food safety risk communication studies, the cultural factors in the risk communication research, risk communication research in biotechnology, natural disaster risk communication, social amplification of risk, trust in risk communication research, studies of the risk information in the mass media, risk decision-making, risk assessment and risk management in risk communication research, industrial chemicals risk communication, terrorism risk communication research, etc.11 research hot topics.By the literature statistical analysis showed that the US risk communication research field existing a large team of researchers, but according to the author visualization analysis showing that the degree of cooperation between high-yield authors was not high, there was no large close-knit group, only forming three smaller cooperation groups, the exchange and cooperation between various subjects should be improved.In terms of research methods, the researchers collected data mainly through the questionnaire survey and literature analysis method; at the same time researchers paid great attention to use quantitative research methods for extrapolated analysis, variance analysis, nonparametric test, correlation analysis, regression analysis and other methods got a lot use in the process of data analysis; in the present research outcomes, researchers tended to choose the graphic method.