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Food contamination outbreaks feed research of DHS student Kelly Wolf

(Jan. 11, 2008)

    The contamination of spinach and lettuce with E.coli in 2006 has proven to be valuable to researchers studying homeland security.

     Kelly Wolf, a Ph.D. candidate in Mass Communication at North Dakota State University and a member of the DHS National Center for Food Protection and Defense, has found the outbreak and other incidents a valuable testing ground.

     Wolf’s focus is on messages directed at the public during accidental food contamination events, and potentially, terrorist-created events.

     “We want to know what kind of information the public craves during and after a crisis as well as the response they expect from organizational agencies and leaders. For example, with an event similar to Hurricane Katrina, how can risk and crisis communicators create a message to inspire residents to evacuate?” says Wolf.

     Following the spinach incident, Wolf surveyed over 500 consumers. Her preliminary research showed a connection between individual learning styles and how organizations should best communicate during a crisis.

     “By tailoring risk messages to various learning styles, organizations can reach broader audiences, satisfy public need for information, and, ideally, influence risk behavior,” says Wolf. In a food-related context, one example of behavioral influence could be convincing consumers to throw away a potentially harmful product such as contaminated spinach.

     Wolf has followed-up this study by working to improve a survey tool that can be used rapidly during an event to determine public information needs mated with individual’s learning preferences and response to risk.

     “Ultimately, we are looking for the most effective way to construct messages so that they reach the largest number of people in the quickest possible manner. We hope that the message spurs behavioral change in some way,” says Wolf.

     Wolf's advice to organizations struggling to communicate during a crisis is to be open and honest, accept that a crisis is a time of uncertainty, listen to the concerns of the public, form partnerships and networks with the community, be accessible to the media, communicate compassion, and provide measures of self efficacy.

     She will graduate from North Dakota State in 2008.