Evaluation can reveal whether risk communication is effective.
But defining effectiveness requires careful specification of what the initiator wants to accomplish with a risk communication activity. Dr. Fisher elaborated on these ideas to illustrate why the benefits are worth the effort of evaluating risk communication, and to suggest how evaluation can be useful even with limited resources. Evaluation during the communications planning stage requires data for effective program design. Collecting the appropriate data depends on the risk communication problem. Dr. Fisher mentioned some of the issues that affect evaluation, including individual versus community decisions.