Risk Communication Systems

According to Ericson and Haggerty (1997), risk communication systems (RCS) provide a plan of action for what to do and identity for who to be. It provides guidelines for how to report these risks as per the institutional standards (i.e., police reports). This institutionalism moves the authorship of risk away from the individual and to the routinized, institutional expectations. These standardizations allow the information to be compared to similar institutionalized information. Conflict arises at which institution has the "correct" classifications of risk. Since risks are just possibilities, they are open to various social constructions such as which view is marginalized or should be changed. Risk professionals (those whose business it is to interpret risks) work within RSCs because there is not just one individual working alone; this individual works within the institutionalized system of risk.

References:

Ericson, R. V., & Haggerty, K.D. (1997). The Risk Society. In R.V. Ericson & K.D. Haggerty (Eds.) Policing the risk society (pp. 81-130). U of Toronto: Toronto.