Methodology

My central question is:

How can the public’s perception of drinking water contamination be used to inform communications in water contamination events?

To start to answer this question, I employed two different methodologies.

1. I analyzed the print materials given to residents by the Rhode Island Health Department during the water contamination event in Pascoag, RI, in the fall of 2001. These materials were analyzed using standard reading-level tests and following established guidelines for designing simplified, readable materials.

2. I conducted focus groups in a different community, one previously unaffected by a water contamination event. I took what I heard in these focus groups and analyzed it together with the data from the ES 126 study in Pascoag, as well as with a review of the literature on risk, communication, and contaminated communiities. I hoped with these groups to be able to identify new factors that might be important in communicating regarding water contamination events in a typical Rhode Island community.