'Why' transforms information transfer into effective communication in radiological protection.

As scientists and professionals, we have been trained to present and lecture in front of an audience of similarly instructed peers, we subject our manuscripts to peer-review, and we mentor the next generation of radiological protection professionals to adopt the same methods of information transfer we equate with 'scientific communication.' The scientific community clearly has developed effective and efficient means to share progress in a given field of study. However, current efforts to improve our success in achieving public understanding of our most important and pertinent conclusions, and in communicating the 'risks' associated with low or moderate exposures to ionising radiation indicate the realisation that we have not been similarly successful in our interactions with the general public. We may be getting close to having exhausted our examples, comparisons, and metaphors. We realise that effective communication in radiological protection necessitates more than the transfer of information to the audience. Rather than concentrating solely on the source, the speaker, we also need to take into account the receiver, the audience. In addition to optimising speaker and presentation attributes, effective communication needs to address barriers to listening as well. We propose for the community's communication strategies to develop and include tools which allow us to communicate across a wide range of individual needs, attitudes, and interests in the audience. Effective communication in radiological protection needs to be tailored to the individuals in the audience to open channels for our transfer of information; it needs to 'catch' and 'capture' the audience for active listening. We first need to justify to the audience 'why' they should consider 'our facts,' before we can expect them to trust our recommendations on 'how' to respond to a given situation. Symbols and narratives then can help with the retention of the information received by the audience.