Speaker
Description
CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear) crises pose exceptional communicative challenges, as they involve invisible, uncertain, and high-consequence threats. Alarm messages—issued by institutions and amplified through media—often transform technical alerts into emotionally charged narratives that shape public fear, trust, and behavioural response. Delays or inconsistencies in public alerts further intensify uncertainty, allowing fear to spread through speculation and fragmented reporting. This study investigates how fear is constructed and circulated through linguistic, visual, and symbolic resources during selected European CBRN crises, focusing on the semiotic mechanisms that influence perception, timing, and crisis governance.
We have employed a qualitative multiple-case design to analyse three European CBRN crises: the Cesium-137 contamination at the Acerinox plant in Spain (1998), the Novichok nerve-agent poisonings in the United Kingdom (2018), and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant crisis in Ukraine (2022–2023). For each case, analysis began with institutional alert messages and continued with subsequent media narratives. The data pool comprised of more than sixty-five publicly available materials, including official advisories, televised broadcasts, and online news reports.
Findings reveal recurring metaphors of contamination and war (“invisible enemy”, “toxic cloud”), visual dramatization, and repetition of hazard symbols. In several cases, delayed or cautious alerts enabled uncontrolled media amplification and anxiety. We shall conclude that messages framed with clarity, empathy, timeliness, and transparency correlated with higher public trust, transforming fear into public resilience.
| Keywords | CBR crises communication, semiotics of fear, public alert systems, Eco linguistics |
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| vessi_ivanova@swu.bg |