Abstract:

The Covid-19 crisis and the process of climate change, in its social and communicative dimension, are related to the processes of risk management actions, where a professional training with knowledge on issues of care and prevention of health or environmental emergencies is necessary for the reduction of the effects of these events.

Given that the work in risk communication corresponds to the expertise of professional communicologists and that they learn mainly in the different university careers related to communication, the objective of this research is to know the degree of knowledge that these students have and receive of this subject, since it will depend on it that in the future a well-informed society will be obtained in this increasingly necessary field. The methodology used consisted of a questionnaire to 114 students of the communication career of the Technical University of Ambato, in the center of the Ecuadorian country. The form was based on the theoretical approaches of the Guide to Information and Communication Management in Emergencies and Disasters of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO). The form contained 17 qualitative and quantitative items related to risk communication and risk communication training. The data were analyzed using the SPSS statistical program.

From the results obtained it can be extracted that most of the students of the communication career do not know about risk communication, however, they consider it important, value a training in this subject and even think that it should be included in their professional profile. The results also show that in risk management actions, in their various typologies, most of the students do not know about the adoption of these measures of anticipation, reduction and confrontation with regard to information. In fact, risk coverage is structured by news interests and fails to highlight the role of the media with respect to communicative risk management. They also consider that much of the information issued by the media is not relevant or timely at the time of the emergency.
The analysis of actions under risk criteria in communication reveals the importance of strengthening training and knowledge in strategic planning, educommunication and intercultural aspects under a methodology of participatory dialogue with the main actors in emergency situations, with capacities in certain interdisciplinary areas linked to technology, health and environment, which strengthen their professional journalistic actions.

It is concluded that training in risk communication should be strengthened in the education of future communication professionals, especially through the teaching of capacities and skills in planning, co-participation and preventive follow-up in the event of health or environmental emergencies.

Keywords:

Covid 19, risk communication, training, educommunication.