Prelude: Advancing media research in risk and health communication contexts

Disease outbreaks, terrorist acts, and natural disasters are obvious examples of contexts in which risk and health communication play a critical role. Broadcast media have found risk and health crisis events to be particularly seductive as stories that fascinate their audiences. Moreover, with digital media evolving at such a rapid rate, many audience members have taken on the role of newsmaker or reporter (Kim, Brossard, Scheufele, & Xenos, 2016)-we are not entirely certain to what effect. Digital media has proven to serve many useful functions such as operating as a conduit for warnings to the public and acting as a gauge for how messages are received and acted upon (Fraustino & Ma, 2015). On top of these dynamic conditions, many in the risk and health communication research communities find extreme events and hazardous contexts to be on the increase, and an evolving media landscape introduces both challenges and opportunities for using communication to manage these situations.