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Scientific Storytelling to Improve Earthquake Shaking and Impact Communication

Description: 

Communication remains essential to making society safer in the face of earthquakes. At the National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC), we have implemented five ongoing strategies to improve user engagement while focusing on storytelling-driven science communication. First, the Earthquake Hazards Program oversees the development of many deliverables across research areas, including earthquake shaking and impact products. However, it can be challenging to understand or coordinate how such products are used by various communities. To help address this, we developed flow charts to illustrate the workflow for producing specific products (e.g., ShakeMap) and how those products can be integrated with users’ applications. Second, for user-driven technologies like ShakeCast that integrate user infrastructure fragility inventories with shaking intensity estimates from ShakeMap, we find newsletters to be an impactful communication device to update current users, answer frequently asked questions, or showcase a product’s potential applications. As a third strategy, we use personas and user profiles to highlight how a specific technology can be utilized by organizations across various industries to demonstrate a technology’s application to prospective users. Fourth, while fact sheets remain a key medium for communicating technical updates to users, we extend their reach by developing digital storyboards that translate fact sheets into engaging, interactive storytelling media tailored to various audiences. Finally, with the debut of NEIC’s recording studio, we are producing videos that communicate science using engaging storytelling. For example, we filmed interviews about student interns’ experiences to create an approachable format to convey science and illustrate the purpose-driven nature of this work, which remains one of the most influential factors for Gen Z when choosing career paths. Given storytelling’s importance in human development, we see it as an underutilized strategy for communicating earthquake hazards science that can engage both existing and potential users through new digital media resources.

Session: Adventures in Social Seismology: Ethical Engagement, Earthquake Early Warnings, Operational Forecasts, and Beyond - II

Type: Oral

Date: 4/15/2025

Presentation Time: 10:45 AM (local time)

Presenting Author: Isaac

Student Presenter: Yes

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