Effectiveness of audience segmentation in instructional risk communication: A systematic literature review

Abstract

Instructional risk communication, with messages usually delivered in forms of general education campaigns, is not always effective. One of the reasons is that very often messages are not tailored for specific needs and demands of recipients. Audience segmentation can prove to be useful.This paper presents a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed articles related to the effectiveness of application of audience segmentation to disaster education. The objective of this review is to highlight the effectiveness of audience segmentation as a concept within instructional risk communication and to provide specific instructions to managers that would benefit from applying this concept.We identified 1493 papers published before April 2023 using systematic and hand-searching and we identified 15 articles for in-depth review that matched our inclusion criteria.We extracted data on segments investigated, factors analysed, effectiveness analysis and related theoretical frameworks.The results of this systematic literature review confirm the importance of tailoring contents of instructional risk communication to the needs of heterogeneous audiences through target messages. In the presentation of the findings of this systematic literature review, several important themes emerged, such as the importance of community engagement, the main characteristics of the segments, the necessity to involve vulnerable groups and the role of social media.This review shows that audience segmentation can prove effective not only in health and climate communication, but also in crisis communication. Most of the results taken from the selected articles underline the need for crisis managers and practitioners to further explore the use of audience segmentation.