Community communication as a vehicle for awareness: The issue of road safety as a model

Abstract

Understanding and controlling the issues relating to the accompaniment of development and governance are some of the primary objectives assigned to elected municipal councils. To achieve such an objective, it is imperative to use information and communication sciences that are rooted in theoretical knowledge coupled with practice which refer to current territorial intelligence techniques.As such, if information "covers both data, news and knowledge", communication must be the process that follows directly because it is meant to be "man acting on (representations of) man through the use of signs" (Bougnoux, 2001).To play a major role in one’s communication is to build the information, the relationship, to think through and evaluate the use, which refers directly to the act of awareness that appears in both information and communication processes. From a community perspective, citizens must necessarily be targeted by the act of awareness to improve quality of life, promote citizen involvement and therefore, primarily face scourges that destabilize civic cohesion and foreshadow a real threat to the safety and security of individuals. Given current data, road safety has become a major concern for local (national and municipal) authorities. It poses a serious challenge that must be faced by States and involves know-how in terms of community communication that elected representatives must master.  Our article discusses one of the steps taken to heighten public awareness of the safer use of the road, including the human component (cognitive patterns, attitudes, behaviours, influence of the outside world...), the currently operating model to be assessed as well as a modelling of sound behaviours to be implemented.