Reading summary 6 - Andrea Graff
Reference: Veil, S. (2012). Clearing the air: journalists and emergency managers discuss disaster response. Journal of applied communication research. Routledge.
Theme: Establishing a relationship between emergency managers and journalists is one of the most important pre-planning things you can do.
Summary:
Application to the lesson topic:
Emergency managers and journalists getting along and getting accurate and timely information to the public is a necessary practice that needs to be worked on. Trust needs to be built way before an incident occurs.
Application to emergency services:
Establish relationships with your local media crews and journalists. Allow them to explain their reasoning for doing what they do and also explain yours in hopes of understanding one another. We need to realize it's not always up to them what airs and what doesn't, if there's a bigger story at the time that is going to get the air time.
Reference: Veil, S. (2012). Clearing the air: journalists and emergency managers discuss disaster response. Journal of applied communication research. Routledge.
Theme: Establishing a relationship between emergency managers and journalists is one of the most important pre-planning things you can do.
Summary:
- Over the years the relationship between the media and emergency managers or PIOs has had a bad reputation and the citizens of the communities are the ones being affected.
- If emergency services managers don't form relationships with journalists and are unwilling to give information when asked, the journalist is going to get the information one way or another, even if from an unreliable source.
- Emergency managers and journalists need to work together and cultivate a relationship built on trust, by the manager giving accurate and timely information and the journalist reporting only what is given by the manager.
- Having an established relationship with the manager will greatly enhance the chances of getting the story and shots the journalist is looking for.
- There seem to be a lot of trust issues between managers and journalists. Journalists think managers are holding back information and managers think journalists come in saying they want to do a story about one thing, but then do it about something else that is negative.
Application to the lesson topic:
Emergency managers and journalists getting along and getting accurate and timely information to the public is a necessary practice that needs to be worked on. Trust needs to be built way before an incident occurs.
Application to emergency services:
Establish relationships with your local media crews and journalists. Allow them to explain their reasoning for doing what they do and also explain yours in hopes of understanding one another. We need to realize it's not always up to them what airs and what doesn't, if there's a bigger story at the time that is going to get the air time.
Although trust is important, understanding each other's roles is also important. Emergency managers have a responsibility to protect the public. Sometimes that means not providing information to the media that they may want. They also are obligated to do the bidding of public officials. As part of their responsibility to their audience, the media seek to get the complete story. Unfortunately, in their rush to be first, they may not always be accurate. Simply said, each have forces acting upon them that seem to work against a trusting relationship. However, both could not do their jobs without the other.
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