James Delli Gatti
Reference: Giles, H., & Marlow, M. (2007). Civil Defense, Communication, and the Politics of Disaster: An American Case Study. Conference Papers -- International Communication Association, 1-37.
Theme: case studies and disaster
Summary:
- If people personalize the risk ("it will happen to me") they will be more likely to act in ways to sustain self-interest. However, inquiry has suggested that personalization may contribute to under-responses and over-responses during emergency situations.
- Communication about disasters and crises are typically categorized as one of two types, namely, hazard and risk communication.
- Hazard communication involves disseminating information to individuals and collectives regarding risks in the immediate environment, such as hurricanes or hazardous areas
- Risk or warning communication deals with interactions during impending emergencies, such as an oncoming tornado or an expected terrorist attack.
- For an individual to make an optimum behavioral decision, they must hear, understand, believe, personalize, and respond to emergency messages.
- Once an emergency message has been heard, it must be understood, in terms of attaching personal meaning or relevance to the information.
- Variations in perceptions of terminology may also determine risk processing and behavior.
- Research has found that individuals vary in their tendency to perceive a risk warning as accurate and credible.
Application to the lesson topic: This article covers the abilities and perceptions of people with various disabilities or language barriers to receive, understand, and take action on emergency information that is being disseminated;
"Overall, when an individual has acquired emergency information, understood the message, assessed their belief, and determined personalized or group risk level, generalized perceptions of risk vulnerability result in situation appropriate behavior."
I think that the methods employed as well as the context of the language used will ultimately serve to persuade the general public to behave in a certain manner creating calm or creating chaos.
Application to emergency services: Not only is it important for your message to be disseminated to the general public in the various languages used by the public taking into account people with disabilities, but it is also vitally important that your message demonstrate confidence in your abilities to mitigate the disaster at hand. Be sensitive to the wording used in your reports and the tone that this message is disseminated. These factors can have a huge effect on your information creating public calm or a public frenzy.
Communication is extremely important during a crisis. There are several forms of communication that need to take place in order for effective disaster response. One unconventional form of communication is communication with ones self. Many people over or under react to emergencies because hey have not mentally communicated with themselves about what they might do during a disaster. People who have mentally committed to something are much more likely to perform how they would hope, than those who haven't even given it thought.
ReplyDeleteThere seems to be nomenclature for everything these days. There is a different name for the communication we have with the public before, during, and after an incident. I think that police departments tend to under report on incidents, for fear that they might leak that one vital clue to the case. This is why people don't trust the police.
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