LESSON 11 READING SUMMARY Risk Communication and Crisis Communication - James Delli Gatti

James Delli Gatti

The Instructional Dynamic of Risk and Crisis Communication: Distinguishing Instructional Messages from Dialogue

Reference: Sellnow, T., & Sellnow, D. (2010). The Instructional Dynamic of Risk and Crisis Communication: Distinguishing Instructional Messages from Dialogue. Review Of Communication, 10(2), 112-126. doi:10.1080/15358590903402200

Theme: Risk Communication and Crisis Communication

Summary:

·         Risk communication is an interactive process of exchange of information and opinion among individuals, groups, and institutions.

·         Risk communication's purpose is to recognize potential risks and to take steps designed to avoid crisis situations.

·         The turning point between risk and crisis occurs when three factors are present: threat, surprise, and short response time.

·         Crises occur by surprise and their threatening nature demands something be done quickly or the situation will continue to worsen.

·         Crisis communication is a rapid exchange of messages designed to gain compliance.

·         Crisis communication is using instructional information strategies that seek to tell stakeholders what to do to protect themselves from the crisis.

·         Failure in one area can foster a serious crisis in another.

·         The world is fraught with increasingly complex risks and ensuing crises.

Application to the lesson topic: In this article; The Instructional Dynamic of Risk and Crisis Communication: Distinguishing Instructional Messages from Dialogue. From the journal; Review of communication it states;

"…crisis is risk manifested. Thus, an acute crisis situation requires the rapid exchange of messages designed to gain compliance from all stakeholders in hopes of minimizing or mitigating harm."

 It is very important when communicating with the media that you are able to distinguish between dialogue and instructional messages as dialogue requires feedback and crisis communication is instructional messages that are designed to gain immediate compliance in order to expedite the mitigation of emergency situations when communicating through the media.

Application to emergency services: Risk communication is more of a dialogue that is used in order to persuade people to act in regards to risk management, while crisis communication is utilized to gain immediate compliance from people with the intent of mitigating a crisis in as expeditious a manner as possible. It is important that you recognize the difference and employ the appropriate form of communication as the environment dictates it.

Improving Effectiveness of Weather Risk Commumication on the NWS Point-and-Click Web Page - Joseph Galbraith

Joseph Galbraith

Reference:

Demuth, J. L., Morss, R. E., & Lazo, J. K. (2013). Improving Effectiveness of Weather Risk Commumication on the NWS Point-and-Click Web Page. American Meteorological Society , 711-727.

Theme: When accessing weather information online, it is important for the user to get up to date accurate and easily understandable information.  The NWS Point-and-Click system must be modified to make understanding the information apparent.

Summary:

• The National Weather Service's point-and-click (PnC) web page is the main channel through which weather risk information is broadcasted to the user.

• Users like this system because it gives them custom information for their geographic location.

• The research conducted found that several aspects of risk information are not effectively communicated through this system.

• Two aspect of the information were researched to seek ways for improvement.  They were threat existence and threat timing.

• The study used developed designs that added new textual and graphical information pieces.

• Studies showed that using boxes superimposed on the map helped users identify where the threat existed,

•The study also showed using start and stop times in the text of the hazardous warning helped users understand the timing of an event better.

Application to the lesson topic:

We must understand the tools that are available to us and how to make them better.  This website could be considered a risk communication tool and a crisis communication tool.  The NWS PnC system will help us prepare for an event and track the risk during the event as well.

Application to emergency services:

Tools like this are very valuable in emergency services.  We should know how to use them to our advantage.  We should also seek improvements of these systems.  A thorough weather brief should always be included in emergency management operations.  With today's technology we are able to predict events with more accuracy and fore warnining then ever before.

Social Networking: Crisis Communication - Ray Huntzinger ---- Reading Summary #11

Ray Huntzinger ---- Reading Summary #11



Reference: Winerman, L. (2009, January 21). Social networking: Crisis
communication. Nature. Retrieved on November 21, 2013, from
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090121/full/457376a.html


Theme: This article describes the avenues of crisis communication
during disasters in the social networking era. Several case including
the 2007 Virginia Tech Shooting, the 2007 San Diego wildfire, and the
2008 China earthquake were compared in the context of how social media
affected crisis communication.


Summary:

· Traditional methods of crisis communication like telephones
generally have more limitations than modern social media outlets.

· It is often difficult to convince humans that they are at risk.

· Humans are more likely to be convinced they are at risk
through interaction with other humans but this has traditionally been
overly time consuming.

· Social media expands situational awareness for everyone involved.

· Social media and the internet continue to play a greater
role in crisis communication.

· Community response grids can be beneficial during
emergencies as family members, friends, and neighbors can share what
they know about the emergency to aid in emergency response and public
safety.



Application to the lesson topic:

Crisis communication is constantly changing with technology. The
article emphasized that changes in traditional crisis communication
are inevitable and should be evaluated and integrated based on lessons
learned through past incidents.



Application to emergency services:

Crisis communication is obviously an integral component of emergency
service delivery. As was discussed in the article, it can be difficult
to convince people they are at risk and simultaneously deliver this
message in a timely manner. The more the emergency management
community can learn how to most effectively communicate crisis, the
more lives will be saved. Lesson of the past and current behaviors
based on technology can be evaluated to over the most effective crisis
communication techniques and equipment.

11- EXPLORING RISK ATTENUATION AND CRISIS COMMUNICATION AFTER A PLAGUE DEATH IN GRAND CANYON - Justin Ross

Justin E. Ross

EXPLORING RISK ATTENUATION AND CRISIS COMMUNICATION AFTER A PLAGUE DEATH IN GRAND CANYON

Reference: EXPLORING RISK ATTENUATION AND CRISIS COMMUNICATION AFTER A PLAGUE DEATH IN GRAND CANYON. (2011). Conference Papers -- International Communication Association, 1-30.

Theme: Understanding how to explain risk effectively, and how to manage the line between crisis communications and risk communications.

Summary:

• ·         It's necessary to combine psychological and sociological approaches to help in explaining

risk perception.

• ·         Some incidents produce more visceral responses than other, depending on what the circumstances of the event are.

• ·         The message really only felt important to people in which dealt directly with the risk, and therefore the information did not gain traction to a wide audience.

• ·          While the event itself did not draw a lot of media attention, professionals in the field developed a heightened interest.  This came to fruition based on future studies and publications rather than media coverage.  

• ·         Local media coverage had some penetration that left knowledge of the event in the minds of people, but the national media hardly covered the story at all.

• ·         Media coverage was fair.  There was no embellishment of the events and the outlets stuck very close to the actual press releases. 

• ·         The crisis communications that followed the event included adding signs that there were hazards in the area associated with animals.  This increased the communities understanding of the risk.

Application to the lesson topic:

This is a great case study on how some events might seem to be very important to a sizable population but still not gain any traction with the media as a whole.  Regardless of the impact the story could have on the community.

Application to emergency services:

It is important to understand what kind of communications will be important and what ones won't.  Having this knowledge will help people in the emergency management realm understand what kind of reaction to expect from the general public or disaster professionals

Justin E. Ross
j_elliotte@yahoo.com
360 609-2839