What My Crisis Communication Project Will Be About

Living in Valley City makes it easier for me to write my crisis communication research paper on this community. I lived on campus all of my freshman year and the first semester of my sophomore year. The last semester of my sophomore year I moved into an apartment on the north end of town. It would have been interesting to experience the flood while on campus but the experience of being off-campus was interesting and “good” as well. Living on campus would have given me the experience of being around my fellow students as the flood crisis played out. The communication would’ve been considerably different had I been in the dormitories. I would have been in closer contact with my professors, my fellow students, and the staff of the university. I would not have had to worry about finding a parking spot when all of the lots were closed due to flood preparation, I would not have had to worry about whether I was going to be able to get to campus to make it to my classes if they were even going to be held, and I would not have had to check my email every five minutes to determine what was happening around campus and the city because I could have heard it firsthand. Living off of campus allowed me to experience both the community side of the disaster and the university side of the disaster. I was in the midst of how the community was fighting the flood everyday and listened to the radio announcements every time I drove from campus to my apartment, my apartment to campus, or to any other destination around town. I was also completely intertwined with how the campus community was fighting the flood. I was on campus for classes and meetings so I saw how the campus prepared itself for fighting the flood; I received all the emails about what the town meetings were deciding, and the emails about how sandbag central needed MORE help even though more than half the town was probably there almost every day.

The amount of communication that occurred within the community, between the community and the university, the university and its students, and the students and the community is what made the flood fight in the region so successful. There were no secrets, no information that went unshared and therefore no one felt excluded or mistreated. Everyone was on the same playing field which made for less rumors and more cooperation. That ladies and gentlemen is a success story for crisis communication.

Communication Is A Major Key To Life

Whether we're at home with your family, out shopping or eating, at work, or at a social function communication is the one action/task that we all must be capable of carrying out. Without communication, our friends and family do not know what is going on in our lives or how we are doing, our bosses cannot tell us what tasks are on the never-ending "To-Do" list (or we cannot tell our employees the tasks that must be carried out), and we are not able to inform others of what we like, dislike, want, need or think. Chew on this for a second: without communication of ANY form, how would we, well-for lack of a better way to say this-communicate? We couldn't tell our parents or spouse that we aren't feeling well, we can't tell anyone (friends, family, employees at the stores or restaurants we shop at) what we need or want, we can't, really, do too much of anything. Almost everything we do in everyday life is communicating in some shape or form with someone else. When we e-mail, text, call, write, talk, make eye-contact, sign, or use body language we are conveying a message to the receiver and without those, it would be every human for themselves. I personally think that in this world, that would be incredibly difficult and scary even.

 

One of the most important times in which clear and concise communication is critical is when there is a crisis on the verge of breaking or even already having broken. Now in order for communication to BE clear and concise during a crisis, everyone involved must know their tasks and their positions. They must understand their jobs and where they stand in the web of information passing. It is also critical to know the phases of a crisis so they know where they stand and what they need to know and pass on.

 

Here are the phases:

1) Initial Phase –

express empathy (notice—not sympathy—not “I’m sorry” but instead, “I feel your pain.” )

inform public about risks

establish organization spokesperson credibility

provide emergency courses of acton

2) Crisis Maintenance Phase –

Help public understand their own risks

provide more encompassing information

gain support for recovery plan

explain and make a case for recommendations

get and respond to public/stakeholder feedback

empower risk/benefit decision-making

Require ongoing assessment of event

3) Crisis Resolution Phase –

provide educational opportunities

Examine problems and mishaps

gain support for new policies or resource allocation

Promote the organization’s capabilities

4) Evaluation Phase –

ongoing in various ways during all phases

integrate results into pre-crisis planning activities.

 

It is also critical to know how to communicate during a crisis. Here is the proper way:

1) Verify the situation

Get the facts

Judge the validity of the facts based on the source of the information

Clarify the plausibility of the information through a subject matter expert

Attempt to discern the magnitude of the event.

 2) Conduct notification and coordination

Notification is the official chain of command

Coordination is with response peers and partners

Procedures will vary at the state, local, and federal levels and by event.

3) Conduct assessment and activate plan

Assess impact on communication operations and staffing

Determine your organization’s role in the event.

Activate the media and internet monitoring

Identify affected populations and their initial communication needs

4) Organize assignments (Continually reassess these steps)

 Who’s in charge of the overall responses?

Make assignments for communication teams

Assess resource needs and hours of operations

Ask ongoing organizational issues questions

5) Prepare information and obtain approvals

 Develop message(s)

Identify audiences

What do media want to know?

Show empathy

What is the organization’s response?

Identify action steps for public

Execute the approval process from the plan.

6) Release information to the media, public, partners, etc… through arranged channels.

 Select appropriate channels of communication and apply them simply, timely, accurately, repeatedly, credibly, and consistently. 

7) Obtain feedback and conduct crisis evaluation

Conduct responses evaluation

Analyze feedback from customers

Analyze media coverage

Conduct a hot wash (self-evaluation on your own effectiveness, and debriefing)

Develop a SWOT analysis (what were our Strengths? Weaknesses? Opportunities? Threats?)

Share with leadership

Revise crisis plans

8) Conduct public education (after the event)

 Highlight related public health issues

Consider audiences not directly involved in the crisis

Institutionalize the crisis materials (make them part of the institution)

9) Monitor events

Conduct media and internet monitoring

Exchange information with response partners

Monitor public opinions

Crisis Communication: At It's Worst

There are multiple natural disasters that occur around the world every year. Hurricanes/typhoons, earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunamis, and floods devastate thousands of people and communities. They are all feared by the citizens they threaten in the regions in which they reign supreme. They're specific territories may sometimes interweave, but with the exception of one, they mainly just terrorize their own domains. When one of these miraculous terrors unleashes its power on sometimes unsuspecting citizens, there are people there that will help you and make sure that the thing and people you care about the most are protected and taken care of.

FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) is in place to help with these disasters and to make sure that things do not get too chaotic.The American Red Cross provides places to live, warm meals, water and a place for you to register so if someone is trying to find you all they have to do is go to the website, type in your name and they can make sure you're safe and find a way they'll get a hold you.

In order for these two companies to work thoroughly and efficiently however, there needs to be proper lines of communication. Sometimes, this isn't the case and mass chaos is unavoidable.

Such was the case when Hurricane Katrina struck the southern coast of the United States of America in August of 2005. It is said to have been the most destructive hurricane every to strike the coast of the USA. More than 1,800 people lost their lives to that storm and more than $81 worth of damages were accumulated. The reason those numbers are so high is because the levies broke which released all of the water that was being contained behind them. They did not suspect the storm had that kind of power or capabilities and therefore they did not communicate any back-up plans or make any preperations for if something major did happen. The city also did not evacuate people soon enough so not as many members of the city were able to evacuate as should've been able to. They could've saved many lives and many homes and businesses if they had planned for the worst instead of just hoping for the best.

So, I'm watching the Twins 3rd game of the new season (which started on Monday) against the Seattle Mariners and it got me thinking. How much do professional athletic leagues and associations spend on PR for their players and teams a year? Whether it's promoting their games and their teams or "covering up" scandals and screw-ups stirred up and made by players.

I found an article in The Herald by Cornerstone University. The title intrigued me. "Pro-athletes Are Poor Examples When It Comes To Laws." That's EXACTLY what I was looking for! It starts out immediately by questioning why pro-athletes always seem to receive a "get-out-of-jail-free-card" when, if a "regular person" commits the infractions they commit, we either: go to jail, pay an outlandish fine and go to jail, just pay a fine, or get an extreme amount of community service. Now, does that seem fair? It's always been something that gets on my nerves when it's in the news seemingly all the time. They receive a slap on the wrist, maybe pay a small fine, and are back playing their given sport within a week or two. They drive drunk, they assault people, they carry around illegal weapons, they take steroids and illegal drugs, they abuse animal, they steal, they've been called on domestic violence, and a few have even been involved in or committed murder. Many pro-athletes admit that they carry concealed weapons while in public. They claim that they are at more of a risk of an attack than the average person. I personally think that's just a mouthful because every person is at risk at all times of being attacked. Whether it's a mugging, a kidnapping, a rape, an assault, whatever it may be, we're all always at risk. We all have a right to be protected but that doesn't mean that every Average Joe should walk around with a concealed weapon. Do you have any idea how many more deaths would come from conflicts if guns were involved in every one?

Here are the top 10 pro-athlete arrests of all time.

1. Eddie Belfour, goalie, Dallas Stars, 3-21-2000
2. Eugene Robinson, safety, Atlanta Falcons, 1-30-1999
3. Dick Williams, former Oakland A's and Seattle Mariners manager, 1-17-2000
4. Pedro Guerrero, former St. Louis Cardinals first baseman, 6-7-2000
5. Michael Irvin, wide receiver, Dallas Cowboys, 8-8-2000
6. Kevin Mitchell, former Major League outfielder, 8-31-1999
7. Mark Ingram, wide receiver, Miami Dolphins, 1-23-2001
8. Ruben Patterson, forward, Seattle Supersonics, 9-20-2000
9. Rasheed Wallace and Damon Stoudamire, co-captains, Portland Trail Blazers, 11-22-02
10. Kareem Abdul-Jabaar, former LA Lakers center, 7-18-2000

News From The White House

I wasn't quite sure what to write about for my blog this week so I was just looking through random articles online when I came across an post from The White House Blog. I was intrigued and decided that that would become my topic for the week: a press release from The White House.

The particular article I found covered the topic of "A Turning Point" (the article's title) in the global economy crisis. The article was released on Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 after the President held a press conference in which he discussed the results of the intense meetings of the recent G-20 Summit that was held in London, England. At the conference global leaders "agreed on a series of unprecedented steps to restore growth and prevent a crisis like this from happening again." The President also stated that the nations that had attended would be creating a strong united front that would help stimulate job creation and the global economy. It would also help those growing economies stay above water and encourage international trade that would prove beneficial to all parties involved. After this, he went on to discuss the main topic of the G-20 Summit meeting: the reform of the worlds' financial regulatory systems.

This reform is both fundamental and must be coordinated to a T if it is going to be successful. The reform that they decided upon was clearly outlined with the President's following quote. He said, "To prevent future crises, we agreed to increase transparency and capital protections for financial institutions. We're extending supervision to all systematically important institutions, markets and products, including hedge funds. We'll identify jurisdictions that fail to cooperate, including tax havens, and take action to defend our financial system. We will reestablish the Financial Stability Forum with a stronger mandate. And we will reform and expand the IMF and World Bank so they are more efficient, effective and representative."

I believe that they hit the major problem points with this reform plan and I have every confidence in today's global and economic leaders to make this plan effective.

North Dakota: Natural Disaster Zone

While I would've loved to write about effective and ineffective advertisements, I believe that my attention this week should be focused on the wonderful weather we have here in our beloved state of North Dakota.
As we all know, there are massive amounts of water and snow accumulation around the state but especially in the Western half. Fargo and the surrounding smaller communities are in the most trouble but all up and down the Red River Valley and the Sheyenne River communities are in grave danger.

The crest of flood waters in Fargo is expected to be between 39 and 41 feet by Friday night. Most of the damns are being built to a height of 42 feet. Even at the height, there are worries about the strength and stability of the barriers.

President Obama has declared North Dakota a federal disaster area. This means that the federal government will cover 75% of the state and local government costs that will go towards fighting the flooding throughout the state. National Guard units around the state have been activated and called to Fargo and other communities to pitch in with filling sandbags and building the dikes and dams to keep the flood waters at bay.

Oxbow is evacuating people because they have been unable to keep up with surging flow of the river. Ice chunks have built up in the rivers as well causing back up and making it an inevitable that there be major flooding once those chunks give way and everything that is building behind them is released.

I have been helping sandbag in Valley City for the past two days. With the number of sandbags and helpers needed in our reasonably small community, it is unimaginable to think about the numbers in Fargo/Moorhead and also all of the other communities in North Dakota. Every town in the western portion of the state is being sandbagged and preparing for the water that is surely going to ravage each location...whether protected or not.

Relay for Life

Relay for Life is a cause and event that is very near and dear to my heart. I lost my grandma to cancer when I was in 5th grade and Stephen just recently lost his grandpa to cancer as well. Cancer runs in my family so I feel very strongly about cancer research, treatment, cures, and prevention. It could save a friend, family member, or even me.

There are over 200 different types of cancer. You can develop one or more type(s) of cancer in ANY organ or part of your body. Despite the numerous different types, cancers can be broadly grouped into types depending on the tissues they develop from/in. Here are the groups:

Carcinomas, the most common types of cancer, arise from the cells that cover external and internal body surfaces. Lung, breast, and colon are the most frequent cancers of this type.
Sarcomas are cancers arising from cells found in the supporting tissues of the body such as bone, cartilage, fat, connective tissue and muscle.
Lymphomas are cancers that arise in the lymph nodes and tissues of the body's immune system.
Leukaemias are cancers of the immature blood cells that grow in the bone marrow and tend to accumulate in large numbers in the bloodstream.
Adenomas are tumours that come from glandular tissue like the thyroid, the pituitary gland the adrenal gland. They are often benign.

There are often prefixs to those tissue groups that describe the exact type of cell the cancer origionates from. Some of the prefixs include:

Adeno- = gland
Chondro- = cartilage
Erythro- = red blood cell
Haemangio- = blood vessels
Hepato- = liver
Lipo- = fat
Lympho- = white blood cell
Melano- = pigment cell
Myelo- = bone marrow
Myo- = muscle
Osteo- = bone

My favorite fundraiser is Relay for Life. The country is divided into 13 different regions and each region has their base offices. Those offices decide where and when events are going to be held and they provide information and supplies and they are always available to aid with problems or questions. I have participated in five Relay for Life events throughout my lifetime and have loved every second of the fundraising, preperation, and the event in itself.