The Theories Of Risk Communications

The book has a direct correlation with PAD3735 because it focused on the fundamentals of understanding emergency situations and the procedures that were done to manage them prior and after the emergencies occurred. The two scenarios used throughout the book were the 9/11 attacks and the Hurricane Katrina. Both topics that have been discussed throughout the class and of significant importance in the Emergency Management field. Systems under stress is a series of books that were written by Donald Kettl and concentrate on the political system and how different issues are handled by the political and social system. This book in particular was written in 2007 and focused on illustrating how key players responded to both terrorist and natural disaster

Chapelhow et al. (2005) have created a framework to enable a person-centred approach to be taken in all care situations. It outlines six key areas which are fundamental to excellent care delivery. These are: communication, assessment, managing risk, documentation, professional decision making and managing uncertainty.

In the Disaster in Franklin County simulation (Regents of the University of Minnesota [UMN], 2006), there were several key personnel in the incident command team. This concept is utilized in real disasters when the Public

Advances in communication technology give the crisis teams the ability to reach out to communities and rural areas using reverse phone calls and the emergency broadcast system. Traditional communication methods, such as television and radio, allows the crisis teams to distribute correct information and help reduce the effects of errors that can be communicated through news spread by word of mouth.

Timely and accurate information is essential during a terrorist attack and a natural disaster. Therefore, the government must inform the public of all events. However, officials need to be mindful of the information that is released could expose intelligence in an ongoing investigation and put lives at risk. Crisis communication is a fine line of keeping the public informed and placing them harms

Getting a staff together to bring in useful information to plan for the release of the information to the news media is a great way to enhance communication to the public. The media will then get the information out to the public by ways of News releases, web sites, news conferences, newspapers and other social media (Hicks, 2012). The advantages of using these types of media are they quickly allows for the public to know what type of crisis has happened, and what kinds of precautions are being taken to ensure their safety. If there were to be any fatalities caused by the crisis event(s), these types of avenues also will give information on that. Some disadvantages can be unreliable technology of the citizens that will not allow for them to get access to the information that is being released by the media, such as no television, computer is not working properly, or they don’t received the local newspaper to be able to read it, etc.

According to our textbook public relations plays a critical role during chaotic situations. It is of great importance to confront the unfavorable incidents to the public. Crisis communication is a four-step process consisting of: risk assessment, crisis communications planning, response, and recovery. Going back to the NIU shooting incident we can see the steps that were followed to cope with the aftermath. Assistant Vice President for Public Affairs said “the term crisis management is something of an oxymoron, implying as it does that events bringing sudden shock, panic, and chaos can submit to project “management.”Of course, it is imperative for us to have crisis plans in place and for those plans to be practiced on a regular basis (Guth and Marsh, pp.390). She was also awarded the Public Relations Society of America’s “Best of the Silver Anvil” (Guth and Marsh,

Communication is also very critical in the case of a catastrophic event. Thus, the first respondent need to be a good communicator for communication is an essential part in response to a catastrophic event (Pope, 2005). It is also the responsibility of the first respondent to have a practical plan to implement in case an emergency erupted following the catastrophic event. The aftermath of a catastrophic event is highly unpredictable and emergencies cannot be overlooked. It is, therefore, the

Communication is widely regarded as one of the most essential elements in successfully managing an emergency situation. The dissemination of information, which is both timely as well as accurate, to the parties concerned goes a long way to lend a hand in ensuring that the recovery activities in an emergency situation, together with its management takes place effectively. For that reason, five critical assumptions are used to provide the basis of disaster management strategy.

Chaos theory is a more recently discovered organization theory. Don’t let the word chaos misdirect you in your thoughts on this theory. This theory actually believes that order can be achieved,

* In The missing piece of NIMS: Teaching incident commanders how to function in the edge of Chaos, the author notes that first responders have to deal with a disaster situation already unfolding, and not “all the pieces fit together nicely.” The author writes about the Five Tenets of Working in Chaos.

This emergence of social media has also changed emergency management and disaster response. Emergency management as a whole is fairly new, only creating widely recognized, integrated emergency management systems beginning in the 1970s. Furthermore, at this same time people realized that the effects disasters have on the communities they strike can be mitigated by the creation of disaster plans ahead of time, proper disaster response training, and the efforts of human actions in these situations. Because social media has enabled mass amounts of instant information sharing, it allows not only locals and disaster response teams to help with the management of crises, but also many remote citizens.

According to Lillibridge and Klukken (1978), crisis is an event or situation that cause " 地n upset in equilibrium at the failure of one's traditional problem-solving approach which results in disorganization, hopelessness, sadness, confusion, and panic" (62). In the face of crisis, there is an urgent need to swing to action and communication is the only vehicle that can convey this message to everyone concerned. When crisis occur, communication challenges becomes worsened because the

Over the past few decades, the significance, magnitude and consequence of risk management and communication have been brought before the world over and over again in a number of situations related to health, terrorist activities, natural disasters etc. When one turns the pages of history, it is rather obvious that lack of planning and absence of resources due to unpreparedness makes it difficult for the concerned authorities to manage an emergency or epidemic a problematic and traumatic task. The chaotic situations can turn out to be more nerve-racking and tense when preparations are not made before hand (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2002).

This report outlines the current crisis situation and provides a range of crisis communication strategies and methodologies that are suggested for use immediately.