medium & the message

Its funny, the things we take for granted. The main one being electricity of course. And timely crisis communications plans. Allow me to explain…

A couple of weeks ago an ice storm knocked out power in various places around the Niagara Region. It was odd too….because some cities were hardly noticing anything while others were devastated - cars were slipping around the streets, trees were breaking from the weight of the ice forming on their branches and post-secondary institutions were being shut down in one city and not another.

In a time like this there are certain methods of the media that we all go to in a crisis. Some prefer the TV (it’s visual and timely). In such a case the newspaper won’t do any good (for obvious reasons). However, the only outlet one can really rely on during a power outage is the radio. Of course, you can only rely on the radio if there is useful information to be heard.

You know what I heard on the LOCAL stations? What the weather was like in Toronto. Great.

I’m not sure whose responsibility it is to ensure the residents are aware of local problems - the radio station’s or the government’s? Either way, there should be a resourceful plan that is in place to provide accurate, up-to-date weather and road conditions. Should I really have to call each institution to hear their pre-recorded messages of their closure? (i.e. Niagara College had a very informative one)

How an organization handles itself in a crisis can seriously have an impact on its future reputation. Does this all seem pretty textbook to you? Here are some basic textbook guidelines with clear (and simple) examples of how they could have been used in this particular situation:

1. Define each risk - Which roads are closed? Accidents anywhere? Trees falling down and knocking out power lines? Which schools/malls/community centres are shut down?

2. For each risk, define an action - Call the community centre for more information, here is the #; please just stay in your homes; do not travel to these areas as they are particularly bad; these areas aren’t so bad

3. Identify causes of the risk - Well, the snow obviously; fallen trees; accidents

4. Gain control - This is what is being done about the accidents… There are clean up crews for the trees…Here is a hotline for any fallen power lines…We will be reporting every 15 min…The power is expected to be back on ????

‘The guidelines were borrowed from Fraser P. Seitel’s book, The practice of public relations.9th ed. (Pearson Prentice Hall: 2004).

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