We've been assigned a final project in this class to analyze the crisis communication that went on around ND with the floods. I've chosen to look at the crisis communication in Valley City, since I live here and know the communication here the best. I haven't quite chosen what medium I will analyze, but I have the following in mind: Twitter, The Forum, News Dakota, and Times-Record. One of the things I noticed throughout the communication during the flood is that I got a lot of my information about Valley City from The Forum's website instead of the Times-Record. This was especially true on weekends. But the radio and NewsDakota told me the most, so I'll probably end up choosing that for my medium. One thing for sure is that I am going to choose an online source because then I know that all of the articles and such are saved in archives.
I plan to look at the communication that occured before, during, and after the flooding that happened here. Because all of the articles are saved online in archives, I will better be able to find out specifically when certain articles were released and when announcements were made. I also plan to interview some friends around here to find out which medium they used to find out about the crisis and how effective they found it. This is part 5 of the assignment. Informal interviewing will help me determine how people relyed on information.
A description of events is also part of the assignment. The events range from the very first sandbag filled to cleanup and restoration (which probably won't be part of my assignment). Events like students helping sandbag and the sirens going off will be listed here as well as when we were told to conserve water and when the sewer actually collapsed. Then I will list the building of contigency dikes and porta-potties being brought in. Announcements are also important part of event list.
After analyizing my own and other's opinions and experiences with different media used in crisis communication around the area, I will be able to determine which was the most and least effective and credible. I predict a lot of people relyed on word-of-mouth, which in my opinion is the lease effective. I guess we'll see once I start researching.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Blog 4 (Crisis Communication)
The crisis I have chosen to write about is about the sewer collapse in Valley City. I examined the communication of all the city officials, the mayor, and journalists for local newspapers and websites. The communication in this type of crisis is vital before, during, and after the crisis. A few days before this crisis, it had been said on the radio and television that Valley City residents should conserve water. I don't know if the message was not getting out enough or that people did not pay attention to or misinterpreted the message. I got a knock on my door Thursday (the day before the collapse) evening from a guy who was passing out flyers and telling us the best ways we can conserve water because it was very crucial. My original plan to conserve water was just to quit washing my dishes and laundry. I still poured water down the drain. I'm sure others thought this way, which is likely what caused the problem. The preliminary communication was probably, in my opinion, the worst.
Despite the problems in the beginning, communication about the crisis once it occured was prompt. I awoke to the town's emergency whistle going off at around 9:30 am. I turned my radio to Q 101 and found out what had happened. The radio announcer told us all to not use any water at all. The radio announcement was an effective form of crisis communication. It was prompt and stated the facts. Also, the whistle going off allowed people to turn on their radios. I would have never even had the radio on if I hadn't heard the radio. One other thing the radio announcer said was that all nonessential businesses should be closed and that there was a voluntary evacuation of the entire city. While I was listening, the radio announcer actually said that the evacuation was mandatory (which it wasn't). This was a gliche in the crisis communication of the City. Fortunately, the mayor came on minutes after that announcement and corrected him, saying the evacuation was only voluntary.
Another thing that I noticed the City did right in this crisis was telling people what's going to happen in the long run. Officials said that the city will likely be using porta-potties for the next month. I feel that if they hadn't said this, people may not have realized the problem was so significant.
Our local newspaper, The Times-Record, had several follow-up articles to the crisis, and this is one of them. This article talks about the closure of the businesses. It gives advice from FEMA about what businessowners can do during the crisis. This article talks about what exactly happened to the sewer. It gave an explanation to citizens (such as myself) who may have been confused. Log on to their website to view more stories.
The Forum also featured an article on the story on the front page the day it collapsed. The article stated what had happened and what buildings were affected. I thought this article was effective because it told the public the truth and did not sugar coat anything.
Additionally, a local news site, NewsDakota, offered plenty of articles about the crisis. They offered plenty of articles about the floods all over the 15 counties the site offers. This is also the site that let me know when Valley City nonessential businesses were allowed to open again.
Some have said bad things about the City and the mayor, but I think they did an effective job in the communication of the crisis. VCSU also played a huge role in the communication among students. I got a phone call, email, and text message informing me of the cancellation of classes.
Despite the problems in the beginning, communication about the crisis once it occured was prompt. I awoke to the town's emergency whistle going off at around 9:30 am. I turned my radio to Q 101 and found out what had happened. The radio announcer told us all to not use any water at all. The radio announcement was an effective form of crisis communication. It was prompt and stated the facts. Also, the whistle going off allowed people to turn on their radios. I would have never even had the radio on if I hadn't heard the radio. One other thing the radio announcer said was that all nonessential businesses should be closed and that there was a voluntary evacuation of the entire city. While I was listening, the radio announcer actually said that the evacuation was mandatory (which it wasn't). This was a gliche in the crisis communication of the City. Fortunately, the mayor came on minutes after that announcement and corrected him, saying the evacuation was only voluntary.
Another thing that I noticed the City did right in this crisis was telling people what's going to happen in the long run. Officials said that the city will likely be using porta-potties for the next month. I feel that if they hadn't said this, people may not have realized the problem was so significant.
Our local newspaper, The Times-Record, had several follow-up articles to the crisis, and this is one of them. This article talks about the closure of the businesses. It gives advice from FEMA about what businessowners can do during the crisis. This article talks about what exactly happened to the sewer. It gave an explanation to citizens (such as myself) who may have been confused. Log on to their website to view more stories.
The Forum also featured an article on the story on the front page the day it collapsed. The article stated what had happened and what buildings were affected. I thought this article was effective because it told the public the truth and did not sugar coat anything.
Additionally, a local news site, NewsDakota, offered plenty of articles about the crisis. They offered plenty of articles about the floods all over the 15 counties the site offers. This is also the site that let me know when Valley City nonessential businesses were allowed to open again.
Some have said bad things about the City and the mayor, but I think they did an effective job in the communication of the crisis. VCSU also played a huge role in the communication among students. I got a phone call, email, and text message informing me of the cancellation of classes.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
