Disaster Communications in a Changing Media World, Essay Example

Abstract

As media resources today render news coverage a nearly instantaneous affair, the team handling a disaster must from the first address this factor in a practical and comprehensive manner. Both the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico this year and the impact of Katrina on New Orleans in 2005 serve to underscore the importance of media relations. In the following pages a hypothetical scenario of such a disaster will be presented and, following a brief overview of the situation, how I would respond as the media representative will be set out. Reasons for each decision will be given, as will the  probable consequences of the failure to act effectively.

Emergency Situation

New seismic readings taken at the Cascades Volcano Observatory are reporting unusual activity within the Mount St Helens radius. While registering as low on the Richter Scale, the readings mark a departure from a relatively consistent state of inactivity since the eruption of 1980, and intense scrutiny is being given to them.

The Observatory staff decides that a pro-active approach must be taken from the outset, both in regard to cautionary and preventive measures, and in relaying all pertinent information to the media and the public in a timely and responsible manner. To this end I have been selected to serve as Director of Media Relations. This is determined on the second day that slightly higher readings of sporadic rumblings are documented.

Background and Preparation

As this task carries with it great responsibility, it is my job to assess as fully as I can both the nature and scope of this potential crisis, and how in my role as liaison with the media I can learn from recent experiences in disaster management.

First, the 1980 blast is still very much a living memory and I believe I must accept that the warnings now being issued from the same volcano will have all that much greater an impact on public and media reaction. This is a known danger and not a dormant volcano with no unique history of having caused devastation, and this factor alone tells me I must attach great gravity to the situation in all my media contact, from the start.

Secondly, I must examine the sequence of events surrounding the 1980 explosion and determine how we can use that information to better prepare. I must carefully look at the readings preceding the initial evacuations of 1980 in the surrounding vicinity and, based upon consequent responses and ultimate outcomes, I need to assess the adequacy of those measures. It is a certainty that any media coverage will automatically go to the 1980 eruption and the ensuing damage and death count, and I have to be in possession of more information than the media. There can be no wavering on documented facts when another potential eruption is following so closely on the heels of the first.

Moreover, it is necessary that I am aware of how other recent disasters have been perceived by the public, particularly in regard to how badly these crises were managed. Most pertinent was the abject failure of a proper governmental response from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) during the Hurricane Katrina strike on New Orleans of 2005. That FEMA actually was not completely unresponsive nor pro-active before Katrina’s landfall has either been forgotten or utterly disregarded in the massive outcry against governmental incompetence the aftermath of the storm generated. “FEMA took significant preparatory steps before the storm hit. Thirty-one medical response teams were alerted and positioned in neighboring states…. eleven million liters of water, nine million pounds of ice, and six million meals were also prepositioned so that they could be made readily available to disaster victims” (Miskel, 2008, p.93). In the eyes of the public and encouraged through media, however, all people retain is a conviction of unnecessary suffering through the gross ineptitude of the government to properly anticipate and handle this disaster.

The British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of this year serves only to emphasize that media and public sensitivity. Although BP, FEMA and the federal government were actively present in every action dealing with it, censure nonetheless made the headlines, chiefly because containment took months to achieve. The media climate regarding any disaster, natural or man-made, may be counted upon to be tense and unforgiving of any blunders.

Before I make my first announcement of any kind to the press, therefore, I must possess a clear awareness of how sensitive the public is to governmental response. There are serious trust issues at play and my best means of working through them is knowledge and honesty, and in every single phase of the potential crisis.

Initial Actions

After consulting with the geologists currently watching Mount St. Helens and evaluating all the information we possess, my job as Director of Media Relations requires a first step before even the media is approached. Everyone at the highest level must acknowledge that communicating the latest data and projections to myself and my team is paramount, for the sake of public safety. This is in no way a preemptive means of placating the media; rather, I see it as an opportunity to put the media to work as we need them. In any disaster, they provide pervasive information. During Katrina, “The media were extremely helpful in calling attention to problems that needed to be redressed, in providing information to evacuees and survivors…in some cases the media were the only source of information for an extended time” (Haddow, Haddow, 2009, p.191). It is my role to ensure that the media is equipped to perform its own properly, and to that end I am the source of their facts.

My second immediate task is to alert FEMA as to precisely what is occurring. There is as yet no indication that evacuations are called for, for the leading geologists – some of whom were in place during the 1980 disaster – do not yet see evidence of a likely eruption. Nonetheless, it is my responsibility to inform FEMA. Failure to do so would create dangerous delays if and when actual emergency plans must be implemented. I will as well set up a communication schedule, maintaining frequent updates until we are convinced that the threat is over.

This contact made, my next obligation is to the media itself. This I must handle in a skillful manner, for a large part of my job in this capacity is to educate the public about a phenomenon largely unknown to them and extremely difficult to predict. “Accurate long-term predictions, specifying when and where an eruption is likely to occur…are not possible. Warnings that an eruption is hours or days away are possible because eruptions are preceded by…earthquake activity, ground deformation, and gas emissions over a period of days to weeks” (Landesman, 2005, p.19). Yet these things occur all the time – Yellowstone National Park is the prime example – without any subsequent eruptions.

It is incumbent upon me to educate the public through the media in as accurate and non-threatening a manner as I can. The reality is that, of all natural disasters, earthquakes and volcanoes are the least predictable. There is no visible trajectory of direction or power, as with a hurricane. Moreover, measures of protection are possible with hurricanes, as well as with any other above-ground disaster: shelter can be had for twisters, and wildfires may be tracked and subsequent evacuation easily foreseen. There is no such even vaguely reliable means of either watching earthquake or volcanic activity, and consequently guarding against it. The only recourse we have in either eventuality is the process of evacuation.

These facts are vital in my communicating with the media, however much they fail to reassure. Sonar and readings can only reveal so much and that, as stated, may be indicative of no forthcoming crisis. All we can know is that the possibility of an eruption, based upon the one evidence we have of eruptions occurring after warning signs are manifested, is present, or at least more so than when no activity is evident.

Lastly, with FEMA on the alert, my responsibility is to immediately contact media within the area. National news feeds will pick up on the developments as they progress, or ignore them until a genuine crisis appears imminent. That is not my concern. My job is now to bring local media in because they will be the best tools with which to reach the population to be affected.

Alert Procedures

By the third day, geologists are reporting to me that seismic activity surrounding and below Mount St. Helens is increasing. Gas emissions have been spotted and a series of low-level earthquakes, those minor tremors below the surface and usually not felt by the public, have been charted at a consistent rate of occurrence.

As soon as this information reaches me, I call a press conference, simultaneously alerting any local city officials not already apprised of the situation. Such officials will need to be educated much as the public will, and the great understanding that must be conveyed is that the volcano alert system in place is a highly inexact science. There are five levels of alerts, the first being the sort of low-level earthquake activity which has prompted my actions. From there, the dangers escalate but in a subjective manner; mudflow detection and traced lava movement below the rim raise the alert level but, as with everything in this largely unpredictable sphere, do not necessarily precede eruption. Again, these are danger signs with no actual promise of real danger.

What I must make evident to representatives of the media, as well as those in command of the resources to order evacuation, is that a primary need in an emergent situation such as this will be maintaining mass communication abilities. Quite simply, when it comes to volcanoes, “…all warning systems must also include plans for communication” (Prager, 2009, p.100). This crucial element is often overlooked when survival plans are thrown into motion, yet no successful strategy can occur without it.

My decision, on this third day and in light of the latest earthquake reports coming in from the team of geologists, is to recommend an evacuation of an area at least fifty square miles, commencing immediately. I would need to enlighten the media as to the advantages to a prompt response such as this. Panic is forestalled and the people have an opportunity to make fast arrangements, rather than fleeing during a disaster. I would as well make it clear that, if alert signs increase, so too must the parameters of the evacuation zone.

It is expected that there will be resistance to this, and I would need to enlist as much authority from FEMA and/or the federal government as I could, to ensure an evacuation. People are not inclined to run and disrupt their lives when they can’t actually see the danger before them. However, I strongly feel that the single most essential part of my job as Director of Media Relations is to safeguard the public, even at the expense of their inconvenience.

As recent as the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens was, and as carefully as the explosions were monitored, mistakes were made and dozens of lives were needlessly lost. The mistakes are excusable; activity from the mountain’s north face did not proceed as indicated. What was inexcusable was the unwillingness to accept how wide the devastation from even a relatively minor eruption can be from authorities and a public disinclined to leave their homes.

In rendering my decision I would accept full responsibility for the troubles caused by people leaving unnecessarily. Far better to shoulder that, than a death count almost certainly avoidable.

References

Haddow, G. D., and Haddow, K. (2009.) Disaster Communications in a Changing Media World. Burlington, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Landesman, L.Y. (2005.)  Public Health Management of Disasters: The Practice Guide. Washington, DC: American Public Health Association.

Miskel, J.F.  (2008.) Disaster Response and Homeland Security: What Works, What Doesn’t. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Prager, E., PhD. (2009.)  Earthquakes and Volcanoes. New York, NY: Infobase Publishing.