Post on 04-Aug-2015
Crisis communication
ABOUT MYSELF
• Thomas Dybro Lundorf• Born 1976• Head of communications
unit at DEMA since 2008
@BRStdlundorf (most tweets are in Danish!)
Email: tdl@brs.dk
About DEMA
• Employees: around 1.700 (including conscripts and volunteers)
• HQ at Birkerød, six fire and rescue centres around the country
• Established 1938
National disaster response
Expert HazMat-teams
International disaster response
Fire prevention
Crisis management and planning
Training, exercises and education
Nuclear preparedness
Nuclear preparedness• National preparedness plan• Radiation level measuring 24/7• Plume clouds prognosis• Coordination of crisis
communication
Check DEMA out at
• BRS.DK
• Twitter – @brsdk (in Danish)
• Twitter - @fsnielsen (Flemming S. Nielsen, head of international disaster management unit)
DEMA and Danish crisis communication
Basic principles of crisis communication i Dennmark
• Sector responsibility
• Principle of subsidiarity
• Principle of action
• The national emergency management organization
• The national operative staff and the central operative communication staff
DEMA and crisis communication
Crisis communication courses
Crisis communication is a central part of DEMA’s national exercises
Crisis communication is one of the five core elements in DEMA’s emergency management planning guide
PITSTOP! Five minutes in pairs:
• What is crisis communication?
• What is the purpose of crisis communication?
• What is/are the most important element/-s in crisis communication?
Crisis communication should
Cushion the effects of accidents and disasters on society and prevent harm to people, property and the environment
Empower the people! Make them part of the response
Crisis communication should be
Fast
Accurate
Understandable
Following visible action
How to solve the mystery of
crisis communicatiON?
LOOK AND
LISTEN
Media and social media monitoring helps your organization manage the situation as it evolves.
Without it, you’re blind.
CHOOSE CHANNELS
You have limited ressources, so choose your channels wisely:
Press? Homepage? Social media? Hotlines? Pigeons? Knocking doors?
SPEAK
Nominate a dedicated spokesperson.
She must be convincing and empathic.
Go fast. Address uncertainty. Tell what you know - and what you don’t know.
Tell ‘em you’re on it.
COORDINATE
Be open and transparent.
Let other key players know what you’re saying, how and when.
Keep your collegues updated
UNLEASH THE
CROWD
Crisis communicators can’t be everywhere.
Empower the people – make everyone a crisis communicator.
Potential: social media.
The five elements of crisis communication
Look and listen
Choose channels
Speak
Coordinate
Unleash the crowd
Crisis communicatio
n
Exercise
Evaluate and adjust
Educate
Plan
Crisis communicatio
n
Exercise
Evaluate and adjust
Educate
Plan
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Plan
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Plan
Tasks• Media and social media monitoring,
home page editing, press handling, social media platform editing
Leadership• Competence, tasks, responsibilities
Organization• Functions (web editor, press officer
etc.), physical setting and replacement proceduresRessources
• Dark site, hotline, press conference facilities
Procedures• ‘How to’-descriptions: web article
publishing, press handling, hotline managing
Crisis communicatio
n
Exercise
Evaluate and adjust
Educate
Plan
Crisis communicatio
n
Exercise
Evaluate and adjust
Educate
Plan
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Exercise
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Exercise
Some times are better for making mistakes than other times
Crisis communicatio
n
Exercise
Evaluate and adjust
Educate
Plan
Crisis communicatio
n
Exercise
Evaluate and adjust
Educate
Plan
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Evaluate and adjust
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Evaluate and adjust
The ability to recognize risk and to learn from exercises has been to weak
The ability to carry out what has been decided and to use the plans that have been developed has been to weak”
”
QUOTES FROM THE PREFACE OF THE 22. JULY COMMISSION REPORT
Crisis communicatio
n
Exercise
Evaluate and adjust
Educate
Plan
Crisis communicatio
n
Exercise
Evaluate and adjust
Educate
Plan
Educate
Educate
Educate
Educate
Crisis communicatio
n
Exercise
Evaluate and adjust
Educate
Plan
.
And when it all fails…
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PITSTOP! Writing a press release
• First things first
• Put yourself in the audience’s situation – what would YOU like to know?
• Be accurate, don’t speculate
• Address uncertainty - tell what you know and what you don’t know
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WRITE A PRESS RELEASE
• First things first
• Put yourself in the audience’s situation – what would YOU like to know?
• Be accurate, don’t speculate
• Address uncertainty - tell what you know and what you don’t know
7:13 – Ritzau:
“Japanese Nuclear Power Plant faces possible
meltdown”
Ny billede – det fra plkakaten
7:19:
Breaking News SMS-alert
from me to directors of DEMA and nuclear branch
08:00: Main messages ready:
1) A release of radioactive substances in Japan will
under no circumstances
affect Danish territory
08:00: Main messages ready:
2) Persons in Japan should
follow the instructions
of the local and national Japanese authorities
08:00: Main messages ready:
3) DEMA is following the situation
closely
08:00: Main messages:
1) A release of radioactive substances in Japan will under no circumstances affect Danish territory
2) Persons in Japan should follow the instructions of the local and national Japanese authorities
3) DEMA is following the situation closely
9:28: Press release sent to all Danish national
media
lørdag 15. april 2023Kommunikation ifm. Fukushima-hændelsenSide 56
• Special webpage on Fukushima
• FAQ-list in Danish and English on brs.dk
• News and press releases on brs.dk
• Media handling
• Hotline
• Mails from citizens
The following two weeks
Daily visitors on brs.dkWeek 11 – and week 2
• Week 11 = 876.060 hits on brs.dk.
• 1,6 times as many as week 2.
Most viewed pages on brs.dkWeek 11 – Week 2
• Special web page and FAQ viewed approx. 10.000 times.
• FAQ used by the media
(pol.dk and dr.dk).
12 press releases sent out in 2 weeks• ”Jordskælv og tsunami i Stillehavsregionen”
• ”Japansk kernekraftværk overvåges tæt”
• ”Ustabil situation på japansk kernekraftværk”
• ”Temaside om kernekraftsituation i Japan”
• ”Forhøjet strålingsniveau ved Fukushima”
• ”Hotline om japanske kernekraftværker oprettet”
• ”Alle rejser til Japan frarådes”
• ”Danmark sender assistance til Japan”
• ”Danmark sender 23.000 tæpper til Japan”
• ”Nukleart måleberedskab udvidet til Grønland”
• ”Ufarlig radioaktivitet målt over Danmark”
• ”Hotline om japansk kernekraftværk lukker”
Press contacts
• 50-60 contacts from the press per day
• DEMA received around 400 calls from the press during week 11 of 2011.
2/3 of the population got the main messages right
Befolkningsundersøgelse
The population mainly got their information from the press
Medier
lørdag 15. april 2023
Kommunikation ifm. Fukushima-hændelsenSide 64
Journalists wanted more proactivity
What could we have done BETTER?
• Better planning on replacement of ressources
• More expert spokespersons
• More training to spokespersons
• More extensive use of social media
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QUESTIONS? (quickly! Hit the mousebutton, Thomas!)
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Online strategic crisis communication
» Mats Eriksson» Örebro University» ”On-line
strategic crisis communication – In search of a descriptive model approach”
» October 2012
• Based on interviews with 24 Swedish strategic communication practitioners
• The paper describes five crisis communication models/strategies:
1) Additional one-way channel2) Platform and hub3) Palpus4) Networks5) Action-nets
Research on CC so far• Greer/Moreland: United Airlines used their own
website for one-way comunication during 9/11
• Taylor/Kent et al: the web should be used for two-way communication
• Conway et al.: gap between attitudes of PR-practitioners (two-way) and the actual output (one-way) during crisis situations
• Schultz, Uts, Göritz:”The medium is the message: less negative crisis reactions using Twitter (!)
• Eriksson: effective strategy is more about crafting strategy than implementing it (Mintzberg)
• Why is that gap
Theory
The classic approach
Organization = a mechanical system
Crisis management = function of command
Centralized organization
Seeks control through planning, regulations and instructions
Communication = transmitting a message
Actors create relationships
The new approach
Based on social constructivism and neo-institutionalism
Crisis management = ongoing activity where ”action-nets” are formed
Decentralized organization
Relationships create actors
Communication = two-way (or more!)
New approach implications
• Improvisational theater
• Don’t ”overplan”- set a frame and improvise from there
• Don’t train for the purpose og testing predetermined crisis plans – get used to chaos and unpredictability
5 ways of communicating in crisis in Sweden
MODEL 1: Crisis
communication as an additional one-way channel
MODEL 1: Crisis
communication as an additional one-way channel• All platforms = one-way:
press, social media, homepage
• Crisis team: senior communication management
• Unified message through various channels
• No interaction (explained with lack of ressources)
• ”Communi
”Communication then becomes more unidirectional than dialogue- and relationship-based in character”
- Crisis communicator on the use of Twitter during a crisis
MODEL 2: Crisis
communication as an interactive
platform and hub
MODEL 2: Crisis
communication as an interactive
platform and hub• Storing of information on
a webpage which becomes the primary source of information
• Unified message through various channels
• No interaction
MODEL 3: Crisis
communication as a palpus
MODEL 3: Crisis
communication as a palpus• The internet as a tool for
signal detection• Media monitoring &
social media monitoring• Issues management –
countermeasures to emerging crisis
• Goal: to control the situation, and reduce uncertainty
MODEL 4: Crisis
communication as networks
MODEL 4: Crisis
communication as networks• The internet as a support
tool for crisis communication
• Web based crisis response systems
• KRISAM, ”Crisis commander”
MODEL 5: Crisis
communication as action-nets
MODEL 5: Crisis
communication as action-nets• Crisis coms occur with a
large degree of improvisation
• Not solely linked to pre-determined, formal crisis managers
• Primary and situational actors are created in an ongoing process
• Case: SAS Facebook / the Finnish surf-club in 2004 during the tsunami /Googles crisis center
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Tendencies
• Struggle between ”classical” and ”new” logic
• The more serious the crisis is, the more ”classical” organizations tend to crisis communicate
PITSTOP! Choosing the right strategy for online crisis com
• Which model is the best in your opinion – and why?
• How should emergency responders use ”action-nets” for crisis communication during a crisis?