Crisis communication

JAPANMarch

2011

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

JAPANMarch

2011

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?

Further perspectivesFurther perspectives: crowdsourcing