Application Crisis and Risk Communication Strategies
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HLTH 8136 Week 7 Application Crisis and Risk Communication Strategies
SARS: When a Global Outbreak Hits Home, the abilities of public health leaders are particularly put to the test in crisis situations. In this Application, you are asked to identify and analyze the effectiveness of communication strategies demonstrated by leaders in public health crisis situations.
ADDRESS THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS: Application Assignment should be 3 pages long
1. Analyze the public health communication during SARS crisis as depicted in the Grand Rounds video. What are five communication strategies you noticed? How well were they implemented? Do you think the communication could have been done better? Explain your answers.
2. Discuss an event you have seen in the news some time during the past several years in which leaders were asked questions and had to respond with crisis communication strategies. These are often weather related (e.g., floods, fires, other disasters) but can also be crime- or corruption-related stories that are in the media. If necessary, do Internet searches to refresh your memory or find out more about the ways in which the leader(s) communicated during your selected event.
3. Describe the crisis situation.
4. Assess the use of crisis communication strategies by the leaders. Which strategies were implemented? How well were these implemented? What strategies do you think they could have adopted to handle this situation better?
USE THESE WEBSITE AND Online Video
Websites
•Centers for Disease Control. (2008.). CDC: Crisis and emergency risk communication. Retrieved August 5, 2008, from http://emergency.cdc.gov/cerc/
This Web site explains crisis and emergency risk communication, including pandemic influenza.
Online Video
•University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health. (2009). SARS: When a global outbreak hits home. Retrieved November 15, 2011, from http://www.publichealthgrandrounds.unc.edu/sars/ondemand/index.php?webcast=2003-10-23_sars&action=view.
Please apply the Application Assignment Rubric when writing the Paper.
I. Paper should demonstrate an excellent understanding of all of the concepts and key points presented in the texts.
II. Paper provides significant detail including multiple relevant examples, evidence from the readings and other sources, and discerning ideas.
III. Paper should be well organized, uses scholarly tone, follows APA style, uses original writing and proper paraphrasing, contains very few or no writing and/or spelling errors, and is fully consistent with doctoral level writing style.
IV. Paper should be mostly consistent with doctoral level writing style.
SAMPLE ANSWER
Application Crisis and Risk Communication Strategies
As evident in the Grand Rounds Video, communication during the emergency outbreak of SARS health threat became very critical. In this case, the audience which mostly included the media had to be constantly updated on the state of the situation and issues as they unfolded. There are several strategies of communication that I realized from the documentation. First, direct confrontation strategy was evident. As the media sought the unfolding information urgently, one of the ways used to tackle the situation was to directly confrontation by telling exactly what is on the ground to avoid suspicion and wrong perception of the public. The second strategy was being brief and precise when addressing the audience. During the crisis, leaders were strategic in delivering updates in a brief and precise manner that does not create ambiguity as everyone at that particular time was keenly following the unfolding events. The leaders were also diplomatic is communicating the information. This was a communication strategy used to avoid instances of being perceived to take sides especially by the media (U.O.N.C.C .H.G S.O G.P.H, 2009).
Honesty and accuracy in delivering the crisis information was a very important communication strategy used. Leaders made sure that any information conveyed to the public was scrutinized to avoid misleading the audience and other stakeholders during the crisis. Lastly, simplicity and supporting data was evident in the communication in order to ease the understanding of the audience and clear any doubts on the information that was being conveyed. To a considerable extend, I can clearly give credit to the manner in which these strategies were implemented because they laid out proper communication procedures and chose an eloquent speaker who could tackle various reactions and sentiments from the audience especially the media (U.O.N.C.C .H.G S.O G.P.H, 2009). However, the communication could have been made better by incorporating live coverage of all unfolding events as opposed to periodical updates to the media with partial live coverage.
I will be looking at the earthquake disaster in Haiti which saw numerous deaths, millions of people displaced and trillions of property destroyed. The situation in Haiti when this disaster occurred was quite critical and devastating. With Red Cross and its affiliates in the fore front, the rescue mission began moments after the earthquake. Millions of survivors of the disaster had to be rescued, evacuated and taken for medical attention. Looking at the communication part of it at the beginning, it was quite clear that no one had confident information to deliver to the audience due to the abrupt situation that came as a surprise. However, when everything became evident, the leaders were able to strategically apply crisis communication strategies to address the audience. For instance, they began updating the audience on the rescue mission and efforts that were being put in place to contain the situation. The leaders tried as much as possible to remain brief, concise and diplomatic in their communication.
The leaders implemented these communication tactics is a manner to create harmony, togetherness and mutual support during the time of the crisis. Allowing live coverage of events as they were unfolding was something that could have created even much tension within the country. Leaders had to take bold steps and periodically update the audience on unfolding events rather than allowing the scenes of the disaster to go live to the public (Centers for Disease Control, 2008). Since this was a disaster that needed international help, the leaders allowed the international media to make wide coverage of the events so that other countries could come in to help the situation. However, additional efforts to increase the number of rescue teams and rescue machinery could have made things much better.
References
Centers for Disease Control. (2008). CDC: Crisis and emergency risk communication. Retrieved August 5, 2008, from http://emergency.cdc.gov/cerc/
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health. (2009). SARS: When a global outbreak hits home. Retrieved November 15, 2011, from http://www.publichealthgrandrounds.unc.edu/sars/ondemand/index.php?webcast=2003-10-23_sars&action=view.
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