NCJ Number
84752
Date Published
1981
Length
110 pages
Annotation
This procedural manual offers tools, guidelines, methods, checklists, and planning forms for both professional and nonprofessional communicators involved in planning and conducting information activities during emergencies.
Abstract
This manual examines how a disaster can affect communications between various persons responsible for handling the disaster and the public, the news media, employees, the community, and others. Further, it indicates why preparation of an emergency public relations plan is necessary, along with what goes into the public relations plan and how the public relations plan fits into overall contingency planning. Also examined is what journalists in the print and electronic media look for when covering emergency situations and whether they are 'the enemy' or can be enlisted to help relief and recovery. Guidelines are provided for establishing an acceptable balance between the public's need-to-know and right-to-know and the need for privacy in a delicate situation. Basic public relations tools and methods considered include how to conduct a press conference, preparing a press release item, setting up a telephone 'hotline,' using a spotmaster radio, and facilitating clearances and approvals. Special circumstances covered are how to notify next-of-kin in cases of death, how to decide whether to refer questions to other experts, and when silence is best and how to maintain it. Other topics considered are the nature of news management, the 'single source' philosophy, types of attribution, and notifications. Thirty-three references and forms for use in preparing emergency public relations plans are provided.