AOL Dumps Fla. County's Emergency News As Spam

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

Dave, for IP if you wish.

Emergency communication is a big problem well beyond the brittleness of
useful services like the one in Indian River County. While it's good  
to see
renewed federal and state spending on something as basic as making  
sure the
population knows what to do in a crisis, there's considerable  
misdirected
effort.

After 9/11, a lot of federal money flowed into the states for
emergency/bioterror preparedness. Some states have focused on systemic
planning and others on broad media campaigns designed to "generate
awareness," a vague term that translates too often into ominous  
billboards
and bullet-point brochures.

When I worked with the Commonwealth of Kentucky on their planning in  
this
area, some of the themes emerged that have turned up in other states as
well:

* The press, all media bashing aside, is significantly more trusted  
than the
government when it comes to transmitting information in an emergency.  
But an
audit of reporters and editors in Kentucky showed very, very little
knowledge of the state's emergency preparedness plans or, indeed who
reporters should turn to for information in time of a public-health
emergency. Kentucky analyzed the media audit and subsequently set up  
media
workshops across the state that trained reporters in the details of
emergency preparedness, types of emergency scenarios, etc.

* Groups falling under the heading of "special-needs populations" --  
those
who have language barriers or disabilities, as well as those who are  
very
poor and/or cut off (by choice or circumstance) from most mainstream
communications channels -- turn to their own for information in times of
public crisis. The reality for government is that a lot of the pre- 
emergency
awareness building (as well as the more important communications  
required in
an actual emergency) misses the most at-risk populations unless the  
effort
is made to create a lot of secondary, direct communications channels to
these groups.

Bottom line: Public officials like media campaigns because they're  
visible
and make it look like "we're doing something." But, just as with a  
lot of
the efforts currently thrown at security, the appearance action is a  
long
way from real effectiveness.

Warm Regards,
Greg Brooks
West Third Group
Strategic Communications Solutions
www.greg-brooks.com



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