Communicating in a Crisis:

Risk Communication Guidelines for Public Officials

Table of Contents

Introduction

Communications Fundamentals

Communicating Complex, Scientific, and Technical Information

Myths, Principles, and Pitfalls

Understanding and Working with the Media

Correcting Errors and Rumor Control

Assessing Personal Strengths and Weaknesses

Presenting Information at Public Meetings

Recognizing Opportunities to Speak Out

Suggested Reading and Resources

References


• Download (pdf format, click here for acrobat reader)

• Order this Publication

Introduction

COMMUNICATIONS BEFORE, DURING, AND AFTER A CRISIS SITUATION

Sound and thoughtful risk communication can assist public officials in preventing ineffective, fear-driven, and potentially damaging public responses to serious crises such as unusual disease outbreaks and bioterrorism. Moreover, appropriate risk communication procedures foster the trust and confidence that are vital in a crisis situation (Covello et al., 2001; Maxwell, 1999). There are steps public officials can take in advance of any incident to better prepare communities, risk managers, government spokespersons, public health officials, the news media, physicians, and hospital personnel to respond to the challenges of managing such crises (O’Toole, 2001). Plan for communicating to the public and the news media by asking yourself the following questions:

What information is crucial to convey in initial messages in order to prompt appropriate public responses after a crisis situation?

What are the messages to be delivered prior to, during, and after an incident?

What are the obstacles to effective communications and how can they be minimized?

RISK COMMUNICATION: An interactive process of exchange of information and opinion among individuals, groups, and institutions; often involves multiple messages about the nature of risk or expressing concerns, opinions, or reactions to risk messages or to legal and institutional arrangements for risk management.

What are the opportunities for effective communications and how can they be maximized?

What questions can we anticipate from the public in these risk situations?

What are the news media’s responsibilities and how can you help reporters meet them?

FIRST DO NO HARM

The cardinal rule of risk communication is the same as that for emergency medicine: first do no harm. A threatening or actual crisis often poses a volatile equation of public action and reaction.

This destabilized information environment makes it very important that you give thought to what it is you are about to say before making any public comment—be it a 30-second statement to a news person or a 30-minute news conference to a roomful of media representatives. In preparing for this speaking opportunity:

Assess the environment into which you are introducing information. Gain a sense of the public’s general attitude toward the situation and tailor your presentation accordingly. Are they worried and in need of reassurance? Are they sanguine and in need of a warning? Are they angry and in need of calming?

Crisis + heightened public emotions + limited access to facts + rumor, gossip, speculation, assumption, and inference = an unstable information environment.

Review your remarks to gauge the probable impact that your words will have on the situation and adjust them as necessary; e.g., are you using words, like “crisis,” “life-threatening,” or “extremely” and can other, less dramatic words be substituted?

Understand your audience. If it is a reporter, appreciate the demands and constraints under which reporters work and recognize the risks those constraints pose to you as a communicator.

Don’t speak unless you are comfortable doing so. Most communications mistakes are made by those who are not prepared to speak but feel compelled to do so anyway. If confronted with a demand for a quick answer, have the confidence to say, “I would like to answer that question later.”

Don’t assume you’re not in need of help, and don’t be shy about asking for it. Always take advantage of whatever professional communications support is available to you. If you have access to a public affairs office, use it. You can also hire a local public relations consultant or ask a corporate public relations executive to volunteer to help you meet your challenges.

The middle of a looming crisis is not the occasion to say “No comment.” “No comment” should almost never be used by a public speaker, particularly in a risk communications situation. The phrase suggests a lack of candor, conveys a sense of secrecy and connotes that you know something that you are either not willing or not allowed to share with the public, creating skepticism and mistrust.

Watch, read, and listen to the news; analyze how it is presented; critique the communications skills of others; learn from their successes as well as from their mistakes.