Introduction to

New Media
Tools for
Emergency
Services
Communications
How Public Information Officers
can use the right technology at
the right time for the right
audience.
Chris Burdge
Terry Rachwalski, CMC

Copyright © 2009
Introduction
Preparation is the key to communicating before, during and after an emergency services (police, fire,
first responders) event. Public Relations (PR) professionals and/or Public Information Officers (PIO) who
work in the emergency services field will have prepared contact lists, media kits and undoubtedly are set
to coach their clients though traditional media conferences.

Yet, seasoned emergency services communicators and practitioners know that there are events that
demand disseminating vital information for which the traditional media conference may take too long
and in fact, can do harm to your reputation and communications strategy.

The goal for communicating during an emergency event is

During an emergency event,
how you communicate
can save lives.
to provide facts from a respected and trusted source that
can be relied on. We are only too familiar with the slow
response and consequences of delay as evidenced in New
Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina. During an
emergency event, communicating facts can save lives.

During a recent flood in Fargo, North Dakota, a member of the public posted information about the
height of water to his twitter subscribers. The city used its Facebook account to gather volunteers to
sandbag and save portions of the town. Some cities broadcast text messages to citizens to advise of
evacuation orders, other cities use audio and video media (podcasting) posted to their websites.

The reality is that all these new media tools have a place in emergency services communications – for
targeting particular messages to different target audiences at different stages of emergency events. The
continuum ranges from the micro-blog of Twitter to a full and formal media conference that is scripted
and prepared.

What are the “new” media options for public information officers? This paper briefly introduces the use
of new media during an emergency event.

Micro-blogging
Micro blogging makes perfect sense in an emergency when the message needs to be short and no
interpretation or further details are required.

“4 alarm fire at 1786 Main Street. Re-route traffic.”

Twitter is all about the micro blast – the text equivalent of a sound bite. The other use of twitter is to
counteract the rumours and misinformation that the general public can fall prey to. The standard best
practice is still to have a single point of contact trained in media relations to understand that every word

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matters and can be used later as either a positive or negative record of the handling of the event.
Twitter has found its place in the crisis communication continuum.

Broadcast Text Messaging

The context for these broadcast text messaging are communications tools for messages that are pushed
directly those who already belong to a group. Communicating via text message to groups of the public
requires more sophisticated and costly infrastructure such as that provided by ConnectCTY. Mobile
communications like short message system (SMS) or text messaging are character limited and sent from
a centralized, controlled list requiring the communicator have access to cell phone numbers. As such –
these systems are usually reserved for emergencies such as earthquakes and evacuation orders, rather
than geographically limited events like fires.

Blogging
Blogging is a positive tool that has “made it incredibly easy and virtually free to create content, both
consumers and the media and everyone in between
are creating content at unprecedented rates” (Paine, 2007, p. 2).

Though blogging is just like a written journal it can take some time to collect data and thoughts. Blogging
during a crisis is best used to communicate when there is time to thoughtfully collect data. All of the text
based communications can be used for communicating facts though the written word is problematic as
it cannot convey emotion and is not accessible for the disabled.

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Podcasts
Podcasts are like creating your own on-line radio station or public information hub. Whether audio or
video, podcasts have become a technology tool of choice to augment text based tools. According to a
study in Public Relations Review (Eyrich et al, 2008)i, 35% of public relations practitioners use podcasts.
Podcasts are effective media during a crisis when writing time is limited and the spoken word or video
can be used to communicate more effectively than text.

For example, a calmly spoken message directly from the Director of Fire Services can restore the sense
of control in a difficult situation. The View Royal Fire Department in Canada relies on audio podcasting
to get the word out during an emergency event to the media and stakeholders including city officials,
freeing the Fire Chief to deal with the emergency. They also use podcasting as a public information hub
– to create engaging content on fire safety.

Further, podcasting no longer requires special streaming to

preserve bandwidth. Tools like DailySplice’s Podcast Station™
35% of PR practitioners use host the content on their own servers making the tool
Podcasts to deliver audio and video available to most sites and do not carry ads like YouTube
for accessibility and to convey the video content. The Podcast Station is cost-effective,
assurance of the spoken voice. professional looking and allows non-developer PR and PIOs
(even Fire Chiefs!) to upload and manage their podcasts from
anywhere, at anytime. Podcasting effectively fills the space
between the hyper immediacy of the micro or the text based standard blog and the media conference
without requiring inordinate time to prepare or post.

Traditional Tools - Media Conferences and E-Mail

At the other end of the communication continuum is the media conference – a traditional media tool.
Any PR person worth their salt will prepare for the media event and will take the time to prepare their
clients carefully. This takes some time and may be best used to debrief when the crisis is no longer
pressing.

Text based E-mailing is still the most popular tool for PR, with intranets second (see endnotes).
Obviously, we all have our email distribution lists and company communications will naturally flow
through established internal processes. During an emergency event, email will have its use though it is
limited to the distribution list rather than being available to the general public.

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Conclusion
Finally, we all have come to accept that even new media that is “free”, has a cost – our time and
commitment to an effective and complete communications strategy. The efficiency of using any new
media technology tool always starts with a plan. For that, we need to ask ourselves the basic questions,
“what are we trying to accomplish?”, “who will maintain the information”, and “how will we measure
success?”

Best practices demand that communicators in the emergency services field consider the continuum of
new and traditional media tools available to them during emergency events and prepare by having
those tools ready to use before the inevitable crisis hits. In the meantime, while we don’t know what the
next big crisis will be, PR practitioners are becoming more knowledgeable and comfortable using tools
higher up the technology continuum as they become more effective and easier to use.

References
Nina Eyrich, Monica L. Padman, Kaye D. Sweetser, PR practitioners’ use of social media tools and
communication technology, 2008, Grady College, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, United
States

Hoggatt, (2008) Diffusion of Technology in Public Relations, University of Oklahoma

WCCO-TV website news article, Using Twitter, Facebook to face the Flood,
http://wcco.com/local/twitter.facebook.flooding.2.968582.html, accessed March 26, 2009

Yoshida, Social networking: boomer adoption up, Gen Y plateaus , Review of Accenture Report,
http://www.eetimes.com/news/semi/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=216300191, accessed May 27, 2009

i
(n = 272; 96.1%), followed by intranet (n = 188; 68.2%), blogs (n = 118; 41.7%), videoconferencing (n =
111; 39.1%), podcast (n = 100; 35.2%), video sharing (n = 85; 30%), and PDAs (n = 85; 30%). Lesser used
tools were: instant message (n = 84; 29.6%), events (n = 77; 27.2%), social networking (n = 68; 24%), text
messaging (n = 67; 23.6%), photo sharing (n = 54; 19%), and wikis (n = 51; 18%). Rarely used tools were:
virtual worlds (n = 19; 6.7%), social bookmarking (n = 16; 5.6%), gaming (n = 9; 3.1%), micro-
blogging/presence applications (n = 5; 1.7%), and news aggregation (n = 0).

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About the Authors
Chris Burdge, President, Bwest Interactive

http://www.bwest.ca

Chris Burdge is an Internet marketing consultant and an expert in email, online and social media
marketing with a background in brand strategy. Chris combines his analytic skills with a passion for
social media to create strategic marketing campaigns that produce results. His current focus is on web
2.0 technology firms and green businesses.

Terry Rachwalski, President, Front Porch Perspectives Ltd.

Terry Rachwalski of Front Porch Perspectives is a management consultant focused on delivering product
and business development services to technology firms from in idea conception to full launch. An award
winning Certified Management Consultant, Rachwalski uses web strategies and social media within her
product launch toolkit.