Communication: Past and Present

HCS/320
July 25, 2013
Sandra Alviso

Communication: Past and Present Every country suffers from natual dissasters. In 1979 at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station there was a malfunction that Lt. Gov. Bill Scranton miss communicated to the public. (Rose, 2011). In 2005 Mother Nature brought Hurricane Katrina to the coast Lousiana and, she devastated the city of New Orleans. Today our community’s natural disaster is a life-threatening biological agent which has spread in the water supply of several towns. Technology has changed the way a community in a disaserous situation communicates after the Three Mile Island and Hurricane Katrina. Comparing the way an Emergency Management Office communicates with the public and the groups involved, the advantages and challenges that come with the past and present communication technology, and the media opportunities used in today’s world.
Individuals and Groups With a life-threatening situation there are many individuals and groups internally and externally that need to be notified of the situation. Within the office the entire staff needs to be aware of the seriousness of the situation. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Center for Disease Control Center (CDC) are a few federal agencies that need to be aware of the situation. The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of Emergency Communications (OEC) was directed by Congress to develop the first National Emergency Communications Plans (NECP) in early 2000 (Security, 2008). Within the NECP there are partnerships that also need to be notified of the situation, some of them are, the SAFECOM Executive Committee (EC) and Emergency Response Council (ERC), the Emergency Communications Preparedness Center (ECPC), and the Federal Partnership for Interoperable Communications (FPIC). Local hospitals need to be advised incase they receive patients which are ill and have not heard about the contaminated water. The people of the county that is affected need to be notified immediately, so they do not drink or cook with the water, bathe in the water, or water their vegetables or plants.
Advantages and Challenges During this crisis situation there will be advantages and challenges with communicating with the organization and with the public and private sectors. When commercing with the public one does not want to create panic, so the office will have to tread lightly. The organization will let communicate in a calm voice and speaking only the known facts about the situation that will help the public be at ease with the situation. As for the private sector, the stakeholders and the federal organizatons might be a little harder on communicating with. The private sector is going to have a ton of questions that might not have answers for a couple of hours or days. The CDC will have to test the water to discover exactly what the biologic agent is and the cure, if there is one. In the Three Mile Island situation Lt. Gov. Bill Scranton told reporters, “ The situation is more complex than the company first led us to believe. There has been a release of radioactivity into the environment” (Rose, 2011). A valve was stuck open and because of that coolant ran out. In the end, five days later, only a relatively small amount of radiation had escaped from the plant.
Past and Present Communication To this day organizations are still using past commumication processes, telephone, newspaper, and radio. The Three Mile communication was via phone calls, radios to dispatch the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commision (NRC), and reporters were either on the television or on the radio (NRC, 2013). For Hurricane Katrina the phone was used to call the president of the United States to notify him of the damage that was done, they also used the past communication processes. With Katrina the media, television and radio, was giving updates daily about if, when, and the category of the hurricane if it was to hit New Orleans. (Cole & Fellows, 2008). Social media was not involved until after when the victoms started to post their experience with the hurricane. In the current life-threatening situation all forms of communication is being used properly. Phone calls being made to local hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes, law enforcement going door-to-door informing residents of the situation, and social media being used to keep the residents up to date on the situation. The local television and radio stations doing emergency broadcasts. The water company shutting the water off and when residents call they will hear a recording about why the water was shut off.
Appropriate Technology Being the lifetime of social media there are boundries that cannot be passed. Using social media works if used (worded) correctly. Social media helps the residents releave some stress or tension that he or she might have, it could be used as a venting board. When the Emergency Management Office posts updates on either Facebook or Twitter the office could see the comments being put up as long as the resident “LIKES” the city or county he or she lives in. Using the television or radio to broadcast an updated service announcment or imformation on the situation is appropriate. Because not very many residents read the newspaper these days it might be costly and not efficent enough to print the situation on the front page. The most important thing about technology is making sure the information that is being said is accurate and presented in a clam voice and relaxed manor. The Red Cross in 2005 took many researchers and disaster management professionals by surprise by launching a theme that said, ”I can’t stop a [tornado, flood, fire, hurricane, terrorist attack, etc.] but I can stop panic” (Bevc, Kulligowski, & Tierney, 2006) as electronic media and in print.

Past and Present Technology In the Three Mile Island accident past technology worked great, but the Lt. Gov. was not honest about the situation and could of caused more panic in the 21st century. The technology of the alarms that went off when the valve did not close all the way is a warring technology that is still used today. Not having Internet in 1979 people could not look on websites to see updated data on a federal government site, NRC. As for Hurricane Katrina, the communication could have been much better if the Governor actualy communicated. There were evacuation notices released, a little too late in my opinion, the media was tracking the Hurricane, but with Mother Nature being a risk communication, a mediorolagist could not be exact when a hurricane would hit a state. With the rain and wind that comes with a hurricane the power was out and Internet was down, so social media could not be used. The hurricane’s route of distruction was televised nationally and one intenet daily. Using all communication technology from past to present to help the situation with the water will help spread the word to the county and cities that consume the contaminated water.
Media Opportunities In the life-threatening contamination of the water will use all media opportunities available. There will be live news feeds on the television, radio, Internet, a phone number that a resident could receive up to the hour text messages on the progress or lack of progress on the situation. Being able to display or broadcast to a broad range of residents makes the job a little less stressful.
Looking back at the Three Mile Island accident and Hurricane Katria made me realize the commumication technology has come a long way for the better. In 1979 there was not as much communication technology as there is today and the Nuclear plant survived with little to no panic within the community. When communicating a person needs to be communicating facts and not fiction, could cause panic. Hurricane Katrina had some lack of communication, but all in all it was not that bad. In Katrina there was only 24 hours to evacuate, even though the city was told three days before the hurricane hit to evacuate. In different states within the United States there are alarms that will sound for certain mother nature situations, like tornatos. Living in the era of technology if a natural disaster happens there will be many ways of communication.

References
Bevc, C., Kulligowski, E., & Tierney, K. (2006, February 16). Metaphors matter: disaster myths, media frames, and their consequences in Hurricane Katrina. The annals of the American academy of political and social science, 57-79. doi:10.1177/0002716205285589

Cole, T. W., & Fellows, K. L. (2008, July- September). Risk communication failure: a case study of New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. Southern Communication Journal, 73(3), 211-228. doi:10.1080/10417940802219702

Comfort, L. K., & Haase, T. W. (2006, July 21). Communication, coherence, and collective action: the impact of Hurricane Katrina on cummunications infrastructure. Public works management & policy, 328-341. doi:10.1177/1087724X06289052

FEMA. (n.d.). FEMA. Retrieved from Federal Emergency Management Agency: www.training.fema.gov

NRC, U. (2013, February 11). Backgrounder on the Three Mile Island Accident. Retrieved from United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission: www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/3mile-isle.html

Rose, J. (2011, March 28). Lessons learned from three mile island's meltdown. Retrieved from NPR: www.npr.org/2011/03/28/134914539/its-been-32-years-since-tmis-partial-core-meltdown

Security, H. (2008). National emergency commnications plan. Washington, D.C., USA. Retrieved from http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/national_emergency_communications_plan.pdf