As we continue to grapple with the attacks on America and their aftermath, the nation's focus shifts to recovery. "Everyone talks about crisis communications, but the reality
is what happens later -- that's really tough," says Catherine Bolton, executive director of the Public Relations Society of America.
Bolton considers the aftermath to be the worst part of crisis communications, when there's no real news to communicate, but the media is still hungry for the story. "You have
to wean away from daily media briefings. . . build new communities for people. You're giving them permission to go back to normal, and [the PR community] has really never touched
upon this area of crisis communications."
PR NEWS asked Rick Kaufman, executive director of communications for Jefferson
County Public Schools (home of Columbine High School), and Kari Watkins, executive
director of the Oklahoma City National Memorial, to discuss how PR can play
a role in the national recovery process. Kaufman and Watkins are scheduled to
further reflect on the communicator's role in healing after a crisis at PRSA's
annual conference in Atlanta, on Sunday, Oct. 28. (See http://www.prsa.org/newintl/brochure.pdf
for more information.)
PRN: What is the role of the public relations team following a crisis
of such magnitude and how can PR contribute to the healing process?
R.K.: [PR] plays a tremendous role in the work that occurs in the immediate
aftermath of a crisis, trying to get the community back to a sense of normalcy.
Until you start to identify ways to help the community return to normal, there
is no healing.
PRN: What are some ways that PR pros can help a community find normalcy?
R.K.: One big aspect is negative images in the news. When you continue
to see bloody pictures and the World Trade Center coming down, those are trigger
points of tragic events. We relive them over and over [through the images].
In our case, the images of students running over bloody bodies with their hands over their heads were triggering mechanisms for post-traumatic stress.
Our team worked long and hard to get those images replaced with positive images of survivors, and of people helping in the community. It took us a year of working with the
media. On the one-year anniversary [of the Columbine shootings], our local media ran all positive footage.
In the crisis on the East coast, seeing rescue workers toiling every day is a positive image. If they can pull someone out alive, that image will replace negative images.
K.W.: The media plays a significant part in [the recovery process] early
on. My experience is in television news, so when we began the memorial process
in Oklahoma City, it was my vision that we couldn't do it without the media.
We've involved the media very heavily as we've built the Oklahoma City Memorial,
and we've tried to focus on the good of the human spirit. Building the memorial
allowed the families and survivors to work on something positive they could
feel, see and touch.
PRN: What have you had to do in the long term to continue the community's
healing process?
R.K.: Locally, we work with the community around events and programs
and issues at the school that are more along the healing nature. In terms of
the media, every time there is a school shooting or crisis, we receive a tremendous
number of calls. In some cases, we say we do not want to relate Columbine to
the incident, or discuss the emotions of our students and staff. We minimize
the media's focus on us. From a communications standpoint, we have to stand
as a buffer [between the media and the victims].
PRN: As communicators, what lessons in crisis management did you take
away from the Oklahoma City bombing and the Columbine shootings, and what lessons
do you think communicators in New York and DC will glean from the attacks?
K.W.: You learn you have to be incredibly calm, and communicate clearly
and often with people. You may say the same thing two, three, four times before
it sinks in. You make sure the facts are out there and that they're accurate.
R.K.: The education commissioner from New York, Dr. Richard Mills, called
following the [September 11] attack to get insights, and asked that we be on
call to assist New York City schools. One thing I told him (that was very beneficial
for us) is that people will get to the point of physical, mental and emotional
fatigue. They will not be able to function at even a minimal level of response.
We made tremendous communications mistakes because we weren't thinking clearly
and weren't taking care of ourselves. In New York, they need to look at crisis
response teams that can be rotated in four- or five-day shifts.
We got volunteers who checked their egos at the door and became line workers -- presidents of their own firms, used to making multi-million dollar decisions, typing press
releases. Those teams gave all of us a chance to breathe.
In tragedies, communicators learn that information is extremely powerful. You have to utilize every communications method available to provide information, and that information
has to be unifying. We learned to speak with one clear voice and to stay on message - to stick to our key messages and provide the information people needed. That helped us to
return to normalcy.
(Contacts: Catherine Bolton, 212/460-1400, [email protected]; Rick Kaufman, 303/982-6808, [email protected]; Kari Watkins, 405/235-3313)
How You Can Help - And Find Help
According to Rick Kaufman, spokesperson for Columbine High School, organizations in New York and DC will need help from communicators willing to donate their time and
expertise. Check out the following resources for opportunities to volunteer - or for more information on handling the crisis:
http://www.prsa.org/crisishelp
- PRSA is collecting the names and vital statistics of PR pros interested in
volunteering.
http://www.iabc.com - The IABC is searching
for its New York members. All members should contact the Association with updated
contact information for themselves and New York chapter members. The site also
includes a variety of free resources on handling crisis situations at http://www.iabc.com/help/crisislist.htm.
Crisis Preparedness
No one could have prepared for the horror that took place Sept. 11. But planning ahead for unforeseen circumstances has helped New York and DC begin to heal quickly, says
Bolton. "So many businesses here have 'hot office' spots - locations off site where you store all your records and information," she says. Companies can download information to
these skeleton offices on a regular basis, including PR databases, with information on employees, press contacts and other critical communications stats.