Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication Course (CERC): By Leaders For Leaders

This book aims to give leaders tools for speaking to the public, media, partners and stakeholders during an intense public-safety emergency, including terrorism. According to the book's introduction, in a crisis, the right message at the right time is a 'resource multiplier' - it helps officials get their job done. Many of the predictable harmful individual and community behaviours can be mitigated with effective crisis and emergency risk communication. A leader must anticipate what mental stresses the population will be experiencing and apply appropriate communication strategies to attempt to manage these stresses in the population. The book does not promise that a population or community faced with an emergency, crisis, or disaster will overcome its challenges solely through the application of the communication principles presented. However, the book does propose that an organisation can compound its problems during an emergency if it has neglected sound crisis and emergency risk communication planning.

The author expects that readers should gain the following understanding:

The Psychology of Communicating in a Crisis

• 5 communication failures that kill operational success
• 5 communication steps that boost operational success
• How to reduce public fear and anxiety, and come to terms with 'panic'
• Why people need things to do
• 5 key elements to build and maintain public trust in a crisis

Your Role as a Spokesperson

• New research on the public's perception of government
• Applying the STARCC principle in communication
• Questions the public and media always ask first
• 5 mistakes that destroy stakeholder cooperation
• How to deal with angry people

Working with Media during a Crisis

• Interview rights with the media
• Countering media interview techniques that can be hurtful
• 2 things that guarantee press conferences will fail
• 3 things to say early in the crisis

Public Health and Media Law

• The media's right of publication
• Employee access to media
• Legal definitions of detention, isolation and quarantine

Included in this book are excerpts from interviews with leaders - governors, mayors, health officials, and fire chiefs - who "stepped up to the microphone during crises and faced their community and the world. Learn how they made tough decisions about how to inform, console and motivate their constituents during and after the crisis."