Making Communication Strategy Choices in a Fast Evolving Crisis Situation—Results from a Table-Top Discussion on an Anthrax Scenario

This paper aims at clarifying a timely topic of how communication strategy choices are made in evolving, complex crises, such as those caused by terrorism involving chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) agents. This is done by examining data gathered from a table-top discussion among crisis communication experts, focusing on a scenario of an anthrax attack and analysed qualitatively. The communication experts followed the evolving crisis situation by gathering inputs from various actors in the crisis management network, thereby creating situational understanding, and interpreted these inputs for decision-making on communication strategies. The underlying process of coping wi…

Social Media Monitoring for Crisis Communication: Process, Methods and Trends in the Scientific Literature

This literature review study aims at clarifying current knowledge on social media monitoring from the perspective of organizational communication and public relations. It also contributes to crisis communication by shedding light on how fast developing social media discourse can be followed and analysed in order to understand citizens’ needs throughout all the phases of a crisis. The findings of this study reveal a number of insights in the scientific literature on the concept of monitoring, the monitoring process, methods, tools and solutions, methodological issues and trends covering the years 2009–2012. In the literature, social media monitoring is described as a process which comprises …

Crisis communication and terrorism: Mapping challenges and co-creating solutions

Terrorism is a globally connected, uncontrollable, transboundary risk that continually evolves and changes forms, resulting in multiple complexities that affect the lives of both citizens and organisations across the globe. These risks involve a high level of complexity when they materialise as crises, and the use of CBRN (chemical biological, radiological or nuclear) materials presents the possibility of a worst-case scenario. Crisis communication in such cases would not only be essential but also a matter of life and death. Hence, the purpose of this research was to better understand and describe the challenges of communication in CBRN terrorism crises as well as how these challenges can …

Communication Challenges in CBRN Terrorism Crises : Expert Perceptions

This paper is a follow-up of ‘Terrorism Communication: Characteristics and Emerging Perspectives in the Scientific Literature 2002–2011’, published in JCCM in September 2013, Volume 21, Issue 3. The aim of this paper was to investigate experts' perceptions on communication in chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) terrorism crises, including challenges and good practices. This is pursued by means of a qualitative online questionnaire aimed at international crisis communication and crisis management experts. The challenges of communication concerning CBRN terrorism arise from the complexity of such incidents, having to do with the nature of the threat, leading to problematic p…

Stakeholder relations in the regional state administration : case Central Finland Regional Environment Centre

Audit Measurement of Crisis Communication Preparedness across Different Branches of Government : Sharing Experiences Gained in Finland

An audit measurement of crisis communication preparedness was conducted for 67 organizations, mainly on the national level, in Finland. This unique project was one of the ways to implement new crisis communication regulations getting into force a year earlier. Its purpose was to strengthen central government communication in incidents and emergencies. The audit consisted of a digital survey in the participating organizations and a reflection meeting on the level of each of the 14 branches involved. The indicators were customized taking the crisis communication scorecard, developed in an international project, as a basis. In addition, several meetings were arranged to facilitate related inte…

CBRN Communication Scorecard

The CBRN Communication Scorecard is a tool to facilitate preparedness for crisis communication in the cases of CBRN terrorism incidents. In the introduction the development of the scorecard is explained. In the next section a user guide is provided. As the role of communication experts in crisis management is not always clear, this is further explained in the last section. Finally, the scorecard itself is presented. nonPeerReviewed