Chapter 11: Risk, Uncertainty, and Crisis: How to Identify and Manage Them

Crises are inevitable and they cause uncertainty, ambiguity and disorder. Since the media acts as a primary stakeholder, PR practitioners should be aware of the differentiation of natural and unnatural crises linguistically. A natural occurrence is framed as a disaster, while an unnatural disaster is a crisis. As the media thrive on crisis, emergency and disaster, PR practitioners must be prepared to manage media attacks on credibility and legitimacy of their clients.

Usually, the media will engage in attack journalism if they perceive a crisis is not being played out in accordance with certain rules and actions related to reputation restoration. The actions are:

• Denial
• Evasion
• Irritation reduction
• Correction
• Rapprochement

Let’s take a look at the effects of Hurricane Katrina to better understand.

The media has repeatedly attacked the United States’ Federal Emergency Response Agency (FEMA) after Hurricane Katrina happened. Headlines regarding FEMA’s reaction to the disaster screamed:

“Aid Workers Turned Away at the Louisiana Border”;

“Housing Trailers Sitting in Empty Warehouses”;

“Hundreds of New Orleans Stuck Inside the Convention Centre”;

Evidently, the media has started attacking the credibility and legitimacy of FEMA and the U.S. government. However, cordial relations between the media and the government soured due to a federal ban for journalists, preventing access to victims’ recovery efforts. In response, CNN filed a lawsuit and obtained a temporary restraining order against the federal ban. The next day the government immediately lifted the ban.

In this case, there was no public denial of responsibility by FEMA or the government. Instead, the implementation of the ban and refusal to speak to the media fulfilled the notion of evasion. Ultimately, after the disaster, FEMA and the U.S. government embraced correction and rapprochement, with the lifting of the federal ban and eventual rebuilding of media relations after the disaster.

Yet, in the case of Hurricane Katrina, it is special as there was the unexpected rise in blogging and community journalism. The aggregation of community journalism on NOLA.com became a vital link for rescue operations and later for reuniting scattered residents, as it accepted and posted thousands of individual pleas for rescue on its blogs and forums. Much of this information was relayed from trapped victims via SMS to friends and relatives outside the area, who then relayed information back to NOLA.com. On the other hand, the unexpected use of social media also severely impacted the reputation of FEMA as it portrayed the inept nature of their relief efforts, having to rely on community efforts to rescue victims.

Frankly, I think that PR practitioners need to have foresight in order to accurately handle crises. It is essential to know every single repercussion a crisis or disaster entails. No longer limited to the crisis lifecycle (detection; preparation; containment; recovery; evaluation), PR practitioners have to learn how to deal with their clients’ stakeholders, especially the media and to manage unexpected impacts on the media image. In this case, the impact of social media was vital for recovery efforts but reflected FEMA and the government’s unpreparedness.

Shereen Tan
C3097956