Running head: COMMUNICATION DISSERTATION 1

Crisis Communication Management by Public Information Officers in Reference to Journalist

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COMMUNICATION DISSERTATION 2

Crisis Communication Management by Public Information Officers

Abstract

The research was conducted on various professions like firefighters, police officers, and

emergency rescue team- first responders and we found out that psychological trauma originates

from traumatic events gone through while conducting job. Disaster Crisis Management does not

occur after disaster planning which is based on communication. Research has shown that

effective disaster management is essentially from crisis association exercises. In particular, there

are management problems with regard to the correspondence process, the expert's work and the

improvement of coordination. There are no less than five unique ranges of problems in the

matching process, be specific in intra-leech practices, associations, associations with people in

general, general population and associations, with structures of associations. Exercise of a public

information officer troubles originate from misfortunes of higher echelon work force due to

exhaust, strife concerning over new calamity undertakings, conflicts over authoritative

jurisdictional contrasts. Coordination challenges originate from absence of agreement among

associations taking a shot at normal however new crisis related assignments, and troubles in

accomplishing general coordination in any group catastrophe that is of any extent. Immediate

arranging can constrain these management challenges however it can't totally wipe out all related

issues.

Key Words:

Trauma, Public affairs officer, Mental health, Public information officer, Spokesperson,

Crisis communication, Media relations, Public relations, stress disorder, Avoidance, Intrusion.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER

1. INTRODUCTION5

STUDY SIGNIFICANCE5

2. THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS.6

The Exercise of Authorities...6

Public Information Officers in Crisis Management Associate Areas and

Activities....7

Objectives of the Research.10

3. METHODOLOGY10

Participants.10

Measures11

4. RESULTS..12

Work-related Traumatic Events Exposure.12

Exposure Intensity.13

Avoidance and Intrusion Indicators...13

Coping Behaviors..........14

5. DISCUSSION....14

Research Question One..........14

Research Question Two.15

Limitations.16

6. CONCLUSION16
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REFERENCES17

CHAPTER 1.
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INTRODUCTION

Firefighters, police officers, and emergency rescue employee encounter some disturbing

emotional scenes while carrying out their duties (Haslam & Mallon, 2003). The presence of this

group first response in ugly scenes like fires, accidents, and violent crimes are seconded by

public information officers and journalists. All these professions put public information officers

and journalists in a distinct kind of situation that can expose them to traumatic events while

transmitting the communication. They might fail to realize the long-term effect that will might

harm them after experiencing such events.

While the first responders carry out their work of victims rescue, the public information

officers and journalists will also be busy trying to gather raw information. Public information

officers will collect information by finding the cause of the event to restructure themselves to

answer questions asked by the media.

Study Significance.

Due to the job experienced, public information officer and the journalist will often be

involved in many such scenes together whereby they experience similar odors, sounds, images,

and other sensory-related information. However, Public information officers are privileged to

deep information access like trespassing a marked area since most of them relate to employment

agencies that are granted such access. They are much exposed to trauma scenes for long hours

while trying to gather information.

The main aim of this research is to examine psychological effects experienced by the

public information officers in their area of specialization. Numerous studies have been conducted

in this area while both the journalist and public information offices being asked questions related

to the ugly scenes encountered ever while at work (Haslam & Mallon, 2003; McFarlane &
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Bookless, 2001; Renck, Simpson & Boggs, 1999). However, little is known on public

information officers unlike journalists and first respondents whose area have been heavily

researched on. Much is still need to be known concerning their specific training and coping

responses or available support programs to them.

CHAPTER 2.

THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS

The expression "communication process" is utilized purposely to underscore that this

issue for the most part includes what is conveyed as opposed to how communication happens.

Much of the time, albeit as a matter of fact not all, communication issues don't really emerge

from lack of proper equipment, harmed offices, or different types of demolition that bring about

rendering the equipment inoperable.

Occasionally, in the midst of catastrophes, the current communication methods are

limited. However, these problems from time to time are due in particular to the shortage of

equipment before the disaster, rather than a disaster linked to the fiasco. In the dominant part of

cases, the problems identified with communication methods are much smaller than those

resulting from the communication process. That is, there will be some physical methods of

communication. As it may, the resulting problems stem from the useless use of existing

equipment or increased options due to human or social errors that disappoint the team.

The Exercise of Authority

Catastrophes require that a few organizations and authorities to accept obligations, decide

wisely, and be viewed as authentic. Normally, if the activity of expert is feeble amid non-

stressful periods, it will demonstrate much weaker when disaster strikes. If a public information

officer is powerless they will be weaker when a disaster strikes. Regardless of the possibility that
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we expect that the activity of public information officer expert among offices and authorities

amid times of commonality are working legitimately inside a group, there will be issues amid the

crisis periods of debacles. The challenges which surface, in any case, are regularly not those

generally foreseen. The levels of leadership and lines-of-expertise don't separate in associations

establishment. On the off chance that there is lack of correspondence amid a mass crisis, public

information officer for the most part will keep on exercising their formal specialist and satisfy

their typical obligations and duties. If higher echelon authorities can't be contacted, work force at

the center as well as lower echelons frequently to settle on choices they don't typically make.

Indeed, even rigid administrations will twist on this issue when looked with obvious emergencies

that require a quick authoritative choice or reaction. A typical belief is that associations may not

be able to work in a sustainable way due to the dispute between the work and the family

members of the authorities. The key part is that key personnel will not respond to work or leave

work when a disaster occurs due to a concern or need to address the problems of your family.

Research has shown that this supposed partial struggle does not cause the abandonment of

disability. Authorities may be required to carry out their professions, despite the fact that there is

a mental stump for those involved in a partial fight.

Public Information Officers in Crisis Management Associate Areas and Activities.

a) Personal wearing out

This issue comes from the solid tendency with respect to key authorities in places of

public information officer to keep working too long. Such a person who stay at work all

day and all night amid the catastrophe will in the end crumple from depletion or end up

noticeably wasteful in their basic leadership and different zones of duty. Most

importantly, when public information officers are in the end replaced by others, their
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successors will not have certain data to practice the fundamental specialist, on the

grounds that essential information won't have been formally recorded. Basic leadership

requires significant learning. Authorities with the fitting data won't generally be

physically fit for working past a certain point. On the off chance that such authorities

possess key places of specialist, the catastrophe reaction ability of the association can be

truly impeded

b) Conflicts in an organization

Another important issue is to find out who has the specialist authorized to do new disaster

assignments. At the time when new disaster-related adventures are being created,

unavoidable questions arise which associations have the best public information officer to

accept them. For example, the obligation to conduct large-scale hunters and conservation

exercises or mass interns of the dead are not usually the regular commitments to

managing the crises accumulated in an organization.

c) Domain conflicts

The issues of public information officers that cover the execution of common tasks here

and there arise between associations and external or growing groups. In general, the

security of the territory is always seen as a conventional police work. Clashes may arise if

the state police or military personnel enter a dangerous situation and also strive to provide

security. Such activities are often seen by the neighborhood police as an effort to usurp

their power. This problem, in some cases, shows disagreements about who has the

privilege of issuing steps that allow the section in a confined area affected.
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The circumstance is considerably more complex to the public information officer when

contending association is an additional group gathering or a developing gathering, as,

when nonlocal help or welfare organizations give administrations amid a group

catastrophe. Despite the fact that they might practice their ordered or regular capacity of

giving standard administrations, such offices are usually seen as interlopers into the space

or nearby organizations while performing such capacities. On the off chance that the

outside of nearby help assemble is another association, existing local offices undertaking

a similar disaster task(s) are practically sure to make inquiries about its authenticity and

specialist.

d) Conflict Differences

Communication calamities every now and again cut crosswise over jurisdictional limits

of nearby associations. This makes a potential for clashes. Amid non-emergency periods,

ambiguous, hazy or covering public information officers can regularly be overlooked.

Amid calamities this is regularly not the situation. Since calamities now and then require

prompt activities and choices, uncertain control issues frequently surface at the stature of

a crisis period.

Issues of public information officers are particularly hard to determine. To some degree,

this is on the grounds that the topic of authoritative public information officer includes

the entire texture of formal and casual power inside a group. This is an unobtrusive and

touchy issue brimming with entanglements for anybody who has never learned about the

subtleties of nearby history. In this way, it isn't amazing that such issues are hard to get

ready for and similarly difficult to deal with when they emerge.

.
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Objectives of the Research

Since there is little known about public information officers, the main aim of the research

is to find out the effects of the individuals while mandating their duties, then the main questions

we used in finding are as following:

a) How are regular public information officers exposed to traumatic events while

carrying out their work?

b) What are some of the coping behaviors used by public information officers when

they are in traumatic stress and events?

CHAPTER 3.

METHODOLOGY

We administered part of Public Information Officer Survey to measure public

information officers professional and personal, traumatic backgrounds events exposure and

coping behavior. Trauma intensity exposure was also measured. The survey process was

conducted on a host website different from the normal paper survey since web surveys are more

convenient to all participants while carrying out the survey. An added advantage upon online

surveys is that various companies offer online data analysis structures decreasing input error and

time for tabulating. In that case, we used Questionnaire since most of its previous works included

companies like Quest Communications and Microsoft. Therefore subscription was a must since

data extraction was sensitive.

Participants

The research was availed online for two weeks to all members of NSPRA and NIOA.

Organizations leaders were contacted on the quest of assistance and cooperation from all the
COMMUNICATION DISSERTATION 11

members whereby email messages were forwarded to each member hence the host by

QuestionPro. Survey results were then shared with the organization upon request since survey

response should be secret, voluntary and personal. Before the survey was started, each

participant was urged to go through a consent and approve it. They were shown of the general

study purpose and the reason for their responses. After the survey, the information of the

findings was displayed to them.

Measures

The survey measured two key areas:

a) Exposure to trauma

Trauma exposure due to the job was achieved through a modified scale from

Pyevich, Newman, and Daleidens (2003) Journalist Trauma Exposure Scale. The

scale had to be slightly adjusted since its context was framed in a journalists

experience and responsibilities. Its statement was then restricted for it to reflect on

the nature of the public information officers communication crisis as

spokesperson agency and not a reporter. Yes or No answering scale used.

b) The Exposure.

The exposure intensity was conducted using

The intensity of exposure also was examined using Pyevich et al. Journalist

Trauma Exposure Scale. The questions were aimed at giving the various types of

extreme situations that the public information officers might have encountered.

Yes or No answering scale used.

c) Coping Behaviors
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Behaviors attitude coping with relation to drug and alcohol use were addressed by

the questions which were developed via discussions with related public

information officers.

CHAPTER 4:

RESULTS

Demographic Data

As per the Web analysis report, 83 persons completed the PIOS (Public Information

Officer Survey) over the two weeks allocated time. Of the respondents, 44 were male, and 39

female is having an average of 45.3 years. 50 % responses were from National Information

Officers while 40 % derived from National School Public Relations Association. There was a

small portion of the unidentified participants the organizations. 57% of the participants who

responded admitted 100% of their work related to public relations. A large number admitted that

they communicated regularly through news media on a weekly basis. The level of education of

the participants varied from Bachelors based (50 %), college-based (75 %), masters (22%) and

doctoral (2 %) with those having college degree 60% admitting that studied journalism during

their coursework or had some form of formal communication training.

Work-Related traumatic Events Exposure

Only 80 of the total respondents had gone through similar events at least once in a

lifetime. As per the survey data, 4 of them had gone through road accident, caused death, and

other events that accompanied by killings. These results were not expected since the

respondents field of specialization were different from their feedback.

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An average of 48% of the respondents said yes on motor vehicle accident with death and

injuries being 83 %, 79 % were killings or person being hurt, natural disaster being 67 %,

violence being 50 % and murder being 48%. Violence and murder were the less reported case

with a big number of respondents admitting that they had communicated to them or not at all.

Intensity Exposure

Communicated traumatic statements on the scene shows a situation that public

information officers were communicating in more than one case or event due to additional

pressure recurring from the scene and not a neutral ground. A yes or no answers were expected

from the respondents apart from communication duties performed when the perpetrator happens

to have been someone familiar to the respondent. A perfect example is when one respondent

argued No for the first statement which leads to a no from those who followed.

The approximate percentage of the public information officers encountering traumatic

events was 50%, and there was no big difference between the split 50-50 percentages regarding

having a sound understanding of the victims who were communicating.

Avoidance and Intrusion Indicators

Most of the respondents went for a no answer when they were asked questions about

intrusion and avoidance than any other survey. However, we did not get to fully know the reason

behind the big no despite the difference in levels of psychological trauma. The participants

answered the questionnaires affirmatively with some using phrases and words like sometimes,

rarely, or often unlike no answer or not at all.

Intrusion Subset

The respondent supported answers frequently by using not at all and rarely, meaning not

being sure or having not gone through such.

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Avoidance subset

It somehow correlates with the previous model regarding answering with answers such as

I hardly keep off reminding these events. Most of the information derived from these two

correlating subsets were supported with wide answers and closely distributed if we take four

questions.

Coping Behaviors

79 % respondents admitted that they did not seek help, 10 % have looked for assistance

while 11 % were not provided with answers. It shows how little the number of the public

information officers who had experienced traumatic events enough in that they could have

developed coping behaviors. It could have also indicated how compelled they were to answer

such question.

CHAPTER 5

DISCUSSION

The main aim of this research was to find out the communication crisis of public

information officers while carrying out their duties in crisis associated area. Traumatic events

exposure was examined with the consideration of intensity exposure and also how they cope with

any adverse psychological effects they go through. In a wide perspective, the data collected in

this study gives a substantial reason on the degree of exposure as per public information offices

area of specialization.

Research Question 1.

The question aimed at determining the frequency of exposure to public information

officers traumatic events as per their job. This is quite supported by the data collected from the
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survey which showed that they are frequently exposed to crises. There is insufficient evidence

supporting that public information officers are always in unusual, unpredictable and unstable

situations

According to Pyevich et al. study (2003), they found out that journalists are always

highly exposed to psychological disorders since they encounter traumatic exposure as compared

to the public. This supports can be channeled to public information officer since they somehow

share common scenes. It is, therefore, true that the two area share a lot to be compared to the

same research.

Research Question 2

In this question, the main aim was to find out coping behaviors that public information

officers face while on traumatic events. According to Polusny, and Follettes (2004), journalists

and emergency responders will always try to determine the cause of the event. Avoiding or

having a tendency to avoid is, therefore, one of the coping methods. This part still needs to be

researched further to get a concrete conclusion.

Limitations

Just like any other research project, the limitation is always there. Limitations were

primarily determined among the participants, selection bias, sample size, content form, research

design, and procedure. However, it should be noted that this research was only conducted to

serve as a basis details for future studies.

COMMUNICATION DISSERTATION 16

CHAPTER 6

CONCLUSION

The main aim of this project was to examine effects that public information officers

regarding communication while they are attending crisis events. The study mainly determined

whether there are psychological effects to the public information officers due to traumatic events.

It is, therefore, sound to conclude that there are no full data to fully support this fact since most

of the information was drawn from journalists since they share common grounds of

communication and areas of any traumatic event. In chapter five we provided a plot of possible

studies that could have given us substantial information.

Despite inadequate resources on dealing and identifying the psychological effects, the

data we collected played a big role in trying to affirmatively conclude that the public information

officers do experience psychological disorders which vary depending on the level of exposure. It

is true that most of the communication they always conduct is violent and disturbing though

there is no concrete support to this. The data collected showed that public information officers

encounter varying levels of avoidance and intrusion- evidence of traumatic stress disorder.

Coping behavior data did not give a substantial reason that the public information officers have

an urge for emotional help. However, this is just a generalized overview of a small number of

responders as per the communication of the public information officer. It is supported by the

limitations whereby the study is just limited to a specific group and number. The limitations

should be addressed studies shortly.

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