After further research I have concluded that the radio was the most effective medium when it came to communicating important information out to the community. The specific community I am focusing on is the city of Valley City. Mayor Mary Lee Neilson, identifiable spokeswoman, was on the radio many times giving updates about what was going on. However, at times I feel she passed off the questions she didn’t know, which was more often than not, to someone else. Now this is a good thing but also could be a credibility issue as well. Giving the questions to someone who is more knowledgeable to answer it gives the people of the community a more accurate answer on that specific crisis. However, it kind of gave the impression that the mayor had no clue what was going on at times, in my opinion. Some of the other spokespeople that you heard on the radio was city commissioner Jon Wagar, VC Public School superintendant Dean Koppleman, and VC Public Works employee Jeff Differding. They all gave information regarding their specific area of work.
After doing some informal interviews amongst my family members, every single one agreed that the radio was the most effective form of communication. They stated that even if you were in the car you could tune the radio in and get the latest updates. If you heard the siren blowing you knew that if you turned on the radio that within minutes you could hear the meaning of that siren. Whether it was to fill more sandbags, get more volunteers or the most recent was to notify of the sewer failure. One family member said if you wanted visuals on what was going on, as citizens were encouraged not to ‘site see’, the newspaper and local news stations were the best place for that. My sister who is living in Bozeman, MT said her best place of information came from Facebook. She attended VCSU for a few semesters so has friends from VCSU on her account and there were lots of students putting up picture albums of all the flood happenings. She said it was almost like a picture book of updates.
I have a bit more research I am going to do about each additional spokesperson Valley City had and following the rule in our book of only have one spokesperson decide if the city followed it. If the actions the city took to communicate that information to the citizens helped or hurt the Mayor and/or the cities credibility issues.
I also found Facebook to be a source of my information so I understand your sister keeping herself informed and updated through Facebook. Every time I logged into Facebook there would be new pictures posted on there of the flood, both pictures of the flood of Valley City and Fargo.
ReplyDeleteThere were even groups created for the flood where people blogged on what was going on and how they were affected by the flood.
I also think that this flood crisis also kind of contradicts what’s in our book of how there should only be on spokesperson in a crisis situation.
I guess we both wrote this blog on the same topic, and I totally agree with you that the radio was an effect means of communication between the city and the citizens. They did a nice job of reading announcements, almost nonstop, during the worst of it, which was really helpful during that time.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the radio was the most effective and popular medium used during this crisis. A lot of people told me that the reason they liked the radio was because it was so localized and also because everyone had access to the radio, even if it was just in their vehicles. I also think Facebook was used by college students. There were groups created that I joined. I especially appreciated the Questions for VCSU group because they answerd all my questions when classes went online and things were still up in the air.
ReplyDeleteThe radio was defiantly the best way to get the information out to the public. Besides the radio Facebook was helpfully to me when the schools email wasn’t working because people who found out what was going on would post it on there. I also agree that when the mayor was on TV talking she would ask the other people what was going on. As you said in your blog, at least the public is getting the right answer. But when she was on the radio I always heard the mayor talking.
ReplyDeleteThe radio was a great source to get information from during the crisis. It always was updating with recent information as to where to go to help, what roads were closed, and what schools were closed. The radio is a medium that everyone listens to a lot. I also found that television and emails were very effective sources. Also, word of mouth, but you can never be to sure with that.
ReplyDeleteThe radio would be very useful in this situation because you can have a radio with you pretty much were ever you go these days. As far as directing people where to go when the whistles were blowing it was very effective in delivering the message to the volunteers. The other thing that was good about the radio is that everyone that is in a vehicle can listen to the local channel to get an update as to what is going on.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you 100% the radio was the best medium. I am doing mine on Valley City also and after doing my research, found the same results with the radio being the best way to get accurate and fast information during the flooding crisis. Being able to listen to the radio at home, in the car, and from long distances made it the most reliable for most people in the community.
ReplyDeleteI think you are right about Mayor Mary Lee Neilson being the spokesperson and radio being the main medium that information was communicated by. It is good that you had your family to interview about the type of communication that was being conducted in Valley City. Facebook sounds like it was another good way of communicating information to people who weren’t in the Valley City area. It does seem a little confusing that the Mayor would have others convey the information to the public.
ReplyDeleteThe radio seemed to be the best source for most cities in ND. I also saw most pictures of the flood on Facebook. The mayors of each town seem to be the biggest spokesperson for each town also. They should be though because they were elected to be the "voice" of the community.
ReplyDeleteI also thought that the radio was the most effictive resource the community used. It allowed us to have almost instant information about the events of the flood. I don't agree with the fact that you didn't think the mayor knew what was going on because extreme conditions call for extreme measures and she used the more knowledgeable professionals to answer questions that she wasn't quite sure of. I also think that having one spokesperson for a crisis is not always the best plan.
ReplyDeleteYou definitely hit the nail on the head. Mary Lee is defenitely the major spokesperson and it was good to hand off questions to others who were more informed. Also KOVC was instramental in getting the public informed with flood news. They were definitely the source I heard from the most with the most recent news. I also agreed with you that in some cases you need more spokes people than one.
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