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.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Crisis Communication Research
After going through the 2 worst floods in Valley City I figured I could easily compare the two and decide what they did then compared to what they are doing now and how much more effective it is or was. However, the more I sat and thought about the 1997 flood I realized I was younger than I maybe had realized at first and don’t remember that much other than riding around in the streets in my dad’s truck and the water hitting the running boards on it.
So I am sticking to the present flood and the community I am either going to do is VCSU or Valley City as a community. Identifying a spokesperson for VCSU was easy and kind of confusing for Valley City. Yes the Mayor was the primary one, however, I feel that when she was asked any question she pawned it off to someone else and it was always a different person. There could easily be credibility issues here as you never knew who was answering what question or their knowledge about that matter. If I choose to do my research on Valley City I will be researching more on who was answering those tough questions and what their credibility was.
I will be doing some informal interviewing with my family mostly about what channels of communication were most effective and what ones weren’t. With either community that I might choose to research I feel that my own family has a few members in each community and would be great sources of information for this. One that just works within the community, 3 that are within the VCSU community, one that’s in the VCHS community and then one that is younger and within the elementary school systems.
There are a few mediums that I am going to do research on such as the radio primarily and how effective and at times ineffective it was. Providing specific examples on matters such as no school, conserve water going down the drains, sandbag volunteers, and where sandbags could and couldn’t go, also about the contingency dikes. If I choose to go the route of Valley City my letter would most likely be to the Mayor since I feel she is the primary spokesperson and if I choose to go the VCSU route it will go to the president of the school as I feel he was the spokesperson for VCSU.
So I am sticking to the present flood and the community I am either going to do is VCSU or Valley City as a community. Identifying a spokesperson for VCSU was easy and kind of confusing for Valley City. Yes the Mayor was the primary one, however, I feel that when she was asked any question she pawned it off to someone else and it was always a different person. There could easily be credibility issues here as you never knew who was answering what question or their knowledge about that matter. If I choose to do my research on Valley City I will be researching more on who was answering those tough questions and what their credibility was.
I will be doing some informal interviewing with my family mostly about what channels of communication were most effective and what ones weren’t. With either community that I might choose to research I feel that my own family has a few members in each community and would be great sources of information for this. One that just works within the community, 3 that are within the VCSU community, one that’s in the VCHS community and then one that is younger and within the elementary school systems.
There are a few mediums that I am going to do research on such as the radio primarily and how effective and at times ineffective it was. Providing specific examples on matters such as no school, conserve water going down the drains, sandbag volunteers, and where sandbags could and couldn’t go, also about the contingency dikes. If I choose to go the route of Valley City my letter would most likely be to the Mayor since I feel she is the primary spokesperson and if I choose to go the VCSU route it will go to the president of the school as I feel he was the spokesperson for VCSU.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Sewer Crisis
Prevention and Communication I think are very important when dealing with a crisis. If you are aware that a potential crisis could happen before it does…Why would you not do all you can to prevent it? That’s the question I feel a lot of Valley City citizens may be asking not only each other but other community decision makers when it comes to the issue of the sewer systems. Then communicating these preventative measures and the seriousness that these measures carry is just as important as well.
The night before the sewer system broke, I was working at one of my jobs which is at a restaurant in town and was surprised to see that no sewer precautions were being taken. Now this was about the third day that the community was asked to conserve water as much as possible so they wouldn’t be putting all that water down the drains. They were asked not to take their ‘beauty’ showers, run your dishwashers, or washing machines. Yet we were doing dishes as normal and all other activities at work the same. I asked some fellow workers wondering why we weren’t doing things a bit different and they said there was no need yet. I was dumbfounded and wondered had they not heard the last couple of days and what the community officials were saying in regards to the sewer system and that it was running to the max.
To make this already known information of trying to reduce the amount of sewer in the drain of utmost importance, there could have been phone calls or people walking to each business stating it is mandatory to conserve, like they did with the residents door to door. Another good way to communicate this directly to the workers would to have had an employee meeting before each shift telling them to conserve as much as possible with what they were putting down the drain.
I don’t think that the sewer system failure could have been avoided completely due to the amount of river water flowing into the system but maybe the severity could have been lowered and the system wouldn’t have to be down for so long. Causing the business’s to be closed completely and residents forced to either evacuate or use porta-potties.
The communication after the crisis of the sewer system, however, was better. It almost takes something bad to happen for people to realize that what was going on was really important. The city got 1,000 porta-potties delivered to residents’ and businesses and the word on the radio of absolutely no water usage instead of just saying a need to cut down. Maybe the word ‘reduce’ wasn’t a strong enough word for residents to feel the need to cut back. We sure no know though :)
The night before the sewer system broke, I was working at one of my jobs which is at a restaurant in town and was surprised to see that no sewer precautions were being taken. Now this was about the third day that the community was asked to conserve water as much as possible so they wouldn’t be putting all that water down the drains. They were asked not to take their ‘beauty’ showers, run your dishwashers, or washing machines. Yet we were doing dishes as normal and all other activities at work the same. I asked some fellow workers wondering why we weren’t doing things a bit different and they said there was no need yet. I was dumbfounded and wondered had they not heard the last couple of days and what the community officials were saying in regards to the sewer system and that it was running to the max.
To make this already known information of trying to reduce the amount of sewer in the drain of utmost importance, there could have been phone calls or people walking to each business stating it is mandatory to conserve, like they did with the residents door to door. Another good way to communicate this directly to the workers would to have had an employee meeting before each shift telling them to conserve as much as possible with what they were putting down the drain.
I don’t think that the sewer system failure could have been avoided completely due to the amount of river water flowing into the system but maybe the severity could have been lowered and the system wouldn’t have to be down for so long. Causing the business’s to be closed completely and residents forced to either evacuate or use porta-potties.
The communication after the crisis of the sewer system, however, was better. It almost takes something bad to happen for people to realize that what was going on was really important. The city got 1,000 porta-potties delivered to residents’ and businesses and the word on the radio of absolutely no water usage instead of just saying a need to cut down. Maybe the word ‘reduce’ wasn’t a strong enough word for residents to feel the need to cut back. We sure no know though :)
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Volkswagen Creates Life-Size Pink New Beetle Convertible for Barbie ® 50th Birthday
This is a lead to a story I found about how Volkswagen has created every girls dream, a life-sized Barbie ® car! It is a pink Volkswagen Beetle convertible that has every detail a girl could imagine. From the 5 shades of color to make the perfect pink to the lipstick colored dipstick to the rhinestones and vanity mirrors, it’s the perfect Barbie® car!
This story is a perfect example of a media news release covered in chapter ten. It starts with the above lead to grab the reader’s attention and make them want to read the rest of the story. The angle gets the attention of the audience which would be those girls that grew up with Barbie’s® and had every outfit and car that came along with her. It definitely grabbed my attention as I was an avid Barbie lover. I had the houses, cars, outfits and even her swimming pool. When you read further into the story it details what the car is all about and how they didn’t miss a detail when trying to make it the perfect Barbie® car to celebrate Barbie’s® 50th birthday.
The car includes white custom leather interior and convertible top to the hand stitched floor mats and pink quilted leather lined door pockets and arm rests. The new convertible is even equipped with a motorized vanity in the trunk!
It is also written in inverted pyramid format with the most important information at the top. This would include the maker of the new convertible, Volkswagen, and a brief description of what the luxuries of the car would include. It next goes into details about her birthday celebration that was held at the Malibu Dream House ® in Malibu, CA. All the details about the house and how it is just like the one I would have had as a child. It mentioned that the birthday festivities were complete with 1,800 pairs of Barbie® sunglasses, 3,500 pairs of tiny shoes, 3,500 mini handbags and numerous Hollywood celebrity guests. It was a pink carpet affair which is when the new pink convertible was revealed. All of this information is located at the bottom of the story and if needed it could be edited out without affecting the meaning of the entire story.
At the end of the story it includes a boiler plate about the Volkswagen of America, Inc. About how it’s Virginia based headquarters are a subsidiary of Volkswagen in Germany. It talks about its different cars and what they come standard-equipped with. The story also has a little boiler plate about the Mattel Company, the maker of the Barbie® doll.
This is a great example of a media news release. It is written in the inverted pyramid format, has a captivating lead into the story to get the readers interested right off the bat and even includes a boiler plate about the two companies involved in this new car.
This is a lead to a story I found about how Volkswagen has created every girls dream, a life-sized Barbie ® car! It is a pink Volkswagen Beetle convertible that has every detail a girl could imagine. From the 5 shades of color to make the perfect pink to the lipstick colored dipstick to the rhinestones and vanity mirrors, it’s the perfect Barbie® car!
This story is a perfect example of a media news release covered in chapter ten. It starts with the above lead to grab the reader’s attention and make them want to read the rest of the story. The angle gets the attention of the audience which would be those girls that grew up with Barbie’s® and had every outfit and car that came along with her. It definitely grabbed my attention as I was an avid Barbie lover. I had the houses, cars, outfits and even her swimming pool. When you read further into the story it details what the car is all about and how they didn’t miss a detail when trying to make it the perfect Barbie® car to celebrate Barbie’s® 50th birthday.
The car includes white custom leather interior and convertible top to the hand stitched floor mats and pink quilted leather lined door pockets and arm rests. The new convertible is even equipped with a motorized vanity in the trunk!
It is also written in inverted pyramid format with the most important information at the top. This would include the maker of the new convertible, Volkswagen, and a brief description of what the luxuries of the car would include. It next goes into details about her birthday celebration that was held at the Malibu Dream House ® in Malibu, CA. All the details about the house and how it is just like the one I would have had as a child. It mentioned that the birthday festivities were complete with 1,800 pairs of Barbie® sunglasses, 3,500 pairs of tiny shoes, 3,500 mini handbags and numerous Hollywood celebrity guests. It was a pink carpet affair which is when the new pink convertible was revealed. All of this information is located at the bottom of the story and if needed it could be edited out without affecting the meaning of the entire story.
At the end of the story it includes a boiler plate about the Volkswagen of America, Inc. About how it’s Virginia based headquarters are a subsidiary of Volkswagen in Germany. It talks about its different cars and what they come standard-equipped with. The story also has a little boiler plate about the Mattel Company, the maker of the Barbie® doll.
This is a great example of a media news release. It is written in the inverted pyramid format, has a captivating lead into the story to get the readers interested right off the bat and even includes a boiler plate about the two companies involved in this new car.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Disney’s Dreamers Academy
Disney’s Dreamers Academy Graduating Class
When you were in High School and you were asked the famous question “what are your plans after graduation?” what was your answer? Coming from a smaller town, as in Valley City, I wanted to do something bigger, newer and more exciting than I thought this town could offer me! (Look where I am now) As young adults you have a lot of ambitions and dreams but you just need that little extra push of motivation.
100 lucky students from all across the country got that extra bit of motivation. They received the opportunity to participate in the innovative career program called Disney’s Dreamers Academy at Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, FL. They had three days of interactive workshops, motivational talks and hands-on creative experiences. After completing these 3 days of activities they got to participate in the commencement exercise at Epcot.
The students got to experience some careers first hand. Some of the things they got to do were in the areas of culinary arts, animation, set design and production, and all the way to the business of sports. They had well known speakers in all of those areas come and give a speech/demonstration on what they do every day in that particular career field.
These 100 lucky students were chosen out of more than 4,000 applicants. They were nominated by teachers, parents, church leaders, and even their student peers. Each student of the Disney’s Dreamer Academy showed the dream, perseverance, and enthusiasm to do great things in their future.
This experience for the students was also made possible by Kodak. They sponsored the career workshop “Each One, Teach One!” and gave each student a Kodak EasyShare digital camera.
This pertains to Ch. 5 in almost all of the areas. The Disney’s Dreamer Academy needed to make goals, develop strategies, and define, prioritize and analyze who they wanted to reach and who their demographics were going to be. Also what the goals that each student needed to meet in order to be a participant were going to be. They needed to figure out how to reach the teachers, parents, and church leaders in order for them to even know this opportunity was available to the students. The academy also needed a budget, schedule and assign responsibilities to their workers in order for the events to run smoothly. Also they needed to find some sponsors, one that believed in what they were doing and more importantly believed in the young adults attending the Disney’s Dreamer Academy.
I did my college internship through Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, FL from May 2006 to January 2007 and had the time of my life. I did not participate in the Disney’s Dreamer Academy but I did the College Program they offered. You are placed in a resort or park right on property and given a particular job. You get to see how such a huge and successful corporation is run. All the behind the scenes work that goes on and the amount of people in a variety of different career fields it takes for even one show to go on. I think Disney offers great programs for the development of the future of kids. I personally would recommend to anybody to take any opportunities that WDW has to offer and DO THEM. It’s a great life experience.
When you were in High School and you were asked the famous question “what are your plans after graduation?” what was your answer? Coming from a smaller town, as in Valley City, I wanted to do something bigger, newer and more exciting than I thought this town could offer me! (Look where I am now) As young adults you have a lot of ambitions and dreams but you just need that little extra push of motivation.
100 lucky students from all across the country got that extra bit of motivation. They received the opportunity to participate in the innovative career program called Disney’s Dreamers Academy at Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, FL. They had three days of interactive workshops, motivational talks and hands-on creative experiences. After completing these 3 days of activities they got to participate in the commencement exercise at Epcot.
The students got to experience some careers first hand. Some of the things they got to do were in the areas of culinary arts, animation, set design and production, and all the way to the business of sports. They had well known speakers in all of those areas come and give a speech/demonstration on what they do every day in that particular career field.
These 100 lucky students were chosen out of more than 4,000 applicants. They were nominated by teachers, parents, church leaders, and even their student peers. Each student of the Disney’s Dreamer Academy showed the dream, perseverance, and enthusiasm to do great things in their future.
This experience for the students was also made possible by Kodak. They sponsored the career workshop “Each One, Teach One!” and gave each student a Kodak EasyShare digital camera.
This pertains to Ch. 5 in almost all of the areas. The Disney’s Dreamer Academy needed to make goals, develop strategies, and define, prioritize and analyze who they wanted to reach and who their demographics were going to be. Also what the goals that each student needed to meet in order to be a participant were going to be. They needed to figure out how to reach the teachers, parents, and church leaders in order for them to even know this opportunity was available to the students. The academy also needed a budget, schedule and assign responsibilities to their workers in order for the events to run smoothly. Also they needed to find some sponsors, one that believed in what they were doing and more importantly believed in the young adults attending the Disney’s Dreamer Academy.
I did my college internship through Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, FL from May 2006 to January 2007 and had the time of my life. I did not participate in the Disney’s Dreamer Academy but I did the College Program they offered. You are placed in a resort or park right on property and given a particular job. You get to see how such a huge and successful corporation is run. All the behind the scenes work that goes on and the amount of people in a variety of different career fields it takes for even one show to go on. I think Disney offers great programs for the development of the future of kids. I personally would recommend to anybody to take any opportunities that WDW has to offer and DO THEM. It’s a great life experience.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
"we got caught up in the moment"
Caught in the moment?
Watching a scary movie or a close basketball game I get caught in the moment. Winning a basketball game by 100 points…how do you get caught up in the moment? Coming from Valley City and not always having the best sports records in high school I personally know how it is to be on the losing side. But never have I been so humiliated to lose any game with a score of 100-0.
A high school girls basketball team from Dallas, Texas recently had the upper hand in that exact same position. When the head coach was asked how it got to be so out of hand his response was “we just got caught in the moment.” Needless to say the coach was fired. As a coach you are a mentor to the young lives you are influencing. What are you showing them with a merciless win like the one they participated in? It makes you think to yourself did any of the girls speak up and say something? What would you do if you were a player pummeling a team by 100 points? Would you say anything to your coach?
On the other hand, if the opposing team is just lacking any common skills do you tell your players to purposely miss? Or to step aside and let the other team make an easy layup? That to some, would contradict what you are trying to teach: teamwork and hard work.
It is all about the persuasion of what you think is right as a coach back to your players. If as a collective team they think the coach is wrong in running up the score then they should at a time or half time tell the coach their thoughts and try to persuade him to their side. Now maybe the outcome wouldn’t be completely turned around but I am sure the score would not be 100 point difference.
As a parent you also try to instill core values and ethics. Growing up you tell them what is legally wrong and right but also morally and ethically. Players for the most part have good intentions and a brain. They want to do what they feel right and as a whole can get the rest of the team on their side as well with some good persuasion. They maybe just need to bring up a few points on how this will reflect on them as individuals and a school? Is this what they really want to be known for? The team with no heart or consideration.
There are some local examples of this happening right here in North Dakota. Two of the recent “blowouts” were in hockey. Hockey is usually a low scoring game to start with so when a team starts getting into double digits some would think an exciting outcome, but what if the other team’s score was only 1 or 2 points. Do you tell your team to quit trying so hard? When the best team and the worst team are paired together for a match up, what is the cut off line for too big of a margin in point difference?
This is a grey area because winning by 100 is unacceptable but also telling your team to not try hard and let the opposing team make the easy points is not the best thing to do either. Some simple things to keep in consideration are to maybe not drive to the basket every time if you know it’s going to be an easy shot. Maybe it is vice versa and to not keep taking the 3 point shots just to make the individuals personal records better.
That is only benefiting the team individually and there is no ‘I’ in ‘team’. There may not just be one good answer to follow but I think a little common sense will go a long ways.
Watching a scary movie or a close basketball game I get caught in the moment. Winning a basketball game by 100 points…how do you get caught up in the moment? Coming from Valley City and not always having the best sports records in high school I personally know how it is to be on the losing side. But never have I been so humiliated to lose any game with a score of 100-0.
A high school girls basketball team from Dallas, Texas recently had the upper hand in that exact same position. When the head coach was asked how it got to be so out of hand his response was “we just got caught in the moment.” Needless to say the coach was fired. As a coach you are a mentor to the young lives you are influencing. What are you showing them with a merciless win like the one they participated in? It makes you think to yourself did any of the girls speak up and say something? What would you do if you were a player pummeling a team by 100 points? Would you say anything to your coach?
On the other hand, if the opposing team is just lacking any common skills do you tell your players to purposely miss? Or to step aside and let the other team make an easy layup? That to some, would contradict what you are trying to teach: teamwork and hard work.
It is all about the persuasion of what you think is right as a coach back to your players. If as a collective team they think the coach is wrong in running up the score then they should at a time or half time tell the coach their thoughts and try to persuade him to their side. Now maybe the outcome wouldn’t be completely turned around but I am sure the score would not be 100 point difference.
As a parent you also try to instill core values and ethics. Growing up you tell them what is legally wrong and right but also morally and ethically. Players for the most part have good intentions and a brain. They want to do what they feel right and as a whole can get the rest of the team on their side as well with some good persuasion. They maybe just need to bring up a few points on how this will reflect on them as individuals and a school? Is this what they really want to be known for? The team with no heart or consideration.
There are some local examples of this happening right here in North Dakota. Two of the recent “blowouts” were in hockey. Hockey is usually a low scoring game to start with so when a team starts getting into double digits some would think an exciting outcome, but what if the other team’s score was only 1 or 2 points. Do you tell your team to quit trying so hard? When the best team and the worst team are paired together for a match up, what is the cut off line for too big of a margin in point difference?
This is a grey area because winning by 100 is unacceptable but also telling your team to not try hard and let the opposing team make the easy points is not the best thing to do either. Some simple things to keep in consideration are to maybe not drive to the basket every time if you know it’s going to be an easy shot. Maybe it is vice versa and to not keep taking the 3 point shots just to make the individuals personal records better.
That is only benefiting the team individually and there is no ‘I’ in ‘team’. There may not just be one good answer to follow but I think a little common sense will go a long ways.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
