Page 36 - DDME "The Disaster Forum"

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Hon. Ralph Higgs, Minister with responsibility of the Department of Disaster Management and Emergencies speaks to parTcipants in Grand Turk.
Effec@ve media communica@on is a crucial element in comprehensive crisis management and should assume a central role from the start. Such effec@ve communica@on, via the media, requires trust and understanding between crisis communicators and the media. The media depend on crisis communicators for @mely and accurate informa@on. Crisis communicators depend on the media to get their messages out before, during and aOer an emergency, as well as for surveillance. Crisis communica@on establishes public confidence in the ability of an organiza@on or government to deal with the issue at hand. Crisis communica@on should be carefully planned and implemented, and properly integrated with emergency management ac@vi@es and opera@ons. Good communica@on will reach a wider cross-sec@on of persons with clear and credible and ethical messages
It is with this in mind that DDME recognized the need to partner with the Caribbean School of Media and Communica@on (CARIMAC) to present the CommunicaTon during Crisis Training. This Workhsopg will be done on June 24th and Facilitator Dr. Livingston White of CARIMAC will guide persons on how to Deliver Ethical and Effec@ve messages to the Media during Crisis. For@s TCI, one of the key Stakeholders in Partnership in Preparedness will be providing their Conference Room Facili@es at their Corporate Headquarters in Providenciales to host this cri@cal training.
The focus of the presenta@on is on the importance of delivering ethical and effec@ve messages during a crisis with the objec@ves being that par@cipants will take away from the session the following:
• An apprecia@on of why communica@on in a crisis is important
• An iden@fica@on of ethical issues that may arise during crisis communica@on
• Prac@cal and useful techniques that can be applied to improve crisis communica@on
• An ability to cri@cally assess media content regarding crisis communica@on
• Strategies for planning communica@on for crises and working with the media
Increasingly we have seen that in order for Disaster Risk Reduc@on to be effec@ve Training and Educa@on is paramount to Disaster Management. DDME is grateful to all our partners and stakeholders who buy into this vision and support our Training and Educa@on ini@a@ves. We look forward to your con@nued support as we work together build a more disaster resilient Turks & Caicos Islands.
References:
Nelia Salviejo Tabliago, Na@onal Disaster Coordina@ng Council – Office of Civil Defense, Asian Disaster Reduc@on Center
Dr. Livingston White, Communica@on During Crisis Workshop Material for TCI