Commentary: What We Have Here is a Failure to Communicate
Nearly half of U.S. states either have no state-level emergency plan or do not provide it readily to the public, according to a new study by George Mason University Professor of Communications Carl Botan.
The study, titled “Using Sense-Making and Co-orientation to Rank Strategic Public Communication in State Emergency Operations Plans,” graded and ranked the state emergency operations plans of the 50 US states and the District of Columbia on their communication components. HSToday.us obtained a of the study, which will be officially presented at the National Communication Association annual conference in San Diego on Nov. 22.
The report found that despite federal laws that require a state emergency operations plan (EOP) as a prerequisite to some federal funding, 22 states were unable to provide Botan with an EOP, withheld the plan on security grounds or made it difficult for even trained researchers to gain access. We recommend that these 22 states consider developing, and making available to their citizens, a comprehensive state emergency response plan that makes provision for public communication at all levels.
“The motivation for the study,” Botan told HSToday.us, “ was that one of the things we concentrate on in teaching emergency strategic communications is that communication cannot just be a technical tool to be used late in the game after an emergency has already occurred. One of the primary functions of strategic emergency public communication is to help publics make well informed choices in chaotic situations by helping reducing their uncertainty.”
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“This study employs both sense-making and coorientation theories to evaluate the role of public communication in current emergency response planning in the United States. It employs a 2-stage content analysis to evaluate and rank all available state emergency operations plans [EOPs] from among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The article concludes that:
- Only D. C. and New Mexico achieved the top score of eight on our 1-8 scale with Ohio scoring a seven.
- 22 jurisdictions do not have a state EOP, withhold the plan on security grounds (2 states) or make it difficult for even trained researchers to gain access
- All the 29 states with available EOPs make provision for public communication but only 16 make either explicit or implicit provisions for two way public communication. Thus, while most Americans will have access to some important state level information during emergencies many may not, and most will have no channel designed to allow them to ask for the information they feel they need.”
