New study shows states remiss in communicating emergency plans to public
Nearly half of US states either have no state-level emergency plan or do not provide it readily to the public, according to a 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.
“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…
“While most Americans will have access to some important state-level information during emergencies, many may not. When minutes may make the difference between life and death in an emergency situation, the population should not have to waste precious time looking for answers or who to turn to,” he added, “If folks are unsure about or even completely ignorant of what their state’s emergency plan is the evidence shows what they’ll do is make emergency decisions based on myths or rumors generated by similarly uninformed people.”
See “Using Sense-Making and Coorientation to Rank Strategic Public Communication in State Emergency Operations Plans (EOPs)” by Carl Botan and Paul Penchalapadu, George Mason University.
See A Failure to Communicate in Homeland Security Today for an analysis of this important study.
