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Ceeki aweeya iilaataweeciki kaakisiitootaawi! Let's maintain everybody's language! (Wesley Y. Leonard, Miami Tribe of Oklahoma Language Committee, 2010)
The title of this volume is an answer to another publication, the UNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages…. We hope this Green Book will be of use to everyone who wants it to be no longer necessary for their language to be listed in the Red Book. (Leanne Hinton and Ken Hale, 2001:xi)
Preservation…is what we do to berries in jam jars and salmon in cans. Preserved foods are different from thriving berry patches and surging runs of salmon, and dictionaries are not the same as speech. Books and recordings can preserve languages, but only people and communities can keep them alive. (Nancy Lord, 1996:68, citing Tlingit oral historians Nora Marks Dauenhauer and Richard Dauenhauer)
Someone who reads only the first six chapters of this book is likely to come away with a picture of unrelieved gloom as far as the future prospects for endangered languages are concerned. Chapter 1 surveyed the general topic of language endangerment and introduced some key concepts, none of them tending to generate optimism about the fate of endangered languages. That chapter also introduced UNESCO's Atlas of the world's languages in danger, which (according to its home page as of 24 May 2014) classifies 2,471 languages as endangered to some degree – more than a third of the world's languages, and almost certainly an unrealistically low estimate of the actual number. This is not a pretty picture. In Chapter 2 we examined causes and processes of language endangerment. Chapter 3 was about language death, or dormancy, illustrated with five case studies (Eyak, Cornish, Egyptian, Yaaku, and Mednyj Aleut) and covering the topics of “tip”, semi-speakers, attrition, and grammatical and lexical replacement as an unusual route to language death.
demonstrate the importance of planning a response to a racially framed incident online
outline key communication principles and practices for corporate response to a social media crisis.
Introduction
Social media provide corporations with a powerful tool to engage with customers and promote their goods or services. It has become a norm to have social media network accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, forums and blogs to communicate with their customers directly on promotions, queries or even for friendly banter. Speed in communication is of utmost importance and prior approval from top management is seldom sought to post a response, thereby increasing the imminent risk of misstatements. While it is important to entrust this task of dealing with internet users to experienced staff, often organisations recruit young staff who have little understanding of the organisation for this purpose. This is partly because the latter are more internet savvy and partly because they are better able to establish a youthful style of communication with the increasing number of young customers active on the social media.
Nevertheless, the cyber-world is unpredictable and, no matter how good a brand is, there will be someone hating it and waiting to go viral with that hate. An organisation cannot afford to underestimate the wrath of angry netizens and must deal with online complaints promptly, just as they would acknowledge other complaints instead of ignoring or deleting them. There must also be a contingency plan to manage social media disasters, especially, with a rise in social network postings stoking religious and racial tension.
consider how the issues–risk–crisis communication cycle is a continuum and how a crisis can become a risk after recovery from a crisis
look at the importance of different publics in risk communication and the concepts of expert publics, citizen experts and lay publics
outline Peter Sandman’s theories of risk communication, particularly in relation to the idea of outrage management and sharing of power
investigate the difference between ‘sharing power’ and genuine negotiation in risk communication
evaluate the benefits of consensus communication in risk communication over outrage management.
Introduction
Risk needs to be carefully considered because it is often a precursor to crisis: if risks are not effectively negotiated or dealt with, they become crises. This is particularly so with social and environmental risks such as climate change which may rapidly (if they have not already done so) escalate into crises. Sometimes crises can become risks again, as with a natural disaster such as a hurricane and especially if there has previously been a hurricane in the same area. This is also true for man-made disasters such as an explosion at a chemical facility, particularly if the facility subsequently remains close to residential areas and the public perceives that such a disaster could happen again. Risk communication may need to be carried out for many years. In this chapter, we look at risk communication after a major crisis and underline the importance of tailoring risk communication for different publics. We investigate the meaning of the terms ‘lay public’, ‘citizen public’ and ‘expert public’, and we consider Peter Sandman’s theories on risk communication. We also look at consensus risk communication with a particular focus on the Coode Island Community Consultative Committee (henceforth CICCC), which was set up following the Coode Island fires and has more or less operated continuously since a large chemical fire engulfed the Terminals Chemical Storage Facility at Coode Island in Melbourne in 1991.
outline the phenomenon of slacktivism on the internet and in social media
examine forms of symbolic and token support for issues and causes and how they align with slacktivism
explore the growing importance of supply chain activism
explore the impact of slacktivism in issues and crisis management.
Introduction
All organisations face issues, some of which require close monitoring. Those issues ranked at the top of an organisation’s list of key concerns to be researched, monitored and responded to on a regular basis are designated thus because failure to respond appropriately can see an issue morph into a full-blown crisis or lead to a slow but inexorable loss of reputation. Depending on the organisation, a crisis can have short- or long-term negative consequences, both of which represent an opportunity cost in profit forgone as the organisation diverts resources to resolve the crisis. Whether managing an issue or a crisis organisations seek to preserve reputation; Gotsi and Wilson (2001, p. 29) define reputation as:
a stakeholder’s overall evaluation of a company over time. This evaluation is based on the stakeholder’s direct experiences with the company, any other form of communication and symbolism that provides information about the firm’s actions and/or a comparison with the actions of other leading rivals.
Their definition provides a useful starting point for this chapter because it opens the door to examination of symbolic acts within the mix of crisis and issues management and communication within online and social media stakeholder or organisation exchanges.
examine government communication responses in emergency crises particularly in bushfires
explore the role of planning and chain of command in crisis communication
examine the implications of social media for government crisis communicators.
Introduction
This chapter looks primarily at the bushfires (sometimes called ‘wildfires’ or ‘forest fires’) in the Catalonian province of Spain and the resulting lessons learnt in managing the communication during these crises. In doing so, it also reflects, where applicable, on the lessons of the catastrophic fires in the state of Victoria in Australia in 2009. These two populous regions represent some of the most fire prone areas of the world.
Examining a crisis
On 22 July 2012, two wildfires broke out in the Alt Empordá county of Catalonia which is situated in the northeast of Spain adjacent to the French border. The first fire started inland at La Jonquera and the second near the seaside town of Portbou which, as the crow flies, is located approximately 30 kilometres west of La Jonquera.
It was quickly apparent that the severity and threat posed by the two fires was significant. The region was in drought and hot dry Tramuntana winds were gusting at high speed. The conditions were set for disaster and Catalonian Directorate General of Civil Protection invoked phase 2 of the Infocat Plan (the highest level) (324a, 23 July 2012). The Infocat Plan establishes operational procedures for emergency services and state response to declared wild fire emergencies (Generalitat de Catalunya, 2012, p. 4). Infocat also sets out the state’s responsibilities for liaising with the media and informing the general public about declared fire emergencies.
define and establish the significance and outcomes of risk communication
discuss the role of risk communication across crisis and disaster phases
identify message components of risk communication
identify advantages and disadvantages of communicating risk across a range of media channels.
Introduction
In January 2013, ex-Tropical Cyclone (TC) Oswald triggered a series of extreme weather events across the east cost of Queensland. The Wide Bay–Burnett region, located between 120 and 400 kilometres north of Brisbane, felt the particular effects of ex-TC Oswald, which included mini tornadoes, thunderstorms and strong wind gusts that killed several people and caused significant damage to infrastructure. Two years earlier, Queensland had experienced similar extreme weather events, during which social media acted as an information hub when websites for organisations including emergency services struggled to cope with the increased user demand. However, in the main town in the Wide Bay–Burnett region, Bundaberg, the extreme weather of January 2013 created a unique communication challenge for emergency services and the community: while Queenslanders had become accustomed to using social media to communicate during natural hazards, Bundaberg is home to the second-largest number of older Australians and thus social media usage in this region is low. This issue made communicating risk, warnings and instructions to individuals, communities and businesses more complex.
demonstrate the importance of planning and response during disaster emergency situations
introduce key considerations in determining a disaster response strategy
understand the comparable elements of crisis and disaster communication
understand some of the principles of recovery from the adverse public relations effects of the disaster
understand what sort of organisational change can take place as the result of the crisis
explore the role of communication in disaster recovery.
Introduction
It is well recognised that when an organisation experiences a crisis caused by a natural disaster, publics are less likely to apportion responsibility to that organisation. This contrasts with crises involving events such as product tampering, accidents or management transgressions where the level of organisational control is perceived or judged to be greater (Coombs, 2000, p. 86). In 2012, biomedical company Gambro’s manufacturing plant, based in Medolla, a small town of 6000 in the Modena region of Italy, was hit by a devastating series of earthquakes. Damage to the plant had significant and immediate impact for employees, customers and other key stakeholders, as operations ceased in the wake of the earthquakes.
This chapter will reflect on Gambro’s crisis management response and their crisis communication strategies in response to the earthquakes and the ensuing rumours. An analysis of Gambro’s crisis response shows they acted to counteract stakeholder concerns and leverage well-established stakeholder relationships. As Coombs (2000, 2006, 2007a, 2007b) makes clear, relationships are central to effective crisis management, and, although stakeholders often view a natural disaster as being removed from the organisation’s responsibility, this concession may not exist in a prolonged recovery period or where the stakeholders face a life or death outcome. These were the very conditions Gambro faced. So, a relational approach can add depth to the attributional analysis of such a crisis (Coombs 2000, p. 86). To extend the analysis of crises caused by natural disaster and Gambro’s crisis response, the chapter will also examine crisis communication strategies of similar disaster case studies.