Page 87 - Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilience

56 Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilence

• Assess internal media-relations capabilities.
• Recognize that all communication activities and materials should
reflect the diverse nature of societies in a fair, representative, and inclu-
sive manner.
• Begin all communication planning efforts with clear and explicit goals,
such as:
− Informing and educating
− Improving knowledge and understanding
− Building, maintaining, or restoring trust
− Guiding and encouraging appropriate attitudes, decisions, actions,
and behaviors
− Encouraging dialogue, collaboration, and cooperation
• Develop a written communication plan.
• Develop a partner communication strategy.
• Establish coordination in situations involving multiple agencies.
• Identify important stakeholders and subgroups within the audience as
targets for your messages.
• Prepare a limited number of key messages in advance of potential public
health emergencies.
• Post the key messages and supporting information on your own well-
publicized Web site.
• Pretest messages before using them during an interview.
• Respect diversity and multiculturalism while developing messages.
• Train key personnel—including technical staff—in basic, intermediate,
and advanced media communication skills.
• Practice media communication skills regularly.
• Never say anything “off-the-record” that you would not want to see
quoted and attributed to you.
• Recruit media spokespersons who have effective presentation and per-
sonal interaction skills.
• Provide training for high-ranking government officials who play a major
role in communication with the media.
• Provide well-developed talking points for those who play a leading role
in communication with the media.
• Recognize and reward spokespersons who are successful in getting their
key messages included in media stories.
• Anticipate questions and issues that might be raised during an
interview.
• Train spokespersons in how to redirect an interview (or get it back on
track) using bridging phrases such as: “What is really important to
know is . …”