Page 192 - Crisis Communication Practical PR Strategies

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Crisis Communication and the Net 173
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News and issues, born by crisis or generated by activists, are easily net-
worked across the internet. Traditional news expands in a linear
manner (news to consumer to another consumer). The internet net-
works and expands information, sending news in multiple, random
directions (spreading in all directions to multiple channels). The rise of
citizen journalism also gives a voice to any person or organization that
can post a video or ‘publish’ a blog. ‘Mainstream’ media are drawing
their leads from bloggers and these citizen journalists have a reputation
for being on the early edge of breaking issues and pending crises.

New tools, new opportunities

The internet offers a host of challenges, channels and opportunities
for companies facing a crisis or public affairs issue. In a highly interac-
tive and participatory medium like the web, all parties have access to
new tools that create links and build communication channels that
bypass traditional media, with their authority, checks and balances.
The many research and monitoring tools that we traditionally asso-
ciate with the web are at the foundation of this. Certainly we have
access to a host of data (almost too much) to gain an informed view on
the issues impacting our companies and markets.
Mainstream search engines such as Google and Yahoo give us
instant access to research, market data and, maybe, trends and issues.
Yet, in the early stages of any issue or crisis, discussions and commen-
tary will be found in the blogosphere. The next issue or crisis won’t
come from an editor’s call, but rather from some obscure posting on a
blog that ignites stakeholder passion, indignation or a call to action.
Blog monitoring tools such as Google Alerts or Technorati take us
from monitoring ‘broadcast’ media to evaluating early-warning
narrow social media channels such as My Space, where issues are born
and crises are fuelled.
These citizen or social media channels offer a challenge for commu-
nication professionals, especially in the midst of a crisis. There’s so
much chatter from an array of sources: how do you monitor, sort and
assess who the opinion leaders are, and the impact they’re having?
Certainly the traffic and commentary on their sites is one indicator.
Also, are these bloggers feeding the mainstream media and being cited
as authorities by policy brokers? If they are, then PR executives, and
their management, need to view these new media players as contacts
in the same category as the Wall Street Journal and Business Week. In
short, these blogs can act in the same way as any mainstream medium
that is influencing business, government and consumer stakeholders.