Communication Theory

The Principles of General & Crisis Communication

Provincia di Alessandria - Servizio Protezione Civile

Social Media Melting in Emergencies 2012

Massimiliano MesenascoMedia Languages B.A.

Communication is the transmission of informations

The aim of communication is to transmit a message from a source to a receiver without any loss of

information even in presence of noise.

The secret for a good communication is...

Or maybe not...

The “Hypodermic needle” or “Magic Bullet” was the first relevant model of communication.

Rooted in the Psychological Behaviorism of the ‘30s (like B.F. Skinner, for example), this theory

suggests that the message is completely absorbed by the receiver exactly as intended by the

sender.

Source

Message

Transmittingdevice

ReceivingdeviceChannel

Noise

Message

Receiver

Source Receiver

The code is a set of rules that allows encoding and decoding

DOG

DOG

===

DOG

DOG

E4¶

===

E4¶

?

Encoding Decoding

Sign

ifie r

Mea nin g

Mea nin gSi

gnifi

e r

Source

Message

Transmittingdevice

ReceivingdeviceChannel

Noise

Message

Receiver

Encoding Decoding

According to Ferdinand de Saussure, the categories of signifier and meaning are the key to understand the

sharing and the transmission of the meanings.

signifier

meaning

>

>

DOG

The word “DOG”, our signifier, bears the idea of the dog, our meaning, but only for those who are able to

link the signifier and the meaning.

This process is arbitrary, with some exceptions, like onomatopoeias and interjections.

This concept seems very simple and basic applied to words but let’s analyse a more “complex” example...

“What to Do Before a TornadoUse a NOAA Weather Radio with a tone-alert feature to keep you informed of watches and warnings issued in your area. The tone-alert feature will automatically alert you when a watch or warning

is issued.”

Wonderful, now we know what to do before a tornado!

But... what’s a NOAA Weather Radio? Tone-alert feature? Uhm...

That’s our fantastic Weather Radio with tone alert!

This kind of radio is widespread in the USA and unknown in Italy, so the most of us is not able to link

the signifier (NOAA Weather Radio) with the meaning.

Even that’s a very simple phrase, we can’t understand its whole meaning, so we simply don’t

know what to do before a tornado.

“What to Do Before a TornadoUse a NOAA Weather Radio with a tone-alert feature to keep you

informed of watches and warnings issued in your area. The tone-alert feature will automatically alert you when a watch or warning is issued.”

Try to imagine what could happen if an entire city, or just the 50% of its inhabitants doesn’t understand our

instructions during an emergency.

Hesitation

Panic

This could result in...

A correct communication process means...

Safety

So, how can we communicate in a correct way?

To understand the importance of a good communication, let’s analyse a quote by Paul Watzlawick, one the most

influential figures of Palo Alto School.

“One cannot not communicate”

Even silence is communicative and the same is for our clothes, our facial expression, our car and so

on.

Paul Grice identifies four maxims useful to achieve a cooperative communication

Quality

Quantity

Relation

Manner

>

>

>

>

Make your contribution as informative as required

Be truthful

Be pertinent

Be clear, avoid ambiguity

So, since we cannot not communicate, what are the main features of a good message?

- Authoritative

- Brief

- Clear

A brief warning about authoritativeness and authority!

According to De Certeau, technical knowledge (authoritativeness) leads to authority but authority is

in turn strictly bound to its abuse.L’abuse de savoir gives authority to the expert, even

about topics far from his field of knowledge.

We can affirm that this effect is even stronger if messages are endorsed by an organization.

A brief tip about clarity!

We are naturally prone to think about something we’re told not to.

If I tell you “don’t talk about a cow”, your brain immediately visualizes a cow.

The same effects takes place when, in a risky situation, I tell you “have no fear!”, the immediate answer will

be “fear? FEAR? Why should I have fear?”

Always use positive concepts! “Calm winds for the next 24 hours” is much better

than “no tornados in the next 24 hours”

Something more about clarity!

"The map is not the territory"

And now that we have a perfect message, how does it influence people’s behavior during

emergencies?

Consider that, according to the situation awareness theory, the decision making is a process composed by three steps that precede the real decision moment.

Perception Comprehension Projection Decisionmaking

Action

Situational Awareness

In order to make a conscious and sensible decision to handle a situation (especially a risky and stressful one) the subject must obtain the informations needed to fill

these three boxes.

The construction of the situational awareness is a process that may require a very short or a very long time, depending on the situation, and, most of all, the more complete and comprehensive the informations

are, the more the decision fits the situation.

To ease the decision-making process in emergency situation, we have to work during peacetime to spread

the emergency culture among the population.

Remember! Only with an everyday relation the organizations can build the necessary trust to build the

emergency culture and to work as gatekeeper of unofficial informations during crisis.

Depending on the situation, we can identify four modalities of communication policy.

Operational communication

policy

Cognitive communication

policy

Emergency direct the behavior of a population in a risky context

define the situation for a population in a risky context

Peacetimegive notions about Civil

Protection operations to the different levels of a social

system

maximize the general civic functionality

To master these techniques, we must be aware of two further concepts.

The two-step flow of communication

and

The feedback

Source

Message

Transmittingdevice

ReceivingdeviceChannel

Noise

Message

Receiver

Encoding Decoding

Feedback

Source

ReceiverReceiver Receiver Receiver

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