Incident-based capability targets for public information officers-An exploratory study: Initial steps for developing...

Area of Science:

• Emergency Management
• Risk Communication
• Public Administration

Background:

• Public information officers (PIOs) manage critical risk and crisis information for the whole community.
• The proliferation of social media has significantly reduced response times for PIOs during emergencies.
• PIOs now operate under increased time pressure, necessitating rapid crisis communication.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the level of agreement among PIOs regarding ideal capability targets for emergency communication tasks.
• To provide a foundation for further research into standardized crisis communication capabilities.
• To explore the development of measurable capability targets for PIOs based on crisis communication plans.

Main Methods:

• An exploratory study was conducted to measure consensus among PIOs.
• The study focused on PIO perspectives of ideal capability targets post-incident notification.
• Data was collected to analyze agreement on emergency communication task requirements.

Main Results:

• Findings indicate a need for further regional and nationwide research.
• The study highlights the variability in PIO perspectives on ideal capability targets.
• Consensus levels on specific emergency communication tasks require deeper investigation.

Conclusions:

• This exploratory study serves as a call for more extensive research.
• Developing standardized capability targets for PIOs is crucial for effective crisis communication.
• Future research should aim to create a robust dataset for establishing national communication benchmarks.