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 Communication – an art   Resilience and disaster (in brief)   Information and communication ◦  effective communication of information for

adaptation: providing information to the right people, at the right time, in the most effective way

  Better communication practice ◦  barriers and challenges for the communication of

information for adaptation

 Communication is not the same thing as information

 Communication is ◦ Tailored – for a particular purpose ◦ Targeted – for a particular audience ◦ Timed – to be favourably received,

understood and acted upon  Communication relies on feedback and

evaluation to be effective

  ‘a property that gives individuals, social institutions, organisations and/or ecosystems the ability to cope with shocks without losing their essential functions, characteristics and identity’ (Walker and Salt 2006; Cork 2010)

  ‘a process linking a set of adaptive capacities to a positive trajectory of functioning and adaptation after a disturbance’ (Norris et al. 2007 p.130)

  an event in time that has an identifiable beginning (although often not a clear end-point)

  the destruction of property, injury and/or loss of life

  affecting a large group of people adversely   out of the realm of ordinary experience   public and shared by members of more than one

family   disrupting the normative or cultural system of a

society   traumatic enough to induce stress in almost

anyone exposed to it, and   the subject of intense media interest (Eyre 2006, Seeger 2002,

Fearn-Banks 2002 )

 Robustness ◦  Strength in the face of impacts

 Redundancy ◦ Not dependent on single solutions

 Rapidity

◦ Able to adjust or change quickly to suit new situations (after Norris et al. 2007)

 Can be seen as subsets of resilience  Adaptation ◦  Successful flexibility in the face of

unpredictable or fluid situations

  Sustainability ◦ A state of ongoing capacity to maintain

successful adaptive behaviour

 Barriers and challenges for the communication of information for adaptation ◦ Robustness: recognition that communication

needs to be consistent and credible ◦ Redundancy: sending and repeating the key

messages through multiple channels ◦ Rapidity: recognition of urgency in the need

for information and quick response to changed circumstances

 Resilience – adaptation ◦ Use of multiple channels for transmitting

messages ◦ Multiple audiences + word of mouth

 Resilience – sustainability ◦ Recovery communication reliant on feedback ◦ Understanding what is needed on an ongoing

and changing basis

Adapted from J. Grunig (1992)

Government (source of messages)

Community (receivers of messages) Message

(pubic information)

1. One-way communication

Government receives feedback, changes message

in response

Community gives feedback feedback

New message (no change in

behaviour)

message

2. Two-way asymmetrical communication

Government receives feedback, changes behaviour

in response

Community gives more feedback responding to change feedback

Evaluated message shows

changed behaviour

message

3. Two-way symmetrical communication

Government diffuses messages through credible

sources

Opinion leader

Opinion leader

Opinion leader

Formal or informal groups

Extended families

Individuals, friends

Families

MEDIA

Other sources of information

  Information and communication ◦ Not the same thing ◦  Effective communication means both providing

information to the right people, at the right time, in the most effective way through the use of credible sources and ensuring through feedback mechanisms that the message is correctly understood and acted upon

Thank you