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Abstract #165820

Timothy Sellnow, PhD, Professor, Department of Communication Studies, University of Kentucky, Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506-0042, 701-231-7632, tim.sellnow@ndsu.edu

The urgent and unexpected nature of any disaster creates challenging communication needs and constraints. In some disasters, effective crisis communication responses can result in reduced or avoided risk, and thus harm, to potentially-affected populations. Strategic communication also can address complex psychosocial responses and needs that continue to develop and persist beyond initial recognition and occurrence of a disaster and among those most directly affected by it. Although varied types of disasters, and the crises resulting from them, are inevitable, strategic communication responses can help manage and resolve those crises and facilitate learning strategies for better managing and/or avoiding similar crises associated with such disasters more effectively in the future. This speaker, an expert on crisis communication, will apply the crisis communication literature to disasters and identify potentially unifying communication concepts for understanding and responding to them, as well as current gaps and limitations in the literature as it applies to varied types of disasters.

Learning Objectives: Attendees at the session will be able to

(
• define and understand the nature of “crisis,” (
• understand key concepts from the crisis communication literature that may apply to the full array of types of disasters, and (
• identify and explain differences and limitations in applying extant crisis communication literature to various types of disasters.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No
Any institutionally-contracted trials related to this submission?

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.