Severe outbreaks of the disease had been reported in several countries in East and South-East Asia since as early as December 2003. Millions of poultry have since been culled to in a bid to curb the spread of this lethal disease and limit the rising number of human fatalities. (The Canadian Press, 2004)
As such, it is of utmost importance that all available information regarding the disease is provided across the globe by directly and in-directly affected nations and be continuously and accurately conveyed to the masses in all available forms of communication media.
2. FINDINGS
The information provided under the subsequent headings of the report attempts to address the WHO’s concerns about present communication forms of information relating to the disease via its official Internet website, the Channel NewsAsia International website, Singapore Government Official Bird Flu website, daily updates on the situation in the Singapore local newspapers, television and available radio broadcast. The following section sets out the findings.
- Official Organization Internet Websites
- The World Health Organization (WHO) Website
The WHO official website serves as a one stop platform of informing the general public of impending health issues around the world. Information is updated regularly on a daily basis to ensure that information provided for is timely and reliable. It provides global audiences with latest press releases, facts and figures, directives from medical and health bodies to ensure travellers’ health are safe guarded and well documented minutes and resolutions at board meetings. Legitimacy issues are addressed with a Constitution put in place to ensure that the WHO’s activities are closely governed to ensure high level of trust and reliability between nations subsisting in this esteemed agency. (World Health Organization, 2004)
The WHO website was one of the foremost sources of communication of latest updates of the current Bird Flu situation in Asia and served as a reliable and credible deliverer of up to date information to the concerned general public and to raise awareness of the disease.
- The Channel NewsAsia International Website
Established in March 2000 with its base in Singapore, Channel NewsAsia has overtime positioned itself in the broadcasting arena as a leading Asian Television News channel providing news and information around the clock on a global scale. It provides viewers with the latest happenings around the world and reports mostly from key Asian and Western cities. Programmed in a Pan-Asian style, news anchors went beyond reporting headlines to crossing over borders to analyze key events and developments. Its online website is updated throughout the day to ensure real-time and current information is provided to the public. (Channel NewsAsia, 2004)
Information pertaining to the Bird Flu crisis is communicated mainly through its press releases on its online website. WHO initiatives and presence are often mentioned during extensive media coverage broadcasted on television of the wide spread of the Bird Flu in countries like Thailand and Malaysia, offering viewers in-sights into the crisis that indirectly affected Singapore’s supply of poultry and provided viewers with information on what precautionary measures to take to prevent the spread of the disease.
- Singapore Government Official Bird Flu Website
Set up especially to educate Singaporeans and keep them abreast of current issues relation to the bird Flu situation around the world, the Singapore Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts maintained a website that allowed Singaporeans to view current press releases and news reports online. Pamphlets and educational slide presentations in various languages may also be printed out from the website to raise public awareness of the disease. An example of a pamphlet provided on the website is annexed hereto as “Annexure 1”.
- General Information Websites
Websites offering general information on the Bird Flu outbreak other than the above-mentioned three main sources may be placed under this category of online information providers. These websites offer supporting information on the crisis and are usually targeted at only a niche audience who may be interested in its subject content. Purporting to provide basic information on the Bird Flu crisis, information on these websites (The Poultry Site, 2004; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2004; Health Canada, 2004) tends to be concise and lack complicated jargon in its presentation of information, as they roughly sum up existing information from the above-mentioned websites.
- Local Newspaper Articles and Radio Broadcast
Extensive coverage of the Bird Flu crisis came in the form of published articles in the Singapore newspaper, The Straits Times and radio stations, which provided daily news coverage to the masses. Annexed hereto as “Annexure 2” is a Straits Times article focusing on how widespread the Bird Flu pandemic can be lest more is done to detect and curb the disease (AP Reusters, 2004), and another annexed hereto as “Annexure 3” talks about lifting of the poultry import ban in Singapore (Alexis Hooi, 2004). Newspaper articles like these are current and tend to justify and evident the credibility of information available on the websites. Singapore radio news broadcasts provide listeners with daily updates on the crisis ever few hours in a day and provides a more narrative view of the situation reported in the newspapers and websites.
3. DISCUSSION
- Informative and Persuasive Techniques of Communication
Much of the information provided to the general public by the WHO is presented in an informative and systematic manner, with an objective of increasing the public’s ‘understanding of the subject’ (Adler and Elmhorst, 2002, p. 411) using a direct approach of ‘bottom lining’ the information presented. (Munter, 2000, p. 19). The information presented is focused, comprehensive and seeks to document facts and figures provided for by medical and health bodies and experts who may be involved in the crisis. In view of information provided on the WHO’s website, the WHO seeks to clarify public doubts pertaining to the disease by providing adequate information of the origins of the Bird Flu virus and chronological events that followed up in and around Asia. Only the necessary and important information is systematically ordered and appropriate important information prioritized and presented to communication what is absolutely necessary for the public’s knowledge. (Adler and Elmhorst, 2002). What results is ‘improved communication’ between the public and the WHO and a more ‘centered audience’ who are able to understand the WHO’s objectives of providing simplified yet necessary information of dealing with the crisis to the public. (Munter, 2000, p. 20)
Press releases and newspaper articles gathered from the Straits Times tend to revolve themselves around the current issues arising from the crisis and thus are of part informative and persuasive in nature. Information is easily accessible and available to the general public and these articles support and justify information available on the websites setup to provide information on the crisis. Such ways of communication seeks not only to inform but also to ‘elicit a desired response’ (Bettinghaus and Cody, 1994, p.5) from the viewers of the information, which may come in the form of people carrying out directives, such as going for a recommended flu vaccine, provided on these websites to better protect themselves against the disease.
- Language and Style of Presentation
The language and style of presentation of information is one of directive and denotative as the information put across to the public is of ‘nonsensitive’ and lacking of ‘emotional overtones’ in nature. (Munter, 2000, p. 20) Headings and titles used in press releases and articles available online are of hard facts and presented in simple yet eye-catching fonts seem to suggest non-connotative language and style. Headers and titles used in the presentation is factual and straight forward and harbour no emotions.
Newspaper articles along with the earlier-mentioned general information websites present information in a more connotative style, evoking strong feelings among users of the information. (Hybels and Weaver, 2001) as such sources of information tend to appeal to the niche audience pursuing similar interests, and who are able to relate to specific jargon commonly used. Take for example The Poultry Site, the website was set up for anybody involved or interested in the poultry-industry. Following the serious bout of Bird Flu, the website has now become an alternative place for vital information updates that has affected practices relating to poultry farming, a relatively unintended switch of intention.
Connotative language, or ‘indirect approach’ of communication strategy (Munter, 2000, p. 21) hinges on an attempt to arouse the audience interests and bring down resistance to change. However, due to the presence of message sensitivity and emotional nature, the crux of the communication matter may become somewhat obscure due to longer time taken to contemplate the credibility of information provided. In the article “Bird flu outbreak: ‘Worst is yet to come’ (Annexure 2), the language used is somewhat of connotative nature. Phrases like ‘Asia faces a bird flu outbreak of unprecedented proportion’ and ‘ will require sustained effort of investment’ seem to suggest subjective approaches and views that the audience can take to in interpreting the information.
Thus, to allow the audience to interpret information more accurately and without much effort, it may be preferable to make use of the informative approach using detonative language as a form of communication.
3.3 Nonverbal Cues and Communication
Larson and Kleiner (2004) stated that nonverbal cues played a major role in the process of human communications. Nonverbal cues and signals make up messages sent during the communication process and are intended to supplement or support the information being transmitted and may be simply defined as communication without the use of words. (Hybels and Weaver, 2001)
Bold, large fonts used in attention grabbing headliners of newspaper articles or websites seek to hold onto the audience’s focus. The use of appropriate pictures and captions in The Straits Times articles draw the attention of the audience to the articles and urges them to read on. The use of the WHO’s prominent logo and aesthetically appealing and user friendly site layout increases audience’s desire to peruse the information provided on its website and increases its credibility. Support from representatives from the various nations, transparency in its management and timely information to keep up with current situation updates further boosts its reliability at being one of the most trusted information provider in times of a crisis such as this.
- Crisis Communication
Ray (1999, p. 13) defines a crisis as being “triggered by organizational errors, oversights, of deficiencies’. In an article annexed hereto as “Annexure 4”, it is apparent that the Bird Flu crisis might have been detected much earlier and the necessary actions taken to rectify the now barely containable crisis. Crisis communication is imperative in the strategic management of organizations of today and is seen as a means of lowering threats and vulnerabilities the organization might face in the long run in relation to a crisis. (Campbell, 1999, p. XV) Thailand’s dishonest move to cover up its cases of Bird Flu resulted in a bigger crisis that has now affected the world. Such is one case of inadequacy and carelessness that has brought the importance of proper crisis communication into the ‘limelight’ once again.
Campbell (1999, p.41) states that the priority stage of any crisis management and recovery contingent plan is to select a responsible and capable team to manage crisis.’ What he meant was that the crisis management team should be made up of key competent staff skilled in several expertise areas. Among those are senior level management staff who have been with the organization long enough to be trusted to make decisions and take decisive actions. Ucelli (2002) further emphasizes that an organization must put together a team of senior staff to communicate with the general public.
Bad news spread rapidly via various means, but making headlines in the media means that the organization needs to be prepared and skilled at handling media matters with deft and tactful means. Campbell (1994, pg. 81) suggests that there should only be ‘one point on contact for media within the company during a crisis, and that should be the nominated spokesperson.’ A spokesperson acts under guidelines set by the organization and like a media management representative for an organization in a crisis and handles any media responses or questions, acting as a medium of communication between the organization and the media.
Thailand denied initial responsibility when asked to reveal details on the suspected Bird Flu crisis that had hit the country. Public Relations expert Chet Burchett (Albrecht, 1996, p.148) offers an important piece of advice: ‘Don’t lie!’
He simply meant never to say anything that is not the real truth when a crisis crops up. Honesty is thus, in this sense, the best policy to ensure that the situation is kept under control. What Thailand could have done in the first place was to take direct responsibility for their actions and not resort to holding back vital information which could have, till date, save the lives of many who had been affected in a way or another by the pandemic.
4. Conclusion
This report has made investigations and evaluations on the different ways the Bird Flu crisis information has been disseminated to the public, specifically focused on how such vital information may be communicated through the use of technology via the WHO official website and other supporting legitimate websites and other forms of broadcast media. The official WHO website to date, has insofar been an excellent source of timely information on the Bird Flu outbreak. Because no single means of communication is effective in all respects, the WHO has used a combination of media channels, including television, health pamphlets, newspaper advertisements and magazines to balance the tradeoffs between reach, specificity and impact of the information on the public masses. The report also covered what type of language, style of presentation and how non-verbal means of communication played a part in the communication process. It also detailed what can happen when a crisis is mismanaged and what could have been done to remedy the situation. In concluding the stated evaluation, several recommendations have been developed to further improve communication.
5. RECOMMENDATIONS
Communication with the general public during a global crisis like this is of utmost importance, and to achieve the WHO’s objectives of effectively communicating through a series of media, the following recommendations have been made. These recommendations serve only as a guide to better improve communication of the crisis at hand as the WHO has on the whole, been making excellent progress at keeping the public updated via its numerous communication media:
- Ensure continuous checks are made to weed out any possibility of fraud or deceit in information via evidence such as medical and scientific test reports and communication with reputable and reliable bodies like Channel NewsAsia, CNN and The World Trade Organization on latest developments.
- The nature of the information communicated should be as informative as possible as it already is to enable easy and unambiguous understanding of the Bird Flu crisis and not to persuade the public to have conflicting views or to take a stand in interpreting the information provided.
- The style and tone of the language used during the communication process should be simple, clear and neutral. Avoid use of complex jargon or denotative terms that might hinder the decoding process and cause more confusion.
- Nonverbal cues like the WTO’s logo should be prominently shown at appropriate and available opportunities to reassure the public of their reputable image and credibility and also serve as a strong support of the nature of information being communicated to the public in times of crisis.
- Crisis communication should be made with all honesty, even when pending investigations by relevant authorities. A competent and decisive team of key individuals of the organization should be gathered promptly at the helm of an impending crisis and that a clear strategic directive contingency plan be put in place to guide the team during its crisis management activities.