REALLY important communication

Most marketers and researchers will say that communication is important. Normally, they will say this is because it has the potential to affect the health of a brand or the awareness and behaviour around certain government initiatives, but rarely can they claim it’s a matter of life or death (unless they’re talking about a brand).

But there are some situations in which it truly is a matter of life or death. As an example, as reported here, Victorian Premier John Brumby has announced a new national fire warning system.

Now this is an area of communication where the messages must be heard and comprehended by as many people as possible, and lead to the right sorts of behaviours. Otherwise, lives could be lost. In other words, truly important communication.

So how do communicators choose their words in these situations? How do they avoid confusion? How do they avoid panic? How do they communicate with a diverse range of people?

David Bruce and Michelle Hendrie’s 2009 AMSRS Conference paper ‘Communicating during a crisis – Choosing your words’ provides an insight into the research behind the words, and methods of replicating the how people might respond to communication while a disaster is happening. And, in music to researchers’ ears, the research has contributed significantly to a guide to be distributed among emergency communicators, entitled Emergency Warnings: Choosing Your Words, which is now available here. The research report on wording in CALD and Indigenous communities is also available.

I’m really looking forward to seeing how the research contributed to this guide. The paper will be presented in the Government Communications session on Day 1.