Public Information Officers Research Articles

Evaluating the Implementation of a Twitter-Based Foodborne Illness Reporting Tool in the City of St. Louis Department of Health.

Foodborne illness is a serious and preventable public health problem affecting 1 in 6 Americans with cost estimates over $50 billion annually. Local health departments license and inspect restaurants to ensure food safety and respond to reports of suspected foodborne illness. The City of St. Louis Department of Health adopted the HealthMap Foodborne Dashboard (Dashboard), a tool that monitors Twitter for tweets about food poisoning in a geographic area and allows the health department to respond. We evaluated the implementation by interviewing employees of the City of St. Louis Department of Health involved in food safety. We interviewed epidemiologists, environmental health specialists, health services specialists, food inspectors, and public information officers. Participants viewed engaging innovation participants and executing the innovation as challenges while they felt the Dashboard had relative advantage over existing reporting methods and was not complex once in place. This study is the first to examine practitioner perceptions of the implementation of a new technology in a local health department. Similar implementation projects should focus more on process by developing clear and comprehensive plans to educate and involve stakeholders prior to implementation.

Establishing information seeking pathways in slow and flash floods

The purpose of this paper is to investigate information seeking behaviour of people involved in slow and flash flood disasters, specifically how they received the first alert, where they then turned for more information, and what their main sources and forms were. An online and mailed survey based on models of problem-specific information seeking and risk information for natural hazards secured responses from Australians who had experienced flash flood (n = 91) and slow flood (n = 41). It found that information pathways taken by individuals are different for slow and flash floods, but the set of information forms and sources used are similar. ‘Other people’, television and news and weather websites were predominant sources and forms in flash flood, and online sources, television and radio predominant in slow flood. The importance of other people and mainstream media (including their online sites) in information behaviour means that mainstream media should remain an important component of information efforts by agencies. This study builds further evidence that disaster type and the media landscape should be taken into account when developing warning and response communication strategies, and allows public information officers to prioritise communication forms during response.

The Words Not Chiseled: Unused Inscriptions for the Supreme Court Building

The Words Not Chiseled: Unused Inscriptions for the Supreme Court Building MATTHEW HOFSTEDT “EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW,” the inscription carved above the entrance to the Supreme Court Building, has become an iconic phrase. It is one of only four inscriptions originally carved into the build­ ing’s marble walls. The others are “JUSTICE THE GUARDIAN OF LIBERTY,” found below the East Pediment, and the two dedication panels inside the first floor vesti­ bule.1 An examination of drawings and archival material relating to the building’s design, however, reveals that almost fifty other inscriptions were planned for the building.2 What follows is the story of the inscriptions and why most were never carved. The practice of carving inscriptions on important public buildings dates back to antiquity. Words were carved or painted onto buildings for a variety of reasons, most often for dedicatory or memorial purposes. Over time, inscriptions relating to the function of a building were incorporated into architectural designs, often using quotes to inform or inspire the viewer.3 The Supreme Court Building’s neoclassical revival design by architect Cass Gilbert (1859-1934) was influenced by the French Beaux-Arts archi­ tectural philosophy, which dominated Amer­ ican architecture following the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.4 Among the tenets of this approach was that ornamentation— including inscriptions—should relate to the function ofthe structure. The use of symbolic sculpture and inscriptions, therefore, formed a part of Gilbert’s vision for the Supreme Court Building.5 The Main Inscriptions The two exterior inscriptions mentioned earlier were obviously the most important because of their prominent locations. Gilbert and his drafting team used various place­ holders during the early phases of the design process. A February 1929 drawing of the 126 JOURNAL OF SUPREME COURT HISTORY Detail of the West Pediment from Drawing #51, dated July 7, 1931. This is the earliest use of the phrase “Equal Justice Under Law” by Cass Gilbert’s firm. The image has been digitally altered for clarity. proposed building, as well as the original 1929 plaster model of the building, have “LEX ET JUSTITIA” (Law and Justice) in the space below both exterior pediments.6 A year later, “EQUAL AND EXACT JUS­ TICE” appeared on a rendering of the West Portico, a phrase taken from Thomas Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address.7 The earliest appearance of the two inscriptions submitted by the architects is found on a drawing dated July 7, 1931.8 The phrase “Equal Justice Under Law” has often been attributed to Cass Gilbert, but it is not known if he personally coined the phrase; it may well have been one of the members of his drafting team who first wrote it down. In his 1982 article titled “Slogans to Fit the Occasion,” Supreme Court Public Information Officer Barrett McGum reviewed the history of the phrase “Equal Justice Under Law” and described several failed attempts to determine an exact source for the phrase soon after it appeared on the building.9 In addition to those searches, some earlier Supreme Court opinions contain approximations too, such as “equal and impartial justice under the law' from Cald­ well v. Texas, 137 U.S. 692 (1891) (emphasis added). Similar word combinations may also be found in speeches offuture ChiefJustices, including a 1916 presidential campaign speech by Charles Evans Hughes (“equal and exact Justice for all”) and an academic lecture at the University of Rochester by William Howard Taft (“Liberty Under Law”).10 No evidence, however, suggests the Gilbert firm was aware of any of these opinions or speeches, therefore, any connec­ tion to the iconic inscription appears to be coincidental." Regardless of which member of the Gilbert team came up with the wording, recommendations for the main inscriptions were submitted on April 13, 1932, to David Lynn, the Architect of the Capitol.12 Lynn forwarded them to Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, who was also the head of the United States Supreme Court Building Com­ mission. Along the bottom of the letter Hughes wrote a note—now partially erased —that appears to read, “Caution as to [other] inscriptions.”13 Hughes understood that the words chosen for the Supreme Court Building needed to be carefully considered. The...

Interactional Alarms: Experts’ Framing of Health Risks in Live Broadcast News Interviews

ABSTRACTThis study examined how experts frame health risks in real-time interactions with journalists. Though there is evidence that experts influence media framing of health risks, the ways they respond to journalists’ agendas in real-time interactions have yet to be explored. This paper examines instances of risk assessment extracted from a corpus of news interviews to determine how expert assessments were requested and provided. The analysis reveals that experts rarely deliver their assessments neutrally but rather treat these exchanges as opportunities for framing or reframing the topic. Their framing is shown to be responsive to journalistic agendas and to those who experts understand to be accountable when their assessment is elicited. These findings suggest ways in which news interviews can be useful in health communication. The implications for experts, journalists, and public information officers who plan to use interviews for this purpose are discussed.

Public information officers exert increasing controls

Journalists have long experienced a love-hate relationship with government public information officers (PIOs) in setting the public agenda, particularly at the federal level. Three surveys of journalists and PIOs examined whether government controls impact journalists’ gatekeeping roles. Results indicated that journalists felt PIO controls are increasing, that reporters covering federal agencies express the most frustration, and that PIOs at the federal level indicate the greatest need for controls over journalists.

A Selected Fiction? Lawrence Durrell and the Overgrown Typescript of Bitter Lemons

This article looks at previously unmined archival documents in order to explore the preand post-publication history of Lawrence Durrell’s Bitter Lemons, a travelogue written during the ‘emergency years’ of the EOKA campaign against British rule and for union with Greece. It examines the ways in which paratextual documents surrounding this publication history illuminate the awkward, sometimes contradictory, relationship between Durrell’s book and the last years of the British colonial government in Cyprus, a government for which Durrell worked as an employee in the Public Information Office.

Characterization of Carbon Monoxide Exposure During Hurricane Sandy and Subsequent Nor'easter.

Carbon monoxide (CO) is an odorless, colorless gas produced by fossil fuel combustion. On October 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandy moved ashore near Atlantic City, New Jersey, causing widespread morbidity and mortality, $30 to $50 billion in economic damage, and 8.5 million households to be without power. The combination of power outages and unusually low temperatures led people to use alternate power sources, placing many at risk for CO exposure. We examined Hurricane Sandy-related CO exposures from multiple perspectives to help identify risk factors and develop strategies to prevent future exposures. This report combined data from 3 separate sources (health departments, poison centers via the National Poison Data System, and state and local public information officers). Results indicated that the number of CO exposures in the wake of Hurricane Sandy was significantly greater than in previous years. The persons affected were mostly females and those in younger age categories and, despite messaging, most CO exposures occurred from improper generator use. Our findings emphasize the continued importance of CO-related communication and ongoing surveillance of CO exposures to support public health response and prevention during and after disasters. Additionally, regional poison centers can be a critical resource for potential on-site management, public health promotion, and disaster-related CO exposure surveillance. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2017;11:562-567).

Public information officers’ social media monitoring during the Zika virus crisis, a global health threat surrounded by public uncertainty

As Zika virus emerged as a global health concern in 2016, it was surrounded in public uncertainty regarding its transmission and health consequences. Health communicators were tasked with managing their own uncertainties and with incomplete information on the virus. Given the misinformation, rumors, and even conspiracy theories surrounding Zika virus, monitoring public awareness and understanding of the mysterious illness on social media could offer critical insight to crisis management. A survey (n=226) was conducted with public information officers (PIOs) at local public health departments across the United States to reveal how they utilize and listen to social media during public health crises. In addition to an overall low rate of social media monitoring reported by PIOs, troublesome disparities exist based on community size served. However, there were positive relationships between social media monitoring and satisfaction with overall departmental crisis management as well as preparedness for Zika. These and many other monitoring trends are explored.

Building emergency public information structures for response: Lessons learned from New York City

For an effective response, emergency public information operations should be structured to facilitate the provision of timely, accurate, accessible information to the public. A frequent challenge in building a public information structure is identifying the potential staff to allow the operation to get big enough, fast enough. A plan for managing public information operations should define roles to fulfil basic functions (responding to media enquiries, writing materials, disseminating information, media and social media monitoring, community engagement and identifying and addressing rumours). This paper will offer tips for developing a plan and concept of operations for quickly assembling and maintaining public information operations. It will also describe the public information principles implemented during recent incidents in New York City, including the 2015 visit of Pope Francis to New York City. Having a coordinated, flexible model; a trained network of public information officers who are ready to staff public information roles as needed; and a structure that embeds social media into overall public information operations, will leave public information officers and their organisations more prepared to deal with the challenges and opportunities of communicating with the public during emergencies of varying types and sizes.

Managing rumor, looting, and suicide not as breaking news but as community disaster culture

Not many have realized the close relationship between rumor, looting, and suicide and disaster management, although some researchers have discussed each issue separately. The purpose of this paper is to understand better the nature of these three issues by mainly analyzing them in the context of distinguished models, ‘breaking news’ and the community’s culture when it comes to disaster management. As the key finding, the field of disaster management must not manage rumor, looting, and suicide only as breaking news. Instead, these three issues should be managed under the community’s disaster culture to dispel rumors and provide facts through the mass media and public information officers, penalize cases of looting coupled with education, and support and intervene in cases of suicide.

Too Busy for TB: Managing a Case of Tuberculosis Disease in the School Setting.

School nurses actively monitor the school population for signs of communicable disease on a daily basis. State regulations outline reportable diseases and provide guidance to control disease outbreak, including management of disease outbreak in the school setting. The purpose of this article is to review strategies recently used in managing a tuberculosis (TB) outbreak at a large high school in Kansas. A timeline of events is presented along with a discussion of the differences between latent TB infection and TB disease. Partnering across agencies and departments enabled the timely testing of over 400 individuals and subsequent management of individuals testing positive for latent TB infection. Public information officers provided necessary guidance to communicate to audiences both internally and externally.

Public Affairs Office, August–October 19, 2015, ESA Governing Board Report

Public Affairs Office, August–October 19, 2015, ESA Governing Board Report

Talking science with journalists

The media attention bestowed on scientists is like a hundred-year flood—rare but potentially overwhelming for the unprepared.

Influencing Healthcare Policy: Implications of State Legislator Information Source Preferences for Public Relations Practitioners and Public Information Officers

An internet survey and follow-up mail survey were conducted in order to (a) determine New Mexico state legislators’ preferred sources for information when making decisions about healthcare policies and to (b) assess the state legislators’ attitudes toward e-mail more generally. Legislators were found to privilege expert colleagues and constituents over mass media as healthcare policy information sources; additionally, face-to-face encounters with constituents were preferred over e-mail, although respondents largely felt positive about using e-mail with both constituents and colleagues. These preferences regarding information sourcing and delivery indicate that public relations practitioners’ (PRPs) continuing tendency to communicate with state legislators using traditional media-centric methods are problematic. Results suggest legislators could be reached with greater effect if PRPs were to supplement their use of mass media channels with more personal, symmetrical relationship management strategies.

Big Data in the Public Sector: Lessons for Practitioners and Scholars

In this essay, we consider the role of Big Data in the public sector. Motivating our work is the recognition that Big Data is still in its infancy and many important questions regarding the true value of Big Data remain unanswered. The question we consider is as follows: What are the limits, or potential, of Big Data in the public sector? By reviewing the literature and summarizing insights from a series of interviews from public sector Chief Information Officers (CIOs), we offer a scholarly foundation for both practitioners and researchers interested in understanding Big Data in the public sector.

Object and Arbiter: The Police and the Los Angeles Times, 1996-2006

This paper examines the treatment of the police in the Los Angles Times between 1996-2006 through content analysis and supplemental interviews of police officers as well as reporters from print, radio and television media. After a brief review of the history of the fortunes of the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Times during the years under study, the paper describes patterns of police coverage. The content analysis revealed an increase in international stories, a decrease in stories of local interest and a dearth of articles that applied critical analysis of, or skeptical regard to, police actions. The content analysis and interviews revealed that police departments and the news industry were undergoing opposing shifts: while there was a rise in the tendency of police departments to professionalize their communications (with departments' Public Information Officers increasing dramatically in stories over the years of study), there was also a steep decline in the resources news outlets were devoting to coverage of the police. These opposing tendencies, when correlated with the shifts in police reporting revealed in content analysis of the Times , can help explain why the paper provides its readers with less sophisticated and political police coverage. In effect, police are more often used as “witnesses” of fact rather than objects of analysis. This lack of vigilance over police actions hinders improvement in police/community relations in Los Angeles.

Government communication in the digital age: Social media’s effect on local government public relations

Using data collected from interviews with public information officers (PIOs) in local governments, this study explores the use and perceptions of social media as a communication tool. It specifically addresses how social media are used as a public relations function to promote democratic, participatory, and transparency models in government. Results indicate that social media are highly regarded as a beneficial communication tool for local governments. Four primary themes emerged from the data analysis: dialogue promotion, engagement, unconstrained, and barriers. The first three themes focus on the opportunities that social media provide PIOs to communicate with citizens and the fourth theme presents the challenges faced by local governments that utilize social media. The insights shared by PIOs in local governments are useful for public relations professionals and scholars to help them understand and apply social media practices to build relationships with citizens and enhance communication practices.

Explaining Attitudes Toward and Experiences with Social Media among Public Information Officers through Adaptive Structuration Theory

INTRODUCTION Social media are today what the printing press was almost 600 years ago--they allow people to spread information at a rate and to an audience not thought possible prior to their inventions. As noted by Sweetser and Weaver-Lariscy (2008) social media are mediated opportunities for bringing people together encouraging social networking and dialogic (p. 180). According to a February 2012 Pew Institute poll, 66 percent of people are connected to others through social media. When you consider that 2/3 of any community is reachable through a particular medium, its value, as part of a communication arsenal, becomes readily apparent (Brenner, 2012). In Social Habit 2011, a study conducted by Edison Research (2011) and Arbitron, Approximately 46 million Americans ages 12 and older now check their social media sites and services several times every day. As traditional newspaper readership and network news viewership continue to dwindle, the social media revolution continues to take off. As of July 2012, more than 300,000 people per day are signing up for the microblogging site Twitter (SiteAnalytics, 2012). Thus, the first question of why should we care if social media are integrated into the fire departments' communication strategies should be self-evident--social media provide the fastest way for the public to obtain life-saving information (Jafarzadeh, 2011). Additionally, the growing number of studies indicates that the public expects to find answers on social media networks first (Fugate, 2011; Gary, 2011; Kingsley, 2009). If fire department PIOs are going to reach the largest audience possible, they need to recognize the value of pre- and post-emergency social media engagement and integrate the technology that will bring people to and through their websites. While many articles extol the importance of having formal social media procedures, there is little research as to why fire departments are lagging behind the adoption of new media technology. Adaptive Structuration Theory (AST) offers a framework for understanding how social media are creating a technology-triggered organizational change in fire departments (DeSanctis & Poole, 1994, p. 128), albeit a slow change. The purpose of this study is to understand how fire departments are adopting social media into their communication. Are there similarities and differences between firefighting organizations that do and do not utilize social media for emergency situations, and what are the main obstacles for adoption? How do PIOs perceive social media and how might their attitudes toward new media affect their willingness to adopt social media? To date, research has examined two aspects of social media use by emergency response organizations. First, they have illustrated how in emergencies organizations use social media to coordinate their efforts (White, Plotnick, Kushma, Hiltz, & Turoff, 2009). Second, they have clarified how those involved in the disaster have used social media to seek and share information as well as provide support for others (Starbird & Palen, 2011; Sutton, Palen, & Shklovski, 2008). Latonero and Shklovski (2011) have called for research that addresses the ways in which organizations use social media to communicate with their communities, but little attention has been given to the rate at which fire departments are integrating social media technologies. Bottom line: social media have accelerated the community's involvement in managing information during all emergency situations. For example, immediately following the mass shooting at an Aurora, Colorado movie premiere of the latest Batman movie, @AuroraPD went from having 300 Twitter followers to over 11,000 in one day (Virtual Lessons Learned, 2012). When it comes to emergencies, the community is involved. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE Social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, FourSquare, YouTube, Flickr, and Pinterest, have become powerful tools for collaboration, sharing, and support of individuals, communities, and the media during emergencies (Dabner, 2012). …

Assuring your agency's Area Contingency Plan is equipped with an effective Joint Information Center Model

ABSTRACT Public trust in joint agency oil spill responses is generated or broken based on how well the Joint Information Center (JIC) communicates. Since the Deepwater Horizon spill response in 2010, responders recognize the importance of communicating with the public and stakeholders about response efforts. Despite this, the development of comprehensive plans to organize an effective Joint Information Center at an Incident Command Post is often overlooked. Area Contingency Plans (ACP) are designed to ensure effective management and organization during an incident response. However, a review of a sampling of ACPs reveals an overall lack of planning for the organization of JIC operations. Including a pre-designed JIC model within the ACP will help initial Public Information Officers (PIO) avoid errors that can cause disorganized messaging early in the response. Quick organization within a JIC helps participating agencies to speak with one voice and release timely and accurate information. Using data and experience collected during responses, exercises, and Area Contingency Plans, this paper outlines: the role of a Joint Information Center Plan, the elements of a Joint Information Center Plan, how to be involved in the planning process, and how to better evaluate your plan.

Public relations: For your information.

Scientific public-information officers need a gift for writing and a wide interest in all areas of science.