Faculty of Arts

Over the past 20 years, the concept of corporate reputation management has emerged as a credible holistic management technique in the private sector. At the same time, corporate management practices have been implemented in the public sector, not always successfully. Local governments still struggle to develop good reputations and take advantage of their unique public sector position as socially and geographically close to stakeholders.

This paper will examine the increasing importance of stakeholder relationships to local government and will present a reputation management model for improving and maintaining these relationships. It will discuss, from a theoretical perspective, how effective reputation management can improve a council’s ability to operate within its own community with decreased transaction costs.

The model approaches reputation management from perspectives presented by Fombrun and Dowling and considers each of the following dimensions from a municipal point of view: organisational culture, financial management (which in the local government model becomes corporate governance), product and service, vision and leadership, social and environmental responsibility and emotional appeal.

Differences between the corporate and municipal reputation models are discussed. The local government version is discovered to be a more rigorous and potentially effective model than that currently used in private enterprise, particularly in the field of corporate governance. While the model is yet to be empirically tested, it has implications for local government communication practitioners and senior managers in its emphasis on stakeholder relationships within corporate governance activity.

A survey of Australian government communicators (n = 45) at a 2008 conference on crisis preparedness and management has shown that more than 80% of departments had a crisis management plan and that 90% of these plans were tested at least once a year. Almost 70% of those surveyed were ‘very confident’ or ‘somewhat confident’ in their crisis management plans, even though 44% felt that the level of senior management support for crisis planning was not sufficient. The research supported previous US research (Cloudman & Hallahan, 2006) that showed that the level of crisis preparedness (measured by the presence of crisis management and business continuity plans, frequency of drills based on the plans, the level of incorporation of disaster into the plans, frequency of plan review and confidence with crisis management planning) was related to the size of the organisation and the size of its communication function. The size of the organization also seemed to be a predictor of confidence in crisis planning and preparedness, with 13 of the 19 (68.4%) respondents that reported that they were ‘very confident’ or ‘somewhat confident’ in their crisis preparations coming from organizations larger than 500 employees.

Purpose: To research information seeking behaviour and discover sources used by people whose community was in a disaster and what they wanted to know.

Design: In-depth interviews were conducted with 37 people in three communities that had suffered a disaster in the previous 12 months. The study covered St George in Queensland (flood), Airlie Beach in Queensland (cyclone) and Gerogery in NSW (bushfire). The interviews were transcribed and then analysed using the constant comparative technique (Wimmer & Dominick 2000).

Findings: There were clear preferences for information sources that differed between disaster types. Those in a bushfire found out about the fire by seeing the smoke or were notified by friends. Radio was a preferred source, for cyclone and bushfire, but in the Gerogery case radio was unable to supply reliable or up-to-date information. In flood and cyclone, the Bureau of Meteorology was the most cited source and was the way many people discovered they were facing a flood or a cyclone. In a flood, a visual of the river and the person’s own experience or the flood experience of friends, family or neighbours were then drawn upon to interpret the possible effects on the individual. Radio was not a well used source of information in this particular flood. In a cyclone, however, radio was the second most popular source of information, particularly after the power went out and especially those stations featuring talk back from community members about local cyclone damage and other news. In the bushfire and cyclone, mobile phones were a constant tool for contact with others. Few used their mobile phones to get onto the web and only one person in Airlie Beach used Facebook as a source of information about the situation. Twitter was not used at all.

In all disasters, location, timing and strength/peak was the most prevalent information sought, followed by whereabouts and safety of friends, neighbours and family.

Practical implications: The Bureau of Meteorology provides an effective source of information for communities potentially affected by flood and cyclone. Flood mapping should also be a standard feature of local council communications. In cyclones, mobile phone service should be a priority and post-impact agency recovery texts be used. Radio should continue to be proactively used by agencies as a primary tool in order to build up trust in that media. In a bushfire situation, text or phone messages could be utilised more often for reporting of the location and direction of the fire and radio stations need to be proactively kept up to date.

For all disasters, mobile phones featured as a primary tool that was accessed by all interviewees. This points to the importance of developing mobile phone message technology that is not subject to delays or interruptions.

Originality and value: Very little research has been undertaken around the world on how people seek information in a disaster. Much of the research focus has been on what media sources people use (Greenberg, Hofschire & Lachlan 2002; Piotrowski & Armstrong 1998; Roeser & Schaefer 2002; Seeger et al. 2002; Stempel III & Hargrove 2002). Two very small studies have been undertaken in Australia (Cohen, Hughes & White 2007; King & Goudie 1997) but the study by King et al asked a small number of questions about sources of information as part of a wider study.

This study on information-seeking may provide data on which better communication plans can be built by emergency agencies.

Keywords: flood, bushfire, cyclone, river heights, tracking, radio, community networks, information-seeking, information source, messaging, community communication, emergency agencies, police, SES, Rural Fire Service, Bureau of Meteorology.

In 2010, Ryan and Matheson (2010) compiled evidence to quantify the importance of communication activities to emergency management. The study involved a comprehensive content analysis of emergency incident and emergency exercise debriefing sessions and reports spanning 2003 to 2008. Six years on, this 2015 study replicates that work to determine the current significance of communication in emergency management. It also identifies trends in issues that occur during emergency events. This study considers recommendations and findings from 22 reviews of recent disaster events and training exercises from around Australia. Using content analysis, 20.4 per cent of the findings relate to issues with communicating with communities. This represents an increase of 1.3 per cent on the 2010 study. Resourcing, skills in social media, and community consultation and engagement feature in the study results.

The purpose of this thesis was to find out if existing information models could be used to describe information seeking in a disaster, what type of information seeking patterns exist in a disaster, and whether a disaster information seeking model might be able to guide disaster communication practice. The research reviewed literature on human behaviour in disaster and information seeking in a disaster.  While no models were found that illustrated the disaster information seeking process, a model developed by Mileti and Sorensen (1990) attempted to explain influences on risk communication. In addition, a model of problem-specific every day life information seeking (Savolainen 2008b) was reviewed that could possibly be adapted to disaster. This study uses these two models to develop a model of disaster information seeking.

The disaster information seeking model was improved using three research methods. They were semi-structured interviews of 51 disaster-experienced respondents, an online and mailed survey that attracted 345 respondents, and a focus group of six disaster communication practitioners and researchers. Each of these methods contributed to further development of the model, and the first two methods established a number of information seeking pathways possible in disaster. A feature of the interviews and survey was the influence of disaster type on information seeking behaviour – in particular, bushfire, cyclone, slow flood and flash flood. The focus group then investigated the usefulness of the model. Changes were made that the practitioners and researchers felt would make the model more useful and which were also supported by the literature and results of the interviews and survey.

Key findings from the interviews were specific to disaster type, which was expected after the literature review.  Example information seeking pathways were established, with a dominant pathway for each disaster:  flash flood was hearing about it from other people and then using television as a confirmation source; for slow flood, environmental cues alerted people to the possibility of a coming flood, followed by confirmation with other people; in a bushfire, other people were the alert source and the confirmation source; in a cyclone the alert sources were the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) website and commercial radio, and the confirmation source was weather websites, including BOM. In flash flood, the key information need was to make sense of what had happened and how it had affected their own local community; in a slow flood, it was about the flood peak and how it would affect their own and family’s property; in a bushfire, it was about the location and path of the bushfire and the welfare of family and friends; in a cyclone it was the path of the cyclone before it hit and the level of damage after, and how friends and family had fared. The model developed from the literature review was subject to some change after the analysis of the interviews.

The survey confirmed the disaster specific nature of information seeking.  In a flash flood, other people and environmental cues were most prevalent alert sources, with the confirmation source news and weather websites.  In a slow flood, television and radio were the key alert sources, followed by news and weather websites.  People in a cyclone learned about it form a news or weather website and confirmed using a different source with this same form cluster; in bushfire the alert sources was environmental cues followed by an agency website; in a storm, other people then television or radio; earthquake was environmental cues and then other people, radio or emergency agency staff; tornado was television or news or weather website confirmed by other people or environmental cues; tsunami was other people directly then news or weather website; and mudslide was other people directly then news or weather website. There seemed to be differences between participants in information seeking relating to age, gender, household size, education, proximity to the disaster, and the type of community people lived in. Changes were made to the model as a result of the survey analysis.

The industry focus group confirmed the validity of the model, with ‘filters’ adopted in place of ‘effect of situational factors’, a personalisation trigger was added and the point at which people exit the information seeking process was also added, with an option to re-enter at any time.

As a result, a final model of disaster information seeking was established. It describes the process of information seeking, influences on choices of source and form, and plots the triggers for either action or return to further information seeking. It also accounts for the importance of information sources and the tendency for people to return to a few trusted sources throughout the information seeking process. The model appears to provide a solid foundation for practice, and is ready for testing in further research.

This toolkit builds on National Strategy for Disaster Resilience: Community Engagement Framework Handbook 6 (Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience, 2013) by providing details of: - The Australian generative model of community engagement, a framework developed in 2019 based on current community engagement for preparedness approaches used by Australian agencies - A series of emergency management-tested community engagement techniques ranging from information campaigns through to community development and community led approaches The model travels through a series of levels of community engagement planning and implementation, which helps practitioners to map and undertake the best community engagement approach for a specific community. The base articles used to build the suite of techniques were found during a systematic literature review of preparedness activity. A systematic literature review is a rigorous, procedural approach to drawing out all available literature on a topic...

Community engagement programs in Australia are widely adopted by emergency management organisations as one way to get communities to recognise hazards and risks and prepare for emergency events. However, evaluation of these programs remains a challenge. A study with 30 community engagement practitioners and managers from Australian emergency management organisations, councils and not-for-profit organisations was undertaken to examine how they use measurement and evaluation of community engagement for preparedness. The findings suggest that while community engagement teams understand the importance of measuring the effects of engagement efforts and preparedness activities, most still do not link engagement activities with higher-level engagement outcomes that influence communities.

Audience development is somewhat of a ‘buzz word’ within the Australian performing arts sector at present. However, rather than actually engaging with audiences and with non-attenders to discover how to best serve the community, most of the performing arts organisations approach audience development from a product-centred viewpoint.In direct contrast to this, the Talking Theatre project (2004–2006) was implemented in regional Queensland and in the Northern Territory in Australia as an audience development initiative focused on the consumer. The project sought to assist performing arts centres (PACs) to better engage with their local communities and to build new audiences for the future. In particular, the research aimed to understand non-attenders, their reasons for non-attendance and their reactions to a range of live performances they experienced under study conditions.The Talking Theatre project provided the vehicle for introduction, communication and relationship building to occur to assist in attitudinal and behavioural change. The non-attenders enjoyed their experiences at the PACs and have begun attending performances outside of study conditions. Limited awareness of the performing arts' relevance to their lives combined with a lack of positive peer influence to attend, were the chief deterrents to attendance for the participants in the study.Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Audience development is somewhat of a ‘buzz word’ within the Australian performing arts sector at present. However, rather than actually engaging with audiences and with non-attenders to discover how to best serve the community, most of the performing arts organisations approach audience development from a product-centred viewpoint.In direct contrast to this, the Talking Theatre project (2004–2006) was implemented in regional Queensland and in the Northern Territory in Australia as an audience development initiative focused on the consumer. The project sought to assist performing arts centres (PACs) to better engage with their local communities and to build new audiences for the future. In particular, the research aimed to understand non-attenders, their reasons for non-attendance and their reactions to a range of live performances they experienced under study conditions.The Talking Theatre project provided the vehicle for introduction, communication and relationship building to occur to assist in attitudinal and behavioural change. The non-attenders enjoyed their experiences at the PACs and have begun attending performances outside of study conditions. Limited awareness of the performing arts' relevance to their lives combined with a lack of positive peer influence to attend, were the chief deterrents to attendance for the participants in the study.

... Peter Copeman and Rebecca Scollen ... The two lead roles of You Bok Mun and Louise Carter were played respectively by Lawrence Mah, a professional actor, and Christine Comans, a member of the Academy's academic staff, both of whom had already played their roles in the ...

... rural, mining, manufacturing, education, health, and tourism) that employ the residents. Each PAC differs in size (venue, seating capacity, staffing, and funding), which directly impacts ontheatre programming, promotion and marketing, and audience research and development. ...