Media Management in Crisis Communications

Course Overview:

Media Management is a greater area of any Business Administration that helps in organizing and supervising a well-experienced team of media professionals, by developing strategies that help business media businesses to be competitive and achieve audience goals.

Public relations practitioners are an integral part of crisis communications management teams. So a set of best practices and lessons collected from our knowledge of crisis management would be a useful resource for those in public relations. Volumes have been written about crisis management by both practitioners and researchers from many different disciplines making it a challenge to synthesize what we know about crisis management and public relations The course focuses on how to prepare the communication function to respond rapidly and effectively in the event of a crisis to be able to manage perceptions in the media and online.

Course Objectives:

At the end of this course, the participants will be able to:

• Identify the different types of crises and their aspects
• Learn how to recognize and prioritize the issues that are most likely to affect corporate reputation during and after the crisis.
• List the various principles of crisis communication
• Devise crisis management processes aimed at mitigating potential crises in their organizations
• Demonstrate the benefits of using the media in a crisis
• Evaluate and prioritize the dimensions involved in crisis communication management
• Analyze and interpret results achieved through crisis communication management  

Course Coverage:

Topic 1: Introduction:

• Definition of a crisis
• Overview of communication
• Various types of crises
• Key aspects of a crisis
• Evolution of a crisis

Topic 2: Principles of Crisis Communications:

• Setting your clear objective
• Responding quickly
• Accepting responsibility
• Appropriate messaging
• Profiling your audience
• Showing and maintaining credibility
• Coordinating with others
• Continuous monitoring

Topic 3: Crisis Management Process:

• Pre-crisis phase
• Crisis Management Plan (CMP)
• Crisis Management Team (CMT)
• The spokesperson's role
• Crisis event phase
• Initial response
• Reputation repair
• Post-crisis phase
• Lessons learned
• Follow up with communication

Topic 4: Crisis Communication and Media:

• Media and communication
• Media as a partner in crisis response
• Social media and crisis communication
• Social media as a beneficial tool or a challenge
• Dynamic use of social media in crisis communication 

Topic 5: Dimensions of Crisis Communication Management:

• Standard operating decisions dimension
• Victims management dimension
• Trust and credibility dimension
• Behavior dimension
• Professional expectations dimension
• Ethical dimension
• Lessons learned

Topic 6: How to Measure Your Results in a Crisis:

• Measuring outputs
• Measuring impact
• Measuring outcomes

Targeted Participants:

Managers, Supervisors, and Team Leaders of Public Relations sections as well as any staff member who may be involved in managing communication and media issues during a crisis.