Media and public crisis

This paper analyzes the responsibility and mission of the media in public crisis, the communication strategy of media crisis and how the media can strengthen its own functions and responsibilities.

Keywords: public crisis media function media responsibility

12, May 2008 14: 28, an earthquake of magnitude 8.0 occurred in Wenchuan, Sichuan, causing great losses to people's lives and property.

This is a public crisis caused by a typical natural disaster. In this great battle against earthquake disasters, news media and journalists braved difficulties and obstacles, witnessed, recorded and participated in this great earthquake relief operation, and their roles and responsibilities were fully reflected.

Facts have proved that in the public crisis, the media bears important responsibilities and missions. If the media function is well played, the public relations of public crisis will be smooth; If the media function is not well played, the public relations in the public crisis will be in trouble ... How to play the role of the media well is very necessary and important to deal with any public crisis. After the Wenchuan earthquake, we saw that the proactive responsibility and role of the media is one of the important factors for the society to tide over the difficulties. In the period of public crisis, the media is not only a recorder and witness, but also a participant and coordinator. Fully mobilizing all social resources, especially giving full play to the functions of the media, is a necessary condition to deal with public crises-this is the responsibility and mission of the media.

First, the analysis of responsibility in media crisis reporting.

1. Media should be a "safety valve" rather than a "catalyst"

Communication has a deep-seated explanatory function. Through "explanation", we can explain to people the background, causes, influences and development trends of the crisis, help people to understand the situation more deeply, unify their attitudes, and enable organizations to determine countermeasures, formulate measures and implement effective management on this basis.

In the process of crisis communication, the audience is most concerned about the content, publisher and communication mode of crisis information. After the crisis, mass media played a very important role in information transmission, knowledge introduction and confidence encouragement. However, the mass media should pay attention to the following four aspects: information distortion, unbalanced reporting, repeated dissemination and quick success, which leads to the decline of media credibility and unstable audience. At the same time, we should also pay attention to the audience's low level of media literacy in the face of crisis information dissemination, lack of the ability to rationally judge the objectivity and credibility of various communication channels, lack of understanding of how to contact public information sources, how to judge the authenticity of mass media reports, and lack of scientific judgment and rational analysis of crisis information, which leads them to believe rumors from interpersonal communication channels.

It can be seen that news is a "double-edged sword" when spreading crisis events, and the media may be both a "safety valve" and a "combustion improver". As a tool of public opinion, the media has the functions of reflecting and guiding public opinion, disseminating information of crisis events in a timely, true and accurate manner, and letting the public know the truth as soon as possible. Mass communication is a "safety valve". If the information of crisis events is concealed or lied, mass communication may be a kind of "accelerant".

Therefore, for the public crisis, the media should first report comprehensively, tell the public the truth as soon as possible, clarify rumors and stabilize people's hearts. Second, do a good job of public opinion guidance. When the crisis comes, due to great social changes and shocks, stimulating opinions appear and converge into public opinion, which in turn affects public opinion and mood. At this time, if properly guided, public opinion will help solve the crisis, while if improperly guided, public opinion may form resistance.

2. The media should establish a sense of the overall situation and be good at selecting information.

Once a crisis occurs, the media should actively face it and guide the public's public opinion on the crisis in the right direction that is conducive to the resolution of the crisis. How to give full play to the positive role of the media and correctly guide public opinion requires the media to establish overall awareness and overall awareness, fully cooperate with crisis handlers, realize the perfect combination of the two and promote the resolution of the crisis.

Public crisis is a big test for the media, which is not only a test of news sensitivity, but also a test of political sensitivity, and it is also a test of comprehensive business ability. The earthquake disaster in 2008 involves all aspects, but there is always a key point-earthquake relief, including disaster situation, rescue and reconstruction. Focusing on the focus is the instinct of the media, but how and what to focus on reflects the quality of the media itself. Every public crisis is a battle of the media. This battle is not only "presence", but also a minimum requirement. What is more important is to play a good responsibility card and contribute to resolving the crisis to the greatest extent. Don't exaggerate the disaster situation in the report, so as to stabilize people's hearts, maintain stability and reduce the spread of information that causes panic to the people. This is the embodiment of the overall situation consciousness of responsible media in the report.

Crisis communication is different from general news communication, and it is an unorganized communication in an uncertain state under great time pressure. The media must have a high sense of responsibility, establish a sense of the overall situation, and strive to improve the guiding level of crisis communication.

In the face of the earthquake disaster, the media actively intervened and sent reporters to the front line of disaster relief, bringing readers first-hand information from all over the country. However, there are still various complicated factors, which may further aggravate the crisis as long as they are not handled properly. This is mainly reflected in the media's choice of information.

Faced with so much information, it is a test for the media to disclose what is not. If you don't judge, what you have will be revealed, even if the information is true, it may have the opposite effect. In the face of such a public crisis, the responsibility of the media is not only to send reporters to the front line of disaster relief, but also to have the overall situation and a high degree of politician's concept of running a newspaper to help without adding chaos.

3. Public crisis management must attach importance to the role of the media.

As an important social force, news media is playing an increasingly prominent role in public crisis management. Therefore, in crisis management, the government should pay full attention to the role of news media, formulate effective media policies, disclose information to the public in time, improve the transparency of decision-making and guide the public to overcome the crisis.

In crisis management, the two-way symmetrical mode is the most desirable mode, which aims to communicate with the public and find the best and effective communication means from the feedback information of the public. These include: the government actively communicates with the news media, provides real information for its release, and considers the public's demand for targeted reports. After the crisis, a smooth information communication path between the government, the media and the public should be established quickly, so that the media can not only assume the role of the government's real information publisher, but also become the best channel to collect and reflect public opinion, and realize good two-way communication between the government and the public. On the contrary, if we only spread information in one direction, without paying attention to information feedback and ignoring the psychological needs of the public in the crisis, the effect of communication will be greatly reduced.

Second, the strategy of media crisis communication

1. The media should ensure the timely disclosure and comprehensiveness of crisis information.

It is the social responsibility of the government and the media to provide real public information to the society. Timely and objective handling of emergencies and disclosure of information are more related to the overall situation of smooth information channels, effective response measures, public psychological stability and social stability. If the media keep silent in major emergencies involving public safety and public interests and let rumors fly everywhere, it is the media's dereliction of duty and the loss of sense of responsibility and mission.

Therefore, the media must respect the audience's right to know, form a smooth information dissemination channel and a perfect information supply and demand system to meet the audience's different levels and categories of information needs.

One of the measures taken by the media to deal with public crisis is to strictly follow the principle of first time. News communication in crisis events should guide public opinion at the first time, that is, the so-called commanding heights, preconceptions, preemptive strikes, preemptive strikes. Whoever releases the news at the first time will have the initiative of public opinion and the dominance of event handling.

On the basis of ensuring the timely disclosure of information, media reports should be all-round. The media can't be satisfied with providing the public with scattered information about crisis events, but should also analyze the ins and outs and development trends of the events with the development of the situation and make their own evaluations. This kind of guidance, in addition to infiltrating into the report of facts, is more in the form of interviewing experts and scholars and conveying the attitude of the media through the mouth of others. Sometimes in the form of editorials and other articles, the attitude is directly expressed. Sometimes, the public will be involved in the discussion to provide a perspective of policy participation for the public. Only by meeting the needs of different people for different information can the social order function normally.

2. The media should ensure the credibility and popularity of the sources of communication.

Yale School, headed by hovland, an American social psychologist, points out that the credibility and popularity of communication sources are directly proportional to the effect of communication. While ensuring the openness and comprehensiveness of information, the news media should also perform the duty of "gatekeeper" to ensure the credibility and popularity of information sources.

Bath's "double action mode", one of the gatekeeper theories, points out that the gatekeeper process of news media is divided into two parts: the first part is the news gathering stage, and the reporter is the main gatekeeper; The second part is the news processing stage, and the editor is the main gatekeeper. That is to say, in crisis communication, journalists and editors should strictly control the news at their respective guarding stages to ensure the credibility and popularity of the communication source. Under this requirement, the media should keep close and smooth contact with the government, the main body of crisis information release, because the government is the most authoritative source of information. People believe the information released by the government authorities. In this way, the media will be more handy to persuade the public to change some wrong ideas and prejudices, calm the public's excessive behavior, and eliminate other obstacles in crisis resolution. Public crisis involves the national economy and people's livelihood or international relations, and its complexity and deep-seated problems may not be clear to reporters or the media for a while, or even impossible to know its insider and political background, so it is difficult to make an accurate judgment in a short time. The media should fully consider the political nature, scope and consequences of the crisis and handle the crisis with a prudent and rational attitude. Therefore, the media must obtain and ensure the credibility and popularity of the communication source in order to help the government cope with the crisis, otherwise it will seriously affect the resolution of the crisis and even lead to the escalation of the incident.

3. The media should make full use of "agenda setting" to guide public opinion.

Bernard Cohen, a political scientist, said in his book Newspapers and Foreign Policy, "The media is very effective in making people think, but it is very effective in making people think."

Mccombs and Xiao, American communication scholars, concluded in their empirical study of the 1968 presidential election: "The mass media has the function of setting the agenda for the public, and the issues reported by the mass media are also reflected as' major events' in public consciousness; The news reports of the media give different degrees of prominence to various' topics' and influence people's judgments on' major events' and their importance. " In crisis communication, in order to guide public opinion to develop in a direction conducive to crisis resolution and social stability, the media can increase the flow of relevant information and make it in an obvious dominant position, thus attracting public attention, and then becoming a topic of public discussion and leading value in the public.

Guiding public opinion with "agenda setting" is a positive attitude of the media in the face of crisis. In the early stage of Wenchuan earthquake reporting, the theme of "agenda setting" should be set up to inform the real situation of the crisis and guide the public how to avoid risks; In the medium term, the theme of "agenda setting" should be established as how to fight disasters and risks and mobilize social participation; In the later stage, the theme of "agenda setting" should be established as restoring social order and rebuilding home.

Third, practical ways to strengthen the functions and responsibilities of the media in public crisis.

1. The media should constantly improve their functions.

(1) Establish the consciousness of "safeguarding people's fundamental interests"

In crisis reporting, we should take the interests of the overwhelming majority of the people as the fundamental starting point and value appeal of media reporting. In addition, the characteristics of crisis information also require the news media to establish such awareness. As a social event, crisis events have the characteristics of "three publics": first, publicity; Second, it is public; The third is openness. Therefore, the media has the responsibility to release all kinds of important information in the crisis to the whole society in a timely, comprehensive, objective and fair manner, and at the same time become a platform for the flow of views and ideas.

In the crisis, one of the important manifestations of safeguarding people's awareness of fundamental interests lies in accurately grasping the needs of the audience.

After the crisis, there are three aspects that need to be reported, namely, the incident itself, the victims in the incident and the government or social behavior triggered by the incident. How to report these contents, first, think from the standpoint of the audience. Always think about what the audience wants to know most at the moment, what information the audience wants to know most, and what facts are new to the audience. Second, it is necessary to understand and master the environmental data and the process and details of the occurrence and evolution of the event as soon as possible, so as to have a macro grasp and judgment of the whole event or scene, so as to avoid making the report superficial and becoming "seeing the trees but not the forest"; Third, open all the senses to observe and recognize, express in the most vivid way, and infect and convince the audience with the integrity and depth of factual expression.

At the same time, to establish the consciousness of "safeguarding people's fundamental interests", it is necessary to strengthen the sense of responsibility of the news media, and the news media in crisis management should refuse commercial operation. The crisis is related to the national economy and people's livelihood and has a wide impact. When intervening in it, a little carelessness may lead to irreparable mistakes, and the commercialization goal can easily make the news media deviate from their professional responsibilities.

(2) Follow the communication law and improve the crisis communication strategy.

First, the artistic application of authenticity communication strategy.

In crisis reporting, the media should not only report the news truthfully, but also work hard on the art of dealing with news facts because of the wide coverage, great influence and overall situation.

The media should not only consider the authenticity and attention of the event, but also consider the responsibility to society and the negative and negative social impact that publicity and reporting may bring. In other words, while insisting on the truth of news, crisis reporting should emphasize communication strategies and give priority to positive guidance.

In addition, there should be skills in the timing and combination of reporting. According to the prospect theory of psychologist Kahneman, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002, if there are several bad news, the media should report them together, because the pain caused by adding two bad news is less than the sum of the pain caused by experiencing these two bad news respectively. If there is a big bad news and a small good news, the media should report it separately, because in this way, the happiness brought by good news will not be overwhelmed by the pain brought by bad news, and people can also feel the comfort and encouragement brought by good news; If there is a big good news and a small bad news, the media should report it at the same time, because the pain caused by bad news will be diluted by the comfort and happiness brought by good news, and the negative effect of bad news will be much smaller. In fact, under the premise of not violating the truth principle of news, it is a very effective communication skill to choose the right time and consciously combine and spread all kinds of news in major public crisis events.

Second, explore new methods of public opinion guidance.

It can be said that the process of audience accepting news information is not only the process of information confirmation and material collection, but also the process of news reports affecting their existing ideas, and it is the direct way for news media to effectively guide public opinion.

The media should pay attention to the "zero environment orientation" of public opinion in the process of guiding public opinion. The so-called "zero-environment orientation" of public opinion means that in the initial stage of development, the media can find the intersection of breakthroughs and contradictions and conduct objective and accurate public opinion guidance. At this time, the audience is easily influenced, and the guidance is the easiest to succeed, so as to achieve the best public opinion guidance effect with the minimum media cost and social cost. At the beginning of the public crisis, if the media can intervene in time, alert all parties and unblock information, it can often effectively curb the spread and development of its harm. On the contrary, once problems pile up and contradictions are complicated, the power of public opinion guidance is extremely limited. Even if the initial strength and resources are used several times, the influence of the power field of the media on the attitude and behavior of the audience will inevitably be difficult to play its due role.

At the same time, pay attention to the "first cause effect" of public opinion. American communication scholars have found that when the audience faces two kinds of conflicting information, the different presentation order of the two kinds of information will affect the audience's acceptance of the information. That is, information A is presented first, then information B is presented, and the change of attitude is tested within a period of time after the information is presented, so the audience will tend to accept information A, which is a manifestation of the so-called "first cause effect". When the crisis just broke out, it was often the time when people needed the most information. If there is no voice of mainstream mass media at this time, all kinds of rumors will become popular through various informal communication channels. When rumors enter the public's cognitive field before the voice of the mainstream media, it will get twice the result with half the effort.

Third, grasp the degree of reporting and the balance of information.

Crisis reporting should be measured. The "degree" here includes both the breadth and depth of news and a moderate meaning. The law of communication tells us that the problems reported by the media as "major events" are also reflected in the public consciousness as "major events". The more the media emphasizes and the more the public pays attention to it, the media can enlarge or reduce the importance of something to a certain extent. In public crisis, too little or too much media communication is not conducive to the solution of the crisis.

Therefore, when considering and commenting on news, the media should not only consider the needs of readers, but also care about the current situation and social stability.

In addition, the media should proceed from the overall situation to ensure timely reporting of the crisis, and also need to provide all kinds of information other than crisis events, properly divert the attention of the audience and grasp the overall balance of information.

Fourth, integrate information and work together.

Information integration means that mass media, interactive media, electronic media and other media spread "one voice, one image" in all places where they are in contact with the public, pay attention to the consistency of information, and at the same time spread the right information to the public in the right form at the right time and place to achieve the most effective dissemination of information.

Integrate information and emphasize the synergy of communication, that is, how to make all kinds of communication activities more vivid and get synergy. It is not only the combination of several communication tools and means, but the integration of the whole communication process. First of all, integrate the public's information transmission, deeply understand the communication target, distinguish different social public, adopt different communication methods and contents, and carry out differentiated communication. For example, it can be broadcast for the elderly, TV newspaper for the middle-aged and Internet for the young. Secondly, pay attention to the timing of communication. Because of the sudden crisis and the urgency of time, it is extremely important to grasp the timing of communication, which determines the effectiveness and timeliness of communication at the right time and rhythm. (3) Establish a crisis reporting mechanism

To realize "reporting the crisis in the first time", the media must establish a perfect crisis reporting mechanism. When a crisis occurs, the media can immediately mobilize people, make plans and take action to report the crisis.

As far as the media itself is concerned, all departments should establish a cooperative mechanism, coordinate the relationship between the editing department and other departments, mobilize their strength and provide convenience; Coordinate the relationship between editors and journalists, so that journalists can understand the process and trend of the incident, and editors can understand the background and macro situation, so as to make the report orderly. For example, CCTV has strengthened the sharing of resources between departments and between provinces, cities and stations across the country by establishing an information officer reporting system and a 24-hour news supervision and inspection system. At the same time, we have established a rapid response mechanism for emergencies with the State Administration of Work Safety, the State Defense General and other ministries and commissions. Once there is an emergency, these departments will inform the relevant contacts of CCTV at the first time, and the pre-interview department of CCTV will also broadcast it in the form of subtitles or telephone connection at the first time. Then contact other relevant personnel to realize timely monitoring and rapid response to emergencies. In addition, a perfect crisis reporting mechanism should also pay attention to training journalists who usually participate in crisis reporting, including political quality, physical quality and professional quality, so as to carry out reporting work quickly in times of crisis.

(4) Pour humanistic care.

In the process of crisis communication, the media must emphasize "people-oriented", that is, pay attention to the subject of "people", pay attention to people's living conditions, pay attention to the encounter and fate of the reported people, and safeguard and respect everyone.

In crisis reporting, the media should show humanistic care: pay attention to the report of crisis events, let the audience know the truth, mourn the victims and comfort the survivors and their families; Grasp the discretion and respect the privacy of the victims. Victims and their relatives also have the right to maintain personal privacy and eliminate or alleviate their suffering. The last thing they want to mention is the unfortunate process and tragic details of themselves or their loved ones. Therefore, disaster reporting should try to avoid "secondary harm" to victims and their relatives. Carry forward the true feelings of the world in distress.

2. Strengthen the interaction and cooperation between the media and the government.

In crisis reporting, the media must ensure the credibility and popularity of information sources, and the government is the most authoritative source of information. The media should keep close and smooth contact with the government, the main body of crisis information release. On the other hand, the government also needs to obtain information from the media to understand the situation in all aspects of society. With the interaction and cooperation between the media and the government, the following work needs to be strengthened:

(1) Strengthen the media's public opinion supervision over the government.

The news media is not the direct implementer to solve the crisis, but if a society does not have the supervision of the news media, some crisis events may be suppressed and ignored and cannot be effectively solved. It can be said that the media's supervision of government public opinion affects the government's crisis decision-making to a certain extent. The media's supervision of the government by public opinion has improved the efficiency of the government's crisis handling.

(2) Strengthen the government's guidance to the media.

It is necessary to strengthen the government's guidance to the media during the crisis.

First, once a crisis occurs, in order to control the crisis situation, stabilize social order and avoid social panic, the subject of crisis management should first respond quickly, release the latest information through the media as quickly as possible, strive for the initiative of public opinion, effectively control the direction of news dissemination, and prevent the media from grabbing exclusive headlines, releasing news that stimulates the crisis situation, misleading the public or aggravating their social fears; Second, unify the rules and channels for information dissemination. The government must make clear the rules of information release, adopt various direct and effective crisis control measures to screen information, at the same time, choose information sources and information dissemination channels purposefully and pertinently, and constantly explain the development of the crisis to the public and news media through spokespersons, so as to arouse social support for crisis management. At the same time, when communicating information to the public and the media, we must promptly inform all departments within the government and relevant parties to maintain the consistency and continuity of crisis information. Third, effectively and reasonably control the scope of media activities. Unrestricted media coverage of the crisis will often affect the efficiency of government crisis management, and even cause the government to make mistakes in dealing with the crisis, so that the victims will be traumatized again. The government needs to formulate relevant laws or regulations to determine the scope of activities that the media can enter, which can not only create institutional guarantee for the media to participate in the crisis fairly, but also not affect the enthusiasm and initiative of the media to participate in the crisis. Fourth, create a fair order for the media to intervene in crisis events. The establishment of media credibility depends on the enlightened media policy of the government and requires a relatively relaxed public opinion environment. Creating a good order for the media to intervene in crisis events is conducive to the media to play an active role in crisis events.