After deciding to do the town as a whole the research process began. In talking to many people of the town of Valley City they agreed with me that the TV and Radio (KQDJ and KOVC) and were by far the best sources of crisis communication that they could rely on. Others that were in fact good were facebook, Cell phones, emails, and sirens. People said when they heard sirens going off with in minutes they could turn the radio station or the TV on and see that the town was in strong need of sandbaggers. My self and others I talked to said that the morning news conferences that officials held were also very informative. One channel thad would broadcast these all day were the Valley City Replay Channel, in case the actual live one was missed. The main city officials that were responsible for communication started from Valley Cities Mayor Mary Lee Nielson. During these media conferences questions were asked to her and then she would direct the questions to other officials if they could better answer them. These Officials included Public Works Representative Jeff Differdy, Corp. of Engineer BaldHill Dam Manager Rich Schueneman, and Police Chief Dean Ross. These were probably the main officials that took place in making sure there was effective communication. Some other major ones were School Officials. VCSU's Dr. Steven Shirley did a fantastic job of keeping students and faculty informed to the situation at hand. He did this primaritly by using VCSU email. Many other people in this town are not going to get credit for serving as important pawns in the crisis communication. Some examples would be all the different leaders of the sand bag crews. Many were just volunteers and some were community firemen among other people as well.
I will be writing this to Mayor Mary Lee Neilsen and do hope to continue research so I can maybe find other ways in which the communication could be improved, although this will be hard to do because I think it was a complete success due to the fact that THE TOWN IS SAVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Valley City Crisis Communication
4. Complete blog on crisis communication research you are conducting.
For the Communications Research Project I chose to write my paper about Valley City, its never ending flood battle, and all the people who are involved. Although we just got assigned this paper a few days ago there are a few things that I've done toward working on this project.
Well first off I read the assignment and the directions. Sounds like it is going to be about a 8-10 pager.....YIKES!!!!!! I chose to write about Valley City because there are a few people heavily involved in the fight that I know personally. This includes many firemen, policemen, and city officials. By knowing at least a few of these people it will give me a heads up on knowing a few of the techniques used to get messages out to the public. Right now im looking up information on people I would like to contact, which includes Mayor Mary Neilson, the fire chief, Head of Public works Jeff Differdy, and Bald Hill dam Manager Rich Schuenamen. As of right now I know of most of the ways that city officials used to try and reach the public. These include the radio stations, twitter, facebook, TV stations, the fire alarm, and through email. This website is a great contact website for the town of Valley City. http://valleycity.govoffice.com/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={FD4A4F2C-6378-438A-9BCD-19EDF87E79CB}
I will conduct research to find out exactly what stations. For the most part I know what message each type of contact method was trying to deliver but I will reasearch to make sure. I know the LOOOOOOONNNNNGGGGG ring of the firealarm was when they were in need of more sandbaggers. When this went off people were supposed to report to the Winter Show for sandbagging duty. Although there may of been a few bumps and bruises along the way, over all I think the city of Valley City did a great job communication in this time of crisis.
For the Communications Research Project I chose to write my paper about Valley City, its never ending flood battle, and all the people who are involved. Although we just got assigned this paper a few days ago there are a few things that I've done toward working on this project.
Well first off I read the assignment and the directions. Sounds like it is going to be about a 8-10 pager.....YIKES!!!!!! I chose to write about Valley City because there are a few people heavily involved in the fight that I know personally. This includes many firemen, policemen, and city officials. By knowing at least a few of these people it will give me a heads up on knowing a few of the techniques used to get messages out to the public. Right now im looking up information on people I would like to contact, which includes Mayor Mary Neilson, the fire chief, Head of Public works Jeff Differdy, and Bald Hill dam Manager Rich Schuenamen. As of right now I know of most of the ways that city officials used to try and reach the public. These include the radio stations, twitter, facebook, TV stations, the fire alarm, and through email. This website is a great contact website for the town of Valley City. http://valleycity.govoffice.com/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={FD4A4F2C-6378-438A-9BCD-19EDF87E79CB}
I will conduct research to find out exactly what stations. For the most part I know what message each type of contact method was trying to deliver but I will reasearch to make sure. I know the LOOOOOOONNNNNGGGGG ring of the firealarm was when they were in need of more sandbaggers. When this went off people were supposed to report to the Winter Show for sandbagging duty. Although there may of been a few bumps and bruises along the way, over all I think the city of Valley City did a great job communication in this time of crisis.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
THE BLOODY TRUTH ABOUT AMERICA’S FASTEST GROWING SPORT
THE BLOODY TRUTH ABOUT AMERICA’S FASTEST GROWING SPORT
I’m sure nearly everybody that reads this blog has heard of Hulk Hogan or the WWF (World Wrestling Federation). Surely, even some of you remember when you were little kids sitting in front of the TV watching Hulk Hogan pick up 600lb Andre the Giant in Wrestle Mania, hold him in the air, body slam him to the mat, and win the championship belt. THAT WAS SOME VIOLENT STUFF!!… right???
It seems that America is craving yet even more violence. It’s hard to believe that this violence, more recently, has become greatly overshadowed by a new emerging sport. The Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fight format has indeed came into the picture and has yet to slow its momentum of popularity. According to an article posted by the Los Angeles Times in Sept. 2008, MMA is a high adrenaline fight format that is illegal in 18 states, it is not just a sport, it’s a lifestyle, and is quickly becoming a branded magnet that will attract most every slice of pop culture pie which includes bar room brawlers, parents, and kids. It first appeared not that popular in 1993 in the pop culture radar under the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) League because it was basically an “anything goes- bar brawl spectacle”. It wasn’t until the league reformed to actually having rules, weight classes, and round formats before it currently became the fastest growing, yet bloodiest sport that has ever been allowed to be broadcast on TV. According to an article released by the New York Press there’s even been talk about the UFC totally eclipsing the sport of boxing.
Despite the fact that I absolutely love the sport, I think that young children should not view this sport. In watching this sport I have seen people knocked out, bloodied up, broken limbs, broken noses, and eyes swelled completely shut. Even before the UFC came out there were many articles and statistics that show the effects violence can have on children. TV and Film Violence
What are your thoughts on the sport itself and thoughts about this new nature of violence? Do you think in the future that there will be sports allowed on TV that are even more violent? When will this trend stop? Will it?
The UFC Corporation uses many things that relate to topics we have discussed in our PR classes. News releases are distributed every day on the UFC website. In these news releases are upcoming fights and other information that is going on around the league. People and the media crave this broadcasted information. The UFC uses many things such as the internet, face book, TV commercials, action figurines, nutrition and strength supplements, among many others to get the “Seeing is believing message across” to the millions of fans out there.
I’m sure nearly everybody that reads this blog has heard of Hulk Hogan or the WWF (World Wrestling Federation). Surely, even some of you remember when you were little kids sitting in front of the TV watching Hulk Hogan pick up 600lb Andre the Giant in Wrestle Mania, hold him in the air, body slam him to the mat, and win the championship belt. THAT WAS SOME VIOLENT STUFF!!… right???
It seems that America is craving yet even more violence. It’s hard to believe that this violence, more recently, has become greatly overshadowed by a new emerging sport. The Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fight format has indeed came into the picture and has yet to slow its momentum of popularity. According to an article posted by the Los Angeles Times in Sept. 2008, MMA is a high adrenaline fight format that is illegal in 18 states, it is not just a sport, it’s a lifestyle, and is quickly becoming a branded magnet that will attract most every slice of pop culture pie which includes bar room brawlers, parents, and kids. It first appeared not that popular in 1993 in the pop culture radar under the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) League because it was basically an “anything goes- bar brawl spectacle”. It wasn’t until the league reformed to actually having rules, weight classes, and round formats before it currently became the fastest growing, yet bloodiest sport that has ever been allowed to be broadcast on TV. According to an article released by the New York Press there’s even been talk about the UFC totally eclipsing the sport of boxing.
Despite the fact that I absolutely love the sport, I think that young children should not view this sport. In watching this sport I have seen people knocked out, bloodied up, broken limbs, broken noses, and eyes swelled completely shut. Even before the UFC came out there were many articles and statistics that show the effects violence can have on children. TV and Film Violence
What are your thoughts on the sport itself and thoughts about this new nature of violence? Do you think in the future that there will be sports allowed on TV that are even more violent? When will this trend stop? Will it?
The UFC Corporation uses many things that relate to topics we have discussed in our PR classes. News releases are distributed every day on the UFC website. In these news releases are upcoming fights and other information that is going on around the league. People and the media crave this broadcasted information. The UFC uses many things such as the internet, face book, TV commercials, action figurines, nutrition and strength supplements, among many others to get the “Seeing is believing message across” to the millions of fans out there.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Elk in Theodore National Park
The Elk in the park has been an issue since the early 1990’s when the numbers of elk were starting to concern officials even then. Within the past year and even month statistics have came out saying that the elk population is now over 3 times the predicted capacity then the park can hold. The main issue with elk in the Theodore National Park is the fact the numbers of elk have grown to over triple of the predicted carrying capacity that the park can hold and the many negative things that will co-inside with the high number of elk. Bill Whitworth, the park's chief of resource management, said Elk have multiplied rapidly in the park because they have few natural predators there and because hunting is not allowed. The animals' winter survival and reproduction rates also have been good. (I will get back to the statement in red later). The herd in Theodore Roosevelt's south unit has grown to as many as 900 or more animals, when the land can sustain only about 360. The main player involved with this issue is the National Park Service (Bill Whitworth), but there are many others, including the ND Game & Fish Department (Terry Steinwand), Colorado Game & Fish, The Rocky Mountain National Park, ranchers around the park, the general public interested in hunting in the park to help alleviate the situation, and ND officials like Gov. Hoeven, Dorgan, and Conrad.
ISSUES AND CONFLICTS
Despite the fact that the National Park Service (NPS) was going to come out with a management plan for the bloated elk population, they soon found out about the many complications associated with their plan. The original plan was a plan in which they would capture many of the elk and relocate them to another part of the United States. This plan will no longer work due to spread of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)
(CWD INFO.)
The main problem that I have with this whole situation is the fact that the National Park Service will not allow public regulated hunting in the park to end this long time problem. Although the law states that no hunting shall be allowed, they need to make an exception. Don’t get me wrong here, I do not think that any “Joe Smow” should be allowed to hunt there. In order to hunt it should be through a regular lottery drawing as well as a sniper proficiency test because we do not need wounded or hurt elk running through the park and we do not need unsafe people hunting around other people. This is the cheapest and most effective way of taking care of this problem. Basically what I just mentioned is what the ND Game & Fish as well as a huge portion of the public is in support of. (GAME & FISH SUPPORT)
Problems inside the park include Elk taking up a lot of the crucial area that many other animals need to survive and a huge loss of brush and tree vegetation because they are eating it all up. An article in the Bismarck Tribune says that Park officials began considering the use of government and volunteer shooters only after the constant pressure last year from U.S. senators and state wildlife officials in North Dakota and Colorado, where Rocky Mountain National Park also has elk overpopulation problems. At one point, the North Dakota Game and Fish Department refused to participate in the new management plan process for Theodore Roosevelt National Park because of the dispute in which the NPS would not even consider hunters as a solution, but they are now back on board in discussions because the NPS is considering hunting. Whitworth said a final record of decision on park elk management still could come by the end of the year, but it could be pushed back until 2009. So although they are considering the use of hunting it seems like it is going to take even longer for them to evaluate because of this possible alternative. Other problems outside the park are also occurring. According to ranchers who live around the park, they have been waiting for a decision, saying the elk cause problems when they escape the park's fenced boundaries. The Game and Fish Department is proposing more elk licenses in hunting units adjacent to the park, to help deal with the problem, but as of right now event he increased licenses around the park are not enough to combat this problem. (BISMARCK TRIBUNE ARTICLE)
Very recent updates in this story within the last 10 days is the fact that for the first time the Rocky Mountain National Park will allow hunters to come into the park and help solve the same problem that the Theodore National Park is having. Although this is not in direct relationship to the Theodore National Park Problem it should help NPS officials more likely to do the same. (RECENT UPDATES)
Many things dealing with this very hot PR topic deal with what we have been talking about in class. Basically it has been a battle of PR spokespeople between the NPS, The Game & Fish, and the Rocky Mountain National Park. I guarantee all these directors are presenting material the best they can, trying to grab the publics attention, trying to get acceptance, getting people to retain info, and trying to get people to take action. What is your opinion on the right thing to do regarding the overpopulated elk?? By the sounds of it the Game & Fish and the Rocky Mountain National Park are winning the battle. Do you think the NPS will allow hunting in their park?
ISSUES AND CONFLICTS
Despite the fact that the National Park Service (NPS) was going to come out with a management plan for the bloated elk population, they soon found out about the many complications associated with their plan. The original plan was a plan in which they would capture many of the elk and relocate them to another part of the United States. This plan will no longer work due to spread of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)
(CWD INFO.)
The main problem that I have with this whole situation is the fact that the National Park Service will not allow public regulated hunting in the park to end this long time problem. Although the law states that no hunting shall be allowed, they need to make an exception. Don’t get me wrong here, I do not think that any “Joe Smow” should be allowed to hunt there. In order to hunt it should be through a regular lottery drawing as well as a sniper proficiency test because we do not need wounded or hurt elk running through the park and we do not need unsafe people hunting around other people. This is the cheapest and most effective way of taking care of this problem. Basically what I just mentioned is what the ND Game & Fish as well as a huge portion of the public is in support of. (GAME & FISH SUPPORT)
Problems inside the park include Elk taking up a lot of the crucial area that many other animals need to survive and a huge loss of brush and tree vegetation because they are eating it all up. An article in the Bismarck Tribune says that Park officials began considering the use of government and volunteer shooters only after the constant pressure last year from U.S. senators and state wildlife officials in North Dakota and Colorado, where Rocky Mountain National Park also has elk overpopulation problems. At one point, the North Dakota Game and Fish Department refused to participate in the new management plan process for Theodore Roosevelt National Park because of the dispute in which the NPS would not even consider hunters as a solution, but they are now back on board in discussions because the NPS is considering hunting. Whitworth said a final record of decision on park elk management still could come by the end of the year, but it could be pushed back until 2009. So although they are considering the use of hunting it seems like it is going to take even longer for them to evaluate because of this possible alternative. Other problems outside the park are also occurring. According to ranchers who live around the park, they have been waiting for a decision, saying the elk cause problems when they escape the park's fenced boundaries. The Game and Fish Department is proposing more elk licenses in hunting units adjacent to the park, to help deal with the problem, but as of right now event he increased licenses around the park are not enough to combat this problem. (BISMARCK TRIBUNE ARTICLE)
Very recent updates in this story within the last 10 days is the fact that for the first time the Rocky Mountain National Park will allow hunters to come into the park and help solve the same problem that the Theodore National Park is having. Although this is not in direct relationship to the Theodore National Park Problem it should help NPS officials more likely to do the same. (RECENT UPDATES)
Many things dealing with this very hot PR topic deal with what we have been talking about in class. Basically it has been a battle of PR spokespeople between the NPS, The Game & Fish, and the Rocky Mountain National Park. I guarantee all these directors are presenting material the best they can, trying to grab the publics attention, trying to get acceptance, getting people to retain info, and trying to get people to take action. What is your opinion on the right thing to do regarding the overpopulated elk?? By the sounds of it the Game & Fish and the Rocky Mountain National Park are winning the battle. Do you think the NPS will allow hunting in their park?
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