LAIZER EDWIN N BAPRM 42691

Future communication challenges 

In reality there are different communication challenges that occur in digital age and are the following below that can occur in different angles of every day activities of life as follows;

Reputation: providing a balanced budget over the next few years will require the organisation to make changes which are likely to generate opposition and potentially damage the Service’s public reputation. Clear communications and detailed plans to inform and involve all key stakeholders will be fundamental to ensuring consultation is constructive and maintains the organisation’s standing with local communities. A revised public affairs strategy, detailed consultation and engagement plans and clear, range of audience-specific communications will be critical in helping the Service meet its corporate objectives.  

Member communications: Members of the Fire Authority ensure the Service remains publicly accountable in the delivery of its services and the development of its policies. To enable them to perform that role effectively, it is essential that they have access to clear and timely information. Options to provide remote access to the organisation’s Intranet are due for implementation by December 2012, while it is also proposed that the Head of Planning, Performance and Communications annually reviews Member communication needs in conjunction with the Chair.  

Crisis communications: the Service’s Corporate Communications department continues to provide support to both the organisation’s own business continuity arrangements as well as playing a leading role in the Cheshire Contingency Communications Group. It is clear that current Government national and fire-specific policies are placing an increasing emphasis on local civil contingency partners playing a greater role in co-ordinating and delivering communications during major emergencies in their area. Options to develop, raise awareness and increase take-up of the Service’s own warning and informing channels will need to be taken forward in conjunction with other Local Resilience Forum partners. 

Local media: section two has highlighted the massive changes which are continuing to take place in the traditional local, regional and national media. The most significant impact of this upheaval is that the media are becoming increasingly reliant on others to provide them with the news and reports which they no longer have the staff numbers to gather and write themselves.  

On the surface this should make it easier for the Service’s communications staff to get content into local media challenges, provided it is written and provided in ways which require minimal editing. While the in-house team has a strong track record in this area, in future traditional press releases will need to be supplemented by good quality multimedia packages which can be used in the local media’s online channels. 

Potentially more challenging is the fact that this lack of paid professional media staff clearly creates opportunities for others to fill the void. ‘Citizen Journalists’ are in fact now being increasingly encouraged by newspapers themselves, who see User Generated Content UGC as the next big thing to drive up online and traditional readership. 

While newspapers have been urging residents to contact them with story ideas for years, now they are using the growth in online channels to allow people to send in the stories, photographs and videos direct. This creates potential concerns around people being able to pursue particular agendas and the ability of newspapers to validate claims and ensure accuracy and balance. 

Being able to respond promptly to adverse publicity about the Service is becoming increasingly important, not only because of the growth of ‘UGC’ but also because of the speed with which stories circulate via the Internet. The Service’s existing media monitoring will need to be revised to ensure it is more wide-ranging and able to provide real-time updates.