BUS101 Business Communication: Brisbane Floods Crisis Report

This report analyzes the communication strategies employed during the 2011 Brisbane and Queensland floods, focusing on the effectiveness of communication channels between government entities and residents. It highlights the challenges posed by the rapidly changing situation, power outages, and the isolation of some communities, further examining the role of social media, particularly the Brisbane Twitter Community, in disseminating information and facilitating rescue efforts. The report contrasts the successes of social media with the failures of traditional communication methods and recommends improvements for future crisis communication, including upgrading communication systems, utilizing internet-based applications, and establishing customized communication channels to ensure timely and effective dissemination of vital information to the public. The report concludes that new technologies, combined with traditional communication systems, are the most effective ways to communicate during a crisis.

Running head: BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
Business Communication
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Overview of the situation.................................................................................................................2
Communication................................................................................................................................2
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................4
Recommendations............................................................................................................................4
References........................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to discuss on the several issues regarding the flooding of the
cities Brisbane and Queensland in the month of January in the year 2011 (Pria.com.au, 2019).
The need for removing the people from those areas seemed to be very important for the
Government and the meteorology department. The proper communication channels should have
been used to save the people who were left shelter less and without food for a long time. This
paper will aim to bring out the ways this issue could have been tackled in a better manner
(Alexander 2014). The main purpose of the Government should have been saving the people.
Overview of the situation
The situation would be discussed in this section of the paper. The demand of the situation
is to make proper communication between the several departments of the Federal Governments
and the residents of Brisbane and Queensland. The indications were given by the Bureau of
Meteorology that around 40000 homes and business would be severely affected by this flood in
the cities (Pria.com.au, 2019). The experts have suggested that the information about the plan
should have been communicated properly to the people so the proper steps could be taken by the
local administration. The new technologies should have been used as well.
Communication
The contribution of the crisis communication should have been one of the most crucial
facts for the betterment of the situation in the cities. The staffs of the different departments
should have been given the proper training on communicating in the crisis situations
(Pria.com.au, 2019). The impact of the social media could also have better positive impacts in
this condition. As numerous people had been in great trouble it was the need of the hour to

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communicate with the people through the social media platforms. The contribution of the
Brisbane Twitter Community had been very much in this disaster. Some people are of the
opinion that the social media platforms are never that much impactful when it comes to help the
needy people. However, in this case the social media had been very much effective indeed
(Alexander 2014). It contributed to save the lives of those numerous people in Queensland and
Brisbane.
The users of the social media had been very much active when they communicated with
the administration by “qldfllods hashtag” notifications (Bruns et al. 2012). This helped the
rescuers to have a proper update about the flood events all over. The use of the social media was
very much effective in the positive manner since the many of the young people had been active
in twitter and facebook and constantly giving the updates on the improvement of the situation
(Boin, Stern and Sundelius 2016). Apart from that it was also very necessary to communicate the
information on the changing situation in a rapid manner, the ways the traditional communication
channels had failed to work and power outages. Also some communities had also been
completely isolated from the mainstream society. The internet was working till then and the
people in utmost trouble could seek the help from the people who were active and sending the
information to the police officers. The entire focus went to use the new technologies. The
Meteorology department could also use the twitter to make the people aware about the upcoming
trouble in Queensland and Brisbane. (Boin, Stern and Sundelius 2016).
It was also very important for the Federal Government to communicate with the business
owners at the same point (Ehnis and Bunker 2012). This could have saved their business
properties. The campaigns could have been arranged beforehand so the proper steps could be
taken. The meteorology department could have posted the advanced news of this flood in their

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official facebook page. This steps could really have been much effective indeed. The trouble
people could have arranged for some other alternatives that could have saved their lives
(Bohensky and Leitch 2014). The Marketing and Communication Branch (M&C) could also
have made the communication campaigns all over the city from at least 5 days ago. Then the
people could have moved to other places in the city. These ways were open to the people to save
their personal and business properties. Thus the computer mediated relationship between the
users and the government could have been more useful. The planned and structured
organizational communication could have been used in this section since it was not possible for
the government to communicate in one by one strategy (Bohensky and Leitch 2014).
Conclusion
The conclusion to the paper can be drawn by saying that the use of the new technological
facilities like social media had really helped in the mediation of the natural disaster in
Queensland and Brisbane. The activeness that the community people of the cities showed was
very much praiseworthy. As some of the traditional communication channels had failed to
response it became a tough ask for the rescuers to operate. In this grave situation, the social
media turned out to be the saviors of the people in distress. This application of the social media
had been worked in favor of the people of the community (Wickes et al. 2015).
Recommendations
Some recommendations should be given in this context on how to improve the situation
regarding communicating with the people of Brisbane more effectively. The Federal Government
should aim to upgrade their systems of communications to make the people aware of the
upcoming troubles. The internet based applications should be implemented within the

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communication system of the government. Only then they would be able to send the needed
information to the people of the community. It is the due responsibility of the government to
arrange the ways of how the communication should be managed with the families, business
organizations and other social networks. The customized communication channels should be
built and traditional communication systems should be utilized properly for the development of
the situation. The vital information about the flood should be provided to the people by the
different communication channels of the government. The marketing campaigns must be
arranged from time to time to make the communication very smooth indeed. The fast
communication among the people must be initiated by the government.

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References
Alexander, D.E., 2014. Social media in disaster risk reduction and crisis management. Science
and engineering ethics, 20(3), pp.717-733.
Bohensky, E.L. and Leitch, A.M., 2014. Framing the flood: a media analysis of themes of
resilience in the 2011 Brisbane flood. Regional Environmental Change, 14(2), pp.475-488.
Boin, A., Stern, E. and Sundelius, B., 2016. The politics of crisis management: Public leadership
under pressure. Cambridge University Press.
Bruns, A., Burgess, J.E., Crawford, K. and Shaw, F., 2012. # qldfloods and@ QPSMedia: Crisis
communication on Twitter in the 2011 south east Queensland floods.
Carah, N. and Louw, E., 2012. Inundated by the audience: Journalism, audience participation and
the 2011 Brisbane flood. Media International Australia, 144(1), pp.137-145.
Ehnis, C. and Bunker, D., 2012, January. Social media in disaster response: Queensland Police
Service-public engagement during the 2011 floods. In ACIS 2012: Location, location, location:
Proceedings of the 23rd Australasian Conference on Information Systems 2012 (pp. 1-10).
ACIS.
Pria.com.au (2019). [online] Available at: https://www.pria.com.au/resources/emergencycrisis-
communication/january-2011-flood-crisis---brisbane-council [Accessed 6 Jan. 2019].
Wickes, R., Zahnow, R., Taylor, M. and Piquero, A.R., 2015. Neighborhood structure, social
capital, and community resilience: longitudinal evidence from the 2011 Brisbane flood
disaster. Social Science Quarterly, 96(2), pp.330-353.