Strategic Communications Planning: Ocean Port and Restover Project

This project presents a strategic communications plan designed for two cities, Ocean Port and Restover, in response to a major attack on their electronic power grid. The plan emphasizes the importance of inter-agency communication, understanding language and cultural barriers, and the need for updated finances, software, and equipment. It details the crucial roles of a community-based emergency response team, including personnel training, equipment usage, and contingency plans for power failures. The plan also covers the recruitment and training of a public spokesperson and outlines strategies for public information dissemination, including social media campaigns. The project acknowledges potential complications, such as language barriers with diverse populations and regulatory issues with military personnel, and concludes with recommendations for improved crisis management and the effective use of technology. The assignment also includes references to relevant literature on community-based disaster management.

Running head: STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS PLANNING
Strategic Communications Planning
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS PLANNING
Topic- A plan for communication during a major attack against the electronic power
grid serving two cities
Inter-agency communication system
Understanding usual communication approach first of two cities Northwest of Ocean
Port, and Southwest Ocean Port. To resolve this issue, agencies should pay attention to the
way of communication that is prior to a disaster and that has the ability to maintain at the
time of major attack. To develop such communication it is essential for the organization to
develop cooperation with local and state level. So that the information can be sent quite
smoothly.
Communication language
Culture and language are two important aspects that agency must understand.
Organizational staff must have to understand the local language. Most importantly, language
and cultural barriers tend to pose significant challenges. Chen, Liu and Chan (2006)
mentioned that for example, limited proficiency in the domain language of communication
could be challenging to how emergency information is accessed. So, when passing the
information, regional languages of both the cities should be learnt.
Finances and software and equipment updates
Community-based emergency response team needs to be aware of the fact that they
have adequate funds, technological support such as upgraded software and some equipment
(Simpson, 2002). During the crisis, through technology, domain can be easily tracked and
then rescue team can further investigate, while inadequate fund should be addressed prior to
such initiative.
Hiring and training of maintenance personnel

2STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS PLANNING
Community-based emergency response team should develop a formal training system
in which staff should be given a semi-real world situation of fire, flood, accident and other
similar natural disaster to make personnel understand about their duties and responsibilities
during the crisis situation. Personnel should also be trained with respect to the regional
language of both regions (Simpson, 2001).
Equipment training for first responders
Use of each equipment in the crisis situation should be communicated and taught the
personnel. For example, employees of the agency must learn digital crisis management
portal. Personnel must carry a paper copy of the crisis plan as well as important documents.
Personnel must have the maps of the assets, a master event log.
Contingency plan for power failure
Effectively determining region’s power needs is fundamental when setting up a fast
response as well as cost effective system that certainly ensures that agency finds the right
rental supplier (Flint and Stevenson, 2009). Team in general needs to identify how much
power the region needs to continue the operation. This also helps the agency to determine the
overall cost for each of the processes.
Recruitment and training of a public spokesperson
Purpose of recruitment and training is to hire skilled individual who are enthusiastic
about the social welfare. The major role of programme is to hire people who are having real-
word crisis management experience. The process can be implemented through a digital
platform.
Public information dissemination

3STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS PLANNING
A social campaign on a regular basis can be applied and the agency can also take the
help of social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube to disseminate the information.
Complications during the implementation
When working with the ethnically diverse people, language would be a significant
challenge for team because people belonging to a diverse cultural background are different by
languages. On the other side, when communicating with the military personnel, aircraft and
ships, regulatory issues may appear, government-registered agencies do not comply with the
external rules and policies.
Conclusion and Recommendation
In order to understand the crisis situation and to develop solution against the same,
agency should have a complete understanding about the past events of crisis and how they
were managed. In addition to this, the agency should pay more attention to use of technology
in crisis management.

4STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS PLANNING
References
Chen, L. C., Liu, Y. C., & Chan, K. C. (2006). Integrated community-based disaster
management program in Taiwan: a case study of Shang-An village. Natural
Hazards, 37(1-2), 209.
Flint, C. G., & Stevenson, J. (2009). Building community disaster preparedness with
volunteers: Community Emergency Response Teams in Illinois. Natural Hazards
Review, 11(3), 118-124.
Simpson, D. M. (2001). Community emergency response training (CERTs): a recent history
and review. natural hazards review, 2(2), 54-63.
Simpson, D. M. (2002). Earthquake drills and simulations in community‐based training and
preparedness programmes. Disasters, 26(1), 55-69.