FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 11, 2018

Media Contact: Jessica Stark Rivinius
Communications Director
301-404-6632
rivinius@start.umd.edu

START provides government with analysis on effective crisis communication

The attributes of effective crisis communication leadership are discovered through interviews
with 24 U.S. government crisis leaders and a case study.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Researchers, Brooke Liu, Irina A. Iles and Emma Herovic, of
START found that effective crisis leaders can understand and manage a crisis regardless of its
uncertainty; the leader can execute flexibility, humbleness and accuracy all while remaining
present in the crisis. The findings also suggest that in order to have successful inter-
organizational collaborations one should align their goals and messages. However, according to
their research, nothing paves the way for effective communication strategies than learning from a
previous crisis.

Researchers interviewed 24 U.S. government crisis leaders to uncover these findings, and
conducted a content analysis to understand how governments manage crisis communications.
Once completed, researchers conducted a case study that detailed the federal, state and local
leader’s communication effectiveness during the 2017 Tubbs wildfire crisis.

The 2017 Tubbs wildfire was the most destructive wildfire in California’s history, which lent
itself to be the perfect crisis case study to analyze how effectively the government communicates
during a crisis. Findings from the study indicate that government leaders were responsive in their
communication efforts, showed empathy and aligned their communication goals and messages
with each other. Research also showed that twitter was the most used social media platform
during the Tubbs fire, as many local leaders used it to post information updates for the public.

On the contrary, researchers believed that leaders could have offered the public instructions on
how to protect themselves during the fire as well as provided more information on how people
could manage and cope during the crisis since it yielded uncertainty. Lastly, researchers stated
that leaders at the state and national level could have shared posts, made by local leaders, more
often with their networks to increase communication efforts.

In all, this three-stage project achieved its goal of determining the attributes of effective crisis
communication and left its mark within the state, federal and local government.

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About START
The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) is
supported in part by the Science and Technology Directorate of the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security through a Center of Excellence program led by the University of Maryland.
START uses state-of-the-art theories, methods and data from the social and behavioral sciences
to improve understanding of the origins, dynamics and social and psychological impacts of
terrorism. For more information, contact START at infostart@start.umd.edu or visit
www.start.umd.edu.