Crisis Communication Research Blog 1

The community I choose for my research paper is Fargo, ND. I choose Fargo because; this is the town that I experienced the flood the most. I witnessed firsthand the effects of the flood and how much of an impact the flood could have caused the city of Fargo if we the people of the town had not come together to fight safe our city.

Through my research I have found that the main spokesperson for the city of Fargo is the Mayor Dennis Walaker and also the Deputy Mayor Tim Mahoney. Together they have done a good job in keeping the public fully updated and letting us know what necessary actions are being taken to solve the problem. The Governor of North Dakota John Hoeven was also one of the spokesmen for Fargo.There were a lot of people that were spokesmen for Fargo most times mostly speaking on specific areas that related to there are of expertise.

The most effective means of communication during this flooding period was the radio (Y94 & KFGO) this radio stations served really well and played a big part in helping update the general public. The radio stations announced when urgent help was needed to fill up sand bags and take them to their various locations. The local television stations also served as a big source of communication. Alongside local stations was the big news channel CNN, surprisingly CNN was on top of the hour with as the flood situation progressed. As a matter of fact CNN was my main source of information when I watched the news. CNN treated this crisis as firsthand as they should have; they had their correspondents here in Fargo monitoring the flood.

I plan on doing a little survey around town, to kind of see how people felt about the flood crisis and see what mode of communication was the most effective for them, and also which communication mode was the least effective for them. Also if they feel city officials in Fargo did a good job in keeping the general public updated with the flood situation.

I also plan on meeting some top city officials here in Fargo like the local sheriff to see what city officials think of the whole communication process during the flood. What mode of communication did they feel was the most effective means in getting the public involved in the efforts to fight the flood.