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and sounds, through a thing called nonverbal behavioral clusters. We will discuss
this in more detail shortly.
Communications is extremely complicated for such a seemingly simple thing.
The act of communications starts as an idea in our brain. That idea wishes to be
expressed or communicated to someone. It must then make its way through the fil-
ters of our belief system and perceptions. Then it must be encoded (either in speech
or writing) and then broadcast to a receiver (a reader or listener). The receiver has
to get the message, decode it, and run the decoded material through their own fil-
ters of belief systems and perceptions in order to understand the idea we originally
wished to communicate to them. An understanding of the complications associated
with the process of how we communicate allows for a new appreciation of a state-
ment as seemingly simple as, “Pass the salt, please.”
Nonverbal behavioral clusters associated with how we say and express things
are more important in conveying meaning than the words we actually say (Blatner
2009). Because these nonverbal behavioral clusters typically convey a larger per-
centage of our communication than the specific choice of words do, we tend to
place more faith in the way the message is expressed. When the message being
conveyed to an audience by a speaker's words is in conflict with their nonverbal
behavioral clusters, the audience will not believe the speaker. As a simple thought
experiment, recall the last time you observed a person on television and your reac-
tion to that person was the thought that you did not believe a word they said. The
odds are, you felt that way because there was a conflict between the words of the
speaker and their nonverbal behavioral clusters.
The normal process of communications takes a slight detour under a crisis situ-
ation. When a crisis is in progress, we need to provide assistance to the elected
official or spokesperson to make sure we do not allow circumstances to take away
from the messages we need to communicate to the public typically through the
media. In other words, we need to avoid media pitfalls. Table 21.4 is adapted from
unpublished material from Dr. Vincent Covello, founder and director of the Center
for Risk Communiction.
In a crisis situation, the media follows certain patterns. Those patterns include:
◾
Searching for background information on the incident
◾
Dispatching reporters to the scene
◾
Obtaining access to the scene or the official spokesperson
◾
Dramatizing the situation
◾
Expecting a briefing complete with written information
◾
Expects
you
to panic
◾
Becomes confused by technical information
◾
Exhausting resources
◾
Sharing information among themselves
◾
Acting professional and expecting the same
◾
Providing filler for stories if credible information is not available
