Crisis Blog 3

After doing more research on the flood in Valley City, here are some of the things that I found. Email was the best way to get information out to the students and faculty when there was something important going on with the flood. I thought that Dr. Steven Shirley did an excellent job on letting the students know about the flood. The texts that they sent to students when the e-mail was down were very effective. They were ineffective though for the people who were not signed up to receive them. Next year they should make it mandatory that every student or faculty member should have to be signed up to receive the messages just in case something bad would happen again. The radio was the most accurate way of communication to the public rather than the TV. People on the radio were telling the public what the siren was going off for and on the TV they never really said anything what the siren was for. For the TV they only had updates and information on certain channels and most of the people usually do not watch those certain channels. Most of the people I talked to received more information on the internet using Facebook, Twitter, or the VCSU safety blog on the website. Since VCSU is a technology campus, most students use their computers to look up information rather than watch TV to get it. Another useful website for people was http://valleycity.govoffice.com/. This website also had up to date information that needed to get to people. The word of mouth also got information across to people. This might not have been the most effective way to get information across but it did work at times. When the e-mail wasn’t working and for the people who didn’t have the emergency texting with the college, these people said that they heard what was happening from other people who already new.

For my crisis communication project, I am going to do it on VCSU and Valley City just because I was there to experience it and I don’t know a whole lot about what the other communities did. The mayor Mary Lee Nielson was the main spokesperson during the flood. I could tell that she was the spokesperson because you would never here information coming from someone else. Always Mary Lee Nielson was on TV or the radio telling the people in Valley City what was going on. Most of the communication was done by using the TV and radio for people in Valley City. At VCSU, they sent out many emails that helped keep me updated. Some of this information could have been ineffective to some people. Some people do not watch a lot of TV so then they wouldn’t get the information from that and the same goes with the radio. One way I received some information was Facebook. Every time something was happening, many people would use that as their status. These are just some of the things that were used for communication during the flood but I’m sure they used other ways too so I will continue my research to find out more information.

School Shootings

This last week was the 10-year anniversary of one of the biggest crisis in school history. On August 20, 1999, two students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went into Columbine High School in Jefferson County Colorado, were they killed 12 students and 1 teacher while wounding 23 other people before they ended up committing suicide. While this was going on, one of the teachers was communicating by telephone to the police giving them details and all of the information that they needed. This was the third worst school shooting in the United States until the Virginia Tech Shooting in 2007 were Seung –Hui Cho killed 27 students and 5 teachers while injuring 17 other people.

In the Virginia Tech Shooting, the school sent out an e-mail to all of its students and faculty two hours after the first shooting occurred. The American Red Cross sent counselors to Virginia Tech to help the students and faculty members.

Columbine High School was probably not as prepared for something like this to happen, as most schools would be today. This tragic event has changed the way that high schools all over the United States operate. To recover from the Columbine shooting, Columbine, and many other schools now have metal detectors when you first walk into the building. Schools also have security guards at the doors and walking around. A couple of schools have taken away backpacks and given them clear ones so they can see what kids are carrying around.

Just this week on Monday August 20th, three kids, two of them were 16 years old and the other one was 15 years old, went into Lincoln High School in Sioux Falls, South Dakota with a plastic gun. Lincoln High School was on lock down for about 90 minutes that day. While this was going on the school notified parents by sending them a voice message of what was happening so the student’s parents were up to date with the things going on.

When these things happen, a reporter can get many different views about what is happening so there should only be one spokesperson so people do not mix up the facts. Usually in shootings like these, the police chief would be the designated spokesperson because he would know the most information to give to the public.

NDSU's Men Going Dancing

Most people have probably never heard of North Dakota State University, but all of that is going to change now because the men’s basketball team just won the Summit League Championship to get them into the NCAA Tournament. This was the first year that they were eligible to get into the NCAA Tournament.

In chapter nine, it talks about different news releases and leads. I am sure there are many papers around this area that had articles about the Bison winning the Summit Title. I was looking on the Fargo Forums home page on the web, and there was a this title on the main page, “NDSU is going dancing: Bison men’s basketball team secures automatic bid into NCAA tournament after winning Summit League championship.” That title got my attention right away because I am a sports fan and the NCAA Tournament is one of the biggest college sporting events. Not only did the forum have an article about the Bison’s basketball team, but there was an article on ESPN’s web site “Woodside hits jumper with 3 seconds left to push N. Dakota St. to Summit title.” Many college basketball fans probably read this story because everyone is excited to see who is going to make it into the NCAA tournament.

In chapter 12, it talks about logos and color. Now everyone who watches the NCAA Tournament will be seeing the Bison logo and its green and yellow colors. The Bison’s logo will separate NDSU from other colleges because there are not many schools with a Bison for their logo. If I was watching the tournament and noticed the Bison logo, I would look it up on the internet to get some information about them. This might make some people interested about the school and maybe it will bring in more people to the college from around the United States.

Since it has been cold outside, I have been inside all day and have had the radio on at times and even they are talking about the Bison making it to the NCAA Tournament. They had a interview with the Bison’s head coach and they had Ben Woodside on when he was talking to the fans during their welcome back. When I woke up this morning, ESPN was showing highlights of the game so this is giving NDSU national exposure because there are millions of people who watch ESPN. Ben Woodside even made the top 10 plays for making the game winning shot.

Both of the titles caught my attention so I read threw the stories. These are examples of a good lead to a story.

NBA Cares

This last weekend was one of the biggest events in the NBA (National Basketball Association). It was All-Star weekend, and this year it was located in Phoenix, Arizona. During All-Star weekend, they have many different events that take place on and off the court. The events that take place on the court include a celebrity game, rookie vs. sophomore challenge, game of horse, skills challenge, three-point contest, slam-dunk contest, and the West vs. the East All-Star game. Many people fill the stadium not just to see their favorite NBA player but to see the best NBA players currently in the game that take part during All-Star weekend.

Many people might think all NBA players do is just play basketball and get paid a lot of money, but the majority of the players do things off the court like help in their local communities. During All-Star weekend, they have a NBA Cares day to kick off All-Star weekend. All of the players that are selected to play in the All-Star game participate in the NBA Cares day. This year for NBA Cares, they had 1,000 people who helped the NBA and WNBA players, coaches, and legends build a playground, refurnish a house, and renovate a local school. Here is a video of the players helping in the community.

This doesn’t happen just during the All-Star weekend, but during the whole year. Many players do things in their communities too so it’s just not the players who made the All-Star game helping out. During the season players will visit kids in hospitals, schools, read to kids, and serve dinners and help build playgrounds at schools or in neighborhoods.

If you watch NBA games, they use the media to air NBA Cares commercials to show what NBA players are doing to help in the community. To make all of this work, the NBA players have to be prepared and come up with a plan for what they are going to do to help the community. I’m sure many of the players set goals on how many projects they want to take part in over a year and how many people they want to help.

Many little kids look up to NBA players because most kids want to be like them someday. By helping out in the community, the NBA is setting a good example for everyone and this can only get more people involved in community events.

It is the biggest game of the year, the Super Bowl. There will be millions of people, who will take time out of their busy schedules just to sit down and watch the Super Bowl. Some people might watch it because they love the game of football and then you get some people who will watch the Super Bowl just for the commercials. This is the one time out of the year where I will not change the channel once a commercial comes on. You never know when there will be a good commercial on and if u miss that one commercial you probably won’t know what people are talking about the next day. Usually the day after the Super Bowl, you will hear people talking about the best commercials throughout the game.

The Super Bowl is a good way to advertise and persuade people to buy your product through a commercial since there will be so many people watching the game. If I was in charge of a big company, I would want to have a commercial because its a good way to get your name out to people. However, with the economy the way it is right now, there will be some big companies not airing any commercials this Super Bowl. These companies include FedEx, and all of the automakers. Since these companies will not be airing any commercials, that will make room for other companies to get their names out.
GM has spent nearly 77 million dollars over the last fifteen years for Super Bowl ads. In 1967, a super bowl ad cost 40,000 dollars on to run on NBC or CBS. Now in 2008, it will cost you three million dollars just to run a commercial for thirty seconds.

Michigan State University has a group of professors that ranks the Super Bowl commercials every year for the last 12 years. They grade the commercials based on creativity, production value, content, and sales. Last year MSU ranked the commercial were the Dalmatian dog helped train a Clydesdale horse to load a beer wagon number one.

One of my favorite Super Bowl commercials has been the Budweiser frogs. This commercial was shown during Super Bowl XXIX in 1995. I don’t even remember who played in Super Bowl XXIX, but I remember that commercial like it was yesterday. A couple other of my favorite commercials have been the Bud Light secret fridge and FedEx stick. What are some of your favorite Super Bowl Commercials of all time?