Timing crisis information release via television.

When and how often to release information on television are important issues in crisis and emergency risk communication. There is a lot of crisis information, including warnings and news, to which people should have access, but most of it is not significantly urgent to interrupt the broadcasting of television programmes. Hence, the right timing for the release of crisis information should be selected based on the importance of the crisis and any associated communication requirements. Using recursive methods, this paper builds an audience coverage model of crisis information release. Based on 2007 Household Using TV (HUT) data for Hefei City, China, the optimal combination of broadcasting sequence (with frequencies between one and eight times) is obtained using the implicit enumeration method. The developed model is applicable to effective transmission of crisis information, with the aim of reducing interference with the normal television transmission process and decreasing the psychological effect on audiences. The same model can be employed for other purposes, such as news coverage and weather and road information.

[1]  Margarita S. Studemeister.  The Impact of Information and Communications Technologies on International Conflict Management , 2005 .

[2]  Hilda Pantin,et al.  Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms in Hispanic Immigrants After the September 11th Attacks: Severity and Relationship to Previous Traumatic Exposure , 2003 .

[3]  Dolly Mathew,et al.  Information Technology and Public Health Management of Disasters—A Model for South Asian Countries , 2000, Prehospital and Disaster Medicine.

[4]  Tom W. Smith,et al.  A Follow-Up to a National Study of Public Response to the September 11th Terrorist Attacks , 2002 .

[5]  J. Pennings,et al.  Responding to crises and disasters: the role of risk attitudes and risk perceptions. , 2008, Disasters.

[6]  Alla Keselman,et al.  Toward a framework for understanding lay public's comprehension of disaster and bioterrorism information , 2005, J. Biomed. Informatics.

[7]  John H. Sorensen,et al.  Hazard Warning Systems: Review of 20 Years of Progress , 2000 .

[8]  M. Elliott,et al.  A national survey of stress reactions after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. , 2001, The New England journal of medicine.

[9]  Chris Piotrowski,et al.  Mass media preferences in disaster: A study of Hurricane Danny , 1998 .

[10]  Linda Banwell,et al.  Constructing a model of effective information dissemination in a crisis , 2004, Inf. Res..

[11]  P. M. Ginter,et al.  Effective media communication of disasters: Pressing problems and recommendations , 2007, BMC public health.

[12]  L. Comfort,et al.  Reframing disaster policy: the global evolution of vulnerable communities , 1999 .

[13]  D. Glik.  Risk communication for public health emergencies. , 2007, Annual review of public health.

[14]  Sandro Galea,et al.  Television Watching and the Risk of Incident Probable Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Prospective Evaluation , 2007, The Journal of nervous and mental disease.

[15]  Michael K Lindell,et al.  Households' Perceived Personal Risk and Responses in a Multihazard Environment , 2008, Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.

[16]  D. Mileti,et al.  Fostering Public Preparations for Natural Hazards: Lessons from the Parkfield Earthquake Prediction , 1992 .

[17]  Anja J E Dirkzwager,et al.  The role of the media and media hypes in the aftermath of disasters. , 2005, Epidemiologic reviews.

[18]  Stephen D. Perry.  Tsunami Warning Dissemination in Mauritius , 2007 .

[19]  Michael G. Sovereign,et al.  A Framework for Designing a Global Information Network for Multinational Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief , 2000, Inf. Syst. Frontiers.

[20]  Pavica Juric,et al.  Mass media usage during a natural disaster: LSU college students and Hurricane Katrina , 2006 .

[21]  Yaron Bar-Dayan,et al.  Differences in Sources of Information Used by the Population between the Affected Area and the General Population during the First Phase of a Bird Flu Outbreak , 2008, Prehospital and Disaster Medicine.

[22]  B. o. N. Disasters,et al.  Mitigation emerges as major strategy for reducing losses caused by natural disasters. Board of Natural Disasters. , 1999, Science.

[23]  M. Pérez-Lugo.  Media Uses in Disaster Situations: A New Focus on the Impact Phase , 2004 .

[24]  Alexander Kouzmin,et al.  Communicating throughout Katrina: Competing and Complementary Conceptual Lenses on Crisis Communication , 2007 .

[25]  I. Helsloot,et al.  Citizen Response to Disasters: A Survey of Literature and Some Practical Implications , 2004 .

[26]  S. Galea,et al.  Television Images and Psychological Symptoms after the September 11 Terrorist Attacks , 2002, Psychiatry.

[27]  M. Lindell,et al.  Household Adjustment to Earthquake Hazard , 2000 .

[28]  Rohan Samarajiva,et al.  Policy Commentary , 2005, New Media Soc..

[29]  Sendhil Mullainathan,et al.  A Memory Based Model of Bounded Rationality , 2000 .

[30]  Yianis Sarafidis,et al.  *What Have You Done for Me Lately? Release of Information and Strategic Manipulation of Memories , 2007 .

[31]  Sandro Galea,et al.  Television Images and Probable Posttraumatic Stress Disorder After September 11: The Role of Background Characteristics, Event Exposures, and Perievent Panic , 2004, The Journal of nervous and mental disease.

[32]  S. Brody,et al.  Hurricane risk perceptions among Florida's single family homeowners , 2005 .

[33]  Christopher A. Higgins,et al.  Executive support systems and executive preferences: a comparison of information channel selection theories , 1995, Inf. Syst. J..

[34]  中華人民共和国国家統計局.  China statistical yearbook , 1988 .