BY JOANNA PIROS
We all do it—obsessively prepare for those things that rarely happen and take our chances with the ones that are much more likely to occur. For example, consider the irony that fire departments regularly train for anthrax and weapons of mass destruction incidents but don’t prepare or train for a potential media onslaught.
How many chiefs were killed by anthrax last year? How many were “killed” in the headlines? How often do the media show up at your incidents?
Speaker after speaker at the 2003 Fire Department Instructors Conference in Indianapolis emphasized the critical need to tell the fire service story, over and over, whenever and wherever possible. Part of that challenge requires fire service unity to advocate for change at a national and even international level. That involves government relations; interdepartmental relations; interjurisdictional re-lations; cooperation; and, ultimately, money.
The good news is that there is one area in which every department, regardless of its size and resources, can make a huge impact and at a negligible cost. Moreover, the benefits will be immediately apparent and will affect company morale, retention and recruitment, public support, and eventually funding. The bad news is that you have to be prepared to talk to reporters, usually at the very moment you’re busy sizing up a major incident.
Why then? Why at the big ones? If you learn a little bit about news reporting and news gathering, or even if you stop and give it some critical thought, you’ll realize reporters show up for the big events because it’s those events that make news. Not every structure fire is newsworthy, but the bigger ones are. The more involved the fire building is, the more potential injuries/fatalities there may be and, hence, the bigger the story—and the media all want to get the big story of the day. That’s why reporters and camera crews show up when you’re up to your eyeballs in the demands of incident command.
Why do they show up while you’re still sizing up and expect to talk to you before you really know anything? Because it’s news, and news means it has to be new. You’ve probably been on various scenes where the media showed up as quickly as you have, or very shortly thereafter. They have radios, they monitor the airwaves, and they have the entire community standing by to provide news tips. There is no such thing as a private emergency.
As a long-time news reporter turned trainer and consultant, I’ve worked with enough fire/rescue officers, police officers, and various corporate leaders to know that most of you would rather cut off your own heads than be interviewed on camera with a crisis raging behind you. But that’s exactly what you have to learn to do if you want to advance the cause of the fire service while serving the public interest.
Oftentimes you have to do it because media outlets are the best, quickest, and most effective way of transmitting critical information to the general public in an emergency. If a haz-mat incident forces you to evacuate a neighborhood or close a main road, the media can get the information out for you and will be happy to do so because it also satisfies their appetite for late-breaking news.
A couple of well-placed calls to city newsrooms will spare you dozens of phone calls from a concerned citizenry. In times of crisis, people turn to the news media for critical guidance on what to do and for information on what is happening. The fire and rescue service generally has the information; the challenge is confidently and effectively “broadcasting” it. It’s all too easy to assume someone else will handle the job—because they will. But you will have missed a huge opportunity to tell the fire service story.
If the priorities of incident command are protecting life, preserving property, and stabilizing the scene—in that order—where would you place talking to the media? Probably not in the top three. But consider this: If a camera crew is putting itself in harm’s way or interfering with your ability to do your job, they then become first-place priority under the protection of life. Much as you’d like the earth to swallow them up for disregarding your perimeter lines, you can’t allow them to be injured or killed on your watch.
If you give the media what they need when they need it, they’ll stay out of trouble. They’ll tell the story the way you want it told, instead of according to the armchair quarterbacks who show up to critique every incident. You will have begun the ongoing process of building a relationship with the media. The more positive references to your department that the public sees from what it considers a relatively objective media source, the more the citizens will know your department and what it does and the more they will support it.
A survey of your community would quickly inform you that the general public has very little knowledge or understanding of what the contemporary fire and rescue service does and how and why. Without that key information, they can’t be expected to support you with their tax dollars. There is too much competition for that kind of checkbook loyalty.
Never mind that National Fire Protection Association fire officer requirements mandate that they learn about media and public relations; it’s simply in the best interests of any firefighters on the job, career or volunteer, to obtain some media relations exper-tise and start presenting their stories.
Realistically, all a media relations course requires is a one-day workshop to discuss the nature of news and the reporter’s job and where your job intersects with theirs. In many ways, it’s similar to your response to an incident: You arrive with some training, preparation, and experience in hand; you conduct size-up; you determine strategy and operational tactics; you decide if you’re taking an offensive or defensive approach; and then you act.
As with incident command, you should also learn from every media experience by analyzing and improving on it.
Have members practice on-camera interviews and critique their performance. You’ll be able to identify the stars in your department, the ones who should be cultivated on the front lines, the potential public information officers. In the process, everyone involved will have a better understanding of the Who, What, When, Where, and Why of media relations.
JOANNA PIROS is a communications strategist and media skills trainer and works with fire and rescue organizations, among other clients. She has 13 years of experience as a radio, television, and print journalist.
