1. Tracing Interpersonal Communications in Crises: Some Pioneer Steps in a Promising Land.
- Author
-
Scanlon, T. Joseph
- Abstract
A research team from the School of Journalism at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, designed a research methodology for tracing the flow of interpersonal communication in a community in a crisis situation. They devised a completely detailed research plan including advance arrangements, a trained research team, a suitable survey instrument, and arrangements for a standby sample. For the study, they selected nine test communities in Ontario and the Atlantic provinces. During the first year of operation, the team encountered a shoot-out involving the murder of a policeman and a subsequent manhunt in one community, and a severe blizzard immobilizing another community for 48 hours. While this paper explains the methodology rather than outlines the results, some of the conclusions given include: (1) there is clear support for the multiple-step model; (2) evidence supports the idea of multiple-step flows without any involvement from the media; (3) there is some evidence that deviating chains originate around the scene of the disaster or very quickly after the impact of the event; (4) the longer the chain, the more likely the originating source will be a person involved rather than a media source; and (5) overhearing is a significant part of a long chain. (TO)
- Published
- 1974