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European apple canker, caused by Neonectria ditissima, is a damaging disease of apple in many production regions worldwide. The pathogen infects apple trees through artificial or natural wounds. The most damaging phase of the disease is that cankers on main stems post-planting, most likely originating from infection in nurseries, can result in tree death in young orchards. Apple cultivars differ in their responses to the pathogen, which may be additionally affected by specific site factors. An experiment was conducted to study i) the susceptibility of seven cultivars to N. ditissima at three sites and ii) the effects of cold storage duration prior to planting on subsequent development of both main stem and peripheral cankers. Planting date had significant (albeit minimal effects) on the development of peripheral cankers only. Canker development differed greatly among the three sites and between the tested cultivars, with ‘Grenadier’ and ‘Golden Delicious’ being most resistant at all sites. The relative performance of cultivars in terms of canker development was generally consistent across the three sites. Nevertheless, the interaction between cultivar and site was still statistically significant for the development of main stem cankers, indicating that some site-specific factors may interact with cultivars to affect development of latent infections. Given the close proximity of the three sites (similar climatic conditions), the results indicate that further research is needed to investigate the effects of soil characteristics on canker development post-planting.

Journalists play a key role in providing information to various publics affected by disasters or crises. They have important social and ethical responsibilities in relation to disseminating information during the various disaster phases. News media are important in shaping public responses to disasters and in connecting people and communities. This article explores how journalists can contribute towards communication about the management of disasters. It does so by drawing on a series of interviews with high-level emergency managers in eight countries. This article finds that there are key areas where simple changes to reporting approaches might facilitate significant change in approaches to reporting disasters.

Managing a crisis is one of the most challenging and rewarding aspects of public relations. It takes a great deal of skill, leadership and common sense to save an organisation from destruction. Social media has significantly changed the tactics, strategies and objectives of crisis communication. The ultimate goal of crisis management is to rebuild the organisation to a stronger position than it was in before the event. Social media and mobile technology have re-invented crisis management, empowering stakeholders with more information, some of which may be inaccurate, and the ability to communicate with organisations anywhere at any time. Corporate crises are big-ticket items, placing enormous stress on both the financial bottom line and the operational capacity of a company. Crisis management, therefore, has a significant focus on maintaining relationships with stakeholders. It is logical for the crisis communication practitioner to engage firstly with the organisation’s board and key executives, followed by other enabling stakeholders.

Unpredictable violent acts of nature—earthquakes, cyclones, tornadoes, floods, droughts, fires—need some form of connection to humans before they become a ‘disaster’. An earthquake in a remote area with no impact on humans is not a disaster; it only becomes a disaster when humans are affected—indirectly, such as through crop losses, or directly, such as through flooded homes. Throughout history, disasters have had political dimensions—from the ancient world to current global mega-disasters. In this chapter, we examine the political dimensions of disaster, chiefly from the standpoint of the response and recovery phases. We argue that all disasters have political implications in some form, either directly through leadership or indirectly through manipulation behind the scenes. Either way, politics and disasters will always remain intertwined. Yet when life and property are in danger, it is not the time to play politics.

Our interviewees agreed that gaining the interest of elected officials in disasters in the mitigation and preparation phases can be difficult due to the high level of competition to gain a slot in politicians’ diaries. This chapter therefore sets out to provide a greater understanding of basic disaster concepts, ranging from early research to the cascading effects of disasters, the role of social capital and the bureaucracies that govern response and recovery. We focus here on the words ‘society’ and ‘citizens’, because they are linked as constituents to the political actor. We also examine disaster governance—that is, how the whole of society deals with disasters. In addition, the chapter covers a selection of disaster terms and phases, which will help to ensure that those involved in managing responses to and providing leadership during disasters are ‘singing off the same song sheet’. Although we scan definitions, it is not our intention to enter into a debate over semantics. This book takes a pragmatic approach to the issue of political communication in disasters and crises, and we argue that the contribution of our interviewees across ten countries provides valuable insights into the relationships between elected officials, emergency managers and those affected by disasters. As our book is more practically than theoretically oriented, we leave the debate around the definition of terminology to other scholars for more considered discussion and in-depth exploration.

In this chapter, we explore the intricacies of dealing with the power of political press secretaries, also known as media minders or media advisers. We delve behind the scenes by drawing on our interviews and case studies, where we find a common theme: much of the play for publicity is driven by the political actor’s media minder taking advantage of the media spotlight during a disaster or crisis event. It is here, often behind closed doors, that media minders seek opportunities for their political masters to be seen on the front line—sometimes at any cost, including the use of logistical support, such as helicopters, from emergency and disaster agencies. There is an overriding strategy by media minders to show that their political actor is engaged with the crisis, taking some form of leadership and being there for their constituents, or their elected colleagues, such as a minister representing a premier. We discovered that dealing with the visit ‘requests’ of political minders can be problematic for emergency managers. The wrong answer (in the view of the minder or politician) can have negative consequences for career progression. Saying ‘no’ is fraught with danger. Therefore, how do crisis and disaster managers sensitively juggle requests for media exposure on the front line from media minders at all levels of government? Which requests, and from whom, take priority?

The lessons learned in the course of our ten-country study are discussed in this chapter. We present our best practice ‘tandem information model’ (TIM) for the involvement of politicians in disasters. While the TIM was developed specifically for use as disasters and crises unfold, it can also be used by politicians to help guide their responses and activities before and after disasters and crises, to ensure effective political leadership. It can also be used by those managing responses to disasters and crises to ensure politicians fulfill a role that contributes to the response and assists those involved, while also reassuring those seeing a disaster or crisis unfold via news media. We also reflect on the key lessons to emerge from our research.

We have titled this chapter ‘Voices of Reason’ because those we interviewed said this should be the role of politicians when communicating about disasters. In this chapter, we examine what constitutes effective political leadership in disasters and crises. We reveal the key factors that contribute to effective political leadership and performance across the various phases of disasters. Drawing on interviews with senior emergency managers in ten countries, we examine when politicians should get involved in disasters and crises, and when they should disconnect. We also look at some key examples of politicians’ interactions with the news media, focusing on those that illustrate best practice as well as those that demonstrate poor practice.

Much of the research about disasters has focused on the poor and unethical practices of journalists reporting on disasters, but relatively little has been written about best practice approaches to news media coverage of such events. This article uses two sources of data, interviews with senior emergency managers in eight countries and the body of research on news media coverage of disasters, to develop a best practice schema for journalists reporting disasters in two phases – before they occur and as they unfold. There is relatively little research on best practice approaches to reporting disasters; therefore, we also include the literature about news media coverage of disasters as this enabled identification of key problems with reportage of disasters. We conclude this article with suggestions about how this schema might be further refined and note some additional areas for research that might be pursued as a result of the best practice approach.

Despite the pressure on politicians to show leadership in times of disaster, many struggle with the extreme leadership challenges imposed by a calamity that is quickly consuming life and property. Drawing on data from elite interviews with senior personnel from disaster agencies in eight countries, we find that emergency managers want to engage with political actors well before a disaster strikes. This is critical to educate the political actor about disaster management, leadership, and communication, and to generate support for resources and funding. The challenge is to place disasters on the agenda of political actors ahead of all-consuming, day-to-day issues.

Politicians are increasingly involving themselves in the frontline delivery of information in the lead up to disasters and as they unfold. They are often placed as spokespeople and represent the public face of disaster, be it anthropogenic or natural. A disaster also offers opportunities for a politician to participate in intense media coverage and build their profile. However, this represents potential conflict within the disaster management environment when a disaster response is being coordinated by senior public servants or emergency response personnel. This paper examines the observations of senior emergency managers about politicians׳ communication with various publics before during and after disasters. Analysis is based on interviews conducted in four countries, Australia, Norway, the United Kingdom and Germany. While emergency managers believe the involvement of politicians in communicating about disasters is important, they would prefer that politicians restrict their activities during the response phase of such events. This paper reviews interview data to reveal the role-based expectations of politicians by emergency managers. Our findings have implications for the management of disasters, and the involvement of politicians in communication about these events.

Australia has experienced a number of significant natural disasters during the past few years with politicians increasingly involved in the provision of information to publics before, during and after disasters. Drawing on data from interviews with senior executives of Australian emergency management agencies we explore how these organisations manage the involvement of political actors in the public communication of disasters. We also investigate how emergency agencies manage their relationships with their political leaders in the recovery phase. We identify that improvements can be made to the ways politicians communicate with publics about disasters and we outline a preliminary best practice model for the involvement of politicians in delivering disaster warnings and information in the lead up to and during a disaster, and in the recovery process.

Social media engagement is changing the relational dynamic between organizations - and individuals - and their publics. This is particularly evident in the world of elite sport where the market value of an elite athlete is measured by their public reputation which is pinned on healthy relationships with stakeholders, such as fellow athletes, team managers, coaches and, importantly, fans (Hopwood 2007). In fact, social media analysts have attributed much of Twitter's growth to early adopters in the sports world. As a continually expanding global business, sport has to grapple with the challenges of how to harness this uncontrolled medium to best advantage, particularly in times of crisis. This chapter examines the bond between fans and sport in the context of social media in order to examine how this relationship could foster forgiveness for elite athletes who confess to transgressions, thus having enduring implications for the athlete's sport and sport business generally.

After a disaster, the media typically focus on who is to blame. However, relatively little is known about how the narrative of blame plays out in media coverage of the release of official disaster reports. This paper examines coverage by two Australian newspapers (The Courier-Mail and The Australian) of the release of the Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry's Interim Report and its Final Report to identify whether and how the news frame of blame was used. Given the absence of blame in the Final Report, the newspapers resorted to the frame of 'failure' in news and feature articles, while continuing to raise questions in editorials and opinion pieces about who was to blame. This study argues that situating coverage of the report within the news frame of failure and questioning who was to blame for the disaster limited the media's ability to facilitate a discussion about the prevention of similar disasters in the future. Language: en

In crisis and disaster situations the accuracy, scope, credibility and timeliness of media information depend on relationships between journalists and emergency managers. In the chaos of an unfolding disaster this relationship relies heavily on trust. This specific area has received sparse research attention. Accordingly, we reviewed and synthesized literature on trust, and used qualitative analysis of interviews to examine how elite practitioners viewed the importance of trust in the relationships built up with one another both prior to and during disasters. Two main findings emerged: that there was a need to develop shared definitions of trust and articulation of common goals; and that institutional and personal relationships need to be nurtured in the periods between disasters rather than solely during crisis events. These findings warrant dissemination among both media and crisis managers and further research into establishing shared concepts of trust that both partners could use in more effective collaboration.

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The rapidly evolving social media platforms, with an estimated 1.9 billion users worldwide, offer a myriad of communication benefits and risks in the context of a disaster. Social media generally refers to internet-based technologies that enable people to interact and share resources and information using either text or multimedia applications (Lindsay 2011; Dabner 2011). Advances in mobile devices allow access to anyone who has the ability to connect online (Abbasi et al. 2012). For example, the microblogging platform Twitter allows followers to track what an account holder is doing and thinking in real time within the confines of 140 characters (Kaigo 2012). Tweets can be sent from a variety of platforms ranging from cell phones to computers. Other examples of social media platforms today are Facebook, YouTube, Qzone, Pinterest, Instagram, and Flickr. This entry describes how social media, in particular Twitter, can be used for a variety of applications before, during, and after an earthquake, both inside and outside the area of impact. These include detection, warnings, connecting to survivors, situational awareness, notifying responders of where help is needed, and galvanizing humanitarian aid. Importantly, the increasing participation of “citizen seismologists” via social media is filling the information gap with field observations immediately after an earthquake (Young et al. 2013) for both first responders and survivors. In fact, social media, in particular Twitter, may be the only immediate source of data from locations with limited sensors or other scientific instruments. Obviously, not all earthquakes are reported on social media as many events are in remote areas or undersea and in countries with limited social media access or the magnitude is too small to be felt. A unique benefit of social media is that it is user generated – disaster agencies, seismologists, and other parties do not have to motivate citizens to tweet – they will do it anyway, potentially by the thousands in a significant earthquake. The challenge is how to transform the rapidly spreading flood of real-time information, some of it inaccurate, into reliable, useful, and valuable data. Part of the solution is to train Twitter users to tweet messages that can be more easily analyzed both manually and automatically using a crisis-specific syntax (Starbird and Stamberger 2010). This approach, among others discussed in this entry, will help guide disaster response, galvanize ongoing humanitarian efforts, and add value to the expanding body of earthquake sciences gathered since the development of the modern seismograph in the late 1800s.

This article draws upon historical and contemporary data to attempt to identify key issues in government media relations and to discuss the processes and challenges involved in attempting to quantify the expenditure on this activity in the state of Queensland in the modern era. A combination of investigative journalism and academic research methods have been used to position government media relations as a practice and to gauge expenditure, staffing, and cost to the taxpayer of government media relations in Queensland. The Electoral and Administrative Review Commission’s Report on review of government media and information services (EARC, 1993) was the first comprehensive measure of such costs and since then only some insights were offered by premiers Beattie and Bligh in 2006 and 2008 in response to parliamentary questions on notice. This article reviews these costs, canvasses expert estimates of the real cost of government media relations, and debates some of the competing interests at stake.

NCR (Manufacturing) Ltd., in Dundee, develops and produces automatic teller machines (ATM) for worldwide markets. It is the world leader in ATM quality and reliability. This article deals with, in the main, the cash dispensing module located within an ATM. This is a classic mechatronics example with the mechanical conveyor system for note movement controlled by a microprocessor, PROM, RAM, digital and analogue circuits. These in turn are controlled by the main ATM processor, running under an RMX operating system. The money movement and control mechansims will be addressed, as will the software procedures to ensure accurate note dispensing. To appreciate the manufacturing process discussion of the testing philosophy, the automated assembly line and robotic cell used to assemble the money cassettes is also included.

Politicians are both a help and hindrance in the provision of information to the public before, during and after disasters. For example, in Australia, the Premier of the State of Queensland, Anna Bligh, was lauded for her leadership and public communication skills during major floods that occurred late in 2010 and in early 2011 (de Bussy, Martin and Paterson 2012). Similarly, New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was praised for his leadership following 9/11. This is in contrast to the poor performance of political leaders during Hurricane Katrina (Cole and Fellows 2008, Olson and Gawronski 2010). Political actors’ lack of credibility and their poor situational awareness contributed to the problems. The involvement of political leaders in disaster communications is also problematic from the perspective of emergency agencies. For example, politicians who move their communication position from supportive to tactical can take over the role of providing official disaster information, such as evacuation warnings, without sufficient expertise, credibility or situational knowledge. This paper builds on the expanding body of research into the politics of disasters by exploring relationships with political actors from the perspective of emergency managers. Drawing on interviews with emergency agencies in Australia, Germany, Norway and the UK, we firstly examine when and what a politician should communicate during disasters and secondly, offer six principles toward a roadmap of involving political actors in the disaster communication process when life and property is at stake.