AIBD webinar on Crisis Communication was organised on 14 May 2020.

The session was moderated by Dr Kim Youngyill, Communication Officer at Korean Broadcasting Services (KBS) Korea and the main speaker, Mr Ravindaran Raman Kutty, a crisis communication and corporate communication expert and consultant, highlighted three critical steps in managing a crisis:

Pre- Crisis Readiness
During a Crisis
Post Crisis

He emphasised on the significant threat and potential damage a crisis can inflict on an organisation, if handled poorly. He presented case studies from different industries as well as the current pandemic – COVID19. Mr Kutty explored how various countries around the region is handling the pandemic, from early prevention plans in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Vietnam to Japan’s example of initial managing the crisis without lockdown, which was changed after the Hokkaido incident, where an early outbreak of the coronavirus was contained with a 3-week lockdown. But, when the governor lifted restrictions, a second wave of infections hit even harder and after twenty-six days the island was forced back into lockdown.

Dr. Nik Norma Nik Hasan, Senior Lecturer at School of Communication, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Adjunct Fellow, United Nations University- International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH), presented on the significance of public risk perception and how it can change behavior to assume new normal. Dr Nik presented from her on-going social media research on Twitter and Instagram users and how they react to authority and trust level in official channels. With real time analysis, she was able to get the data to quantify the risk perception in organisation and individuals, although she stressed that it was an ongoing research, and no conclusion could be drawn at this stage.

Although planned for one and half hour, the session had to be extended to accommodate questions from as many participants as possible. It was attended by 65 participants from 19 countries and was streamed live on Facebook. It is available on AIBD Facebook page: @MYAIBD

Link: https://bit.ly/3cdDqx9