State Government: Building a better emergency response

Challenge
Almost 200 lives were lost in the worst natural disaster of its type in Australian history. The department responsible for coordinating emergency services needed to learn vital lessons about the way news media alerted at-risk populations during the event. It also needed to provide comprehensive analysis of the crisis warning messaging in radio, TV and the internet – including social media – to the investigating judicial body.

Solution
Mediascape set up a team to analyze over 100,000 media items to double-audit standard in little over a month. The reporting department was able to provide the judicial hearing with a concise, accurate reconstruction of the warnings carried by state news media during the disaster.

An on-going brief ensures the department is supported with daily media impact analysis of all subsequent emergency coverage in the state. This capability can be moved to real-time status and delivered into the situation room to provide up to the minute intelligence of the news media’s messaging activity as a crisis unfolds.

ROI
The emergency management department now processes information on how the media performs its public warning role in crisis events. This invaluable intelligence will enable it to better save lives and property in future crisis events – both natural and man-made. With the potential increase in the frequency of natural disasters related to environmental issues, the state is better positioned than others to harness the power of public media in a crisis.