News & Terrorism

News and Terrorism: Communicating In a Crisis

Since 2004, the Radio Television Digital News Foundation, in association with The National Academies and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, has produced sixteen News & Terrorism workshops.

Each workshop brings together journalists, news managers, public officials, public information officers, business leaders, scientists, and technical experts to work through a tabletop terror scenario customized for each community.

The workshops are free to all who attend, thanks to the support of the sponsoring organizations.

The goals for each workshop are:

- fostering a better understanding of how each group responds to a crisis

- learning the needs, requirement, and obligations of each group

- determining the preferred means for communicating in a crisis

- providing participants with additional contact information and networking opportunities to enhance both news coverage and a specific understanding of these situations.

The next News and Terrorism Workshop will be held on Thursday, January 28, 2010, at the Sheraton St. Louis City Center at 400 S. 14th Street in St. Louis, Missouri.

Former CNN Anchor Aaron Brown will moderate this program.�

Click here to register for this free workshop.

Workshops were conducted in 2009 in Baltimore and Las Vegas. Following an August 2008 workshop in San Diego, Aaron Brown explained his role as the program moderator.

Take advantage of this opportunity to interact with others who will have a critical role in communicating information in a time of crisis, including journalists, first responders, public information officers and science and medical experts. Participants will receive valuable resources and have a chance to reevaluate their organization's preparedness, in the event of a significant terror situation.

Contact Jon Ebinger at jon@rtdnf.org with any questions you may have regarding this or any other workshops in our ‘News & Terrorism’ series.

Other RTDNF resources:

Crisis coverage phone list template: Click Here
50 questions to prepare for coverage: Click Here
Newsroom planning for crisis coverage: Click Here