ABSTRACT
In any crisis, the most important of all the key external audiences are the media – print publications of all types, the broadcasting outlets and, now, the new technologies involved in the World Wide Web. Planning how the media should be dealt with in a crisis is the task of the communications member of the crisis team. Handling the situation can only be done effectively if you have a clear idea of how each branch of the media family works. (See Appendix 4, Media Handling, in Part III.) Each of them disseminates information (good and bad, accurate and inaccurate) so fast and to so many audiences that you need procedures in place in order to control the information they receive from you. Just as importantly, you also need parallel systems to find out what information they are getting from other sources.
