Communicating with the Media
Since 2007, I have been deployed as a public information officer to statewide disasters as part of the Command Staff for Texas Task Force 1 (TX-TF1) Urban Search and Rescue. In that position, I have interacted with print and television media on multiple occasions. The on-camera interviews and other interactions required me to represent TX-TF1 and the state of Texas emergency management community in the most positive light and provide accurate and timely information about ongoing search and rescue operations. These interactions often happened under austere post-disaster conditions, often in remote locations, where I lacked complete information of the situation and was asked to answer many questions. The prevalence of news media outlets at the incident site and the 24-hour news cycle required me to interact constantly for 16 to 18 hours a day during the first four or five days of the incident. It was imperative that the response efforts of TX-TF1 be communicated to the media so they could understand how our team was assisting citizens in the affected population. Our teams were often deployed over wide geographic areas, and it was common for me to conduct an on-camera interview with a Houston TV station and then a phone interview with a Beaumont Newspaper.