News Releases

News and Terrorism Workshop Features DHS Secretary Napolitano

For Immediate Release: September 24, 2009

Contact: Stacey Staniak, 202-467-5214

Washington -- Janet Napolitano, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security addressed more than 100 journalists, scientists and public officials participating in the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation’s News and Terrorism workshop in Baltimore, MD. The workshops bring together three key groups and walk through a fictional crisis to analyze each group’s response and how the groups can better work together to communicate with the public during a crisis. The Baltimore event was the first time a News and Terrorism workshop has been held on the record.

In remarks that began the day, Secretary Napolitano said journalists play a significant role in communicating information critical to public safety during a crisis. She said public officials make decisions based on data points available to them. She said officials receive additional information as a crisis develops and must adapt their decisions and communicate the new information to the public. She noted the evolution of what Americans have learned about the H1N1 flu virus since the first cases were diagnosed last spring as an example of how communicating new information is critical to understanding of a threat to public health. Secretary Napolitano said the media's role and responsibility in reporting on the air, in print and via social networking was a key part in DHS's communication efforts.

Aaron Brown, Walter Cronkite Professor of Journalism at the Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, led the participants through a scenario that featured a fictional attack in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Print, radio and television journalists and local public officials reacted in real time to the events as they were revealed by Brown. In the afternoon participants met in groups of journalists, public official and technical or scientific experts to discuss lessons learned during the discussion of the fictional crisis. The event concluded with each group reporting on lessons learned. Each of the groups said social media was becoming more important in their communications for either collecting information or for reporting. The importance of having key relationships established before a crisis was also a significant conclusion by all the groups.

News and Terrorism: Communicating in a Crisis workshops are produced by the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation, in association with the National Academies and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. 

RTNDF is the educational arm of the Radio-Television News Directors Association. RTNDF works to promote excellence in electronic journalism through research, education and training for news professionals and journalism students. RTNDF is supported by contributions from foundations, corporations, members of the Radio-Television News Directors Association, and other individuals.