Brooke Liu was in her first semester of graduate school when the 9/11 attacks happened. Her boyfriend — now her husband — was working at the Pentagon on that day, and she could not reach him.
“I couldn’t call. I didn’t know what was happening, obviously very personally distressing,” Liu said during an interview with TSPR.
She said at the time of the attacks, there was very little crisis communication research, especially regarding public safety.
“So that kind of lit a fire for me to think about, well, people need information in a crisis, and we need more science to help people understand how to deliver that information in a helpful way,” Liu said.
That led to her research in public communication during a crisis, a topic she discussed during the annual Thompson Lecture hosted by the Department of Communication at Western Illinois University.
Liu, who is a professor of communication at the University of Maryland, said the attacks of 25 years ago were also a turning point for the nation. She said the CDC developed new communication principles after 9/11 and the anthrax attacks that followed.
Pandemic readiness
Liu is co-founder of the University of Maryland Pandemic Readiness Initiative. It’s an interdisciplinary project that has included representatives from engineering, public health, anthropology, information studies, and communication at the university.
They’ve done three years of research into how public agencies can better prepare for current and future infectious disease outbreaks, such as the current outbreak of measles.
Liu believes officials should not be surprised by the lessons learned.
“Build relationships with community members, have clear communication, have the communication come out at the right time and through the right channels,” Liu said.
“I feel like a lot of times we’re relearning the same lessons rather than maybe moving forward, so that still remains a challenge.”
She said those wanting to disseminate information need to determine where their target audience is most likely to receive their information, whether that’s legacy media or a social media network such as Instagram or TikTok.
Being engaged with communities
Liu also said it is important to have connections with local communities because people are more likely to trust messages from those who they know.
She said they’ve been following approximately 40 community health workers who deal with mostly Spanish-speaking populations in the Washington D.C. area.
“Some of these community health workers would just show up at laundromats and show up at local Latino food places to give out the CDC’s guidance. They’re taking the official public health guidance and literally giving it to the people where they are and then having conversations about the guidance,” Liu said.
She said it’s helpful to establish relationships and have ongoing communication in a community even when there’s not a crisis.
Tri States Public Radio produced this story. TSPR relies on financial support from our readers and listeners in order to provide coverage of the issues that matter to west central Illinois, southeast Iowa, and northeast Missouri. As someone who values the content created by TSPR's news department please consider making a financial contribution.
