Even those of us who communicate mostly through the written word accept that this is true. Thousands of words compiled to describe a situation can be overwhelmed by one visual image. Just think of the photograph of the firemen raising the American flag over the smoking ruins of the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001 or the one of the fireman tenderly carrying the dead baby he had found on the day of the Oklahoma City bombing.
The same thing is true when a visual image is captured on videotape and used as part of a news story. We hear the words of the broadcaster, but our minds are more absorbed in looking at the visual images being presented at the same time. Somehow our brains seem to process visual images more effectively than auditory messages. Our mind believes what we see more than what we hear.
What Can Happen When the Media Provides the Video Footage
It is crucial for organizations to make sure that they have some really high quality "b-roll" footage readily available to be given to TV stations when a story is breaking about you. If the deadline is 3 p.m. for the 6 o'clock news, you don't have time – even if something happens at 10 a.m. -- to find and hire someone to come take the footage you want shown, edit it, and deliver it to the studio by the time they need it. So the TV station will send someone out to take footage of something – anything they see.
I vividly remember the day when the news story was about an odorous release that had occurred at our chemical manufacturing company that had been bad enough to warrant the evacuation of local schools. By the time the crew from the TV station got there, the kids had all been dismissed and the plant was back in good running order. So the visuals that accompanied the story were of empty high school hallways and the big plumes of steam coming off of our cooling towers, which unknowing residents might have thought was a picture of the release.
You may remember the clip of the stumbling, obviously very sick cow in Great Britain that accompanied a story about one case of "mad cow disease" that had been confirmed in the U.S. Whether the broadcasters said anything about where the picture came from or not, the impression left with the viewers was that this was an epidemic waiting to explode upon America.
The Positive Impression from Your Own Well Produced Videos
The ability some years ago of Pepsi to quickly disprove an allegation of syringes being found in their cans of soda was largely attributed to the fact that they were able to provide – from their archives – footage of the bottling process. It showed how impossible it would be for someone to tamper with their product. This crisis was very short-lived and the company's brand never suffered -- as did that of Wendy's chain when it was alleged earlier this year that a finger had been found in their chili. Wendy's also had a production process that made the chance of something like that happening very small. However, because they did not have video of it, their spokespersons were limited to words, which were not nearly as effective.
Last month I met a fellow whose background in broadcast television news for over 20 years gives him a unique perspective on this topic. Rich Diefenbach, President of RPD Media Associates LLC of Chapppaqua, NY, knows how desperate TV news producers are for good visuals to accompany their stories in order to keep viewer interest. Rich says, "If appropriate footage is not available, the producers may use a compelling clip which is irrelevant and inappropriate to illustrate your company." If you haven't thought about the advisability of having some good video footage on hand and available to help you tell your story the way you want it told, you may want to contact Rich at Richard.diefenbach@verizon.net. Let him tell you more about what he and his company could do for you in this regard.
Give It Some Thought
There are a lot of good reasons to have professional footage of your organization on hand. I used the material shot by a professional videographer to put together a 12-minute description of our chemical manufacturing company – its history, our products, the manufacturing process, and the many environmental/health/safety programs we followed. I then showed it during all types of community relations outreach efforts. In addition, our Sales Department asked to show it frequently, and we found uses for it at Job Fairs and Career Days at local schools. It could even help you get your "good news" stories told to the public through a TV news feature story if the station hits a slow news day. It was definitely useful in communicating a positive image of our company to various audiences.
Besides these uses, an added benefit is that it could be used should there be a negative TV news story that is going to be told. Having it available at least gives you an opportunity to influence the visual images that are used instead of leaving yourself at the mercy of the media.
A Crisis of Tremendous Proportions: There are no words to describe the crisis we have seen unfolding before us in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama over the past couple of days. The human suffering as hundreds of people have died and untold thousands more have lost their homes and their ways to make a living is almost too much for our minds to comprehend. We are grateful that there are so many people who have been trained to deal with large scale crises -- Red Cross volunteers, those in government emergency management agencies, religious organizations like Samaritan's Purse, utility crews, the National Guard, the Coast Guard Rescue folks and other military personnel, and many others. I imagine that many of you who receive this e-zine have been touched in some sort of personal way because of family or friends who live in the area or because your organizations do business there. I am sure you are doing all you can to help. The rest of us feel helpless -- but we are not. We can say a prayer for those who are devastated and those who are seeking to help them. And we can seek out a trustworthy organization that we know will funnel directly to those who need it any donation we can make to support the relief effort. There are many organizations to choose from -- please pick one and send what you can. The American Red Cross is certainly one and you can reach them at
www.redcross.org Special Note: People kept trying to enter my "Rate Yourself as a Crisis Manager" contest on my web site after the deadline had passed and the winners were announced. So I have decided to continue this feature on the web site and will be running a new contest every few months. If you want to test your crisis management skills and possibly win a copy of my book on dealing with the media and my CD on handling angry people, go to
www.judyhoffman.com . Click on the navigation bar on the left near the bottom for the contest. This new deadline is November 30th. If you've been receiving this e-zine for a while and read some of the articles under the "Free Articles" tab, you'll have a real good chance of getting the multiple choice right and being able to write up a good draft statement for one of the crisis scenarios.
Note: Permission is hereby granted to forward, print, circulate, or quote materials from this article as long as credit is provided as follows: Judy Hoffman of JCH Enterprises. Copyright (C) 2005 JCH Enterprises, Judy Hoffman, Principal. www.judyhoffman.com Author of book "Keeping Cool on the Hot Seat: Dealing Effectively with the Media in Times of Crisis" and CD "Dealing Effectively with Angry People"
Phone: (845) 928-8239 Fax: (845) 929-3463 
