Media gets training in disaster reporting

Members of the media at the workshop this morning

An initiative by the Public Relations & Education Sub-committee of the National Emergency Planning Organization (NEPO), has sought to better equip media personnel with the methods and procedures associated with Disaster Reporting.

The half-day workshop, facilitated by Disaster Risk Management Specialist Cecil Shillingford and Senior Meteorological Officer (Ag.), Sheryl Etienne-LeBlanc this morning, was aimed at making members of the media be better able to report on matters relating to disasters of all types as well as understanding the terminology used in meteorology.

Leblanc said that NEPO thought it fitting that since Dominica is in the hurricane season, the need existed for such a workshop.

“NEPO saw the importance of media persons during disasters and in particular during the hurricane season, since media persons are the one who bring the information to the public, we saw that it was necessary that we bring them together to try to better understand the terminologies that we use in various hazards and to build the relationship between the media and disaster personnel,” Leblanc said.

Currently, in the event of an emergency, dissemination is channeled through the Government Information Service, which is responsible for furnishing the other media houses with the information. Leblanc, however, points out that some media houses are not receiving the information in a timely manner and that the organization is taking that into consideration. She also mentions that there are plans for further training workshops in the future.

“The committee agreed to have another such workshop at the end of the hurricane season where we would evaluate the season, how we did and how the media persons used the information presented here today. At that work shop we would feature another hazard, whether it’s volcanoes or tsunamis and look at some of the other terminologies associated with those,” Leblanc concluded.

Copyright 2012 Dominica News Online, DURAVISION INC. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed.

Disclaimer: The comments posted do not necessarily reflect the views of DominicaNewsOnline.com and its parent company or any individual staff member. All comments are posted subject to approval by DominicaNewsOnline.com. We never censor based on political or ideological points of view, but we do try to maintain a sensible balance between free speech and responsible moderating.

We will delete comments that:

  • contain any material which violates or infringes the rights of any person, are defamatory or harassing or are purely ad hominem attacks
  • a reasonable person would consider abusive or profane
  • contain material which violates or encourages others to violate any applicable law
  • promote prejudice or prejudicial hatred of any kind
  • refer to people arrested or charged with a crime as though they had been found guilty
  • contain links to "chain letters", pornographic or obscene movies or graphic images
  • are off-topic and/or excessively long

See our full comment/user policy/agreement.

3 Comments

  1. Carol
    January 24, 2012

    This may be out of context but I promise to ask a question on this issue.
    When growing up and attending school, I was taught that we say one person (singular) and more than one person we say people. I noticed that in Dominica they now say persons instead of people. Are we not using the same English we used when we were under the British rule? Please explain.

  2. nature isle
    July 5, 2011

    miss green is really a beauty. big up to NEPO

  3. pedro
    July 4, 2011

    good work, but please NEPO, lets be reminded that Dominica is under a high risk for a number of disasters, not just hurricanes, but earthquakes, eruptions, tsunamis and landlides. Lets not be narrowly focused on the hurricane season.

Post a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

:) :-D :wink: :( 8-O :lol: :-| :cry: 8) :-? :-P :-x :?: :oops: :twisted: :mrgreen: more »

 characters available