Public Affairs in Health (PAH)

Best Practice

The Virtual Joint Information Center: A Technological Tool for Emergency Communication

Bret M. Atkins, M.A.

Abstract

As audiences and information needs become more specific, so must the tools used to meet the needs of those audiences. One example is how government agencies and other response organizations create and utilize specific products and methods to share information with the news media. Another tool, used primarily during crises for information retrieval, processing, and release is the joint information center, or JIC. This paper presents information on how the current utilizations of JICs, frequently conducted within the confines of a physical or corporeal location, may be improved upon with the supplement of or replacement with an electronic method of operational communication called a virtual joint information center, or V-JIC.

---

Introduction

As audiences and information needs become more specific, so must the tools used to meet the needs of those audiences. One example is how government agencies and other response organizations create and utilize specific products and methods to share information with the news media, such as the news release, the interview, and the news conference. These methods have long been used during no crisis times as well as during public health emergencies. Reporters have come to expect this manner of information flow and incorporate it into their news production procedures.

Another tool, about three decades old and used primarily during crises, has been added for information retrieval, processing, and release – the joint information center, or JIC. This paper presents information on how the current utilizations of JICs, frequently conducted within the confines of a physical or corporeal location, may be improved upon with the supplement of or replacement with an electronic method of operational communication called a virtual joint information center, or V-JIC.

Joint Information Center

The Incident Command System (ICS) describes a public information officer (PIO) as a crucial task position within the command staff, and describes a JIC as a useful tool for the PIO (U. S. Department of Homeland Security, 2004). ICS formed in the 1970s following devastating wildfires in California, and the JIC concept began “around the time of the eruption of Mount St. Helens” (AudienceCentral, 2007, para. 1). The volcano exploded in March 1980.

Academic research about the use of a JIC is quite sparse. Table 1 shows the number of articles written during the past twelve years found in academic databases using the terms “risk communication,” “crisis communication,” and “joint information center.” These terms are commonly used by governmental agencies practitioners who create the aforementioned news products regarding events in which their organizations are involved. The search used the EBSCO service for an inquiry within the databases shown. The parameters requested all peer-reviewed material from January 1997 to early 2009; the search was not limited to full-text results. While the search undoubtedly did not capture all articles, it does reflect the abundance of risk communication scholarship and the paucity of research on joint information centers.

Table 1. Incidence of communications-related search terms in major academic databases

Term	Risk communication	Crisis communication	Joint information center
Number of articles containing term	2,094	731	1

Databases queried were Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier, CINAHL Plus with Full Text, Communication & Mass Media Complete, Education Research Complete, ERIC, Military & Government Collection, PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO, SocINDEX with Full Text.

A JIC is defined by the federal government as “a facility established to coordinate all incident-related public information activities. It is the central point of contact for all news media at the scene of the incident” (U. S. Department of Homeland Security, 2004, p. 37). JICs are where information is gathered, verified and used to produce news products, and released to the media and other stakeholders.

Other tasks accomplished in the JIC include: (a) monitoring news coverage to ensure accurate information is being disseminated and received properly, while correcting incorrect information about the emergency response that appears in the news media; (b) managing news conferences and press operations for disaster area tours; (c) providing basic facilities to assist the news media in disseminating information to the public and to credential media representatives; (d) providing all stakeholders directly or indirectly affected by the emergency with access to timely and accurate information about response, recovery, and mitigation activities and their limitations; and (e) ensuring government communication resources are managed effectively and duplication of effort by departments is minimized (U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2005, p. 3).

return to the top

---

Corporeal Joint Information Center

Not surprisingly, communications personnel at JICs make use of relevant equipment such as computers, telephones, fax machines, and two-way radios. Despite the time-savings available when using these electronic tools, the corporeal nature of the JIC creates limitations of available space and response time, according to Marc Mullen, Vice President of PIER Systems, a provider of electronic-based V-JICs. The selection and preparation of the physical facility can cause significant delays in producing and releasing crucial information. There is yet to be any incident where people were ready for it; where they had the (JIC) room ready. Unless it’s a dedicated communications center; then people still have to drive to it. The place for a V-JIC comes when you have to respond – when you get to any major or sudden event (M. Mullen, personal communication, April 10, 2007).

The V-JIC, as defined by the U. S. Department of Homeland Security, is an electronic substitute when a “physical co-location is not possible” (U. S. Department of Homeland Security, 2008, p. 72) and may include secure (password-protected) Web sites, e-mail, telephone conference calls, or two-way radio communication.

If providing information more rapidly is more likely to occur when using a V-JIC, why are there not more systems in place? Certainly cost is a factor in adopting any technology, but the reasons are likely more complex. There is an abundance of research on the adoption of new ideas or technologies called diffusion of innovations that may provide insight and avenues for disseminating V-JICs more broadly.

return to the top

---

Diffusion of Innovations

Diffusion of innovations is a stalwart model of how ideas, products, systems, and technologies are dispersed and accepted or rejected. Since its beginning more than 40 years ago, the more than 5,000 related research studies make it among the top social science frameworks developed (Haider & Kreps, 2004; Singhal, 2005). Its chief designer, the late Everett Rogers, defined diffusion as “the process in which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system” (Rogers, 1995, p. 5) and an innovation as “an idea, practice, or object that is perceived as new by an individual or other unit of adoption” (1995, p. 12). Rogers identified and typified groups by how quickly they adopt an innovation. Ranging from fastest adoption to slowest, the groups are innovators, early adopters, early majority adopters, late majority adopters, and laggards (McAnany, 1984).

Research is mixed regarding the adoption of Web-based tools – Prandelli and colleagues found only gradual use of Web-based collaborative tools (2006, p. 125) in their study of five manufacturing and retail industries. There is evidence to suggest the diffusion model is applicable to study the public sector (Frederickson, Johnson, & Wood, 2004), and more specific research on public health entities finds that various characteristics of the group itself factor into how quickly it embraces an innovation (Rivera & Rogers, 2006). Not surprisingly, management is found to play a crucial role in adoption as well (Peansupap & Walker, 2006).

return to the top

---

Virtual Joint Information Center (V-JIC)

While technological limitations have until relatively recently confined the structure of a JIC to a physical location, advances in computer hardware and software, the Internet and access to it, and a rethinking of JICs and message production have enabled the inception of the electronic-only V-JIC.

The internet and the accompanying improvements in the capability of computer systems to create, distribute, and receive information have together created new methods of knowledge transfer and new opportunities for those wishing to utilize them. As organizations adopt more technology, the comfort level with technology increases, ideally followed by changes in administrative rules, and finally, changes in behavior.

But as Prandelli and colleagues discovered (2006, p. 125), the adoption rate is slower than technically feasible because of human and organizational delays and limitations. Using the federal government as an example, after computers and Internet connections made telecommuting (i.e., working from a remote location) technically feasible, legislation was enacted in 2000 to allow the practice, (Office of Personnel Management, n.d., p. 1) but nearly a decade later, the number of executive-branch federal employees telecommuting is still less than 8% (Office of Personnel Management, 2008, p. 2).

The lack of scholarly research about V-JICs in and of itself is not surprising. The concept is relatively new; the structure is temporary (used almost exclusively for infrequent crises), the number of users is small – most likely just a few hundreds of communications professionals, and a V-JIC is a “behind the scenes” tool, similar to an operational status board or e-mail.

By viewing the concept of V-JICs as another form of virtual community, similar to electronic forums and online social networks, however, more studies do surface. Hsiu-Fen (2006) found that trust in the structure of a virtual community and the organization operating it was positively linked to the amount of use by the community. Other studies found that electronic interaction and increased information sharing are linked (Sharpton & Jhaveri, 2006), online work within an electronic community structure can lead to improved work offline (Graff, 2006), and how the site is designed and who designs it may affect how well users can accomplish tasks on the site (Faiola & Matei, 2005).

Ideally, a V-JIC system should be able to allow staff to conduct all tasks they would be able to in a physical JIC. This would include gathering, confirming, and vetting information and using it to produce or distribute information products to response partners. To do these tasks, the V-JIC system must, at a minimum, contain a method of transmitting, receiving, and storing written products.

Examples of V-JIC systems

One of the early commercial V-JIC systems, the Public Information Emergency Response or PIER Systems, was developed by Gerald Baron. Baron’s public relations firm represented the company Olympic Pipeline in 1999 when a massive gasoline spill ignited and killed three people (Baron and Company, n.d.; McClary, 2003). PIER Systems was developed based on his experiences providing information during the emergency.

Preparing for a potential hazard triggered the development of a second V-JIC system. The Umatilla, Oregon facility of the federal Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP) is one of several in the country with the mission to safely store, disarm, and destroy stockpiles of chemical weapons. The staff created an electronic status board and Smart Book (Umatilla County Emergency Management 2005; Umatilla Joint Information Center, 2007) with hyperlinks to information crucial to the agency and its stakeholders in the event of a chemical leak, spill, or explosion.

Third, Oregon’s state health department has developed its own V-JIC platform. The system was designed for use by response partners, not the media or Internet public, and thus is password protected (Oregon Department of Human Services, 2007). A brief demonstration tour in early 2007 showed a robust site with varying levels of security (i.e., system administrators could limit access to only users responding to a specific incident) and easy-to-use features to post and retrieve information about an incident (C. Holmgren, personal conversation, February 16, 2007). The system has been used for exercises and real-world events, and serves as the central resource for vetted information, thus minimizing inconsistent messages (C. Holmgren, personal conversation, April 13, 2009).

The three previously mentioned systems are designed to be specifically crisis-oriented V-JICs. However, the Stargazer system, created by the nonprofit Stargazer Foundation, offers certain social contact applications free of charge to individuals, families, and small nonprofits (Stargazer Foundation, 2007). For government agencies and other entities that wish to utilize the JIC features of the Web-based communication system, a nominal fee is charged.

In addition, new social networking products and systems are on the forefront of Internet technology. Web sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Ning are used by families, friends, and professional associates to share information (e.g., messages, images, files); these same functionalities are found on proprietary V-JIC systems.

A sixth system is perhaps the least costly and easiest to establish and adopt for agencies or organizations. It is not a discrete V-JIC, but the use of various electronic components such as the computer; Internet connectivity; e-mail; an intranet or Internet repository for files, such as Microsoft’s SharePoint© system; an online, real-time, instant messaging program such as AOL Instant Messenger; and a telephone or two-way radio. For the purposes of this paper, this system will be referred to as a fractional V-JIC.

Case study of V-JICs

One may better understand the various functions and usefulness of a V-JIC through an examination of their use. The following section describes events using the fractional V-JIC titled, “Gastrointestinal illness outbreak – Ohio – 2004.”

In summer 2004, the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) along with staff from other local health departments in the state, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, and staff from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) assisted the Ottawa County Health Department in their investigation of 1,450 cases of gastrointestinal illnesses in visitors to and residents of South Bass Island, located in Lake Erie, just offshore from Port Clinton, Ohio.

At the time, this was the second-largest waterborne infectious disease outbreak in the nation. The investigation determined the likely cause to be widespread groundwater contamination due to failing septic systems, the particular geologic features of the island, and heavy use of water and septic systems because of large numbers of visitors during the height of the tourist season.

Staff from ODH’s Office of Public Affairs activated a physical JIC in the Ottawa County Courthouse, about 2 miles from the county health department – the command center for the incident. At the JIC, the public communication efforts served to provide information to the media, residents, visitors on the island, elected officials, response partners, and other interested parties. The methods used combined typical features of a physical JIC (i.e., staff gathering at a single location to produce news products) with electronic elements (i.e., using existing office electronic methods to gather, confirm, use, share, and disseminate information). This configuration, without a specific V-JIC platform, fits the term fractional V-JIC.

The JIC was activated for eleven days and responded to more than 2,100 inquiries from media and those calling into the public information line. Because ODH had adequate staffing and technical capability to establish an information line call center at its headquarters, it was decided to conduct that portion of the public information operation there, rather than at or near the physical JIC (about a 2-hour drive away).

Updated information for the information line staff (and other response partners) was produced at the JIC and distributed by e-mail each morning. Later in the day, metrics about the number of calls received at the information line center were sent to the JIC and incorporated into other material, such as Web site updates, fact sheets, and activity reports.

Media monitoring is another typical function at a JIC. Because this outbreak received a great deal of media interest and inquiries, a robust monitoring operation was necessary. Rather than set up televisions and radios in or near the JIC, staff at ODH headquarters coordinated a multi-city effort to monitor the media. Nearly all TV news coverage came from two cities — Toledo to the west and Cleveland to the east. The ODH media monitoring coordinator requested the public information officer (PIO) from each city to monitor the news coverage in their community and forward a written report via e-mail. The coordinator from ODH combined those reports with additional examples from news Web sites into a single daily report and sent that report via e-mail to the JIC.

In an effort to provide adequate information about the progress and process of the public health and environmental investigations into what was making people ill, information was posted on the ODH Web site, and links to the content were provided to response partners for linking from their sites. The news products generated included news releases, fact sheets, and at the conclusion, a series of summary reports from the various agencies involved in the event.

return to the top

---

Conclusion

Not surprisingly, the recommendation from any vendor producing a V-JIC software system is to purchase a V-JIC software system. More impartially speaking, however, several agencies small and large from the local to the federal level of government have bought or created their own V-JIC systems used for communication responses. The creation of a national advisory group would allow greater investigation into the current state of technology being used. The agencies involved should be those that typically have an active role in crisis response. This would include, but not be limited to, public health, emergency management, hospitals, law enforcement, and fire departments. The advisory group can also capture best practices from organizations utilizing a V-JIC system. The need for organizations to be able to respond actively with their own information quickly is crucial, and efforts to do so may be made more productive through the use of a virtual joint information center.

return to the top

---

Corresponding Author

Bret Atkins is a public information officer with the Ohio Department of Health. Mr. Atkins has written various crisis communications plans for the state and is the author of two joint information center exercises. He can be reached at: (614) 644-8562, Bret.Atkins@odh.ohio.gov

return to the top

---

References

AudienceCentral. (2007). Glossary. Retrieved from http://www.audiencecentral.com/external/?objectId=20450

Baron and Company. (n.d.). Welcome. Retrieved from http://baronpr.com/?page_id=6

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2007). What Is Epi Info? Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/epiinfo/

Faiola, A., & Matei, S. A. (2005). Cultural Cognitive Style and Web Design: Beyond a Behavioral Inquiry into Computer-Mediated Communication [Electronic Version]. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11, 375-394. Retrieved from Communication & Mass Media Complete.

Frederickson, H. G., Johnson, G. A., & Wood, C. (2004). The Changing Structure of American Cities: A Study of the Diffusion of Innovation [Electronic Version]. Public Administration Review, 64, 320-330. Retrieved from Business Source Premier.

Graff, M. (2006). The Importance of Online Community in Student Academic Performance [Electronic Version]. Electronic Journal of e-Learning, 4, 127-131. Retrieved from Education Research Complete.

Haider, M., & Kreps, G. L. (2004). Forty years of diffusion of innovations: Utility and value in public health [Electronic Version]. Journal of Health Communication, 9, 3-11. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier.

Hsiu-Fen, L. (2006). Understanding Behavioral Intention to Participate in Virtual Communities [Electronic Version]. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 9, 540-547. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier.

McAnany, E. G. (1984). The diffusion of innovation: why does it endure? [Electronic Version]. Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 1, 439-442. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier.

McClary, D. C. (2003). Olympic Pipe Line accident in Bellingham kills three youths on June 10, 1999. Retrieved from http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=5468

Oregon Department of Human Services. (2007). PIO Portal/Virtual JIC/PHEP Login Retrieved from https://www.oregonhan.org/login/login.cfm?_page=piojic

Peansupap, V., & Walker, D. H. T. (2006). Innovation diffusion at the implementation stage of a construction project: a case study of information communication technology [Electronic Version]. Construction Management & Economics, 24, 321-332. Retrieved from Business Source Premier.

Prandelli, E., Verona, G., & Raccagni, D. (2006). Diffusion of Web-Based Product Innovation [Electronic Version]. California Management Review, 48, 109-135. Retrieved from Business Source Premier.

Rivera, M. A., & Rogers, E. M. (2006). Innovation Diffusion, Network Features, and Cultural Communication Variables [Electronic Version]. Problems & Perspectives in Management, 126-135. Retrieved from Business Source Premier.

Rogers, E. M. (1995). Diffusion of Innovations. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Samuelson, R. J. (2007). Long live the news business. Newsweek, 149, 40.

Sharpton, T. J., & Jhaveri, A. A. (2006). Leveraging the Knowledge of Our Peers: Online Communities Hold the Promise to Enhance Scientific Research [Electronic Version]. PLoS Biology, 4, e199. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier.

Singhal, A. (2005). Forum: The life and work of Everett Rogers - some personal reflections. Journal of Health Communication, 10, 285-288.

Stargazer Foundation. (2007). Full List of What′s Here. Retrieved from http://workplace.stargazer.org/lwp/workplace/whatshere-full

U. S. Department of Homeland Security. (2004). National Incident Management System. Retrieved from http://www.fema.gov/pdf/nims/nims_doc_full.pdf (5 mb, 152 pages)

U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (2005). Crisis Communications Planning: Establishing Joint Information Centers. Retrieved from https://www.llis.dhs.gov .

U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (n.d.). Welcome to the HSEEP Web site. Retrieved from https://hseep.dhs.gov/

U.S. Department of Justice. (2002). Crisis Information Management Software (CIMS): Feature Comparison Report. Retrieved from http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/197065.pdf (287 kb, 57 pages)

Umatilla County Emergency Management (2005). Oregon CSEPP: Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program 2005 Annual report. Retrieved from http://www.ucem.us/pressreleases/06Releases/2005_ORCSEPP_Annual_Report.pdf (565 kb, 18 pages)

Umatilla Joint Information Center. (2007). Smartbook. Retrieved from http://www.csepp.net/jic/

return to the top