This past year, I had the opportunity to work on a grant project on social media and crisis communications for the National Center for Food Protection and Defense (NCFPD). This grant project was for the 2009-2010 year, and the project had several components to it. One that I worked on particularly was focusing on social bookmarks on Delicious regarding the H1N1 crisis and food (particularly pork products). From this research came a research paper that was presented this past November at the NCA Convention in the Applied Communications Division.
One of the neat things about the NCFPD is not only do they host webinars, but they also send out a monthly newsletter to all of their associates in various industries and disciplines. I recently found out that I am featured in the December 2010 newsletter – very fabulous! 🙂 You all should check out their website – there are many links and features for learning more about food safety and food risk communication.
It has been great being part of the NCFPD – actually, it was working on their grant project that got me interested in my dissertation topic. I knew that I wanted to do a quantitative research study focusing in on social media and crisis communications – but the question was – in what context? When I was working as a research assistant for the NCFPD grant, I realized that there were many opportunities in my line of research with the food industry. So, I decided that it would be interesting to look at the effects of message source and reliability in crisis messages in a food crisis. The results so far from the study have been very interesting, and definitely applicable to not only the public relations and crisis communications field, but also to food safety professionals and agencies.
Hope you all are having a wonderful and happy holiday! Merry Christmas!
Best Wishes,
Karen
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