This is one of the newest entries on the FACSWeb site for journalist:

[reproduced solely for educational and discussion purposes]

National Y2K Summit Checklist

The National Y2K Summit: Public Preparedness vs. Public Panic

Final Days of Y2K A Journalist's 10-point Checklist

Planning news coverage for the final days of Y2K is much like planning coverage for political campaigns or a major storm. Y2K is a classic risk story that needs to be put in context for news audiences. Representatives from journalism, government, business, and the academic communities addressed the issue during the National Y2K Summit September 17, 1999. The summit convened at the Freedom Forum World Center in Arlington, Virginia. They sought consensus on how the press could tell the public what it needs to know, in part to help lessen the likelihood of panic when something doesn't work on January 1.

Foundation for American Communications (FACS) and the Freedom Forum Media Studies Center co-sponsored the National Y2K Summit in cooperation with the Radio-Television News Director Association (RTNDA) and the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE).

The Freedom Forum has posted a good brief summary. You can hear a RealAudio webcast of the three-hour session, courtesy of FreeRadio.

Participating were leaders of media, government and key industries, including: John Koskinen, Chair, President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion; Senator Robert Bennett, R-Utah, Chair, Senate Select Committee on Y2K; Dr. Robert Alloway, National Leadership Task Force on Y2K; Scott Anderson, American Bankers' Association; Mike Austin, Arizona Division of Emergency Management; Bill Brier, Vice President, Edison Electric Institute; Thomas J. Browne, Aviation Millennium Project; Steve Davis, Coalition 2000; Bob Giles, Executive Director of the Media Studies Center and Senior Vice President of the Freedom Forum; Kelly D. Johnston, National Food Processors Association; Jonathan Krim, San Jose Mercury News; Kendra Martin, American Petroleum Institute; Phil Schneider, Pharmaceutical Alliance for Y2K Readiness; William Ulrich, Santa Cruz Community Task Force and The Tactical Strategy Group; James Walker, "World News Tonight," ABC News.

The following checklist reflects key points raised.

1.Preparedness

Have you done stories on how citizens can make reasonable individual preparations without panic? Do you have a plan to effectively package information and advice that people can keep on hand to effectively prepare (such as newspaper and web site special sections)? Does your coverage help the public understand the impact on local businesses if large numbers of people buy food, gasoline, or use ATMs the last three days of the year? Do your sources help the public understand that not everything will work perfectly on January 1.2000?

2.Focus & Persistence

Are you focusing on what is being done by government and private sector to solve potential Y2K problems? Are you down playing stories from sources whose purpose is to predict an outcome? Are you determining whether a company or agency can authenticate its Y2K audit? When a company or agency will not fully disclose its Y2K efforts, are you making that a story? Are your reporters prepared to differentiate between candid status reports, including failures, as opposed to rosy spins?

3.Sources & Resources

Do you have authoritative sources for the many areas of Y2K (local government, transportation, medical facilities, power companies, etc.)? Are you asking sources what they think the public needs to know? Have you determined the relevancy and credibility of your sources? Do you have contacts at key organizations' headquarters or national base? Are you asking sources what they consider to be high-risk areas?

4.Context & Perspective

Are you providing context and perspective to your coverage, such as:

additional factors that could cause problems, (e.g., weather) the number of failures that occur anyway under normal circumstances (e.g., power failures) operations that are not date sensitive (e.g., a gravity-fed water system rather than an electrically powered system.)?

Have you reported how testing for Y2K compliance works?

5.Time Frames

Are you prepared to help the public understand how long it will take fix various specific Y2K problems? (Will it be one hour, one week, etc.) Do you recognize that not all Y2K problems conclude January 1? (i.e., problems in developing countries and unexpected glitches here) Are you aware how long it could take for some ripple effects (such as overseas disruptions) to be felt here? Have you identified which operations will switch to Year 2000 on Greenwich Mean Time (7 p.m. EST, 4 p.m. PST) December 31, 1999? (I.e. airlines, banks, securities, etc.)

6.Contingency Planning

Have you focused on contingency planning -- even from companies and governments that say they're fully compliant? (I.e., the Federal Reserve has printed two hundred and fifty billion dollars to be available at banks.) Have you developed a series of reports on contingency plans of various industries or government services serving your audience?

7.Balance

Do you update your audience when problems you've raised in the past have been resolved? Are you preparing reports describing how your communities and industries may be benefiting from the elimination of Y2K problems? (I.e., they now have more computer power, operating more efficiently, and managers who now have a deeper understanding of their operation in ways they've never had before, and their interdependency with other companies.) Do you have a plan for dealing with alarming information to insure that it is accurate?

8.Small Business & Community Groups

Are you covering the risks to small business? (E.g., though hospitals are prepared how about doctors in private practice?) Are you covering the preparations of non-government community and neighborhood groups?

9.Caveat Emptor

Have you been alerting the your audience to watch out for possibleY2K schemes and fraudulent Y2K schemes? Do you have a way of determining the validity of claims and warnings about Y2K? Do you have a policy for dealing with last-minute claims or panic?

10.News About Us

Have you reported to your audiences your own news organization's preparedness? (You're their information lifeline.) Does your news organization have its own contingency planning in place? Have you reported this to your audience?

Additional recommendations can be found in May 25, 1999 Congressional testimony of Barbara Cochran, RTNDA, and elsewhere at this site (such as Media Mirror).

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FACS also commissioned Prof. Dr. Kimberly M. Thompson, Assistant Professor of Risk Analysis and Decision Science Center for Risk Analysis, Harvard School of Public Health, to draft a keynote address for its National Y2K Summit, held September 17, 1999 in Arlington, VA. The result is an important, succinct 6-point paper, Risk Assessment, Management, and Communication Insights for Y2K Risk Reporting.

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Return to Y2K Notebook Return to Covering Y2K Contents Page

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[ENDS]

-- John Whitley (jwhitley@inforamp.net), November 10, 1999

Answers

Are you questioning those who say that there will be only minor problems or none at all to determine upon what their confidence and optimism is based?

Are you helping the public to see that there are a variety of viewpoints on Y2K topics, and not merely accepting corporate and government statements as absolutes?

Have you, personally, examined this subject beyond the surface statements of corporate and government officials and others who have an agenda (like, say, "keep the economy going as long as possible" or "keep the stockholders happy" or "keep the market propped up", etc., etc.)?

-- Sara Nealy (keithn@aloha.net), November 10, 1999.

Thanks for posting that. I went to the site and registered (One is asked to register when you try to access a link)...

http://www.facsnet.org/

No wonder the news is always the same. Very revealing and very disturbing.

-- John (jh@NotReal.ca), November 10, 1999.

"Are you down playing stories from sources whose purpose is to predict an outcome?"

And Kosky's "3-day BITR" mantra fits in where in this PR scenario?

-- Brooks (brooksbie@hotmail.com), November 10, 1999.

Why do I keep seeing the word Fascist when I see Facsnet?

-- John Q Smith (John@smith.gov), November 10, 1999.

When you come out so hiding, will you tell the folks huddled around the fire what your last job was?

When the folks ask you who, what, when, where, and why, what good are your canned answers going to do you?

When do you think TPTB will come out of hiding?

Why are you asking us for some spare cans of food?

Where were you when the lights went out in Georgia?

Who was to blame for this *^$*&#$ MESS!!???

-- spun@lright (mikeymac@uswest.net), November 10, 1999.

Sounds more like a recipe for bad sausage, than a script for good reporting.

-- snooze button (alarmclock_2000@yahoo.com), November 10, 1999.

Government telling the press what to report, and how to report it.

Isn't that what makes this country *great*!

-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), November 11, 1999.

C'mon, guys. If your local TV station started running a series of stories which addressed most of these areas, wouldn't it be a vast improvement? Wouldn't it make some people actually think about the issue as something that may not, in fact, be "solved"?

It'd sure as hell beat the "don't worry, be happy" blather that passes for hard-hitting journalism on my local airwaves. At least this gives journalists a starting point, hopefully to get him/her digging and actually thinking.

Imagaine that.

OK, it's a pipe dream.

I, for one, choose to stay tuned for further developments. Film at 10. Don't touch that dial.

Is it too much to ask to expect some hard-hitting pieces? There's too many juicy stories to tell, and it's a sweeps month, after all. My guess is stations across the country already have stories either in the can or in the works.

They may have been persuaded by management, however, to hold off until post-rollover. Facts, blurry as they are, can indeed lead to panic. Don't want to scare off advertisers. Etc.

I would still urge you to contact your local NBC affiliate. Refer them to this site. Have them consider running a series of stories coinciding with the blockbuster movie.

Last chance, perhaps, to make lemonade out of lemons?

Or not.

-- Steve (hartsman@ticon.net), November 11, 1999.

I actually thought this is a fairly well balanced list of guidelines. Or rather, it would have been a few years ago. The problem I can see is that Y2K hasn't been sexy enough to get in the Joe Blow newstream up until now. But as it's no longer an abstract problem, we could start to see some serious reporting of outstanding issues.

Can you see the problem with that? If Joe Blow wakes up NOW, then we are screwed. Frankly, I'd have liked these guidelines to say "You missed the boat. Now, very, very quietely, go buy a couple of weeks of food for you and your families, cross your fingers and most importantly: DO NOT WAKE UP JOE."

Sigh. I am actually coming down on the side of Bill and his cronies. The guys in suits should just keep smiling and giving the thumbs up, and we can deal with the recriminations later. Sorry. :(

-- Colin MacDonald (roborogerborg@yahoo.com), November 11, 1999.

Yeah, cautioning against those who seek to "predict an outcome" jarred me, too. Has anyone ever seen a story in the propaganda press about the consequences of systemic morbidity? Does it strike anyone as odd tht there is no exploration of that topic? Like people who never talk about death, for fear it might come true, our owned press scrupilously avoids any discussion of topics that periodically occur everywhere, such as famine, social chaos, and plague. The people are kept in a slumber, never made aware of the thinness of the ice on which they walk. "It is a grim, determined, alert inactivity which keeps Mr Coolidge occupied constantly. Nobody has ever worked harder at inactivity..."

-- Spidey (in@jam.Spell), November 11, 1999.

NOTICE:

Did you notice that ONLY the "authorities" mentioned are given credibility; that all other sources are to be scrutinized (and ot dismissed), but that the "piecemeal" factoids/soundbites thrown in here in each point are to accepted as gospel......

This is the foundation for pure and unaltered propaganda - paid by the taxpayers, to get out the administration's view.

Independent research, at the national level, is strictly discouraged by this checklist, and local research isn't treated any better....

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), November 11, 1999.

From #7: "Do you have a plan for dealing with alarming information to insure that it is accurate?"

Seems like the media is being put on alert: Expect "alarming" developments. Verify its accuracy. Of course. That's part of the territory.

The media will ignore "alarming information" prior to rollover as either unverified, inaccurate, or speculative. However, once the SHTF, they'll cover the story unlike any other event in history.

Or not. Stay tuned. The carnival is gearing up for a long stay.

-- Steve (hartsman@ticon.net), November 11, 1999.