THE COUNTRY FIRE AUTHORITY'S PUBLIC RELATIONS ACTIVITIES: AN ESSAY

The Victorian Country Fire Authority (CFA) is one of the world’s largest volunteer-oriented emergency services. It provides services to Victorians such as bush, structure and transport-related firefighting, road and technical rescues, and other emergency activities.

The CFA’s mission is to ‘work together with communities to keep Victorians safe from fire and other emergencies… and to protect lives and property.’

They have over 50,000 volunteer members and employ over 2000 paid staff members. They service particular districts of the state ranging from Swan Hill to Wodonga, Bairnsdale to Dandenong, Geelong to Horsham, and Bendigo to Lilydale.

The CFA has a range of differing target publics. This section of the paper will explore the concept of target publics, including the differences between impartial, allied, associated and discriminating publics (Crable and Vibbert, 1986, pp.245-6), as well as aware publics, active publics, inactive publics and aroused publics (Hallahan, 2000, pp.499 – 515).

Target publics are groups of individuals which are stakeholders of some variety in an organisation. Impartial publics are those whose relationships with the CFA are important, but no more important than their relationships with other organisations.

For example, a group of school children addressed in a CFA-led school program may hold their relationship with the CFA in the same regard as that which they hold swimming and pool safety; it is no more important than other relationships that they have with different organisations.

Allied publics are those which share crucial, special relationships with an organisation, such as a relationship between the CFA and its volunteer firefighters, which represents a symbiotic coupling; one cannot exist without the other. Associated publics are those which share special relationships with an organisation, however not crucial ones.

For example, the CFA shares a special relationship with employees of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) which services the inner suburbs of Melbourne in the same way the CFA does for the outer suburbs of Victoria. Their relationship is special, they work together in some important situations, however one can exist without the other; it is not a crucial relationship.

Discriminating publics are those publics which are expected to be impartial, but for some reason form a crucial and important relationship with an organisation, which in relation to the CFA could be any publics with no prior involvement with the CFA, but then needs a house fire put out or mechanical extraction from a vehicle in a car crash, creating a special relationship between the two.

Inactive publics are those which possess both low involvement and low knowledge of an organisation, for example people living in the outer and country suburbs of Victoria who haven’t had any experience with the CFA and are aware of their existence but are not experts on the organisation. This may be a family who know of the CFA, have never volunteered or worked with them, and have never had to have emergency services administered by the CFA.

Aware publics are those with high knowledge, but low involvement with an organisation. For example, a university student completing an assignment based on the CFA could hold a relatively extensive knowledge of the CFA but still have a very low level of actual involvement with the organisation.

Aroused publics are those which hold a low level of knowledge regarding an organisation but may be heavily involved with one. In relation to the CFA, this may be family members (eg. young children) of CFA employees or volunteers who have a vague understanding and awareness of the CFA, but whose lives revolve significantly around the CFA.

Active publics are those with a high level of involvement and also a high level of knowledge regarding a particular organisation. This generally means that they are an important stakeholder in a situation, such as a volunteer or employee of the CFA, who should have an extensive knowledge of their organisation as well as heavy involvement.

The publics outlined in these examples are those with which the CFA have established and maintained relationships.

This section explores the success side of the evaluation of the CFA’s public relations efforts.

To begin, the public relations branch of the CFA implements a variety of differing platforms in distributing information and news to their target publics. These platforms include a strong use of social media, press conferences and releases, and a heavy reliance on the CFA’s website.

The CFA uses a range of tactics and strategies to pass on their information, always in a planned and deliberate manner, with honesty and concern for the public interest, and with the intention of problem-solving at a high level (Wilcox and Cameron, 2010, pp.5 – 7). These tactics are crucial for an effective public relations function within an organisation, especially as the CFA deals with the distribution of often vital and potentially life-saving information.

The ethics surrounding this responsibility are held in high regard and possess important value for public relations practitioners (Pearson, 1990).

The CFA’s use of Twitter and Facebook in distributing alerts or information in mass amounts with little time delay is a valuable form of relation building with target publics. Each time a communication between the CFA and a target public occurs, there is a particular public relations process to be followed, involving research, action, communication and evaluation (Marston, 1963).

An event concerning particular target publics can establish a need for research to be completed, e.g. there is a fire in the north-east of Victoria; where exactly is it, what suburbs/areas will it affect, is it life-threatening, what is being done about it?

This research then results in a plan for action by public relations practitioners, as to what needs to be done to effectively communicate to target publics, e.g. that there is a danger to their physical wellbeing as well as their physical possessions.

This will be followed by the execution of at least one communication platform distributing the news to target publics, e.g. via news releases on the CFA’s website or mobile app, press releases, or warning alerts released on social media such as Twitter and Facebook; e.g. CFA representatives holding a press conference informing publics, and app, website and social media notifications regarding the fire in the north-east.

Finally, evaluation must occur throughout this process and in more depth upon completion of the event/communication. This can be done in a variety of ways using varying research methods but must allow for a measurable result of the public relations function or activity (Wilcox, Ault and Agee, 2005, p128).

The CFA are able to practice a variety of different methods, but mostly carry out qualitative research in terms of accidents or events attended to, however they also carry out differing quantitative research regarding any end results.

This paragraph attempts to tackle any shortcomings of the CFA’s public relations functions.

With reference to the tactics and strategies addressed in the second paragraph (Wilcox and Cameron, 2010, pp.5 – 7), an effective execution of public relations actions invokes a need for a two-way communication model. However, the failing of the CFA in this instance is that it does not possess a two-way symmetrical model of communication (Grunig and Hunt, 1984).

Whilst it freely disseminates information and news to its target publics, no equal amount of feedback is received nor asked for by the CFA’s public relations practitioners. The reasoning for the need for a symmetrical model is so as to ascertain target publics’ opinions and feelings regarding the actions of an organisation, allowing them to improve on both their actions and communication methods with their publics.

This is a model based on research and is useful in clearing up any misunderstandings or conflicts between an organisation and its publics. In this instance, the CFA has demonstrated an underwhelming attempt to exert symmetrical communication efforts with its target publics and is something that can certainly be improved on.

This paper has aimed to address the overall effectiveness of the CFA’s public relations activities and functions using a range of concepts such as target publics, tactics and strategies, research, action, communication and evaluation, research methods, and models of public relations.

There were few public relations failings found throughout research conducted on the CFA, and such research has shown, with the support of scholarly evidence, that as a whole the CFA conducts relatively successful and effective public relations activities.

Whilst there are always additional concepts and ideas to delve further into, it can be said that the CFA has an efficient and positive relationship with its publics, and that these relationships are managed to a high level, as is the aim of public relations in itself.