Media Management When A Child Dies
Claire Thompson, Freelance PR Consultant, Waves PR
Last week I was due at a Gumtree event. I was looking forward to it, but shortly before leaving, I received a panicked call from a friend who manages a sports club. A child had died andthe local media was hounding them for information and statements .
Sadly, this is the second time in less than a year I’ve been contacted on the same subject, after a neighbour’s son was killed in a car crash and the family was distraught at the misinformation being repeated.
When a child dies, there is very little information available for those around their families and friends about how to manage the media.
I’m not talking about information for professional organisations, social workers and the like, who have (or should have) training and easy access to professionals. I’m not talking about the situations where the police will be giving strict guidelines and helping with statements.
I am talking about a short, easy guide for the family friends, the football clubs that suddenly find themselves not only dealing with their own emotions, and those of the other children around them, but also having to deal with the media.
So over the coming month I plan to put together a guide to help. The media handling side is no problem, but there will be others out there who can help – who can share their own experiences, who can point to useful resources, who know from their own experiences what information they would have liked to have found, even who might like to sponsor it or help write it up.
So this is an appeal for anyone who may have something to share to let me know, either here or by email, claire at wavespr dotcom.
Everything will, I promise, be dealt with sensitively, and anyone whose story is shared will see the copy before it’s published.
Tags: crisis management, media
just because I can! | claireatwaves | 
April 14, 2010 7:14 pm
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