Here’s a chance to watch something happen and learn something, too. Learn what? Well, that’s it. We don’t know what we’ll learn, but we will learn something about people, the media, and a bit about government.
At 2 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 9, the government will conduct its first national test of the national Emergency Alert System (EAS), and there is some concern on the part of government that people might take the test seriously, grab the family Bible, and drive the rusting pickup truck deep into the woods where presumably they will hide until the aliens leave the planet.
If you think that’s a joke, it is. Sorry. Perhaps I overstate it. However, you should remember the public’s reaction to Orson Welles’ 1938 Mercury Theater of the Air’s broadcast of War of the Worlds. People did jump out of buildings. They did report large, creeping dark smoke approaching their homes. They did grab the family Bible, the shotgun from over the door, and drive into the woods. People were assaulted. About two weeks later a posse had to trek into the Rocky Mountains to convince a few to come home.
You might imagine the possibilities here.
“EAS participants provide a critical public service to the nation as the resilient backbone of alert and warning when all other means of communication are unavailable,” says a FEMA web site. “EAS Participants include all broadcasters, satellite and digital radio and television, cable television and ‘wireline’ video providers who ensure the system is at a constant state of readiness.”
Readers with questions should visit the FEMA site. Lots of blah, blah, blah awaits. I do not know what a “wireline video provider” is.
Other than the obvious, there are essentially two concerns. First, the government has not publicized the test very well – I have not seen or heard anything about it, for example – and, second, there seems to be confusion about how it will be presented, how long it will last, and what, if any, warning it will provide.
“This system test is the first of its kind,” says an email to federal employees. “It is designed to broadcast a nationwide message to the American public. Nothing like it has been conducted in the history of the country. There have been tests in the past but none to all parts of the nation at the same time. The test will run concurrently on all radio and TV band and the message will run for three minutes. Most messages in the past were anywhere from 30 seconds to one minute.”
Please note the 30 seconds versus the three minutes.
“There is great concern in local police and emergency management circles about undue public anxiety over this test,” the email report continues. “The test message on TV might not indicate that it is just a test. Fear is that the lack of an explanation message might create panic.”
What will we learn? One TV station can visually present it in a different way than the next one on the dial. I can guarantee confusion. And among radio listeners and television viewers out there, especially at that time of day, people will react differently. Someone will panic. The media’s countless ways to publicize or explain it offer lots of uncertainty.
Not far below the surface, I am a social-psychologist. I watch people, constantly trying to learn how people respond to unusual or unexpected stimuli.
I add one bit of experience here, and that is the media knows if you warn people too far in advance, people forget it. If you tell the public a day in advance, they remember it, especially if you remind them again on the right day. This applies to everything from a special city council meeting to a rescheduled football game. Let’s see if it applies to a nationwide alert.
