Chaos theory, informational needs, and natural disasters

This study applies chaos theory to a system-wide analysis of crisis communication in a natural disaster. Specifically, we analyze crisis communication during the 1997 Red River Valley flood in Minnesota and North Dakota. This flood, among the worst in modern American history, consumed entire metropolitan areas, displacing thousands of people. The conditions and decisions leading to the disaster, and the subsequent reactions are retraced. Communication related to river crest predictions (fractals), the shock at the magnitude of the crisis (cosmology episode), novel forms of reorganizing (self-organization), and agencies that aided in establishing a renewed order (strange attractors) are evaluated. Ultimately, we argue that preexisting sensemaking structures favoring rationalized, traditional views of a complex system led officials to make inappropriately unequivocal predictions and ultimately diminished the effectiveness of the region's crisis communication and planning.     

The Model American Foundation Officer: Alan Gregg and the Rockefeller Foundation Medical Divisions

From 1919 to 1951, Alan Gregg and his mentor, Richard Pearce, directed the Medical Education and Medical SciencesDivisions of the Rockefeller Foundation. Although they oversaw the expenditure of millions of dollars, today they are forgotten. Yet, the system that Gregg administered became the model for the funding of biomedical research after the Second World War. This paper draws on the records of the Rockefeller Foundation to assess Gregg and his impact on biomedicine and philanthropy.     

John Marshall and the Humanities in Europe: Shifting Patterns of Rockefeller Foundation Support

John Marshall is best remembered asthe first resident director of the RockefellerFoundation's Study and Conference Center atBellagio. Yet, his influence on knowledge,thought, and practice rivalled that of any ofhis contemporaries at the Rockefeller. Thispaper describes how he `went about hisbusiness' as a Foundation officer, and examineshis contribution to the creation of atransatlantic community of like-mindedtheorists and practitioners of communications.     

PUBLIC AND ELITE ATTITUDES TO ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

This paper puts the environment into perspective. Politiciansand commentators see the environment as yesterday's issue, forgettingthat the core of environmental activists is still double thelevel of just five years ago. International comparisons stretchingfrom Poland to New Zealand are made, examining the public'senvironmental behavior, attitudes and values. Using Great Britainas a case study, detailed comparisons are made between the attitudesof the general public with journalists, the financial community,captains of industry, and Members of Parliament and the latterthen compared with Members of the European Parliament. The publicis demanding action by companies and by governments on environmentalissues and has little faith in either to take corrective action.