• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

NAM Launches Emergency Network System That Will Deliver Disaster Alerts and Health Warnings to Ethnic Communities

Posted on: Thursday, 4 June 2009, 08:00 CDT

State of the Art System will Utilize 3,000 Ethnic Media Outlets to Deliver Vital Information

ATLANTA, June 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --New America Media (NAM) today unveiled an emergency network system that will utilize ethnic media outlets to deliver important health and emergency alerts to communities across the country, including many with non-English speaking residents.

Sandy Close, NAM's executive director, said that alerts can be sent to more than 6,000 contacts at 3,000 ethnic media outlets via a state of the art system of SMS text messages, as well as emails. Once the messages are received, the ethnic media representatives will activate their media outlets to deliver the messages to their millions of readers, viewers and listeners.

"This messaging system will save lives," Ms. Close said. "Think about the people who needlessly suffered or lost their lives during Hurricane Katrina because of a breakdown in communications. This system can deliver emergency disaster information in real time, as well as transmit important health announcements, such as swine flu alerts or warnings about tainted food."

Ms. Close said that she is negotiating with government agencies, as well as non-profits, such as the American Red Cross to utilize the network. In fact, she said that while emergency messaging is the immediate priority, some day in the future the system may also be activated for public policy statements or the private sector - pharmaceutical companies, manufacturers, etc. - creating new sources of income for ethnic media outlets.

"We are leveraging the ethnic media to open new doors to communities that mainstream media often fails to reach," Ms. Close said. "Our system will reach millions of people, better connecting them to important emergency and health information. Our goal is to provide ethnic communities with information that can improve the quality of life for their residents."

The emergency network system was previewed this morning during NAM's National Ethnic Media Expo & Awards at the Atlanta Hyatt Regency Hotel June 4 and 5.

The system was developed by two top technology companies. The email delivery system was developed by Plus Three (plusthree.com) in New York, and the mobile delivery component was built by Fonemine (fonemine.com), a Silicon Valley technology firm specializing in mobile interactive services for message delivery and marketing.

"This system is much more than high tech connectivity," Ms. Close said. "We are using high tech connections to mobilize a human infrastructure that will activate our media partners to serve as front line messengers to ethnic communities."

Ms. Close noted that the system will be operational at a time when the ethnic media is steadily growing. NAM is releasing a new poll on Friday at their EXPO showing that the ethnic media now reaches approximately 57 million African Americans, Hispanics and Asian Americans on a regular basis, amounting to 82 percent of all adults from the three most important ethnic and racial groups in the United States.

"It is very exciting to have this net work system available at a time when the ethnic media is reaching more people than ever," Ms. Close said. "We urge government, non-profits and private health and disaster agencies and organizations to take advantage of this opportunity to reach millions of people, many of whom will be receiving your messages for the first time."

(To schedule interviews or request the ethnic media poll, contact Alicia Ingram at (404) 493-1724 ingramalicia@bellsouth.net or Michael K. Frisby (202) 625-4328 mike@frisbyassociates.com)

SOURCE New America Media

Source: PR Newswire

More News in this Category