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Preparing future communication professionals for disasters and emergencies: integrating WHO RCCE-IM into public relations education
Publication . Nunes, Tatiana; Raposo, Ana Luísa; Claxton, Nancy
Preparing future communication professionals for disasters and emergencies is a pressing challenge for Public Relations education. Unlike Crisis Communication which focuses on organisational response and reputational threat, Risk Communication within Public Relations emphasises prevention, preparedness and behaviour change. In disaster contexts, communication is not centred on organisational image but on reducing harm, sustaining public trust and protecting lives (L’Etang, 2013; Diers-Lawson & Qureshi, 2021). Recent emergencies, including pandemics, climate-related hazards and complex humanitarian crises, show that risk communication failures significantly exacerbate vulnerability and undermine response effectiveness. Evidence from global health emergencies shows that communication constitutes an intervention in its own right, with direct consequences on mitigating harm and saving lives (Diers-Lawson & Qureshi, 2021). The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Risk Communication, Community Engagement and Infodemic Management (RCCE-IM) framework is a core pillar of preparedness and response. It is one of the eight core capacities under the International Health Regulations (2024) which all States commit to develop and implement (WHO, 2005a). RCCE-IM serves as a vital communication tool, meditating between experts, authorities, media and communities while driving social and behaviour change. Trust emerges as the central organising principle, reinforcing the idea that “the overriding goal for outbreak communications is to communicate with the public in ways that build, maintain or restore trust” (WHO, 2005b). Despite its importance, RCCE-IM is largely absent from PR and Communication curricula, leaving future professionals unprepared for their roles in multidisciplinary emergencies. This paper addresses this gap through a pilot elective course on RCCE-IM in a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Relations and Corporate Communication at a Higher Education Institution in Portugal. Launching in the second semester of the 2025/2026 academic year, the course integrates WHO RCCE-IM principles and tools into PR education oriented toward disasters and health emergencies. This is the first such course in a communications faculty with plans to additionally develop an aligned curriculum for public health and medical students in Ukraine. To assess the impact of integrating RCCE-IM into PR education, this study adopts the WHO Capability Mapping tool (CapMap) as its primary evaluation framework. CapMap is a capability-based self-assessment instrument developed by the WHO Regional Office for Europe to support professionals working in RCCE-IM to identify strengths and areas for development across six interdependent subject areas: evidence generation, risk communication, community engagement, infodemic management, capacity-building and operational management (Gregory & Salvi, 2025). In this pilot course, students complete the CapMap assessment at the beginning and at the end of the semester. Comparative analysis of pre- and post-course self-assessments enables an examination of perceived capability development across RCCE-IM domains, offering an initial indication of the course’s contribution to strengthen these competences. The implementation of this pilot project will allow teams to assess the advantages and areas for improvement in applying this framework in the context of higher education institutions. Based on the conclusions presented, the aim is to extend this methodology to other higher education institutions, increasing the number of communication professionals trained and prepared to act in coordination with the WHO in disaster and emergencies. In conclusion, integrating RCCE-IM into Public Relations education intends to contribute to a necessary reconfiguration of professional training, positioning this framework as both an essential public health intervention and a core communication competence for the future of disaster and emergency communication.
Organizational reputation and crisis communication strategies: the case of the Elevador da Glória funicular accident
Publication . Nunes, Tatiana; Sandra, Weinstock; Nunes, Tatiana Filipa Gomes
Crises represent a threat to organizations and their stakeholders, as they may affect their image and reputation (Coombs, 2023; Fearn-Banks & Kawamoto, 2024). The adoption of appropriate crisis communication strategies, which should be aligned with the potential reputational risk, influences public perception, contributing to reducing the impact of the event, protecting and, in some cases, repairing the organization’s reputation, and restoring trust among its publics and stakeholders (Benoit, 1997). As crises are perceptual events (Coombs, 2023), what organizations say and do during a crisis can influence how they are perceived by their stakeholders and, consequently, their organizational reputation.
On September 3, 2025, a serious accident involving the historic funicular Elevador da Glória, in Lisbon, resulted in the death of 16 people, with 12 seriously injured and nine sustaining minor injuries. As one of the city’s most emblematic means of transport, considered the postcard of the city, the accident received extensive media coverage both nationally and internationally, placing Carris, the public company responsible for operating the system, under intense public scrutiny regarding its actions and responsibility in the accident.
The study focuses on a qualitative content analysis of the crisis communication strategy developed by Carris. The analysis is based on institutional and media content published between September 3 and September 6, 2025. It includes four press releases issued by Carris, a press conference, and a public intervention by the organization’s leader, as well as news published by the newspapers Público, Expresso, and Correio da Manhã, by Lusa, the national news agency, and by the public television channel RTP during this period.
The study also evaluates the adequacy of Carris’ crisis communication response to the accident. It examines how the communication timeline, the messages conveyed, and the tone of communication align with the assumptions of the most relevant theoretical approaches (Coombs, 2023; Coombs & Holladay, 2023; Benoit, 1997). It also analyzes the impact of the actions of the organization’s president, as leader and spokesperson during the crisis, on the construction of public perceptions of the crisis and on the organization’s reputation.
The results show that the communication strategy adopted by Carris in response to the crisis was not appropriate to the severity of the accident or to the impact it had on the organization’s reputation. The initial response was slow, preventing Carris from taking control of the public narrative and undermining image repair efforts. Furthermore, the image repair strategies adopted, particularly evasion of responsibility, were not aligned with the attribution of responsibility for the accident to Carris, as advocated in the litera-ture. The performance of the president of Carris, in his role as organizational leader and spokesperson, also revealed a lack of preparation for a crisis of this nature, reinforcing the importance of spokesperson training for crisis scenarios of this magnitude.
This accident involving the Elevador da Glória has multiple social implications. Beyond the emotional impact on the families and friends of the victims, as well as the general sense of
mourning and public distress in the country, the tragedy called into question perceptions of safety and user trust in this emblematic transport system in Lisbon, leading to the precautionary suspension of all the city’s funiculars (Bica, Lavra, and initially Graça) in order to carry out rigorous technical inspections. Moreover, the way Carris managed the crisis, through a slow response and the adoption of an evasion of responsibility strategy, combined with the lack of preparation of the leader as spokesperson, undermined the credibility of public transport institutions and contributed to public perceptions of insecurity and mismanagement of an essential public service.
This study presents several limitations that should be considered when interpreting the re-sults. It focuses only on the initial response to the crisis, within a limited time frame between September 3 and September 6, 2025, making it impossible to assess the long-term effects of the crisis response. In addition, the analysis is limited to press releases, social media content, and media coverage, which are secondary sources, and does not include an analysis of the direct perceptions of Carris’ stakeholders. Finally, as this is a single case study, the generalization of the findings is limited.
Certificação da estabilidade de paletes de produto acabado como ferramenta de gestão do risco logístico no transporte rodoviário
Publication . Carminda Isabel de Carvalho Costa Fialho Marques; Anes, Vítor Manuel Rodrigues
O transporte rodoviário de mercadorias paletizadas apresenta desafios relevantes ao nível da segurança e da eficiência logística, sendo frequentes situações de instabilidade das paletes que podem originar danos materiais, perdas de produto e riscos para a segurança rodoviária. Apesar da relevância do problema, no contexto da empresa em estudo, a avaliação da estabilidade das paletes à saída das unidades industriais baseia-se predominantemente em critérios empíricos, não
existindo abordagens normalizadas que permitam a sua validação objetiva.
O presente trabalho tem como objetivo analisar a estabilidade das paletes de produto acabado no transporte rodoviário, enquanto fator de risco logístico, e avaliar a viabilidade da certificação interna da estabilidade das paletes como instrumento de apoio à gestão do risco logístico e à melhoria do desempenho das operações de transporte.
A investigação adota uma abordagem conceptual e analítica, suportada por revisão da literatura científica e técnica nas áreas da logística, embalagem, paletização e gestão do risco, bem como na análise dos principais fatores técnicos que influenciam a estabilidade.
Como principal contributo, é proposto um modelo conceptual de certificação interna da estabilidade das paletes, baseado em critérios técnicos mensuráveis, que permite estruturar a sua avaliação à saída de fábrica.
Os resultados sugerem que a implementação de um sistema de certificação interna poderá contribuir para a redução de incidentes, melhoria da eficiência logística e clarificação de responsabilidades entre os intervenientes da cadeia de transporte, reforçando a segurança rodoviária e a sustentabilidade das operações logísticas.
Conceito de “bailarino ideal”: uma reflexão a partir do estágio na Compagnie Illicte aquando da criação de Le Lac des Cygnes
Publication . Costa, Viviana; De Lima, Cecília
Qualquer bailarino recém-formado que inicia o exigente processo de audições e candidaturas em busca de um contrato profissional confronta-se inevitavelmente com questões relativas às suas competências, ao seu valor artístico e às expectativas dos diretores artísticos e coreógrafos perante os quais se apresenta. É a partir desta inquietação que surge o presente relatório, desenvolvido no âmbito do Mestrado em Criação Coreográfica e Práticas Profissionais da Escola Superior de Dança, na área de especialização em Interpretação. A investigação procura refletir sobre a seguinte questão: o que caracteriza um “bailarino ideal” no contexto de companhias de repertório clássico e neoclássico? A investigação tem como objeto de estudo a Compagnie Illicite e o seu diretor artístico, Fábio Lopez, entidade que acolheu o estágio que sustenta este trabalho. Ao longo do relatório são abordados temas como o papel criativo e autoral do bailarino-intérprete, a noção de técnica enquanto finalidade e função expressiva na abordagem de Lopez, a influência das metodologias coreográficas na autonomia do intérprete e os conceitos de “moving identity” (Jennifer Roche), “hired body” (Susan Leigh Foster), presença e incorporação do movimento. São igualmente discutidas perspetivas críticas sobre o corpo na dança clássica, a partir de Sally Banes e Geraldine Morris. Complementarmente, analisa-se a relevância das práticas somáticas na formação e performance do bailarino, com destaque para a Alexander Technique e o Método Feldenkrais, enquanto abordagens que promovem presença, organicidade do movimento, consciência sensorial e integração entre visualização e ação física. Mais do que propor uma definição conclusiva de “bailarino ideal”, este processo de investigação desloca a questão de um modelo generalista e replicável para uma perspetiva singular, relacional e contextual. Neste sentido, o relatório desenvolve uma reflexão crítica sobre os processos de construção identitária do bailarino-intérprete perante uma visão artística da dança clássica e neoclássica na contemporaneidade
Diffusion-augmented YOLO26-Swin cascaded framework with hybrid SHAP-CAM for autonomous power grid inspection
Publication . Stefenon, Stefano Frizzo; Matos-Carvalho, João Pedro; Mariani, Viviana Cocco; Coelho, Leandro dos Santos; Yow, Kin-Choong; Stefenon, Stefano Frizzo; Springer Nature
Deep learning-based autonomous inspection of power grid insulators is challenged by data imbalance and model opacity. This paper presents an end-to-end solution integrating advanced data synthesis, detection, classification, and explainability. First, a conditional diffusion model generates realistic synthetic fault images to balance the dataset. A two-stage architecture based on You Only Look Once version 26 (YOLO26) extra-large and Shifted windows (Swin)-V2-B, called YOLO26-Swin, fine-tuned with Bayesian optimization, performs robust insulator detection and then fault classification. Finally, a novel SHapley Additive exPlanations with Class Activation Mapping (SHAP-CAM) method provides intuitive visual explanations for model predictions. Extensive experiments validate our framework’s superiority: it achieves an F1-score of 0.98149 and a mean Average Precision (mAP)@[0.5] of 0.98951, exceeding leading detection and classification models. This work highlights the efficacy of diffusion models for data augmentation in critical infrastructure and advances the interpretability of vision-based inspection systems.