When Hugh Munn talks about crisis communications, people across the nation listen – especially police and prosecutors.

Munn, a public relations instructor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications, has studied the AMBER Alert process and is helping to make it work nationwide. The University of South Carolina graduate, with a bachelor’s in journalism and a master’s in criminal justice, has been on the front lines – 14 years in broadcasting and newspapers and 26 years as chief spokesman for South Carolina’s State Law Enforcement Division.

So it was natural to turn to Munn, who has taught at the journalism school since his SLED retirement in 2002 and joined the faculty full–time this year, when the U.S. Justice Department wanted public service announcements to promote awareness of AMBER Alert. That program uses broadcast messages and electronic road signs to alert a community when a child has been abducted.

The objectives seemed simple for the PSAs released this past September:

• Feature a dialogue between John Walsh, host of “America’s Most Wanted,” and Ed Smart, father of Elizabeth Smart who was abducted and successfully recovered. Walsh’s son, Adam, also was abducted, but was later found murdered. His story became the television movie “Adam.”

•Keep the conversation light and direct. Let Walsh and Smart thank broadcasters, law enforcement personnel and other key partners who helped successfully develop the AMBER Alert campaign.

• Make sure the PSAs were not technically oriented or directed toward one specific organization.

Of course, there were some complications. The time limit was 20 seconds, and the audio had to be usable for radio as well. While Walsh was well-recognized, Smart was not. And the Justice Department was calling the shots.

Munn began by observing the key players on video news reports. Both men appeared to be articulate, affable, and outgoing, so the script needed to be the same. Both needed to be talking directly to the audience, even though they were standing together and delivering the same message: “Thanks to you, AMBER Alert is working and saving kids’ lives.”

While it was easy to identify Walsh with just his name superimposed on the screen, Smart needed a few precious seconds to identify himself. “Supered” text added information. With the 20-second time limit, the visuals were simple, showing both men’s faces as they read the script.

How much rewrite would Justice Department officials want? None, it turned out. During the summer, Walsh’s America’s Most Wanted production company produced three of the PSAs for free and in time to debut at the annual AMBER Alert conference in Columbus, Ohio.

The script-writing process was stressful, but Munn is used to getting the job done. For more than a decade, he’s been providing crisis public relations training and counseling in more than 45 states and Puerto Rico for the Justice Department and the National Center for Missing and Abducted Children.

Munn’s training has aided private businesses and organizations, including Sam Houston State University, the West Virginia Hospital Association, the New Mexico Municipal Association, the Alaska Association of Secondary School Principals and Cigna Insurance Co. He’s also developed a USC Maymester course, Crisis Public Relations For The Marketplace: A Case Study Approach.

Munn is now working on crisis training proposals that incorporate Newsplex, the high-tech newsroom that is a joint project of the College of Mass Communications and Information Studies and IFRA, the worldwide publishing association.

So stay tuned and alert for Hugh Munn’s vital contributions to crisis communication.