Media Relations and Communication of Crisis in the Digital Era (original) (raw)
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Jurnal Komunikasi: Malaysian Journal of Communication
Situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) is applied in this research to evaluate Air Asia crisis responses. The research tests whether crisis responses are consistent with the SCCT premise related to situation when a crisis has more than one cluster. SCCT argues that in this case, organisation's crisis response strategy is adjusted according to the crisis clusters. The crisis manager can use a defensive strategy for victim cluster and an accommodative strategy when the company has intentional cluster. From the premise, the researchers formulates a proposition: because of having two crisis clusters (victim and intentional clusters), the crisis response strategies of Air Asia are defensive and accommodative. This study analyses both news and press releases on the selected crisis. The content analysis of media news reveals that the company has both intentional and victim clusters, although the intentional cluster is reported more frequently. Content analysis of the company's press releases identifies that the response strategies are accommodative and bolstering instead of accommodative and defensive. Accommodative strategy is used because most public attributions appeared to be intentional, while a defensive strategy is not applied because the media rarely reported the event as victim cluster. As a result, the company were able to successfully deal with the crisis. It can be concluded that a company with two crisis clusters should choose the relevant crisis response strategy in accordance with the type of the cluster in the public domain.
Zeszyty Prasoznawcze, 2015
Through a case study analysis, this paper applies crisis communication theories and models to investigate how the vocal disputes and ownership controversies over the biggest Polish mobile operator were handled by Polish and international corporations. It specifi cally addresses such issues as necessity (or lack thereof) of maintaining open and unlimited communication with media and through media in crises, signifi cance of media and their use by all parties involved, the role of the PR advisors during a major corporate confl ict, and a self-bounded nature of communication during serious corporate controversies. The paper is aimed at bridging the gap between PR theory and practice, mainly by advising businesses how to handle crises and confl icts. The last notion on discrepancy between PR theory and practice is also based on an experience of the author, an academic and a seasoned PR practitioner, who participated in several crisis communication programs, including the one described in the study.
An Empirical Study on the Role of Media in Crisis Communication Management in Uncertain Times
Journal of Logistics, Informatics and Service Science, 2023
Mass media was one of the most significant ways of networking in the information age. Thanks to universal access to the internet, the mass media plays an important part in fostering political unity and reshaping popular opinion. Crisis, in all of its manifestations, is an inextricable part of humanity's life, and its diversity is growing all the time. During times of crisis, the media plays a critical part in disseminating information and making people aware of the situation. The media has the ability to calm the public and inspire them to take constructive steps, or it can terrorize the public and cause havoc. This is a crosssectional survey-based applied research project. The statistical population consisted of residents of Kozani city and simple random sampling technique was used to select 300 residents for further investigation. A questionnaire created by the researcher was used to gather data. Descriptive, correlational and regression analysis were used to analyses the study variables. According to the results, the news media plays a significant and constructive role in reporting events concerning mitigation and recovery from a crisis, in addition, the majority of respondents prefer to watch the incident's headlines before the news from emergency zones returns to normal. According to the findings, crisis managers should think about the kind of newspaper they'll use when packaging crisis material. Furthermore, crisis coordination is supported by print media management techniques for core audiences. Similarly, factual emergency analysis of the print media continues to create confidence in the public domain for the press, and facilitates crisis coordination. As a result, crisis management must study the history of a catastrophe before communicating; they must raise questions like "why," "how," and "what happened before" in order to examine the present scenario for crisis reduction.
PAPER PRESENTED BY ANESU E. KUREBWASEKA • MEDIA AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT
Generally a crisis can be defined as a time of great danger in human life. It is an emotional and physical response to some precipitating event or series of events that disrupts our normal day-today functioning (Butler and Hope, 1995). A crisis is a critical period following an event that might negatively affect the society in which decisions have to be made. It is a time of exploration requiring rapid processing of information and decisive action to attempt to minimize harm and to make the most of a potentially situational Coombs and Halladay (2002). Coombs (2007) further defines a crisis as a significant threat to operations that can have negative consequences if not handled properly. Everyone experiences a crisis now and then. The media communicates human rights during and after crisis by reporting cases of political violence, economic crisis, domestic violence and all other acts against human rights like rape, domestic violence and many others. Because of the media, many incidents undoubtedly go documented, particularly in cases of rape and sexual assault, which victims are often unwilling to report. A crisis can create threats on public safety, finance stability and reputation. Human rights are the rights that every person by virtue of humanity is entitled to certain natural rights from birth till death and cannot be taken away as asserted by Bhebhe (2001). The media as noted by Stromback (2005) has function it perform in the public. Media is the vehicle that allows the sharing or exchange of information between the sender and the receiver to achieve a common understanding as noted by McQuail (2010). Media has a social function, and its task is to provide comprehensive information on events during and after emergencies as soon as possible thus the media have a key role in crisis communication. It compasses the print and electronic thus newspapers, radio, television and the internet. However, the media can communicate human rights positively or negatively during and after a crisis.
Moment Journal, 2018
As we enter a new era marked by changing values, driven by disruptive technologies and leading to the erosion of trust, organizations today are facing crises at greater frequency than in the past. Transformation is a phenomenon that appears to have taken place in each and every period of history, but it has never been as rapid, comprehensive, and unpredictable as we observe it today. There are an increasing number of people who name the era that we currently live in as the post-truth era where the focus is on narratives, their significance, and their abilities of persuasion, rather than focusing on presenting knowledge or the truth. Causality, or the rational paradigm, that was defended by modernism, does not seem to have enough prowess to interpret today's complexity and phenomena. This perspective and transformation are also valid for at organizations that encounter crises. This article gives a theoretical framework for scrutinising how organizations deal with obstacles within post-truth times. It suggests that the value-based and emotionally-driven framework of the narrative paradigm might be the most powerful communication approach adopted by an organization during a corporate crisis in this new era.
H-ermes. Journal of Communication Crisis Communication: modelli e casi di studio
2014
Crisis Communication: models and case studies. We often read of crises or scandals involving companies and governments. Nonetheless, the study of the phenomenon is still not very investigated or limited to cases of social denunciation. The aim of this report is to overcome the static model, news and consequent scandal, by analyzing the structure of a crisis and the dynamics involving key stakeholders, the media and the public opinion. The analysis tells us that the parts collide, splitting the public, both on the newspapers and the social media. The new proposed model is confirmed by four case studies, both political and corporate. These are, in order: Barilla. No pro-gay commercials, Nestlé and horse meat, the call of Vendola to Archinà, Cancellieri and the case Ligresti. Case analysis was performed on a sample of six national newspapers, noting each article of reference to the case. The survey of public sentiment was carried out by tools for social media marketing quantitatively and qualitatively.
Studying Crisis Communication: New Theories and Methodologies
The seminar, which spans over three days and is aimed at doctoral students within the social sciences and the humanities, is divided into two parts. Part (I) consists of an advanced presentation and discussion of recent crisis management and crisis communication research. The focus is on how the discipline of crisis management has developed from a narrow to a broad perspective, and from a simple broad to a complex broad perspective; and how crisis communication has moved from a rhetorical and text-oriented approach to a more strategic and context-oriented approach with a view to allied fields such as risk communication, issues management and reputation management. A special interest is devoted to international crises and the role of the new social media. Part (II) consists of an advanced introduction to the methodologies of crisis communication including both quantitative methodologies and research techniques (experimental designs, content analysis, and surveys) and qualitative methodologies and research techniques (especially case studies as a research design). The seminar also includes a one-day long case study-based workshop focusing on theory building. After the seminar, you should be able to • Understand how crisis management and crisis communication have developed as academic disciplines since the mid-1980s • Identify and discuss key concepts, models and theories within the field of crisis management and crisis communication • Understand the mechanisms of theory building or development • Apply various types of research designs and research methods within the study of crises, crisis management and crisis communication Teachers • Professor W. T. Coombs and professor S. J. Holladay, University of Central Florida (USA) • Professor F. Frandsen and professor W. Johansen, Aarhus University (Denmark)
Crisis Communication with Media
Public Security and Public Order, 2018
Appropriate information addressed to the public is one of the basic conditions for both prevention and resolution of crisis situations. Its main relay is mass media, with the help of which it is easiest to reach the recipient. There are rules that condition proper communication in crisis situations, media representatives are also expected to have specific foundations. Proper cooperation with the media may be a factor supporting the activities of the state in crisis situations. The article presents both general content as well as specific solutions applied in the field of communication with the media in crisis situations in the Republic of Poland.
Revista de la Asociación Española de Investigación de la Comunicación, 2019
publication of specialized journals such as the Journal of International Crisis and Risk Communication indicate the ongoing institutionalization of the field (Schwarz, Seeger, & Auer, 2016a). Moreover, an increasing number of academic and public research centers, primarily at American and European universities, point to the rapid growth and societal relevance of the field (Palenchar, 2010). Within the field of public relations and strategic communication research the management of crisis communication already counts as a vital sub-discipline (Coombs, 2012b). This gain in importance can also be explained by the numerous devastating crisis events which do not only have tremendous social, political, ecological, and economic impact, but also reveal in many cases the complexity and limitations of managing crisis communication as practiced by organizations in various fields of society. This complexity and scope of crises go along with the interdisciplinarity and multiperspectivity of the research field, which in most cases lacks reciprocal reference (Coombs, 2012a; Löffelholz & Schwarz, 2008). However, the key role of communication in the context of crisis situations and especially the role of strategically planned and research-based communication by organizations before, during and after crisis situations have been recognized in practice as well as in academia. This has stimulated further efforts of developing a stronger conceptual and theoretical basis of crisis communication research. Compared to past ontological descriptions of crises, scholars now emphasize the social construction of crises as well as the role of individual and organizational observers and their perceptions. Pearson and Clair (1998, p. 66) defined organizational crisis as "low-probability, high-impact situation that is perceived by critical stakeholders to threaten the viability of the organization and that is subjectively experienced by these individuals as personally and socially threatening." Hearit and Courtright (2004) argued that communication is a constitutive element of the construction of social reality in crisis contexts. Applying this to organizational crises, the authors concluded that "[c]rises are terminological creations conceived by human agents, and consequently, are managed and resolved terminologically. As such, instead of being one component, communication constitutes the quintessence of crisis management" (p. 205). Hence, crises and their interpretations
The Role of Organization-public Relationships in Crisis Communication
i I dedicate this work to my parents, Joe and Stavroula Akinyode and sister, Sophia Osawe-Akinyode who contributed immensely to my pursuit of a Masters degree. I would have not been able to reach this far without the support of Maria Berger-Liehm and Peter Liehm and Michaela Berger; thank you. I also extend my gratitude to all the guidance provided by the staff in the Institute of Media and Communication at the Technical University of Ilmenau especially towards the completion of this thesis. Particularly, I would like to acknowledge the most often than not brief, but precise pieces of advice given to me by Professor Martin Löffelholz over the course of my two year study. I hope this work expresses my appreciation for the opportunity to study at the institute. I thank Dr. Andreas Schwarz for his patience and support but most importantly his encouragement during the period of writing this thesis. I also would have never made it this far if not for the help of my good friend Akhil Agrawal who was there when times were rough. In direct support for this research I would like to extend my appreciation to Michaela Berger for the wonderful work in the translation of the survey from English to German; this went a long way to secure the success of the field work. I also express my humble gratitude for her unconditional friendship that ensured the mental support that was crucial for making my stay in Germany a pleasurable one. Also I appreciate Dr. Akinola Akinyemi for his input during our discussions about the scientific method as it applies to the social sciences. Thanks to all those anonymous students who partook in the experiment/survey. Finally, the University Regensburg library for the vast number of material needed for this thesis. ii Two themes run recurrently throughout this thesis that details a theoretical reconstruction of organization-public relationships within crisis situations and its operationalization in current crisis communication research. Implications from the empirical investigation show support for a strategic view of public relations as a proactive management function whose main objective is to balance overall organizational missions with the dynamics that are prevalent in business environments by building and protecting its intangible resource base. The research isolates crises as peak points stemming from the inevitable conflicts of interests during the ongoing relationships that link the organization to its stakeholders. Crisis management is placed as a reactive sub-functionality of an inherently proactive public relation (PR) framework. A between-subject randomized web-based experimental design provides evidence that the primary unit of analysis in PR research-relationships-might be the more important than previously conceived when strategically responding to the threats posed by crises. A student sample (n=290) was exposed to a simulation of a past Deutsche Bahn (DB) crisis trough an article describing a preventable yet challenging situation. A post-crisis response statement given was manipulated. Each participant was randomly assigned to one of four crisis response messages that were configured based on guidelines from the Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT). Prior to experimental manipulation, a pre-test measured perceptions of relationships with DB. Findings indicate that (1) pre-existing perceptions of relationship quality with DB had considerable impact on how participants reacted to crisis response messages on the outcomes of (a) reputation and (b) attribution of responsibility and on (2) the extent of account honouring. That is, the extent to which they (a) accepted the message and (b) assigned credibility/trustworthiness. A relational view to crisis management theoretically welcomes crises as dangerous opportunities to learn, adapt, reconfigure and understand stakeholder dynamics. This thesis which mostly focuses on for-profit organizations offers insights to the strategic effectiveness of crisis response strategies from a stakeholder orientation and concludes that the focus of managing reputation limits the application of public relations theory. A focus on relationships provides valid and reliable performance indicators for the competitive advantage of organizations and the creation of value both for the organization and society as a whole.