Digital corporate communication and paracrises and AI

Abstract

Organizational crises are threats to stakeholder relationships that can impact tangible and intangible corporate assets. In focusing on how digitalisation is changing corporate crisis communication, this chapter addresses the rise of paracrises and the utilization of artificial intelligence (AI) in processing risk information for crisis management and communication. The chapter illustrates the digitalisation of crisis communication through the case of VW’s advertisements in 2020 launching its 2021 Golf; the advertisements attracted widespread condemnation in social media and traditional news media for being racist, thus damaging VW’s reputation. The authors argue that as various aspects of crisis communication become digitalized, the primary effects of digital channels on corporate crisis communication are simple translations. Accordingly, future research should focus on how to integrate digital channels into crisis communication rather than on seeking to find isolated effects of various digital channels in crisis communication.