Exploring the social broadcasting crisis communication: insights from the mars recall scandal

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study aims to investigate how Twitter has been used during an international product recall. Based on the SMCC model and the Crisis Response framework, the study proposes a new crisis communication model (SBCC) to analyse the 2016 Mars product recall tweet dataset. The study finds that the platform has mainly been used to ask questions and spread negative information from the news media. It also finds that the information diffusion (retweeting) has positive associations with the number of followers and the use of Hashtags. These findings suggest how organisations should supervise crisis communication and hence can protect reputational assets.