New Theoretical Directions and Frameworks

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to provide the reader with a comprehensive overview of the most important theoretical directions and frameworks in social media and crisis communication research. The chapter is structured in four parts. First, we discuss how the four key concepts – social, media, communication, and crisis – can be defined. Second, we review a corpus of literature reviews published between 2015 and 2020. Third, we review key concepts, models, and theories as they have been developed recently in social media and crisis communication research. We focus in particular on the SMCC model and the NCC model. Finally, some of the new directions and frameworks are presented, including Rhetorical Arena Theory (RAT) and an attempt to reframe crisis communication (and social media) into three subfields (public sector crisis communication, political crisis communication, and corporate crisis communication).