Toward a Publics-Driven, Emotion-Based Conceptualization in Crisis Communication: Unearthing Dominant Emotions in Multi-Staged Testing of the Integrated Crisis Mapping (ICM) Model

Abstract

To better understand not only the minds, but also the hearts of key publics, we have developed a more systemic approach to understand the responses of audiences in crisis situations. The Integrated Crisis Mapping (ICM) model is based on a publics-based, emotion-driven perspective where the publics' responses to different crises are mapped on 2 continua, the organization's engagement in the crisis and primary publics' coping strategy. This multistage testing found evidence that anxiety was the default emotion that publics felt in crises. The subsequent emotions felt by the publics varied in different quadrants involving different crisis types. As far as coping strategies were concerned, conative coping was more evident than cognitive coping across the 4 quadrants. Evidence also suggested strong merit that conative coping was the external manifestation of the internal cognitive processing that had taken place. Cognitive coping was thus the antecedent of conative coping. Although both the publics and the organizations agreed that the crises were relevant to the organizations' goals, they differed on who should assume more responsibility. The findings, although still very much exploratory, suggest theoretical rigor in the model, with room for further refinements to generate what Yin (2003) termed “analytic generalization” (p. 33) for the ICM model.