Crisis Communication Strategies Research Articles

Situational Crisis Communication Theory and the National Football League: A Case Study of the NFL’s Response Strategies to Its Concussion Crisis

This case study analyzes the crisis response strategies used by the National Football League (NFL) in its external communications to address the concussion crisis spanning 2015–2020. The analysis focuses on describing the crisis communication strategies and tactics used by the league. Situational crisis communication theory provides the theoretical framework for analyzing the NFL’s crisis response strategies. A qualitative thematic analysis was conducted of 25 publications published by the NFL on nflcommunications.com, with findings indicating that the NFL focused on the primary crisis strategies of rebuilding and diminishing while employing tactics such as organizational change and shared responsibility. The findings revealed in this case study also highlight a discrepancy between the theoretical ground of situational crisis communication theory and the application of crisis response strategies in a real-life organizational crisis facing a professional sports league.

Communication for destinations’ image in crises and disasters: a review and future research agenda

Comunicación Para la imagen de destinos en crisis y desastres: revisión y futura agenda de investigaciónResumenPropósitoEste estudio proporciona una perspectiva general, los “research fronts”- los temas más actuales de una disciplina científica-, los temas emergentes y una agenda de investigación sobre comunicación de crisis de la imagen de los destinos turísticos.MetodologíaLa investigación está basada en un análisis bibliográfico coupling, complementado con una clasificación h-Classics y un análisis temático de todos los artículos examinados con esta metodología bibliométrica (artículos fechados entre 2017 y 2021, ambos años incluidos).ResultadosCon este análisis bibliométrico, se identifican cuatro clusters temáticos. Dos de ellos, presentan los “research fronts”, los temas más vigentes de un campo científico: el cluster 1 se refiere a la comunicación realizada para transmitir el concepto de seguridad a los turistas, y el cluster 2 destaca la relevancia de la colaboración de todos los agentes turísticos para crear resiliencia en los destinos en la comunicación de crisis. Los otros dos clusters recogen los temas emergentes de investigación futura: el cluster 3 se centra en las estrategias de marketing para la época de postcrisis y el cluster 4 analiza cómo la comunicación contribuye a reducir la percepción de riesgo de los turistas y, por tanto, a potenciar su intención de viaje. Por último, el artículo propone una agenda de investigación basada en estos temas emergentes.Originalidad/valorHasta donde tenemos conocimiento, éste es el primer estudio bibliométrico especialmente enfocado a la comunicación de crisis para la imagen de los destinos turísticos (con sus tres etapas, precrisis, crisis y poscrisis). Esta investigación, que analiza la literatura más reciente en este campo, proporciona conocimiento sobre la comunicación de las crisis y desastres más recientes, a través de sus “research fronts”. Asimismo, propone una agenda con nuevos temas que están surgiendo en esta disciplina, útil para futuras investigaciones académicas. Dichos temas, junto con los aprendizajes de incidentes pasados, pueden ser usados por las Organizaciones de Marketing de Destinos (DMO, en sus siglas en inglés) para incorporarlos en su comunicación de crisis destinada a la recuperación de la imagen de los destinos turísticos en el actual escenario post pandemia o en futuras crisis o desastres.

스포츠 팬 태도 분석 : 운동선수의 스캔들 유형과 위기커뮤니케이션 전략을 중심으로

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate if there are significant differences in various sport fan attitudes (e.g., team attitude, brand attitude, athlete attitude, and acceptance of strategies) depending on the types of professional athlete’s scandals (on-field vs. off-field) and types of crisis communication strategies (accommodative vs. defensive).BR Method: To achieve the purpose, data were collected from 400 professional baseball fans (over 18 years old) living in Gyeongnam province. Of the 400 questionnaires, a total of 363 questionnaires were employed for final data analysis after excluding 37 incomplete questionnaires. Data were mainly analyzed through Two-way Analysis of Covariances (ANCOVAs) using SPSS 22.0.BR Results: The results of this study are as follows. First, there was a significant interaction effect on team attitude between types of scandals and types of crisis communication strategies. Specifically, team attitude was the most positive when an accommodative strategy with an on-field scandal situation, while it was the least positive when a defensive strategy with an on-field scandal situation. Second, the results related to brand attitude were the same as those of team attitude. Third, there was no significant interaction effect on athlete attitude between types of scandals and types of crisis communication strategies. Lastly, there were significant interaction effects on the acceptance of strategies between types of scandals and types of crisis communication strategies. Specifically, acceptance of strategies was the highest when an accommodative strategy with an on-field scandal situation, while it was the lowest when a defensive strategy with an on-field scandal situation.BR Conclusion: The overall findings of this study provide meaningful and practical implications on what types of crisis communication strategies should be used based on types of scandals.

Post-pandemic crisis communication strategy for the domestic market of Thai urban beach city

ABSTRACT This research aims to identify the typology of domestic tourists visiting Phuket, Thailand, and examine how each tourist type perceives crisis communication strategies in the context of domestic tourism amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The online questionnaires were administered and analyzed using the two-step cluster analysis, paired samples t-test analysis, and one-sample t-test analysis. The findings, revealing domestic tourist clusters according to their preferred activities and effective crisis communication strategies appropriate for each cluster, can be recommended to relevant field practitioners and academically used for future research.

Crisis Communication Strategy as a Solution to Bridge the Peace Agreement Between Kopassus and OPM in West Papua

The security crisis in West Papua is getting hotter in recent days, although the escalation of the conflict is sometimes high and sometimes low. The shooting of TNI officers assigned there is often the target of gunfire by armed criminal groups in West Papua, as well as innocent local people who are also victims of these incidents. So, it is necessary to hold a mutual peace agreement to reduce losses due to shooting incidents. The crisis communication strategy is considered to be a solution to produce a peace agreement between Kopassus as an institution that represents the Indonesian government and the armed groups or OPM (Free Papua Organization) in West Papua. The crisis communication strategy is considered appropriate to be carried out in the midst of two parties who have different thoughts.

Is it too late now to say we’re sorry? Examining anxiety contagion and crisis communication strategies using machine learning

In this paper, we explore the role of perceived emotions and crisis communication strategies via organizational computer-mediated communication in predicting public anxiety, the default crisis emotion. We use a machine-learning approach to detect and predict anxiety scores in organizational crisis announcements on social media and the public’s responses to these posts. We also control for emotional and language tones in organizational crisis responses using a separate machine learning algorithm. Perceived organizational anxiety positively influences public anxiety, confirming the occurrence of emotional contagion from the organization to the public. Crisis response strategies moderated this relationship, so that responsibility acknowledgment lowered public anxiety the most. We argue that by accounting for emotions expressed in organizational crisis responses, organizations may be able to better predict and manage public emotions.

Comparing public responses to apologies: examining crisis communication strategies using network analysis and topic modeling

Comparing public responses to apologies: examining crisis communication strategies using network analysis and topic modeling

Operational crisis communication management: a content analysis of FIFA’s communication during Covid-19

ABSTRACT Despite the high number of crises encountered within sport, crisis communication management in sport remains understudied. Operational crisis communication in particular can be considered an uncharted territory, regardless of its potential significant effects on sport organisations’ reputation. In this study we explore the themes used in FIFA’s communication during the Covid-19 pandemic, to understand how operational organisational crisis communication was managed by football’s leading sport organisation in this unprecedented climate. Content analysis is conducted in all FIFA’s press releases and Twitter messages related to Covid-19 from March 5th to July 3rd 2020, in order for insights to be offered to the content and meaning of FIFA’s operational crisis communication, their attempts to emphasise the organisation’s positive traits and actions, and the links built with managing and improving the organisation’s reputation. The analysis of the themes used indicates that proactive planning of crisis communication management had been conducted, while lessons from previous handling of crises appear to have been learned. By outlining the crisis communication strategy adopted by FIFA, we offer insights to the unexplored area of operational crisis communication in sports, while presenting a roadmap for operational crisis communication management for other sport organisations and future studies exploring the topic.

Is Being Funny a Useful Policy? How Local Governments’ Humorous Crisis Response Strategies and Crisis Responsibilities Influence Trust, Emotions, and Behavioral Intentions

This study is the first to investigate how a local government’s humorously framed response strategy on social media to a low-severity crisis influences people’s trust in the local government and their crisis-related behavioral intentions, specifically when considering the government’s responsibility for the crisis. Based on the situational crisis communication theory, we examined the mediating role of experienced positive or negative affect on people’s responses to a local government’s crisis communication strategy. Further, we exploratorily examined the predictive power and moderating role of demographics, sense of humor, disposition to trust, and the respective crisis scenarios. A total of 517 people participated in an online experiment in which they were confronted with three randomly presented fictive crisis scenarios where the local government’s crisis responsibility (high versus low) and the framing of their crisis response strategy (in form of humorous versus rational Twitter posts) were systematically varied between subjects. First, the results mostly corroborate earlier findings about the degree of crisis responsibility (that is, when a government’s crisis responsibility is high, people have less trust and behavioral intentions) and about the mediating role of experienced affect. Second, we found that humorously framed strategies negatively influence trust and positive affect (but not behavioral intentions). In contrast to earlier findings, the crisis responsibility × framing interaction was not significant. Altogether, the results advise against using humor in crisis communications on social media, even in low-severity crisis. Exploratory analyses indicate that further investigations should focus on specific crisis characteristics and potential moderators.

Intertwined Crises: California’s Public Universities’ Responses to COVID-19 and Anti-Asian Animus, January 2020 to June 2021

COVID-19 ravaged everyday life for individuals across the globe, but its impact was especially harmful to Asian Americans who suffered both a notably high risk of infection and hospitalization, as well as a sharp rise in anti-Asian racism. In this article, we take these intertwined issues—a synergistic interaction between a novel virus and the deeply rooted racism rendering Asian Americans as perennial foreigners—to interrogate whether and how organizations’ early responses to COVID-evidenced communicative strategies that acknowledged the crises that unraveled throughout 2020. Through the framings of Situational Crisis Communication Theory and Racialized Organizations, this study considers what repertoire of crisis communication strategies do public institutions employ to address COVID-19 and what do these responses reveal about racialized inequality in higher education? The findings draw from an original archive of 2,723 public community messages across 31 public institutions in the University of California and California State University systems and demonstrate a deprioritization of responsiveness to anti-Asian animus amid the multiple issues emergent from COVID-19; rather than taking the opportunity to foreground universities’ capacity to respond to this crisis, institutions often redirected their responsibility. Such evidence reveals that universities are racialized organizations that employ management strategies that remain ill-prepared to not only manage racialized inequality throughout the crises of the COVID-19 syndemic but also to interrupt racism’s durability.

Analisis Strategi Komunikasi Krisis Klinik Kesehatan Gigi di Masa Pandemi COVID-19

The dental health clinic is one of the institutions experiencing a crisis during the COVID-19 Pandemic. People who are worried about contracting COVID-19 refrain from visiting various health service institutions, including the Dental Health Clinic, which is considered a source of transmission because it is related to the mouth and teeth. This has an impact on decreasing the number of patients and affecting the existence of the business. This study aims to analyze the crisis communication strategy of a Dental Health Clinic in Banjarmasin during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The method used in this research is the case study method as part of descriptive qualitative research. Data collection techniques used in-depth interviews, observation and document analysis. The results showed that although the Dental Health Clinic, which was the object of the study, did not have a special Public Relations, it had carried out the role and function of Public Relations in crisis communication. The crisis communication strategy is implemented in a planned and systematic manner in 3 crisis phases: Pre-crisis, crisis and Post-crisis. Clinic Management Accommodative Strategy with Rectification as a crisis communication strategy tactic during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The use of direct communication demonstrates this through the spokesperson and optimization of the use of social media to convey information and education to the public. This research provides academic and practical contributions related to Crisis Communication Strategies in the world of health and enriches the scientific treasures of Health Communication in Indonesia.

In the eye of the (fire)storm: better safe or sorry? Crisis communication strategies for managing virality of online negative brand-related content

ABSTRACT Companies face a considerable number of online complaints on social media, with some escalating into major virality (online firestorms). Given the risks associated with reputation and sales, companies implement crisis response communication strategies to refrain audiences from forwarding content to others. Despite the positive effects of such strategies, the mechanism that underpins the effects are not yet analyzed in the literature. The current study proposes that in situations of potential online firestorms, brand attitude influences conative responses, including intentions to forward negative content to others. An apology is the response strategy most often implemented, despite others being mentioned in the literature. The current study evaluates how corrective actions compare with an apology in dealing with complaints, with the type of responses being proposed as a moderator of the effects of brand attitude. Results show that brand attitudes following exposure to a crisis response strategy have significant effects on refraining intentions to forward negative e-WOM. An apology is the preferred option as a response strategy in general. However, when specific triggers of complaint are analyzed, corrective actions and apology perform similarly. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Impact of Crisis Communication Strategies on People’s Attitudes toward Behavioral Guidelines Regarding COVID-19 and on Their Trust in Local Officials

Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) guides responses of corporations in crises. We tested how COVID-19 related crisis communication strategies affect trust in mayors and the acceptance of behavioral measures. A total of 561 participants (53% female) with a mean age of 50 years took part in an online experiment in which we systematically manipulated the mayor’s crisis communication strategy (deny crisis, diminish role in crisis, rebuild relationship after taking responsibility, bolster reputation, no response) and pre-crisis reputation (good past crisis management, bad past crisis management). Age, gender, and education served as covariates. We also tested the predictive power of personal concern regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as internal and external control convictions. In our preregistered analysis, we found that crisis communication strategies had no significant effect on participants’ ratings of behavioral measures, but they affected participants’ trust in the mayor. The deny crisis strategy resulted in the most unfavorable ratings, while the effects of the other strategies were moderated by the mayor’s pre-crisis reputation. Additional exploratory analyses showed that individual concern and trust were important predictors for the acceptance of behavioral measures. Even though we did not find any effects of communication strategies on behavioral measures, our results support SCCT’s utility in guiding communication strategy during a pandemic.

The impact of social media as a strategic approach to corporate communication when handling crises at a selected South African bank

This study investigates the impact of social media as a strategic approach to corporate communication when handling crises at Bank X in the Gauteng province of South Africa. The study had three over-arching objectives; to determine the challenges that are encountered when handling crises about communication at Bank X, to determine if the leadership has the willingness to change their approach when formulating the strategy; to determine if social media has an impact on strategy formulation of crisis communication at Bank X; and lastly to make recommendations to Bank X’s leadership on how to incorporate the social media component as a communication approach to effectively handle crises. This research followed a qualitative research approach through one-on-one Microsoft Teams in-depth interviews with 10 participants. The study, through the analysis of the primary data, secondary data, and literature reviews, underpins and supports that there is an opportunity for Bank X to incorporate social media as a strategic element to the crisis communication strategy. The organisation’s crisis communication strategy needs to incorporate social media from a strategic perspective for it to be ahead of the curve when a crisis emerges online. The implications for Bank X are a lesson in the evolution of technology in the communication space and how imperative it is for the bank to evolve.

An Examination of Organizational Crisis Communication Strategy

This paper examines Michigan State University’s (MSU) official communications related to the Nassar sexual assault case. Because of the public nature and media centric focus of the Nassar case, this set of communications offers a rare opportunity to investigate the role of a smoldering organizational crisis communication strategy. This study contributes to the crisis communication strategy literature by using directed content analysis. Unlike previous crisis communication research, the current study uses data posted over a four-year period. Results indicated that over time, in spite of a variety of strategic communication tactics that the number of university donors decreased while student applications remained relatively stable. Using the results, an extended model of strategic crisis communication is presented to guide future research.

Crisis Communication on Yayasan Dunia Mega Bintang’s Cyber Public Relations

This study examines crisis communication at Yayasan Dunia Mega Bintang in terms of cyber public relations activities. The foundation underwent cyberbullying to Aurra Kharisma in the form of hate comments on its social media account. Therefore, crisis communication is required to maintain the foundation’s image. The theories used are crisis communication, situational crisis communication theory, public relations, dan cyber public relations. With a qualitative approach and case study research type, this study uses in-depth interviews, documentation, and qualitative content analysis method. The results indicate that the foundation used the four stages in public relations strategies in crisis communication. Fact finding strategy helped to figure the cause of crisis which is negative comments on social media and the foundation took a defensive stance. As communication facilitators, the team planned dynamic programs supported by social media planning in line with the Situational Crisis Communication Theory. Communication strategy is divided into two types by implementing deny, diminish and bolstering strategies. Evaluation strategy, both internal and external is rarely conducted formally although it is important to maintain the continuity of crisis communication strategy. Based on the results, the researcher suggests the foundation should construct a specific social media team and establish a stronger boundary with pageant lovers as these factors may cause a crisis. The usage of open, dialogical, and participatory social media can serve as a model for crisis communication. The message’s speed and accuracy are crucial factors to consider and is necessary to have a consistent approach to presenting positive information. Evaluation is also important to maintain reputation.

Crisis Communication Strategy PT. PLN (Persero) in Responding to Electric Blackout in Jakarta in 2019

Electricity is a primary need for people in the world, including Indonesia. PT. PLN (Persero) is the only electric company in Indonesia that provides electricity. The electricity blackout that occurred on August 4, 2019 in Jakarta as well as in several areas in West Java, Banten and Central Java paralyzed residents' activities, public services and industry. Using descriptive qualitative methods based on Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) with data collected through documents in the form of news related to the electricity blackout, this study tries to identify and describe how the Public Relations of PT. PLN (Persero) as a company that provides electricity uses a strategy to manage and deal with the crisis. The results of this study indicate that the Public Relations of PT. PLN (Persero) uses a combination of primary crisis response strategies between a reduction strategy (minimized) and a rebuild strategy (rebuild). In addition, they also use a secondary crisis response strategy in the form of a boosting strategy and a victim strategy.

"Building and Maintaining Trust in Public Institutions During the Coronavirus Pandemic. A Theoretical Perspective"

The aim of the article is to explore strategies that can be used to build and maintain trust in public institutions in times of crisis. It is well documented that trust in public institutions facilitates citizens’ compliance with restrictive measures, and therefore it is an important resource in times of crisis. In particular, we highlight the importance of crisis communication strategies in a changing and uncertain environment, maintaining transparency and credibility of public institutions, demonstrating empathy, competence and openness, educating stakeholders and the public, and collaborating with relevant stakeholders. In the final part of the paper, we reflect on how strategies to build trust in non-crisis situations are different from the strategies adopted during crisis situations. The analysis is based on the systematic analysis of journal articles published on the topic of trust in public institutions since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Using Humor to Promote Social Distancing on Tiktok During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

BackgroundDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, many humorous videos on how to practice social distancing appeared on social media. However, the effect of using humor as a crisis communication strategy to persuade people to conform to social distancing rules is not known.ObjectiveDrawing on the literature on humorous message framing and crisis communication, this research explores the effectiveness of a humorous message in communicating social distancing rules in two crisis severity phases (low vs. high severity) and also evaluates how humor affects individuals’ online and offline engagement intentions during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsA 2 (message framing: humorous vs. non-humorous) x 2 (crisis severity phase: low vs. high) between-subjects design experiment was conducted to test the research questions during the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic in China from January 30 to February 2, 2020.ResultsThe results showed that the severity of the phase of a health crisis can significantly affect stakeholders’ online and offline responses toward the disease. More specifically, in a low severity phase, humor led to increased source likability for the message, and more online and offline engagement intentions. However, no differences between a humorous and non-humorous message in perceived risk were observed. Whereas, in a high severity crisis phase, humor reduced individuals’ offline engagement intentions and a decrease in perceived risk, no significant difference was found between a humorous and non-humorous message on source likeability.ConclusionHumor can motivate both more online engagement and offline protective action intention when the crisis severity phase is low, while when crisis severity soars, a non-humorous message should be more desirable. More specifically, using humor in communicating information about an infectious disease can enhance the spokesperson’s likeability in a low severity phase, and also helps to spread health information to a larger audience. While, the negative side of using humor in communicating an infectious disease appears in severe crisis phases, as it then decreased the public’s perception of risk, and triggers less protective actions. Going beyond previous research, this study recognized that crisis severity changes in different phases of the spread of infectious disease, thereby providing actionable strategy selections for crisis practitioners in a dynamic communication environment.

Victim crisis communication strategy on digital media: A study of the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown bore a devastating impact on organizations across the globe. In this crisis, organizations belonged to the victim cluster, with a low crisis responsibility. Nevertheless, organizations needed to strategize their crisis responses and communicate with stakeholders to reduce the threat to reputational capital and manage stakeholder reactions in the pandemic. In this paper, we studied organizational Twitter communication during the COVID-19 crisis through the lens of the situational crisis communication theory (SCCT). We analyzed 325,627 tweets collected from the Twitter pages of 464 organizations belonging to the Fortune 500 list. The Twitter data reflected organizational COVID-19 crisis response strategies and demonstrated organizational use of Twitter for crisis communication. We applied lexicon-based emotion mining to identify and measure emotions, and topic mining to measure crisis response topic scores from this large multi-organization dataset. We performed path analysis to test our research model derived from the SCCT. The analysis showed that instructing and adjusting information can minimize threats to organizational reputation in a victim crisis and manage stakeholder reactions. Positive emotions showed a stronger association with behavioral outcomes. Emotion neutral tweets generated more favorable stakeholder reactions. The paper contributes to the literature on situational crisis communication for a victim crisis. The multi-organization data addresses the sensitive inter-organization dependencies and improves the understanding of crisis communication. It provides practitioners an insight into the effect of the COVID-19 crisis response strategies on stakeholder emotions and behavior.