A crisis is a pivotal moment for a company, and having prepared communicators can impact the reputation and financial state of a company. But there is currently a gap in learning how to manage a crisis and performing in the workplace. To explore this problem, I analyzed the four most popular textbooks in crisis communications and analyzed how they used theory to help students craft a fitting response to a crisis. My thesis recommends incorporating rhetorical theory, specifically the theory of the rhetorical situation, to bridge theory and practice and provide students with flexible theory to learn how to respond in a crisis.

The purpose of this study is to compare social media's role in the proactive crisis communication planning in two administrations, two companies and two non-profit organizations. A qualitative comparative study method has been used and people familiar with social media and crisis communications work from each business has been interviewed. The interviews have been transcribed and analyzed to discover the opinions and reasoning about how businesses work with proactive crisis communication and the role they give social media. The interviews were analyzed based on selected theories and previous research in strategic crisis communications, where issues management and crisis communication plans have a significant role. Also research on the pros and cons of social media and crisis communications channels have been used. The results showed that all areas of crisis communication plans are designed in a reactive way for how to act when a crisis has already occurred. However all operations conducts external environment monitoring intelligence and say that they are trying to be proactive in crisis situations by building relationships and addressing the highlighted problems. All activities except LKAB stated that they work a lot with social media to build relationships and address problems. Businesses also see social medias speed and ability to reach many people as a great advantage. However, they also point out that the speed can be a risk when rumors and misinformation can spread quickly. It appears that businesses are seeing more benefits of social media than disadvantages. They also indicate that there is an advantage to using traditional media as a crisis communications channel when they have an immense impact that social media can´t match. All but LKAB are positive about the use of social media and intend to use them in combination with other channels in crisis situations, which means that social media is given a major role in relation to other channels. Their work with external environment monitoring and addressing the issues they highlighted suggests that they try to be proactive. However, it is worth pointing out that all defined crises as external events and their reactive crisis communications plans nonetheless suggests that they did not put a clear emphasis on actively work to proactively prevent crises to arise.

This thesis examines the diversity of print news media frames during different stages of a crisis to enhance a model of media crisis communication, based on a framing analysis of the British print news media’s coverage of the Maldives after the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster of 2004. The tourism sector is vulnerable to disasters and crises with a series of recent events ranging from natural disasters and epidemics to terrorists attacks, many of which have had devastating impacts on the economy of destinations. In 2004, one such event of significance for the tourism industry was the 9.2 magnitude earthquake that hit the coast of northwest Sumatra, unleashing a tsunami that destroyed coastal areas in the Indian Ocean region including the Maldives. This disaster led to extensive media coverage, and has highlighted the importance of immediate and strategic communications after a crisis such as this tsunami. This research adopts the theory of framing and applies it during a tourism crisis situation. There is a lack of knowledge about the process of framing in crisis communications in the tourism literature, especially as it relates to the implications for planning and managing a tourism destination during and after a crisis situation. Previous literature on the framing by the media of tourism events and issues has focused on travel articles, advertising and promotion messages. This thesis finds that framing theory is also useful to identify how the news media responds during a crisis and how that knowledge could help improve tourism crisis management. This study analyzes the print news media regarding Maldives tourism in the aftermath of the tsunami crisis, and evaluates the diversity of frames used by the British news media in different stages of a crisis to enable the enhancement of a media crisis communications model in a tourism related context. This research is underpinned by constructivism with an interpretive orientation with the strategy of inquiry based on a qualitative case study method, and aims to understand aspects of the social and cultural contexts interrelating media and tourism. The framing analysis uses newspaper articles from the British press between December 26, 2004 and December 31, 2005 inclusive. The research uses content analysis of the news stories within a framing analysis paradigm, identifying both the diversity of frames used at different times after a disaster or crisis and the media phases that correspond to the last four stages of Faulkner’s (2001) tourism disaster management framework. The framing analysis reveals how the frames change during the different stages of the crisis and contributes to theory development in the areas of media effects, news discourse and crisis management as well as offering practical advice on tourism destination marketing during a crisis situation. The findings from this research contribute to the theory of framing by finding that during the coverage of crises where events are changing rapidly the media frames also change and different frames become predominant during the stages of a crisis. The findings also contribute to the literature on news discourse by providing evidence on the evolution of news discourse concerning a crisis situation over an extended period. By examining the news media crisis communication language as used at various stages of a crisis, the findings reveal that the media’s response and the frames they use differ over time as a crisis evolves, and that this enables the identification of different media roles during a crisis and crisis communication action stages. The result is a model that contributes to theoretical knowledge in media effects research, news discourse and crisis communications.

This thesis examines the diversity of print news media frames during different stages of a crisis to enhance a model of media crisis communication, based on a framing analysis of the British print news media’s coverage of the Maldives after the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster of 2004. The tourism sector is vulnerable to disasters and crises with a series of recent events ranging from natural disasters and epidemics to terrorists attacks, many of which have had devastating impacts on the economy of destinations. In 2004, one such event of significance for the tourism industry was the 9.2 magnitude earthquake that hit the coast of northwest Sumatra, unleashing a tsunami that destroyed coastal areas in the Indian Ocean region including the Maldives. This disaster led to extensive media coverage, and has highlighted the importance of immediate and strategic communications after a crisis such as this tsunami. This research adopts the theory of framing and applies it during a tourism crisis situation. There is a lack of knowledge about the process of framing in crisis communications in the tourism literature, especially as it relates to the implications for planning and managing a tourism destination during and after a crisis situation. Previous literature on the framing by the media of tourism events and issues has focused on travel articles, advertising and promotion messages. This thesis finds that framing theory is also useful to identify how the news media responds during a crisis and how that knowledge could help improve tourism crisis management. This study analyzes the print news media regarding Maldives tourism in the aftermath of the tsunami crisis, and evaluates the diversity of frames used by the British news media in different stages of a crisis to enable the enhancement of a media crisis communications model in a tourism related context. This research is underpinned by constructivism with an interpretive orientation with the strategy of inquiry based on a qualitative case study method, and aims to understand aspects of the social and cultural contexts interrelating media and tourism. The framing analysis uses newspaper articles from the British press between December 26, 2004 and December 31, 2005 inclusive. The research uses content analysis of the news stories within a framing analysis paradigm, identifying both the diversity of frames used at different times after a disaster or crisis and the media phases that correspond to the last four stages of Faulkner’s (2001) tourism disaster management framework. The framing analysis reveals how the frames change during the different stages of the crisis and contributes to theory development in the areas of media effects, news discourse and crisis management as well as offering practical advice on tourism destination marketing during a crisis situation. The findings from this research contribute to the theory of framing by finding that during the coverage of crises where events are changing rapidly the media frames also change and different frames become predominant during the stages of a crisis. The findings also contribute to the literature on news discourse by providing evidence on the evolution of news discourse concerning a crisis situation over an extended period. By examining the news media crisis communication language as used at various stages of a crisis, the findings reveal that the media’s response and the frames they use differ over time as a crisis evolves, and that this enables the identification of different media roles during a crisis and crisis communication action stages. The result is a model that contributes to theoretical knowledge in media effects research, news discourse and crisis communications.

Author of the thesis deals with analysis of issues of crisis communication in Czech companies. The thesis includes theoretical information which is also support for risk analysis process of crisis communication. The goal of this work is the design manual of crisis communication, which will be used when an extraordinary event in the company in order to support decision making in communication during a crisis.

A key role of public relations is to manage crises, unexpected yet unpredictable events that cause emotional and physical harm (Coombs, 2007). Among the challenges in handling a crisis effectively is dealing with the various media in which information is presented. Because the use of social media in a crisis is a relatively new phenomenon, further understanding of the challenges and opportunities of these media is warranted. Part of meeting this challenge requires precise modeling of consumer responses to safety messages. To remedy gaps in our understanding of social media and food safety crisis communications, consumer intent to comply with a food safety message was evaluated within the framework of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB; Ajzen, 1991). Superimposed on the TPB intention model were possible moderator variables of message source (professional versus user-generated) and message reliability (confirmed versus unconfirmed information). Three focus groups provided background for the construction of a research instrument according to guidelines specified by Francis, Eccles, Johnston, Walker, Foy, et al. (2004). A 2x2 experimental design with four scenarios (message source x reliability), and realism checks of the scenarios were conducted. A pilot test with 130 undergraduate university students preceded administration of the instrument to a representative U.S. consumer panel of 400 participants. Results indicated that intent to comply with a food safety message was higher in response to messages in professional sources than in user-generated sources, but that the majority of this effect could be explained by participant age, which in turn predicted use of social media. Message reliability did not affect intent to comply—confirmed and unconfirmed messages had similar effects on intent to comply. All aspects of the TPB were confirmed by the current results with the exception of perceived behavioral control, which was so consistently strong that it was unable to predict variations in intent to comply with a food safety message. Consequently, the current data support the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA; Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) rather than the TPB. Implications of the results for public relations and crisis communications, limitations of the study, and recommendations for future research are discussed.

A prominent British newspaper and its website publishes an inflammatory article stating that a lifeboat charity has been cynically abused by migrant traffickers who are using it as a ‘free ferry service’ to get their cargo of human beings into the United Kingdom. What reaction is generated on the Twitter social media network? What narrative, language usage and sentiment is formed? How does the charity react?This thesis examines this case and discovers through word frequency and conversational analysis how one news story reverberated in 280 characters or less. Themes impacted by this research include Twitter as a social media network service, fake news, echo chambers and their bubbles, trust and audience perception, news media literacy, social campaigning and awareness, and crisis communication and news/stakeholder management.The conclusion reached is that the story had the potential to adversely affect the charity’s reputation and future income stream even though it was doing its duty because of its unwillingness or inability to engage with stakeholders and correct any misunderstandings. The thesis discusses why this was not a good idea and considers how the story could have developed into a broader, more damaging entity with relative ease, especially with the role social media can play for news consumers in today’s society.

This research analyzes the crisis communications tactics employed by the National Football League at key points during the concussion crisis in relation to strategies recommended by models based on image restoration theory and situational crisis communications theory. The discrepancies between the NFL's tactics and recommended situational tactics, viewed in light of the financial and market increases for the league over the duration of the crisis, show the need for an additional component in accepted crisis communications models. Cultural ingrainment is posited as a component to be added to present models as a mitigating factor of organizational harm in cases of strong attribution of organizational responsibility. This addition of cultural ingrainment provides an explanation for the possibility of so-called “invincible brands.”

Title: “SJ AB har kommenterat ditt inlägg”: En kvantiativ och kvalitativ studie om SJ AB:s kommunikation i sociala medier Writers: Fanny Fellman and Moa Grönroos Class, semester, year: Bachelor thesis, 15 HP, winter semester 2014 Number of words in the thesis: 13 566 Problem definition and purpose: Our purpose is to investigate how SJ communicate in social media in crisis. SJ AB is a Swedish train company with traffic across Sweden who may be affected by a variety of crises. Social media use has today grown and now uses just not the Internet for pleasure, but also to ask questions and get feedback. Social media leads us into a new communication scenery, which also applies to organizations to be present. Internet thus play a major role in the battle for the main communication arenas and may even have been one of the most important media to communicate through during a crisis - Internet helps to organize crises, whether you're talking about handling or solutions of crises. In that SJ has many followers in their social media, it puts them in a tight seat and forces them to act. Methods and material: The empirical data is collected through quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative and qualitative material has been collected through fifty posts from SJ's stakeholders in the organization's official pages on Facebook and Twitter. Our selection was due to the social networking SJ had the most activity and the selection of posts were posts that dealt with some form of crisis. Main results: What SJ is at the forefront with is to communicate with their stakeholders within short time. In the majority of posts you could see communication from the organization within an hour race. This suggests that SJ AB concentrates on answering its stakeholders quickly. What pervade their presence on both Facebook and Twitter is that they always, in any form, offers a solution and / or explanation of the situation. In contrast to vary the quality of the solution depending on the social medium terms and the type of crisis terms, and it results in SJ AB's attitude perceived as engaging but also passively. In many of the cases where they explain and offer a solution to the crisis shows they are also a good transparency by showing an openness to the interested about what happened and why. In the majority of the analyzed posts, SJ is confirming rather than taking distance to the crises and problems that stakeholders highlight of their consciousness. On the other hand, sometimes it occurs revulsion if it is felt justified, but then it’s explained closely. SJ strives to have an informal language when communicating via social media, and it's something that generally is consistently communicating on Facebook while on Twitter vary to a greater extent. In the communication via social media so not perceived stakeholder and SJ AB as unequal. The organization adapts to the stakeholder and try to engage in stakeholder's level, speaking not too formal but for dialogue as if it were in real life. Through dedication and simple language achieves SJ AB and stakeholder together with an understanding of the current crisis, and in this way they can together contribute to the crisis dissolves. Keywords: social media, crisis communications, crisis management, SJ AB, strategic communication, relationship building

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