This essay examines the aviation companies SAS,Norwegian and Finnair and their crisis communicationon social media before and after the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. The theories used are Situational Crisis Communication Theory and Corporate Apologiatogether with the general study of crisis communication. The study was done with a quantitative analysis with a coding scheme. The results show us that the aviation companies have a similar approach on social media but with very distinct differences. Everyone used the SCCTs rebuild strategy eventhough the theory recommends the diminish strategy. Every aviation company used Apologias bolstering reaction through accepting responsibility and put themself in positive perspective. Interesting discoveries were that the companies did not act as the SCCT recommends. Norwegian stops publishing content on their social media in the middle of march. Finnair have a primary focus on Twitter where they also have the least amount of followers. The aviation companies drastically changes their communication when the crisis present it self. / I den här rapporten undersöks flygbolagen SAS, Norwegian och Finnairs kriskommunikation på sociala medier under COVID-19 krisens början. Teorierna som används är Situational Crisis Communications Theory och Corporate Apologia tillsammans med den allmänna kriskommunikationsforskningen. Undersökningen gjordes genom en kvantitativ innehållsanalys med kodschema. Resultatet visar på att flygbolagen har en liknande strategi på sociala medier men med tydliga skillnader. Alla använde sig av SCCTs återskapandestrategi medan teorin rekommenderar den förminskande strategin. Alla flygbolag gick också efter Apologias bolsteringsstrategi genom att ta ansvar i krisen men sätta sig själva i gott ljus. Intressanta fynd var att flygbolagen inte agerar enligt SCCTs teori. Norwegian slutar att uppdatera sina sociala medier mitt under tidsperioden. Finnair fokuserar starkast på Twitter där de har minst antal följare. Flygbolagen förändrar sin kommunikation totalt när krisen inträffar.

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The aim of this study is to analyze the use of different media channels occurred within a natural disaster situation. This research focuses specifically on charting the factors that affect audiences in their choice of media channels and how these factors ultimately lead to the complimentarily use of sources. This study is based on channel complementarity theory and utilizes a qualitative method consisting of semi-structured interviews and has been complemented with a survey that respondents were required to complete prior to the interview. The twelve college students that made up the sample for this study were selected through convenient and purposive means and have personally been involved in natural disaster situations without exception. Final results and analysis suggest that individuals utilize several media channels combined, at different points in time or simultaneously, and in random order during a natural disaster. The analysis of the results also shows that individuals use this variety of media channels in order to obtain two different perspectives: broad and narrow. Traditional media channels such as radio and television are shown to be used in order to obtain the broader perspective during a natural disaster event. In contrast, social media like Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat are used to gain the narrower perspective. The findings of this study also suggest that factors affecting media choices are accentuated by a crisis such as a natural disaster and are intrinsically connected to specific needs audiences have at one particular point in time. The most relevant factors contributing to the choice of media type and leading to channel complementarity found in this study are accessibility, compatibility of sources, tailorability, and humor appeal. Controversially, credibility appears to be disregarded as a key factor, even though it is still perceived as an influential characteristic.

In a dynamic world of constant changes, social and technological developments have made crisis communication and crisis management more valuable than ever to organisations. Previous research has suggested that organisations with a certain entrusting relationship to stakeholders might not share premises for crisis communication with corporate organisations. Furthermore, the field of crisis communication suffers from a lack of studies focusing on organisations´ communication on social media during crisis. Using text analysis, this study investigates the Swedish trade union Kommunal’s communication on Facebook during the crisis in January 2016. Results show that Kommunal did not utilize a crisis frame similar enough to the crisis frame used by stakeholders and media, and that Kommunal did not accept enough stakeholder and media attributions of crisis responsibility. The results produces questions for further research about the balancing act between being consistent and adjusting to the crisis situation when communicating during crisis, as well as about if organisations are affected not only by their own crisis history and prior relationship reputation, but by the crisis history and prior relationship reputation of similar organisations as well.

Master of Science / Department of Journalism and Mass Communications / Joye C. Gordon / As technology advances in social media, crisis management professionals and researchers are charged with revamping or discovering new communication tools to address the dissemination crisis information. Social media provides a platform for open conversations, community, and connectedness among individuals and permits anyone to become the source of information during a time of crisis. Crisis news can be shared and reshared among millions of people without the need of a professional source, such as a journalist. A crisis may disrupt social order to an organization’s reputation and legitimacy, but a crisis also provides an opportunity for growth or renewal. Previous literature has analyzed crisis communication affects on organizational reputation through cases studies; however, there is lack of analysis in using an experimental design. Through an experiment with 207 undergraduate students, this study empirically evaluates the dissemination of crisis communication through Twitter and its effect on organizational communication. Using McLuhan’s (1967) concept of the medium is the message, this study highlights past findings, explicates types of crises, and focuses on the medium as a variable (not content of response) of interest to provide groundwork for an experimental inquiry into how the medium itself (as opposed to message content) impacts the efficacy of organizational crisis responses. A 2x3 experimental design with two research conditions- types of crisis: (1) intentional and (2) unintentional and source types: (1) organization (2) journalist, and (3) friend was used in this study. An online questionnaire was administered through an online survey service to approximately 2,000 undergraduates. Participants were randomized in one of six conditions based on the type of crisis (unintentional and intentional) and the source (organization/journalist/friend) of the message and directed to read an unintentional or intentional press release. Findings indicated that the perception of responsibility is a valid factor to consider during a possible crisis. Overall, as the previous studies have concluded, the organization is perceived as responsible for the crisis.

Thesis advisor: Donald Fishman / The purpose of this thesis is two-fold: to analyze the corporate responses of three major airplane crashes that occurred in the 1990s, and to examine how the strategies that each airline used and the nature of the crisis environments both served to help, and hurt, the companies’ futures. ValuJet Flight 592, Trans World Airlines Flight 800 and EgyptAir Flight 990 will be analyzed through the lens of two prominent crisis communication theories, Fink’s stage analysis theory and Benoit’s image restoration strategies, in order to provide a comprehensive assessment of each crisis. I will then give insight as to the effectiveness of each airline in response to its crash, keeping in mind the unique environment that surrounded each situation. ValuJet made poor crisis management decisions that, when combined with its lack of satisfactory safety standards both before and after the crash of Flight 592, irreparably damaged the airline’s public image. TWA, like ValuJet, made errors in its strategy choices after the crash of Flight 800, but was able to escape blame and restore public confidence because of the heavy media focus on the unsuccessful criminal investigation. EgyptAir made appropriate crisis management choices after the crash of Flight 990, and also took advantage of the tense political situation in which no obvious regulating presence exerted authority, and thus successfully evaded responsibility for its crash. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Communication Honors Program. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: Communication.

In the winter of 2002, The Boston Globe published an exposé on clergy sexual abuse in the Boston Archdiocese which quickly sparked a global Church crisis. Following the exposé, there was a swell of media attention, a growing public outcry, increasing litigation over alleged abuse and cover-ups, and the emergence of issue-driven grassroots organizations. Despite the vocal involvement of numerous stakeholders in the crisis, the hierarchy’s communicative response to the situation followed relatively traditional crisis management strategies which sought to deny, minimize, remediate, and retain exclusive jurisdiction over the crisis. This strategy contrasts with other stakeholders’ attempts to defer closure, draw out underlying issues, amplify nondominant voices, contest dominant interpretations, and collaborate on possible solutions. What has emerged is an on-going situation in which an organization’s attempts at strategic communicative crisis management are being contested publicly by key stakeholders. Arguing that existing models for understanding public relations discourse are insufficient for tracing the polyvocality of crisis communication, this study crafts an alternative (i.e., dialogic) model for analyzing crisis communication. This model decenters the source organization by tracing the contextual (macro) and interactive (micro) aspects of public relations texts created by three organizations central to the crisis (the United States Council of Catholic Bishops, Voice of the Faithful, and Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests). By viewing crisis communication through the lens of a particular notion of dialogue (i.e., a sustained, symbol-based, contextualized, collaborative-agonistic process of interactive social inquiry which creates meaning and a potential for change), this study traces how organizations use Public Relations (PR) to co-construct an organizational crisis. Discursive reconciliation, the central process of the proposed model, allows the researcher to sift the discourses of stakeholder organizations against one another, using each as a standard for evaluating the others. This allows for an evaluation of how stakeholder organizations manage the potential for communicative interactivity. The proposed model offers an expanded capacity to understand how crises are constructed discursively. It also illuminates the continuing clergy sex abuse crisis.

Recent allegations surrounding Bill Cosby presented an opportunity to combine, test, and extend situational crisis communication theory typology and image repair theory response strategies for celebrity use. Because Cosby did not respond to the numerous allegations against him, it presented an opportunity to experiment with new and existing typologies using a real case, as opposed to analyzing past response attempts or using a hypothetical case. This study used a 2 X 4 factorial design to test veracity of claims, a proposed concept, and response strategies via survey. Even though none of the hypotheses were supported, the present study opened up a number questions for future researchers to explore and further expand crisis communication theories and typologies.

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Syfte: Studiens syfte är att studera hur Göteborgs Stads och Staffanstorps kommuns kommunikation har sett ut för att förhindra att en förtroendekris uppstår i samband med Uppdrag gransknings avslöjanden om deras användningav skattepengar. Metod och Material: Textanalys med hjälp av dialogisk analys av transkriberingarna av två avsnitt av Uppdrag granskning och texter publicerade på kommunernas och inblandade bolags hemsidor. Teoretisk utgångspunkt i image repairtheory och situational crisis communication theory. Huvudresultat: Den vanligaste huvudstrategin i denna studie var att minska händelsens anstötlighet. Detta resultat överensstämmer inte med vad aktuell forskning inom området rekommenderar vid den typ av kris som är aktuell för denna studie.