The purpose of this thesis is to study how Malaysia Airlines communicated during the two largest crises of 2014. Key questions to be answered are: Did organizational hypocrisy occur? If yes, in what way? Which communication strategies were used? Did the company mediate an unequivocal message and how was the information framed? Did any aggravating factors, which worsened the organization’s reputation, appear? How did Malaysia Airlines manage possible rumours? Was the word contact used as a keyword? The method of choice is a quantitative content analysis and the material consists of 20 different analysis units. These analysis units were collected from social media and Malaysia Airlines website. The quantitative content analysis is based on the theory Situational Crisis Communication Theory, taken from PR, Strategy and Application, Managing Influence, by W. Timothy Coombs & Sherry J. Holladay. The main results displayed that Malaysia Airlines acted fast and instantly communicated with stakeholders. Short messages filled with information were dominating and social media was frequently used. The first crisis acted as an intensifier to the second one and Malaysia Airlines’ reputation took a bad turn. Different messages were conveyed, something that could have been avoided by using only one spokesperson. The communication strategy used was a deny strategy. The organization denied having any responsibility in the crises and tried to pinpoint a scapegoat. Rumours were either completely ignored or disproved by substantial facts. Malaysia Airlines also compensated relatives, provided information and care for the concerned, as mentioned in the SCCT’s recommendations.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-243190 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Molander, Agnes, Nässlin Eidenert, Kim |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Medier och kommunikation, Uppsala universitet, Medier och kommunikation |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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