Abstract: This study examined the effects of literacy and efficacy on individuals’ protective action taking and information seeking during the early phase of infectious disease outbreaks through a nationally representative survey of 1,164 U.S. adults. New measures of disaster literacy and crisis efficacy were tested. Overall, results revealed that crisis efficacy and organizational efficacy drove protective action taking and information seeking intentions, while health literacy did not. Disaster literacy negatively predicted both protective action advice seeking and information seeking. The findings highlight the importance of strengthening public efficacy and improving relationships between health authorities and the public, which is greatly influenced by the public’s confidence in the health authority’s management of the crisis.
Tag: Crisis Communication
Navigating Political Scandal and Reputation Crisis in Social Media
Abstract: Social media presents unique challenges and opportunities to practitioners in the public affairs context. The dominant social media platforms allow organizations to communicate directly with voters, supporters, and customers, permitting them to circumvent traditional media. But this unrivaled access comes at a price that includes heightened scrutiny of messaging, an accelerated news cycle, and exposure to hyper-partisanship. When organizations find themselves in the midst of a crisis born from social media or extending into that context, these opportunities and risks are heightened. Public officials and candidates for elective office in the midst of a political scandal confront operational risk, exposure to trolls and bots, as well as public confusion regarding the parties responsible for its management. Organizations unaccustomed to regular engagement in public affairs similarly find themselves in uncharted waters. They may be exposed to unusually high levels of social media pressure and face the prospect of lasting damage to their brands. Building appropriate infrastructure for managing social media, including the use of appropriate analytics, establishing clear lines of responsibility for social media, deploying third parties as needed, and a long-term reputation management program can help organizations endure even unforeseen crises in the midst of a political scandal or reputation crisis.
Influencer Crisis Communication During the COVID-19 Pandemic: @KatieMCrenshaw
Abstract: Social media influencers (SMIs) equipped their niche following with health crisis response information about social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. While many SMIs provided audiences with COVID-19 crisis response information, this case chapter details how a widely followed millennial mom influencer, Katie Crenshaw, leveraged Instagram’s features in line with the Health Belief Model (HBM). To reduce the barriers to social distancing, her content engaged her audience with practical ways to social distance with children. She fostered a social media community of moms committed to staying at home with their children during the health crisis. She also held her followers accountable to social distancing by developing a hashtag campaign with other widely followed SMIs. The following case chapter outlines her content strategy in light of HBM, a theory increasingly being used to examine the effectiveness of crisis communication efforts. Insights and recommendations for practitioners and researchers are discussed.
New Technology, Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence
Abstract: Moore’s law, which has helped to explain the exponential growth achieved in traditional computational power over the past half-century, has been eschewed for Neven’s law. Neven’s law posits that quantum computing is advancing at a doubly exponential rate. Quantum computers possess the processing power required to analyze the incalculable amount of “big data” in existence today. Together, big data and quantum computing are driving advancements in machine learning, which in turn, helps to power artificial intelligence (AI). AI, computational power, and big data will accelerate the development of technologies that will alter how humans behave and communicate. Using these three technologies as a foundation, this chapter explores (i) the explosion and analysis of “big data,” (ii) the evolution of advanced AI, and (iii) the emergence of extended reality (XR). The impact of these technologies and trends on organizations, crisis communication theory and practice, and society at-large are discussed and supported with real-world examples.
Crisis Information Vetting: Extending the Social-Mediated Crisis Communication Model
Abstract: Social media provides users easy access to unpredictable and unfiltered information from multiple sources during crises, further challenging publics to discern the accuracy of the information they receive and to decide how to react subsequently. Although studies using the social-mediated crisis communication (SMCC) model identify how public actively seek and share crisis information when exposed to it during crisis, it remains unknown why and how publics engage with certain crisis information before their information transmission behaviors. Therefore, echoing the need to understand how publics cope in complex crisis situations and how they consume crisis information in accordance with their social media environment, this chapter summarizes recent scholarly efforts in updating the SMCC model by adding information vetting as a new key component of crisis information engagement and crisis coping, grounded primarily in a dual-process model and meta-cognition.
Crisis Misinformation and Corrective Strategies in Social-Mediated Crisis Communication
Abstract: The social-mediated crisis communication domain is flooded with misinformation in various forms, causing misperception about a crisis and trigger negative crisis outcomes that harm organizational reputation and publics’ wellbeing. Organizations and crisis practitioners must understand the characteristics of crisis misinformation and key actors in misinformation spread on social media in order to fight misinformation via effective corrective communication. By reviewing and synthesizing misinformation and corrective communication theories and published empirical evidence that are directly relevant to social media and crisis communication, this chapter defines crisis misinformation, illustrates a typology of misinformation characteristics, identifies key actors in crisis misinformation spread, and recommends corrective communication strategies for organizations to consider in fighting misinformation in social-mediated crisis communication. Future research directions and key recommendations are made for both scholars and crisis managers in order to advance our knowledge and practice in combating crisis misinformation with enhanced effectiveness.
Organizational Purpose, Culture, Crisis Leadership, and Social Media
Abstract: This chapter explores the importance of organizational purpose, culture, and leadership in weathering a social media crisis and the impact of stakeholders’ changing expectations on organizational responses. Organizations are increasingly expected to communicate transparently and to live their purpose and culture through action, even as trust levels decline. Social media presents leaders with tremendous opportunities to share important information about what distinguishes their organizations from others before a crisis hits, but at the same time, it poses a threat. Organizations are more visible and more vulnerable, allowing stakeholders to learn about situations they might not have otherwise and evaluate organizational responses immediately. The chapter discusses how leaders can seize social media opportunities while avoiding pitfalls and mitigating threats.
Ethical and Legal Principles for the Practitioner Consumers, Organizations, and Platforms
Abstract: The standard advice in crisis communication is to respond quickly, but only with what is absolutely known to be fact. Social media have increased the potential for quick response, but that speed applies not only to facts but also to rumors or disinformation. This chapter lays out the challenges of this dilemma between speed and control. It also addresses the benefits of social media as a means to communicate specific messages to ever more specific audiences during a crisis. The chapter briefly reviews some established and emerging theory-focused scholarship. Case illustrations are used to parse details linked to theory and practice. Cases include the challenges of the briefly existing European Super League in football, the reaction of an updated user agreement for WhatsApp, and the bankruptcy of Fagor Electrical Appliances in Basque Country. Finally, the voices of global crisis communication experts are engaged to answer the question of common issues that emerge in crisis communication today.
Current Issues of Social Media and Crisis Communication
Abstract: The standard advice in crisis communication is to respond quickly, but only with what is absolutely known to be fact. Social media have increased the potential for quick response, but that speed applies not only to facts but also to rumors or disinformation. This chapter lays out the challenges of this dilemma between speed and control. It also addresses the benefits of social media as a means to communicate specific messages to ever more specific audiences during a crisis. The chapter briefly reviews some established and emerging theory-focused scholarship. Case illustrations are used to parse details linked to theory and practice. Cases include the challenges of the briefly existing European Super League in football, the reaction of an updated user agreement for WhatsApp, and the bankruptcy of Fagor Electrical Appliances in Basque Country. Finally, the voices of global crisis communication experts are engaged to answer the question of common issues that emerge in crisis communication today.
Social Media and Crisis Communication
Yan Jin and Lucinda Austin
Description: The second edition of this text integrates theory, research, and application to orient readers to the latest thinking about the role of social media in crisis communication. Specific crisis arenas such as health, corporate, nonprofit, religious, political, and disaster are examined in depth, along with social media platforms and newer technology. This edition provides a fresh look at the role of visual communication in social media and a more global review of social media and crisis communication literature. With an enhanced focus on the ethics section, a short communication overview piece, and case studies for each area of application, it is practical for use in a variety of learning settings. This book is written for scholars, advanced students, and practitioners who wish to stay on the leading edge of research, public relations, strategic communications, corporate communications, government and NGO communications, and emergency and disaster response.