Frames and framing effects in Chinese online and offline crisis communication: the case study of a celebrity scandal

This study develops a model for analyzing the flow of frames and the multiple levels of framing effects in Chinese crisis communication both online and offline. To investigate the convergence and/or divergence of traditional media and social media in framing a crisis event in China, the study uses the sample of a celebrity scandal case that received extensive attention both online and offline. The empirical findings showed that crisis communicative strategies (CCSs), that is, the frames used in crisis communication, were correlated with those used in newspaper coverage (i.e. frames in representation) but were not correlated with the CCSs used by the online public (i.e. frames in thoughts). Specific and defensive CCSs, such as attacking the accusers and denial, led to fewer favorable responsibility-oriented frames than ambiguous strategies, such as excuses and justification. This finding supports the assumptions of classic situational crisis communication theory. However, none of the above-mentioned CCSs significantly predicted the relationship-oriented frames in thoughts. Relationship-oriented frames were found to be a predictor of the valence of online public opinion whereas no CCS was observed to be influential in the online public opinions expressed by social media users.     

Public framing organizational crisis situations: Social media versus news media

This study examines framing of organizational crises by news media and the public. Due to the rapidly evolving and escalating character of crises, this study emphasizes the initial phase of a crisis, in which public social media manifestations (tweets) play a crucial role. Moreover, this study uses automated content analysis to obtain latent frames embedded in text. Through analyzing the Dutch Moerdijk crisis, this study reveals the dynamic characteristics of public crisis framing and the media framing potential to prevent crisis escalation.     

Online crisis communication in a post-truth Chinese society: Evidence from interdisciplinary literature

Through a thematic content analysis of 118 journal articles from interdisciplinary fields, this study reviews the research trends of online crisis communication literature in a Chinese post-truth society, where objective facts play a diminishing role, and Chinese people are losing their trust, despite the best efforts of organizations to deal with fake news in crises. Results of this study disclose some unique crisis communication strategies (e.g., strategic distraction, rumor-rebuttal, fabrication, acting cute, and content censorship) in crises of China. Influential contextual factors such as the political system, cultural values, and media features are identified as well. Theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed, and a greater picture of online crisis communication in contexts is posited for future research.     

Social Enterprise Among University-Based Centers in US Schools of Social Work

Globally, social enterprise is used increasingly by nonprofit organizations to create new funding streams in the face of dwindling public funds. In light of evidence that institutions of higher education are making similar adaptations, this study explores the extent to which academic centers in US schools of social work are using social enterprise strategies to fund mission efforts. Interviews with the directors of 16 social work research centers in 14 states reveal incentives and barriers that exist at multiple levels and considerably impact the potential viability of social enterprise in the social work academic setting. Implications for institutions of higher education and social work scholars are discussed.     

Strategic framing in the BP crisis: A semantic network analysis of associative frames

This paper contributes to the analysis of the interplay of public relations and news in crisis situations, and the conceptualization of strategic framing by introducing the idea of associative frames and the method of semantic network analysis to the PR research field. By building on a more advanced understanding of communication as process of social meaning construction that is embedded in networks of differential relations between different actors, it contributes to extend the perspective of first- and second-order agenda building towards a kind of “third order” or “network agenda building”. Via an automated content analysis of more than 3700 articles we examine agenda- and frame-differences between public relations, UK and US news in the BP crisis. The study documents that BP successfully applied a decoupling strategy: It dissociated itself from being responsible for the cause and at the same time presented itself as solvent of the crisis. It shows that in crises, associative frames in PR resonate partly to associative frames in news. Especially the US news followed BP and did not succeed in presenting political actors as solution providers.     

Hashtag activism and message frames among social movement organizations: Semantic network analysis and thematic analysis of Twitter during the #MeToo movement

During the #MeToo movement, social movement organizations (SMOs) played a crucial role in the online mobilization by utilizing various message frames and appealing hashtags during the social movement. Applying a co-creational approach and using framing as a theoretical framework, the study explored how SMOs use words and hashtags to participate in the #MeToo movement through Twitter. Based on both semantic network analysis and thematic analysis methods, findings of the study enhance literature of social movement organizations and activism as well as provide practical implications for effective social movement campaigns.     

Restoring trust through transparency: Examining the effects of transparency strategies on police crisis communication in Mainland China

Employing a 2 (accepting crisis accountability vs denying crisis accountability) x 2 (high vs low information substantiality) x 2 (high vs low participation) online experiment (N = 293), this study examines how different transparency strategies influence public anger and trust in a Chinese police crisis context, offering insights on government social media crisis communication. In general, transparency is crucial for Chinese local governments, especially police agencies, in managing crises on social media. Reporting organizational crisis accountability, delivering sufficient and evidence-based messages, and enabling public discussion on social media are three transparency strategies that can help minimize public anger and rebuild public trust. Results suggest the positive effects of delivering messages in crisis situations by using transparency. Furthermore, the study points out that police organizations in China should consider the possibility of information overload and unexpectedly low overall expectations for government transparency among Chinese publics.     

Revisiting social-mediated crisis communication model: The Lancôme regenerative crisis after the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement

The widespread use of social media has stimulated the number of crises on a global scale and given rise to regenerative crises which involve multiple crisis stages and publics. Using the Social-Mediated Crisis Communication model and the regenerative crisis model, this study explores a real-life organizational crisis related to Lancôme Hong Kong, which was driven by the socio-political environment after the Umbrella Movement. It aims to examine the engagement strategies by different publics, and also the influence of information forms and sources on the trends of emotion among social media publics. Results also provided an empirical evaluation of the regenerative crisis model driven by a socio-political environment. An online content analysis of selected 10% sample with an online data acquisition and analysis tool (3902 Facebook posts and comments, 1178 forum posts and comments, and 244 online news articles) revealed the interlocking connection among the involved publics along with the social-mediated regenerative crisis life cycle. Followers’ emotional responses were not only attached to Lancôme, but also to third parties as information sources. Four subcategories of influential social media creators were identified. Refinement on the Social-Mediated Crisis Communication model and practical implications are suggested.     

“We are the land:” An analysis of cultural appropriation and moral outrage in response to Christian Dior’s Sauvage scandal

By analyzing the online social construction of Christian Dior’s 2019 Sauvage ad, the present study contributes to the literature on public relations and diversity from the perspective of cultural appropriation, a research line that has remained unexplored. The study builds on Coombs and Tachkova’s (2018) recommendation for a theoretical and practical delineation between crises related to products, services and operations, and scandals (crises that spur moral outrage). The results reveal that the online users’ perceptions of cultural appropriation require communicative approaches that differ from previously employed crisis communication practices. A primary and secondary type of moral outrage were found to thrive in the aftermath of the scandal. The foundation of the primary moral outrage constituted perceived injustice, exploitation, and controllability, as users attributed a high level of responsibility for a corporate scandal they deemed preventable. The secondary type of moral outrage revealed the users’ concern about injustice, referred to as double standards vis-à-vis the cultural appropriation of ethnic groups that had not been historically marginalized. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

The state of social-mediated crisis communication research through the lens of global scholars: An updated assessment

We investigate the state of global social-mediated crisis communication (SMCC) research through a content analysis of 189 discrete academic articles published in key journals included in the Social Sciences Citation Index via the Web of Science from 2006 to 2020. We identify the patterns in the theoretical and methodological approaches and the types of crisis, social media platforms, and contextual factors examined in SMCC research. Our findings demonstrate the common trends and differences between regions or societies. Scholars from North America dominated this field and primarily used quantitative methods, such as content analysis and experiments. A Western-oriented situational crisis communication theory was the most frequently applied theoretical framework. Twitter and Facebook were the most frequently used social media tools, and natural crises were studied most frequently. Nearly half of the SMCC studies collected research data about crises within America, and none focused on African countries. Contextual factors, such as political, cultural, and media characteristics, were found to affect online crisis communication practices. Our study can thus inform future discussions by revealing current theoretical gaps.     

Incorporating competition and comparisons into crisis communication: How competing organizations respond to industry crises

Crisis communication research typically focuses on how a single organization strategically responds to crises based on its own set of situational factors. However, it is common for multiple competing organizations to be involved in responding to the same crisis. By analyzing two industry crisis cases in China, this study provides insights into what we termed competitive crisis communication, which involves not only crisis response timing and strategies but also competition and comparisons among the different organizations involved in the same crisis. The analysis of organizational statements on social media reveals the extent of differences in crisis response strategies adopted by competing organizations. Findings from an analysis of online media coverage and public posts on social media further suggest that stakeholders’ comparisons of different organizations’ crisis responses can influence stakeholders’ emotions and reputational perceptions of the organizations. Finally, the competitive advantages for an organization to respond as the first mover or late mover in industry crisis communication are discussed.     

Exploring the relationship between corporate reputation and the public’s crisis communication on social media

Among traditional crisis communication research, the public is often treated as passive receivers of firm-dominated crisis communication. Social media has changed the situation since the public have now become senders and engage in secondary crisis communication (SCC) that affects corporate crisis management. However, our understanding of the mechanism of SCC on social media is still limited. This study aims to reveal how the public engages in the decision-making process related to SCC from a social control perspective by critically considering the broadcasting and social network functions of social media. Our research hypotheses were supported by a survey conducted after a real crisis in China. The results indicate that cognitive reputation results in SCC by causing the public to feel morally violated, and that such feelings of violation lead to individuals being more likely to engage in SCC given the perception of support for their opinions on social media. Thus, this research provides a better understanding of SCC from the public’s perspective in the context of social media.     

When frames align: The interplay between PR,news media,and the public in times of crisis

This study focuses on the frame-building process of organizational-crisis situations in the interplay between the domains public relations (PR), news media, and the public. The purpose of the study is to investigate whether the crisis frames of the domains align over time. To empirically analyze frame alignment, an automated semantic-network analysis is introduced to compare implicit framing among the domains. By examining press releases, news articles, and social-media manifestations of four Dutch crisis cases, the dynamic character of crisis framing became apparent. The study documents the rise of crisis-frame alignment among PR, news media, and the public over time. After frame alignment the domains’ discourses move away from one another resulting in more variation between frames. This pattern of alignment is considered to be crisis specific as a necessity to collectively make sense of a complex crisis situation. The collective sensemaking might be crucial to solve organizational crises and to avoid uncontrollable crisis magnification.     

The press and Alitalia's 2008 crisis: Issues, tones, and frames

Given that public opinion about a company's performance during a crisis is highly influenced by the way news media cover crisis events, studies that look at news media's choice of crisis issues, tones and frames are extremely valuable. This paper presents the main findings of a study on how the Italian and international press framed the Italian national airline Alitalia and its crisis in 2008 before its privatization. This study is based on content analysis of news articles published in 2008 in two Italian and two international newspapers. Comparisons of crisis issues, tones and frames between the Italian and international press are made. Implications and recommendations for crisis managers are discussed as well as directions for further research.     

Crisis collective memory making on social media: A case study of three Chinese crises on Weibo

Social media users collectively (re)construct narratives to create memories surrounding past crises. In this study, we connect the concept of collective memory with a public-oriented approach to crisis communication to examine how crisis response frames and collective memory narratives were displayed by different social actors (government, organizations, and publics) on one of China’s social media platforms, Weibo. Findings from a content analysis of 9238 unique posts on three national crises (the 2010 Yushu Earthquake, the 2015 Tianjin Explosions, and the 2018 Vaccine Scandal) reveal that Chinese publics tended to adopt social issue and blaming frames, while the government and organizations were more prone to using informing and corrective action frames. When recalling and reconstructing crisis memories, Chinese publics used more power and contestation narrative, while the government frequently adopted the nationalism narrative; with trauma being the predominant narrative displayed across the three crises and social actors. Crisis response frames of blaming, crediting, and corrective action were significantly associated with narratives of power and contestation, heroism, and nationalism, respectively. Theoretical implications for future research on crisis collective memory making on social media and suggestions for governmental crisis communication are discussed.     

Crisis management on social media: Effect of pre-crisis inoculation strategy and midst-crisis organizational interactivity

Negative user-generated contents on social media can result in detrimental impact on organizational reputation should a crisis occurs. In the present study, we sought to examine the effectiveness of implementing pre-crisis inoculation and increasing midst-crisis organizational interactivity on bolstering crisis management outcomes. Through a three-phase online experiment taking the 2 (inoculation: absence vs. presence) x 2 (organizational interactivity: low vs. high) between-subjects design (N = 184), we found that while inoculation or interactivity alone could mitigate some unfavorable crisis-related perceptions and attitude, the combination of these two strategies brought in most consistent benefits to alleviating crisis-caused reputational damage. Implications and future work are discussed.     

What Changes MSW Students' View on the Mission of Social Work?

Little is known about how professional social work education affects students' view on the social work mission. Using a secondary analysis of larger longitudinal data collected from masters in social work (MSW) students in California, USA, this study sought to explore the relationship among the students' demographic characteristics, their primary reasons for pursuing an MSW degree, and their view on the mission of social work at the time of entering an MSW program, whether the students' view on the mission of social work changed in the course of an MSW education, and factors contributing to a change of MSW students' view on the social work mission—individual adaptation vs societal change—between the beginning and the end of the MSW program. The results showed that students' degree of social action involvement, type of field practicum, and ideological variables predicted students' view changes or adherence between entering the MSW program and graduating.     

Experimenting with dialogue on Twitter: An examination of the influence of the dialogic principles on engagement,interaction, and attitude

Much of the public relations research on online relationship building has examined social media content for the use of the dialogic principles outlined by Kent and Taylor (1998). These studies, using content analysis as the primary methodology, have found that the dialogic capabilities of social media are under-utilized. However, there is limited research on the effectiveness of these methods. Therefore, the goal of this study is to examine the influence of social media content utilizing these principles on engagement, interactivity, and attitude. Results of this study indicate that usefulness of information can have a significant influence on engagement and attitude.     

Organizational crisis-denial strategy: The effect of denial on public framing

By applying a framing perspective, this study explores the effect of a crisis-denial strategy on public response. The online public framing of a specific crisis is compared with the crisis-denial frame provided by the organization. An automated semantic-network analysis is used to identify frames embedded in the public and organizational communication. The Max Havelaar crisis revealed that denial strategy is not always unsuccessful and would advance a more complex understanding. Moreover, the framing perspective and the semantic-network approach prove to be useful to analyze crisis-response strategies.