Corporation-bashing in documentary film: A case study of news media coverage organizational response

This case study compares/contrasts news coverage of two crisis communication responses – corrective action and defiance/attacking-the-accuser – by examining print news coverage of McDonald's Corporation and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. in conjunction with documentaries Super Size Me (2004) and Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price (2005). Discussed are crisis communication dynamics associated with this new brand of documentary filmmaking and journalism's role in the debates.     

Categorical attribute based centrality: E–I and G–F centrality

In a paper examining informal networks and organizational crisis, Krackhardt and Stern (1988) proposed a measure assessing the extent to which relations in a network were internal to a group as opposed to external. They called their measure the E–I index. The measure is now in wide use and is implemented in standard network packages such as UCINET ( Borgatti et al., 2002). The measure is based on a partition-based degree centrality measure and as such can be extended to other centrality measures and group level data. We explore extensions to closeness, betweenness and eigenvector centrality, and show how to apply the technique to sets of subgroups that do not form a partition. In addition, the extension to betweenness suggests a linkage to the Gould and Fernandez brokerage measures, which we explore.     

Framing the Sino–US–Thai relations in the post-global economic crisis

Based on the frame analysis, this study conducted a content analysis of Thailand's two English-language newspapers, Bangkok Post and the Nation, to examine the relationships among the world's two largest economies, the United States of America and the People's Republic of China, and the emerging economy of Thailand in the wake of the subprime housing loan crisis. The study has established five generic news frames: economic consequence, human interest, morality, conflict and cooperation. It was found that such cultural values as individualism – collectivism, materialism – spiritualism and conflict – harmony have influenced the frame-building process. As a consequence of the subprime crisis, the US was portrayed as the old power waning in hegemony while China an emerging power with a fast growing economy. The Thai press played up a sound Sino–US relationship based on cooperation rather than conflict which would shape the 21st century. Thailand, where the Asian financial crisis broke out in 1997, offered morality or ethics as a remedy frame for the global economic crisis.     

Communicating during crisis: Use of blogs as a relationship management tool

Using a post-test only experimental design with control group, this study investigated the impact of blogs on relationship management during a crisis. Participants (N = 109) were exposed to a personal blog (n = 45), organizational blog (n = 46), or control (n = 18). Results indicate blogs impact the perception of the level of crisis an organization experiences. Additionally, relationships created through blogs impact the perception of crisis. Use and credibility were also investigated.     

Post-crisis communication and renewal: Expanding the parameters of post-crisis discourse

Crisis communication is growing as a field of study due in part to the frequency and high profile nature of recent crises such as 9/11, Anthrax and bioterrorism in the mail supply, the Tsunami in the Southeast Asia, and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In each of these crises, the role of communication has been highlighted. Communication is particularly challenging during crises because an immediate response is necessary, because of the looming threat, and because these situations are inherently uncertain. Much of the present literature suggests that managing image during a crisis is critical to an effective response [Benoit, W. L. (1995). Accounts, excuses and apologies. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press; Coombs, W. T. (1999). Ongoing crisis communication: Planning, managing, and responding. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; Hearit, K. M. (1995). “Mistakes were made”: Organizations, apologia and crises of social legitimacy. Communication Studies, 46, 1–17]. Although image is important and embedded within the threat, uncertainty, and chaos of crisis so too is the opportunity for growth and renewal. In this case, depending upon the crisis, either issues of image restoration or renewal may emerge as more of a central theme in the post-crisis discourse. This paper argues that renewal, along with image restoration, is an important genre of post-crisis discourse. As a result, efforts to understand post-crisis communication should be expanded to include both image restoration and the discourse of renewal.     

Organization–public relationships: An exploration of the Sundre Petroleum Operators Group

This study explored the organization–public relationship (OPR) within the context of the Sundre Petroleum Operators Group (SPOG) and the local community in Sundre, Alberta, Canada. A qualitative orientation was adopted because of the case study's focus on the individual experience of the relationship and the interest was to explore how the relationship was perceived by the people involved. Key relational elements such as trust, transparency, dialogue, control mutuality, commitment and satisfaction were examined in relation to the importance for relationship building and maintenance. In-depth interviews were conducted with both SPOG industry and community members (N = 18). The results indicated that after a crisis transparency was critical for rebuilding trust which was the foundation for the development of the industry–community relationship. Other relational elements were also considered important for maintaining healthy OPRs, but were considered secondary in relation to trust.     

Issue management and crisis management: An integrated,non-linear,relational construct

Despite extensive attempts to define and differentiate issue management and crisis management, the definitional approach – and linear life-cycle models which focus on the elements – fail to capture the full dynamics of the disciplines. Instead of a focus on definitions, this paper proposes a non-linear, relational construct which considers issue and crisis management in the context of interdependent activities and clusters of activity which must be managed at different stages. This includes the role of issue management in both the pre-crisis and post-crisis phases. The model addresses some of the limitations of linear approaches and helps analyze the outcomes and overlaps between activity clusters in order to optimize strategic relationships and enhance bottom-line effectiveness.     

Restoring reputations in times of crisis: An experimental study of the Situational Crisis Communication Theory and the moderating effects of locus of control

This study attempts to provide empirical evidence for Coombs’ (2007) Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT), which provides guidelines for matching crisis response strategies to crisis types to best restore organizational reputations in times of crisis. The impact of crisis type and crisis response strategies on perceptions of corporate reputation is measured for 316 consumers participating in a 3 (crisis type: victim crisis, accidental crisis, preventable crisis) × 3 (crisis response: deny strategy, diminish strategy, rebuild strategy) between-subjects experimental design. The results show that preventable crises have the most negative effects on organizational reputation and that the rebuild strategy leads to the most positive reputational restoration. Moreover, the more severe people judge a crisis to be, the more negative are their perceptions of the organization's reputation. The interaction effect between crisis type and crisis response strategies on corporate reputation is not significant. However, a person's locus of control has a moderating impact on the relationship between crisis response strategy and organizational reputation. Specifically, the results show that people with an external locus of control prefer the use of deny strategies more than people with an internal locus of control.     

Crisis communications preparedness among U.S. organizations: Activities and assessments by public relations practitioners

A survey of U.S. public relations practitioners (n = 126) found that three-quarters of their employer organizations had a written crisis communications plan and that organizations, as a whole, were reasonably prepared to engage in crisis communications. Preparedness was measured based on the presence of a crisis plan as well as indices related to tactics, training, the maintenance of contact lists, and media monitoring. Preparedness was found to be positively correlated to organization size, the level of autonomy, and delegation of authority within the organization, and the process orientation of the organization, but not organization type nor involvement in international versus domestic-only operations. Practitioners from organizations with plans had lower assessments of their relationships with publics, but greater confidence in their ability to respond.     

Scale development for measuring publics’ emotions in organizational crises

Although publics’ emotional responses have gained increasing importance in crisis communication research, reliable scales measuring crisis emotions specific to organizational crises are lacking. As the first study developing a multiple-item scale for measuring publics’ crisis emotions, this study examines the conceptualization and operationalization of attribution-independent crisis emotions versus attribution-dependent crisis emotions by employing two survey data sets (N = 490) for scale development and testing. Results indicate that three types of emotions are likely to be felt by publics when exposed to organizational crises: (1) attribution-independent (AI) crisis emotions; (2) external-attribution-dependent (EAD) crisis emotions; and (3) internal-attribution-dependent (IAD) crisis emotions. The scale's reliability, factorial structure, and validity are further assessed. The findings confirm that the underlying processes of publics’ emotions felt in crisis situations are different from those felt in non-crisis situations. Consequently, this scale provides a valid and reliable psychometric tool for researchers and crisis managers to measure publics’ different emotions that are relevant to a crisis situation, as a result of crisis attribution appraisal.     

How organizations framed the 2009 H1N1 pandemic via social and traditional media: Implications for U.S. health communicators

Through a quantitative content analysis, this study reveals how 13 organizations differently framed the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic crisis via their traditional (n = 211) and social media (n = 534) responses. When framing the crisis as a disaster, a health crisis, or a general health issue organizations relied more on traditional than social media. However, they tended to use social media as much as traditional media when framing the pandemic as a general crisis. In addition, organizations relied more on traditional media to address emotions than on social media. Together, the study's findings provide applied and theoretical insights for scholars and crisis managers.     

Economics and public relations in a time of downturn: Dismal science,unseen history,and the need for dialogue

The major originating event of this special section was the ongoing crisis that continues to cast a shadow of financial depression across the globe and has led to calls for a radical rethink of economics. In this introduction we attempt to contextualize the special section's theme and articles with a view to sparking a deeper and longer dialogue – one that emphasizes the potential for positive disciplinary exchanges – between economics and public relations. As fields, they have been respectively characterized as the dismal science and the unseen history. In order to avoid such offspring as a dismal history of economics and an unseen science of public relations, we argue that the two need both to learn from, and to appreciate, each other. In the meantime, there is another crisis stalking public relations, and it is the possibility that the recent poor history of economics might be the imminent future of public relations.     

Examining the interplay of an organization's prior reputation,CEO's visibility,and immediate response to a crisis

In one of only a few crisis communication research studies taking a relational approach, examining the effects of a company's prior reputation in publics’ responses to a given crisis situation, Lyons and Cameron (2004) found that both reputation and response profoundly affected publics’ attitude and behavioral intentions toward an organization involved in a crisis situation, using hypothetical, fictitious organizations and crises. Using actual organizations and crises, our research team designed a 2 (reputation: good vs. bad) × 2 (crisis response: apologetic vs. defensive) × 2 (CEO visibility in immediate crisis response: visible vs. invisible) within-subjects experiment (N = 102) to examine the variances in stakeholders’ attitudes and behavioral intentions toward a company after being exposed to online video that delivered a corporate crisis response. Findings were counter-intuitive: a defensive response to a crisis is as acceptable to crisis stakeholders as an apologetic response if the CEO is visible (or audible) in the response and if the pre-crisis company-stakeholder reputation is positive. Good reputation, defensive crisis response and CEO visibility in immediate response to a crisis resulted in the best stakeholder attitudes and purchase intentions.     

Producing Postman Pat: The popular cultural construction of idyllic rurality

This paper concerns the popular cultural representation of English rurality. It focuses upon Postman Pat, a popular cultural phenomenon which has come to be routinely cited as exemplary and iconic of contemporary imaginings of the English countryside as idyllic. The idea that Anglocentric popular culture (re)produces this sort of ‘rural idyll’ – and that these idylls are particularly laden with cultural and ideological baggage – has been well rehearsed. However, this paper considers a question which has too often been overlooked or taken for granted: how, exactly – and I mean literally, actually, in detail, in practice – does this sort of idyllic rurality come to be constructed? Through conversations with two key figures in the creation of Postman Pat, the paper begins to develop an understanding of some of the everyday, banal, nitty gritty practices, decisions and encounters which must be understood as fundamentally part of the production of (this) ‘rural idyll’.     

Finding the path beyond reputation repair: A structural topic modeling analysis of the crisis communication paradigm in public relations

This research utilizes computational methods to examine crisis communication scholarship from 2010 to 2020 in two studies with a census of all articles in Public Relations Review and the Journal of Public Relations Research (n = 1293 articles, 7400,685 words). Results indicate crisis scholarship has expanded beyond its prior focus on reputation repair. Situational crisis communication theory and image repair are compared in volume of scholarship and methodological affinity. Social media, SCCT, and media relations are identified as central topics within crisis communication scholarship.     

Postman Pat and me: Everyday encounters with an icon of idyllic rurality

It is, by now, well accepted that those of us who live with/in contemporary Anglocentric popular culture are presented, from birth, with manifold icons and imaginings of the English countryside as idyllic. Indeed, the idea that, through such popular representations, we encounter and ‘consume’ this sense of ‘rural idyll’ – and a particular, underlying, ideologically laden set of idea(l)s – has been well rehearsed. However, this paper reflects upon a question which has hitherto been often overlooked: what is the (practical, tangible) nature of this ‘consumption’? Approaching this question, the paper re-presents a succession of encounters with one icon of idyllic rurality: Postman Pat. In so doing, the paper develops an understanding of some complex – and frequently banal, odd, happenstance, taken-for-granted – happenings and practices which are fundamentally part of the ‘consumption’ of ‘rural idyll’.     

Countering accusations with inoculation: The moderating role of consumer-company identification

Accusations of wrongdoing, baseless or justified, can severely tarnish a company's reputation. Once disseminated, even baseless accusations can persist and cause considerable damage for a company. This study examines the proactive crisis communication strategy of inoculating individuals against invalid accusations before they go viral. An experiment was conducted in a real world consumer context among members of an online consumer panel using an electronics discounter as the research stimulus. Expanding previous inoculation research on the role of value-relevant involvement for inoculation and the effectiveness of inoculation in the case of different preexisting attitudes, we find that consumers’ identification with a company moderates inoculation effectiveness. Consumers strongly opposing or disidentifying with the company under attack reported fewer negative beliefs and attitude change as well as fewer intentions to spread the accusation after being exposed to an inoculation message refuting the claim against the company. Consumers strongly identifying with the company, on the other hand, did not profit from such an inoculation. Their level of identification alone was sufficient to prevent attitude slippage. Implications for public relations research and practice are discussed.     

The original bailout of US corporations: The public relations bailout

More than a trillion of taxpayer dollars are currently being used to bail out the US banking, mortgage and car industries. This invokes an interesting connection to public relations the last time drastic US government involvement with corporations was contemplated. This pre-First World War crisis of the free enterprise system involved a deficit not of money but of favourable public opinion. The requirement was for vast amounts of public opinion and public policy work by a reported at least 1200 – what were at that time called – press agents. This was the period when public relations emerged as a fundamental plank of US and ultimately of global culture. The thesis of this article is that many aspects of the world we live in cannot be properly understood without a better analysis of the first bailout of US corporations—the public relations bailout.     

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.