Understanding publics’ perception and behaviors in crisis communication: Effects of crisis news framing and publics’ acquisition,selection, and transmission of information in crisis situations

This study aims to better understand publics’ perception and communicative behaviors in crisis communication. The extant research has overlooked how framing factors and different publics’ communicative behaviors directly influence crisis outcomes, including reputation and behavioral intentions. An online experiment with 1,113 participants was conducted to fill the gap. The findings demonstrated that preventable crisis news framing was a strong negative predictor for crisis outcomes. Another finding based on Communicative Action in Problem Solving (CAPS) in Situational Theory of Problem Solving (STOPS) revealed that information attending, forwarding, and seeking are positively associated with reputation and behavioral intentions.     

Impacted publics’ perceptions of crisis communication decision making

This study focused on qualitative analysis utilizing the grounded theory approach to explore how impacted publics connected to an organization’s business interests perceive the complexities of crisis communication decision making. Referencing the Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashes in October 2018 and March 2019, respectively, the researcher conducted interviews with participants either affiliated with Boeing publics or affiliated with an organization within the same industry that could conceivably be connected in a similar hypothetical context. Coding resulted in the emergence of Publics’ Expectations, which are those expectations that an impacted public has in an organizational crisis situation where it is affected by the crisis communication of a central organization, as the core category. This was further subcategorized into Cognitive Empathy (impacted public empathizes or understands elements that introduce central organization reluctance to communicate), Crisis Communication (impacted public expectations of central organization communication), and Decision Making (impacted public expectations of complicated decision making), with corresponding components for each subcategory. Although the findings support many of the prevailing notions in Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) and other crisis communication theories, this study found that impacted publics might have higher levels of empathy for organizational realities than previously understood that reframes culpability as responsibility for the plight of your publics, not necessarily immediate outright responsibility for the crisis. This offers insights for a practical approach to crisis communication that is inclusive of publics, yet still fair to the organization that has to also represent its own interests.     

The politics of joking: narratives of humour and joking among adults with Asperger’s syndrome

The purpose of this article is to analyse how humour and narratives about humour are used in a natural group of adults with Asperger’s syndrome. Narratives about humour and use of humour in the group are analysed from a discursive psychological perspective, informed by insights from both disability studies and critical autism studies. The setting of the research is ethnographic fieldwork in an educational setting in Sweden. In the paper, I show the use of three storylines among a natural group of people with autism (PWA) when talking about humour: the storyline of humourless PWA that dominates within Swedish society; and two alternatives, a storyline of alternative humour among PWA and another storyline in line with the social model of disability, of neurotypical humour or disabling humour. When invoking these two alternative storylines, PWA challenge both the humourlessness storyline and the lack of social accessibility within mainstream neurotypical settings.     

The influence of accountability for the crisis and type of crisis communication on people’s behavior,feelings and relationship with the government

In this paper we investigated to what extent the willingness of people to take advice from the local government, people’s feelings of collective efficacy and empowerment, and their relationship with the local government, is dependent on whether the local government was accountable for the crisis or not. In addition, we were interested in the influence of empathic versus neutral crisis information on people’s behavior, feelings and their relationship with the local government. The results indicate that people’s intention to follow the advice of the local government is generally high, even when the local government is held accountable for the crisis. However, accountability negatively influenced people’s relationship with the local government, as well as collective efficacy. Our research shows that this negative outcome for people’s relationship with the local government cannot be countered by empathic crisis information. However, conveying empathic concern in the crisis information did enhance level of collective efficacy.     

Ups and downs of art commerce: narratives of “crisis” in the contemporary art markets of Russia and India

This article develops an analytical framework to study the role of narratives in markets and argues that there is a relationship between the structure and composition of narratives produced by market actors and market dynamics. With respect to theory, the article bridges the perspectives that study markets as cultures and as fields and draws from the organizational studies approach to the analysis of narratives. Two empirical cases of the crises narratives in the emerging contemporary art markets of Russia and India illustrate the use of the framework. The analysis is based on in-depth interviews with artists and art dealers as well as observations in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, New Delhi, and Mumbai conducted between April 2012 and June 2013. The article shows that there is a widely shared crisis narrative with a coherent structure in the Indian art market. In contrast, fragmented and contested stories that lack narrative structure dominate in the Russian art market. The analysis of the first case highlights the narrative structure and shows the productive work it does in the Indian market—it provides a moral justification of existing market norms and produces a perspective for the future. The analysis of the second case focuses on the context of narrative production and connects the conflicting interpretations of the crisis in the Russian art market to contested hierarchies and persistent uncertainty.     

‘He was a secret’: family narratives and the institutionalization of people with intellectual disabilities

This article examines family narratives concerning the existence of an institutionalized family member with an intellectual disability. A research study investigating the experiences of institutional survivors and members of their families in post-World War II Ontario, Canada reveals ambiguous family narratives in which the story of an institutionalized family member with an intellectual disability was absent or uncertain. Secretive family narratives and their impact on family life are discussed from the perspectives of siblings of institutional survivors. Drawing from narrative enquiry literature, the potential repercussions of false or ambiguous narratives on the lives of people with intellectual disabilities are also examined.     

“Don’t Mess with Ukrainian Farmers”: An examination of Ukraine and Kyiv’s official Twitter accounts as crisis communication,public diplomacy,and nation building during Russian invasion

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 resulted in an armed conflict that led to the death of thousands of soldiers and innocent civilians. While the countries waged war on the ground in places like Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Mariupol, another battle took shape in the Twittersphere. Ukraine and Kyiv’s official Twitter accounts leveraged their online platforms to win the war of public opinion by broadcasting the atrocities of war in real time, engaging with other countries as a form of digital public diplomacy, and rallying internal publics through nation building message strategies. The current study explores the use of government social media accounts during a unique period of armed conflict to identify various messaging strategies utilized to (1) communicate during a crisis event, (2) project itself favorably among an international audience, and (3) build a sense of national identity and unity among its citizenry. Results from this study suggest that public relations scholars should consider further analyzing the ways in which social media, nation building, and public diplomacy intersect during crisis events. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Understanding immigrant internal publics of organizations: Immigrant professionals’ adaptation and identity development

ABSTRACT

Immigrant professionals (IPs) compose important internal publics in U.S. organizations. This study examined the processes of intercultural identity development through IPs’ stress, adaptation, and intercultural communication competence, as well as the outcomes of such identity development. Twenty-three interviews with Indian IPs in a major southern cosmopolitan area in the United States revealed three types of stressors: insufficiency in culture-specific knowledge and skills, ineffective expression, and imbalance in home and host social communication. Adaptation responses included active language and culture learning, perspective taking, compromising, ignoring, passive acceptance, and active initiating and participating in social interactions. Further, IPs demonstrated three major types of intercultural identities: integrated with both cultures, non-integrated (leaning more toward either home or host culture), and ambivalent (feeling rootless and uncertain about what culture to teach their children). In the context of intercultural identity development, the concepts of avowed and ascribed identities become even more nuanced. This study contributes to research in public relations by deepening the understanding of organizations’ immigrant internal publics and facilitating more effective relationship management with these publics.     

Young,anchored and free? Examining the dynamics of early housing pathways in Australia

Young people are remaining in the parental home for longer, and returning there more often, before attaining residential independence. In Australia, these patterns have prompted concerns about a ‘boomerang generation’ whose housing aspirations and decisions have either been directly questioned, or viewed as symptomatic of broader affordability issues. Employing a longitudinal perspective, we argue that early residential pathways reflect a mix of stable and dynamic influences involving individuals, their families, and their broader relationships. Using data from a large cohort (n = 2082) of young Australians participating in the ‘Our Lives’ research project, we examine housing pathway formation between the ages of 12/13 and 21/22. Events such as parental union dissolution or partnership formation were found to encourage home leaving, whilst being employed at a younger age and having grown up rurally predicted both leaving and remaining out of home. Close, supportive relationships with family and friends served to ‘anchor’ respondents at home for longer, and parental socioeconomic resources enabled respondents to leave home and return if needed. The findings suggest that early residential independence reflects various factors, not all of which are in young people’s control, and some of which may hinder the longer term sustainability of their living arrangements.     

The Effect of Twitter Use on Politicians’ Credibility and Attitudes toward Politicians

This study examined how Korean young adults evaluate the use of Twitter by Korean politicians, perceive politicians’ credibility, and evaluate politicians who use Twitter, and the relationships among these 3 variables. Although respondents gave slightly positive, but nearly neutral, answers to questions regarding Twitter use, perceived credibility, and overall evaluation of politicians, the model represented by these 3 variables fits the responses of young Korean voters. In other words, this study shows that attitudes toward the use of Twitter by Korean politicians positively influenced perceived credibility, which, in turn, positively influenced attitudes toward Twitter-using politicians. In addition, attitudes toward Twitter use directly influenced attitudes toward politicians in a positive way. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed in this article.     

The role of crisis in family crisis intervention: Do crisis experience and crisis change matter?

Evaluation studies of crisis intervention have focused on prevention of out-of-home placement of children or family functioning, but largely neglected the aspect of crisis. The present study examined crisis in 183 families receiving Family Crisis Intervention (FCI), addressing crisis characteristics and crisis change. In questionnaires children and parents were asked about their definition and experience of crisis and about their need for help. Results show that all families but one were in crisis at the beginning of the intervention, although the perception and extent of crisis differed among respondents. Crisis decreased from baseline to posttest according to clients and crisis intervention workers, but was not absent after the intervention. Combined with an unexpected pattern of reported family balance in the months before FCI, this result challenges the 4-6 weeks time span assumption of a crisis period. Variations in perception of crisis, clients' need for help, and possible crisis patterns are discussed, addressing theoretical and practical implications for family crisis intervention.     

How publics’ active and passive communicative behaviors affect their tornado responses: An integration of STOPS and SMCC

During imminent threat crises, such as natural disasters, publics have minutes to decide how to respond after receiving a warning. This study advances understanding of publics’ crisis communicative and noncommunicative behaviors in the context of tornadoes through combining and extending two theories: the social-mediated crisis communication (SMCC) model and the situational theory of problem solving (STOPS). Findings from a survey of Southeast U.S. residents (n = 1,585) indicate that STOPS is internally consistent and accurate at measuring its intended outcomes of communicative action in problem solving. However, the STOPS measures do not have a significant relationship with the desirable outcome for imminent threat crisis communication: individuals following government’s protective action guidance about tornadoes. In comparison, the expanded SMCC model predicts individuals’ self-reported compliance. Finally, variables from the SMCC model and tornado-specific variables were integrated into the STOPS model to explain individuals’ communicative engagement. Implications for theory and public relations practice are discussed.     

OPR and its corruption of “publics”: A critique

This paper advances existing critiques of the organization-public relationship (OPR) research tradition by explicating the poor ontological conceptualization of publics in OPR research as well as related methodological concerns. The authors critically analyze the publics and OPR literature, furthering past criticisms and raising new questions about the heuristic value of OPR research. The paper points out three major weaknesses of the OPR tradition in its use of publics: (1) serious vacillation in terms resulting in conceptual inconsistencies, (2) inappropriate operationalization of variables and the use of probability sampling, and (3) a lack of insightful context and inclusion of relationship factors in OPR studies, to which publics are inextricably bound. The critique cautions scholars engaged in OPR research to improve their literature reviews and to enlarge their methodologies beyond a narrow scope of relational variables, which are theoretically fragile if not devoid of research value. Finally, the critique suggests the importance of conceptualizing publics in ways that acknowledge their agency.     

‘Warren Buffet is my cousin’: shaping public understanding of big data biotechnology,direct-to-consumer genomics,and 23andMe on Twitter

Scholars, educators, regulators, pundits, and other observers are advocating for regulation and oversight of direct-to-consumer (DTC) genomic testing. As a result, the technology has been subject of highly visible public and regulatory controversy. In this article, we explore the nature and the shape of the sentiment of public discourse about the DTC company, 23andMe. We conduct a quantitative content analysis and qualitative framing analysis on Tweets. We find that the discourse surrounding DTC genomics and 23andMe is largely positive. We also identify a number of frames users deploy to debate, discuss, and share their experiences with DTC genomics and 23andMe. We argue that these frames create meaning around this emerging technology for its users.     

‘It's been hell.’ Italian and British practice educators’ narratives of working with struggling or failing social work students in practice learning settings

Periods of assessed learning in practice settings are common requirements for social work students worldwide. The ‘practice learning opportunity’ as it is known in the UK, and ‘tirocinio di servizio sociale’ as it is referred to in Italy, are important sites of gatekeeping in preventing unsuitable people from becoming social workers. The experience of assessing failing students in practice learning settings, however, has been found to be particularly stressful and challenging for practice educators. This article documents findings from two qualitative studies that explored field educators’ experiences of working with struggling or failing social work students in Italy and England. The study finds both similarities and differences in the narratives of the assessors from the two countries. Similarities include, unpleasant emotional experience of working with a failing student, internalisation of the students’ failing as the practice educators’ own failing, perceptions that the universities may hide negative information about students and lack of acknowledgement of the gatekeeping function inherent in the practice educator role. Differences include the level of emotionality experienced by educators, the way students are spoken about and the perceived role and responses of the university. Further comparative European research that focuses on practice education is indicated.     

Initiating dialogue on social media: An investigation of athletes’ use of dialogic principles and structural features of Twitter

In this study, the authors examine the Twitter activity of professional athletes to determine how dialogue is initiated with followers using dialogic principles and the structural features of Twitter. Findings of a content analysis suggest that two-way dialogue is under-utilized but the structural features of Twitter (hashtags and multimedia) are used to keep users coming back to their Twitter feed.     

Publishing postcolonial Africa: Nigeria and Ekeh’s two publics a generation after

This paper interrogates Peter Ekeh’s “two publics” in Africa in the context of African studies. It argues that what Ekeh analysed was a society in transition. Thirty-eight years after Ekeh’s publication, also using a Nigerian case study, the “attacks” on the “civil public” which Ekeh theorised, are suggested to have extended to the “primordial public”: amorality is presently ubiquitous in the “two publics.” The paper identifies a combination of three elements pushing the “attack”: military rule, a civil war and enormous resource from mineral oil (oil boom). Furthermore, the paper suggests that “two publics” evolved largely because before colonialism, there was no hegemony built in any known “state” in what was Nigeria at the time to sustain any common (moral) value system that could have resisted the “civilising” ideology of colonialism. The paper underscores the fact that knowledge production in African studies has not paid sufficient attention to the gap created in nation building in Africa because of the inability of pre-colonial African states to establish hegemony which is critical in state and nation building in other civilisations. In conclusion, the paper argues that the inability to build hegemonic order before colonial rule, not only in Nigeria, but in most parts of sub-Saharan Africa largely explains why 50 years after colonial rule, there may still be debate about and delay in resolving the problem of the “two publics.”     

Examining cultural and gender similarities and differences in college students’ value of communication skills in romantic relationships

This study assessed and compared the communication skills that native Chinese and native American college students value in the context of romantic relationships. A total of 319 Chinese and 262 American college students responded to questionnaires that assessed the values they placed on six different communication skills. The results showed that the American students valued four of six communication skills more than the Chinese students (i.e. conversational, informative, listening, and narrative skills). The men and women in both cultural groups valued affective communication skills more than instrumental communication skills. In both cultural groups, women placed greater value on affective communication skills than men. The findings also showed a significant mediating effect of gender orientation (masculinity and femininity) on the value placed on communication skills and a significant effect of self-construal, which mediated between nationality and the value assigned to communication skills.     

Inside the ‘efficacy gap’: Migration policy and the dynamics of encounter

In recent years, migration has become an important policy priority within and beyond the European Union. While the discourse that surrounds the contemporary migration policy agenda is one of the technocratic migration management, this overarching narrative conceals an underlying goal of prevention. Preventive efforts are increasingly geared towards stopping migratory movements before they have even begun. The effectiveness of such an approach remains contested and unclear. This article builds on the theoretical work of Czaika and de Haas (Population and Development Review, 2013, 39, 487) to explore the limits of prevention strategies designed to change minds, alter plans and redirect behaviours. It does so by drawing on insights from our own research into migration decision-making, alongside wider literature on individual sense-making, and connecting these to ongoing debates around policy effectiveness. In doing so, we show how the nature of localised encounters between ‘target’ populations and implemented policies can create potential sources of policy failure.