Crisis Communication in a Digital World

This book is an essential resource for those learning to apply communications and public relations to crisis situations.

Mark Sheehan (Edited by), Deirdre Quinn-Allan (Edited by)

9781107678231, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 15 April 2015

350 pages
25.5 x 19 x 1.1 cm, 0.42 kg

Crisis Communication in a Digital World provides an introduction to major crisis communication theories and issues management, using practical examples from Australia and New Zealand. The book examines how public relations can influence the nature of a crisis and the impact of its aftermath. It explores the role of PR specialists in different crisis situations - including natural disasters and morphing crises - and examines the challenges they face in a world where social media is a key source of communication. Readers are provided with an in-depth understanding of crisis communication and issues management through practical approaches, strategies and skills, which are supplemented by relevant theories based on evidence and experience. International perspectives have been included throughout to illustrate the impact of multinational companies on the digital world, including global media cycles and social media activism. Each chapter explores a different aspect of communications, including media, natural disasters and celebrity crises.

Part I. Understanding Crisis and Issues Management: 1. Theorising and practising public relations crisis management Steve Mackey
Part II. Industrial Disasters: 2. Outrage management or consensus communication: what is the best way of doing risk communication? Paul Adams
3. Confronting the reputation risks: New Zealand's biggest food safety scare Chris Galloway
Part III. Corporate Risks: 4. Crisis communication: when sorry is the hardest word in elite sport Hamish McLean and Maria Hopwood
5. Corporate responses to a racially framed incident in Malaysia: KFC I-City flight Kiranjit Kaur
6. Managing issues through cross-sector collaboration: Unilever and Greenpeace Sharyn McDonald
Part IV. Social Media and Crisis: 7. Media targets: when a spark in social media develops into a mainstream media firestorm Kristy Hess and Lisa Waller
8. Harnessing the power of slacktivism: boom and bust cycle of issues management and crisis Deirdre Quinn-Allan
9. Social media adoption and risk aversion: Australian not-for-profits Emma Bennett
Part V. Natural Disasters: 10. Communicating during disasters: insights from the 2013 Bundaberg flood Amisha Mehta and Dominique A. Greer
11. Government roles in emergency communication response Jordi Xifra and Mark Sheehan
12. Post crisis: rebuilding a company, a reputation, a community Mark Sheehan and Biagio Oppi.

Subject Areas: Social issues & processes [JFF], Cultural studies [JFC]