Crisis communication and stakeholder responses on social media: A case study of Boeing’s practices and users interaction on Facebook
(2019) SKOM12 20191Department of Strategic Communication
- Abstract
- This study aims to increase the understanding of how an organisation applies crisis communi- cation strategies on social media, how users respond to these crisis communication messages, and what the nature of the interaction between the organisation and users is. Three research questions were developed, which consisted of 1) what crisis communication strategies and tac- tics Boeing uses on Facebook, 2) how users respond to these messages, and 3) how these two dimensions influence each other. The collected data consisted of 10 messages from Boeing and 213 message groups of users’ comments (accounting for 729 individual user comments in total). To be able to answer the research questions, a social-constructionism approach was chosen and a... (More)
- This study aims to increase the understanding of how an organisation applies crisis communi- cation strategies on social media, how users respond to these crisis communication messages, and what the nature of the interaction between the organisation and users is. Three research questions were developed, which consisted of 1) what crisis communication strategies and tac- tics Boeing uses on Facebook, 2) how users respond to these messages, and 3) how these two dimensions influence each other. The collected data consisted of 10 messages from Boeing and 213 message groups of users’ comments (accounting for 729 individual user comments in total). To be able to answer the research questions, a social-constructionism approach was chosen and a qualitative content analysis was conducted. The results of this study show that Facebook is used in the crisis communication strategy of Boeing, where Boeing uses image repair strategies as evading responsibility, reducing offensiveness, corrective action and mortification to de- crease the negative effects of the crisis for the organisation. Facebook users comment upon Boeings’ messages, where users mostly search for information or provide information to others. Boeing does not actively interact with users on Facebook or respond to their comments. This leads to speculation and interaction among users, leading to users turning to each other for advice, information, knowledge or different materials concerning the crisis situation. It is rec- ommended for Boeing to actively participate on Facebook when using this channel in their crisis communication strategy to keep control of the communication and information flow, as to ensure users and decrease the amount of organisational reputation damage done in a crisis situation. Some recommendations for future research consist of qualitative and quantitative re- search into crisis communication on different social media platforms and using other traditional crisis communication theories to analyse crisis communication practices and user influence on social media.
Keywords: Crisis communication, social media, Facebook, image repair theory, audience-or- ganisation communication, Boeing. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8993988
- author
- van Beem, Katja LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SKOM12 20191
- year
- 2019
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Crisis communication, social media, Facebook, image repair theory, audience organisation communication, Boeing.
- language
- English
- id
- 8993988
- date added to LUP
- 2019-11-07 11:29:55
- date last changed
- 2019-11-07 11:29:55
@misc{8993988,
abstract = {{This study aims to increase the understanding of how an organisation applies crisis communi- cation strategies on social media, how users respond to these crisis communication messages, and what the nature of the interaction between the organisation and users is. Three research questions were developed, which consisted of 1) what crisis communication strategies and tac- tics Boeing uses on Facebook, 2) how users respond to these messages, and 3) how these two dimensions influence each other. The collected data consisted of 10 messages from Boeing and 213 message groups of users’ comments (accounting for 729 individual user comments in total). To be able to answer the research questions, a social-constructionism approach was chosen and a qualitative content analysis was conducted. The results of this study show that Facebook is used in the crisis communication strategy of Boeing, where Boeing uses image repair strategies as evading responsibility, reducing offensiveness, corrective action and mortification to de- crease the negative effects of the crisis for the organisation. Facebook users comment upon Boeings’ messages, where users mostly search for information or provide information to others. Boeing does not actively interact with users on Facebook or respond to their comments. This leads to speculation and interaction among users, leading to users turning to each other for advice, information, knowledge or different materials concerning the crisis situation. It is rec- ommended for Boeing to actively participate on Facebook when using this channel in their crisis communication strategy to keep control of the communication and information flow, as to ensure users and decrease the amount of organisational reputation damage done in a crisis situation. Some recommendations for future research consist of qualitative and quantitative re- search into crisis communication on different social media platforms and using other traditional crisis communication theories to analyse crisis communication practices and user influence on social media.
Keywords: Crisis communication, social media, Facebook, image repair theory, audience-or- ganisation communication, Boeing.}},
author = {{van Beem, Katja}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Crisis communication and stakeholder responses on social media: A case study of Boeing’s practices and users interaction on Facebook}},
year = {{2019}},
}