The Handbook of Crisis Communication

W. Timothy Coombs is a former Professor at Texas A&M University and an Advisor for the Centre for Crisis and Risk Communications. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Association for Business Communication’s Business Impact Award. He is the author of Code Red in the Boardroom and Today’s Public Relations. Sherry J. Holladay is a former Professor at Texas A&M University and an independent researcher. She is the co-author (with W. Timothy Coombs) of It’s Not Just PR and PR Strategy and Application, and the author of numerous articles related to corporate communication.

Acknowledgments xi

Notes on Contributors xiii

Orientation to the Second Edition xxvii

Part I Explication of Methods

1 Crisis Communication and Computational Methods 3
Toni G.L.A. van der Meer and Anne C. Kroon

2 Extending Experimental Crisis Communication Research: Reflections and Recommendations 17
Kenon A. Brown and Courtney D. Boman

3 Crisis Response Effectiveness: Methodological Considerations for Advancement of Empirical Research about Response Impact 31
Tomasz A. Fediuk, Isabel C. Botero and Kristin M. Pace

4 Tackling the Information Overload: Using Automated Content Analysis for Crisis Communication Research 53
Daniel Vogler and Florian Meissner

Part II Theory Refinement and Development

5 A Meta- Theoretical Orientation to Crisis Communication 69
Henry S. Seeger

6 Corporate Apologia as Crisis Communication 81
Keith M. Hearit

7 The Benefits and Pitfalls of Stealing Thunder 99
An- Sofie Claeys

8 Contingent Organization–Public Relationships and their Application in Organizational Crises 113
Yang Cheng and Glen T. Cameron

9 Revisiting the Discourse of Renewal Theory: Clarifications, Extensions, Interdisciplinary Opportunities 127
Timothy L. Sellnow, Matthew W. Seeger and Ronisha Sheppard

10 Title IX in the Age of #MeToo: The Limits of Discourse of Renewal on Crisis Communication 137
Jessica Ford

11 Social- Mediated Crisis Communication Research: How Information Generation, Consumption, and Transmission Influence Communication Processes and Outcomes 151
Yan Jin, Lucinda Austin and Brooke Fisher Liu

12 Rhetorical Arena Theory: Revisited and Expanded 169
Finn Frandsen and Winni Johansen

13 Antifragile Paracrisis Communication: Managing Paracrises as Crisis Risks and Potential Opportunities 183
Feifei Chen

14 Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT): Refining and Clarifying a Cognitive-Based Theory of Crisis Communication 193
W. Timothy Coombs

Part III New Directions

Part III a Political Crises

15 Crisis Communication in Authoritarian Systems and Digital Innovation: How Do Autocracies Resolve the Dictator’s Dilemma in Crisis Situations? 209
Gregory Asmolov

16 Political Crisis or Political Cartoon: Which Comes First? 229
Linda Hamilton- Korey and Gayle Pohl

17 US Presidents and Crisis Communication 247
Denise M. Bostdorff

Part III b Public Health Crises

18 Integrating Strategy and Dosage: A New Conceptual Formula for Overcoming Unintended Effects in Public Health Crisis Communication (PHCC) 263
Xuerong Lu and Yan Jin

Part III c Natural Disasters

19 Mitigating Crises: Analyzing, Planning, Organizing, Mobilizing, and Communicating to Address Natural Disasters 285
Robert L. Heath

20 Rescue Communication: Official and Volunteer Groups’ Use of Mobile and Social Media During Disasters that Become Crises 301
Keri K. Stephens and Kendall P. Tich

21 Communicating Disaster Preparedness: Combining Individual- and Community-Level Perspectives to Achieve more Lasting Resilience 313
Brett W. Robertson and Keri K. Stephens

22 A Community Engagement Approach to Natural Hazard Communication 327
Maureen Taylor, Kim Johnston and Barb Ryan

Part III d Organizational Crises

23 Odwalla: The “Golden Standard” of Crisis Management? 345
Rachel Whitten

24 The Impact of Language Abstraction on the Effectiveness of Information Strategies During a Product- Harm Crisis 357
Gijs Fannes and An- Sofie Claeys

25 From Managing Emotion to Trauma- Informed Management: A New Direction in Crisis Communication 373
Stephanie Madden and Nicholas Eng

26 “Say It Like You Mean It”: An Exploration of How Members of the Public Perceive Audiovisual Crisis Responses 391
Lieze Schoofs, An- Sofie Claeys and Eva Koppen

27 Strategic Improvisation in Crisis Communication 405
Jesper Falkheimer and Mats Heide

28 Visual Media in Crisis Response: How Crisis Responders and Influencers Use Visual Media in the Digital Age in Crisis Response 421
Betsy Emmons

29 Scansis: Changing the Landscape of Crisis Communication Research and Practice 431
Elina R. Tachkova

30 Improving Crisis Communication Through Instructional Design 441
Melony Shemberger

31 Prepare and Manage an Environmental Crisis 451
Thierry Libaert

32 Exploring Crisis History’s Impacts: How Organizations’ Previous Crises Impact Current Crisis Perceptions 459
LaShonda L. Eaddy

33 Three Decades of Sport- Related Crisis Communication: A Trends Study of the Emergence and Growth of a Crisis Communication Subfield 471
Jennifer L. Harker

34 Climate Crisis Communication in Global News Videos: A Multimodal Discourse Approach to Multifaceted Knowledge and Reaction Management 491
Carmen Daniela Maier and Silvia Ravazzani

Part IV Application to Practice

35 Advancing Crisis Communication Effectiveness: Integrating Crisis Scholarship with Practice 509
Bryan H. Reber, Yan Jin and Glen J. Nowak

36 How Crisis Communication Can Become an Evidence- Based Practice? 519
Jo Detavernier

37 Improving Crisis Communication: When Good Advice Becomes Impractical 525
Hoh Kim

38 Building a Career from Crisis Responder to Crisis Communicator: A Journey of Learning and Growth Through Canada’s Costliest Natural Disasters and Largest Peacetime Evacuations 545
Benjamin Morgan

Postscript 553
W. Timothy Coombs

Index 555