Читать книгу Theorizing Crisis Communication - Timothy L. Sellnow - Страница 11

Crises are increasingly important social, political, economic, and environmental forces and arguably create more change, more quickly than any other single phenomenon. Crises have the potential to do great harm, creating widespread and systematic disruption, but they may also be forces for constructive change, growth, resilience, and renewal. They can quickly reshape institutions, create shifts in demographics and populations, alter ecosystems, undermine economic stability, and rapidly alter widely held beliefs. Understanding these events, therefore, is critical. A significant component of that understanding involves clarifying the role of communication processes in the onset, management, resolution, and meaning of crises.

Recent examples, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2018 Camp Fire in Northern California, 9/11 terrorist attacks, Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami illustrate the rapid change that happens following a crisis. The events of 9/11 precipitated not only a fundamental rethinking of federal policy but also created the most comprehensive reorganization of the U.S. federal government to occur in decades. Hurricane Maria devastated the island of Puerto Rico, claimed 3,000 lives, and prompted a massive migration of residents from the island to the U.S. mainland. Hurricane Katrina also created a major demographic shift in New Orleans and prompted new understandings of risk and the role of governments in response to disasters. The 2004 tsunami claimed as many as 230,000 lives in 14 countries, wiped away entire communities, and created widespread economic and environmental damage. It also called attention to the risks associated with tsunamis and development in coastal areas. The 2018 Camp Fire was the worst wildfire in California in more than 100 years, claiming 85 lives and costing over $1.5 billion. The COVID-19 pandemic was the most devastating infectious disease outbreak since the 1918 influenza pandemic. Public health professionals and disaster researchers had been warning about the risks of a global pandemic for decades.

Historically, the worst crises have been earthquakes and infectious disease pandemics. The 1918–1919 influenza, or Spanish flu, pandemic, is estimated to have infected 500 million people worldwide and may have resulted in more than 20 million deaths. The worst earthquake of the twentieth century occurred in Tangshan in China in 1976. Official death tolls indicate that about 255,000 people lost their lives and another 150,000 were injured. Crises, big and small, natural and human caused, are inevitable. In fact, many scholars suggest they are occurring with more frequency and causing more harm than they have in the past (Perrow, 1984; Seeger et al., 2003).

While avoiding all crises and disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis is impossible, some can be avoided and most can be more effectively managed. Crisis management is a well-established practice drawing on a variety of fields including medicine, sociology, psychology, engineering, logistics, political science, criminal justice, as well as communication. In fact, it simply would not be possible to conduct strategic crisis management without a comprehensive communication plan, and, in many cases, “communication is the essence of crisis management” (Coombs, 2010, p. 25). Agencies, both public and private, such as the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) and the American Red Cross, have a critical role in creating crisis response capacities. Internationally, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent have taken on more of a crisis management mission. Crises are, by definition, interdisciplinary events and often reach across regional, cultural, economic, and political boundaries. Some researchers have pointed out that this interdisciplinary aspect has made integration of both research and practice more challenging (Pearson & Clair, 1998). Along with communication, integration, coordination, and cooperation are critical to negotiating these boundaries and to effective crisis management and response.

Crisis communication theories problematize the messages and meaning construction process in all the forms of human interaction and coordination that surround these threatening and high uncertainty events. Owing to the unpredictable nature of crises, theorizing about them creates many challenges. In some ways, every crisis may be seen as an entirely anomalous and unique event that, by definition, defies any systematic explanation. It is common to see a crisis as just an accident, an unusual combination of events that could not happen again. Conversely, the fact that crises occur at an increasing and alarming frequency allows scholars to observe similarities, patterns, and relationships across numerous occurrences. Many theoretical crisis frameworks described throughout this book were developed for specific types of events, including warning theories and evacuation models for hurricanes and recall models for contaminated food (Chapter 3). In many cases, scholars have also found these approaches have utility for understanding other kinds of crises. Increasingly, efforts are directed toward developing broader, more encompassing theories, using what is sometimes called an all-hazards approach. These approaches begin by understanding that all events described as crises will have some common elements – such as threat, uncertainty, and the need for an immediate response – and that common response contingencies will be required.

Crisis research and theory have historically been driven largely by the need to improve crisis management practice. Initially, practitioners sought to develop frameworks and models to promote understanding and improve their practice. After analyses and critiques of their responses, managers often developed after action reports, which were then used in subsequent training and planning for future events. These efforts began to reveal patterns and relationships that eventually led to more general theoretical frameworks and systematic research. Experience-based approaches eventually evolved into formal case studies, which remain a dominant methodology used for studying crises. For the emergency manager, the primary communication issues relate to coordination of efforts and logistics and public warnings and notification. Communication technologies – such as 800 MHz radios, web-based systems of targeted text alerts, warning systems such as sirens, and mass media alerts such as the emergency broadcasting system – were the primary focus for improving communication. More recently, social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have become important tools for crisis communication.

Case studies have been enriched as researchers combined them with survey questionnaires and ethnographic techniques. Survey data has contributed significantly to understanding audience needs and interests. Ethnographies have helped capture the complex and often devastating experiences of people living through crises. In addition to case studies, laboratory-based research including simulations and experiments has been used to test specific hypotheses, thereby contributing to the development and refinement of crisis communication theory. These include investigations of attribution of crisis cause, examinations of how audiences perceive and respond to crises, and tests of the effectiveness of various message forms. Critical methodologies, including descriptive and rhetorical approaches, have been employed to develop more general frameworks of crisis communication that address issues such as ethics and social justice.

In this chapter we provide an overview of crisis and communication concepts. Crisis communication theorizing and the development of a wide range of theoretical frameworks is necessary to explain, understand, and predict crises as well as inform crisis communication practice. Crisis theory also draws on both field research and research in controlled experimental settings as well as qualitative and critical approaches. Theory drives research by suggesting relationships and questions and by calling attention to gaps in our understanding and deficiencies in practice.

We begin this chapter by discussing definitions of crisis, communication, and crisis communication. Definitions are essential elements of any theorizing process, which provide the basic conceptual component necessary to build a theory.