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This article reflects upon the communicative demands COVID-19 created for public sector crisis managers. Those demands include anxiety, empathy, efficacy, fatigue, reach, and threat. The conclusion reviews the realizations COVID-19 has created for those tasked with managing public health crises.

This study uses moral outrage to create a triadic appraisal of crises for situational crisis communication theory (SCCT). The addition of moral outrage improves the theory with an eye toward enhancing its application to the practice of crisis communication. The authors argue that adding moral outrage resulted in a needed reconceptualization of the preventable crisis cluster in SCCT identified by earlier researchers. Moral outrage becomes a third factor stakeholders utilize to assess crisis threats along with (1) determining if the situation is negative and (2) evaluations of crisis responsibility. The results of the study indicate that the preventable crisis cluster should be treated as three distinct sub-clusters. We argue that this triadic appraisal of crisis threat improves SCCT theoretically and has implications for the practice of crisis communication.

It is common to think of crisis communication as a reactive form of communication intending to protect an organization from a threat. Some research and media focus on crisis communication serve to create that interpretation. While the crisis response often is reactive, crisis communication also can be proactive and, more importantly, should be considered a valuable resource for pursuing strategic organizational outcomes (Coombs & Holladay, 2015). Crises posse threats to achieving organizational outcomes by pushing organizations off course. Crisis communication can be considered a means of correcting the course and reviving the pursuit of organizational goals/outcomes. Crises disrupt strategy by detracting from the pursuit of organizational outcomes (Bundy et al., 2016). A crisis demands management’s attention and the application of organizational resources to that situation (Milburn et al., 1983). A crisis can create a “distraction” from the pursuit of organizational goals — can impeded strategy. Moreover, a crisis can erode critical organization goals such as maintaining positive social evaluations and the pursuit of revenue (e.g., Chen et al., 2009; Coombs, 2007). This chapter considers how crisis communication can be used as a form of strategic communication designed to return managers to the pursuit of organizational goals.

Issues of reputation management are negotiated in a wide array of contexts, yet arguably one of the most visible of these areas involves how such stories unfold within the sporting arena. Whether i...

Organizations in crisis often fail to select the optimal crisis response strategy, preferring strategies that avoid short-term losses over the ones that offer long-term gains. This article proposes a descriptive theory of behavioral crisis communication that uses principles of behavioral economics to explain the recurrence of suboptimal anomalies found in crisis communication. Based on decision-making literature we first argue that the distinct context in which crisis communication takes place (e.g., time pressure, information overload) determines whether or not decisions are made in an analytical or an intuitive manner. Behavioral economics further allows us to explain how intuitive decisions can sometimes be biased by heuristics, which can result in the choice for a suboptimal crisis response strategy in the heat of the moment.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper, a set of two studies, is to elaborate on the concept of scansis and its effects upon crisis communication theory and practice. A scansis represents the intersection of a scandal and crisis, essentially when a crisis becomes a scandal. A new term was created due to the varied ways in which the term scandal is used and misused. The effects of scansis on crisis communication are examined through two studies. A scansis is unique because it creates moral outrage and is a function of a perception of injustice coupled with greed.Design/methodology/approachExperimental design is used in both studies to test for the effects of specific crisis response strategies used during a scansis. The crisis response strategies were manipulated to determine whether or not corrective action with moral recognition is more effective at helping organizations during a crisis than those crisis response strategies that do not contain a moral component.FindingsThe two studies found no short-term effect for crisis responses during scansis. This included no difference between corrective action with moral recognition and the other three response conditions for the short-term factors of organizational reputation, negative word-of-mouth intentions, purchase intentions and anger. However, Study 2 found that corrective action with moral recognition was perceived as the most empathetic response and created the lowest levels of moral outrage. The authors postulate that corrective action with moral recognition has a long-term effect after a scansis by creating a positive response that moves organizations away from being stigmatized.Research limitations/implicationsThe results raise questions about the current configuration of the intentional crisis cluster articulated in situational crisis communication theory (SCCT). When just consider assessments crisis responsibility, a scansis would be part of the preventable crisis cluster. However, the evaluation of justice and greed suggest a scansis may be a unique crisis type that does not fit within the intentional crisis cluster and the prescribed short-term effects of crisis response strategies recommend by SCCT. The scansis establishes a boundary condition for the limits of crisis response strategies on short-term effects such as reputation and purchase intention. These findings require us to rethink elements of current crisis communication theory.Practical implicationsThe lack of short-term benefits should not be an argument for abandoning accommodative crisis response strategies. Practitioners need to realize the limits of crisis response strategies for creating short-term benefits and think about the potential long-term benefits offered by crisis response strategies.Originality/valueScansis is a new concept for crisis communication and provides a link between the crisis communication and organizational stigma literatures. The two studies are the first attempts to empirically examine scansis and opens new avenues of thinking and research for crisis communication and organizational stigma researchers.

Sustainability communication is critical to society but challenging due to the complex concepts that must be conveyed to people in order to encourage them to be part of social change. Narratives have been identified as one means for creating persuasive sustainability messages, especially when considered as part of transmedia storytelling. This chapter seeks explores the potential of transmedia storytelling to facilitate the creation and dissemination of sustainability communication through the lens of the Transmedia Narrative Transportation (TNT) approach to messaging. We seek to facilitate that the evolution of narrative in sustainability communication by explaining how storytelling provides a critical tool for enhancing persuasive efforts. The TNT approach is theory-based and can explain why storytelling can be effective and how to use storytelling to enhance the persuasive potential of sustainability communication. Narrative transportation theory is used to explain why stories are persuasive while transmedia storytelling provides tactical advice on how to leverage the power of stories and potential indicators for the effectiveness utilizing stories in a way that engages the story consumer and encourages them to be creators of stories as well.

Sticky crises have created new challenges for crisis managers across a variety of fields. The focus of this chapter is on sticky crises faced by corporations or what we can call corporate sticky crises. The larger context of a crisis does matter. While natural disasters, public health crises, and corporate crises share some similarities, the differences have significant ramifications for crisis communication. In this chapter, we develop new guidance for sticky corporate crisis communication. The communication guidance is derived from a careful examination of the different types of sticky crises and contextual factors that affect stickiness. We then use existing crisis communication to develop possible crisis responses based upon the nature of sticky crises and contextual factors. The communicative guidance centers on the importance of empathy for victims, the role of emotions, and importance of values for corporate sticky crisis communication. While complex and challenging, sticky crises are not impossible to manage. This chapter is a theory-driven attempt to provide guidance for those crisis managers tasked with wrestling a corporate sticky crisis.

Sticky crises present unique challenges to crisis managers thereby serving as a provocation to crisis communication researchers. The provocation provided by sticky crises is the need to reconsider the existing crisis communication knowledge base. At times, researchers and practitioners overreact to new factors influencing crisis communication by claiming everything we once knew is no longer valid. We witnessed some of the invalidation claims appearing when social media complicated crisis communication. Sticky crises do not invalidate the existing crisis communication knowledge base but do create an exigency to expand that knowledge base. Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) is an essential element within the crisis communication knowledge base. This chapter examines SCCT’s applicability to sticky crises. That exploration involves elaborating on SCCT, identifying where SCCT fits with sticky crises, and detailing where the theory misses with sticky crises. The fit helps to explain how SCCT still works for sticky crises, while the misses identify gaps in SCCT where additional insights are needed when managing sticky crises. The chapter provides some insights into how sticky crises can affect the evolution of crisis communication research and theory.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to craft a new perspective on how we can view public relations that reflects important trends emerging in the field including digital media, storytelling, engagement and co-creation of meaning. Transmedia storytelling (an idea with some ties to public relations) and narrative transportation theory are synthesized to form the transmedia narrative transportation (TNT) approach to public relations. The paper details the development of the TNT approach and how it can be applied to public relations initiatives. Design/methodology/approach The approach is a literature review to inform the creation of the TNT approach. A case study is used to illustrate the TNT approach. Findings An innovative approach to conceptualizing and creating public relations initiatives is developed, explained and illustrated. Research limitations/implications The paper examines only one case to illustrate the TNT approach. Practical implications The TNT approach develops a new perspective for public relations for developing and executing public relations initiatives. Transmedia storytelling has already been connected to the practice and TNT builds a more comprehensive approach for understanding its value to public relations. Originality/value There has been a limited application of transmedia storytelling to public relations. This paper synthesizes transmedia storytelling with narrative transportation theory to develop a theory-driven, new approach for public relations thinking. The TNT approach is a unique fusion of ideas that can bring an innovative approach to the practice of public relations that captures four emerging trends that are shaping the practice.