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Using the United Airlines "bumpgate" crisis as example, this research analyses how reporting of irrelevant information on a crisis victim's bad character impacts on empathy towards the victim, the victim's reputation as well as the reputation of the news medium that published the information. A one‐factorial experiment was conducted with two conditions manipulating the reporting on the crisis victim's character plus a control condition. Respondents were 245 online‐panel participants from the UK. The findings show that when journalists violate the code of ethics by reporting irrelevant negative information on the character of a crisis victim, they harm not only the reputation of the victim, but also that of their news organization. This study contributes to the scarce research on the impact of media reporting during a crisis on victims of the crisis and on the reputation of the newspaper. Journalists must be aware that violating the journalistic code of ethics by reporting on irrelevant negative characteristics of a victim is not only detrimental for the victim but can also significantly hurt the reputation of their organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the concept of character assassination in the field of corporate communication. We examine the perception of character traits and personal values of chief executive officers in Austria and Germany during corporate crises. Results suggest that character attacks mostly focus on a chief executive officer’s integrity, while a positive public perception of charisma seems to be related to a chief executive officer’s remaining in office. Furthermore, personal values were under more intense public scrutiny when the chief executive officer in question had to leave their office. Thus, the study suggests that character traits and values are antecedents which influence the outcomes of the process of character assassination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research analyzes the effectiveness of a CEO spokesperson’s affiliation to a social group during a crisis. Specifically, it addresses the question of whether a group affiliation with a large heterogeneous group, such as parents, can engender similarly positive effects in members of the same social category, compared with a smaller distinctive group, here an amateur sports community. An experimental study using a product harm crisis by a bicycle manufacturer as stimulus was conducted to answer the research question. The results reveal positive effects when the CEO signaled his/her affiliation with a social group that is distinctive and rather homogenous. In this case, corporate trustworthiness, purchase intentions, and abstaining from negative word-of-mouth are directly impacted by stakeholders’ identification with the CEO spokesperson, and indirectly through identification with the CEO and message credibility. However, when the CEO spokesperson communicated his/her affiliation with a large and heterogeneous group, in this case parents, the company did not benefit. The results yield implications for both crisis communication research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media provide numerous possibilities for consumers and other stakeholders to voice their complaints about organizations in public. While this can damage the reputation of an organization, effectively handling complaints also bears considerable opportunities to win back complainants and to win over observers of the interaction. This study analyzes how large companies handle complaints on their Facebook and Twitter pages. Results reveal that the companies are not fully embracing the opportunities of social media to demonstrate their willingness to interact with and assist their stakeholders. Organizational responsiveness is only moderate, and companies often try to divert complainants away from the social network site. The most frequently applied response strategy is asking complainants for further information which does not appease complainants. Response strategies that foster complaint satisfaction are used less often. They comprise offering a corrective action, connecting the complainant with someone who can provide a problem solution and thanking the complainant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] We examine the proactive crisis communication strategy of inoculation. [•] We analyze the role of preexisting identification with the criticized company. [•] Results show that disidentifiers’ attitudes are protected by inoculation. [•] Identifiers’ attitudes are not further protected by inoculation. [•] We challenge the notion that inoculation works best in a supportive environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Ethical problems and resources addressed in a survey among 2324 PR managers. • PR practitioners face more moral challenges in their daily work than 8 years ago. • Concerns regarding bots, big data, social media influencers and sponsored content. • Personal values and beliefs most important resource for dealing with moral issues. Digital communication tools and practices improve the spread and impact of organisational messages. Quite often, however, they also pose moral problems. This article examines how often public relations practitioners encounter moral issues in their day-to-day work, how they assess digital communication tools and practices in terms of ethics, and the resources on which they rely to tackle moral challenges. Four research questions were addressed in an online survey among 2,324 practitioners who work in PR departments of organisations or in PR agencies across Europe. Results show that PR practitioners face more moral challenges in their daily work than they have faced in the past. Regarding digital communication tools and practices, they report moral concerns especially related to using bots, exploiting personal data for big-data analyses, paying social media influencers, and using sponsored content. Personal values and beliefs are the most important resource for dealing with moral issues—whether because only a minority of practitioners has participated in any formal ethics training within the past three years, or because existing ethical guidelines are outdated. Results call for the development of ethical guidelines that can provide explicit advice in the area of digital communication. Furthermore, structured training programs and ethics courses in graduate programs are needed to enhance practitioners' ethical knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two studies were undertaken to examine the moderating effect of identification with a rumor target on rumor impact and refutation effectiveness. We show that identification and its opposite, disidentification, bias the way individuals react to a rumor. That is, as identification with the rumor target increased from disidentification to neutral to identification, belief in an aversive rumor declined. Furthermore, the effectiveness of a refutation was moderated by an individual's level of identification. People with a neutral identification level processed a refutation heuristically and were persuaded by it, whether it contained strong or weak arguments. Disidentifiers, who engaged in systematic processing, believed the rumor less only when the refutation contained strong arguments. Identifiers, processing heuristically, remained unbelieving in the rumor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The processes that mediate the effectiveness of 2-sided advertising were studied. We predicted that (a) 2-sided (vs. 1-sided) advertisements increase perceived source credibility and that (b) the logical relation between the negative and positive product attributes mentioned in the 2-sided ad (e.g., little space, implying a cozy atmosphere) facilitates favorable inferences about the positive attributes, especially when recipients have sufficient time to process the message content. Results supported these predictions. However, the effects of message type and processing time on attitudes were mediated by inferences about positive attributes but not by perceived source credibility. Implications of these findings for consumer judgment and decision making are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluate electronic commerce in Germany as a typology of entrepreneurial communicators. Exposure of corporate communications to a high degree of pressure and to an unpredictable environment; Observation of high disregard of legal demands for the transparency of stock corporations; Evidence for the necessity to establish internal competencies before outsourcing corporate communications.

• This empirical study reveals specific content topics and communication styles that facilitate Chinese publics' engagement on corporate SNSs. • In total, 1440 corporate posts and over 130,000 public responses on Sina Weibo were examined from 12 world-leading corporations. • German corporations have localized their communication practices on the virtual platform by conforming to the Chinese cultural values. • Publics' responses varied with respect to different content topics and communication styles employed by corporations from different cultures. Global corporations publicize on social networking sites (SNSs) to foster dialogic communication with publics as a form of building relationships. Yet the link between the content and style of the corporation communication from different cultural backgrounds and publics' responses in the form of likes and retweets is under-researched. This empirical study explored how global corporations from China and Germany employ factors such as useful content topics and culturally-influenced communication styles to cultivate dialogic communication with publics on Sina Weibo, the largest SNS in China. Although both German and Chinese corporations similarly posted a range of content on products/services, corporate appeal and relationship building with no distinct significant differences in their communication styles, publics' response varied noticeably in that they were more receptive to content on products/services disseminated by German corporations yet had greater responses to content on corporate appeal posted by Chinese corporations. In addition, publics were more inclined to react favorably to messages presented in an individualistic style of communication by German companies and messages in a collectivistic style by Chinese companies. The implications of how to effectively use SNS to engage in dialogue with publics are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Social media empower individuals to voice their opinions about issues that they perceive to be unacceptable. When many others add their opinions and large quantities of messages containing negative word-of-mouth suddenly spread online, an online firestorm occurs. By extending the situational theory of problem solving (Kim and Grunig, 2011) into the domain of online communication, this study aims to identify the drivers for participating in online firestorms. Design/methodology/approach: With reference to a fictitious online firestorm trigger (i.e. perceived moral misconduct) posted on Facebook, a qualitative pre-study and quantitative online survey were conducted. Based on the responses of 410 participants, an ordinary least squares regression was modeled to examine the factors of participating in the online firestorm. Later, structural equation modeling was applied to test the model and gauge its fit with the data. Findings: Participants' involvement recognition, perception of being collective actors and approval of slacktivism behaviors positively predicted their participation in the online firestorm, whereas non-anonymity hampered it. Originality/value: The study's findings not only contribute to the current understandings of online firestorms but are also valuable for developing theory and forms of professional crisis management. Moreover, they offer insights into the factors of online communication environments that encourage users to voice their opinions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Nowadays, dissatisfied consumers increasingly voice their frustration publicly by complaining on brand-created social media sites (e.g. Facebook). This work argues that webcare (i.e., messages sent in response to an online complaint) can mitigate complainants' unfavorable failure attributions (i.e., locus, controllability, and stability). However, webcare's ability depends on both prior failure experiences with the same brand and on other consumers' online comments: Our study of 812 consumers shows that in the case of multiple prior failures, complainants are less sensitive to any kind of marketers' webcare. In contrast, if complainants have experienced few prior failures, different webcare types vary in their effectiveness. Most importantly, comments of other consumers defending the brand can improve the effectiveness of marketers' recovery responses. This is only the case when the content of the two responses is congruent. If well-meant advocates' responses are incongruent to marketers' complaint handling strategy, unfavorable failure attributions occur. Additionally, our work reveals that webcare's potential to positively shape complainants' failure attributions is critical for their post-webcare satisfaction and their inclination to engage in negative word-of-mouth. Graphical abstract Image Highlights • The number of dissatisfied consumers that complain on social media is on the rise. • Marketer-initiated webcare can reduce complainants' negative failure attributions. • Webcare is only effective, if complainants have experienced few prior failures. • The comments of other consumers can change the effectiveness of webcare. • Failure attributions have a large impact on satisfaction and negative word-of-mouth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extending the motivational assumptions of the heuristic-systematic model (Chaiken, Liberman, & Eagly, 1989), the authors hypothesized that a discrepancy between desired and actual judgmental confidence raises processing effort only if the expectancy that processing will increase confidence is high. In Experiment 1, university students expected to review information for upcoming social judgments. Desired confidence was varied through low versus high task importance. To manipulate expectancy, low versus high perceived processing efficacy was induced via feedback. As predicted, high- (as compared to low-) importance participants expressed greater interest in receiving information and selected more information when perceived efficacy was high, and this effect was mediated via a heightened discrepancy between desired and actual confidence. These effects were not obtained under low perceived efficacy. In Experiment 2, students processed a persuasive message. Only high importance conditions were studied; processing efficacy and argument strength were manipulated. As predicted, high- (but not low-) efficacy participants processed the message systematically, as indicated by a different impact of argument strength and by mediational path analyses. It is argued that the precision of social judgment models would benefit from an explicit consideration of processing- and outcome-related expectancy variables. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]