Crisis Communication in a Digital World

Crisis Communication in a Digital World provides an introduction to major crisis communication theories and issues management, using practical examples from Australia and New Zealand. The book examines how public relations can influence the nature of a crisis and the impact of its aftermath. It explores the role of PR specialists in different crisis situations - including natural disasters and morphing crises - and examines the challenges they face in a world where social media is a key source of communication. Readers are provided with an in-depth understanding of crisis communication and issues management through practical approaches, strategies and skills, which are supplemented by relevant theories based on evidence and experience. International perspectives have been included throughout to illustrate the impact of multinational companies on the digital world, including global media cycles and social media activism. Each chapter explores a different aspect of communications, including media, natural disasters and celebrity crises.

Part I. Understanding Crisis and Issues Management: 1. Theorising and practising public relations crisis management Steve Mackey; Part II. Industrial Disasters: 2. Outrage management or consensus communication: what is the best way of doing risk communication? Paul Adams; 3. Confronting the reputation risks: New Zealand's biggest food safety scare Chris Galloway; Part III. Corporate Risks: 4. Crisis communication: when sorry is the hardest word in elite sport Hamish McLean and Maria Hopwood; 5. Corporate responses to a racially framed incident in Malaysia: KFC I-City flight Kiranjit Kaur; 6. Managing issues through cross-sector collaboration: Unilever and Greenpeace Sharyn McDonald; Part IV. Social Media and Crisis: 7. Media targets: when a spark in social media develops into a mainstream media firestorm Kristy Hess and Lisa Waller; 8. Harnessing the power of slacktivism: boom and bust cycle of issues management and crisis Deirdre Quinn-Allan; 9. Social media adoption and risk aversion: Australian not-for-profits Emma Bennett; Part V. Natural Disasters: 10. Communicating during disasters: insights from the 2013 Bundaberg flood Amisha Mehta and Dominique A. Greer; 11. Government roles in emergency communication response Jordi Xifra and Mark Sheehan; 12. Post crisis: rebuilding a company, a reputation, a community Mark Sheehan and Biagio Oppi.

Mark Sheehan is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Communication and Creative Arts in the Faculty of Arts and Education at Deakin University. He has almost twenty years of middle and senior management experience in the private sector and has occupied a number of high profile positions. He holds a BA degree from La Trobe University, an MBA from RMIT University, as well as a Master of Economics (Public Affairs) from the University of Sydney.
Deirdre Quinn-Allan is the Associate Head of School (Teaching and Learning) at the School of Communication and Creative Arts in the Faculty of Arts and Education at Deakin University. She has been a full-time member of the public relations teaching team within the Arts Faculty since February 2005.