Literature Review On Crisis Management

2. Theoretical framework

The literature on crisis communication is very diverse. Authors and scholars approach defining crisis communication and management in very different ways. Sometime, as is often the case, authors fail to make the link between different theories. As a result of this, the diversity presents a more in depth understanding of crisis management by means of bringing together these different viewpoints. As a result, Mitroff (1994) claims that as a corporate function, crisis management is still new and as a result is not widely understood. Falkenheimer and Heide considered it as the core of public relations practice and theory, while others believed that crisis management is one of the main areas of Public Relations

According to Hallahan, this framing then defines how people interpret the event, which in this instance; Hallahan states that disputants involved in an issue often compete to have their preferred interpretation predominate so that others will see the event from a perspective similar to their own. As a result, people’s perception of a news event or crisis will be ultimately defined by the media, who shape everyone’s perception of the story. Neuman, Just & Crigler (1992) identified five key types of frames that dominate media coverage of crisis. These frames were chosen because they are the most relevant to this research paper. These five key types of frames are: Human interest, conflict, morality, economic consequences and attribution of

The conflict frame is one in which there is an emphasis of conflict between ‘individuals, groups or institutions as a means of capturing audience interest (Semetko ???) Neuman et al found that the media draw on a few central frames for reporting a range of issues and that conflict was the most common in the handful of frames in the U.S. Essentially, creating a conflict frame can run the risk of ‘oversimplifying’ a story. In this instance, creating a conflict on who is to blame for the disappearance of Flight MH370. This is particularly common for occasions of crisis, as the search for culpability often leads to conflicts, especially as raw emotions run high. As a result, Capella and Jamieson (1997) believe that this can lead the news media to induce public cynicism and mistrust of