Title The User Created Fire ? Risks and Opportunities with Crisis communication in Social Network SitesAuthor Charbel SaderCourse Master Thesis in Media? and Communication Studies, Department of Journalism and Communication, University of GothenburgSemester Spring semester of 2013Tutor Nicklas HåkanssonNumberof pages 75Purpose To find a deeper understanding of the digital media?s role in Swedish society in relation to Crisis communication.Method Qualitative approach using focus group interviewsMaterial Semi structured focus group interviews with a total of 18 participants in five groups. The focus group sessions were made during February, March and April 2012.Main results The main findings in this study are that users expect the communication flow in social network sites (SNS) during a crisis is to be a shortcut to information without a detour through organizations or traditional media. Although we find personal gratification, like interpersonal communication, quick information and sharing feelings and experience with others by using SNS during a crisis, users also tend to be hesitant about the credibility of the shared information. Alongside the user created content, we look to professional media experts and organizations as a guarantee for the veracity of the shared information.

Purpose: The study aims to analyze how companies can learn from past communications in critical situations and during corporate crisis, and see how they use this knowledge in the management of subsequent critical situations and corporate crisis. Furthermore, the media is analyzed to see how the newspaper industry chooses to reflect an organization and its actions, and also to see if the pressure through articles in the newspapers has an impact on the extent of the situation.Method: A qualitative case study of Sweden?s largest food company, ICA Sverige AB, where knowledgeable people in media management within the company are interviewed using semi-structured interviews, with support of quantitative methods by a collection of articles from the news press.Theories: Concepts, theories and models in crisis management and communication has been applied to relevant data. These comprise Knowledge Management, a communication template in crisis management, The Situational Crisis communication Theory (SCCT) and the model Content of Crisis communication.Empiric: Based on the quantitative data consisting of articles from four Swedish news sources: Svenska Dagbladet, Dagens Nyheter, Aftonbladet and Expressen, a semi-structured interview guide was created and carried out with the person within ICA who possesses knowledge of the subject area.Conclusion: ICA has during the priod studied exhibited to have used the concept of Knowledge Management in the development of their routines regarding product recalls at product defects. The relationships between ICA and the media have shown improvements, which has resulted in ICA percieve the media coverage as balanced, true and fair..

The purpose of this thesis is to study the context that affects Crisis communication through an organizational perspective. It also tries to identify factors of success and difficulties when it comes to coordinating information between governmental organizations during a crisis. Carried out as a case study of the Swedish governmental network Krissamverkan Kronoberg, the method used are source analysis and qualitative interviews with members from different organizations in the network. The results have been analyzed through Organization theory, Network theory and theory in Crisis communication. The context that effects governmental organizations ability to cooperate during a society crisis is characterized by knowledge, understanding, utility and willingness. In addition to this a successful coordination of information should be based on resources, competence and continuity. The main problems when it comes to cooperating and coordinating during a crisis situation lies in what we would like to call organizational egoism, existential uncertainty and defensive behavior. .

In the new media society, social media has become an important part of many organizations' daily lives. Organizations, whether public or private, must be where their audience is and many times, these can be found on social media channels like Facebook. Leading researchers in the fields of Crisis communication and relationship management believe that social media is a great tool for managing relationships between an organization and its' public, whether it's before, during or after a crisis.The purpose of this study is to examine how the Karlstad municipality use Facebook to manage civic relations before, during and after a crisis. The municipality's approach will be compared to the citizens' experiences of the municipality's communication in different stages of a crisis.The theoretical framework used in this essay is the research on Crisis communication and relationship management. How these two frameworks can be integrated with social media like Facebook, is an important part of understanding how the Karlstad municipality make use of Facebook to manage civic relations and communicate before, during and after a crisis.The empirical study consists of a qualitative interview, two qualitative content analysis and an online survey.

This study intends to use a text analysis and analyze Findus Crisis communication, on their website, about the horse meat scandal in February and March 2013. The main focus is to examine if Findus Crisis communication can be connected to Beniot?s image repair strategies and the rhetorical appeal forms, in five press releases and four blog posts, and also if they are different depending on the media format. The results show that Findus usually used three of the five image repair strategies and the three appeal forms (ethos, pathos and logos) interacted and therefore became Findus Crisis communication consistent in all material. The results also show that Findus had a clear position because they conveyed a consistent message..

The purpose of this study is to compare social media's role in the proactive Crisis communication planning in two administrations, two companies and two non-profit organizations. A qualitative comparative study method has been used and people familiar with social media and Crisis communications work from each business has been interviewed. The interviews have been transcribed and analyzed to discover the opinions and reasoning about how businesses work with proactive Crisis communication and the role they give social media. The interviews were analyzed based on selected theories and previous research in strategic Crisis communications, where issues management and Crisis communication plans have a significant role. Also research on the pros and cons of social media and Crisis communications channels have been used.

Title: Crisis communication strategy and brand ? A case study of Swedish Red Crossthrough dialog analysisAuthor: Anneli SaarelaPresented: 01.06.2010Purpose: The study addresses the subjects of Crisis communication and organisational brand, in relation to stakeholders and brand reputation. The purpose of this essay is to study the dialog regarding the crisis of remunerations with the Swedish Red Cross and how the organisation responds to the criticism. An identification and analysis of the discourse regarding the brand are also included in the study. Part of the empirical material will also be used in relation to Situational Crisis communication Theory (SCCT).

Crisis communication can make a crisis turn into a double crisis. The purpose of the thesis is to analyze by which rhetorical means a double crisis can occur. With the Swedish zoo Parken Zoo as a specific example, this essay examines the Crisis communication during the crises that started with the tv-show Kalla fakta. The tv-show revealed that Parken Zoo killed and slaughtered endangered and sacred animals. When asked about the specific animals, the head of the zoo gave different answers ? which contrasted with former employees testimony.

In the new media society, social media has become an important part of many organizations' daily lives. Organizations, whether public or private, must be where their audience is and many times, these can be found on social media channels like Facebook. Leading researchers in the fields of Crisis communication and relationship management believe that social media is a great tool for managing relationships between an organization and its' public, whether it's before, during or after a crisis.The purpose of this study is to examine how the Karlstad municipality use Facebook to manage civic relations before, during and after a crisis. The municipality's approach will be compared to the citizens' experiences of the municipality's communication in different stages of a crisis.The theoretical framework used in this essay is the research on Crisis communication and relationship management. How these two frameworks can be integrated with social media like Facebook, is an important part of understanding how the Karlstad municipality make use of Facebook to manage civic relations and communicate before, during and after a crisis.The empirical study consists of a qualitative interview, two qualitative content analysis and an online survey.

The challenge that companies currently face in their attempts to break through the media clutter has resulted in an increased use of provocative advertising worldwide. History shows that this strategy can result in a brand crisis due to negative consumer sentiment. Despite this fact, advertisement generated crisis remain a relatively unexplored field in the academic world of marketing. The objective of this thesis is to further explore crisis creation from provocative advertising, evaluate the affiliated negative consumer consequences, and to examine the effects of two contrasting company strategies to remedy these types of crisis situations. An experiment was conducted on Swedish and Norwegian students in order to examine whether the communication and information sharing between the target consumers and others could explain the development and consequences of provocative advertisement crisis due to its psychological effects.

Vår avsikt med uppsatsen är att beskriva och analysera medias larmrapporters inverkan på livsmedelsprodukternas nuvarande situation och framtid. Vi undersöker varför vissa företag lyckas bättre respektive misslyckas med sin krishantering utifrån hur de bemöter larmen.Vi har utgått från teorin Crisis Management, där vi har funnit en applicerbar modell på vårt syfte, Crisis Response System, som kompletteras med sårbarhetsmodellen A Simple model of Crisis Susceptibility. Dessa modeller behandlar den interna krishanteringen. För att externt kunna bemöta larmrapporter har vi valt att tillämpa PR-modellen Communication Strategies for Responding to a Crisis där paralleller dras till delar ur ryktes- och trovärdighetsmodellen Brand-Building Blocks..

Today we live in an interconnected world. Through globalization and the development of information technology one can say that, today everyone is our neighbour. The result of our actions can easily spread and affect people on the other side of the world within seconds.Meanwhile, Third World countries are developing into stable economies and Western European corporations are expanding like never before and setting up their organizations in these new markets.This of course is not unproblematic, it creates new challenges for international organizations especially when it comes to communication. An example of that same problematic communication presented itself for Arla Foods in what came to be called the Cartoon Crisis.In late September of 2005 a number of cartoons depicting the holy prophet Muhammed were published in a Danish newspaper. This event sparked scores of protest ranging from Morocco to the Philippines.

Background: The Swedish life-insurance business has been extensively criticised lately due to broken promises to customers as well as due to scandals that some companies within the business have been involved in. The companies within the Swedish life-insurance business find themselves in a so- called crisis of confidence, something that is created in and by media. A company that finds itself in a crisis of confidence somehow have to manage the situation and crises of confidence can also result in different kinds of changes. Purpose: The aim of this thesis is to explore and analyse how individual life- insurance companies manage crises of confidence. As a consequence, the aim is also to investigate in what way crises of confidence are initiators to change.

Background: The Swedish life-insurance business has been extensively criticised lately due to broken promises to customers as well as due to scandals that some companies within the business have been involved in. The companies within the Swedish life-insurance business find themselves in a so- called crisis of confidence, something that is created in and by media. A company that finds itself in a crisis of confidence somehow have to manage the situation and crises of confidence can also result in different kinds of changes. Purpose: The aim of this thesis is to explore and analyse how individual life- insurance companies manage crises of confidence. As a consequence, the aim is also to investigate in what way crises of confidence are initiators to change.

This paper examines how the Swedish nationalistic political party Sverigedemokraterna communicates regarding the crisis they experienced when the Swedish newspaper Expressen published a few video clips of three, in that time, highly important party members that got in an argument after a late night of drinking. Two of the party members were at the time of the publication the members of the Swedish parliament and all of them had important senior positions in the party. In the argument one of the party members used abusive, offensive, sexist and racist language while all acted threatening and even armed themselves with iron bars from a nearby construction site.The aim of this paper is to examine how the party Sverigedemokraterna conducts their Crisis communication, if they apologies and the fashion of the apology. A press conference with the party leader and the most active user of abusive language and also an interview with the second member of parliament who is involved in the argument are studied. The rhetorical arena is used to describe and pinpoint the most important stakeholders in the crisis.