Date of Award:

5-2016

Document Type:

Dissertation

Degree Name:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department:

English

Committee Chair(s)

Keith Grant-Davie

Committee

Keith Grant-Davie

Committee

Steven Hanks

Committee

Kristine Miller

Committee

Ryan Moeller

Committee

Rebecca Walton

Abstract

Crisis events are now common, ranging from computer errors, which might cause only minor inconvenience, to floods, which can cause loss of life and significant property damage. Such events can affect people’s ability to pay bills, trust food sources, or deal with events that could impact the environment and lives for decades. Understanding how crisis information is presented to audiences, how these audiences interpret and respond to a crisis will help researchers develop new approaches to improve communication among and with people affected by crisis.

To understand how individuals make sense of crisis events, I applied David Boje’s theories and concepts of antenarrative, or story fragments, that are used in sense making. As these fragments are retold, they are reimagined by the teller to highlight specific elements and downplay others. In this way, an antenarrative takes on a life of its own, possibly recreating the same series of events in countless ways.

Comprehending how social media users interrupt an unfolding crisis allows an understanding of how it differs from traditional crisis communication response. Before the advent of social media, an organization in crisis would make an announcement about the event, hold press conferences, and respond to the crisis. Today, social media users can report about a crisis before an organization may fully understand what is happening. Social media users interact with information presented by the organization, so they can question the company and challenge the crisis in real time. Technology has changed the way a crisis is interpreted, but few organizations have reacted to this change and developed new strategies to communicate about crisis via social media.

The dissertation examines four case studies:

  • H&R Block’s response exclusively on Facebook to a software error that delayed tax returns
  • The National Transportation Safety Board’s presenting information about the Asiana 214 crash at San Francisco International Airport
  • The Center for Diseases Control and Prevention’s reaction to the first case of Ebola in the United States and the strategies it used to present information to hospitals and to the general publics in the United States and West Africa
  • #BlackLivesMatter users’ engaging social media to present crisis information to the public to generate support for a legislative agenda that seeks improve the lives of black people.

These cases show not only how antenarratives developed among social media users but also how these users interpreted, retold, and reimagined official narratives of the crisis. These findings allowed an exploration of the best and worst social media crisis communication practices.

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