Social media's impact on higher education crisis communication plans

<p>Using case study methods, four crises that were reported in the past 36 months were examined to see if university officials modified established crisis communication plans to better respond to messages and rumors on social networking. Two of the crises dealt with safety issues and two were reputational crises designed to discredit the institution. Four communication professionals were also interviewed for their opinions about social networking use during crises. The study concludes that universities should adopt a social networking aspect into crisis communication plans, including preauthorizing specific types of messages to be released during the first few minutes of a crisis without review from higher administrators. A model of this new crisis communication plan is included. Social media use is also recommended during other stages of a crisis to better inform the community of what is happening on a campus.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis - Pacific Access Restricted

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Communication

Year dc:date.available

2011

Author dc:creator

• Giblin, Patrick J.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Qingwen Dong

• Universities and colleges United States
• Public relations Case studies
• Crisis management Case studies
• Social media
• Communication
• Communication Technology and New Media
• Education
• Higher Education
• Organizational Communication

Licence

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/776

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarlycommons.pacific.edu:uop_etds-1775