icegov2012 proceedings

Government Crisis Communication on the Microblog: A
Theory Framework and the Case of Shanghai Metro Rear-
End Collision
ABSTRACT
Crisis brings various damages including a tarnished reputation. To
protect and restore its reputation is an important task for a
government agency in times of crisis. A microblog, which is
attracting more and more public attention, can be used as a
platform for the government to communicate with the public in
order to manage its reputation in times of crisis. However, there is
not enough research done in this area. In this paper, the author
develops a general framework for a government agency to
conduct crisis communication on the microblog. At the end of the
paper, the case of a Shanghai City Metro rear-end collision is
introduced to show how the government can use the framework to
respond to a crisis.
Categories and Subject Descriptors
K.4.m [Computer and Society]: Miscellaneous.
General Terms
Management, Measurement, Performance, Theory
Keywords
Microblog; Social Media; Public Relation; Crisis Communication,
China
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
On September 27, 2010, a rear-end collision occurred at Shanghai
City’s Metro in China. This accident was first reported by a
microblogger on Sina Microblog [42], a popular Chinese
microblog website 1 .
What makes this affair different is the responses made by the
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ICEGOV '12, October 22 - 25 2012, Albany, NY, USA
Copyright 2012 ACM 978-1-4503-1200-4/12/10...$15.00
1 http://www.weibo.com/
Xiao Liang
Department of Informatics
University at Albany, SUNY
1400 Washington Avenue
Albany, NY 12222
xliang@albany.edu
248
Shanghai Metro’s official microblog 2 . The response messages
were widely spread, and both the responses and the Shanghai
Metro received considerable acclaim.
On one hand, this indicates that the public would like to see
government agencies appear on a microblog in times of crisis; on
the other hand, it raises the question of how a government agency
could use microblogs in a crisis to facilitate crisis communication.
1.2 Introduction of the Problem
Crisis is the “perception of unpredictable event that threatens
important expectancies of stakeholders and can seriously impact
an organization’s performance and generate negative outcomes”
[6]. One of the negative outcomes of a crisis is a tarnished
reputation [10], which is the source of negative attitudes towards
an organization [26]. Therefore, to protect their reputations
becomes an important task for all organizations in times of crisis.
Crisis communication is the approach aimed at maintaining and
repairing reputation during a crisis. This approach, by definition,
is “the dialogue between the organization and its public prior to,
during, and after the negative occurrence. The dialogue details
strategies and tactics that are designed to minimize damage to the
image of the organization” [12].
As a channel of communication, the media is an unneglectable
constituent. Scholars assert that, according to different
characteristics of the media, an organization should apply
different strategies in order to achieve the best result [4]. The
microblog, as a type of new media, is attracting more and more
public attention. Many organizations have begun to use it as a
platform to communicate with their publics during crises [31].
However, there has not much research done in this area [31].
This paper aims to provide government agencies with a general
framework for harnessing the microblog to communicate with the
public during a crisis. However, there is no one size-fits-all model;
the general framework functions as a basic guideline allowing
government agencies to develop specific strategies in different
situations shaped by factors such as the responsibility of the crisis,
the information required by the public, and the social value in
which the organization is embedded. The model takes a stage
approach, which views the crisis as a process composed of
2 http://www.weibo.com/shmetro/