Proceedings: Conference on Corporate Communication 2012 Page 1

Save Our Seafarers
How the Shipping Industry Is Using a Corporate Communication Campaign to
Combat Piracy
Owen Kulemeka
University of Oklahoma, USA
owen.kulemeka@ou.edu
This study examined how the global shipping industry used a corporate communication campaign
to combat piracy in the Gulf of Aden near Somalia. The website for the campaign,
www.saveourseafarers.com, and related social media pages were assessed to determine whether
they were communicating effectively with targeted publics. Website assessment criteria was
developed by combining the dominant website assessment approach in public relations with
website assessment approaches used in health communication, risk communication, and related
fields. An assessment of the main website revealed that it excelled at providing information in an
easy to understand manner. However, it faltered at encouraging debate among visitors to the
website. Assessment of the social media pages revealed that new criteria need to be developed
for assessing whether social media websites are communicating effectively with publics. Older
criteria for assessing websites pose challenges when used to assess newer social media websites.
Abstracts of <strong>Conference</strong> <strong>Proceedings</strong>: <strong>Conference</strong> on Corporate Communication 2012
Page 52