Mediated crises and strategic crisis communication of third sector organizations: a content analysis of crisis reporting in six countries
Corporate Communications: An International Journal
ISSN: 1356-3289
Article publication date: 20 February 2024
Issue publication date: 11 June 2024
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to contribute to strategic crisis communication research by exploring international media representations of third sector crises and crisis response; expanding the range of crisis types beyond transgressions; and developing a framework that integrates framing and crisis communication theory.
Design/methodology/approach
Quantitative content analysis was applied to identify patterns in crisis reporting of 18 news media outlets in Canada, Germany, India, Switzerland, UK and US. Using an inductive framing approach, crisis coverage of nonprofit organizations (NPOs) and intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) between 2015 and 2018 was analyzed across a wide range of crises, including but not limited to prominent cases such as Oxfam, Kids Company, or the Islamic Research Foundation.
Findings
The news media in six countries report more internal crises in the third sector than external crises. The most frequent crisis types were fraud and corruption, sexual violence/personal exploitation and attacks on organizations. Exploratory factor analysis revealed three components of crisis response strategies quoted in the media, conditional rebuild, defensive and justified denial strategies. Causal attributions and conditional rebuild strategies significantly influenced media evaluations of organizational crisis response. Three frames of third sector crises were detected; the critique, the damage and the victim frame. These frames emphasize different crisis types, causes, crisis response strategies and evaluations of crisis response.
Originality/value
The study reveals the particularities of crises and crisis communication in the third sector and identifies factors that influence mediated portrayals of crises and crisis response strategies of nonprofit organizations (NPOs) from an international comparative perspective. The findings have relevant implications for crisis communication theory and practice.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Karoline Oelsner for her great support of the project.
Citation
Schwarz, A. and Diers-Lawson, A. (2024), "Mediated crises and strategic crisis communication of third sector organizations: a content analysis of crisis reporting in six countries", Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Vol. 29 No. 4, pp. 567-591. https://doi.org/10.1108/CCIJ-08-2023-0117
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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