Crisis Communication and Social Media. A Systems- and Medium-Theoretical Perspective

The academic field of crisis communication is more relevant than ever due to the digital media revolution, setting new standards for how to manage criticism and crises. This paper presents a systems theoretical approach to crisis communication in the age of digital media with a special regard to social media. The paper shows that the recent changes in the media environment require that organizations be more observant, reflected and responsive to the public opinion. Correspondingly, organizations need to engage in strategic impression management with the aim to be, or to be observed to be, more consistent with their communicated values and strategies, thus managing to appear as trustworthy in a hyper‐dynamic social surrounding world.