The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of Information Sciences and Technology SCRUTINY ON THE BOUNTY: FROM CRISIS COMMUNICATION TO CRISIS CONVERSATION A Dissertation in Information Sciences and Technology by Kathleen A. Moore © 2014 Kathleen A. Moore Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2014 The dissertation of Kathleen A. Moore was reviewed and approved* by the following: Dr. Peter Forster Graduate Program Director, College of Information Sciences and Technology Dr. Andrea Tapia Associate Professor of Information Sciences and Technology Dissertation Adviser Chair of Committee Dr. Carleen Maitland Associate Professor of Information Sciences and Technology Dr. Christopher Griffin Affiliated Faculty of Information Sciences and Technology Dr. Michel Haigh Associate Professor of Advertising and Public Relations *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School iii ABSTRACT Few crisis communication theories have been studied in the last decade with as much rigor as Situational Crisis Communication Theory. With its assertion as a predictive, prescriptive, and evidence-based approach to aid crisis communication managers and professionals, numerous studies have tested facets of this theory with varying degrees of success. However, as crisis communication activity increasingly involves online communication, and social media in particular, new avenues of exploration are opened to examine this theory further as new questions come to light. Such as: what impact does the technology of social media have on the practice of crisis communication? How does the prescriptive format of this theory fit the realities of small business and organizations? As social media invites internal stakeholders and fans into open conversation with organizations, and as fans take it upon themselves to speak in defense of organizations during a crisis event, what is the impetus for this behavior and is there a way to capture and quantify this behavior as it manifests online? Do the older theories of crisis communication have utility when involved stakeholders are increasingly more conversant? The sinking of the tallship the HMS Bounty and the use of the organization’s Facebook fan page for the purposes of crisis communication sets the context for this research. As the singular point of communication from the organization to the public, the case is examined from the perspectives of the parties of interest using Situated Crisis Communication Theory and Halo Effect as a guide. A mixed method was used for discovery, triangulation, and cross-validation of analysis. Data was collected from the organization’s Facebook status updates and corresponding comments before, during, and after the sinking and assessed each quantitatively and qualitatively. Further, online conversations regarding the event in various forums and community pages were analyzed as well. Lastly, interviews were performed with persons from various stakeholder iv groups involved on the online conversations and were reviewed for clarification of events and more in-depth analysis. Key findings of this research identified a disparity between the applicability of SCCT and the realities of small businesses especially fan-based organizations, that technology has the potential to exacerbate secondary crises, and that there may be a predictive quality of fans exhibiting halo effect behavior. Implications of this research include a more in-depth understanding of technology mediated crisis communication and organizational practices by which to reconsider existing theories as well as design implications for Facebook. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................. viii LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................... x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................... xi Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Social Media and Professional Communication ........................................................ 1 1.2 Social Media and Organizational Crisis Communication .......................................... 3 1.3 Small Business and Facebook .................................................................................... 5 1.4 Online Fandom ........................................................................................................... 6 1.5 Crises and Small Business ......................................................................................... 8 1.6 Structure and Overview ............................................................................................. 10 Chapter 2 BACKGROUND .................................................................................................... 12 2.1 Hurricane Sandy ......................................................................................................... 12 2.2 The HMS Bounty ....................................................................................................... 13 2.3 The Bounty Organization Facebook page .................................................................. 17 2.4 Investigative Hearings ................................................................................................ 21 Chapter 3 LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................................... 23 3.1 Crisis .......................................................................................................................... 23 3.2 Stages of a Crisis: The Crisis Cycle ........................................................................... 26 3.3 Organizational Crisis Communication ....................................................................... 29 3.3.1 Theory ............................................................................................................. 30 3.4 Theoretical Approach ................................................................................................. 32 3.4.1 Situational Crisis Communication Theory .............................................................. 32 4.1.1 Examining SCCT ............................................................................................ 37 3.5 Halo Effect ................................................................................................................. 40 4.2.1 Operationalizing Halo Effect .......................................................................... 42 3.6 Information Gaps and Research Questions ................................................................ 43 Chapter 4 DATA AND METHODS ....................................................................................... 48 4.1 Case Study .................................................................................................................. 48 4.1.1 Data Collection ................................................................................................ 50 4.1.2 Method: Content Analysis ............................................................................... 51 4.1.3 Method: Interviews ......................................................................................... 53 4.1.6 Reliability ........................................................................................................ 59 4.1.7 Validity ............................................................................................................ 59 Chapter 5 ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS ............................................................................... 61 vi 5.1 RQ1 – What crisis response strategies are present in the BLLC Facebook data? ..... 61 5.2 RQ2 – What was the most dominant or frequently used response? ........................... 64 5.3 RQ3 – How did the online environment affect crisis communication for BLLC? .... 68 5.4 RQ4 – How did the online environment of BLLC’s crisis communication affect reception by various stakeholders? .......................................................................... 75 6.4.1 Internal Stakeholders/ “Fans” .......................................................................... 76 5.4.2 External Stakeholders ...................................................................................... 77 5.4.3. General Public ................................................................................................ 79 5.4.4 Media ............................................................................................................... 84 5.4.5 Search and Rescue, Regulatory ....................................................................... 85 5.5 Additional Findings .................................................................................................... 88 5.5.1 Information Accuracy ..................................................................................... 88 5.5.2 Unclear Authorship ......................................................................................... 89 5.5.3 Self-deletion of Comments .............................................................................. 90 5.5.4 Facebook as Separate from Sinking ................................................................ 91 5.5.5 The HMS Bounty brand impact ...................................................................... 93 5.6 RQ5 – Given