Online stakeholder communication in firestorm situations Copenhagen Business School MA in International Business Communication/MCO May 17th, 2016 Master’s Thesis Author: Mikkel Zangenberg Supervisor: Dennis Schoeneborn Number of pages: 57 Characters including spaces: 108003 1 Online stakeholder communication in firestorm situations | Mikkel Zangenberg Table of contents Table of Figures ...................................................................................................................................... 2 Résumé ...................................................................................................................................................... 3 Chapter 1 .................................................................................................................................................. 4 1.0 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 5 1.1 Topic delimitation:...................................................................................................................... 6 1.2 Scope of the thesis ........................................................................................................................... 6 1.3 Disposition ........................................................................................................................................ 7 1.4 Definitions ........................................................................................................................................ 8 1.4.1 Online terms .................................................................................................................................. 8 1.4.2 Crowdfunding ................................................................................................................................ 9 1.4.3 Steam and the concept of ”Early Access” ...................................................................................... 9 1.5 Methods ......................................................................................................................................... 11 1.6 Data collection................................................................................................................................ 11 Chapter 2 .................................................................................................................................................. 12 2.0 Literature review: current literature .................................................................................................. 13 2.1 Stakeholder communication strategies .......................................................................................... 13 2.2 The Spiral of Silence ....................................................................................................................... 16 2.3 Public Citizenship Arenas ................................................................................................................ 17 2.4 Situational Crisis Communication Theory ....................................................................................... 19 Chapter 3 .................................................................................................................................................. 23 3.0 A new lens - additions to existing literature ....................................................................................... 24 3.1 Online firestorms and clusters........................................................................................................ 24 3.3 The online disinhibition effect ........................................................................................................ 25 3.4 Online “Trolls” ................................................................................................................................ 27 3.5 Social Media ................................................................................................................................... 28 3.6 Partial conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 30 Chapter 4 .................................................................................................................................................. 31 4.0 Analysis............................................................................................................................................... 32 4.1 Background on the firestorm.......................................................................................................... 32 4.1.1 Timeline ....................................................................................................................................... 32 4.1.2 Timeline for software updates .................................................................................................... 35 1 2 Online stakeholder communication in firestorm situations | Mikkel Zangenberg 4.2 The communicative approach of Chucklefish ................................................................................. 36 4.2.1 The official blog and forum.......................................................................................................... 37 4.2.2 The official Twitter feed .......................................................................................................... 39 4.3 Communicative response to the firestorm situation .......................................................................... 39 4.4 Communicative mistakes made by Chucklefish .................................................................................. 39 4.4.1 Strategic approach to delays ....................................................................................................... 40 4.4.2 Moderation efforts .................................................................................................................. 41 4.4.3 Strategic approach to CSR communication ................................................................................. 43 4.4.4 Not winning over key dissidents .................................................................................................. 44 4.4.5 Engaging with users in a counterproductive manner .................................................................. 45 4.4.6 on the topic of unreasonable stakeholders ................................................................................. 49 4.4.7 On vocal majorities and minorities .............................................................................................. 51 These numbers were all accurate as of the time of writing on May 10, 2016. ..................................... 51 4.5 Partial conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 52 Chapter 5 .................................................................................................................................................. 54 5.0 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................... 55 5.1 Reflections and limitations ................................................................................................................. 56 5.2 Further research ................................................................................................................................. 57 6.0 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................................... 58 Appendix – Figure transcripts ................................................................................................................... 66 Table of Figures Figure 1: The Spiral of Silence .................................................................................................................. 16 Figure 2: John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory ...................................................................... 27 Figure 3: Sample blog post ....................................................................................................................... 38 Figure 4: Comment exchange ................................................................................................................... 45 Figure 5: Michael Reilly quote .................................................................................................................. 46 Figure 6: Michael Reilly quote regarding Stakeholder .............................................................................. 47 Figure 7: Joke poll ..................................................................................................................................... 48 2 3 Online stakeholder communication in firestorm situations | Mikkel Zangenberg Résumé The internet has changed the way companies must approach stakeholder communication. Social media and online forums have changed the need for a presence and availability to stakeholders a company and its employees need to contribute with. This leads to challenges in the form of “firestorm” situations in which companies can find themselves in crisis situations without warning. These “firestorm” situations can be self-inflicted or come from outside sources, but online communications have changed both the speed and potential degree of crisis with which a “firestorm”