Keywords
diversity; crisis communication; audience needs
Abstract
Natural disasters, organizational crises, and acts of terrorism have received increased attention in recent years from communication scholars. A consistent theme emergent in this literature is the diversity of responses to crisis messages. Affected publics hailing from different demographic and economic backgrounds have demonstrated different interests, informational needs, and psychological and behavioral responses to crisis messages. Although this research strongly recommends the consideration of multiple publics and custom tailoring messages to their informational needs, government agencies and crisis practitioners continue to produce generalized crisis messages that do not adequately address these diverse needs. Furthermore, cultural issues that affect message responses have received little attention. The current chapter will review recent crisis communication research exploring differences across race, culture, sex, and socioeconomic status in terms of communication needs and perceptions of message adequacy. Relevant literature includes differences in crisis message effectiveness during September 11, 2001, Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters, bioterrorism events, and other public crises. This literature is then discussed in terms of its implications for public relations and crisis educators, including ways in which diverse audiences should be considered in this work. Implications of this research for government agencies are also addressed.
Date Created
January 2008
STARS Citation
Lachlan, K. A., & Spence, P. R. (2008). Audience responses and informational needs: Considering diversity in crisis communication. In A. Narro and A. Ferguson (Eds.), Diversity and Mass Communication: The Evidence of Impact (pp. 157-180). Southlake, TX: Fountainhead Press.
https://works.bepress.com/patric-spence/11/download/