Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Some mass media researchers believe that organizational crises are inevitable. For example, according to Mitroff, Shrivastava, and Udwadia (1987) , “it is no longer the question of whether a major disaster will strike any organization, but only a question of when, how, what form it will take, and who and how many will be affected ” (p. 291; original emphasis). Probably that is why such crucial moments attract the increasing attention of mass communication scholars and practitioners. Crisis is a period when the efficiency of the public relations structures of the organization is tested under extreme circumstances. These times of emergencies especially highlight the skillfulness of PR personnel. Nevertheless, sometimes emotions as well as an unbearable work load can prevent PR people from being effective during turbulent periods. What to do first? How to do it properly? These and other questions can be overwhelmingly difficult even for very experienced practitioners at such moments. That is why many organizations try to reduce the pressure on PR people so that there are fewer chances to make mistakes. For this purpose, organizations prepare crisis plans. There are two main goals for such documents: to tell emotionally overloaded people what to do and then how to do it. According to Fink (1986) , “The contingency plan deals with the mechanics of the crisis in order to save precious ... log in or subscribe to read full text