Government crisis communication on the microblog

Abstract

Crisis brings various damages including a tarnished reputation. To protect and restore its reputation is an important task for a government agency in times of crisis. A microblog, which is attracting more and more public attention, can be used as a platform for the government to communicate with the public in order to manage its reputation in times of crisis. However, there is not enough research done in this area. In this paper, the author develops a general framework for a government agency to conduct crisis communication on the microblog. At the end of the paper, the case of a Shanghai City Metro rear-end collision is introduced to show how the government can use the framework to respond to a crisis.