Will comments change your opinion? The persuasion effects of online comments and heuristic cues in crisis communication

Abstract

The emergence of online communication reflects a shift in communication practitioners’ roles, with more emphasis on interactive features in news such as writing online comments and clicking “like” on such comments. A 2 (consistency: consistent crisis responsibility attribution between online news and online comments vs. inconsistent responsibility attribution) × 2 (heuristic cues: high vs. low number of “likes” clicked) mixed subject design was tested on N = 389 samples. The findings of this study showed that participants tended to attribute less crisis responsibility and held an improved regard of reputation towards a corporation when they read online comments defending the corporation compared to when participants only read the news. Our findings suggest corporate communication practitioners should acknowledge the role of online comments that could motivate people to attribute crisis responsibility in a positive direction.

SEO Practices: A Study about the Way News Websites Allow the Users to Comment on Their News Articles

“…Comments have an important impact in social influence, and information diffusion in relation to users and society. Moreover, the raw and strong content along with the participation of the users via likes, shares, and similar interactions can influence the SEO metrics and improve the popularity of a website [25][26][27]32].…”

“…However, it has been proven on Facebook that there exist similar connections between offline and online political participation [24].A form of social influence and information diffusion are the comments that appear on websites and social media platforms. Studies have proved that comments can have a significant impact on society and alter even beliefs or opinions [25][26][27] and also play an essential role as a search engine optimization (SEO) practice. SEO practice affects the prominence of specific websites, which are gaining more visibility if they have some unique techniques or characteristics, such as allowing comments on their websites [28][29][30][31].…”

The effectiveness of refutation with logic vs. indignation in restoring the credibility of and trust in a government organization: A heuristic‐systematic model of crisis communication processing

“…Individuals may want to verify their existing judgement using a heuristic cue. Previous research in crisis management has mainly centred on the role of a heuristic cue in forming individuals’ perceptions about a crisis situation (Hong & Cameron, ; Lim, ) without the consideration of their crisis involvement. But people also use a heuristic cue to evaluate the organization’s message during a crisis.…”

“…forming individuals' perceptions about a crisis situation (Hong & Cameron, 2018;Lim, 2017) without the consideration of their crisis involvement. But people also use a heuristic cue to evaluate the organization's message during a crisis.…”

Exploring social media use in university crisis communication: An experiment to measure impact on perceived crisis severity and attitudes of key publics

“…When reporting risk situations such as campus crises or severe weather announcements, universities are expected to step up with their means of communication to inform students and employees. In other words, a university facing a crisis may enjoy benefits from using its social media to disseminate vital crisis information to the key audiences in a timely manner (Madere, ; Muralidharan et al., ; Waters et al., ); or receive prompt feedback from and interact with publics (Hong & Cameron, ; Rowel, Sheikhattari, Barber, & Evans‐Holland, ; Will & Callison, ). Therefore, this study conducts an experimental study investigating the impact of a university's narrative statements on public perceptions and attitudes towards the university involved in an emergency (e.g., universities’ crises, health issues, campus violence, etc.).…”