Perspectives of Public Relations Practitioners on the Effects of Social media on Crisis Communication

Abstract

The study assesses the effects of social media on crisis communication from the perspective of selected public relations practitioners. A qualitative inquiry was used to elicit information from five public relations managers from five organisations in the Kumasi metropolis. The emergent themes from the study were interpreted within situational crisis communication theory. The results showed that basic communication principles have not changed with the emergent of social media but it has changed crisis communication by bringing speed and loss of control to the way crisis is communicated or brought to the public domain. The results imply that social media provides managers with a useful means of responding to crisis and it should feature in crisis communication strategies. Future studies should consider the quantitative perspectives