A social constructionist approach to crisis management: Allegations of sudden acceleration in the Audi 5000 |
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| Authors: | Keith Michael Hearit Jeffrey L Courtright |
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| Institution: | 1. Associate professor in the Department of Communication , Western Michigan University;2. Assistant professor in the Department of Communication , Illinois State University |
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| Abstract: | Although most organizational crises begin with an objective triggering event, we maintain that public relations and management approaches (including introductory public relations textbooks), intentionally or not, often follow the positivistic temptation to treat the many components of crisis communication as objective choices, thus obscuring the distinctively communicative character of crises and their resolutions. Consequently, this monograph asserts that crises are dynamic, social constructions that are both created and resolved terminologically. This approach is rooted in the assumption that all perspectives of reality, from scientific discourse to crisis communication, are socially constructed through communication. The case of Audi, after its automobiles were alleged to suffer from “sudden acceleration,” is then used as an exemplar to illustrate the potential contributions that a social constructionist approach to communication offers crisis management researchers. |
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