Towards a postmodern understanding of crisis communication

From a postmodernist perspective, it is possible to see crisis as a disruption in the dominant narrative that members of an organization's power elite wish to perpetuate. The crisis itself often evolves into a multiplicity of competing narratives. Much standard advice given by crisis communication experts-such as to tell the truth, choose a single spokesperson, and establish a crisis command center to regain control of the crisis-sounds suspiciously like the self-protecting actions favored by the power elite within the organization. A postmodernist approach might instead favor mitigation of suffering, attention to dissent, and a polyvocal organizational response.