How publics respond to crisis communication strategies: The interplay of information form and source

Through an experiment with 162 college students this study empirically evaluates an emerging communication model: the social-mediated crisis communication model (SMCC). As part of a series of studies testing the SMCC model, this study focuses on two of the SMCC model's components: the effects of crisis information form (traditional media, social media, and word-of-mouth) and source (third party and organization) on publics’ acceptance of crisis response strategies and publics’ crisis emotions. The findings clearly indicate the importance of strategically matching crisis information form and source when organizations respond to crises. In addition, the selection of crisis information form and source affects publics’ attribution independent and dependent emotions.

► Publics are more likely to accept defensive, supportive, and evasive crisis responses via traditional media than via social media and word-of-mouth.
► To more precisely examine the effect of crisis information form, crisis information source needs to be considered.
► For example, publics were more likely to accept defensive responses when they learned information from the organization in crisis.
► Finally, crisis information form and source also affect emotional responses.
► For example, publics reported the most attribution independent emotions when receiving information via traditional media with a third party source.