Auto recall crisis, framing, and ethical response: Toyota's missteps

This study employs a content analysis to examine news coverage concerning Toyota's recall crises from January 16, 2009, through November 21, 2012, in the following media: The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, and the news releases listed on the Toyota official website. We examine how the media frame Toyota's crises and responses, and whether the news coverage varied between mass media and Toyota's releases. The findings shed light on the crisis communication in terms of response strategy selection. In tracking the ethics of the Toyota crisis in the years since its inception, combined with a content analysis conducted in this paper, the authors attempted to integrate the literature of crisis management with that of ethics in public relations. Ethics should be foremost among the considerations of an organization's reputation and a primary factor of successful crisis management. The Toyota case has far reaching implications for ethical crisis management and recall strategy in the auto industry as a whole.