Crisis communication within a community: Bonding, coping, and making sense together

Crisis communication has been researched extensively from managerial and functionalist approaches, and little empirical research exists exploring the role of a community in helping community members cope with crises. Situated in this major gap, the current investigation adopts a community-centered approach that combines insights from chaos theory, uncertainty reduction theory, and sensemaking theory. This study used a mixed method design to examine the role of a campus community in dealing with a variety of campus crises. The qualitative study gave an in-depth understanding of how a crisis is perceived and the underlying process of how a community helps to make sense of a crisis. The quantitative study tested and further illustrated this process through path analysis. The major contributions of this study to the current crisis communication literature are twofold: (1) a crisis-induced community building model that demonstrates a community's role in helping community members self-organize, collectively make sense of a crisis, and reproduce community experiences; and (2) instruments to measure a crisis and community functionalities. Theoretical implications of this study on chaos theory, uncertainty reduction theory, and sensemaking theory are discussed.