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Taipei Lee-Chi had experienced customers’ controversial reactions during the return and refund process. It was a great chance to review how this organization responded to such disputes, and meanwhile observe public reactions to organization’s crisis response strategies.
The second aspect that Coombs suggested for further attention is the role of culture in crisis
communication. Thus far, still limited research has supported the matching of crisis response strategy to the crisis threat (Coombs & Holladay 1996; Coombs & Schmidt 2000). Additional factors that have not been specified yet may shape the crisis threat, including the role of culture (Lee, 2005). The case in this study was a Taiwanese local bakery, Taipei Lee-Chi. The study compared its crisis responses with the communicative recommendations in accordance with Situational Crisis
Communication Theory and Image Restoration Theory. The findings can offer a chance to examine if culture is a dominant role in affecting crisis threat and increasing the attributions to crisis
responsibility.
2.5 Roles of Traditional and New Media
Media are essential especially in crisis context. Since most people do not experience a crisis themselves, they learn of the crisis from media reports. It is a natural reaction that people who think they might be involved in a crisis will search for related information in need. Crises are part of the five Cs that define news: catastrophes, crises, conflict, crime, and corruption (Lerbinger, 2012). The news media are attracted for crises because they bring market demand.
The public are eager to consume information especially when they are concern of involving in a crisis, and they expect the media to play the role as "watchdogs" to alert them from any dangers (Lerbinger, 1997). Research found that people select richer channels that carry greater cues when they feel the situation surrounding the communication is uncertain (Taylor, 2010). According to
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Taylor, richer channels include face-to-face communication, meeting, news conference, or speech to communicate about a crisis, whereby one communicator can look for clues from the other person's response to the message. Moderately rich channels now include the social media which provide a variety of dialogic Web features. Stakeholders can find additional cues in these moderately rich channels. The cues might include video, audio, links, and other tools which help stakeholders better understand the crisis context. Lean channels carry the least information and have fewer opportunities for stakeholders to interact with organizations. These lean crisis communication channels include merely posting news release on a website, sending an email message with no feedback opportunity, or buying an advertisement. The major drawback of the leaner channels in crisis communication is that stakeholders might not receive enough information and clear up confusions during a time of uncertainty (Taylor, 2010). Although motivated individuals may try to get more details about the crisis by visiting organization’s website, most of the people would likely rely on media coverage for information.
Organizations are suggested not to underestimate the impact of media coverage on public opinion (Carroll & McCombs 2003; Holladay, 2010; Marra 1998; Meijer 2004; Ogrizek & Guillery 1999). Generally, news media tend to provide more negative evaluations rather than positive or neutral evaluations. Therefore, organizations involved in crisis event should try very best to limit the amount of media coverage as soon as possible. In other words, organizations should understand that the level of media scrutiny is important, since the crisis is more likely to be remembered by the public if it receives large amount of media coverage. In addition, greater public memory of a crisis, especially a poorly handled crisis, may cause the public to attribute responsibility to the
organizations if they experience additional crisis in the future (Liu, 2010). This is why the interaction between media and organization is an important part in the crisis communication process. A good
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media relationship is assumed to positively influence media coverage and crisis framing. In the contrary to negative evaluation of the affected organization, crisis framing which represents the organization in the way it preferred may influence stakeholders’ perception of the organization, and protect its reputation (Holladay, 2010).
Basic elements of media coverage may include statements from interviews with different roles of people, such as official spokespersons of the organization, industry experts, first responders, employees, and victims. Generally, organizational spokespersons represent an important source of information. Journalists are likely to cite their comments in the news stories for more credibility of the reporting. However, when the spokesperson is not available to the media or when other sources provide newsworthy information, the journalists might seek out other types of information subsidies from sources inside and outside of the organization (Caldiero, Taylor & Ungureanu, 2010; Holladay, 2010). In these circumstances, the employees might be seen as potential sources which can provide a more “human angle” comment on the crisis. Although organizations discourage employees from talking to the media without authorization, the organization still cannot expect every employee to remain quiet. On such premise, organizations are suggested to inform the employees with accurate crisis information. When employees have the chance to speak to the media, the informed employees can provide answers that are consistent with organization’s perspective and assist in the framing process (Coombs 2007a; Holladay, 2010; Ogrizek & Guillery 1999).
Based on the above review of literature, this study is aimed to apply these theoretical
frameworks in Taipei Lee-Chi’s crisis communication studies. Because this is an exploratory study, following research questions are posed rather than hypotheses:
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RQ1: How was Taipei Lee-Chi represented in the media coverage (e.g., news frame, tone of reporting, source cited, evaluation of the outcome, interactions with media)?
RQ2.1: What crisis response strategies were used by Taipei Lee-Chi in this crisis?
RQ2.2: How effective were the organization’s crisis communication strategies (assessed by media reports and public feedback)?