探討危機溝通中傳統媒體與新媒體的角色: 台灣食品安全危機之案例分析 - 政大學術集成

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(1)政治大學國際傳播英語碩士學程 International Master’s Program in International Communication Studies College of Communication National Chengchi University. 碩士論文治政大. 立Master’s Thesis. ‧. ‧ 國. 學 sit. y. Nat. 論文題目. Examining the Roles of Traditional and New Media in Crisis. er. io. n. a l Study of Food Safety Communication: Case i v Crisis in Taiwan Ch. n U engchi. Student: Alyssa Ching-Min Chen 陳敬旻 Advisor: Dr. I-Huei Cheng 鄭怡卉教授. 中華民國 104 年 9 月 September 2015.

(2) ACKNOLWEDGEMENT I am delighted to write this section to thank all of the people who have helped me throughout my graduate career. First and foremost, I would like to thank my advisor, Professor I-Huei Cheng for her support from the start to finish. I was truly thankful for all the effort she put into working with me. It was especially a hard work for her since she had been in pregnancy during my thesis writing process. I would like to thank my committee members, Professor Yi-Ning Chen, Professor Wen-Ying Liu. 政治大. and Professor I-Hsian Chen for their guidance and encouragement. Without their. 立. constructive feedback, I would not be able to finish my thesis so efficiently. Also, I. ‧ 國. 學. would like to offer heartfelt thanks to my dear classmate Mindy Huang, for spending. ‧. time to assist me for my thesis proposal presentation and final defense.. sit. y. Nat. er. io. It is my privilege to thank David Kuo, who is my best editor throughout my. n. a l I would like to thank my research period. Last but not least, i v family for their love and unconditional support.. n U e g cthis h ithesis is dedicated to my mother Most important ofnall,. Ch. who took the lead to heaven before the completion of this work. She gave me the strength to keep fighting on.. I.

(3) ABSTRACT This present case study of Taiwan gutter oil crisis focused on the well-known pastry bakery, Taipei Lee-Chi. This century-old bakery was involved in the food safety crisis during Moon Festival in 2014, resulting in a financial loss of more than NTD 40 million at that time. To explore how traditional and new media play roles in crisis communication for local businesses in Taiwan, the present case study examined relevant news coverage, official documents, and communication activities on social media. More specifically, the analysis included media’s attitude toward the issue shown on major newspaper websites, the responses of Taipei Lee-Chi, and public opinions revealed on its Facebook fan page.. 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. The findings suggested that traditional media have converged with new media, and the latter assumes such a powerful influence in crisis communication today. It was found that similar crisis. ‧. information fast transits from one medium to another, adding more pressure to public relations. sit. y. Nat. practitioners to respond to crisis in a timely manner. Social media in particular may not be. io. er. overlooked and could serve a useful tool in managing corporate crisis. The current study also offered. al. v. n. new insights on how local businesses may deal with crisis in the digital age, as most previous crisis. i n C studies addressed cases of large national orhglobal corporations. eng chi U. Keywords: crisis communication, SCCT, Image restoration Theory, social media, Facebook fan page, online WOM, food safety, local business. II.

(4) TABLE OF CONTENT CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................1 1.1 Case Background of Gutter Oil Crisis ........................................................................................................3 1.2 Crisis Developments of Taipei Lee-Chi .....................................................................................................4 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................................7 2.1 Defining Crisis in Public Relations ............................................................................................................7 2.2 Guidelines of Crisis Management ..............................................................................................................8 2.3 Major Crisis Communication Theories ......................................................................................................9 2.4 Previous Scholarly Studies ...................................................................................................................... 15 2.5 Roles of Traditional and New Media ...................................................................................................... 16. 治政 2.7 Roles of Social Media in Crisis ............................................................................................................... 21 大立............................................................................................................. 24 2.8 Word of Mouth on Social Media 2.6 Definition of New Media......................................................................................................................... 19. ‧ 國. 學. 2.9 Extant Studies on Online WOM .............................................................................................................. 27 CHAPTER THREE: METHOD ........................................................................................................................ 30. ‧. 3.1 Media Coverage Analysis........................................................................................................................ 32 3.2 Official Documents ................................................................................................................................. 35. Nat. sit. y. 3.3 Social Media Analysis ............................................................................................................................. 37. io. er. CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS .......................................................................................................................... 39 4.1 Analysis of Media Coverage ................................................................................................................... 39. n. al. i n U. v. 4.2 Analysis of Official Documents .............................................................................................................. 51. Ch. engchi. 4.3 Analysis of Social Media Communication .............................................................................................. 54 CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION ..................................................................................................................... 73 5.1 Major Findings and Implications ............................................................................................................. 73 5.2 Professional Suggestions for Practitioners .............................................................................................. 74 5.3 Limitations and Directions for Future Research ...................................................................................... 76 ENGLISH REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................ 80 CHINESE REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................ 83. III.

(5) LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Timeline of Major Crisis Developments of Taipei Lee-Chi ......................................................... 5 Table 2 Theoretical Proposition of SCCT (Coombs, 1999) .................................................................... 12 Table 3 SCCT Recommendations (Coombs, 2012) ................................................................................ 13 Table 4 Crisis Frames in the Media Coverage ........................................................................................ 50. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. IV. i n U. v.

(6) LIST OF FIGURE Figure 1 Number of Reports Varying During the Tainted Oil Crisis ...................................................... 48. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. V. i n U. v.

(7) CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Crisis management is not only an important area in public relations practices, but also one of the major fields in public relation research. Crisis management research emerged in the 1980s as a consequence of several corporate crises and environmental disasters. During the following decades, many scholars have developed different crisis response strategies that can be applied to different crisis situations. However, there are still many questions to be discussed in crisis management research. For instance, most of the crisis response strategies and related crisis management theories. 治政 are developed by scholars from Western culture. How these theories 大 and strategic suggestions may 立 hold in different cultures remain to be further explored. ‧ 國. 學 ‧. Communication channel in crisis management is another aspect that can be further studied in. y. Nat. scholarly research, as most of the past discussion on crisis management a few decades ago largely. er. io. sit. emphasized the role of “traditional media,” including television news, newspapers and radios. But as technology advances, more and more people turn to “new media,” such as websites, blogs and social. al. n. v i n media, to seek for the latest informationCwhen it comes to a crisis h e n g c h i U situation. However, a gap was found when reviewing related literature. Many studies have discussed how an organization use. website and blog as a crisis communication channel. There are also some studies on how the public responds to a crisis situation through websites and blogs. But in recent years, the most popular communication channel is not the blogs anymore, but rather, social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. There is still a lack of research examining the effectiveness of crisis response and related theories applied on these new media.. 1.

(8) To fill in this gap, this study investigated the case of a well-known traditional bakery, Taipei Lee-Chi, which was involved in the gutter oil crisis in 2014. This study focused on the different roles played by both traditional and new media during the crisis.. Taipei Lee-Chi was involved in the crisis because of using tainted oil in their flagship moon cake products. As the event broke out only a few days before the Moon Festival, which is a major traditional holiday in Chinese culture where friends and families share moon cakes as gifts, this food safety crisis resonated with the press and quickly became national headline news. Customers of. 治政 low-quality tainted oil. The growing fury urged Taipei Lee-Chi大 to issue a product recall and offered a 立 Taipei Lee-Chi were outraged as they had paid premium prices for high-end products that contained. refund as compensation. Nevertheless, many customers were not satisfied with the crisis response,. ‧ 國. 學. and outraged customers gathered at the store and confronted the staff in front of the press. At the end. ‧. of the recalls, Taipei Lee-Chi had declared a loss of more than NTD 40 million.. sit. y. Nat. io. er. After a brief review of the tainted oil crisis, it was evident some questions that need to be further. al. examined. The primary concern of this research is to examine the roles played by both traditional and. n. v i n new media throughout the crisis. TaipeiC Lee-Chi brick and mortar local business; h e nisga well-known chi U however, it does not seem to engage in online selling, not to mention fully utilizing social media.. This study scrutinized how Taipei Lee-Chi applied different crisis response strategies on traditional media and social media. Since there is still lack of discussion about social media in crisis research, this study aimed at exploring the organization’s and the stakeholders’ attitude of using social media in crisis contexts.. 2.

(9) This study also concerned with how the public and customers express their opinions about the crisis and crisis responses using social media. The comments from the public and customers are collected and analyzed in order to examine the influence of online word of mouth on the business. The expected outcome of this study is to examine whether using social media in crisis communication is beneficial to local businesses, and provide a reference for local businesses when choosing communication channels for crisis management purposes.. 1.1 Case Background of Gutter Oil Crisis The Taiwan gutter oil crisis of 2014 was composed of a series of food safety incidents in. 政治大. Taiwan. This study only discusses the first case which came to light on 4th of September, 2014. It. 立. was discovered that the food oil manufacturer Chang Guann Corporation has been selling lard oil. ‧ 國. 學. products containing recycled gutter oil produced by an unlicensed factory in Pintung County between. ‧. March 1 and September 2 in 2014.. y. Nat. io. sit. Gutter oil is blended from all kinds of inferior quality oil. The gutter oil Chang Guann used in. n. al. er. making their “Chuan Tung fragrant lard oil” was recycled oil collected from various sources such as. Ch. i n U. v. waste animal grease and discarded animal byproducts. The investigation also revealed that Chang. engchi. Guann had been importing lard from Hong Kong that was intended for industrial purposes, but falsely listed as fit for human consumption.. Health authorities had identified a wide array of food products tainted by the oil, including instant noodles, snacks, cakes, dumplings, bread, canned pork, meat paste and glutinous rice. Taiwan Food and Drug Administration had released a list which showed that there were 108 food businesses and in total 250 food products that used the tainted lard oil from Chang Guann.. 3.

(10) The outbreak of gutter oil crisis had caused different levels of impact on these food businesses. Some restaurants destroyed the tainted lard oil and the food products, some issued product recalls, and some closed the business temporality. The most serious aftermath caused by the gutter oil crisis went to Taipei Lee-Chi. This well-known bakery had undergone crisis management processes that included food recall, refund, and temporarily business closing. According to Taipei Lee-Chi, it reported a loss of more than NTD 40 million in this crisis.. All 108 food businesses which were reported using the tainted oil were all searched by their. 治政大 2014 till the end of the object of this study. The searched time range was from 4 of September, 立. names on Google Search Engine to tally the number of related media reports in order to select the th. month when the bakery re-opened for business and had the previously tainted products back on the. ‧ 國. 學. shelves. The searched items were limited in media reports in Taiwan. This search exercise revealed. io. sit. y. Nat. the gutter oil crisis.. ‧. that Taipei Lee-Chi had far more media reports than any other food businesses that were affected by. n. al. er. 1.2 Crisis Developments of Taipei Lee-Chi. Ch. i n U. v. The table below summarizes the major events and actions Taipei Lee-Chi had taken in the crisis.. engchi. The information was collected and organized chronically from media coverage about Taipei Lee-Chi from four publications. According to the reports, Taipei Lee-Chi accepted refund and returns. However, Taipei Lee-Chi’s refund policy had caused disputes between customers and the staff, which led to heated debates over who should take the blame. Details about the events and actions taken in the crisis are as follows:. 4.

(11) Table 1 Timeline of Major Crisis Developments of Taipei Lee-Chi Date. Taipei Lee-Chi’s Crisis Event. 9/5/2014. Found using Chang Guann’s tainted lard oil in Chinese Sesame Pork Cake. Shop owner Chang Wan-ling (張婉玲) apologized with tears for using Chang Guann’s lard oil in their pastry product. She explained that they did not intend to use the tainted oil, and emphasized Taipei Lee-Chi was also victims in the gutter oil crisis.. Taipei Lee-Chi announced temporary closing for three days, and meanwhile offered 9/7/2014. 政治大 March to June. Full refund requires returning both the receipt and the full box of Chinese 立 refund and return for customers who have bought Chinese Sesame Pork Cake during. ‧ 國. 學. Sesame Pork Cake. If only the receipt returned, half the purchase amount will be refunded. If the full box or partial box of Chinese Sesame Pork Cake is returned, the. ‧. refund amount is half of the purchase price of the remaining box of pastry. Customers. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. who brought other products or empty box were not accepted for refund.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. A customer brought the cake to ask for refund from another bakery in Taichung with the same name “Lee-Chi.” While staff refused to refund, that customer outrageously threw 9/8/2014. the cake onto the front door. Another customer came empty-handed for the refund, but was asked to leave the shop.. 5.

(12) Many customers complained that the refund policy was too strict. Some outraged customers even ranted and hit the staff. A customer forced the staff to swallow down the cake, which made the staff burst into tears and brought a dispute between customer and 9/9/2014. the staff. Because of the disputes, Taipei Lee-Chi announced relax of the requirement for refund later in the afternoon. Customers can get a full refund with the receipt of any kind of the product. Those who only brought the product got the refund depend on the amount of the rest cakes. Following the dispute that took place the previous day, many people criticized customers’. 9/10/2014. 政治大. irrational behavior. Some people even set up a Facebook fan page for supporting Taipei Lee-Chi and its staffs.. 立. Some staff revealed feeling depressed due to the disputes these days. It was found that. ‧ 國. 學. half of the customers ask for refund with product sent by someone. A customer came in three times a day with the cake, receipt, and empty box separately. Another customer. ‧. 9/11/2014. sit. y. Nat. brought the receipt from two years ago for refund. Due to overwhelmed refund, Taipei. io. er. Lee-Chi announced extend temporary closing till October 8.. al. Almost 120 thousand cakes were sent to incinerator to be destroyed, which made shop. n. v i n C h burst into tears U owner Chang Wan-ling (張婉玲) e n g c h i in media interview. 9/16/2014. Lawyer and spokesperson Yang Zong-ru (楊宗儒) said that Taipei Lee-Chi has lost about NTD 40 million during this gutter oil crisis. The shop will reopen on September 24. The reopening day will sell “Sun Cake,” which refers to sunrise and the starting over of the shop.. 9/24/2014. Reopening day. Many businesses and loyal customers came for support.. 6.

(13) CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Defining Crisis in Public Relations When something happens out of expectation, it is called an incident. What level of an incident would be defined as a crisis? A crisis is defined as an unpredictably trouble which may cause negative results. Whether such trouble is considered as a crisis or not, is usually measured by the size of the headlines on the front pages of newspapers. In other words, an accident or situation will not be count into crisis level by management unless it receives mass media attention (Lerbinger, 1997).. 政治大 When an organization confronts a crisis, it does not always lead to a negative result. The usual 立. ‧ 國. 學. explanation is that when crisis is written in Chinese, it is made up of two components signifying danger and opportunity. Crises are threats to organizations, but how crises are managed. ‧. determines whether the outcomes bring dangers or opportunities to the organization. If the. sit. y. Nat. organization successfully manages the problems in the early stage of the crisis development, it might. io. er. be regarded as an incident which will not bring serious consequences, and would quickly be. al. v i n C h impacts on the organization. negative public opinions and bring damaging For instance, when an engchi U n. forgotten by upcoming news. On the contrary, if the incident develops in to a crisis, then it will shape. organization is in a crisis, it may harm its stakeholders physically, emotionally, and/or financially. A wide array of stakeholders is adversely affected by a crisis, including community members, employees, customers, suppliers, and stakeholders (Coombs, 2007). Among all kinds of influence caused by a crisis, the financial impact is most obvious for an organization since sales may decline due to consumer boycotts or rumors (Lerbinger, 1997).. 7.

(14) 2.2 Guidelines of Crisis Management Taiwanese public relations scholar Wu Yi-chen (2000) summarized a guideline of crisis communication from many crisis studies (Gonzalez-Herrero & Pratt, 1996; Regester & Larkin, 1997; Scanlon et al., 1985; Small, 1991; Wu, 2000): (1) gather and investigate related information, (2) tell your side of story most efficiently, (3) set up a crisis management team, (4) assign appropriate spokesperson, (5) clarify negative news about the organization, (6) build strategic alliances to get support from third person, and (7) communicate often to be in control of crisis framing.. 政治大 communication and management theories. Professional public relations practitioners will apply 立. In practice, most of the public relations experts have agreed on the basic guidelines of crisis. ‧ 國. 學. different crisis response strategies according to different phases of the crisis. More precisely, a crisis can be broken up into three phases: pre-crisis phase, crisis response phase, and post-crisis. ‧. communication. Public relations professionals suggest that organization should anticipate crises. In. sit. y. Nat. the pre-crisis phase, be sensitive to information and warnings help the management identify. io. al. n. crises to happen.. er. problems early. Being active in accessing complaints and risks may reduce the opportunity for severe. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. The core value in the crisis response phase is to be quick. Time is valuable when a crisis break out. Organization must have related crisis response strategies as soon as possible in order to prevent or minimize damage. Crisis management is therefore a critical organizational function, which seeks to prevent or lessen the negative outcomes of a crisis, maintain the organization’s operations, repair reputation, and protect stakeholders from damage. Quick reactions are one of the most important policies. Organization must try to have initial response within the first hour before any judgment is. 8.

(15) made by other sources. With the time passes by, organization will confront stronger pressure from public and media.. Another keyword organization should keep in mind when facing a crisis situation is to be “consistent.” Public relations practitioners suggest that organization should centralize communication. For instance, assign a high-level executive as spokesperson, and this authorized spokesperson should receive professional training in how to speak to the media. Organization should also discuss about the key messages, and keep all the employees informed of the crisis event and the key message points.. 立. 政治大. For the post-crisis communication, organization should continuously monitor, analyze, and. ‧ 國. 學. evaluate the efforts. More importantly, organizations should seek to improve the crisis management. io. sit. y. Nat. crisis in the future.. ‧. process, and to document the lessons learned in order to create better crisis plans in case of similar. n. al. er. 2.3 Major Crisis Communication Theories. Ch. i n U. v. Pressure and damage increase with time when a crisis breaks out. Crisis communication remains. engchi. a popular topic in both academia and industry for decades. Scholars have noticed how an organization communicate with the public in a crisis situation is critical, because it will influence whether the result of crisis management is successful or not. Many scholars like Coombs, Benoit, Lerbinger and Taylor have been dedicated to crisis management and crisis communication studies for several years.. In terms of theories used, the most frequently cited or mentioned was Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT). Coombs began the development of SCCT in 1995, and has been 9.

(16) continuously verifying and revising this theory as of 2015. SCCT translated Attribution Theory (AT) into the language of crisis communication as a base for the theory. It is logical to extend AT to crisis communication. When a crisis happens, stakeholders will make judgement on the situation, and make attributions of crisis responsibility on organization or environmental factors. The need to understand the factors that shape people’s attributions and reactions to crises is what makes AT approaches audience-oriented (Weiner, 1986).. Extended from AT, SCCT provides guidelines for crisis managers to select appropriate response. 治政大 which influence how responsibility. Attributions of crisis responsibility are crucial factors 立. strategies that fit best with particular crisis situation (Coombs, 2012). The body of SCCT is crisis. stakeholders perceive the reputation of an organization in crisis, and have significant effect on their. ‧ 國. 學. affective and behavioral responses to the organization. Therefore, SCCT suggests that how. ‧. stakeholders perceive the crisis should be the most important index when making crisis response. sit. y. Nat. strategies. In other words, SCCT is also audience-centered. Organizations must put people as first. io. er. priority when a crisis breaks out, since how stakeholders make attributions about the crisis. al. responsibility will affect the relationship between organization and public. Because every crisis is. n. v i n Cishno fixed rule to follow different depending on the context, there e n g c h i U in the crisis management process. SCCT offers adaptive approaches for crisis managers depend on stakeholders’ reactions toward the crisis and crisis response strategies.. As mentioned, crisis responsibility is a major factor in determining the threat caused by a crisis for an organization. SCCT proposes a two-step process for figuring out the level of crisis threat. The first step is to determine the frame stakeholders are using to categorize the crisis event. SCCT categorized crisis into three types: (1) victim (low crisis responsibility/threat), (2) accident (minimal 10.

(17) crisis responsibility/threat), and (3) intentional (strong crisis responsibility/threat). The three categories represent increasing levels of attributions of crisis responsibility and threat caused by a crisis (Coombs, 2012).. When talking about crisis responsibility, there are intensifying factors that could alter attributions of crisis responsibility and intensify the threat from the crisis. The second step of examine the level of crisis threat is to determine if any intensifying factors exist. There are two intensifying factors: (1) crisis history and (2) prior reputation of the organization. Crisis history is to. 治政大greater crisis responsibility when the “bad behavior” by an organization. Stakeholders might attribute 立 check if the organization has had similar crises in the past. Past crises might lead to an impression of. organization has a record of past crisis (Coombs, 2004b). The other intensifying factor is. ‧ 國. 學. organization’s prior reputation, which tells how well or poorly the organization has treated its. ‧. stakeholders in the past. In other words, prior reputation indicates an organization’s relationship with. sit. y. Nat. stakeholders. A negative prior reputation will attribute greater crisis responsibility for the same crisis. io. er. than an organization that has a positive prior reputation, or even an unknown organization (Coombs. al. & Holladay, 2002 & 2007). If an organization meets one of the intensifying factors, it will increase. n. v i n attributions of crisis responsibility, and C further the level of threat from a crisis. SCCT helps h eraise ngchi U crisis managers determine the appropriate crisis response base on the threat level.. SCCT includes three core elements: the crisis situation, crisis response strategies, and a system for matching the crisis situation and crisis response strategies (Coombs, 2006). Figure 1 provides crisis response approaches depend on stakeholders’ perception of organization’s crisis responsibility (Coombs, 1999; Wu, 2000). Table 2 offers SCCT recommendations base on the matching of crisis situation and crisis response strategies. 11.

(18) Table 2 Theoretical Proposition of SCCT (Coombs, 1999) Attack the Denial. Defensive. Excuse. Justification. Corrective. Full. Action. Apology. Ingratiation. Accommodative. Accuser Low crisis responsibility. Strong crisis Rumor. Natural Disaster. Malevolence. Accident. Misdeed. responsibility/. /threat. threat. The eight crisis response strategies can be ordered along a continuum ranging from defensive, putting organizational interests first, to accommodative, putting victim concerns first (Coombs &. 政治大. Holladay, 2002). Following are the detailed explanation of each strategy:. 立. An attack on the accuser: To confront the group or person that claims a crisis exists.. 2.. Denial: Claiming that there is no crisis.. 3.. Excuse: In an attempt to minimize organizational responsibility for the crisis.. 4.. Justification: In an attempt to minimize the perceived damage inflicted by the crisis.. 5.. Ingratiation: To praise stakeholders and reminds them of the past good works done by the. ‧ 國. ‧. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. organization. 6.. 學. 1.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Corrective action: Try to prevent a repeat of the crisis and/or repair the damage done by the crisis.. 7.. Full apology, the organization publicly accepts responsibility for the crisis and requests forgiveness from the stakeholders.. 12.

(19) Table 3 SCCT Recommendations (Coombs, 2012) ________________________________________________________________________________ 1. All victims or potential victims should receive instructing information, including recall information. This is one-half of the base response to a crisis. 2. All victims should be provided an expression of sympathy, any information about corrective actions, and trauma counseling when needed. This can be called the “care response.” This is the second-half of the base response to a crisis. 3. For crises with minimal attributions of crisis responsibility and no intensifying factors, instructing. 治政大an intensifying factor, add excuse 4. For crises with minimal attributions of crisis responsibility and 立 information and care response is sufficient.. and/or justification strategies to the instructing information and care response.. ‧ 國. 學. 5. For crises with low attributions of crisis responsibility, and no intensifying factors, add excuse. ‧. and/or justification strategies to the instructing information and care response.. sit. y. Nat. 6. For crises with low attributions of crisis responsibility and an intensifying factor, add. io. er. compensation and/or apology strategies to the instructing information and care response.. al. n. 7. For crises with strong attributions of crisis responsibility, add compensation and/or apology. i n C strategies to the instructing information care response. h e and ngchi U. v. 8. The compensation strategy is used anytime victims suffer serious harm. 9. The reminder and ingratiation strategies can be used to supplement any response. 10. Denial and attack the accuser strategies are best used only for combating rumors and/or challenges to the morality of an organization’s behaviors. ________________________________________________________________________________. 13.

(20) To fully understand the development of Coombs’ Situational Crisis Communication Theory, it is important to understand the theoretical perspectives of Benoit’s Image Restoration Theory, which has informed the growth of the SCCT. In addition to the SCCT, Benoit’s Image Restoration Theory (1997) is also widely used in public relations and crisis communication research.. To completely understand the Image Restoration Theory, it is important to define image. A corporation’s image is a subjective impression of that business held by other people. When an organization’s image is prone to being damaged, it is critical for that organization to take the necessary. 治政 2009). According to Benoit's Image Restoration Theory, there 大 are fourteen strategies which offer 立. precautions to prevent a potential image distortion or take immediate action in repairing image (Wright,. organizations different kinds of message options in a crisis situation. The theory has five main. ‧ 國. 學. categories of image repair actions which suggest the organizations what to do when facing a situation.. y. sit er. al. Simple Denial: Reject fault, or act did not occur, or act is not harmful.. n. ii.. io. i.. Nat. 1. Denial. ‧. Image Restoration Theory proposed by Benoit (1997) is as follows:. i n C Shift the Blame: Act performed h e nbyg another. chi U. v. 2. Evasion of Responsibility i.. Provocation: Act occurred as a result of responding to the offense of another.. ii.. Defeasibility: Act was due to lack of information or ability.. iii.. Accident: Act was a mishap.. iv.. Good Intentions: Act was meant well.. 3. Reducing Offensiveness of Event i.. Bolstering: Stress organization's good traits. 14.

(21) ii.. Minimization: Act was not serious.. iii.. Differentiation: Act was less serious or offensive than similar ones.. iv.. Transcendence: More important considerations so that the act was forgivable.. v.. Attack Accuser: Reduce credibility of the attackers.. vi.. Compensation: Reimburse victims to reduce negative impression on the organization.. 4. Corrective Action: Plan to solve or prevent problem 5. Mortification: Apologize for act. 治政大on when and how to use these A major drawback of this model is that it does not offer insight 立. strategies. It does not provide clear direction for public relations practitioners on how to choose. ‧ 國. 學. correctly a strategy in a certain crisis. Therefore, this study both applied Coombs’ SCCT and. sit. n. al. er. io. 2.4 Previous Scholarly Studies. y. Nat. communication strategies.. ‧. Benoit’s Image Restoration Theory to examine Taipei Lee-Chi’s crisis situation and its crisis. Ch. i n U. v. Previous research in crisis communication indicates that the way an organization responds. engchi. during a crisis will influence its relationships with its stakeholders after the crisis (Taylor, 2010). Hence, crisis communication strategies play a critical role for organization and its reputation. SCCT offer a many communicative recommendations base on different crisis situation, but only a small percentage of them have been tested. Coombs has noted that there are two research topics should be highlighted for further attention in crisis studies. The first is to understand the reactions to crisis response strategies, and the second is to consider the role of culture in crisis communication (Coombs, 2010).. 15.

(22) 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. 治政大 with Situational Crisis responses with the communicative recommendations in accordance 立. case in this study was a Taiwanese local bakery, Taipei Lee-Chi. The study compared its crisis. Communication Theory and Image Restoration Theory. The findings can offer a chance to examine. ‧ 國. 學. if culture is a dominant role in affecting crisis threat and increasing the attributions to crisis. ‧. responsibility.. y. Nat. er. io. sit. 2.5 Roles of Traditional and New Media. Media are essential especially in crisis context. Since most people do not experience a crisis. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. themselves, they learn of the crisis from media reports. It is a natural reaction that people who think. engchi. 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 16.

(23) 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,. 治政大up confusions during a time of that stakeholders might not receive enough information and clear 立. or buying an advertisement. The major drawback of the leaner channels in crisis communication is. uncertainty (Taylor, 2010). Although motivated individuals may try to get more details about the. ‧ 國. 學. crisis by visiting organization’s website, most of the people would likely rely on media coverage for. ‧. information.. sit. y. Nat. io. er. Organizations are suggested not to underestimate the impact of media coverage on public. al. opinion (Carroll & McCombs 2003; Holladay, 2010; Marra 1998; Meijer 2004; Ogrizek & Guillery. n. v i n C h more negative evaluations 1999). Generally, news media tend to provide rather than positive or engchi U. 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 17.

(24) 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. 治政 the reporting. However, when the spokesperson is not available大 to the media or when other sources 立. information. Journalists are likely to cite their comments in the news stories for more credibility of. provide newsworthy information, the journalists might seek out other types of information subsidies. ‧ 國. 學. 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. sit. y. Nat. more “human angle” comment on the crisis. Although organizations discourage employees from. io. er. talking to the media without authorization, the organization still cannot expect every employee to. al. remain quiet. On such premise, organizations are suggested to inform the employees with accurate. n. v i n C the crisis information. When employees have to speak to the media, the informed employees h echance ngchi U. 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:. 18.

(25) 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)?. 2.6 Definition of New Media “New media” is a general term regarded the media channels in comparison to traditional media, such as television, radio and printed media. Traditional media can provide information, but it is more. 政治大. like a one-way communication channel. These media channels act like the “gatekeepers”, who can. 立. control what to be delivered to the audience. People receive edited information from the media, but. ‧ 國. 學. their opinions are difficult to be heard on it. This situation was revolutionized after the Internet. ‧. became ubiquitous. Started from the World Wide Web, and followed by the blogging sites, people can visit various online platforms to share their own thoughts and exchange information aside from. y. Nat. er. io. sit. what traditional media provide. In recent years, more and more social networking sites were developed with the proliferation of technology gadgets such as smartphones and tablets. Social. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. networking sites integrate the functions of traditional communication channels, on which people can. engchi. post their latest news, pictures, videos, send messages, and even make online calls via their mobile gadgets. As what Coombs (2012) said, these users now control the creations and distribution of information. Therefore, these media channels which enable people to access information without traditional gatekeepers could be referred as the “new media.” Briefly, it is a broad term which covers a variety of different online communication tools.. New media have revolutionized the traditional way of communication with its ability of immediate interactions. Social networking sites are the most representable media in this era among 19.

(26) the communication tools in the new media category. Thus, the term “social media” is also referring to new media. Social networking sites allow more connectivity and interaction between web users by providing users to upload content in real time. It encourages contributions and feedback from anyone who is a member of any virtual community (Home Service, 2013). The core of social media is usergenerated content, which is about interaction and decentralization. In other words, users are not being fed information by traditional media outlets anymore.. In recent years, social media have become a cultural phenomenon that has changed the way. 治政大 during a crisis. However, can meet all the needs when people are eager to get more information 立. organizations manage crises online (Liu et al., 2012). Scholars have found out that no single medium. people can retrieve information and dig into more details of certain topic on the Web. Without the. ‧ 國. 學. role of gatekeeper in traditional media organizations, Web users can search out different opinions on. ‧. the same issue. These new communications technologies enable people internal and external to the. sit. y. Nat. organization to comment on the crisis, which provides the room for interaction and discussion, hence. io. al. n. Stephens & Malone, 2009).. er. helps to reduce their uncertainty in a crisis risk (Carey, 2002; Caldiero, Taylor & Ungureanu, 2010;. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Today, searching for immediate information on social media when a crisis breaks out has become a natural action for all the Web users. Social networking sites enable crisis victims and stakeholders to virtually band together without geographic limitation. To fight for their interests, stakeholders can form coalitions, share personal experience or latest information, and even initiate collective legal action to the organizations. Social media users can easily find people who are in a similar situation during a crisis, which helps to provide emotional support to the crisis victims or stakeholders (Liu et al., 2013; Stephens & Malone, 2009). 20.

(27) Apart from the side of crisis victims and stakeholders, social media are also ideal communication tools for organizations in crisis. Social media are like organizations’ owned media, which enable organizations to take control of the information on their official page on the social media. Similar to the owned media, posting information on social media is usually free or at a low cost. These advantages make social media the logical place for instructing crisis response information and providing updates. In addition, because social media have the characteristics of social interaction, it provides a chance for organizations to interact with stakeholders after a crisis. 政治大. (Coombs, 2012).. 立. 2.7 Roles of Social Media in Crisis. ‧ 國. 學. Quite a lot crisis studies have already discussed the behavior and effect of using Internet and. ‧. blogs in crisis communication. For instance, Wu (2000) has generalized basic guidelines of Internet crisis communication strategies, which include: (1) announce organization’s statement about the. y. Nat. er. io. sit. crisis event on the official website as soon as possible, (2) update official website often with latest progress of the crisis management process, (3) offer bilateral communication on the website, (4). n. al. Ch. i n U. v. provide links to other websites which can support organization’s stance (e.g., government issued. engchi. press release, health care institution, or other news website for people to check up related information), (5) be able to clarify competitors or accusers’ statements immediately, (6) set up a crisis management team includes Internetwork expert, in order to solve any technical problems. These guidelines are still useful after a decade, but it may need to be revised to take social media crisis communication into consideration.. Macias, Hilyard, and Freimuth’s study in 2009 found four main functions of blog use during crisis. First, blogs are used as a communication tool for stakeholders to share latest information, 21.

(28) document experiences, and communicate with others directly. Second, blogs are used for supervising government and responsible departments. Third, blogs are the platforms to provide related information when people are seeking for details of the crisis. Last, people can look for social support on blogs which stakeholders can exchange experiences and organizations can connect to provide rescue help (Macias, Hilyard & Freimuth, 2009).. Compared to crisis communication literature on traditional media, scholars have just begun to explore the effect of social media use. Past research indicated that because social media provide. 治政大use increases with the need of Procopio, 2007; Taylor & Kent, 2007), individuals’ social media 立. unfiltered, timely, and in-depth communication (Liu et al., 2013; Johnson & Kaye, 2010; Procopio &. seeking comprehensive information during crisis. Compared to traditional media coverage, public. ‧ 國. 學. perceive social media coverage more credible, especially those who are active social media users.. ‧. (Horrigan & Morris, 2005; Liu et al., 2013; Procopio & Procopio, 2007; Sweetser & Metzgar, 2007).. sit. y. Nat. Liu, Jin and Austin (2013) concluded three overall reasons why people seek out social media of a. io. er. crisis context from previous research: Social motivation, self-expression, and utilitarian purposes.. al. Social motivation drives public to create their own content, as well consume and share existing. n. v i n C h Madden, 2007). Social content (Daugherty, Eastin, & Bright, 2008; e n g c h i U media platforms and mobile applications provide multiple features for self-expression (Philips, 2008). People share their point of view, as well as a way to virtually band together, share information, and demand remediation for the crisis (Stephens & Malone, 2009). Utilitarian purposes represent attitudes based on self-interest. On social media platform, people create content primarily for their own personal incentives (Daugherty, Eastin, & Bright, 2008).. 22.

(29) Taylor and Perry (2005) found that the use of new media tactics during crisis helps the organization rebuild consumer trust. Closely examining blog use in crisis communication, Sweetser and Metzgar (2007) also pointed out that public perceptions about the crisis change, and that people believe the crisis is not as serious when the organization is engaged in blogging for crisis communication. Research by Yang, Kang, and Johnson (2010) indicated using more interactive media during crisis may encourage publics to have a more positive attitude about the organization. When the affected organization uses social media during crisis response process, it is like building a bridge for the stakeholders to have conversations with organization. Similarly, Coombs (2012). 治政大be maintained during good times and a favorable organizational-stakeholder relationship, which must 立 suggested that two-way communication between the organization and stakeholders is the lifeblood of. in bad.. ‧ 國. 學 ‧. Another Crisis communication researcher suggested that crisis managers must integrate the. sit. y. Nat. online and traditional communication channels into the crisis response process (Wehr, 2007).. io. er. However, it was found that organizations did a rather poor job in taking advantages of the dialogic. al. opportunities offered by new media such as websites (Kent, Taylor & White, 2003). A later study by. n. v i n C results. Taylor and Perry in 2005 also had similar discovered that organizations still less h e nThey gchi U frequently used the Internet as part of their crisis communication tool. On the other hand, organizations were more likely to adopt traditional crisis communication tactics such as press. releases (Liu et al., 2012; Taylor & Perry, 2005). Social media only complement, but have not yet replace the role of traditional media during crises (Jin & Liu, 2010; Palen et al., 2010).. Reviewing above literature, it can be concluded that using social media for crisis communication has many advantages, such as more interactivity, intermediacy, unfiltered 23.

(30) information, and low cost. A report by Pew Research Center in 2014 showed that Facebook remained by far the most popular social networking site, and followed by other platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn. According to Dan Neary, the vice president of Facebook at Asia Pacific region, its largest market was in Asian region, with a total of 340 million users. In Taiwan, the ranking of popular social networking sites is slightly different as the result of the survey done by Pew Research Center in the United States. For instance, Twitter and LinkedIn are not as prevalent among Taiwanese netizens. But Facebook also claimed the top social networking site in Taiwan with more than 60% of penetration rate, which was the highest number within the Asian Pacific region (Business Next, 2013). In 2007, Facebook introduced a new feature called “Pages,” which are user. 治政 profiles for brands (companies, organizations, and celebrities).大 Facebook pages can be customized by 立 publishing stories, hosting events, adding apps and more depend on the brands. If a person likes a. ‧ 國. 學. page, his/her friends can also get updates from the brand in their News Feed on Facebook. More and. ‧. more brands set up Facebook page to publish the latest news and communicate with its stakeholders. sit. y. Nat. online. Thus, this study would analyze Taipei Lee-Chi’s Facebook fan page in order to explore the. io. er. roles of social media in crisis. It is interesting to discuss how the organization perceived the. al. differences between the roles of traditional and new media during crisis. Following research question. n. v i n is aimed to understand Taipei Lee-Chi’sCsocial use in the crisis: h e media ngchi U. RQ3: How online and social media was employed by the organization during the crisis (e.g., frequency and purposes of use at different phases of crisis)?. 2.8 Word of Mouth on Social Media Word of mouth (WOM) is a message about an organization’s products, services, or about the organization itself. Usually WOM involves comments about product performance, service quality, trustworthiness, and method of operation, passed on from one person to another. “Senders” who have 24.

(31) personal experience with products or services from a particular organization are regarded as fairly objective sources of information by “receivers.” The information communicated by senders can be positive, negative, or a mixture of both (Charlett, Garland & Marr, 1995).. According to Coombs, increased anger results in a greater likelihood of negative word of mouth, which can threaten valuable reputational assets of the affected organization. Reputation represents people's awareness of an organization, favorable attitudes toward it, and positive attributes associated with the organization. Reputation is built by all the past contacts an organization has had with its. 治政大 stakeholders ignoring either bad 2014). An organization with a favorable reputation can experience 立 various publics, as do advertising and other communication campaigns (Lerbinger, 1997; Coombs,. news or bad comments about the organization because they are unlikely to believe that a good. ‧ 國. 學. organization did anything bad. A favorable pre-crisis reputation means that an organization has more. ‧. reputational assets to spend comparing to those who are unknown or disliked. While most people are. sit. y. Nat. quick to believe the worst about the organization, a favorable reputation can make stakeholders to. io. al. n. attributing crisis responsibility.. er. believe the best. In turn, this means the stakeholders would not jump to negative conclusions when. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Another great explanation of reputation given by Coombs and Holladay (2006) noted that an organization's prior reputation can be linked to a bank account. A favorable reputation builds up the account, while a crisis subtracts from the account. In most cases, a crisis will cause reputational damage, the loss of reputational capital. But a favorable reputation can be as a shield to protect an organization from harm in certain circumstances (Coombs, 2012).. 25.

(32) To shape favorable reputations, it is important to create positive impressions of contact with an organization, including favorable shopping experiences, positive publicity, advertisements that feature “the good points” about an organization, and also through favorable word of mouth (Coombs, 2012). Managers nowadays recognize that their customers are more powerful and skeptical than ever before. Consumer-to-consumer influence is almost taking precedence over the efforts of business-toconsumer marketing tools, such as advertising, public relations, and promotion (Kimmel & Kitchen, 2013). This phenomenon indicates that WOM management is not only an effective marketing strategy, but also a determined crisis communication toll for all the businesses.. 治政大 WOM and offline WOM. Publics WOM can be distinguished to two different forms, the online 立. typically engage in offline WOM communication with people whom they have stronger prior. ‧ 國. 學. relationships with in real life, compared to the people they engage with in online WOM. ‧. communication. These looser online relationships lead to less social pressure for accuracy, which. sit. y. Nat. increases the possibility for inaccurate information to be shared rapidly through online WOM. Public. io. er. may be forced to prioritize crisis information from online WOM communication despite this. al. increased likelihood of inaccuracy online, since the latest information may not be available through. n. v i n C hmedia in a crisis context offline WOM communication or traditional e n g c h i U (Liu et al., 2013; Johnson & Kaye, 2010; Procopio & Procopio, 2007).. The participatory nature of social media has led to 37% of Internet users contributing to the creation of news, commenting about news, and disseminating news via social networking sites (Purcell, Rainie, Mitchell, Rosenstiel & Olmstead, 2010). With the characteristics of immediate response and interactivity, online WOM on social media can be distributed to more people, even includes users from different region. This implies that online WOM is even more influential than 26.

(33) offline WOM. Today, online WOM plays an important role in crisis communication which organizations should not ignore when considering crisis response strategies.. 2.9 Extant Studies on Online WOM Publics increasingly use social media during crises. Consequently, it is an important lesson for crisis communication professionals to understand how to strategically optimize these tools. As Coombs (2008) noted, the rapid evolution of new media often results in the practice of public relations getting ahead of research. The practice of crisis communication is ahead of research in. 政治大. terms of “social media.” In recent years, there was an emerging literature focusing on the. 立. effectiveness of online WOM communications. However, the scope of published studies on the. ‧ 國. 學. impact of online WOM communication is rather broad. The topic of the WOM studies varies from. ‧. different academic fields, such as communication, advertising, marketing, and consumer behavior, which make the studies appear relatively fragmented and inconclusive. Especially when it comes to. y. Nat. er. io. sit. online WOM in a crisis situation, there is scarce theory-grounded research to understand key factors that affect how publics consume crisis information via social media compared to other sources.. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. Research is still needed to provide evidence-based guidelines, which integrates social media into. engchi. crisis management practices (Jin et. al., 2014).. Liu, Jin, Briones and Kuch (2012) have worked on the Social-mediated Crisis Communication Model (SMCC) which describes the interaction between a crisis affected organization and three types of public who produce and consume crisis information via social media, traditional media, and offline WOM communication. Three types of public engage in online WOM communication include: (1) influential social media creators who create crisis information; (2) social media followers who directly consume the crisis information from influential social media creators; and (3) social media 27.

(34) inactives, who receive information from the social media creators via friends who read the social media, but not directly from the original source.. As conceptualized in the SMCC model (Jin & Liu, 2010; Liu et al., 2012), “information form” is whether the crisis information is transmitted via traditional media, social media, and offline WOM communication. It has been ignored by dominant crisis communication theories, but recently is gaining attention from crisis communication scholars (e.g., Jin & Liu, 2010; Schultz et al., 2011). The mainstream crisis communication related theories, such as the Situational Crisis Communication. 治政 how information form can impact public crisis communication大 behaviors (Liu et al., 2013).To help 立 Theory (SCCT) by Coombs (2012), and Image Restoration Theory (Benoit, 1997), do not address. the crisis managers more effectively utilize communication tools to deal with positive or negative. ‧ 國. 學. WOM on crisis affected organizations, it is worth exploring the information form and the flow of. ‧. WOM during a crisis.. sit. y. Nat. io. er. As previously noted, Coombs was looking forward to further research on the topic of the reactions to crisis response strategies. During Taipei Lee-Chi’s tainted oil crisis, we can see that the. al. n. v i n customers seemed to spontaneously setC uph a Facebook fan page e n g c h i U to support the affected organization. On the Support Taipei Lee-Chi fan page, customers collected related media coverage and especially news clips about the dispute aroused by the refund policy, and had engaging debate both for and against Taipei Lee-Chi. This act shows that the customers nowadays are able to integrate different media channels when processing crisis information. Additional research is needed to further segment public types by media consumption habits and level of involvement with the organization in crisis (Jin et. al., 2014).. 28.

(35) By examining public reactions on organization’s crisis communication on the social media, this study is aimed at exploring public online WOM behaviors in a crisis situation. The following is the last research question addressing the issue of WOM:. RQ4: How did the online word of mouth develop during the crisis (e.g., public attitude toward the organization, information form of the WOM, interactions between organization and the commenters)?. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 29. i n U. v.

(36) CHAPTER THREE: METHOD. The purpose of this study is to investigate the crisis communication processes of Taipei Lee-Chi, which was involved in the Taiwan gutter oil incident. Taipei Lee-Chi is a bakery which has been in business for over a century. It is widely known amongst the Taiwanese population. But Taipei LeeChi did not limit itself as a traditional bakery. It not only set up branch stores in China, but also moved the original Taipei store to a bigger place. Taipei Lee-Chi also runs an official website and a. 政治大. Facebook Fan Page. Compare to other traditional bakeries such as Lee-Hu in Keelung, Taipei Lee-. 立. Chi’s business management strategies are relatively modernized. The Taiwan gutter oil incident. ‧ 國. 學. provided a good opportunity to examine a traditional organization’s crisis communication strategies on different media channels.. ‧. Nat. sit. y. The case study method is widely used in crisis management and crisis communication research.. n. al. er. io. Not just gathering related data, case study adopts a more comprehensive research strategy. For. i n U. v. instance, case study may employ both qualitative and quantitative methods in the research, such like. Ch. engchi. using in-depth interview, textual analysis with survey or experiment. According to the research conducted by An and Cheng (2010), it was found that case study was the dominant research method in crisis studies. According to the data in the their research, it showed that the form of case study was applied to conduct a very wide range of research topics, such as “evaluating crisis incidents, public relations managers' perceptions, generating definitions of crisis, and suggestions for strategies” (p.17). From these results, An and Cheng suggested that case study method is a useful way to explore these topics, particularly when related literature was not yet so well established. An earlier study by Broom et al. (1989) and Cutler (2004) also had similar findings. Since crises are unpredictable and 30.

(37) constitute of different situational factors, case study is particularly useful when researcher wants to explore the relationship between crisis and its contexts.. Although case study provides detailed observation for a crisis event, it still has some research limitations. According to An and Cheng’s findings, most case studies showed a lack of theoretical based research questions or hypotheses, and had less methodological rigor (An & Cheng, 2010). Ideally, theories should not only be cited in the literature review section, but to be tested from case studies to see if the advices are supportive in different crisis situations or not. Likewise, establishing. 政治大. a more organized methodological framework can help to enhance the quality of evidence generated by research.. 立. ‧ 國. 學. Many researchers had proposed advices to make sure that case study is not only a chronicle of. ‧. real-life event, but a constructive analysis of a crisis and its crisis communication process. For. sit. y. Nat. instance, Coombs (2010) suggested detailed case studies that involve interviews and primary. io. al. n. research.. er. documents, not just public statements and comments, can help to provide qualified evidence for a. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Above all, this study adopted case study method to give a closer look of how Taiwanese local businesses react to the gutter oil crisis and their communication strategies on different media channels. In order to enhance the richness and quality of the research evidence, the case study included textual analysis of related media coverage, official website, Facebook fan page, and reviews from the customers. A more detailed explanation of the textual analysis method from researcher Sharon Lockyer is provided as follows (Lockyer, 2008):. 31.

(38) “Textual analysis is a method of data analysis that closely examines either the content and meaning of texts or their structure and discourse. Texts, which can range from newspapers, television programs, and blogs to architecture, fashion, and furniture, are deconstructed to examine how they operate, the manner in which they are constructed, the ways in which meanings are produced, and the nature of those meanings. Sociologists, geographers, historians, linguists, communications and media studies researchers, and film researchers use textual analysis to assess texts from a range of cultural settings.”. Briefly, textual analysis is a term used to refer to a variety of primarily qualitative methodologies or models (Lockyer, 2008). This study references the qualitative data analysis. 政治大 Huberman's (2014) at the part of textual analysis. 立. procedures (data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing/verification) proposed by Miles and. ‧ 國. 學. 3.1 Media Coverage Analysis. ‧. According to Holladay (2010), media coverage is often used to create the “storyline” of the. sit. y. Nat. crisis by recreating the sequence of events that unfolded and the crisis communication efforts used by. io. er. the organization. Media stories also may be examined for evidence of public and industry responses. al. to the crisis communication. Holladay suggested that systematically examining media coverage can. n. v i n C hsince most people'sUprimary source of crisis information is help to understand what the public learns, engchi the mass media (Coombs, 2007; Feam-Banks, 2007; Liu, 2010). Crisis communication practitioners can also evaluate whether organizations notice the crisis communication advice from media reports. Examining media coverage is even important after the crisis is over. In order to comprehensively understand the ultimate effectiveness of the overall crisis communication efforts, it is recommended to continue following the media reports of the past crisis events.. 32.

(39) Samples. This study applied a textual analysis of media coverage from four Taiwanese news publications with highest circulation: the Apple Daily, the Liberty Times, the China Times and United Daily News, in order to identify dominant crisis response strategies and its effectiveness. Samples were collected from these publications’ online coverage. Vast majority of televised news content originated from news publications, and print coverage shared similar content with its online version. This study examined these online media coverage to observe the attitude of traditional media toward the tainted oil issue. Related media reports were searched by the keyword “Lee-Chi” on the websites of these four publications. Selected media reports are located from. 治政大 and three among those were initial search results, there were 75 articles about Taipei Lee-Chi, 立. September 5 till the end of the month in 2014, which include news articles and editorials. With. editorials.. ‧ 國. 學 ‧. Dimensions to be observed. There are three dimensions to observe from the media coverage. sit. y. Nat. of Taipei Lee-Chi’s crisis event: (1) news frames and tone of the reports (2) organization’s crisis. io. er. communication strategies, and (3) the effectiveness of the crisis management. By analyzing how media cover on organization’s tainted oil crisis, we can observe Taiwanese media's attitude toward. al. n. v i n food safety issue. Relevant editorialsC will in the analysis, which may help to halso e nbegincluded chi U examine how the reporters and news organizations consider this issue.. According to Coombs (2006), calculating the amount of media coverage helps to evaluate the effectiveness of crisis management. An effective crisis management reduces stakeholders' uncertainty in a crisis situation, and makes the organization resume normal operations as soon as possible. When the organization has its operation back on track, the stakeholders will turn their attention to other issues, and this crisis event is no longer newsworthy for the media. Therefore, 33.

(40) examining the amount of the media coverage not only lets us evaluate the effectiveness of organization’s crisis management, but also the level of seriousness of the event.. Taiwanese public relations scholar Wu Yi-chen (2000) proposed the Media Effectiveness Index, which helps to evaluate the result of crisis communication. To evaluate the effectiveness of crisis management, the media coverage analysis in this study adopted Wu's index as reference. The effectiveness of a crisis communication strategy is evaluated by (1) factoring in the frequency of citation occurrence of the organization in news media reports, and (2) calculating the positive or. 治政大control of its public image. yield an approximation of how much the organization had the 立. negative evaluation of crisis response given by the media in the reports. This evaluation would. ‧ 國. 學. Wu (2000) also suggested that by analyzing the tone of the media coverage, we can evaluate. ‧. the effectiveness of crisis communication strategies. The reporting tone is critical in shaping. sit. y. Nat. readers’ view of the organization in a crisis. Tone of the media reports can be categorized into four. io. er. types: positive, neutral, negative, or off-topic. A report with positive tone means the journalist had. al. given credit to organization's performance. Neutral tone means there was similar percentage of. n. v i n Carticle. positive and negative comments in the coverage adds to the negative perception of h e nIfgmedia chi U a company, it makes crisis management more difficult because it is likely to increase the reputational threat of the crisis. On the other hand, neutral or positive coverage is an indicator that organization's responses are being effective.. The media coverage analysis in this study also included examining the public reviews of the crisis event. These public reviews were collected from online news media that enable publics to leave comments on every article. Similar with examining the tone of media coverage, public 34.

(41) feedbacks were categorized into four types: positive, neutral, negative, or off-topic. If the comment included supportive words, it was categorized into the positive type. Neutral tone means there was similar percentage of positive and negative statement from public comment. Negative tone means the comment included criticism or complaints about the organization. If the comment was about things not directly related to the crisis or organization's communication strategies, then it was categorized as off-topic and would not be further analyzed. From examining public feedbacks, we can observe how people evaluated the organization's crisis communication strategies, and compare which crisis response attracted more attention.. 治政大answer RQ1, and to examine how Overall, findings from the analysis of media coverage could 立. Taipei Lee-Chi was represented in the media coverage. The results would discussed the news. ‧ 國. 學. frame of Taipei Lee-Chi, tone of the reports from the four publications, the source cited in the. ‧. reports, and feedbacks of the interactions with Taipei Lee-Chi from the journalists.. sit. y. Nat. io. er. Taipei Lee-Chi’s crisis responses were analyzed chronically in accordance to Coombs’ Situational Crisis Communication Theory and Benoit’s Image Restoration Theory from the media. al. n. v i n C hwhich is aimed toUobserve crisis response strategies used coverage. The results can answer RQ2.1, engchi by Taipei Lee-Chi in this crisis. Amount of the positive media coverage, public reviews on the organization’s crisis communication strategies, and the citation frequency of the organization in the reports can be concluded to answer RQ2.2, which is the effectiveness of the crisis management.. 3.2 Official Documents Official documents include organization's official websites, and public announcements/press releases published by the organization. Analyzing the information collected from the official website is the first step to know about an organization. The first dimension to observe from official website 35.