PRACTITIONER FOCUS

Prepared by:
Jennifer G. Valencia
 HOW DO THE NEWS MEDIA FRAME CRISES? A
CONTENT ANALYSIS OF CRISIS NEWS COVERAGE
(SEON-KYOUNG AN AND KARLA K. GOWER)
Framing Theory
• suggests that how something is presented to the audience (called “the frame”)
influences the choices people make, that is, in terms of how to process that
information (Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317841096_UNDERSTANDING_FRAMI
NG_THEORY
)
• The most common use of frames is in terms of the frame the news or media place on
the information they convey.
RQ1: Which of the five news frames have been used in crisis news coverage?
RQ2: How differently have the frames been used according to crisis types?
RQ3: How differently have the level of responsibility frames been used in crisis news
coverage according to crisis types?
RQ4: How differently have the five news frames been used according to level of
responsibility?
 HOW DO THE NEWS MEDIA FRAME CRISES? A
CONTENT ANALYSIS OF CRISIS NEWS COVERAGE
(SEON-KYOUNG AN AND KARLA K. GOWER)
Method:
• investigated news coverage of crisis events in 2006
• content analysis
• crisis event sample: top 10 crisis prone businesses
(Crisis: any problem or disruption that triggers negative stakeholder reactions that could
impact the organization’s business and financial strength)
• 10 companies: Enron, HP, Microsoft, Wal-mart, Northwest Airlines, Merck, Computer
Associate (CA), Goodyear Tire, Boeing, and Delta Airline
• Additional sample: 15 companies
• Diamond Pet Food Company, WorldCom, Dell, Sony, Apple, Crown Princess, Freddie Mac,
Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Anderson Guest House, CAI Inc., Methodist Hospital, Mizpah
Hotel, Falk Corp., and Tenet Healthcare
News Coverage:
• analyzed news articles related to the companies’ crisis events covered by three major
newspapers, New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today, in 2006
• Limited the period of news articles to within one month from the onset of each crisis
Coding Categories and Measures
• Coding instrument: name of the newspaper, name of the company, crisis type, five news
frames, and level of responsibility frame
• For crisis type, the definitions of crisis typologies by Coombs (2006a) were used
• (1) victim cluster (natural disaster, rumors, workplace violence, and product tampering)
• (2) accidental cluster (challenges, megadamage, technical error accidents, and technical error
recalls)
• (3) preventable cluster (human breakdown accidents, human breakdown product recalls,
organizational misdeeds with injuries, strike and bankruptcy)
Findings:
Five Crisis News Frames (RQ1)
• 95.1% (235 news articles) of the crisis news stories used at least one item of attribution of
responsibility frame.
• Economic frame appeared at least once in 74.9% of the coverage.
• Human interest frame was used in 64.4% of the news coverage, and conflict frame was used
in 62.8% of the news stories at least once.
• However, a majority of news stories (55.1%) did not use a morality frame.
Table 1. Use of the Five News Frames
• Crisis news used frames in the following “order of predominance”: “attribution of
responsibility”, “economic”, “conflict”, “human interest”, and “morality.” ( Seon-
Kyoung & Gower, 2009)

Five News Frames by Crisis Types (RQ2)

• Chi-square tests showed a significant difference among three crisis types in the use
of the attribution of responsibility frame.
• It was used more when the crisis type was in the preventable cluster (98.1%) than in
the accidental and victim clusters (79.2% of accidental crises news and 76.9% of
victim crises news)
• Significant differences in the use of the human interest frame were observed among the three
crisis types.
• News articles about crises in the victim cluster used the human interest frame (92.3% of
news stories about victim crises) more than they used it in accidental (83.3% of accidental
crises news) and preventable (60.5% of preventable crises news) crises.
• Preventable crises news stories were more likely to use the conflict frame.
• Significant differences in the use of the morality frame were observed among the three crisis
clusters.
• Preventable crises news stories were more likely to use the morality frame than stories about
crises in the other clusters.
• Overall, accidental crises news and preventable crises news were more likely to use the
economic frame.
• However, victim crises were less likely to use economic frame.
Level of Responsibility (RQ3)
• Overall, the news media focused on the organizational level of responsibility (56.6%) more
than the individual level (47.4%).
• All accidental crises news articles focused on the organizational level of responsibility,
whereas preventable crises news articles were more likely to use the individual level of
responsibility (52.9% vs. 47.1%).
• The victim news was less likely to use the individual level of responsibility than the
organizational level (46.2% vs. 53.8%).
Five News Frames by Level of Responsibility (RQ4)
• The attribution of responsibility frame was more likely to be used in conjunction with the
individual level of responsibility (99.1%) than with the organizational level (91.5%).
• The human interest frame was more likely to be used in conjunction with the individual
level of responsibility (77.8%) than with the organizational level (52.3%).
• The morality frame was also more likely to be used with the individual level of
responsibility (76.1%) than with the organizational level (16.9%).
• The economic frame was more likely to be used with the organizational level (87.7%) than
with the individual level of responsibility (60.7%).
• When reporting on a crisis, the news media tend to assign specific blame to the individual or
organization and to attribute responsibility for the crisis to one or the other, in particular, in
coverage of preventable crises such as organizational misdeed/mismanagement and misdeed
with injuries.
• The news media then are more likely to focus on attribution of responsibility in crisis
situations in which there is strong controllability and intentionality on the part of the actor.
• The study can provide practical insights for crisis managers and public relation researchers
as it informs them of the news frames the media use to portray a crisis depending on type
and the level of responsibility the media are likely to assign.
• Such information can be used to more effectively design crisis response strategies.
 STORMY WEATHER: TESTING “STEALING
THUNDER” AS A CRISIS COMMUNICATION
STRATEGY… (LAURA M. ARPAN & DONNALYN
POMPPER, 2003)
• Stealing thunder is “an admission of a weakness” (usually a mistake or a failure) prior to
disclosure “by another party, such as an interest group or the media.” (Arpan & Pompper,
2003)
• proven to be valuable in courtrooms as tests demonstrate that stealing thunder “can result in
favorable jury verdicts, higher credibility ratings for the defendant, and weaker perceptions
of the defendant’s guilt.”
• In organizational settings, it has been observed that “consumers’ negative perceptions of an
organization” can be reduced by “self-disclosing negative or damaging information in an
advertisement.”
• In the realm of politics, it has also been found that voters are “more likely to vote for a
candidate who stole thunder…instead of allowing the media to break the news first.”
• The pattern was consistent for both moderately damaging information (the candidate was a
chronic check-bouncer) and severely damaging information (the candidate had been arrested
for illegal drug involvement).
• Candidates who stole thunder were likewise rated as being more honest by potential voters
and journalists.
Why it works… (theoretical explanations)
• Commodity theory: messages are just like commodities
• The more of them there are, the less value they carry.
• Disconfirmation of expectations theory
• Revealing negative information about oneself may violate an audience’s expectancies, thus
raising credibility levels that may lead to enhanced persuasiveness.
• Change of meaning
• When practitioners reveal negative information about their organization, journalists may
attempt to reconcile the apparent paradox by changing the meaning of the disclosure, in order to
make it consistent with their existing beliefs about the organization and its spokespersons.
• This change of meaning could result in journalists’ discounting the importance of a message or
downplaying a crisis severity.
• In other words:
• In the eyes of the public, the revelation of negative information may be inconsistent with their
expectations and they may resolve that inconsistency by changing the meaning of that
information. Thus, people may consider the issue or problem as less severe because they expect
that the individual or organization
H1. Participants will have less interest in the story when the organization steals thunder than
when it does not steal thunder.
H2. Participants will perceive the crisis as less severe when the organization steals thunder
than when it does not steal thunder.
H3. Participants will perceive the organization’s officials as more credible when the
organization steals thunder than when it does not steal thunder.
RQ: How does stealing thunder as a crisis communication strategy affect news frames?
Findings:
• H1: not supported
• Participants indicated more interest in the story in the stealing thunder condition than in the
thunder condition (when the story was learned on their own via the police scanner)
• H2: not supported
• The participants will not perceive the crisis as less severe when they were personally notified
of the news (stealing thunder)than when they learned the story on their own…
• H3: supported
• Stealing thunder will result in enhanced credibility ratings for public relations practitioners.
• RQ1: no significant difference
• Use of stealing thunder communication strategy may make little or no difference on how
journalists frame their stories.
 NISSAN STEALS THUNDER
“Based on a whistleblower report, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. (Nissan) has been conducting an
internal investigation over the past several months regarding misconduct involving the
company’s Representative Director and Chairman Carlos Ghosn and Representative Director
Greg Kelly.” (Nissan, cited by Coombs, 2018)

“The investigation showed that over many years, both Ghosn and Kelly have been reporting
compensation amounts in the Tokyo Stock Exchange securities report that were less than the
actual amount, in order to reduce the disclosed amount of Carlos Ghosn’s compensation.”
“Also, in regards to Ghosn, numerous other significant acts of misconduct have been
uncovered, such as personal use of company assets, and Kelly’s deep involvement has also
been confirmed.”

“Nissan has been providing information to the Japanese Public Prosecutors Office and has
been fully cooperating with their investigation. We will continue to do so.”
“As the misconduct uncovered through our internal investigation constitutes clear violations of
the duty of care as directors, Nissan’s Chief Executive Officer Hiroto Saikawa will propose to
the Nissan Board of Directors to promptly remove Ghosn from his positions as Chairman and
Representative Director. Saikawa will also propose the removal of Greg Kelly from his position
as Representative Director.”
“Nissan deeply apologizes for causing great concern to our shareholders and stakeholders.
We will continue our work to identify our governance and compliance issues, and to take
appropriate measures.”
Implications:
• For an organization to steal thunder in a crisis situation, it must break the news about its own
crisis, rather than wait to respond to inquiries from the media or other key publics.
• It is consistent with ethical public relations practices and may reduce journalists’ likelihood
of using default crisis news frames…
 END OF PRESENTATION

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