Theorizing Crisis Communication. Timothy L. Sellnow

audiences, publics, stakeholders, or communities. Scholars differ on the locus of that meaning. The mass communication theorist McLuhan (1964) offered the view that the medium is the message, suggesting that any technology (medium) used to distribute meaning directly affects the meaning that arises. Thus, the warning siren becomes the message.

Contrasting this view are the general semanticists who argue that meaning is in people’s interpretation of symbols and thus exist in the communicators’ cognitive processes. People who have experienced the pain and trauma of a disaster, for example, carry an interpretive system of meaning associated with disasters that is not available to others. Communication can also be understood to occur within a larger ecology (Foth & Hearn, 2007). This may include the media used, relationships, networks, history, and the larger social, political, cultural, and economic context. Communication both influences and is influenced by the context and ecology. A crisis, for example, creates a specific context, which influences communication activities, and the communication activities also influence the context. Digital communication technology, including social media and handheld devices, has significantly altered the ecology of crisis communication. Some researchers argue that these technologies have repositioned those who are at the center of the crisis as active sources and senders of information rather than as passive receivers (Pechta et al., 2010).

      An additional view of communication important in consideration of crises is the communicative constitution of organizations (CCO) perspective. This view, developed initially by McPhee and Zaug (2000) and expanded by others, suggests that organizations are constituted in and through human communication. Communication is the fundamental process whereby organizations are created by individual actors and actions. Organizations are “ongoing and precarious accomplishments realized, experienced, and identified primarily – if not exclusively – in communication processes” (Cooren et al., 2011, p. 1151). The CCO perspective unifies a number of views from systems theory, narrative theory, social constructivism, and critical theory, among others (Putnam et al., 2009). CCO also foregrounds a number of competing views regarding what constitutes an organization. Some perspectives, for example, emphasize the material and substantive nature of an organization, while others emphasize organizing as an ongoing process. Still others suggest that an organization is simply the coordinated behaviors of individuals. Communicative processes and outcomes may play roles in each of these views of organizations.

One of the widely used approaches to CCO is the concept of the four flows of communication introduced by McPhee and colleagues. The four flows include organizational self-structuring, membership negotiation, activity coordination, and institutional positioning. These are described as “flows” because they are interactive yet enduring, take many forms, and occur in many contexts by many participants (McPhee, 2015). Organizational self-structuring is a deliberative, reflexive process whereby the structuring processes, such as norms, rules, and hierarchies, are created and communicated. Membership negotiation concerns the ways in which individuals are recruited to become part of the organization, establish and maintain relationships, and are socialized into the organizational culture. Activity coordination involves the collective coordination of member activity. The activities of individuals in organizations are interdependent and must be coordinated and assembled in a unified way. The final flow concerns the macro-level positioning of the organization in relation to the larger environment. This form of communication is necessary for organizations to have an independent and recognizable identity (see McPhee & Zaug, 2008; McPhee et al., 2014).

      The CCO perspective may be especially relevant to crisis contexts because crises often disrupt these flows and the resulting organizational processes. Crises can change identity, disrupt patterns of coordination; shift roles, hierarchies, and responsibilities, and change membership patterns. In addition, crises often give rise to emergent organizations that respond to the crisis, such as volunteer and support groups and search and rescue groups. Crises are important forces in shaping and creating organizations and CCO can help explain these developments.

      Finally, communication scholars have also described the functions of communication. These approaches, such as functional decision theory (Gouran, 1982) and media uses and gratifications theory (McQuail, 1983), emphasize the instrumental nature of communication; that is, communication allows for the intentional creation of certain outcomes. Functional approaches focus on the results or outcomes of communication behaviors and processes. This perspective sees communication as a tool senders and receivers use to accomplish goals, solve problems, make decisions, influence others, and coordinate actions. Communication may be more or less effective in accomplishing these outcomes depending on its structure, how it is used, what audiences it targets, and what channels are employed, among many other factors. Managing a crisis often requires the cooperation of various agencies, groups, and community members. In many cases, this cooperation requires communication; thus, communication is an instrument of cooperation.

Dance and Larson (1976) described three broad functions of communication: (1) regulating the behavior of self and others; (2) linking individuals with others and their environment; (3) developing higher mental processes and capacity. Regulating behavior primarily through persuasive processes is a fundamental communication function and represents an important tradition in communication inquiry extending back to the Greek rhetoricians. In fact, some views suggest that all communication is persuasive. Linking functions include both information exchange and linking to one’s environment but also the development of relationships. Information about the environment is necessary to make choices about how to behave. Finally, Dance and Larson suggest that communication processes are closely associated with cognitive processes and capacity. In other words, communication is an epistemology, a way of knowing and thinking. We have suggested that this functional approach may be particularly useful in understanding the communication activities associated with crisis management. These are outlined in Table 1.3.

Table 1.3 Functions of Crisis Communication.

Scanning	(Monitoring and maintaining external relationships:and Spanning collecting information, building relationships with external stakeholders)Sensemaking of informationIssue managementSpanning agency, organization, and community boundariesRisk communication
Crisis Response	(Planning for and managing crises)Uncertainty reduction, providing information and interpretations, warnings, evacuations notices, product recallsCoordination with key stakeholder and response agenciesInformation disseminationPromoting strategic ambiguity
Crisis Resolution	(Restructuring, repairing, and maintaining relationshipsafter a crisis)Defensive messagesExplanatory messagesImage restorationRenewalGrieving and memorializing
Organizational Learning	(Emerging from a crisis with enhanced knowledge, relationships, and capacity)DialogueNetworks and relationshipsUnderstanding and norms

These functions, critical to effective response, suggest that communication is associated with a wide range of instrumental outcomes during a crisis. For example, communication is necessary to persuade people to prepare a personal crisis plan. In fact, the website Ready.gov promotes preparedness through a public communication campaign. A successful communication of evacuation notice is necessary to manage the harm of floods, hurricanes, and some forms of toxic spills. Public health officials sometimes describe communication as a form of “social Tamiflu,” referring to the antiviral medication used to treat influenza. Communication is the primary way public health officials can influence the behavior of publics in ways that can limit the spread of this infectious disease.

      Given this range of definitions, concepts, and complexity of communication, is it possible to fully define crisis communication? Crisis communication could simply be understood as the ongoing process of creating shared meaning among and between groups, communities, individuals, and agencies within the ecological context of a crisis for the purpose of preparing for and reducing, limiting, and responding to threats and harm. This definition points to the diversity of communicators – both senders and receivers – involved and the instrumental and functional elements of communication during a crisis. Beyond this definition, however, is the fact that communication processes are sensemaking methodologies allowing