Conflict Brief 2 1

Conflict Brief 2: Technology in Crisis Situations

School of Business, Liberty University
Yvonne Wilson
COMS 560: Conflict and Communication
Dr. John Katsion
August 2, 2020
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Executive Summary

This brief intends to summarize the advancements of technology in communication in crisis

situations and how transmission of negative messages can be utilized to hurt a society coping

with risk, trauma, and uncertainty. This brief will cover some ways technology can assist in

communicating during a crisis.

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Introduction
In the society we live in today, social media is always a hot topic for discussion. With

technology developing more and more every day, it is easier for people to communicate with

each other and businesses to market their products for free. There is always an upside and a

downside to what social media have to offer. When a crisis situation happens, most businesses

are pushed to the forefront, and social media users want to know how the business is going to

handle the situation and what the business is going to do to make it right. Not every crisis

situation directly involves the masses on social media that continue to share the negativity

associated with the company.

In recent news, the COVID 19 pandemic has affected the entire world. Scientist has yet

to develop a vaccine to combat the fast-acting and spreading virus that is killing a lot of people

around the globe. A lot of information about COVID 19 is being spread across social media.

Some information presented on the social media platform may be facts; some information may

be misinformation created to cause hysteria. 2 Timothy 2: 16 says, “But avoid irreverent babble,

for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness (ESV). This scripture speaks to the

customers of social media as well as the businesses and organizations that utilize the platforms.

If the information is honest, I suggest users make sure they do their own research first. The truth

shall be revealed.

What are the implications of recent technological changes and developments on

communication in crisis situations?
Organizations and businesses are met with the task of managing crises with

communication in the era of social media platforms such as Twitter (Zhao, Zhan & Jie, 2018).

Research shows that public use of social media during crises to intermingle with others and get

unfiltered, timely, and detailed communication (Zheng, Hefu & Davidson, 2018). When a
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business gets involved in the conflict, the community uses social media to control and patrol how

the company responds to the conflict and how they choose to overcome and change company

policies so the situation will not happen again. Social media bring the business conflict to the

forefront, so this makes the business wrongdoing vulnerable to the public. People have a

motivational need to unite with the society that is disturbed by specific crises and to engage

themselves in a situation of conflict to voice their concerns (Hocker & Wilmot, 2018).

Social media technology enables secondary crisis communication dissemination by

allowing the public to report and post negative comments about business in crisis freely. It will

allow secondary crisis communication to have a significantly damaging influence on business,

such as a significant drop in share price and market share decrease (Coombs & Holladay, 2014).

Schaewitz, Winter, and Krämer (2020) states, the mixture of high popularity of smart devices

and low-cost internet access provide immense opportunities for the community to have access to

a business crisis. Development and usage of mobile technology allow crisis situations to be

public knowledge. The best way for a business to prevent negative feedback is to practice is to

provide truthful dialogue, factual evidence, and stay actively engaged with the public by

apologizing and keeping them informed as much as possible on how the company intends to

improve their processes so the conflict will never happen again. Zheng, Liu, and Davison state,

“Before the proliferation of social media, the dissemination of the public’s negative opinions in

crisis situations took more time and was diffused due to restrictions of time and space.” A

business reputation is understood to be a delicate asset, easily corroded by harmful perspectives

on social media. Situational Crisis Communication Theory, is a prevailing theory in the field of

crisis communication, provides a background for understanding how to best handle

organizational reputation via post-crisis communication (Coombs & Holladay, 2014).

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Conclusion

Businesses and organizations must continue to strive to have or build an excellent

reputation for their company by treating their customer with respect and honoring their opinions

during conflict situations. Therefore, companies should create forums that create an open dialog

during conflicts and allows the consumer to voice their opinions. The company to follow up on

the solution to the conflict. The fast advancing of technology no longer allows companies to

handle conflict situations in the house. With this advancement of technology, companies must

manage how they choose to respond to social injustice, pandemic situations, and community

social welfare. Social media is an unforgiving platform that can potentially hurt an organization

or business if they do not handle their social media presence properly.

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References
Coombs, W.T., and Holladay, S.J. (2014). How Publics React to Crisis Communication Efforts:

Comparing Crisis Response Reactions Across Sub-arenas. Journal of Communication

Management. 18 (1). pp. 40-57.

Hocker, J. L., & Wilmot, W. W. (2018). Interpersonal conflict. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill

Education.

Schaewitz, Leonie, Stephan Winter, and Nicole C. Krämer (2020) The Influence of privacy

control options on the evaluation and user acceptance of mobile applications for

volunteers in crisis situations. Behaviour & Information

Technology. DOI: 10.1080/0144929X.2020.1723703

Zhao, X., Zhan, M., & Jie, C. (2018). Examining multiplicity and dynamics of the publics’ crisis

narratives with large-scale Twitter data. Public Relations Review, 44(4), 619-632.

doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2018.07.004

Zheng, B., Hefu, L., and Davison, R.M. (2018) “Exploring the relationship between corporate

reputation and the public’s crisis communication on social media.” Public Relations

Review. Vol. 44:1. pp. 56-64.