Social Media and Crisis Communication

Introduction

Lucinda L. Austin and Brooke Fisher Liu

Section 1: Status of Theory Development in Social Media in Crisis Communication

1. Social Media and Crisis Communication Theories

Chen Silvia Zhang and Sora Kim

2. Theoretical Frameworks, Models, and Implications of Social-Mediated Crisis and Risk Communication

Andreas Schwarz and Audra Diers-Lawson

Section 2: Foundations and Frameworks

3. The Cost of Engagement: Risks, Challenges, and Consequences of Social Media Reliance for Crisis Communication in Public Organizations

Truls Strand Offerdal and Oyvind Ihlen

4. Guilt by Influencer Association: Spillovers on Social Media

Erika J. Schneider and Victoria A. Kyriakopoulos

5. Digital Accountability and Crisis Management

Shanetta Pendleton

6. Engaging with Hard-to-Reach Stakeholders Before, During, and After Crises: The Role of Social Media

Lisa Tam and Amisha M. Mehta

7. Digital Crisis Management and Marginalized Voices: How Rural Brazilian Women Use YouTube to Navigate and Communicate Crises

Lígia Sales

8. Paracrises, Polarization, and AI: Extending Crisis Communication Theory to Address Rising Concerns

W. Timothy Coombs

9. Combating Mis/dis-information on Social Media: What we Know and Where to Go

Victoria McDermott and Xuerong Lu

10. Deepfakes as Disinformation: Managing Organizational Risk in the Age of Synthetic Persuasion

Petra Theunissen

Section 3: Areas of Application

11. Brands with Baggage: Tracking Airline Crises with the Social-Mediated Crisis Communication Model

Tyler Page, Angela M. Dwyer, and Brooke M. Witherow

12. Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Social Advocacy, and Social Media Crisis

Hyejoon Rim, YoungAh Lee, and Hyunmin Lee

13. Social Media Storytelling Networks and Crisis Communication in Post-Disaster Fukushima

Joo-Young Jung

14. Examining the Disaster Communication and Public Engagement of the 2025 Los Angeles Wildfires

Rosalynn A. Vasquez, Youngji Seo, and Suman Mishra

15. A Hurricane in Appalachia: Social Media Misinformation During U.S. Hurricane Helene

Mildred F. Perreault

16. Applying IDEA and Exemplification to Childhood Vaccine Campaigns: A Comparative Analysis of Pakistan and the United States

Carina Zelaya and Mehroz Sajjad

17. Should We Post That? Public Health Crises and Social Media: Challenges, Research, and Recommendations

Ashleigh M. Day, Khaurl Islam, and Matthew W. Seeger

18. Navigating Advocacy Communication During Public Health Crises Through Social Media Advocacy

Minhee Choi and Brooke McKeever

19. Evolutions and Explorations of Crisis Communication in Religious Contexts – Jordan Morehouse; Cylor Spaulding

20. The Alternative for Online Engagement: Applying the Unified Model to Far-Right Activism on YouTube

Audra Diers-Lawson and Elisabeth Hasselström

21. Scandals and Reputation Crisis Communication

Bengt Johansson and Sofia Johansson

22. Science Crisis Communication in the Social Media Age/Algorithmic Platforms: The Need for Effective Uncertainty Communication During Science-Relevant Crises

Ioana A. Coman, Natasha Strydhorst, and Asheley Landrum

23. Eco-Anxiety and Crisis Communication in the Digital Era: Social Media Engagement During the Bekasi Floods of 2025

Geofakta Razali

24. Sports-Related Crisis Communication: A Theoretical Exploration of Social Media Crisis Spillover

Elizabeth S. Cox and Jensen Moore

25. Technology Crisis Communication

Saymin Lee

26. AI in Social Media Crisis Communication: An Overview and Application

Yang Cheng, Xiaoyue Liu, Mengge Yang, and Chen Lin

Section 4: Emerging Frameworks and Future Directions

27. The Digital Media-Arena Framework: Enhancing Crisis Readiness and Response

Chiara Valentini, Mark Badham, and Vilma Luoma-Aho

28. AI-Generated Discrimination: How Algorithmic Bias Sparks Corporate Crises

Keonyoung Park and Jeongwon Yang

29. Affordances and Social-Mediated Crisis Communication

Sifan Xu

30. Combating Social Media Complexities and Crisis Uncertainties with Insights and Strategic Decision-Making

Taylor S. Voges and Forest Taylor

Concluding Thoughts

Brooke Fisher Liu and Lucinda L. Austin

Biography

Lucinda L. Austin serves as Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media, USA. She researches pressing problems in strategic communication, primarily addressing social media and crisis communication, and publics’ perspectives in corporate social responsibility and advocacy.

Brooke Fisher Liu is Professor of Communication and Distinguished Scholar-Teacher at the University of Maryland, USA. She researches how strategic communication contributes to organizational and community crisis readiness.