ECC2022 Århus – Candidates, Election Information

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The Crisis Communication Section’s Business Meeting will be held at the ECC2022 Thursday, October 20th, 13:30 – 14:30, 1532-122 (G2). We will also have an online zoom meeting available for those who cannot attend in person so that you can vote for our new section leadership team. We will post the address for this in our Facebook group or you can email Audra Diers-Lawson at audra.diers-lawson@kristiania.no to be added to the list of online attendees for the meeting.

In 2022, we will elect a new leadership team — both Audra and Silvia are stepping back from their roles as Chair and Vice Chair, so we will have two new vice chairs. As we shared with the section’s members before — the section’s objective is to maintain the continuity of leadership so that as our Chairs step out of their roles, we have a Vice-Chair who moves forward into the role. This is not a rule, simply a way to organize ourselves to ensure the continued success of the section, the ECC conference, and our Crisis conference series.

Therefore, at the bottom of this post are the candidates for both section chair and vice chairs. During the business meeting we will discuss:

  1. The forthcoming Crisis Communication in Europe Text that many of our members are contributing to
  2. Crisis7 in Gothenburg — we will hear from the University of Gothenburg team about our conference in 2023.
  3. We will ask for formal bids for our 2025 conference. If you are interested in hosting Crisis8, please get in touch with Audra (audra.diers-lawson@kristiania.no) no later than 10 October if you plan to submit a formal bid for consideration. If we have viable potential hosts who have submitted bids ahead of the conference, then we will ask those to make a small and informal presentation of themselves and decide on our hosts for 2025. If we do not have formal bids, then we will ask for those for the Business Meeting at Crisis7 in 2023.
  4. We will have our leadership election
  5. We will have an opportunity to share recent publications and upcoming conferences.
  6. Any other Business? If you have an agenda item, please let Audra (audra.diers-lawson@kristiania.no) know by 10 October.

Candidate Information

Each of our candidates has provided information about themselves. Each will also be asked to present themselves in about 1-2 minutes (either virtually if they are not able to attend this year’s conference) or in person during the Business Meeting. Voting will take place electronically — please be sure to have an Internet-capable device during the business meeting. The link for voting will be put up during the Business Meeting only, thus people must attend (in person or virtually) in order to vote.

Candidate For Chair

Because there is only one candidate, the vote will be for agreement that our candidate will be the section’s chair.

Dr. Florian Meissner – Germany

Candidates for Vice-Chair

Each person will vote for two of the following candidates for Vice-Chair. The two candidates with the most individual votes will be elected as Vice-Chair. The following are our candidates for Vice Chair in alphabetical order

Dr. Tony Aspriadis – University of Patras

Dr. Corina Buzoianu – National University of Political Studies and Public Administration

Dr. Daniel Vogler – University of Zurich

Dr. Yijing Wang – Erasmus University Rotterdam

European Communication conference 2021 – crisis section panels, elections information

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On behalf of the current leadership team – Audra Diers-Lawson, Florian Meissner, and Silvia Ravazanni — we hope that you will be able to join us online for the European Communication Conference online from 6-9 September.

Registration is open at: https://www.ecrea2021.eu/

Below is a summary of the Crisis Communication Section’s conference schedule below. We hope to see everyone in the panel sessions, but we would especially highlight our business meeting (Wednesday 8 September from 1315-1445 (Central European Summer Time — GMT +2). Our tentative agenda for the meeting is:

  • Brief summary of activities since the 2018 ECC. 
  • Update on ECC 2022. 
  • Discussion of 7th Crisis Conference in 2023 (brief reminder from our hosts). 
  • Call for hosts for 8th Crisis Conference in 2025.
  • Any other business
  • Section management elections. We will be electing our leadership team for the next year — remember that we will have another ECC in 2022 to return to our normal schedule. Voting will take place during the business meeting and Dr. Andreas Schwarz will be our elections officer. Below are the candidate statements from each of our colleagues. 

ECC 2021 Crisis Section Parallel Sessions

Tuesday, September 7th, Room 22, 09:00 – 10:30 Parallel Session: The Language of Crisis Communication

Tuesday, September 7th, Room 22 11:00 – 12:30 Parallel Session: Challenges in the Communication of Science, Risk, and Trust

Tuesday, September 7th, Room 22 17:00 – 18:30 Parallel Session: Cultural, National, and International Complexities in Political Crises

Wednesday, September 8th, Room 22 13:15 – 14:45 Business Meeting: Crisis Communication

ECC Management Team Profiles for the Election

Chair Candidate – Audra Diers-Lawson

Audra Diers-Lawson Bio and Position Statement

Brief Bio

I am at present a senior lecturer and research lead in the School of Public Relations and Journalism at Leeds Beckett University in the UK. Aside from serving as the current Chair for the section, I am also:

  • The editor of the Journal of International Crisis and Risk Communication Research
  • The guest editor for a special edition of Corporate Communication: An International Journal on risk and crisis communication in the developing world
  • Collaborating with colleagues from around the world on projects that:
    • Evaluates COVID-19 crisis response in Germany, Sweden, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, UK, and the US
    • Is exploring COVID-19 related prejudice in more than 20 countries
    • Better understanding vaccination hesitancy in the UK, Sweden, US, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, and New Zealand.
    • Evaluating risk and crisis communication with organizations like the Asia-Europe Foundation and the World Health Organization.

In short, aside from producing applied research, much of my research at present focuses on collaborating with or bringing colleagues together from different countries to create research and practice that has real world impact.

Position Statement

It has been my pleasure to be involved with the ECREA Crisis Communication section and the Crisis Conference Series since the Crisis2 conference in Denmark in 2011. I have served as a host for the Crisis Conference Series, a part of the management team since 2016 and as Chair since 2018.Over the years as our field has matured into a distinctive sub-field within communication and become increasingly institutionalized, the European crisis communication community has emerged as a vital hub for research and engagement. During my time on the management team, we have seen global participation in European and ECREA-based events continue to increase. For example, at Crisis6, we had participants at the conference from more than 20 countries and all continents. The ECC conferences consistently have participation from, of course, Europe but also the Americas and Asia. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we were able to maintain an active and global community engagement with our Crisis2021 virtual series. We have also developed and maintain an ECREA Crisis Section website.

Aside from continuing our normal activities, the present management team along with past chair Dr. Andreas Schwarz, is also in the process of developing a proposal for the 2021 ECREA Book Series on Risk and Crisis Communication in Europe where we have invited colleagues from Europe to contribute abstracts. If accepted, our objective for the book is to be a definitive guide to pan-European scholarship and practice.As a continuing chair, my objective is to continue to support and promote interdisciplinary research, education, and practice in risk and crisis communication in Europe.

Vice-Chair Candidates (in alphabetical order — two candidates are elected) – Daniel Laufer, Florian Meissner, Silvia Ravazzani

Daniel Laufer, Associate Professor at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

I am a researcher who has worked in the area of Crisis Communication for 20 years. I have spent half of my career in the USA, and the other half in New Zealand. I have a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin.

ECREA is involved in a lot of exciting activities, and the recent webinars have been great. If I am elected as Vice Chair I would work with the leadership team on its initiatives, and also help strengthen collaboration with industry, government and the media. This is an area I have focused on throughout my career. I have experience dealing with the media, and for the past two years I have written a successful monthly column on Crisis Management for a leading newspaper in New Zealand. I have also published interviews with senior executives on topics related to Crisis Management for the managerial journal Business Horizons, including an interview with the former head of Corporate Communications at BASF. I also have experience engaging with senior government officials, and the former Prime Minister of New Zealand was a keynote speaker at a conference I organised.

I believe my experience organising successful conferences and special issues will also be useful as Vice Chair at ECREA. In 2019 I was a co-chair of ANZMAC, the largest conference for marketing academics in Australia and New Zealand. We broke attendance records with over 500 participants. I have also successfully edited three special issues on Crisis Management, and my special issue in Business Horizons published in 2015 was the most impactful special issue in the journal based on citations and article downloads in the past 5 years. I currently serve as Associate Editor at Business Horizons and I’m on the editorial boards of both Public Relations Review and Corporate Reputation Review.

I believe that I can contribute to ECREA based on my experience. I also have strong ties to Europe. In addition to my American citizenship, I am a German citizen. I have taught my courses on Crisis Management in Europe (the Mannheim Business School in Germany and Vienna University). Finally, my research on Crisis Contagion with Yijing Wang from Erasmus University (Laufer & Wang, 2018) was highlighted in a statement by the Embassy of the Netherlands in New Zealand as an example of successful research collaboration between the Netherlands and New Zealand. I worked on this project during my sabbatical in Rotterdam.

Bio

Dr Daniel Laufer, PhD, MBA is an Associate Professor of Marketing, and a former head of the school and member of the faculty management team (2014-2017) at Victoria University of Wellington, one of the leading universities in New Zealand. His primary area of expertise is Crisis Management, and his research focuses on crisis communications, and gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders react to crises. Prior to entering academia, Dan worked as a manager at KPMG and a senior consultant at PwC in the USA. Dan currently serves as an Associate Editor for both the European Journal of Marketing and Business Horizons. Dan is also on a number of editorial boards including Public Relations Review and Corporate Reputation Review. Dan’s work is also of great interest to industry, and he was featured by the global consulting firm PwC as an expert on Crisis Management in their magazine in both the USA and New Zealand (2010 and 2013). Over the past few years he has taught workshops to mayors and senior government officials in New Zealand about Crisis Communications.

Florian Meissner, Professor of Media Management and Journalism, Macromedia University of Applied Sciences

Academic CV Summary: 

  • Since 2021/01 Professor at Macromedia University of Applied Sciences (Media Faculty) 
  • 2019/03 – 2020/12 Postdoctoral Researcher at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (Dpt. of Communication and Media Sciences) 
  • 2018/06 – 2019/03 Postdoctoral Researcher at TU Dortmund University (Institute of Journalism) 
  • 2015/04 – 2018/05 Ph.D. Fellow, School of International and Intercultural Communication, TU Dortmund University 
  • 2014/04 – 2014/11 Research stay at Tohoku University (Sendai/Japan) Ph.D. Fellow of the Japanese Society for the promotion of science 
  • 2010/06 – 2014/03 Research Assistant, TU Dortmund University (Institute of Journalism) 2009/12 Graduation with a Diploma in Journalism and Sociology (TU Dortmund University)

Position Statement:
The three years since the election of the current management team of ECREA’ s Crisis Communication Section have been eventful. Soon after a successful Crisis6 Conference in Leeds, the Covid-19 pandemic confronted us with the surreal situation that our expertise and new research initiatives were more needed than before, while at the same time we struggled to find opportunities to exchange and interact as a community. 


We have therefore started a virtual series as a venue to present and discuss current research in the field of crisis communication. Participation and feedback have been extremely positive. In case of my re-election as Vice Chair of the Crisis Communication Section, I want to continue with such digital and/or hybrid formats in addition to our regular on-site conference formats. This way, we should also be able to extend the diversity among the participants of our events (for instance, Ph.D. students or colleagues from the Global South). 


Furthermore, I would like to continue my efforts related to coordinating and fostering the exchange on computational methods in crisis Communication research. The related workshop in the abovementioned virtual series has been a first step in that direction. 


Among further points that I want to address in case of re-election are intensifying the discussion of what we, as a community, can or should contribute to the broader issue of global warming and the communicative challenges that come with it. Also, I would like to intensify the mutually beneficial exchange between researchers and practitioners within our community. 


It has been an honor to serve this first term as Vice Chair for our ECREA section, and I would like to ask you to support my candidacy for a second term.

Silvia Ravazzani, Associate Professor in Management, Università IULM, Italy

Short biography

I am currently an Associate Professor in Management at Università IULM, Italy. Previously, I held the same position at the Department of Management at Aarhus University, Denmark.

I have served in the Crisis Communication Section as vice-chair since 2016.

I am part of the Editorial Board of Journal of International Crisis and Risk Communication Research and of European Journal of Cross-Cultural Competence and Management.

I am also Senior Project Leader of the Centre for Employee Relations and Communication at IULM University.

My research interests are mainly crisis communication from an internal and multicultural perspective, employee communication, social media, diversity and business ethics. My work in these areas has been published in various books and journals such as Group & Organization Management, Business Ethics Quarterly, Corporate Communications: An International Journal, International Journal of Business Communication, and elsewhere.

Awards for my research in the field of crisis communication include the Highly Commended Paper Award at the Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence in 2017 for “Exploring internal crisis communication in multicultural environments” published in Corporate Communications: An International Journal; and the Academic Highly Commended Paper Award at the Conference of Corporate Communication 2010 for “Manager-Employee Communication During a Crisis: The Missing Link”.

Position statement

I would like to put forward my candidacy to continue in my role as vice chair for the ECREA Crisis Communication Section.

Since 2016 I have worked closely with the current and previous management teams towards the successful development and consolidation of a strong crisis communication community that reaches out globally.

I strongly believe in the need to further encourage the diversity of views, theoretical lenses and methodological approaches that have characterized the work of our community from its inception. Moreover, I am committed towards strengthening the disciplinary institutionalization of crisis communication as a central field of research, teaching and practice through facilitating collaborations and publication opportunities.

For me personally, being a member of the current and previous management teams has represented a priceless opportunity to interact with our vast and diverse community and to continuously learn from it, which I deeply appreciate and would love to profit from in the next two year-mandate as well.

It is on this basis and on my past and current commitment to this Section that I feel confident to ask for your vote.

Silvia Ravazzani, Associate Professor in Management, Università IULM, Italy

Short biography

I am currently an Associate Professor in Management at Università IULM, Italy. Previously, I held the same position at the Department of Management at Aarhus University, Denmark.

I have served in the Crisis Communication Section as vice-chair since 2016.

I am part of the Editorial Board of Journal of International Crisis and Risk Communication Research and of European Journal of Cross-Cultural Competence and Management.

I am also Senior Project Leader of the Centre for Employee Relations and Communication at IULM University.

My research interests are mainly crisis communication from an internal and multicultural perspective, employee communication, social media, diversity and business ethics. My work in these areas has been published in various books and journals such as Group & Organization Management, Business Ethics Quarterly, Corporate Communications: An International Journal, International Journal of Business Communication, and elsewhere.

Awards for my research in the field of crisis communication include the Highly Commended Paper Award at the Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence in 2017 for “Exploring internal crisis communication in multicultural environments” published in Corporate Communications: An International Journal; and the Academic Highly Commended Paper Award at the Conference of Corporate Communication 2010 for “Manager-Employee Communication During a Crisis: The Missing Link”.

Position statement

I would like to put forward my candidacy to continue in my role as vice chair for the ECREA Crisis Communication Section.

Since 2016 I have worked closely with the current and previous management teams towards the successful development and consolidation of a strong crisis communication community that reaches out globally.

I strongly believe in the need to further encourage the diversity of views, theoretical lenses and methodological approaches that have characterized the work of our community from its inception. Moreover, I am committed towards strengthening the disciplinary institutionalization of crisis communication as a central field of research, teaching and practice through facilitating collaborations and publication opportunities.

For me personally, being a member of the current and previous management teams has represented a priceless opportunity to interact with our vast and diverse community and to continuously learn from it, which I deeply appreciate and would love to profit from in the next two year-mandate as well.

It is on this basis and on my past and current commitment to this Section that I feel confident to ask for your vote.

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: Risk and Crisis Communication in Europe: A Definitive Guide to Pan-European Scholarship and Practice

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On behalf of the editors – Audra Diers-Lawson, Andreas Schwarz, Silvia Ravazzani, and Florian Meissner – and as part of the Routledge Studies in European Communication Research and Education Series we are inviting abstract submissions for a risk and crisis communication book proposal titled: Risk and Crisis Communication in Europe: A Definitive Guide to Pan-European Scholarship and Practice. Our core objective with this text is to develop a student and practitioner-focused text that represents the breadth of research in risk and crisis communication in Europe. 

Deadline for the submission of abstracts is 6 September, 2020 with accepted abstracts notified by 17 September. If the book is approved by the ECREA Series editors, contributors would have approximately one year to produce their chapter and supplemental materials. 

We welcome submissions from academics and practitioners. Where necessary, preference will be given to ECREA members as it is a condition of the series that at least 50% of contributors are ECREA members. If you are not a member of ECREA, you can join anytime. 

Submission Information

To submit — send an email to audra.lawson@leedsbeckett.ac.uk with the following information:

  1. Brief author bio for each author (name, affiliation, degree, and 1 or 2 sentence summary of research agenda)
  2. ECREA Member (yes/no)
  3. Section of the book (see below for the list)
  4. Theme of your submission (see below for the list)
  5. Willingness to create a 5-minute supplementary video to support the book (yes/no)
  6. If you are proposing a case study, willingness to work with the editors to create a 15 or 30 minute exercise based on the key themes emerging in the case study (we will put the exercises together, but we will ask you for key recommendations and suggestions to create an applied exercise based on the key lessons learned from the case study) (yes/no)
  7. Include a 300-500 word (maximum) structured abstract for the submission that addresses:
    1. Central aims and objectives of the chapter
    2. Focal Country(ies) for the chapter
    3. Brief summary of key content in the chapter
    4. Brief summary of key transferrable knowledge/skills after reading the chapter (learning outcomes)

Details About the Book Proposal

Context and Importance

The field of risk and crisis communication emerged, as a cohesive and distinctive area of study and practice, in the mid 1990’s and over the early 2000’s has established itself as a growing field (Diers-Lawson, 2020). Europe has emerged as a critical hub for the global development of theory and practice in risk and crisis communication. For example, ECREA is the first international communication association to have a full crisis communication section; it hosts one of the two main risk and crisis communication conferences in the world; the section has membership and consistent attendance at ECREA-sponsored events from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

Despite the influence, the only text to meaningfully and explicitly addressed crisis communication in Europe was the Handbook of International Crisis Communication Research (2016) and that was within the context of exploring risk and crisis communication around the world. Since that text was published, not only has the field of risk and crisis communication continued to develop but Europe has experienced the amplification of the refugee crisis, Brexit, increasing terrorist attacks, a heightened awareness of the climate crisis, and of course the COVID-19 pandemic. Each of these has not only contributed to scholarship and practice but have also changed the contexts for considering risk and crisis communication in Europe.

Moreover, one of the ongoing challenges is the translation of academic work to practitioner and student audiences to ensure the innovative research being conducted is accessible by the audiences that most need it. Therefore, our objectives with this book are:

  1. Develop pan-European perspectives on risk and crisis communication with relevance across and beyond Europe.
  2. Provide accessible and engaging material to translate traditional academic theory and research to non-academic audiences.
  3. Use the accessible material to create practical impact for the theoretical, methodological, and practical contributions of European-based scholars and practitioners in risk and crisis communication.
  4. Explore the multi-disciplinary connections in risk and crisis communication.
  5. Provide case studies from around Europe to support teaching and practice.

Intended Audience

The intended audience for the book will focus on:

  • Practitioners in risk and crisis communication
  • Students – both advanced undergraduates and post-graduates
  • Lecturers and scholars

Book Layout

Our tentative structure will include three sections; however, a more detailed structure might emerge based on the topics and categories of abstracts that we receive:

  1. Risk Communication in the pan-European context
  2. Crisis Communication in the pan-European context
  3. European-Based Case Studies

Themes in the book will address risk and crisis in relation to:

  • Business/Management/Leadership/Strategy
  • Culture
  • Employees
  • Health
  • Measurement
  • Media (including journalism and social media)
  • Politics
  • Social Responsibility
  • Technology and algorithms
  • Wicked Problems (e.g., climate change, natural disasters, refugee crises/migration, pandemics)

Unique Features

To support the objectives, there are several unique features to the book to improve its accessibility and translation of the material to non-academic audiences.

  1. Chapters will be written with the target audiences in mind. Therefore, they will:
    1. Be concise (i.e., 3000-4000 words maximum for sections 1 and 2, 1000-1500 words maximum for section 3).
    2. Use a uniform template for both regular chapters and the case studies to give the book consistency and clarity
    3. Actively incorporate visuals like figures, diagrams, and tables to improve clarity of concepts and models introduced. The copyright to all visuals will be owned by the authors.
  2. Each chapter and case study will have an approximately 5 minute supplementary video presentation from the author(s), which will be hosted on the section’s website (ecreacrisis.com).
  3. The editors will work with case study contributors to create 15 or 30 minute mini-simulations which will complement the material presented in the case studies to allow practitioners or students to experience a situation similar to the case study and apply lessons learned in the case study.

Event Announcement: 5 March Scandinavian Pandemic Response

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Perspectives on Crisis Communication During the Pandemic in Nordic Countries

On 5 March, 2021 from 4-6pm (CET) the ECREA Crisis Communication Section will host the second in our Crisis2021 series focusing on a panel discussion of distinguished scholars from across Scandinavia exploring the comparisons and comparative outcomes from Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.

The Nordic countries are in many ways similar in terms of political and media system. Nevertheless, they have chosen different strategies in managing the corona virus pandemic. Denmark, Norway and Finland followed many other countries in “shutting down” the society, combined with widespread testing and tracing infection contacts. Sweden chose a somewhat different strategy in rejecting lockdown and focus in “flattening the curve” and in comparison to other countries had the restrictive measures a light touch and relied on citizens voluntary adapting regulations about social distancing and other measures. Crisis communication was also organized differently, not at least in that politicians played a more prominent role in communicating the crisis in Denmark, Finland and Norway. A year after the pandemic started we see very different outcomes, not at least in that Sweden has a much higher death toll compared to the other Nordic countries. The panel will discuss similarities and differences in crisis communication in terms of the crisis management perspective, media frames, and citizens’ response.

Here is more detailed information about the session and speakers and to register to attend the event.

Event Announcement: 5 February – Covid-19 Learning & Consequences Live Panel

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On behalf of the ECREA Crisis Communication Section and endorsed by the International Public Relations Association, we are pleased to announce that on February 5, 2021 (Friday) from 4-6pm CET (10am-12pm EST) we will host our first live panel of our Crisis2021 series – Covid-19: Learning and Consequences for International Crisis Communication Research and Practice. The event is free to attend, all are welcome, but advance registration is required.

The coronavirus pandemic has been a disruptive and tragic experience for societies around the world. For the crisis communication community, the pandemic doubtlessly is an issue of overwhelming importance, calling for academic and professional exchange and new research initiatives that reach beyond national borders. In order to create an opportunity to come together at this important point in the ongoing crisis, we would like to invite you to an online session involving keynotes and discussions on the following questions:

  1. What have we learned from our observations of crisis communication during the pandemic by governments, organizations, health experts, media, and stakeholders around the world?
  2. What are the consequences crisis researchers and practitioners need to draw from this pandemic? What is—or should be—on the research agenda for the next years?

These overarching questions will be addressed by four keynotes:

  • Philippe Borremans, Emergency Risk and Crisis Communication Consultant, President-elect of IPRA: “Crisis & Emergency Risk Communication – the need for an integrated approach”
  • Yan Jin, Professor, University of Georgia: “Gaining Insights from a Multi-methodological Approach to Crisis Learning and Pandemic Communication Management”
  • Matthew W. Seeger, Professor, Dean of the College of Fine, Performing & Communication Arts, Wayne State University: “Communicating Death and Dying During Crises:  Uncertainty, Equivocality and Strategic Ambiguity”
  • Andreas Schwarz, Chair of the Department of Public Relations & Communication of Technology, llmenau University of Technology: “Internal Risk and Crisis Communication on the COVID-19 pandemic: Global experiences of higher education institutions”

Click here for a more detailed summary of each of the presentations.

The series includes online sessions every first or second Friday from February through July. The first session will be chaired by Dr. Florian Meissner, Macromedia University of Applied Sciences. All keynotes will be followed by an open discussion with the audience.

Please find updates on the panel and on the Crisis2021 virtual series on our website: https://ecreacrisis.com/virtual-event-dates-and-themes/

Of course, this panel can only be a starting point for discussion of the short- and long-term implications the current crisis has for our field of research. We would therefore like to point out that the further online sessions within our virtual series, too, can be used to present thematically related research—while also being open for other research topics. Our Crisis2021 series is virtually hosted and coordinated by Leeds Beckett University in the UK. Submissions for our full live and pre-recorded series are open with priority for live sessions going to those presentations and/or panels submitted before 15 January, 2021. See our call for abstracts for more information.

PhD Workshop – Call for Abstracts

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As part of our online activities throughout the first half of 2021, we would like to invite all young scholars to apply for our YECREA PhD Workshop jointly held by ECREA’s Crisis Communication Section and the Young Scholars Network (YECREA). The participation in the workshop is free of charge.

Deadline for Submission – 15 February, 2021

The aim of the workshop is to provide an online forum with individual feedback by senior scholars for doctoral students whose Ph.D. and research interest is related to the wide and interdisciplinary field of Risk and Crisis Communication.

The PhD Workshop will take place in May 2021. The exact date and time depend on the countries of origin/time zones of the individual participants. Further information on the date as well as on the respondents (senior scholars) will be announced later in time.

To apply for the workshop, please prepare and submit the following two documents:

  • an extended abstract of up to 500 words outlining your project (literature excluded): Please think of key elements such as your research problem, theoretical foundation , research question(s), methodology and (preliminary) findings
  • a short letter of motivation stating why you would like to participate and which questions you want to see addressed; it should also mention your doctoral advisor as well as a rough time schedule for your project.

The documents must be submitted to Janina Klingelhöfer (janina.klingelhoefer@ifkw.lmu.de) until February 15, 2021. Please to not hesitate to ask questions beforehand.

A jury will select the applications according to standards of academic quality like theoretical foundation, stringency and originality. You will receive their decision by mid-March 2021. There is no need to be a member of the Crisis Communication Section to apply, but please note that the capacity of the workshop is limited.

Whistleblowing: an international perspective

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An open event promoted by Università IULM, the Geert Hofstede Consortium and Transparency International Italy on November 19th, 2020.

Università IULM’s International Affairs office, the Centre for Employee Relations and Communication (CERC) at Università IULM, the Geert Hofstede Consortium, and Transparency International Italy present the online open event “Whistleblowing: an international perspective”. The online event will take place on November 19th, 15.00-16.30 CET via Microsoft Teams, and will be targeted at both bachelor and master degree students and at professionals.

Corporate wrongdoing is a major issue today in all kind of organizations and whistleblowing arrangements can be an effective strategy to prevent it when they are adopted with the aim of favouring employee voice, including dissent.

The Centre for Employee Relations and Communication (CERC) at Università IULM has conducted some studies that indicate that Italian companies are still little aware of the importance of formal systems to boost employee voice and in particular of whistleblowing systems, adopted in most cases with a mere focus on law compliance.

To overcome this gap of awareness, Università IULM, the Geert Hofstede Consortium and Transparency International Italy are promoting a series of public lessons and events to sustain a public debate around these topics and thus a cultural development in this field in Italy.

The online public event “Whistleblowing: an international perspective” will host a debate with the contributions of:

  • Audra Diers-Lawson, Senior Lecturer at the School of Public Relations and Journalism at Leeds Beckett University, who recently contributed to the book “Whistleblowing, Communication and Consequences. Lessons from The Norwegian National Lottery” edited by Peer Jacob Svenkerud, Jan-Oddvar Sørnes and Larry Browning
  • Giorgio Fraschini, expert of whistleblowing at Transparency International Italy
  • Alessandra Mazzei, Associate Professor of Corporate Communication at Università IULM and Director at CERC
  • Silvia Ravazzani, Associate Professor of Corporate Communication at Università IULM

The event will be held in English and is part of the Corporate Communication course held by Professor Silvia Ravazzani at the Bachelor’s Degree in Corporate Communication and Public Relations and of the Brand and Corporate Communication course held by Professor Alessandra Mazzei at the Master’s Degree in Marketing, Consumption and Communication at Università IULM.

All students are invited.

People interested to attend the online open event can fill the form at the following link to register. Following the registration, they will receive the link to connect to the online event via Microsoft Teams.

National Approaches to Systemic Risk: Germany and Japan under the COVID-19 Crisis

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The Tokyo-based German Institute for Japanese Studies has announced an event that may be interesting for crisis researchers interested in the current pandemic and/or cross-cultural research. The speakers are Ortwin Renn and Norio Okada, both highly renowned specialists in risk & crisis management in the respective countries. The event will be streamed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdGa3jF7et0

Further details: https://www.dijtokyo.org/event/national-approaches-to-systemic-riskgermany-and-japan-under-the-covid-19-crisis/

Media reporting of the COVID-19 pandemic

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Journalists covering the coronavirus pandemic face the classic dilemma of crisis reporting: contributing to mitigation while maintaining their watchdog function.

How do media outlets cover the current pandemic? What are the normative requirements journalists should consider? And how serious is the “infodemic” threat posed by mis- and disinfo on the coronavirus? These are just some of the questions that are being raised in the context of crisis communication surrounding the current pandemic. This short article (German) published in the European Journalism Observatory contributes some observations and thoughts on the matter and discusses the normative concept of a “mitigation watchdog” in the light of the current crisis reporting. A more detailed version of the article in German language is available here.

Call for Papers: Special Issue on COVID-19

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Examining risk communication, crisis management, as well as the implications of the decisions made, and actions taken to combat a global pandemic.

Guest Editor – Professor Yan Jin

Georgia Athletic Association Professor in Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication; Professor, Department of Advertising and Public Relations; Associate Director, Center for Health & Risk Communication, University of Georgia, United States.

Objectives and Scope of the Special Issue:

On January 30, 2020 the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) a “public health emergency of international concern). Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that include MERS and SARS and it is believed it was initially spread from animals to humans with the epicentre in Wuhan, China. It has subsequently spread throughout Asia, Australasia, Europe, North America, South America, the Middle East, and several countries in Africa. In response to the pandemic, public health officials and governments worldwide have taken steps to mitigate the spread of infection with seemingly extreme recommendations, requirements, and restrictions. Organizations have also taken steps to respond by developing guidance for international travel for employees, recommendations for working at home, and cancelling major events. Finally, people have also reacted as sales of hygiene products have skyrocketed creating shortages in products like masks, hand sanitizer, and even toilet paper.

Broadly, our aim in this issue is to use crisis and risk communication knowledge, experience, and research to shed light on a crisis that has received significant heat in the last few months. As such there are broad three objectives in this issue:

  1. Deconstruct the COVID-19 crisis in a meaningful way to better understand lessons for future pandemic crisis planning, and actions.
  2. Analyze the existing and emergent risks associated with COVID-19, organizational or institutional reactions to it, and public self-protection actions taken (or not).
  3. Evaluate the (de)escalating factors affecting the pandemic and its outcome(s) in order to build strategic recommendations for future pandemics and public health crises.
  4. Advance crisis and risk communication theory via conceptual and methodological innovation that provides evidence-based insights for COVID-19 and future public health crisis prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery.

Examples of topics suitable to this issue could include:

  • Critical examinations of government policy, decision-making, & the communication of those decisions
  • Evaluations of reactions to the pandemic in/across different sectors (e.g., public sector, private sector, NGOs, etc.)
  • Cross-cultural explorations reactions and factors driving reactions to the pandemic
  • Risk analyses of the short, medium, and long-term implications of the pandemic
  • Specific analyses of messages to manage risk perception
  • Online and offline conversations about the disease, risk perception, and risk management
  • Outcome risk assessment (e.g., what could happen as a result of the crisis)
  • Information & communication expectations and challenges (e.g., misinformation and disinformation) during the pandemic
  • Socially responsible behavior and ethical considerations in the wake of a global pandemic

This is not an exhaustive list, but successful papers will meaningfully build their rationale around at least one of the three objectives identified in this call. All methodologies, ontological perspectives, and theoretical approaches are acceptable.

Submissions

Submissions to this special issue should follow the process outlined on: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/submit.cgi?context=jicrcr and authors can find more information about the journal’s guidance for authors at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/jicrcr/styleguide.html.

Submission deadline: December 4, 2020

About the Journal

The Journal of International Crisis and Risk Communication Research (JICRCR) is the first scholarly journal dedicated to human and mediated communication issues associated with crises, risks, and emergencies around the world. JICRCR publishes original theoretical and scientific articles and brief reports that stimulate debate and contribute to the knowledge of crisis and risk communication. JICRCR intends to be the premier outlet for authors to submit crisis and risk communication research. The Journal is supported by an international editorial board comprised of top risk and crisis communication scholars. The journal publishes articles in a print version and open access online, which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or institution. Users are allowed to read, download, print, or link to the full texts of the articles, without asking prior permission from JICRCR. For more information about the journal visit: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/jicrcr/about.html