Journal of Communication Research
Year:2009 | Volume:15 | Issue:56|Papers Count:8

The present article aims at assessing the role of media (written, audio, visual, and electronic) in management of crises from a theoretical perspective. It seeks to answer the following question: theoretically speaking, what is the position of media in managing a crisis and how the theories in this regard explain the role of media in crisis management? Today, one of the important components in managing crisis is media. Understanding the interaction between these two systems is also of the significant duties of researchers. The author of this article examines these issues: A) Media playa key role in formation of public opinions. B) This role could be explained by different theories. C) Media have the potential to produce, disseminate and channel opinions; therefore, it can be employed as a tool for managing crises.

The national medium plays a key role in management of natural crises. The effective management of these crises, particularly following the occurrence, seems impossible without considering the role of national medium. The present article seeks to shed light on the issue that the role and function of the national medium in management of hidden social crises is much more critical than other kinds of crises. To this aim, one of these latent crises, i.e. the crisis of national solidarity, is addressed and the functions and malfunctions of the national medium in this regard are analyzed. The article further discusses the strategies for predicting, preventing, and managing social crises. Finally, it addresses the manner in which the national medium manages the ethnicity crisis to boost national unity and solidarity in the country.

The present article gives a brief introduction to the state of a crisis situation and its underlying indicators, shedding lights on the role and functions of mass media in managing a crisis situation, in the best possible way, at its three stages: pre-incident stage, crisis stage and post-incident stage. Since the main focus of the article is to address the principles of professional ethics to be observed by mass media in a crisis situation, it will first put forward different definitions of ethics and its principles to demonstrate the necessity to codify the principles of professional ethics, then it will address the media ethics as well as the key international principles of professional ethics in journalism. Given the similarity between journalism and news reporting, their principles of professional ethics and other key issues in a crisis situation (inside the crisis-hit area and its outside) could be generalized to other media, including radio. Due to the specific role of radio in managing natural crises, such as earthquake, this communication means has been introduced as the better medium in crisis management.

Employing different symbols and words, media have the ability to inject certain meanings and contents to different phenomena, events, behaviors and actions. Through this injection, they can consequently leave a deep impact on consumers, ether saving them from the harm of an identity, cultural, epistemological, value, political, and social crisis, or exposing them to these crisis situations. In other words, media can design a potentially endless game of signs to give order to the society and strengthen a feeling of peace and mental, personality, and identity stability in individuals or vice versa. The present article first discusses the duality of media's presence and role (in today's communication-information world as well as in today's changing Iranian society and in identity crisis) and then proposes a number of approaches and strategies in order to help this national and international medium rolls back to its proper route and manage crises (of all kinds) in an efficient manner.

One of the most significant dimensions of any crisis is its psychological impacts on the crisis-hit individuals. Studies show that in crisis situations people experience different feelings such as fear, anxiety, panic, hopelessness, lack of concentration and control, etc. These states involve people in the crisis and many other problems that, if be neglected, exacerbates the crisis and makes the measures taken for managing and controlling it, ineffective.Exploring the psychological impacts of the crises, the present article sheds lights on the role of media in reducing these impacts. The article further investigates issues such as principles of crisis communications, the characteristics of an effective media message, the factors influencing the confidence of crisis-hit people in media messages, etc.

Despite the diversity of their nature, all crises have a few features in common such as the paucity of time for decision-making and the too much pressure they exert in that limited period of time. Decision-making is a process during which several alternative solutions to one or more problems are proposed, and then the best option is conclusively assessed and finally chosen. Decision-making in a crisis situation is much more sensitive and riskier than normal situations. Sometimes a critical situation requires no decisions. Taking no measures in such a condition, whether consciously or unconsciously, is a kind of decision itself.In a crisis-hit system, media are able to playa positive or negative role directly or indirectly in the process of decision-making. Media can also thwart misuses of the government, groups, and powerful individuals by shedding lights on facts and crisis situations. By playing stories up or down and influencing certain individuals and groups, they can furthermore exert pressure on decision-makers and make the situation critical or make them imagine the situation is critical so that they could not make the proper decision.

The present era, being named the era of information-explosion and prosperity of knowledge as well as expansion of mass media, has seen myriads of incidents and events across the globe. Advancement of technology, the influence of communications, and application of intelligent systems, have all created a critical situation governing the biological environment of the world society. Undertaking the significant role and responsibility of communicating information, media have the duty of making the world public opinions aware of the situation dominating the world and of the corollary of unwanted crises. Reviewing the literature of crisis and media and making use of theories on communication sciences and the comments of scientists of the field, the present article investigates the devastating impacts of crises on other sections of a country. It further proposes a conceptual model and offers an assessment of the questionnaire on preventing and coping with crises and puts forward some strategies for confronting them. The article finally discusses the whys and wherefores of crises and analyzes the manner in which they can be tackled.