Journal of Communication Research
Year:2008 | Volume:15 | Issue:55|Papers Count:10

Crisis is a kind of silent warfare which rather affects the software system of the society than the hardware section or, in other words, it will disrupts the society's performance and decision-making core at different levels. Given its semantic analysis, a crisis starts with the stage of "riot", reaches the tough and dangerous stages, and finally ends in loss of decision-making power. Thus, a crisis situation does not start from scratch, but rather it has roots in the lack of balance in the systems of society whether governmental or nongovernmental. The most significant consequence of this situation is the lack of certainty and possibility in the process of decision-making which, in turn, brings about numerous serious problems for the society. Media in different cultural contexts can playa two-folded role in this regard: employing such techniques as highlighting, satisfying, suggesting and training, they could either manage and control the crisis or add fuel to the flames expanding the crisis.

One of the numerous consequences of the complication of human communities is an increase in the possibility of different crises. This has altered the question regarding the desired model of management to a serious concern for all the political systems. Hence, research on the role of different factors in a crisis becomes relevant, and undoubtedly, "media" is one of the most important elements. Focusing on the nature of modem media as tools not exclusively at work for defined and common purposes, the author examines the role of "media" in crisis management. For this purpose, a triplet theory, based on "media-crisis-social capital" has been designed and proposed here. Based on this theory, a practical model incorporating the whole process of a crisis situation, has been developed. And finally, six strategic propositions highlighting the measures to be taken by media in managing a crisis have been put forwards.

The present article examines crises and the manner in which media spark out these phenomena and cause a kind of information despotism through selecting intelligence and news exclusively. Then it will discuss the process of creating a crisis situation and disturbing international peace and security. The modem media warfare starts with a psychological warfare along with a combination of media and advanced military equipment, and during the military invasion and after that continues extensively in a smart manner. The advent of advanced media along with the technique of persuasion has increased the role of media in creating, decreasing or swelling a crisis so far so that these effects have different nature from those of the previous ones. Therefore, many believe that the media in most cases have been at the service of wars and crises rather than controlling them and helping safeguard international peace and security. This shows the need to demarcate the role of media in creating or avoiding a crisis situation and preserving international peace and security.

Today, diplomacy and foreign policy as a decisive factor in the international arena is affected by great developments in the communications field; "Media diplomacy" as one of the main parts of every country's diplomacy and foreign policy's system, has drawn the focus of much of the world countries' general diplomacy, particularly the world powers.The present article, first, presents a background on media diplomacy and its functions, then it examines some cases of media diplomacy in terms of the soft ware and media west's warfare against Iran as well as the strategic objectives of the US's psychological warfare against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Having a comprehensive investigation of Toffler theory on crisis management and media, the author in this article has inductively extracted some data and organized them based on theories' components (description, explanation, and prescription). Of the novel points in Toffler theory, we can point to the scope of history and human civilization, traditional, modem, and postmodern media, as well as crisis making nature of computer-centered third wave discourse in different dimensions (national, intera-national, inter-national) and issues. The findings show that the developing countries (including Iran) should not neglect the major role of third wave media in managing internal or external crises, but they should try to create necessary software and hardware bases for that.

Any kind of challenge facing a society in any periods of time is deemed a crisis. Managing crisis situations, at least in the past fifty years, has been employed as a practical and classic strategy by media to stifle criticisms, and it is expected that media accept and go along with it. However, it cannot be claimed that all crises are related to media, but most of them are created by media. Generally, the significance of media security function in the current society is undeniable, and the critical situation at the national, regional, and global level as well as the complex political situation governing the whole world, have added to this importance. Media, due to their ideological proclivity and political party affiliates, looks at the social events from different perspectives and, accordingly, for conveying and highlighting these changes and events, act differently. The present article addresses media threats (with an emphasis on the western media) and the consequent crises as well as the way of managing these crises.

As an inseparable part of our social lives, crises are getting more and more common and diverse everyday. In the past few decades, mass media, also, have so increasingly grown in different communities that have become an indivisible part of human life. Furthermore, due to their multi-functionality, media have also dissolved into crises so far so that crisis situations cannot be imagined without the media presence. The manner in which media function in a crisis situation, depends on the way these modem communication tools are managed and dealt with. In other words, it is the media management that, through adopting a specific strategy, determines the media performance in a crisis situation. Discussing different types of media strategies, the present article explains the role of hyperactive media in transforming a crisis situation into a moment of opportunity, and puts forward certain strategies for the national medium's policy makers and managers, to develop a medium with the aforementioned characteristics.

Natural disasters and social crises can occur suddenly and nexpectedly, disrupting current social order; lack of sufficient information is one of the deteriorating factors in a crisis situation. Thus, the role of informing in crisis management becomes a strategic one in the periods before, after and during a crisis. There are two approaches to battling a crisis: planned confrontation (attempts made to predict and control the crisis before the occurrence) and confrontation after occurrence.The present article suggests that for confronting crises, applying multi-layered cellular programming whose effectiveness depends on the support of national medium, is necessary. The national medium can contribute to this process in three different ways: as a data bank containing information on media management, as a tool for designing programs that help the management process through retrieving and offering information in due time, and as a medium developing different programs for channeling public aids towards the affected zones, depending on the degree and type of the crisis situation.