Relationship, trust and crisis communication on social media with millennials and generation Z

Abstract

This study examined crisis communication on social media applying relationship management theory. There are few credibility checks on social media platforms, and some say publics no longer believe messages through this type of media (Domonoske, 2016; Ho, 2012). However, many people get news from social media platforms and trust the information they read (Turcotte, York, Irving, Scholl, & Pingree, 2015). Crisis theories suggest strong relationships are less affected by crisis situations, and relationships are heavily based on trust (Broom, Casey, & Ritchey, 1997; Coombs, 2000; Coombs & Holladay, 2006; Ledingham, 2003). Through a survey, this study found a statistically significant positive relationship between perceived organization-public relationship, trust and, credibility in crisis communication on social media within the Millennial and Generation Z groups. These generations are the most active on social media, and this study challenged the claim that they do not believe information online (Richards, 2017; Statista, 2016).