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

Date

2017-08-01

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Kansas State University

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).

Description

Keywords

Crisis communication, Social media, Relationship management theory, Generation Z, Millennials

Graduation Month

August

Degree

Master of Science

Department

Department of Journalism and Mass Communications

Major Professor

Xiaochen A. Zhang

Date

2017

Type

Thesis

Citation