Crisis Communication in the Digital Age

Book excerpt: Over the course of recent years, in countries with high crisis expectation and risk probabilities, such as Turkey, a significant rise in the number of crises has been observed. Since current crisis practices are incident-specific, the role of public relations is largely overlooked, and, furthermore, crisis communication studies in non-Western cultures are scarce; this book fills these gaps through two distinct studies. The first highlights crisis management types and strategies by reflecting on interview responses collected from 35 different sectors and sub-sectors in Turkey. While interview findings are used to inform strategical know-how regarding the shift from crisis to opportunity during times of turbulence, the elicited responses reveal how practitioners perceive and respond to crises in the contemporary media landscape. The second analyses the recent upheaval caused by Watsons Turkey as a case study to stress the vital role of public relations in times of crisis.