Shifting Perspectives in Crisis Communication Research in Europe

This special issue aims to enhance discussion among scholars and practitioners about crisis communication research in European settings and promote the value of the European crisis communication research and practice through an interdisciplinary approach.

Introduction

In the last decades Europe has faced a number of crises ranging from natural disasters (wildfires, earthquakes, and floods), political crises, terrorist attacks, technological accidents (e.g., Tempi railway accident in Greece), and health-related crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. These crises have had a tremendous impact not only on the affected organizations and agencies but also to the victims, relevant publics, media organizations, local and national communities. In such severe crisis conditions, the need for effective crisis communication becomes imperative not only for reducing the reputational damage of companies and organizations but also for protecting citizens as well as strengthening the readiness and resilience of communities. 

Thus, the aim of this special issue is to enhance discussion among scholars and practitioners about crisis communication in European settings through an interdisciplinary approach and promote the value and importance of the European crisis communication research community.

Specifically, the main goals of this special issue are the following:

• Critically reflect the status of crisis communication research and practice in Europe.
• Enrich the crisis communication literature with lessons learnt from a wide range of crises (e.g. natural disasters, technological accidents, organizational crises etc) that originate from Europe.
• Create a knowledge base of best practices in European settings based on comparative studies.
• Integrate crisis communication theories and models on disaster and emergency management practices.
• Shed light on crisis communication practices from non-profit, government and public
• organizations.
• Emphasize on the crisis communication process along the crisis cycle by taking into consideration crisis communication planning and recovery communication.
• Shift the attention of researchers to the effects of interactional and public engagement communication strategies.
• Enhance our knowledge about the impact of the “multivocality approach” on the crisis
• communication outcome by taking into account the interaction of messages from various crisis actors.
• Direct research and practice towards more localized crisis communication approaches by analysing practices of local actors and assess the impact on local communities.
• Promote a more inclusive crisis communication research that will shed light on neglected audiences and publics such as victims and vulnerable groups.
• Advance our understanding about the intersection between crisis communication, social media, and employee communication.

The field of crisis communication has consistently attracted the attention of researchers and practitioners. However, the dominant crisis communication research has been mainly American based with a business orientation emphasizing on the acute response phase of crises. In addition, the majority of studies have analysed crisis communication through a traditional “one-way, single voice, and passive receiver” approach which suggests that the public is a passive receiver of one-way messages that originate mainly from one source, the organization. A narrow view of crisis stakeholders has also been evident in related research, as the majority of the studies examine the impact of crisis communication on consumers or the general public while ignoring other important stakeholders such as victims, affected communities, employees, and vulnerable citizens. Moreover, important shortcomings exist with respect to the literature about the use of social media and new technologies in crisis communication outcomes. For example, there is a lack of studies on social media crisis communication with a European focus that examine practices and publics at the local level. Less is also known about how internal publics of public and non-profit organizations react and interact with crisis information in social media. In addition, there is a need to examine the impact of other social media platforms such as Tik Tok, Instagram, YouTube as well as new technologies like AI on publics’ reactions.

This special issue aims to address the need for shift of perspectives and contribute to the growing body of European crisis communication research. Thus, the special issue welcomes studies that

• Examine the crisis communication outcomes of a range of crisis types and across the crisis management cycle with emphasis on recovery communication.
• Provide European generalized frameworks and models through comparative analysis.
• Adopt an interactional approach to crisis communication by analysing the use and impact of public engagement strategies on audiences.
• Adhere to the “multivocality” approach of crisis communication arena and present more holistic crisis communication models.
• Raise our knowledge on the effects of crisis and disaster communication on neglected voicessuch as victims, local communities and vulnerable publics.
• Built a more local community-centred and inclusive crisis communication theory since local communities and vulnerable groups are the most affected publics during severe crises anddisasters. This can be done, by examining local crisis communication practices (local actors, media, municipalities) and reactions of local audiences.
• Enrich the technology – oriented crisis communication research by expanding the platforms and technologies analysed and deciphering their impact on public organizations and internal audiences.

It should be noted that the proposed Special Issue builds but is not limited on the research that will be presented in the online conference hosted by the Jean Monnet Chair in Risk and Crisis Communication in the EU entitled “Rethinking What We Know About Risk, Crisis and Disaster Communication: Academic research and building European crisis capacity” (November 29-30, 2024).

List of topic areas

• Crisis Crisis communication in European settings
• Public engagement communication strategies
• Multivocality in crisis communication
• Neglected publics in crisis communication
• Local and community-based crisis community
• Victim oriented crisis communication
• Local public organizations and social media crisis communication
• Internal publics and social media crisis communication
• Technology-oriented crisis communication 

Submissions Information

Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Registration and access are available at: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ccij
Author guidelines must be strictly followed. Please see: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/CCIJ#jlp_author_guidelines
Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to “Please select the issue you are submitting to”. 

Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.

Key deadlines

Opening date for manuscripts submissions: 1 April 2025
Closing date for manuscripts submission: 31 August 2025
Email for submissions: [email protected]