Crisis communication and reputation management : a content analysis of a Chinese high-speed rail accident

摘要

As one of the most developed example of public transportation in China, thehigh-speed railway suffered a crisis because of an extremely serious collision accident onJuly 23, 2011. The government conducted the crisis communication try to save thereputation of the government and Chinese high-speed railway. By the means of a contentanalysis, this study was trying to find out: (1) What did strategies the Ministry of Railwayuse in this case? (2) How were these strategies used in the high-speed railway case? (3)What was the role the media played in the case?92 articles in total were used in the content analysis from selected three newspaperswith 223 total useable quotes. The results showed that the strategy the governmentemployed included (corrective action, justification, concern, denial, excuse, scapegoat,compensation, and apology). These strategies were used different in different timesection within one month after the accident happened. In addition, the results showed thecorrective action and justification strategies were highly used through the entire processof crisis communication. The media, especially the international media, played a hugerole in the case, which always lead the tendency of the crisis communication andreputation management.