Social Media and Crisis Communication

Lucinda L. Austin serves as Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media, USA. She researches pressing problems in strategic communication, primarily addressing social media and crisis communication, and publics’ perspectives in corporate social responsibility and advocacy.Brooke Fisher Liu is Professor of Communication and Distinguished Scholar-Teacher at the University of Maryland, USA. She researches how strategic communication contributes to organizational and community crisis readiness.

• Introduction Section 1: Status of Theory Development in Social Media in Crisis Communication 1. Social Media and Crisis Communication Theories 2. Theoretical Frameworks, Models, and Implications of Social-Mediated Crisis and Risk Communication Section 2: Foundations and Frameworks 3. The Cost of Engagement: Risks, Challenges, and Consequences of Social Media Reliance for Crisis Communication in Public Organizations 4. Guilt by Influencer Association: Spillovers on Social Media 5. Digital Accountability and Crisis Management 6. Engaging with Hard-to-Reach Stakeholders Before, During, and After Crises: The Role of Social Media 7. Digital Crisis Management and Marginalized Voices: How Rural Brazilian Women Use YouTube to Navigate and Communicate Crises 8. Paracrises, Polarization, and AI: Extending Crisis Communication Theory to Address Rising Concerns 9. Combating Mis/dis-information on Social Media: What we Know and Where to Go 10. Deepfakes as Disinformation: Managing Organizational Risk in the Age of Synthetic Persuasion Section 3: Areas of Application 11. Brands with Baggage: Tracking Airline Crises with the Social-Mediated Crisis Communication Model 12. Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Social Advocacy, and Social Media Crisis 13. Social Media Storytelling Networks and Crisis Communication in Post-Disaster Fukushima 14. Examining the Disaster Communication and Public Engagement of the 2025 Los Angeles Wildfires 15. A Hurricane in Appalachia: Social Media Misinformation During U.S. Hurricane Helene 16. Applying IDEA and Exemplification to Childhood Vaccine Campaigns: A Comparative Analysis of Pakistan and the United States 17. Should We Post That? Public Health Crises and Social Media: Challenges, Research, and Recommendations 18. Navigating Advocacy Communication During Public Health Crises Through Social Media Advocacy 19. Evolutions and Explorations of Crisis Communication in Religious Contexts – Jordan Morehouse; Cylor Spaulding 20. The Alternative for Online Engagement: Applying the Unified Model to Far-Right Activism on YouTube 21. Scandals and Reputation Crisis Communication 22. Science Crisis Communication in the Social Media Age/Algorithmic Platforms: The Need for Effective Uncertainty Communication During Science-Relevant Crises 23. Eco-Anxiety and Crisis Communication in the Digital Era: Social Media Engagement During the Bekasi Floods of 2025 24. Sports-Related Crisis Communication: A Theoretical Exploration of Social Media Crisis Spillover 25. Technology Crisis Communication 26. AI in Social Media Crisis Communication: An Overview and Application Section 4: Emerging Frameworks and Future Directions 27. The Digital Media-Arena Framework: Enhancing Crisis Readiness and Response 28. AI-Generated Discrimination: How Algorithmic Bias Sparks Corporate Crises 29. Affordances and Social-Mediated Crisis Communication 30. Combating Social Media Complexities and Crisis Uncertainties with Insights and Strategic Decision-Making Concluding Thoughts