Emergent Agents: The Forgotten Publics in Crisis Communication and Issues Management Research

Crisis communication research rarely highlights the voices of marginalized publics or their advocates whose interests are affected by crisis situations. We take a different approach by using a response to a natural disaster to expand our theorizing about crisis situations beyond those that hurt the bottom line. Using official statements from Senators Landrieu and Obama about events surrounding Hurricane Katrina as texts for analysis, we demonstrate how they used transcendence, rhetorically, and appropriated the Bush administration's key term—security—to garner more support for their positions, Katrina sufferers, and relief efforts. Implications of this strategy serve to broaden crisis communication theorizing, and to provide insights into ways to strengthen the quality of crisis emergency response planning and response protocols.     

Swimming Upstream

SUMMARY

“Swimming upstream” suggests a leadership model in our era of chaos and complexity that replaces the traditional hierarchical command and control way of leading in libraries. It requires the leadership actions of connection, contributions, and collaboration to build trust, success, and a healthy library system.     

BOOKS BRIEFLY

No abstract available for this article.     

The Future of Networks and OCLC

No abstract available for this article.     

Redefinition,Differentiation, and the Farm Animal Welfare Debate

Animal welfare advocates have increased publics' scrutiny of the way animals are handled by everyone from pet owners to circuses to farmers. The case of farmer Gary Conklin illustrates a popular recent tactic of activists to secretly film working farms and then release videos that purport to show abuse. This essay uses the concepts of legitimacy and image restoration to examine how Conklin, with a small farming operation in Ohio, responded to allegations spread by social media. Two important principles emerged: first, an effective differentiation strategy for reducing offensiveness is “redefining the act,” a combination of image repair tactics where an undisputed fact is redefined and transformed with support from third-party affirmations. Second, even small organizations like this dairy cattle business face the same challenges and opportunities as larger organizational rhetors. The essay concludes with applications both for agriculture and for crisis communication scholars, asserting that agricultural enterprises will continue to face struggles over meaning that will require sophisticated methods of issue and crisis management.     

CDC's Use of Social Media and Humor in a Risk Campaign—“Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse”

This is a multiple methods study that highlights the tension between awareness- and behavioral-based campaign successes, particularly when communicating using social media and pop-culture-referencing humor. To illustrate, it examines the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) “zombie apocalypse” all-disaster-preparedness campaign. An interview with a CDC campaign manager, campaign document analysis, and a 2 (information form: social vs. traditional media) × 2 (message strategy: humorous vs. non-humorous) experiment uncovers benefits and pitfalls of using social media and humorous messaging for risk communication. Findings show social media can quickly spread information to new publics for minimal costs; however, experiment participants who received the humorous (i.e., zombie) risk message reported significantly weaker intentions to take protective actions in comparison to those who received the traditional, non-humorous risk message.     

Leadership or Management

Abstract

This paper considers leadership and management issues affecting libraries in general. Specific attention is devoted to academic libraries and their reference departments. It focuses on the dynamics of leadership and management of academic library reference services and what is expected of the reference department head of the 21st century. It explores the changing roles of reference librarians and those of their leaders or department heads. It examines the leadership skills, traits, and competencies and attributes expected of the department head of reference in the new millennium. The paper also examines the paradox of leadership and management and draws distinction between the two terms. It finally looks into whether it is appropriate to have a manager from outside the library profession to be the head of an academic library reference department.     

When Everything Else Fails: Radio Journalism During Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico

ABSTRACT

In an era of over-reliance on online media technologies in disasters, this research examines the journalistic functions played by Puerto Rican AM radio workers during Hurricane Maria. Throughout the emergency there was total loss of electricity and communications, nonetheless local radio continued operations. This study is one of a few that explore journalistic practices during a disaster in the context of a Spanish-language media system. Through a qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with radio workers, we found that in spite of having preparedness plans, the magnitude of the disaster led to improvization and the embracing of alternative journalistic roles. One of the main barriers was the inadequate technology for this particular context. Radio workers were also victims of the disaster and faced challenges in both their journalistic and first responder roles.     

Evidence for the Validity of a Social Connectedness Scale: Connectors Amass Bridging Social Capital Online and Offline

One of the key characteristics of effective opinion leaders is that they are highly connected; they know many people and have numerous weak-tie relationships. Two studies were conducted that found evidence consistent with construct validity. The first (N = 35 and N = 57) found that connectors knew more people from a randomly selected list of names. A second study, with two surveys, was created (N = 561 and N = 189) such that the connectedness scores of some of the subjects in the first survey could be linked to how many subjects knew them in the second. Results indicated that those with higher connection scores were more likely to be known by others. Moreover, in the second survey, measures of Facebook use and bridging social capital were found to be associated substantially with connector scores.     

The employment styles of school principals recruiting beginning teachers

In New Zealand, school principals (headteachers), sometimes with a sub-committee of the school board of trustees, interview and hire their own teachers. This research examined whether school principals exhibit different styles in recruiting beginning teachers. A small group of principals was interviewed and items reflecting their views were then developed and put on cards. The cards were sorted by people familiar with educational vocabulary to enable category setting using Kirkland and Bimmler's GOPA technique. Seventy-one principals then prioritized the items. A k-means algorithm was used to cluster principals with similar responses. Analysis of the clusters suggests that recruiting styles do exist. General compatibility emerged as being most important. This suggests that having schools appoint their own staff may lead to greater diversity between schools and greater conformity within them.