Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims: Explicating the public tragedy as a public relations challenge. (September 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hayes, Rebecca A.; Waddell, Julia Crouse; Smudde, Peter M.
• Is Part Of: Public relations inquiry. Volume 6:Number 3(2017:Sep.)
• Page Start: 253
• Page End: 274
• Publication Date: 2017-09
• Subjects: Crisis communication -- social media -- third-party communication -- tragedy; Public relations -- Periodicals; 659.205
• DOI: 10.1177/2046147X16682987
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2046-147X

Abstract

A tragedy is substantively different than an organizational crisis. Tragedies, whether man-made or natural disasters, have a considerably greater and singular impact than a traditional industry crisis, and current typologies of crises fail to account for organizations being impacted by and being obligated to respond to events of which they are neither the victim nor the perpetrator. Thus, tragedies require explication and, possibly, a different paradigm for public relations and crisis communication, both in industry response and academic scholarship. The goals of this article are threefold: First, use interdisciplinary scholarship to introduce and define the concept of public tragedy within the scope of public relations and crisis communication. Second, to discuss the motivations for and role of organizational involvement in the conversation surrounding a public tragedy, particularly for third-party organizations not directly impacted by an event, including the consequences and affordances of social media in tragedy response. Finally, the goal is to present recommendations for third-party public relations involvement in a tragedy.