Effective Crisis Communication: Moving from Crisis to Opportunity provides practical advice for any student or practitioner of crisis communication to effectively manage and overcome a crisis. Furthermore, this book provides guidelines for taking the many challenges that crises present and turning those challenges into opportunities for overcoming the crisis.
The book provides lessons on managing crisis uncertainty, effective crisis communication practices and effective crisis leadership. In addition, the book provides extended examples and practical applications of these lessons to a wide variety of crises including foodborne illness outbreaks, terrorism, industrial disasters, and natural disasters.
This book concludes with examples and lessons of how to capitalize on the opportunities through organizational learning, sound ethical practices, and risk communication before a crisis. In addition, the book provides advice on how to create renewal follow a crisis. This comprehensive text provides practical lessons combined with vivid examples of crisis communication that is worthwhile for any student or practitioner of crisis communication.

Key Features:

• Brings together theory and experience: This book introduces readers to sound research and best practices in the field of crisis communication. Introductory chapters offer practical lessons on managing uncertainty, effective crisis communication, and productive crisis leadership that help readers evaluate case studies in later chapters.
• Provides advice on how to create opportunity from crisis: Unlike other crisis communication texts, this book explains how organizations can and should emerge from crises as better organizations. Examples and lessons on how to capitalize on the opportunities inherent to crisis are provided through organizational learning, sound ethical practices, and risk communication. In addition, the book provides advice on how to create renewal and growth following a crisis.
• Addresses prominent and diverse cases: Cases and practical applications from a wide variety of crises are included, such as food-borne illness outbreaks, terrorism, industrial disasters, and natural disasters. “You Make the Call” exercises allow readers to examine and critique the decisions made in such important cases such as 9/11, Enron, Malden Mills, and the 2003 California fires.

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments
PART I: THE LESSONS
Chapter 1. Defining Crisis Communication
Chapter 2. Lessons on Managing Crisis Uncertainty
Chapter 3. Lessons on Effective Crisis Communication
Chapter 4. Lessons on Effective Crisis Leadership
PART II: APPLYING THE LESSONS
Chapter 5. Examples of Success and Failure In Industrial Accidents
Chapter 6. Examples of Success and Failure During Outbreaks of Food-Borne Illness
Chapter 7. Examples of Success and Failure in Response to Terrorism
Chapter 8. Examples of Success and Failure During Natural Disasters
PART III: THE OPPORTUNITIES
Chapter 9. Learning Through Failure
Chapter 10. Risk Communication
Chapter 11. Responding to the Ethical Demands of Crisis
Chapter 12. Crisis as Inspiring Renewal to a New Normal
Index
About the Authors