Is It the Message or the Medium? Relational Management during Crisis through Blogs, Facebook and Corporate Websites

This is a quasi-experimental study comparing three modes of communication during crisis to examine whether they lead to differences in perception of relational maintenance. Crisis communication by an airline company was marginally modified to mask the organization’s identity, following which participants were exposed to crisis communication through a Facebook page (n = 47), corporate blog entry (n = 58) or corporate media release (n = 50). Contrary to the existing literature, the study did not find any significant differences based on participants’ exposure to different mediums. However, participants relying on Facebook for information about the crisis reported a better understanding of the crisis. The study underscores the importance of perceived user control and familiarity with the medium in determining stakeholder perceptions. It also calls for additional empirical studies to investigate the effectiveness of social media vis-à-vis conventional communication routes, especially when the same information is presented through different mediums.