Crisis communication and social media challenges

Abstract

The article discusses issues of crisis communication, a still developing direction among social sciences. Its thorough study began in the 80s of the 20th century and, therefore, it is accompanied by certain difficulties, including different opinions about the definition, the lack of empirical studies and the undefined possibilities of social media, because of which a crisis can be planned and instigated in the virtual space by a single social network user. It should be noted that crisis communication, as a  discipline, is mostly based on the case study method, and the existing theories of crisis communication are being improved along with technological progress. Virtual space itself creates new crises and dictates new, unusual standards of crisis communications, with which there is virtually no precedent for dealing with. However, social media has a great opportunity to influence not only the course of crisis communication, but also the future perspective of companies and the formation of public opinion.