International Risk and Crisis Communication Research - Interactive curriculae of TU Ilmenau

Participants should have basic knowledge of research methodology and data analysis. Practical experiences with conducting content analyses or experiments will be helpful, but is not mandatory. Students should have a basic understanding of public relations, strategic communication, and journalism in terms of theory, state of research, and practice.

By completing this module, students understood the peculiarities of risks and crises with international causes and/or impact. They accumulated knowledge in international risk and crisis communication research and related fields of study. They analyzed and understood the impact of national and cultural context factors on risk and crisis communication, such as culture, media systems, politics, or technology development. Participants deduced basic rules for effective and/or ethical crisis communication and/or crisis reporting in the context of transnational crises. They reflected and discussed trends and future challenges of risk and crisis communication research from current cases and research. Students improved their skills to conceptualize and conduct empirical studies on risk and crisis communication (e.g., content analysis, experiments). They developed additional skills regarding data collection and data analysis. Finally, social skills were improved by working in research teams and coordinating taks.

In the last decades, the world has experienced several large-scale natural disasters, armed conflicts, pandemics, but also severe industrial accidents and organizational crises with international impact. Such crises are global in scope and have dominated the media agenda in many countries. This raises questions of the appropriate crisis response by government authorities, involved companies, NGOs, but also media organizations and the way they report on these events. Especially, the role of national and cultural differences needs to be studied in this context.

Therefore, in Semester 1, students in this course review the state of international risk and crisis communication research. On the basis of recommended readings participants discuss basic findings, theoretical concepts, methodological issues, and best practices in risk and crisis communication. Students explore relevant concepts for understanding cross-cultural and cross-national dimensions of risk and crisis communication (e.g., culture, cultural values, international public relations, cross-cultural psychology, international media systems). Based on this thourough literature review, they deduce research questions, a research model and/or hypotheses for an empirical research project.

In Semester 2, course participants further develop their methodology for analyzing certain aspects of transnational crises. They refresh their knowledge and skills regarding certain techniques of data collection (e.g., content analysis, survey) and data analysis. They discuss the peculiarities of cross-cultural/ cross-national comparative studies. After that they review and improve their research design and measures (e.g., codebooks or stimulus materials for conducting experiments). They form "research teams", each group analyzing certain crisis cases or aspects of a certain transnational crisis. They collect data and write a research report to present the results of their data analysis.

Laptops, presentations software, applications for data entry and analysis

The course will be taught mainly online and only in individual sessions if necessary hybrid.  The class can be studied entirely digital – it is therefore suitable for students enrolled in the digital MCS-program.

All relevant course materials will be made available on the online learning platform Moodle.

Further relevant readings are:

Coombs, W. T., & Holladay, S. J. (Eds.). (2010). The handbook of crisis communication. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Golan, T. J. Johnson & W. Wanta (Eds.), International media communication in a global age (pp. 319-344). New York, NY: Routledge.

Heath, R. L., & O'Hair, H. D. (Eds.). (2009). Handbook of risk and crisis communication. New York, NY: Routledge.

Lee, B. K. (2005). Crisis, culture, community. In P. J. Kalbfleisch (Ed.), Communication Yearbook 29 (Vol. 29, pp. 275-309). New York: Routledge.

Schwarz, A., Seeger, M., & Auer, C. (Eds.) (2016). The handbook of international crisis communication research. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Assignments include (a) oral presentations, (b) a written research proposal and (c) a final research report.

Dieses Modul enthält mindestens eine alternative semesterbegleitende Abschlussleistung. Bitte beachten Sie, dass diese in der Regel schon zu Beginn des Semesters, in dem diese angeboten wird, angemeldet werden muss.
Über die Details und Zeiträume dazu werden Sie vom Lehrenden und/oder dem Prüfungsamt informiert. Fragen Sie gegebenenfalls unbedingt beim Lehrenden nach.

This module contains at least one alternative exam part. Please note that this must usually be registered at the beginning of the semester in which it is offered.
The lecturer and/or the examination office will inform you about the details and time periods. If necessary, be sure to ask the lecturer.

Assignments include (a) oral presentations, (b) a written research proposal and (c) a final research report.

Dieses Modul enthält mindestens eine alternative semesterbegleitende Abschlussleistung. Bitte beachten Sie, dass diese in der Regel schon zu Beginn des Semesters, in dem diese angeboten wird, angemeldet werden muss.
Über die Details und Zeiträume dazu werden Sie vom Lehrenden und/oder dem Prüfungsamt informiert. Fragen Sie gegebenenfalls unbedingt beim Lehrenden nach.

This module contains at least one alternative exam part. Please note that this must usually be registered at the beginning of the semester in which it is offered.
The lecturer and/or the examination office will inform you about the details and time periods. If necessary, be sure to ask the lecturer.