Crisis Management in Communication: A Study on MH370, MH17 and QZ8501 Aviation Tragedies

MOHD NAZRI LATIFF AZMI, NUR AIN AFIZAN ABD RAHMAN,
ZULAZHAN ABD. HALIM & MOHD FAUZI ABDUL HAMID
University Sultan Zainal Abidin, Malaysia

Abstract

In 2014, the MH370, MH17 and QZ8501 flight crash tragedies become a viral issue and attract the attentions of media and stakeholders, globally, and raise many crises to the airlines companies, respectively, including the risk of losing their stakeholders’ trust. The study is to identify the crises management approaches used for the tragedies related, to analyze and compare the effectiveness of the crises management between two well-known airlines companies, Air Asia and Malaysia Airlines (MAS). Qualitative method was used to collect the data related to the ways that the airlines company had taken to handling the crises. So, the researchers conducted content analysis by studying the secondary data, due to the fact of the airlines reluctance to give out information about safety procedures or policies, as the airlines accidents are a very sensitive subject. The data are mostly of the documentary types in written format of press conferences, press releases and media coverage of the accidents by local and western daily press (printed and online news).

Keywords: Crisis management, communication, corporate image, discourse analysis, language

References

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Mohd Nazri Latiff Azmiis a senior lecturer in Faculty of Languages and Communication at Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, Malaysia. His specializations are comparative literature and literacy.
Nur Ain Afizan Abd Rahman was an undergraduate student at Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, Malaysia. Currently she is working as an English language teacher.
Zulazhan Abd Halim is a senior lecturer at Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, Malaysia. His specializations are more to grammar and vocabulary teaching.
Mohd Fauzi Abdul Hamid is a senior lecturer at Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, Malaysia. His specializations are more to computer assisted language learning and teaching strategies.