Political Communication in Crisis Situations. Public Relations Campaigns in Social Media

Abstract

Any organization must be prepared for crisis situations through management plans for each type of crisis, which also include crisis communication chapters. We know the unpredictability of the outbreak of a crisis that entails little predictability of the details of the crisis and that a general response plan is imperative. In the same situation are the political parties which in today's reality are faced with successive crises and which in turn generate other crises. The characteristic of social networks is the great speed in the propagation of messages, which can quickly become viral and accentuate a crisis situation at a much higher rate than through traditional media. The lack of a plan made in the crisis identification stage and then implemented in the crisis situation will create a high risk of not affecting the image of the governing party or parties. The paper aims to analyze the campaigns that Romanian parties run in crisis situations using the online environment and especially social networks. I will focus on researching the public relations strategies used in these campaigns and the feedback provided by citizens.