A Study on The Government’s Crisis Communications Strategy in Public AffairsAn Example of Chinese Tainted-Milk Scandal.
Date Issued
2009
Date
2009
Author(s)
Chao, Chun-Ping
Abstract
The import of melamine-tainted milk products from China in September 2008 brought about a panic over food security in Taiwan. For a period of time, people lost confidence in diary products, while stores were ordered to remove the foodstuff from their shelves. Formula milk threatened lives of babies. People greeted each other by saying “What can we eat?” The tainted-milk issue, which was supposed to be a pure matter of livelihood, turned into a political turmoil in the wake of the government’s inappropriate handlings of the scandal. The purpose of the research is to find out whether the government was able to hold a press conference at the very first time when a crisis happened and to take an open and candid attitude to provide news agencies with accurate and consistent information in swift way. The elements that can convert crisis into opportunity are whether the government can set up accurate communication channel for crisis, have a command of proper crisis communication strategy, reduce doubts and misunderstandings among the public, and establish the public’s confidence in its ability to deal with problems. The research studied Chinese melamine-tainted milk products in four stages—when it was still in the latent period, when the milk scare broke out, when the crisis continued, and the problem was solved. The paper conducted in-depth interviews with 20 print journalists with relatively well-known news agencies of newspapers, magazines, and online papers through questionnaires. Questions included in the questionnaire are in connection with the government’s crisis management and crisis communications skills. The research wished to remind the government that the media is the most direct and effective channel for real-time communication between the government and the public. The paper finds that the government must get to understand the media and cooperate with the media. It is for sure that the government can never cancel crisis information from the media. Meanwhile, in the face of food security crisis, the government can neither hold a tacit attitude, nor can it try to skirt the problem—otherwise, it would only deepen the crisis and cause more harm to the government as the media is prone to produce biased and incorrect reports. The paper proposed five suggestions: it has to embrace the concept that crisis has to be dealt in the critical 24 hours, it has to establish inter-departmental emergent crisis management mechanism, it has to set up communication channel for crisis, it has to enhance the public awareness of crisis management and stick with the guidelines for handling crisis stories, and it has to strengthen exchanges of information on crisis management with the international community.
Subjects
Crisis
the crisis manager
crisis communication
public affairs
Chinese
SDGs
Type
thesis
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