Crisis Communication and Management using SocialMedia: a Crisis Response to Ethiopian Airlines ET302 Crash

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Örebro University

School of Humanities, Education & Social Sciences

Crisis Communication and Management using Social

Media: a Crisis Response to Ethiopian Airlines ET302 Crash

Masters Thesis Strategic Communication Media & Communications Dept Supervisor: Ahmed Mohamed-el-Gody (PhD) Author: Zuhura Mohammed

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Abstract

On the Sunday 10th of March 2019 Nairobi-bound Boeing 737MAX8 Flight ET302 of Ethiopian Airlines plunge in to the ground and kills all 157 passengers onboard. Consequently, the accident took attention of international media and people around the world. This study therefore aims at investigating the communication strategies employed by EAL when managing ET302 plane crash and various issues associated with the crash using the two stages of crisis management. To achieve the purpose, Nethnography and CDA methods were employed. To analyze the communication strategies SCCT was used. Accordingly, it was found out that, EAL highly applied “apology”, “shifting blame”, and “corrective action” strategies in its crisis communication via Facebook and Twitter pages. Additionally, the fairly immediate responses given to each issue, the media monitoring system and the empathetic approach contributed to the good crisis management. The study also finds out that more attention was given to the Twitter and updates were faster than the Facebook page. The study concludes that previous good image of EAL plays a significant role to the impact a crisis would have in addition to its effective crisis management via social media. Finally, it’s recommended that EAL should communicate more efficiently on its Facebook page to uplift its accomplishments and meet its online publics in a wide range.

Key words:

Airline Crisis, CDA, Crisis Management, EAL, Facebook Posts SCCT, Social Media, Twitter Posts

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Acknowledgment

First and foremost I would like to thank ‘Allah’ for giving me the strength to finish my thesis Project. Next, I would like to extend my cordial gratitude to the Swedish Institute (SI.) for granting me the award of full scholarship through its SISGP program which enables me to study my MA at Orebro University.

My heartfelt gratitude also goes to my Supervisor Ahmed Mohamed-el-Gody (PhD) for his insights and full guidance throughout the thesis. Additionally, I would like to thank Fisseha Taye and Rachel Kachali for their comments on the work and their continuous encouragements. Lastly but not least, I would like to thank my family for their continued support in my academic endeavors. This would not have been possible without their never-ending support.

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List of Figures

Figure 1: Theme1 Plane Crash Twitter Post ...17

Figure 2: Theme1 Plane Crash Facebook Post ... 19

Figure 3: Theme1 Plane Crash Twitter Post... 20

Figure 4 Theme1 Plane Crash Facebook Post...21

Figure 5: Theme2 Boeing Issue Twitter Post... 23

Figure 6: Theme2 Boeing Issue Facebook Post... 24

Figure 7: Theme3 Issues Related to Media Twitter Post... 25

Figure 8: Theme3 Issues Related to Media Twitter Post ... 26

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List of Abbrerviattions

CDA Critical Discourse Analysis

CM Crisis Management

EAL Ethiopian Airlines

RQ Resarch Question

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1. Introduction

The proliferation of social media has brought an increasingly open and transparent forum where people can share different ideas with one another. It changed the speed of information exchange and the way people obtain and process information, and became a vital communication tool for both individuals and organizations. The increase in the variety of social media platforms and the skyrocketing number of users has created a new way of communication in the society. This communication environment, according to Al-deen & Hendricks (2012), gives social media users the ability to participate and interact in a broad demographic and geographic spectrum. This new communication world, along with its limitless opportunities however creates new challenges in many fields. Amongst the field of crisis communication and management is one of them. Social media changed the consciousness and vigilance of both individuals and organizations towards crisis and the way how to react to crisis information.

Crises are almost always unexpected, unplanned activity and ultimate test for organizations.

Sellnow & Seeger (2013), defined crisis as an event usually requires some immediate action or response by agencies and groups to limit and control the harm. Similarly, for Coombs (2008),crises are often multifaceted and have a great impact on the reputation and image of an organization. It’s not unusual for big companies to have to deal with a crisis, but different organizations handle crisis in different way. And this can urge us to pose the question of how should companies handle a plane crash crisis in the social media platform?

“Air transportation is the safest form of long distance travel” IATA (2019 p8). Nevertheless, air crash accident is catastrophic, with greater loss of life, injury and property damage. Even though such disasters are comparatively infrequent, they are highly visible and dramatic events that generate wide media coverage. According to Ray (1999 p.9) “Despite the industry’s efforts to reduce factors that lead to accidents, such crises are inevitable because of the complexity of modern technologies, human factors, and the highly interdependent nature of the industry.” People can be affected directly through the loss of loved ones or indirectly through a loss of confidence in an air transportation system upon which they rely on for ease of life.

Organizations experience various sorts of crisis; however, plane crash accidents are uniquely catastrophic to the transportation sector. It draws a massive attention from the media and this

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2 attention place huge pressure on managers and communication professionals as they must simultaneously deal with the social media management and the actual crisis at a time. According to Coombs & Holladay (2010), the speed and ease in digital communications has significant effect on corporate communication. It enables stakeholders to have immediate updates about events, including crisis. As such, knowledge concerning how to manage crises and lessen the harmful effects they may have on an organization’s reputation has become gradually more important for communication experts and organizations than ever. The main aim of this study is therefore to make assessment of the communication strategies used at the same time investigate whether or not the crisis communication on the social media platforms used by EAL have been appropriate, the communication of the information was strategic and the content have been effective during and after the crisis situation.

1.1

Background

Previous researches conducted on crisis communication suggested that the need for additional studies on the area of crisis. For instance, concerning the need for conducting crisis communication research Coombs & Holladay (2010) asserted that, research in crisis communication is imperative to further our understanding of the effectiveness of crisis communication strategy and this would help practitioners to continue improve their understanding of crisis communication to be decisive and careful about the overall communication strategies they would exploit during a crisis.

Similarly, according to (Austin & Jin, 2018p15; 2016p168; Jin et al, 2014p76), social media platforms are unique, work in different ways and play different roles in communicating with the public during a crisis. Therefore, the research field needs to develop a broader understanding that a generalization cannot be made based on only two platforms. Furthermore, researchers like Yeo, S. L. et al. (2020) recommended future researchers to further investigate studies of crises communicated by other social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Blogs, and so on. In addition, different researchers have similar consensus on the need of studies in the field of crisis communication.

Social media have become powerful tools in public relations for the management of crisis communication (Freberg et al. 2013; Wan et al. 2015). As one can find in a literatures, there are

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3 several researchers studied about crisis communication and management in social media with specific focus to airline accidents for e.g. (Yeo, S. L. et al. 2020, Elgiz, 2013), and Hoste, Hee & Poels (2016). Nevertheless, there seems most of the studies are conducted on a single social media platform. Most researchers emphasized focusing on investigating crisis communications and responses on Twitter. For instance, Wang and Zhuang (2017), Fowler (2017), and Xu and Wu (2015) revealed that several researches have shown the significance of Twitter in the area of crisis communication while (Yeo, S. L. et al. 2020) findings shows that there were countless re-tweet responses to MH370. Consequently, there are some gaps in studying several social media platforms when it comes to crisis communication researches as majority have focused on analyzing a single social media tool.

Moreover, despite the fact that there are previous researches conducted in the aviation industry and on crisis communication and management strategies, a study on social media crisis communication and management of ET302, Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane crash hasn’t been conducted so far. After reading different studies on the area of crisis on the airline industry, the present researcher is convinced that majority of the previous studies focused on cases/crises outside Africa. This study therefore intends to fill the spatial research gap studying how the aviation industry in Africa, particularly in Ethiopia, manages a crisis using social media platforms by taking the crisis response to Flight ET302 by EAL. The main aim in this study is to make assessment of the communication strategies employed by EAL and to analyze whether or not the crisis communication on the social media platforms employed have been appropriate, the communication of the information was strategic and the content have been effective during and after the crisis situation.

1.2 Overview of EAL and the Crisis

Ethiopian Airlines is the national flag carrier of Ethiopia with its main hub at Bole International Airport, Addis Ababa. Established on December 1945, EAL is fully owned by government and has become one of major industries in the country. During the past years, the airline has become one of the continent’s leading carriers, unrivalled in Africa for efficiency and operational success, turning profits for almost all the years of its existence. Since its establishment, EAL have evolved in leaps and bounds and have continued to implement new aviation technologies

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4 and systems, with so many firsts in African aviation history as a pioneer in aircraft technology; delivering the continent's first jet service and was the primary African Airline to use the most recent Boeing airplanes according to Ethiopian Factsheet (2019).

The Sunday 10th of March 2019 was a heavy day for humanity especially for the EAL. Nairobi-bound Flight ET302 was on a regular scheduled flight from Bole International Airport, Addis Ababa to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Kenya. Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft took off at 08:38 a.m. local time from Bole international airport. Three minutes after the takeoff however, the aircraft suddenly accelerated speed beyond its safety limit, making the pilots to report "flight system control problems" and ask for permission to return back to base. Even though the pilots were granted permission to return back to Bole International Airport, the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft immediately lost its contact, and six minutes after the takeoff from Addis Ababa's Bole International Airport plunged into a field and consequently took the life of all 149 passengers and 8 crew member on board. The victims were 35 nationalities which makes the accident an international phenomenon. This tragedy throws people of Ethiopia and victim’s family across the world into mourning.

The accident became the second devastating tragedy in less than six months that Boeing 737 MAX 8 was involved in a fatal incident after Indonesia’s Lion Air flight went down on 29 October 2018which killed all 189 passengers on board. In the aftermath of the accident, different national regulators and airlines around the world were quick to ground their Boeing 737 MAX 8 airplanes. The crash becomes the deadliest in Ethiopian airlines’ history since its establishment in 1945. The accident attracted global attention and brought issues concerning the image, safety, future scenarios and the long term relationship built for decades between EAL and the US aircraft manufacturer, Boeing. The attention given by various local and international media, stakeholders, victim’s family and above all by its worldwide customers, put pressure on the airline to deal with as simultaneously dealing with the actual crisis. Hence, this study intends to investigate the crisis communication strategies employed by EAL to communicate and manage the crisis via social media.

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1.3Aim

The purpose of the present study is to investigate how airplane crash crisis communication is undertaken and managed by Ethiopian Airlines (EAL) via its social media pages: Twitter and Facebook. In doing so, the study aims at examining the communication strategies employed by EAL in response to the plane crash accident. The goal is to contribute to the knowledge about how airline crisis in Africa particularly in Ethiopia can be communicated and managed in social media by using ET302 plane crash as case study.

1.4 Research Questions

The study intends to answer the following research questions:

RQ1. What are the communication strategies employed by EAL when managing ET302 plane crash and various issues associated with the crash?

RQ2.How did EAL communicate during the two stages of the crisis i.e. Crisis and Post-crisis phases via its Facebook and Twitter pages?

1.5 Outline

The thesis is divided into six chapters. The first chapter presents the introduction, background and overview of EAL crisis together with research questions and aim. Chapter two follows with review of previous researches dealing with crisis in the airline industry, role of social media in crisis and effective crisis communication and management. Chapter three focus on a theoretical framework employed in the study i.e. SCCT. Chapter four describes the research methods and procedures on material selection and analysis. Chapter five presents the data analysis and findings; provide answers to the research questions. Chapter six presents the discussion part following by Chapter seven which discusses conclusion together with remarks and recommendations. Finally, limitations of this study are identified and future research areas are also stated.

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2. Previous Research

This chapter focuses on reviewing previous literatures that are fundamental to crisis communication and management field by starting with discussing previous crisis studies in the airline industry. It then discusses the role social media platforms in organizational crisis communication. Finally, it reviews effective crisis communication and management.

2.1 Crises Communication in the Airline Industry

Airplane crashes are among the tragic accidents in the transportation sector. Ray (1999) explains that, from the organizational point of view, a crash can cause a threat to the airline’s reputation and financial situation. “Some airlines never recover from a crisis caused by such a crash, as learned from Air Florida following its 1982 crash into the Fourteenth Street Bridge in Washington’’(p.5). On the other hand, a single crisis takes place in an organization and its consecutive investigation can cause a crisis for the whole industry Ray (1999).Researches on crisis communication and management are increasing from time to time. There is a substantial body of literature that focused on the area of crisis. As the main focus of this thesis is to examine the communication strategies employed by EAL to the crisis of ET302 plane crash on social media, this part looks at previous studies focused on how organizations responds to crises in an airline-industry and communication strategies employed by different organizations.

The first study conducted by Elizabeth Labadorf (2018), focus on analyzing a crisis response to Southwest Flight 1380accident that was happened in 2018. Labadorf (2018), in her study looks at the communication strategies employed by the airline by using Coomb’s Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) as a framework and analyzed a crisis response to Southwest airlines in-flight tragedy and the impact the crisis has on the airline’s reputation. As a result she found out that, even though Southwest airline’s crisis seems to be predominantly considered in the accident category, but the existed good image the airline had may diminish the negative effects the crisis would have. Additionally, the immediate responses given by the CEO and the sympathy and care shown by the captain after the accident happened also contribute to the good crisis management strategy. Labadorf (2018) concludes that existing reputation of an

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7 organization plays a significant role to the impact a crisis would have in addition to an effective management ofit.

In addition, a recent study was conducted by Zafra & Maydell (2018) focusing on Malaysian airlines crisis. Their study focused on exploring how Malaysia Airlines handled the media – when flight MH370 was disappeared. The study also examines the crisis communication applied by the Malaysian authorities so as to take a note of which strategies could be considered as efficient and which could have results reputational damage. The study was limited to the first two weeks crisis response stage of the Airlines, by analyzing online crisis communication works and the selected news reports published concerning the crisis. Accordingly, they found out that lack of information and complexity of the airline crisis i.e. disappearance of the MH370 plane affected the “crisis communication and media relations strategies, which eventually led to unfavorable reporting by the media” (p57). Moreover Zafra & Maydell (2018) in their findings added that, even though social media channels were effectively utilized in communicating the diverse group of publics online, the airline was struggled to bring credible picture to the international community as a result of clashing information delivered through the media. Moreover Zafra & Maydell (2018), finally recommends that in addition to using the traditional crisis communication methods of Public Relations, crisis managers need to lift up their knowledge and application of the digital and “build relationship with new media publics, including journalists, in order to be able to step in and address complex crisis situations online, and consequently rebuild the organization’s reputation” Zafra & Maydell (2018 p57).

For the first study by Labadorf (2018) though this study provides us with new findings but there is confusion on what methods have been used to select the data and make the analysis. Also there is no clear procedure on how these samples of the customers online were chosen. In addition, there is gap on balancing the reactions and responses of the airline customers.

2.2 Social Media and Organizational Crisis Communication

Social media has become significant task for governments particularly during crises times, for first people are overloaded with information as information is accessible 24/7 online; secondly, unlike the mainstream media the spread of information cannot be censored and controlled.

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8 With regard to crisis communication, the use of social media platforms such as Twitter, and Facebook as tools has profoundly changed the communication ways and how people interact with their online community. Kaitlin (2012) argue through the use of social media networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, millions of people share information, spreading the news of their lives and distributing news stories from all over the world. These sites remain some of the most popular social networks on the Internet. Kaitlin (2012, p.5) further pointed out that, social media centered communication has “kept the public more informed about crisis, allowing for a constant feed of news and opinions to be accessed by millions.”

Nowadays, the number of researches conducted on crisis and social media are growing from time to time. Currently, there are varieties of studies conducted on social media and crisis management. According to Rasmussen & Ihlen (2017), in the period between 2009 and 2015, a growing number of researches concerning risk &crisis with majority focused on crisis communication and social media were published. Rasmussen & Ihlen (2017) in their studyfind out that “little attention is given to the question of who is actually reached through social media, and the effects of the digital divide are rarely discussed” (p.1).

Furthermore, Eriksson (2018) conducted systematic content analysis of different peer reviewed journal articles and conference papers published between 2004 and 2017.He then came with different lessons concerning crisis communication and social media. Erikson (2018), find out that proper use of social media is vital for managing a crisis effectively. Social media can escalate a crisis however; if it is managed effectively it can also be a fortune to promote an organization. Furthermore, Eriksson (2018) pointed out that “effective social media crisis communication is about using the potential for dialogue and choosing the right message, source and timing” (p7). In addition, he recommends that an organization needs to work on a pre-crisis stage. Even though it is difficult to predict a crisis, forming a team before a crisis could be vital for an organization to minimize the effect of a crisis. Moreover, building alliance with the media can also prevent organizations from suffering worst crises effects. Because, the more a good image an organization has the smaller the effect of crisis would be. Eriksson (2018), concludes that media monitoring is also very important aspect so as to have updated information about an organization. Hence, if communication practitioners obtain enough information on the status of

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9 their organization and/or how it’s perceived by the public, they would be able to get relevant insight that would benefit managers to make effective decision especially during crisis time.

2.3Effective Crisis Communications and Management

When a crisis occurs in an organization, communication and devising a remedy is mandatory and this process is known as crisis management. Grimmelt (2017), explained that crisis management (CM) is the sum of cooperation and hard work of an organization’s feedback to a crisis in an efficient, appropriate and with the aim of decreasing harm to the organization’s productivity and good image. Grimmelt (2017), in his study revealed that, one of the most important issues of a crisis management plan is the operator’s philosophy for handling the crises.

On the other hand, Lee (2004) demonstrates six most important communications strategies that companies can adopt during crisis times. Accordingly, the first strategy is called “shifting blame” which consists of alleges that others are in charge of a crisis. The second strategy “minimization” is securing that the effects of a crisis are not as harmful as have been exposed. The third strategy, labeled as “no comment” which indicates of staying reserved from providing any comments during crisis times. Furthermore, the fourth strategy “apology” refers to delivering request for forgiveness in communication. Fifth strategy mentioned by Lee as “compensation” includes compensating victims via giving monetary reimbursements, and the sixth strategy called “corrective action” promotes actions taken to stop the reoccurrence of the similar problem Lee (2004). Looking at Lee’s strategies, while “shifting blame”, “minimization”, “apology”, “compensation” and “correction action” sounds professional and effective in crisis, but nevertheless the “no comment” strategy can be a cause to aggravate the issue or initiate another gigantic crisis that may put the existence of an organization in to question. Hence, communicating what has happened to the public is always advised for communication professionals.

For maintaining the survival and good image of an organization after a crisis, communication practitioners need to exploit and pay attention to social media platforms effectively. Mathew (2017) suggested that having an efficient crisis communication system is vital for effective use of social media crisis management because, during a crisis sources for information may not be

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10 easily obtainable and there will be a stress to react to the different questions raise by the diverse public.

When a crisis situation occurs, it usually takes the attention of people and media (both mainstream and electronic). Consumers demand updates and start to question about the safety of an organization and at the same time social media and traditional media expect immediate responses from organizations responsible for the incident. According to Hoste, Hee & Poels (2016), social media, especially Twitter, is being used more at the time of crisis than ever. It has been revealed that these platforms offer important real-time information for decision-making. Given the infinite quantity of data accessible on the Web, there is need for smart ways to select and retrieve the preferred information.

An important idea in crisis studies that communicators have to bear in mind is, no crisis is similar to another and as a result the response to a crisis may be different. One can monitor the characteristic of crises from an organization point of view or others might look at it from the stakeholders' angle Stefano, Bernardo & Giacomo (2017). Therefore, responses to crises should consider the nature and characteristics of crises and eventually will be best crisis management strategies.

Furthermore, managing a crisis is a crucial task of an organization. Failure to manage a crisis may result in serious harm to stakeholders, losses of customers, loses of a reputation, or end its very existence. Despite its chance of escalating a crisis, the social media plays a significant role in handling crisis effectively. It can serve as a useful tool to communicate to a wide public using its extensive accessibility and high-speed as an advantage. Regarding its significance Marleen (2012) added that the use of the social media in crisis communication is important because it can contribute in meeting the three objectives of crisis communication (meaning, providing sufficient information and limitation of harm).

According to Pge, Freberg and Saling (2013) make the most use of social media when communicating to a crisis can help decrease the pressure by providing suggestions for managing crisis effectively. Crisis management needs to avoid or minimize the negative results of a crisis and prevent an organization and the public. Pge, Freberg and Saling (2013) added use of social media during emergency/crisis event can help in:

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11 • Preparation which involves the diagnoses of vulnerabilities, selecting and training a crisis management team, to include a spokesperson, creating a crisis plan, and refining a communication system that utilizes all forms of media available;

• Response through the use of mass media, Internet, and social media during the preparation as well as the response and recovery phases;

• Recovery in an attempt to return to normal operations as soon as possible following a crisis/disaster event – also known as business continuity or continuity of operations;

• Revision that involves an evaluation of the response in simulated and real crises, determining what was done right and what wrong to better the performance in the possibility of its next disaster/crisis event (p.21).

Effective use of social media during crisis management requires systematic and professional process. Concerning the process that Public Relations practitioners should pass through during a crisis, (Coombs, 2015 cited in Civelek, Çemberci & Eralp 2016) suggest two stages:

“…first stage is accepting the existence of the crisis, gaining information about it and mobilizing the crisis management team which was brought together in the preparation for a crisis phase. Second phase is informing organizational environment about the crisis, informing employees; informing target audience and informing the media” (p.4). In a nutshell, looking at the previous studies discussed above in 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3, we can notice that there are diverse studies with the focus on crisis communication and management in the aviation industry using social media platforms. However, majority of the studies were focused on crisis responses and application of social media from developed and developing nation’s perspective. Studies on the usage of social media in crisis time in under developed nations like Ethiopia is not or hardly studied. Hence, this paper fills the gap by proving a new perspective on how crisis is managed using social media platforms in Africa, by studying Ethiopia airline’s plane crash accident.

3. Theoretical Framework

3.1 Situational Crisis Communication Theory

As the study aims at investigating how EAL communicate and manage the crisis of ET302 plane crash via its social media pages (Twitter and Facebook), Situational Crisis Communication

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12 Theory (SCCT) is employed. An examination of the empirical research in crisis management impact suggests that SCCT is the leading theoretical framework employed in crises, for it offer a prescriptive approach for matching of response given to crisis messages to the crisis situation (Coombs & Holladay 2002, cited in Coombs & Holladay 2010).

Furthermore, According to Coombs & Holladay (2010) SCCT rests on two basic propositions. First, crises threaten an organization’s good image hence, the main goal of crisis communication is to keep or repair the good image of an organization. Second, the type of the crisis has a lot to do and influence the suitability of the communication strategies used by communication practitioners to deal with a crisis.

Coombs & Holladay (2010) added, SCCT asserts that at the time of a crisis, organizations are primarily advised to sustain and/or preserve their good public image. The technique to preserve this image is by developing a crisis communication messages that is related to the situation or crisis happened. Because the crisis responses the organization provide affects the perceptions that stakeholders or customers have towards that organization. Therefore, crisis communicators should be very curious when choosing crisis response messages and communication tools because some tools are effective than others (Coombs 1995, cited in Coombs & Holladay 2010). This theory suggests selecting the correct crisis communication strategy according to some contingent factors: the type of crisis (crisis where the organization is among the victims, accidental crisis, or preventable crisis), the severity of the consequences, the performance history of the company (i.e. past crises), and the stakeholders' attribution of the crisis responsibility Coombs and Holladay (2010). SCCT consists of three core elements: (1) the crisis situation, (2) crisis response strategies, and (3) a system for matching the crisis situations and crisis response strategies Coombs and Holladay (2006 p243).

4. Methodology

This Chapter presents the description of the research process and present information concerning the methods employed to conduct this study together with the rationale for the preference of the methods. The Chapter includes description of the data collection and data analysis process. The study intends to analyze the communication strategies employed by Ethiopian Airlines via its

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13 official social media pages including: Facebook and Twitter for communicating and managing the crisis. This study employed qualitative research method. One of the strong sides of qualitative research is that its capability to provide complex textual descriptions of how people experience a certain phenomenon. It also provides us with information about “the human side of an issue” and enables us to interpret and having a better understanding of a complex reality of a given situation Mack et.al (2005 p1).Thus, so as to answer the research questions posted and achieves the objectives set, qualitative research approach is found to be relevant. To do so, research method of Nethnography, a highly useful method to analyze crisis communication and management research online and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) have been used.

4.1 Material and Selection

In this study the Critical Discourse Analysis and Nethnography methods have been used to analyze the Facebook posts and Tweets about the organization during the crisis. Data was collected from the social media platforms i.e. the Facebook and Twitter pages of EAL within one month life cycle. The selection criteria cover all Tweets and Facebook posts that were originally posted in the EAL official pages during the period of the crisis from 10 March 2019 to 10 April 2019 and excluded all posts on other topics other than the ET302 crash. The date i.e.10 March 2019 was selected because it was the day the crash happened and 10 April selected because crisis related messages were posted only until that time. For this study, only the written (text) part was the focus of the analysis. The rest multi-modal communication approaches such as; color, typography, and visual compositions were not included.

4.2 Nethnography

In contemporary society, the Internet has become an important medium for information and communication. Researchers using the Internet as a research medium for participant recruitment and data collection has increased from time to time. Nethnography can be broadly defined as “a qualitative research approach that adapts the traditional ethnographic techniques to the study of the "net", which is the online communities, practices and cultures formed through computer-mediated communications” Addeo, et.al. (2020). Nethnography, an adaptation of ethnography (interaction with study participants in their real life environment), according to

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14 Pranee (2019), is mainly concerned with “online communication as a source of data to form an understanding of a cultural phenomenon.” It is through the use of this qualitative research method that holistic research about online cultures and communities can be conducted Pranee, (2019). For Kozinets, the nature of contemporary Nethnography is “a specific set of related data collection, analysis, ethical and representational research practices,” where a noteworthy amount of the data is composed through a very humanist participant-observational research stance Kozinets (2015 p.79). Nethnography enable researchers to study communications online without having to use intrusive observation techniques, and this would make researchers conduct natural observation and have realistic findings as a result Addeo, et.al. (2020).

Despite the fact that Nethnography advantageous in enabling researchers to meet their research population in one area and saving time, it is inadequate to offer in-depth information that other qualitative researches for (e.g. conducting interviews and focus group discussions) can provide. This limitation of Nethnography wouldn’t affect this study because it is only focused on the data which are already available in the social media platforms. Moreover, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is also employed as additional method to fill the gap of Nethnography and so as to have in-depth insight on the subject of the study.

4.3 Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is defined as “a type of discourse analysis research that primarily studies the way social power abuse, dominance and inequality are enacted, reproduced, and resisted by text and talk in social and political contexts” Van Dijk (2004 p352). On the other hand, according to Janks (1997 p2) Critical discourse analysis (CDA) “stems from a critical theory of language which sees the use of language as a form of social practice“.

According to Eriksson & Kovalainen (2008), CDA is described as a tool “where the aim is to map three separate forms of analysis onto one another: analysis of (spoken or written) language texts, analysis of discourse practice (processes of text production, distribution and consumption), and analysis of discursive events as instances of socio-cultural practice” (p 236). In CDA, language is seen as a type of social practice, hence, attention is given to the ways in which social and political domination are reproduced based on the written and verbal communication produced by individuals and different organizations Eriksson & Kovalainen (2016).

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15 Similarly, (Fairclough 1995 p.2 cited in Eriksson & Kovalainen, 2008 p 236) categorized CDA in three dimensions. The first dimension is ‘discourse-as-text’. The analysis in this dimension should be focusing on “choice of words, patterns in vocabulary (wording, metaphor), grammar (modality), cohesion of the text and text structure.”The second dimension is ‘discourse-as-discursive-practice’. In this dimension, discourse is viewed as “something that is produced, consumed and circulated in the society”. Attention of analysis in this dimension is to “speech acts, coherence and inter-textuality on which it puts talk and text in to context.”Context in CDA is very important because, a verbal speech or text might have different meaning contextually hence, should be analyzed cautiously. The third dimension is ‘discourse-as-social-practice’. By this dimension Failclough “refers to the ideological effects and hegemonic process in which discourse is a feature. Hegemony refers to power that is achieved through constructing alliances among groups through consent, hence power and dominance are present and are targets of CDA” Eriksson & Kovalainen (2008 p 236). For CDA at the same time for this study therefore, the aim is to critically study the language found in texts and to reveal the kinds of discourses being disseminated.

4.4 The Analytical Toolkit

In this study the research questions were used as a guide to find out the communication strategies employed by EAL. Due to the need of study the strategic communication on social media as proven by different researchers, EAL’s Facebook and Twitter pages were analyzed. The researcher chooses one month, from March 10 2019 to April 10 2019, so as to have a data possible to draw meaningful insights. Data were collected using purposive sampling method. Accordingly, nine posts have been selected. All data collected from posts of Twitter and Facebook are included. First all posts during the mentioned period were collected in a screen shot form from the official pages of EAL. The next step was counting the number of posts and looking at the content of the post. After looking at each post then, posts concerning the crisis stages and themes were selected. To make the analysis, overall communication strategies of the crisis were noted and a thematically critical analysis was made to come with the findings.

What is more, the theory employed in this study is SCCT theory. According to Coombs (2008), there are three stages of crisis management. Hence, the analysis was made based on the two stages i.e crisis and post crisis. First all posts (of the specified time) from EAL’s official pages

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16 of Twitter and Facebook were gathered. Then the collected posts were sorted thematically and finally analyzed using the crisis stages SCCT.

4.5 Ethical Consideration

Regarding the ethical aspects, during this study, the present researcher took great care of ethical aspects as any form of a research could affect people in a wide variety of ways. The study made its focus only on posts already available in the Twitter and Facebook pages of EAL including; words, written documents and videos. Accordingly, other private status of online community, such as: names and other private information did not include in the paper. Regarding sources, the researcher acknowledged all quotations and ideas used throughout the research by putting proper citations and references.

5. Analysis and Findings

This chapter presents the details of data analysis and results drawn on the data collected from posts on the official Twitter and Facebook pages of EAL in relation to the plane crash incident. As stated in chapter four, the analysis has been done using Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) and is organized here with the focus on the two stages of crisis i.e. crisis and post-crisis. The data collected consists of nine different posts Ethiopian Airlines published on its pages gathered using screen shot. Accordingly, the researcher presents the analysis and findings categorized under the two crisis stages mentioned above.

5.1 The Crisis Stage

To start with the crisis stage, it is organized in to three themes. The first theme is the actual crisis i.e. the ET302 plane crash accident. The second thematic area is the issue related with Boeing Company and the third theme is the allegation made by Washington post and New York Times concerning the competency and flight experience of the pilots. Using these thematic areas as a guide, the researcher looked into how EAL communicates the crisis on its social media pages with specific focus on Facebook and Twitter. Ethiopian Airlines Twitter page has 331.8 Thousand followers where as its Facebook page has 1.7 Million followers. The analysis then starts by analyzing the first theme i.e. the plane crash accident then it will follow with the second and third themes.

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Theme 1: ET302 Crash

ET302 plane crash took the lives of 157 people from 35 countries on board. The diversified nationalities of the victims together with the magnitude and tragedy of the accident made the issue take international attention, more importantly the media. The crash happened on 10 March, 2019 8:44 a.m. local time. It was when Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, posted about the tragic accident of flight Boeing 737 MAX 8 airplane on his Twitter page (@AbiyAhmedAli) the world got the breaking news. Then immediately after the post different media reported it by quoting the PM’s tweet as a source. Though there is nothing wrong with the accident to be announced by the pm as EAL is a government owned company and a national flag carrier of Ethiopia, it would have also been appropriate if EAL announced the accident immediately (earlier than the below post) so the information would have been more transparent.

Figure1. Theme: Plane Crash (Twitter: 2019-03-10)

Immediately, following the crash, EAL changed profile pictures of both its Twitter & Facebook pages to black dark look with its white logo in the middle. This shows the empathy, concern and

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18 weight the airline gave to the accident and to the victim’s family. On the same day after two hours, first official Tweet of the airline was made through the page as depicted in Figure 1. This Tweet was part of a scanned copy in the press release document which was posted in a picture form. The Tweet would have been appropriate if it could focus on statements expressing the sad feeling of the airline and wishing condolences to victim’s family other than repeating the message already available in the press release as this tweet was the first official tweet after the accident.

As can be seen from the content of the post presented above, EAL first confirms the accident with sympathy and regret which can be considered as an empathetic way of expressing sadness. “Ethiopian Airlines regrets to confirm that its flight ET 302/10 March in schedule service from Addis Ababa to Nairobi was involved in an accident today around Bishoftu (Debre Zeit)”(see Figure 1.). Ray in his book suggested the application of eliciting sympathy approach as a useful approach because, this strategy “portrays the organization as an innocent victim hence, sympathetic stakeholders tend to be less critical and the organization is likely to be placed in a positive light” Ray (1999 p25). In its next sentences, the airline also communicates the activities being held as the general public expects such information.

“At this time search and rescue operations are in progress and we have no confirmed information about survivors or any possible casualties. Ethiopian Airlines staff will be sent to the accident scene and will do everything possible to assist the emergency services. Ethiopian Airlines will release further information as soon as it is available. Updated information will also be on Ethiopian Airlines website at www.ethiopianairlines.com”

Looking at the content of the information released, it was clear and steady that doesn’t generate confusion. According to Coombs the first stage for responding to a crisis should focus on three points “(1) be quick, (2) be accurate, and (3) be consistent” Coombs (2007 p6). Based on Coomb’s stages of crisis response therefore, the statements were accurate, consistent (comparing with the information released later) but was a bit delayed.

The statements in the post also provide updates about the action the airline was taking following the accident (see figure 1.). This could make people, especially the victims’ families, think that

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19 the airline is concerned about the issue and being supportive. Looking at the post, it is possible to say that from the six strategies suggested by Lee (2004), the airline employed “apology” strategy which aims at delivering request for forgiveness in communication. According to Coombs & Holladay (2010) at the time of crisis, SCCT recommends organizations to sustain their image. The technique that has to be followed to maintain this image is by developing a crisis communication messages that is correlated to the situation or crisis happened. Because the crisis management approaches that an organization follow has a decisive role on the perception of stakeholders or customers will have towards that organization. That is why crisis communicators should be very curious when choosing crisis response messages and communication tools because some tools are effective than others (Coombs 1995, cited in Coombs & Holladay 2010).

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20 Meanwhile, as can be seen at the first post from Facebook, on the first day of the accident, EAL informed the public and/or its followers on Facebook posting a breaking News video by CNN as shown in Figure 2. Apart from broadcasting the breaking news, the content of the news was constructive to EAL’s public image. Richard Quest from CNN in his statement said “it is one of those airlines that when you have worries about any other, you always say I’ll take Ethiopian” Richard Quest (2019), and this gave vote of confidence to the airline. Because one of the reasons that can intensify a crisis situation is a negative media reports about an organization. Even though this news content was favorable, it would have been great and more appropriate if it was with caption that expresses about the sad feeling of the accident (as it was done in the Twitter page) because, this message was a first post in the Facebook page that was expected to deliver something about the accident and mostly people tend to look at captions before opening a video. Hence, it would have been better if posted with caption and additional information.

Figure 3. Theme: Plane Crash (Twitter: 2019-03-10)

Shown in Figure 3 is the third bulletin written in a press release form posted with summary of updates on what has been done during the day; revealing the CEO’s visit to the accident place was important aspect of the post. The other significant message included in the press release was

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21 the competence and experience of the pilots. Disclosing the flight history of the pilots can be taken as a proactive strategy to the question of flight time and experience of pilots which later raise as one of the causes of the crash by the media.

Additionally, the statement about victim’s family support “Ethiopian Airlines will provide all the necessary support to the families of the victims” was among the other important messages delivered in the post. In this message, the airline shows it’s deep concern, care and humanity for those who are victimized by the accident. And this action will minimize the existence of another crisis as a result of poor handling of the former i.e the plane crash.

Figure 4. Theme: Plane Crash (Facebook: 2019-03-11)

In the case of Facebook, unlike in the Twitter page, there was no other information updated or posted on the page except the first CNN news posted on 10 March 2019. Then on 11 March, the

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22 airline posted the news report by Aljazeera with no caption (see figure 4) According Ahmadi (2015), in each stage of crisis occurrence, informing the news media and also attracting public participation have more importance, because crises arises rumors and should be informed by thoughtful methods to guide public opinion. As a result, the slow communication on its Facebook page could have generated a gap in communication with the followers.

From the communicative messages of the posts, one can understand that EAL didn’t use the same message and strategy in both pages. And in Ethiopia, as we can witness from the number of followers, majority of the internet users use Facebook than Twitter because Twitter is considered as a formal platform with focus on political communication and intended for the elite.

Theme 2: Issues Related to Boeing

Regarding, the second theme i.e. the issue regarding Boeing, as observed from the news reports broadcasted from different media outlets, the blame of the crash was pointing to Boeing Company than to Ethiopian Airlines. This was mainly because of two reasons:(1) Ethiopian Airlines is Africa’s largest, reputable and fastest-growing airline with a successful safety records and low accident rates. Awards given to the airline in different times are a good witness for its success; (2) ET 302 crash was the second fatal incident Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft was involved in five months of time after Indonesia’s Lion Air flight went down on 29 October 2018 killing all 189 passengers onboard with similar technical issue. Therefore, issues related to the technical and design problems of Boing 737 max 8 aircraft made the media to shift the blame to Boeing, especially after different countries grounded Boing 737 max 8 airlplanes.

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23 Figure 5. Theme: Boeing Issue (Twitter: 2019-04-04)

The message of the post above (see Figure 5) emphasized on the pilots effort to save the plane and at the same time asserted that EAL cannot be confident on “Boeing software”. Also in another interviews the CEO explain that “Ethiopian Airlines believes in Boeing they have been a partner of ours for many years. Despite the tragedy, Boeing and Ethiopian Airlines will cont inue to be linked well into the future”. This statement therefore shows EAL’s interest to keep the partnership with Boeing forward but also gives great care and prioritizes customer’s safety.

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24 Figure 6. Theme: Boeing Issue (Facebook: 2019-03-19)

Ethiopian Airlines has a long term business relationship built with Boeing. Following the ET 302 plane crash, different people and organizations were giving different opinions that they think could be a cause for the crash. Ethiopian Airlines on the other side was communicating steadily and in a way that doesn’t harm its good relationship with Boeing. Posting news that magnifies the cause of the crash belongs to design problem was among the strategies used in the issue related to Boeing. In this regard EAL applied the “shifting blame” strategy suggested by Lee (2004) which alleges others are causes of a crisis than the organization and in EAL case, it magnifies other factors are in charge of the crash than the rumors which have been released out from different sources. The CNN report which was posted on the facebook page in 19 March (see figure 6.) therefore shows the expert’s view on the similarities of the crashes which will make EAL free from the causes of the crisis.

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Theme 3: Issues related with New YorkTimes and Washington Post

The third theme of the crisis stage looks into the posts regarding responses given to News reports published by NewYork Times and Washington Post. Even though several factors have been cited in to the crashes, these media outlets mentioned low flight times of both the pilot and the assistant might be connected as a cause to the failure to control the airplane. The statement by the airline reads:

“Ethiopian Airlines expresses its disappointment on the following wrong reporting of the @nytimes titled ‘Ethiopian Airlines Had a Max 8 Simulator, but Pilot on Doomed Flight Didn’t Receive Training’.”

Figure 7. Theme: Media Issue (Twitter: 2019-03-21)

At this point, EAL in its tweet denies the allegation claiming wrong report by confirming pilots’ skills using this statement “the pilots are well briefed on the Emergency Airworthiness Directive issued by the FAA following the Lion Air accident. The content of the airworthiness directive has also been well incorporated in all pilot training manuals, operational procedures and working manuals.” In addition, it requested concerned bodies to abstain from reporting incorrect information till the investigation is done. The counter response it gave shows that the airline used offensiveness reduction strategy to restore its image by disproving the report with facts.

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26 Figure 8. Theme: Media Issue (Twitter: 2019-03-22)

Similarly, following the news report by Washington post, (claims that pilots didn’t take enough trainings and claim of training tools from Boeing didn’t followed emergency procedures), EAL gave a feedback. EAL in its tweet posted on 22 March states that “Ethiopian Airlines strongly refutes all the baseless and factually incorrect allegations written in the Washington Post dated March 21, 2019”. Both Tweets concerning the media indicates that the airline was working effectively in monitoring the media and gave adequate responses accordingly. In relation to the significance of keeping an eye on the media, Eriksson (2018), states that media monitoring is a very important aspect so as to have updated information about an organization. In this regard, the airline presumably applied “corrective action” strategy suggested by Lee (2004) as this strategy promotes actions taken to stop the reoccurrence of similar problem. EAL’s strategies concerning media monitoring have been successful in protecting the airline from facing another crisis related to competency and safety.

In its Facebook page however, most of the posts were focused on sharing news reports released by international media organizations such as: BBC, CNN and Aljazeera. No post was made in the Facebook page responding to the media reports. The press releases posted on the Twitter page (that could have been proper if also posted in Facebook page) weren’t used. Though the reports of the media organizations listed above have been positive about EAL, being limited to these information pieces can be seen as a gap for the airline, as it would have benefited better in communicating to its Facebook community.

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5.2 Post-crisis Stage

Post-crisis stage of crisis is a stage where an organization starts to recover from the crisis situations they faced. Related to the challenges this stage have Ray (1999) states that “uncertainty, surprise, stress, threat, and limited response time continue to characterize the post-crisis phase. Organizations experience uncertainty with regard to cause, blame, response, public perception, resolution, and other consequences” (p161). According to (Coombs, 2011 cited in Andreas, 2015) the post crisis phase is also the time to fulfill any commitments made during the crisis communication phase, such as victim compensation and follow up communication.

The post in 4 April as shown in figure 9 can be considered as one of the post-crisis posts after the stiff situation the airline was in. Even though, the airline was posting success stories even at the early and middle stages of the crisis, (e.g a twitter post on 12, March 2019 states “Africa's biggest hub Addis Ababa Bole international airport is as busy as always availing our customers of the standard service”) this post (see figure 9) was posted after the airline returns to its normal situation i.e a period which is known as a post crisis stage. Ray (1999) also added “Post-crisis is a time for recovery, self-analysis, self-doubt, and healing. Crisis does not always mean disaster” (p161).

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28 Looking at some core points on the message of the post, it starts with recognizing and appreciating the pilot’s efforts to save the airplane from “nose diving” by following the emergency procedures suggested by Boeing and FAA. In this message the airline has applied a shifting blame indirectly by stating that the accident was a “nose diving” which implicate the design problem that Boing 737max8 is blamed for.

Another strategic message was the CEO’s quote saying, "All of us at Ethiopian Airlines are still going through deep mourning for the loss of our loved ones. Meanwhile, we are very proud of our pilots‟ compliances to follow the emergency procedures. I would also like to thanks our valued customers, the media and global aviation for the vote of confidence. Your safety will remain our top most priority and we will continue working together.” Looking at this quote one can understand that the airline is returned to its routine business regardless of the crisis trauma. We can also realize that the airline is working hard to prevent the re-occurrence of the same accident. Regarding to framing post crisis messages, Coombs and Holladay (2010) said that, adjusting information includes the need to express sympathy and to explain what the organization is doing to prevent a repeat of the crisis. Efforts to stop a replicate of the crisis are also known as corrective action (p.29). Andreas (2015) added, the post crisis phase is the last phase of crisis management. A crisis should be a learning experience, and the crisis management efforts should be evaluated to see what is working and what needs improvement. In order to do this, Andreas (2015) said, an organization may appoint a crisis evaluation team, which should be different from crisis management team members, to assess handling of the crisis and recommend changes in crisis procedures. This will prevent crisis recurrence and damage, by integrating lessons learned into the organization’s crisis management system, allowing to improve prevention, preparation, and the response.

6. Discussion

The first research question of the study was to investigate the communication strategies employed by EAL when managing ET302 plane crash accident and various issues associated with the crash. Based on the results, during and after the 737 MAX air crash accident, Facebook and Twitter have been the most widely used social media platforms by EAL for the crisis communication and management with the online community. Looking at the consistency of the communication techniques of the crisis response via its social media pages, it can be said that the

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29 airline was following the same strategy which was focusing on summarizing daily activities of what has been done and what to do next in its Twitter page. In contrary, communication materials used in its Facebook page was different in content, shows a delay in making a post and had a gap in summarizing and updating the daily activities of the airline unlike the Twitter page. And this delay could have affected the crisis management work negatively. Crisis communication is essential part in crisis management. Coombs & Holladay added, SCCT recommends that at the time of crisis organizations are advised to sustain their image. The technique to protect this image is by developing a crisis communication messages that is related to the situation or crisis happened Coombs & Holladay (2010).

Furthermore, during the crisis communication period, the airline was applying sympathy approach by treating victim’s family, arranging memorial ceremony and by sending staffs to the accident place and assist the emergency services. Regarding this approach Coombs also added that, during a crisis time victim’s family are the most important stakeholders and needs to be treated carefully because if handled poorly, it may delay management of the crisis and might cause another one Coombs (2015). This practice of EAL shows similarity with the previous researches discussed in chapter two. Labadorf find out that, the immediate responses given by the CEO and the sympathy and care shown by the captain after occurrence of the accident also contributes to the good crisis management strategy Labadorf (2018). Hence, it can be said that according to the SCCT the EAL implemented the suggested response strategies to preserve its reputation.

The second research question in this study aims at exploring how EAL communicate during the two phases of the crisis i.e Crisis and Post-crisis stages via its Face book and Twitter pages. Accordingly, it was find out that, at the crisis stage for the first the first 24 hours after the accident, the airline was active in updating information through its Facebook and Twitter accounts. However, initially the response of the airline in announcing the accident on 10 March 2019 shows a delay which could have trigger another crisis and damage the image of EAL. Communication through the facebook page was delayed and didn’t used efficiently as posts were only limited to videos from different media outlets and sometimes sharing press releases. (Coombs 1995, cited in Coombs & Holladay 2010) added the crisis responses the organization provides affects the perceptions that stakeholders or customers have towards that organization.

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30 Therefore, crisis communicators should be very curious when choosing crisis response messages and communication tools because some tools are effective than others (Coombs 1995, cited in Coombs & Holladay 2010). On the other hand, Zafra & Maydell (2018) also stated that, it’s important to build relationship with new media publics, including journalists, in order to be able to step in and address complex crisis situations online, and consequently rebuild the organization’s reputation (p57).

Moreover, Crisis Situations like the ET 302 could follow by different fake news especially if sufficient information wasn’t provided by the organization. A good example for this case is the reports made by Newyork Times and Washington Post. Regarding this, EAL applies different approaches which include corrective action and denial strategies. And this implies that the airline did well in media monitoring as media have a great role in escalating a crisis. Stefano, Bernardo & Giacomo (2017) also added that responses to crises should consider the nature and characteristics of crises and eventually will be best crisis management strategies.

For airlines, reputation is paramount, especially when they are questioned about safety, controlling the message in today’s new media age. Based on the analysis it can be said that previous good image of EAL may contributed for the effective crisis management. Labadorf (2018) in her study as mentioned in Chapter two of this paper also find out that the existed good image may diminish the negative effects the crisis (South west airline) would have and concludes that existing reputation of an organization plays a significant role to the impact a crisis would have in addition to an effective management of it. Because, the more a good image an organization has the smaller the effect of a crisis would be Eriksson (2018).

7. Conclusion

The main purpose of this study was to analyze the crisis response of EAL to flight ET 302. Based on the analysis and findings of the study, the following conclusions have been made. The Face book platform is now winning the hearts of millions of people around the world. However, it seems like EAL gives more focus for its Twitter page than its Facebook page. Facebook is an essential social networking site that can help connecting with the public to address different issues. In this case, EAL should use its Facebook page efficiently to disseminate information on

Crisis Communication and Management using SocialMedia: a Crisis Response to Ethiopian Airlines ET302 Crash

Örebro University

School of Humanities, Education & Social Sciences