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Unpacking the Evolution of a Paracrisis: The Case of #DeleteUber

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Abstract

Paracrises, as publicly visible crisis risks, may or may not evolve into full-blown crises that pose severe reputational and/or operational damages. To preclude paracrises’ possible escalation into crises, organizations must evaluate paracrises' evolution statuses and make appropriate public responses. This research explores a paracrisis’ temporal evolution on social media and traditional news media and the roles of social media influencers (SMIs) who impacted the evolution. A multi-method, single-case study of the #DeleteUber paracrisis was conducted to analyze tweets and traditional news media coverage. It is found that despite intense attention from social media and traditional news media, #DeleteUber did not escalate into a full-blown crisis. In addition to social media accounts owned by traditional news media, individuals with limited follower sizes and digital-born media also gained influence by providing objective information and subjective interpretations with different stances. Compared to follower sizes, SMIs’ network structures may be more effective in explaining and predicting their content virality. As one of the few studies examining paracrisis evolution processes, this research is of practical implications to crisis managers addressing crisis risks emerging from and/or spreading on social media.

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  1. Department of Communication, College of Charleston, 66 George Street, Charleston, SC, 29424, USA

    Feifei Chen

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Chen, F. Unpacking the Evolution of a Paracrisis: The Case of #DeleteUber. Corp Reputation Rev 25, 300–311 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41299-021-00129-1

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