Project 4 slidedoc 1

1. How to Research your
Crisis Event

2. What is a crisis event? 3
Purpose of your research 4
Types of communication you need to include in your analysis 5
Apply two frameworks in your search 6
How many sources? 9-10
Table of Contents
2

3. • A crisis event is an unexpected or unplanned situation that leads to
accusations of wrongdoing against a business or organization.
• The crisis event you will use for this assignment is the Covid-19
worldwide pandemic. This counts as a crisis event for two reasons:
1. It led (or is leading) to a serious crisis for a business or organization.
2. It has generated considerable attention in popular media and that
has not handled well by some businesses or organizations.
What is a crisis event?
3

4. • Now you will need conduct research to gather, organize, and analyze the
communication surrounding the event as it unfolded over time.
• The purpose of your research will be to write a white paper (type of
report) for an audience of people who work for a business, organization,
or government agency similar to the one you are organizing.
• The goal will be to explain the nature of the communication that was
generated because of the crisis, how the communication affected the
business or organization, and how effectively or ineffectively the
business or organization communicated about the Covid-19 pandemic.
In addition, you will be coding some of the data you collect (more about
coding later in this slidedoc).
• Because this focus is a rhetorical analysis, your sources, of any type, will
be considered primary source material.
Purpose of your research.
4

5. • Announcements (press releases, posts on blogs or websites, posts to
social media sites, etc.) from the business, organization, or government
agency itself. These could be written, but they might also be videos.
• Coverage about this business, organization, or government agency’s
response to covid-19 crisis on media sites. These could be written (in a
newspaper or magazine), video (a news broadcast), aural (a radio or
podcast), or social-media driven (like a Facebook post made by a news
agency).
• Public reaction to the business, organization, or government agency’s
response to the covid-19 crisis. This is often easiest to find if you look at
the comment sections on social media posts, news stories, etc. (HINT:
this is the information you’ll need to complete the grounded theory
activity that is required in this assignment—see Slidedoc 2 for more
information.)
Types of communication you need to include in your analysis.
5

6. • A framework is the method you will use to gather
source data and organize it.
• One frame you will need is chronological because
a crisis event unfolds over time. This means that
when you write your white paper, you should
present information in the order that it happened.
• The other frame you will need is a scholarly
framework. To decide that frame, go to the
scholarly framework section in BbLearn, skim the
possible frameworks (and the scholarly article that
provides an example of the framework), and
choose one as a model.
Apply two frameworks in your search.
6

7. • You should try to find at least three sources for each of the three types
of communication you’re looking for (see slide 5 for a list of the three
types of communication that are required for this project).
• You should have a total of nine sources (at least) for this project. Each
source should be cited in a works cited page (using MLA or APA
formatting) at the end of the white paper. Keep track of these citations
as you find your sources.
How many sources?
7