Implications of Truthers on Post Crisis Communication and Resolution

The intent of this thesis is to better comprehend the strategies used in crisis denial videos from the perspective of kategoria. Benoit and Dorries taxonomy of kategoria was applied to crisis denial claims using the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting as a case study. The claims of prominent truther and YouTuber, Alex Jones, were coded and analyzed based on this taxonomy. The categories of the taxonomy include: accused committed the act before, accused planned the act, accused knew likely consequences of the act, accused benefitted from the act, and other. Two coders trained in identifying these criteria coded three transcribed YouTube videos focused on Sandy Hook with a combined total of over 1.5 million views. Accused planned the act and accused committed the act before were the most used taxonomy, with a 4 to 1 and 2 to 1 margin respectively, showing a consistent preference on how Jones likes to construct his claims. These tactics put the victims of Sandy Hook in an uncomfortable position because they are forced to deny the denial, a process that quickly becomes cyclical. The responses either transcend to an issue of free speech versus defamation or attack the accuser through litigation and public organizations dropping him. Claims that the accused has done it before denies closure to multiple crises while claims that it was planned seem endless and also contribute to denying closure. This denial puts victims in a chronic stage where they are forced to constantly and endlessly re-evaluate the crisis without resolution, disrupting current stage theory in crisis recovery. Truthers have changed how we define hoax. Previously, a hoax was the crisis, but now claims are made post-crisis depicting the crisis as hoax. Further research should focus on the formulation of a response to crisis denial that can break the cyclical pattern

From Hoax as Crisis to Crisis as Hoax: Fake News and Information Disorder as Disruptions to the Discourse of Renewal

Hoaxes have long been a reputational threat to organizations. For example, false claims that syringes had been found in bottles of Pepsi-Cola products, that a portion of a finger had been found in Wendy’s chili, and that Domino’s employees had intentionally served contaminated food to customers have topped the media’s agenda. More recently, the hoax phenomenon has been tactically reversed. Heavily trafficked Internet sites and controversial television personalities frequently argue that well-documented crises themselves are hoaxes. The potential for claims of crisis as hoax to disrupt the discourse of crisis renewal is examined through an analysis of three cases. We argue that overcoming such disruptions requires corporate social responsibility, a focus on the issues rather than the hoaxers, and continued efforts to improve media literacy for all audiences