Erika Schneider, a public relations assistant professor, co-authored the paper, “Examining the mediating effects of sincerity and credibility in crisis communication strategies” with Courtney D. Boman of the University of Alabama and Heather Akin of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The paper was published in Corporate Communications: An International Journal.
This study aims to explore how source type can influence organizational assets proposed by source credibility theory (SCT) when paired with matched situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) strategies for accidental, preventable, and victim crises. Crisis communication delivered online provides an invaluable outlet for organizations to disperse information to stakeholders quickly. It has been shown that receivers of this information have motivational assumptions about sources having their own agenda for producing content. Thus, it is important to explore how sources tasked with delivering crisis responses can influence perceptions of the sincerity and credibility of the message.