A letter from the Director

Welcome to the Center for Crisis Communication Management at Renmin University of China (CCCM-RUC). By approaching the study of crises and emergencies from the angle of information and communication management, the Center seeks to enhance China’s crisis management research and practices. Since its founding in Sep. 2006, the Center has been at the forefront of China’s crisis management and has helped a number of organizations prepare and respond to crisis situations.

The effective management of crisis situations is essential to the stable and sustainable development of modern, risky society, as has been widely recognized. Since the beginning of the 21^st century, the Chinese government has had to confront crisis situations on an increasingly regular basis, and the importance of effective crisis management has begun to be realized. Two State Council documents successively issued in 2006, The Preparatory Plan for Urgent Handling of National Public Emergencies in January and Opinions on How to Comprehensively Strengthen Emergency Response Work in July, marked a new stage in the development of China’s crisis management.

In China, however, crisis management is still a relatively young field, lacking a solid theoretical base and sufficient practical experience. The Center aims at changing this status quo by developing systematic theories, research methods and effective management measures.

The Center approaches the study of crises from the perspective of information and communication management, in the sense that we consider crisis management—surveillance, early warning, response, resolution, restoration of order—as an integrated process of information and communication management. Communication management, based on the flow of information, is the nervous system, as it were, of the entire system of crisis management, just as a rescue system, based on the flow of humans, material and capital, is its material system. The proper functioning of both these systems is essential to effective crisis management.

Research at the Center focuses on four main areas:

Basic theoretical research in crisis communication management, including research on

• Core concepts and theoretical frameworks of crisis communication management;
• The process, mechanism, key factors and effects of crisis communication;
• The function and role of interpersonal, group, organizational and mass communication in crisis communication management.

At the same time, the Center also conducts applied research in such areas as evaluation index for crisis management, index for crisis early warning, and models for the proper control of information flow during crisis.

The media’s role and influence in crisis communication. In times of crisis, the media not only performs its usual watchdog function, but also exerts a powerful guiding influence on the opinion, psychology and behavior of the public. News reports that are prompt, timely, objective, rational and responsible help to minimize harm through providing proper guidance to the public. Conversely, slow, false and sensational reports only serve to exacerbate the crisis by spreading fear and chaos.

Public crisis communication management. In modern societies, governments and public agencies are responsible for the routine handling of such crises as earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, droughts, epidemic diseases, accidents, mob violence, and other public security challenges. The questions that consequently arise include:

• How to establish crisis surveillance and early warning systems in accordance with the conditions of China?
• How to develop a mechanism for timely and effective governmental response to crisis situations?
• How to provide proper guidance to the public by means of news release and information disclosure?
• How can the government improve society’s self-organization capability during crisis?

Corporate crisis communication management. Corporation is a basic building block of China’s economy. In a market economy where competition is fierce, corporations are constantly faced with dangers and pitfalls: industrial accidents, unsafe and defective products, product tampering, consumer complaints, blackmailing, scandals, changes in top personnel, and negative publicity are all likely to get corporations into deep trouble or even make them go bankrupt. The issues that arise for businesses include: establishment of CMS, early warning, communication strategy, responding to negative media publicity, image repair and so forth.

The center is an interdisciplinary platform, based in communications and journalism and drawing on insights from management, sociology and other social and behavioral sciences. It is also an open platform, both in the sense of approaching crisis management from an open, global perspective, and because it aims to contribute to the profession by combining the expertise and experience of a diverse group researchers and practitioners both at home and abroad.

Sincerely yours,

Guo Qingguang

Director, Center for Crisis Communication Management, Renmin University of China