Post by Karen Freberg
I had a chance to be on Melissa’s podcast a few weeks ago to talk about some of the trends and challenges professors who are teaching crisis communications are facing today. Teaching a crisis class is not only an exciting opportunity for any professor to have (especially this one), it can be daunting to some as well.
Why do I say this? The field is constantly changing and there appears to be more cases and situations that arise that come up in the field. Just look at this past year alone when we are looking at crisis situations. Malaysian Airlines (twice). US Airways. The 2014 World Cup and the protests in Brazil. The list goes on and on.
However, one of the points I made in the podcast with Melissa is the growing obstacle some professors face when teaching crisis communications – and that is how to balance both practice and research principles in the classroom. Most of the time, you have professors who are in one camp or the other.
There are professors who have a theoretical foundation in the field – they know the main theories, researches and studies that have helped shape the scholarly literature in crisis communications and management. These are the professors who assign literature reviews and case studies for students to prepare for them to contribute and add to the scholarly literature with their own research projects and proposals.
On the other hand, there are professors who have a practical background – they in essence have lived through crises themselves as a practitioner for an agency or independent consultant. They are the ones who provide students with real-time situations and simulations, hands on experience with hypothetical scenarios, and ask students to propose and write up a crisis communication proposal or playbook.
So the question is: Which one is better to adapt for a crisis communication class?
My answer: you have to do both. You never know where your students want to go after your class (PhD or Practice), so you have to take on the responsibility for balancing both in the classroom.
How do you create a hybrid crisis communication class that is both research and applied? Here are some tips I can expand on a bit from my conversation with Melissa during our podcast:
- Break the class down in half: Make sure you spend half of the class talking about the main research studies and what has been done to give the students a foundation for each week and specialization within crisis communications. The other half is spent on current cases and situations facing the industry and providing exercises to apply these principles.
- Readings reflect the hybrid principle: It’s key to have articles and textbooks for students to use as a foundation of understanding of the field. However, suggest leading crisis communication consultants and agencies working in the field for them to follow on Twitter. I have shared with my students this fall several professionals including Melissa, Deirdre Breakenridge, Jane Jordan-Meier, Rich Klein, Jonathan Bernstein, and Shawn Bouchard as some must follows when it comes to this field.
- Assign applied projects and exercises: Have students always combine research and practice in their assignments. Have them do primary research looking at crisis issues and construct measurements and scale items to fit their research inquiries and questions. Once they do this, they can brainstorm strategies and propose message frameworks that would be appropriate for the assignment based on the research they did.
- Bring guest speakers from both camps: Have a practitioner come into the class virtually or in person as well as a professor, to share their stories, points of view, and expertise to your students. Students need to be exposed to these perspectives as well as put a human face on what it means to be a crisis researcher or a crisis consultant.
Overall, you want to make sure you have a balanced perspective when it comes to your class. This may be different from what other professors are doing – but there is a growing expectation for professors to have this perspective in their classes more than ever.
I would like to thank Melissa again for inviting me to be a guest on her podcast. I had a wonderful time discussing a topic within crisis communications that is very dear to me as a professor, and I am very excited about teaching my crisis class (#FrebergGrads) at the University of Louisville this upcoming fall semester.
Note from the editor
This coming week, on The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, I will be speaking with Tegan Ford who recently graduated with her Masters in communications, and who did her thesis on social media’s impact on crisis communication. Within this episode, Tegan shares her perspective on what it was like to be a crisis comms student and how her learnings have impacted her now real-world experience. She provides great insights from the student’s perspective to compliment Karen’s advice to professors. Be sure not to miss this Sunday’s episode with Tegan! Subscribe to The Crisis Intelligence Podcast here or on iTunes or Stitcher!
Karen is an assistant professor in Strategic Communications at the University of Louisville and also is an adjunct faculty member for West Virginia University in the Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) Graduate Online program. Freberg has presented at several U.S. and international research conferences and has been published in several book chapters and in academic journals such as Public Relations Review, Media Psychology Review, and Health Communication. Her research interests are in public relations, social media, crisis communications, and mobile technologies. Follow Freberg on Twitter and connect with her on Linkedin.
You've struck the right balance, Karen, with your teaching method. I just finished my master's crisis communications course at Syracuse University under Bill Smullen, and he also took this approach. We learned the theories while also dissecting real-life examples such as Tiger Woods and Deepwater Horizon. Being able to see how the theories played out in these real-world scenarios helped me to better understand the subject.
Thank you very much for your kind words, Monica! I do appreciate this. Syracuse is a wonderful academic institution and it is wonderful to hear you had a great experience in the classroom with your professor in your crisis class. Thank you again for sharing this!
I have participated, as a PR practitioner, in a practice crisis setting. I did this as part of a meeting, but it would work in the classroom as well. Once you complete the study and tactics of crisis communication, develop a crisis situation. The students are the PR professional for: a food company, airline, any company. Break the students into groups of 6-8. You can decide based on the number of students in the class. Then, this groups sits in front of the remaining students. Each student takes a role as a PR person in the crisis. So, for a food company crisis, it could be the company, manufacturer, plant manager, related associations relevant to the crisis, city or state, as well as someone representing the person who was affected (if you include that approach). Then, the professor, or one of the students in the group, serves as the faciliator asking a list of questions or presenting scenarios that appear as the crisis unfolds…a Socratic discussion, in someways. It's fun and eye opening in terms of what PR professionals have to be prepared for and know how to execute.
Sounds like a great exercise, Joyce! What I usually do with students is an interactive crisis simulation with Agnes + Day's simulation platform. What you've described is another option, especially if you don't have the technology to do a full simulation. Thanks for sharing this with us!
What a great idea and assignment, Joyce! This can definitely be applied and tailored for a crisis class. I am actually going to be doing my crisis simulation exercise with my students in a few weeks and will have to let you know how it goes. 🙂
Interesting article, but I do have one thought to offer regarding this point: "You never know where your students want to go after your class (PhD or Practice), so you have to take on the responsibility for balancing both in the classroom."
Based on a recent study my colleagues and I did, studying the number of Ph.D.'s in the communication field, I would posit that the VAST majority of students (90 percent-plus) go the practice route. I'm not saying that theory has no place in the CC class, but one could argue that it should be weighted accordingly, given this reality.
This is such a great discussion that needs to be had, Mike. Whomever is in the classroom, I do believe that theory absolutely needs to be combined with practice. I'd even argue that, in the academic world, that practice be a part of academic research, publications and learnings. If you're interested, I've written my thoughts here, and would love to have your input: http://agnesday.com/academic-research-crisis-comm…
Mike – great points and yes, I do agree most of the students do go on for practice. I did see this when I was in both my bachelor's and master's program. However, I do think there is a time and place for theory. In the class I am teaching now, we spend the first few weeks talking about the research theories of crisis and then talk about how we can apply these as well as focus in on the specializations within the field and in practice.