Narratives of crisis : telling stories of ruin and renewal / Matthew W. Seeger and Timothy L. Sellnow.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Seeger, Matthew W. (Matthew Wayne), 1957- author.

Sellnow, Timothy L. (Timothy Lester), 1960- author.

Series:

High reliability and crisis management Narratives of crisis

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Communication in crisis management.

Crisis management.

Narration (Rhetoric).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (212 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford Business Books, 2016.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

How did you first hear about 9/11? What images come to mind when you think of Hurricane Katrina? How did your community react to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting? You likely have your own stories about these tragic events. Yet, as a society, we rarely stop to appreciate the narratives that follow a crisis and their tremendous impact. This book examines the fundamental role that narratives play in catastrophic events. A crisis creates a communication vacuum, which is then populated by the stories of those who were directly affected, as well as crisis managers, journalists, and onlookers. These stories become fundamental to how we understand a disaster, determine what should be done about it, and carry forward our lessons learned. Matthew W. Seeger and Timothy L. Sellnow outline a typology of crisis narratives: accounts of blame, stories of renewal, victim narratives, heroic tales, and memorials. Using cases to illustrate each type, they show how competing accounts battle for dominance in the public sphere, advancing specific organizational, social, and political changes. Narratives of Crisis improves our understanding of how consensus forms in the aftermath of a disaster, providing a new lens for comprehending events in our past and shaping what comes from those in our future.

Contents:

Narratives of crisis

Humans as storytellers

How stories disrupt our sense of meaning

Making sense through accounts

Blame narratives

Renewal narratives

Victim narratives

Hero narratives

Memorial narratives

How narratives of crisis compete and converge

The consequences of crisis narratives.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780804799522

0804799520