Styles of Communication (Dec 2020)
Beyond the Online Voices during Crisis Communication. Case Study: Product Recall in Romania after the Usage of Fipronil
Abstract
In August 2017, a health crisis has spread all over Europe due to the contamination of eggs with Fipronil, which according to the World Health Organization, is “slightly toxic” when ingested in large quantities. Purpose: This paper aims to examine how the Romanian media and the Romanian media online users framed the egg recall and to determine the level of crisis responsibility attributed by the media and the Romanian media online users, as stakeholders, to the organizations involved in this crisis. Methodology: Using Semetko & Valkenburg’s typology of frames (2000), I employed a content analysis of the news articles issued from August 1 to December 8, 2017 by the Romanian mass-media and of the comments related to these articles. I used the QDA miner 5 software to determine the frequency of the frames and a correspondence analysis was employed to identify the relationship between the keywords (phrases) and the frames. Results: The findings showed the salience of attribution of responsibility, followed by human interest and economic frames within the news coverage. The qualitative analysis of the attribution of responsibility frame in the news articles showed that the European Union is the institution usually made responsible for the spread of contaminated eggs, being the institution that regulates the usage of unsafe substances (such as Fipronil). The findings showed that the Romanian media online users mainly focused on the economic consequences frame of the crisis, talking about the price increases that the crisis has produced.
