The role of epideictic rhetoric in postcrisis metanarration: The Concorde crash, relaunch, and retirement

This dissertation examined how epideictic rhetoric functions in postcrisis communication. The purpose of this study was to learn how rhetoric influences postcrisis communication and to identify elements used to salvage an organization's legitimacy, and promote learning and healing following a crisis. This study identified how British Airways and Air France responded to the 2000 crash of the supersonic Concorde aircraft and how they employed rhetoric to metanarrarate the aircraft's 2001 relaunch and 2003 retirement. This study drew upon crisis communication, organizational legitimacy, and epideictic rhetoric literature while employing the Metanarration Model (Venette, Sellnow, & Lang, 2003) and theory in conjunction with the Stages of Effective Postcrisis Communication (Seeger, Sellnow, & Ulmer, 2003). The database included British Airways Concorde press releases from 2000 through 2003, Air France Concorde press releases from 2000 through 2003, and Associated Press news articles retrieved through the ProQuest electronic database for the periods surrounding the Concorde crash, relaunch, and retirement. The Metanarration Model (Venette et al., 2003) guided the methodology; the framework for analysis was the postcrisis communication process (Seeger et al., 2003); and the database was examined for compelling themes of epideictic rhetoric. The data revealed that epideictic messages can assist in postcrisis learning and healing.