A Discussion On Government's Communication Strategy In Crisis Events

At present Chinese government is facing a contradiction in communication: on one hand, crisis-event communication is important both to dealing with the crisis itself and, to the shaping of governmental image; on the other, the current situation of Chinese government's crisis-event communication is dissatisfactory. Hence how to conduct efficient governmental communication is the focus of this article.Based on Chinese national condition, this research, in the light of governmental communication, applied relative theories of communication and crisis management and learnt from theories and practical experiences abroad, to analyze in detail on the topics of setting up governmental press conference system and taking advantage of mass media to conduct crisis management. It points out that the usual expressing way of news conference includes: 1, fact/conclusion expression; 2, persuasive expression; 3, tentative expression; 4, continuous expression; 5, strategy expression; 6, interpretive expression; 7, instructive expression. What more, it also develop each expression way comprehensively to enforce their practical value. With regard to governmental crisis management with mass media, this article mainly applied the stepped-analysis theory to the discussion on the government's communication with mass media on the stages of crisis ambushing period, crisis bursting out period, crisis lasting period and crisis solving period. The ultimate goal of governmental crisis communication is to realize tone unification through inspiring public mode, to shape a good governmental image through setting focus in crisis communication, to maintain a normal social order through meeting the need of the public's appetite for information. By so doing, we can expect a benign interaction among government, media and the public, letting the public to understand the government's measurements and support its decisions and, promoting the government to inform crisis efficiently, to minimize the lose caused by crisis, and to reach a resolution of the crisis fruitfully.