The Relationship Of Government's Communication Strategies And Credibility In Environmental Crisis

This paper focuses on the government's crisis communication strategies and its credibility in the case of Tianjin Explosion,with data collected from the social media Weibo.First,the relationships of environment crisis,crisis communication strategies and credibility are discussed,and then,three points are raised,1)the crisis communication strategies that government took 2)the change of government credibility during the crisis;3)the relationship between the government's strategies and its credibility.Next is the collection and analysis of data on the explosion,which includes 375 governments' Weibo tweets(Aug.12th-Sep.2nd,2015)and 2218 related comments.In general,government used more negative strategies(ignoring and diversity mainly)than positive ones(reinforcement and correction and prevention mainly),and government's crisis information is less reliable.As for the relationship of strategies and credibility,credibility decreased when ignoring and diversity were used,the first being worse;and it increased when positive reinforcement and correction and prevention were taken,the second being better.The relationship of strategies and credibility in the explosion is in accordance with life cycle approach model--the gestation and outbreak period,the disposal period,and the elimination period.1)in period one,government frequently used positive reinforcement,but not replying public's key concern and it caused low credibility;2)in period two,ignoring were mainly used to lighten public oversensitivity;credibility increased yet still in negative;3)in period three,reflecting on the cause of crisis and propriety of disposal,government mainly took correction and prevention strategy and its credibility increased to the highest.Governments' communication strategies and its credibility on that are the main part in the disposal in environment crisis.Thus,this paper hopes to provide some suggestions for government to stabilize its credibly in solving environment crises.