Communication In Incidents Involving College Student Casualties In China: Dilemma And Solution

Since China adopted the policy of reform and opening up almost four decades ago,great changes have taken place in China's social and economic structures.With the rapid economic development,China has entered a crisis-prone period,in which institutions of higher learning are faced with an increasingly complex external environment.At the same time,with the deepening of the reform of higher education system in China,colleges are facing more and more uncertainties in their development.Due to the two intertwined factors,i.e.,complexity of the external environment and uncertainties in development,Chinese colleges are no longer ivory towers in the traditional sense;rather,they are confronted with a host of crises and challenges,as is testified by incidents that have been occurring on college campuses across the country.After a crisis event occurs in a college,the normal operation of the college will be jeopardized.And if the crisis fails to be dealt with in a timely manner due to the absence of an effective response mechanism,it may lead to further deterioration of the situation.Such a development will undoubtedly disrupt the normal teaching and research activities of the college,damage the reputation of the college,hinder its development,and may even affect the social stability of the region where the college is located.The causes of such college crisis event are complex and varied,among which information management is an important part.Poor information transmission and inadequate communication are often the main causes of crisis events on college campuses.To a certain degree,information communication,as a means of crisis management,is at the very core of crisis management.In light of the different characteristics of a crisis event in its different stages and the specific recipient of information,an appropriately customized communication strategy should be adopted,and a sound crisis information communication mechanism should be established.This is an urgent task to be completed in the effort to prevent and resolve crisis events in colleges and universities in China.From the perspective of communication in crisis events,this paper discusses the problems and solutions faced by Chinese colleges in dealing with student casualties.The first part of the paper is the introduction,which summarizes the research significance and achievements of this paper.The second part introduces concepts and theories relating to college student casualty incidents and communication in crisis,focusing on interpreting college student casualties,the concept of communication in crisis,theories relating to crisis management and communication in crisis,as well as their legal and institutional basis;The third part is dedicated to analyzing the current state of communication in crises involving college student casualties in China.In the fourth part,two typical cases are introduced to analyze the difficulties in communication in incidents involving college student casualties and the roots of such difficulties;in the fifth part,on the basis of the structure of the aforementioned theoretical model,the improvement of the communication strategies is discussed from four perspectives,namely,establishment of communication principles,preparatory stage of communication,implementation of communication,and restoration;the last part is the conclusion and provides prospects on future researches.