La política de comunicación proactiva de las instituciones públicas para combatir crisis

María del Mar  Rodríguez González; Iñigo Marauri Castillo; Maria Jose  Cantalapiedra Gonzalez

doi:10.4185/RLCS-2013-985

Authors

María del Mar Rodríguez González País Vasco University http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9121-1468
Iñigo Marauri Castillo University of the País Vasco http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0883-8003
Maria Jose Cantalapiedra Gonzalez País Vasco University http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4961-2326

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2013-985

Keywords:

Crisis communication, social networks, strike, institutional communication, proactivity, storytelling

Abstract

The air traffic controllers’ strike that took place in Spain from the third to the sixth of December 2010 is a paradigmatic case of crisis communications. Objectives: The objective of this research article is to analyse the public communications strategies implemented, on the one hand, by the Ministry of Public Works and the Spanish government and, on the other, by the promoters of the strike, the air traffic controllers union. Methods: The study is based on the analysis of the news coverage of five of the main Spanish newspapers and the impact of the strike on the social networks. Conclusions: The results indicate that the Spanish government implemented a better communications plan, which was based on anticipation, proactivity and the use of the storytelling technique, i.e. the narration of a story with 'good' and 'bad' characters (the citizens and the government, on the one hand, and the promoters of the strike, on the other), which had a huge impact of the public opinion. The communication “strategy” of the promoters of the strike failed in its mission as it was characterised by improvisation, reactive attitudes and lack of coordination.

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Author Biographies

María del Mar Rodríguez González, País Vasco University

María del Mar Rodríguez Gonzalez (San Sebastián, 1974) holds a Ph.D. from the University of the Basque Country (2005). Her Ph.D. thesis examined the communications policies used to public institutions to deal with situations that can provoke social rejection, and focused on the analysis of the Zabalgarbi case. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in journalism from the School of Information Sciences of the University of the Basque Country in June 1997.

She is currently responsible for contents in the Eroski Consumer project, which is part of the Eroski Foundation Group. She is part of the faculty staff of the Esden, Business and Technology School, where she teaches crisis communication. Her most important publications include:

Políticas de comunicación públicas (“Public communications policies”). Zer, 20, pp. 25-57.
La comunicación institucional y de servicios (“Services and institutional communication”) (2006). Estudios sobre el mensaje periodístico, pp. 431. V. 12.
La comunicación institucional y de servicios. Las páginas web municipales de las capitales de provincia españolas (“Services and institutional communication. The municipal websites of the Spanish provincial capitals”) (2006). Anàlisi Quaderns de Comunicació y Cultura, pp. 63-78. Nº 33.
Cómo afrontar la comunicación en una situación de crisis motivada por el rechazo ciudadano, caso Boroa (“How to manage communication in crises prompted by social rejection”). Zer, 17, p. 121.
Periodismo para la libertad ("Journalism for freedom") (1996), in JA Dorronsoro, Los nuevos testigos de la realidad. Spain: El Correo, Universidad del País Vasco.

She has carried out research as guest Ph.D. student at the Catholic University of Chile (2003) and the Catholic University of Argentina (2004).

Iñigo Marauri Castillo, University of the País Vasco

Iñigo Marauri Castillo (Vitoria, 1973) is a professor at the School of Social and Communication Sciences of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). He teaches News Genres and Journalism. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and obtained the Doctoral degree in 2008. His doctoral thesis focused on the news treatment evolution of the daily general-information newspapers in Spain (Evolución en el tratamiento de los sucesos en la prensa diaria de información general en España [1977-2000]"), and was financed by the Basque Government. He undertook research as guest Ph.D. student at the Catholic University of Chile (2003) and the Catholic University of Argentina (2004).

Has worked for El Correo and El País newspapers, and became the Editor in Chief and Associate Editor of the print and online editions of Consumer Eroski magazine (www.consumer.es). He has also held the post of Deputy Director and Head of Research of Consumidores, a multimedia project of the Basque Public Broadcasting Corporation (Euskal Irrati Telebista, aka EITB), which includes a weekly television program in ETB2, a weekly radio program on Radio Euskadi and a website (www.eitb.com/consumidores).

Maria Jose Cantalapiedra Gonzalez, País Vasco University

María José Cantalapiedra González, PhD in Information Sciences from the University of the Basque Country, is a University Professor in the Department of Journalism II of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Communication, which she has directed since 2007.

Informative Genres in the Degrees of Journalism, Audiovisual Communication, and Advertising and Public Relations.

Among his lines of research is the evolution of journalistic genres, and their transposition to the Internet. He teaches the course Theoretical bases and research methodology in cyberjournalism in the Master in Social Communication of the same Faculty.

She also teaches in the Master in Multimedia Journalism El Correo-UPV / EHU. The figure of the journalist and her working conditions is another of her topics of interest, already present in her doctoral thesis. In this sense, he signed, together with professors Bezunartea and Coca, one of the reference studies: The employment and professional situation of Basque journalists.

Following this line, he has directed the thesis "Origin and evolution of the relationship between journalists and the military in operations The Iraq 2003 recessed system ", defended in 2011; and "The professional situation of journalists in the main media in the Basque Country", defended in 2012.

She has also signed, together with Rosa M. Martín Sabarís and Begoña Zalbidea, the EITB Style Book, published this year. Author of more than twenty publications, she currently directs a research project of the Saiotek Program granted by the Department of Industry, Innovation, Trade and Tourism to Scientific-Technological Agents integrated in the Basque Network of Science, Technology and Innovation for research She is the director of fifteen doctoral theses, of which eight have already been defended. She coordinated for three years the Conference on Communication and New Technologies at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Communication of the UPV-EHU; She has directed the Seminar on Digital Journalism, which was held at the UPV-EHU from 2000 to 2005; and she has co-directed the Press Conference from 2000 until its last edition in 2008.

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