"Vi vill återigen be våra kunder om ursäkt" : En analys om hur praxis inom kriskommunikation implementeras i en verklig kris.

Abstract The purpose of this essay was to examine whether parts of established theories regarding crisis communication on social media can be found in real crisis communication during a real crisis. The crisis examined was a crisis that the warehouse Åhlens went through in 2017, where they received criticism for putting items that were injured in regards to a terrorist attack on sale just days after the attack. The essay examined both the post where Åhlens apologized as well as the customers response to said post. To answer and examine the purpose, following research questions were formulated: - How does established praxis show in Åhlens crisis communication on social media? - What response did the post receive? Are the commentators on Facebook positive or negative towards the company after taking part of the post? Few, or no other, studies where men and womens different, or similar, preferences regarding crisis communication were found during research. Therefore will this essay also examine if there are any differences of preferences between genders. To answer this purpose, following theses were enforced: - Do men and women react differently to crisis communication on social media? Are men or women more open to excuses on social media? All three research questions were analyzed by the same analytical framework. This framework was built up by the Situational Crisis Communications Theory (SCCT), scientist Timothy Coombs Reputation Repair and scientist Stuart Halls theory regarding Encoding/decoding. Two different methods were used to answer different research questions. A qualitative content analysis was used when analyzing the post made by Åhlens, while a quantitative content analysis was used when analyzing the answers. The result to this examination showed that parts of the theories used in this studie could be found in the communication communicated by Åhlens. The result also showed the general attitude towards the post on Facebook was positive. It also showed that most of the people that read and took note of the post developed a more positive attitude towards the company after reading the post. The result also showed that the respondents in general appreciated when the company did research and adapted their communication after what was expected of them regarding the crisis. In other words, the respondents were, in general, positive and appreciative of the SCCT theory. Lastly, the result showed that there were no clear difference between if men or women prefered different parts or theories regarding crisis communication. Keywords: Crisis communication, social media, Situational Crisis Communication Theory, Reputation Repair, Encoding/decoding, Faceboo