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Online comments have been hailed as the current big trend in the Public Relations field (Crijns, Cauberghe, Hudders, & Claeys, 2017; Rim & Song, 2016; Sung & Lee, 2015), despite some news sites (e.g., Chicago Sun-Times) eliminating commenting functions in their websites (NeimanLab, 2015). Exposure to crisis-related information available in social media and blogs affects public perception of a crisis (Stephens & Malone, 2009); this indicates a possibility that exposing participants to user-generated content can mitigate perception towards a crisis situation. Such trends should reflect a shift of public relations roles with more emphasis on interactive features such as commenting in online media—given that the public has begun to play a crucial role in shaping opinion through interaction with organizations. This states the potential problem of practitioners’ best use of online communication outlets in public relations strategies. For instance, Crijns et al. (2017) recognized the impact of negative comments and advised that organizations should provide responses to negative online comments to positively influence publics. It is difficult for crisis managers to alter user-generated crisis-related messages. This lack of control calls for empirical research to understand the effect of unrefined information online to resolve organizational vulnerability (Gruber, Smerek, Thomas-Hunt, & James, 2015).
Taken together, trends in the concurrent rise of comments, online readers’ comments, clicks, and “likes” raise an important question in the current paper: will such cues affect the public's perceptions towards a crisis situation? Previous studies have begun to recognize newsreaders’ growing influence on shaping the public sphere, as aggregated data (i.e., number of clicks or number of emailed news articles) impacts individuals’ attitudes and behaviour patterns (Duan, Gu, & Whinston, 2008; Hong & Park, 2012; Kim, 2014) as well as news consumption (Knobloch-Westerwick, Sharma, Hansen, & Alter, 2005). However, Sung and Lee (2015) criticized the lack of extensive research in examining the impact of what people say online on individuals’ perception. Given the shortage, a worthwhile next step should involve examining the impact of crisis-related information available online that may influence public perception. Thus, this paper aims to investigate how information provided by people in online news media would form public perception towards an organization portrayed in a crisis news article.
Similarly, Sundar (2008) termed the same phenomenon as the bandwagon effect/heuristic, as he argued that individuals are likely to assume that something is correct if many others think that is the case. The bandwagon heuristic simply signifies perceived endorsement by other people (Sundar, Knobloch-Westerwick, & Hastall, 2007). The bandwagon effect refers to the tendency for social constituents to emulate the consensus among a critical mass of peers as their focal choice (Bass, 1969; Simon, 1954). People have the propensity to gravitate towards content with high popularity because they associate the quantity of viewings with the quality of its appeal (Fu & Sim, 2011). In this regard, the number of “likes” can be operationalized as a heuristic cue that triggers bandwagon perceptions.
originally posted by: network dude
Ever see the documentary "idiocracy"? It's what plants crave.
Will comments shape your opinion?
Ever see the documentary "idiocracy"?
Will comments shape your opinion?
originally posted by: FlyersFan
Will comments shape your opinion?
Nope. I read comments for entertainment.
Other peoples opinions pretty much mean nothing to me ...
originally posted by: PorkChop96
a reply to: Moon68
There are those on here that think too highly of themselves and see everything they have to say as gospel.
They are easy to get sidetracked and irritate.