Abstract
This study examined the role of social media in crisis communication in the context of UJ, investigating how UJ used social media to communicate with stakeholders during the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis. Communicating with stakeholders is crucial for the success of the organisation because stakeholders are the cornerstone of an organisation, without whom the organisation cannot exist. The COVID-19 crisis impacted every aspect of our lives, and the operational activities of individuals and organisations were largely impacted due to the safety regulations and the lockdown imposed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. For this reason, organisations had to adopt strategies and practices that would assist the organisations to survive the crisis. As a result, the adoption of digital communication platforms and the increased usage of social media platforms materialised as a comprehensive strategy for communicating and fostering stakeholder relationships with stakeholders.
This study employed a qualitative research approach, involving content analysis and online semi-structured interviews to answer the research question, sub-questions and objectives of the phenomenon under investigation, providing insights into how social media was used to navigate the COVID-19 crisis. The study is embedded in the Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT), Dialogic Communication Theory, and Stakeholder Theory as the theoretical foundations of this study. However, the study’s findings revealed that UJ used social media platforms and other digital communication platforms to communicate with stakeholders, offering a holistic communication strategy. In addition, the study revealed that social media was used to facilitate dialogic communication, which helped to facilitate stakeholder engagement and trust-building between the organisation and stakeholders. However, despite the findings revealing that social media was used to communicate and facilitate dialogic communication with stakeholders, the study also revealed that UJ encountered challenges and opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic while using social media in its crisis communication strategy. The study established that social media aided UJ to facilitate quick, two-way communication to reach multiple stakeholders during the crisis, allowing UJ to navigate the crisis successfully in the digital age.