2011/12/04 by Shari R. Veil, Timothy L. Sellnow, Elizabeth L. Petrun · 102 citations
Social Sciences · Psychology · #Public Relations and Crisis Communication #Social Media and Politics #Misinformation and Its Impacts #Hoax #Legitimacy #Social media #Public relations #Political science #Sociology #Social psychology #Psychology #Law
paper · doi:10.1177/0893318911426685
published in Management Communication Quarterly 26(2), 322-345 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2011/12/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
This study addresses the paradoxical demands of a hoax perpetrated through social media that require an organization to make a substantial response to an unsubstantiated claim. Dominos’ response to its 2009 YouTube crisis is used as a case study to demonstrate how this paradoxical challenge can be resolved by publicly casting the crisis as a learning opportunity. Analysis reveals that learning manifests in observable actions that further emphasize a commitment to the values and norms the organization originally met to earn social legitimacy prior to the crisis. Also, responding to a hoax through the same medium by which it was distributed is imperative to counter the hoax message for the same audience that received it.