Crisis Communications: A Casebook Approach

Crisis Communications: A Casebook Approach, Kathleen Fearn-Banks, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, Mahwah, New Jersey, 2nd Ed., 2002, 354 pages.

There are few matters of greater concern to public relations practitioners than the increasing frequency and severity of crises. Whether such crises occur in our public schools, governmental agencies, or business enterprises our profession has been put on high alert. And while these crises affect people, property or our environment, they are matters of major concern. More than ever before, the PR professional needs not only a thorough understanding of the anatomy of a crisis but specific methods for dealing with those incidents as well. This is precisely what Kathleen Fearn-Banks offers in her new edition detailing sample crisis situations and methods for dealing with them.

This casebook approach to the study of crises offers at least two very significant advantages. First, such an approach provides the...