Crisis communication and framing: A study of the food safety issues in Taiwan

Abstract

This study examines the three food oil crises that occurred in Taiwan between 2013 and 2014, when over a thousand food products were recalled and more than two hundred supermarkets, restaurants and food makers were affected; these crises led the Taiwanese government to revise food production regulations. The main purpose of this study is to explore how the Taiwanese government, the three companies involved (the Chang Chi company, the Chang Guann company, and the Ting Hsin company), and the Taiwanese media framed the crises and what crisis response strategies were embedded in the frames. This study draws upon crisis communication theories and framing theory to develop a theoretical framework, and applies a qualitative framing analysis method to examine the three companies’ and the Taiwanese government’s official press releases and three Taiwanese daily newspapers. Five frames have been identified in the public communication of the three main actors during the crises: ‘health’, ‘economy’, ‘responsibility’, ‘denial’, and ‘blame’. The study finds that the three edible oil companies intensely relied on the ‘denial’, ‘blame’ and ‘responsibility’ frames to respond to the crises. The Taiwanese government focused on the ‘blame’, ‘health’ ‘responsibility’ and ‘economy’ frames when framing the crises. Besides, the ‘blame’, ‘health’ and ‘economy’ frames were presented in the media reports. In addition, the study finds that the three main actors in this study adjusted their crisis response on the basis of other actors’ crisis responses. Finally, the study suggests redefining the crisis response strategy of ‘apology’, and including ‘silence’ as a crisis response strategy when research is based on Taiwanese or Chinese culture.