Media coverage about organisations in critical situations – Analysing the impact on employees.

Purpose– This research aims to investigate how critical media coverage of an organisation affects its employees. The authors expect the effects to be similar to the way media coverage about an individual would affect this person, termed “reciprocal effects”.Design/methodology/approach– Drawing on a framework for the analysis of reciprocal effects of mass media by Kepplinger and qualitative interviews among employees of 14 different organisations undergoing a crisis, the authors develop an employee-model of reciprocal effects for the context of organisational crises.Findings– This qualitative research shows that employees are affected by media coverage on a critical issue about their employe…