Mbugua, Judy. (2021).The use of Twitter in Crisis Management: A case of the Ethiopian Airlines Being 737 Max 8 Flight ET 302 crash on 10th March 2019

Abstract

This research was conducted to analyze the role of Twitter in crisis management by having a look at the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max Flight ET302 crash that occurred on 10th March 2019, barely six minutes after takeoff from Bole, Addis Ababa International Airport, Ethiopia. For this specific study, the researcher focused on Twitter and how it was used as a tool for communication in the last level of the three-step approach to crisis management. Four objectives guided the study; a) to establish the perceived ease of use of Twitter for crisis management by looking at the Ethiopian airplane’s crash case, b) to find out the facilitating conditions influencing the use of Twitter for crisis management by Ethiopian airlines, c) to investigate the perceived usefulness of Twitter for crisis management by Ethiopian airlines, d) to evaluate the social influence of Twitter as used for crisis management by Ethiopian airlines. The researcher used the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology theory as well as the Attribution Theory by Bernard Weiner (1986) to guide the study. The constructs of the UTAUT theory formed the basis of the research objectives while Attribution theory was used to explore crisis communication. Because of the nature of the data, the researcher applied a purely qualitative approach. The target population was 34 Twitter posts by Ethiopian Airlines done in March 2019. March was specifically chosen to represent communication after the event or post crisis. The posts were analyzed, divided into meaningful analytical units, and coded for content analysis. The study found that Twitter can indeed be a useful tool when used for communication by an organization during a crisis. Its simple structure as well as the keyword/hashtag feature makes it easy to use whereas the need to belong to a community is among facilitating conditions for its use. Its instantaneous feature and ability to reach multitudes fulfill perceived usefulness of the platform and lastly, its retweets feature assists in promoting social influence. Further research on how other social media platforms can be used by different companies for crisis communication is suggested.