ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews research on social media, crisis and dialogue, the dialogue literature itself, and the literature discussing dialogue in an organizational setting. The social-mediated crisis communication (SMCC) model offers guidance for crisis managers built on best practices and knowledge related to social media's role as a channel, source, or origin of information and rumor, engagement, opinion, or emotional expression. A focus on monitoring and utilizing social media to enhance dialogue with key stakeholders leaves out the need for critical context, such as the organization's dialogue history, that is necessary to actually foster dialogue. Through dialogue, organizations can learn about issues they would not otherwise hear about. Dialogue can help organizations cope with public pressure, social change, and complexity. If the dialogue ideal is conditioned on a harmony model of society, it is worth recalling that an alternative view built on a conflict perspective does exist.
