I read the article and after reading discovered that it is still hard for me to say in one sentence what social constructivism is. So I used my good friend Wikipedia which told me that "Social constructivism is a sociological theory of knowledge that applies the general philosophical constructivism into social settings, wherein groups construct knowledge for one another, collaboratively creating a small culture of shared artifacts with shared meanings". (2012)
My second question was how is social constructivism connected to crisis communication? In Mats Heide's article it is pointed out how crises are social constructions produced by the organizational member's perception and sense-making processes. (Heide 2009, 43)
Berger who is basically the father of social constructivism has written that the social world is a creation
of human beings and they in turn are also the creation of their social world. I quess that sentence explains nicely the system of social world.
"People always attempt to habitualize their activities to achieve efficiency, and step by step the habits become embedded as routines in the general stock of knowledge. After a while the habits are externalized, and they spread through language and discourse to other people who were involved in the original habit. In other words, habits are knowledge that earlier generarions have produced and that new generations learn through communication." (Heide 2009, 49)
I got to thinking about that paragraph and couldn't help but wonder how it affects me? How many things I do in my everyday life are just habits that have been made up by people who lived long time ago in a society that was very different from the one I'm in. We do a lot only because it is normal to do so and never wonder why.
"Crisis is often a result of poor communication between organtizations and its publics and consequently more focus should be put on the precrisis phase and on building and maintaining longlasting relationship." (Heide 2009, 43)
Crisis can damage organization so badly that it never works again. That's why so many focus of communication sciences are on crisis communication. I have learned PR about two months now and the word crisis communication seems to be in every text I read which only proves that it really has to be important. I read from the article that in order to avoid crisis, organization has to adapt to changes in the environment. I agree with that statement but this is only one step. In order to avoid crisis, organization has to pay attention to many different angles and some crisis still aren't possible to avoid. I got to thinking that maybe it isn't always a bad thing. Maybe it is like in economy where ups and downs are just part of the progress and crisis motivate organizations to change and develop in a good way.
That's all for now, hope you enjoyed.
of human beings and they in turn are also the creation of their social world. I quess that sentence explains nicely the system of social world.
"People always attempt to habitualize their activities to achieve efficiency, and step by step the habits become embedded as routines in the general stock of knowledge. After a while the habits are externalized, and they spread through language and discourse to other people who were involved in the original habit. In other words, habits are knowledge that earlier generarions have produced and that new generations learn through communication." (Heide 2009, 49)
I got to thinking about that paragraph and couldn't help but wonder how it affects me? How many things I do in my everyday life are just habits that have been made up by people who lived long time ago in a society that was very different from the one I'm in. We do a lot only because it is normal to do so and never wonder why.
"Crisis is often a result of poor communication between organtizations and its publics and consequently more focus should be put on the precrisis phase and on building and maintaining longlasting relationship." (Heide 2009, 43)
Crisis can damage organization so badly that it never works again. That's why so many focus of communication sciences are on crisis communication. I have learned PR about two months now and the word crisis communication seems to be in every text I read which only proves that it really has to be important. I read from the article that in order to avoid crisis, organization has to adapt to changes in the environment. I agree with that statement but this is only one step. In order to avoid crisis, organization has to pay attention to many different angles and some crisis still aren't possible to avoid. I got to thinking that maybe it isn't always a bad thing. Maybe it is like in economy where ups and downs are just part of the progress and crisis motivate organizations to change and develop in a good way.
That's all for now, hope you enjoyed.
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