Crisis communication strategies during natural disaster crisis case studies: Selangor flood, Malaysia
List of Authors
  • Maizurah Khathu Abdul Hamid , Manimegalai Ambikapathy

Keyword
  • Crisis, Crisis Response, Malaysia

Abstract
  • A crisis is unpredictable, especially a natural disaster crisis. Malaysian citizens are always exposed to uncertainty from the flood effect. They were affected physically and mentally, especially by the affected victim and family. Though appropriate aid was given to the needed victims by the authorities, there were many dissatisfied reactions from affected victims whereby they claimed that the authorities were not helping them during the flood and that early preparation was missed. Therefore, this research aims to analyze the crisis responses and communication carried out by the authorities in dealing with the crisis. The researcher used the qualitative method through in-depth interviews to collect information. For this research, six major key informants were finalized through snowball sampling for a qualitative in-depth interview. These informants were selected from various districts, particularly in Selangor. The finding revealed that mostly all the selected informants were not prepared for the crisis due to a lack of urgent information from related sources and they were emotionally affected due to the danger and losses faced by them. Participated informants agree that communication plays an important role during the disaster, but according to them, immediate responses and information they received were mainly received from surrounding people and non-governmental organizations through WhatsApp platforms. This study recommends that crisis preparation is on standby by providing immediate information through a diversified method. The role of governmental public relations should be highlighted to increase public trust in managing the crisis.

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