University of Twente Student Theses

Communication in the earthquake region in the province of Groningen: an evaluation by the residents : an explorative study into how the residents of the earthquake region in the province of Groningen evaluated the communication activites by the Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij, the involved municipalities, the province of Groningen and the Ministry of Economic Affairs

Bruggen, M. van (2015) Communication in the earthquake region in the province of Groningen: an evaluation by the residents : an explorative study into how the residents of the earthquake region in the province of Groningen evaluated the communication activites by the Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij, the involved municipalities, the province of Groningen and the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

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Abstract:	Motive – The residents of the province of Groningen are the victims of earthquakes in the province. Numerous residents have encountered damage to their properties. The earthquakes are caused by gas extraction of the Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij (NAM). Besides the NAM, the Ministry of Economic Affairs has an important role in the gas extraction in Groningen. As well as the Province of Groningen and the involved municipalities. As the residents of the earthquake region are the primary victims of this crisis, this study focuses on how the residents perceived the communication activities by the multiple involved parties. Goal - This study has the goal to provide an exploratory insight into how the residents of the earthquake region in the province of Groningen evaluated the communication activities by the Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij, the involved municipalities, the Province of Groningen and the Ministry of Economic Affairs that have been used in order to inform them about the crisis events. Method - Qualitative research using semi-structured interviews were conducted in order to answer the research question. The participants of this study were categorized into two groups. Group A were participants living in the official earthquake region, while Group B were participants living within the official earthquake region and were all members of an interest group. This distinction was made in order to find out if there would be a difference in crisis involvement between group A and group B. Thirty interviews have been conducted. Findings – Participants of group A perceived the communication activities by the involved parties as good examples of communication. Besides, the participants felt sufficiently informed by the involved parties. Furthermore, ten out of the 15 participants of group A indicated to not feel affected by the earthquake events. The communication messages did have an influence on their feelings and thoughts about the involved parties. The participants of group B remembered more undertaken communication activities than the participants of group A and reviewed these activities more often as negative. Furthermore, all participants of group B felt insufficiently informed by the involved parties and all participants of group B felt strongly affected by the earthquakes and all participants believed that the communication messages of the involved parties could have been better. Discussion – The findings of this study present that the victims of the earthquake events as the stakeholders of the involved parties evaluated the communication activities differently and that one group showed a higher level of involvement in the crisis events than the other group. Although the victims lived in the same place and received the same amount of information via communication activities of the involved parties. The findings of this study present that victims of a crisis as stakeholders of the involved parties showed various levels of crisis involvement. Although a few explanations are given in the discussion section for this phenomenon, there is little existing literature on the extent of crisis involvement among various types of stakeholders. Future research – Future research is recommended in the areas of stakeholders involvement as a determiner of the outcome of a crisis, exploring the variety of emotions that can be involved in a crisis, the strategy of corrective actions and the importance of transparency in communication messages during a crisis.
Item Type:	Essay (Master)
Faculty:	BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:	05 communication studies
Programme:	Communication Studies MSc (60713)
Link to this item:	https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/67089
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