W. Timothy Coombs explains how crisis management can prevent or reduce the threats of a crisis, providing guidelines for how best to act and react in an emergency situation.

Ongoing Crisis Communication: Planning, Managing, and Responding, Fourth Edition provides an integrated approach to crisis communication that spans various disciplines as well as the entire crisis management process. Drawing on firsthand experience in crisis management, Coombs uses a three-staged approach to crisis management - pre-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis. A truly integrative and comprehensive text, this book explains how crisis management can prevent or reduce the threats of a crisis, providing guidelines for how best to act and react in an emergency situation. It includes new coverage of social media, social networking sites, and terrorist threats and draws upon recent work from management, public relations, organizational psychology, marketing, organizational communication, and computer-mediated communication research.

This new edition includes updated examples in every chapter to illustrate recent crises and the effect of crisis communication on the outcomes. New "Crisis Leadership Competencies" boxes in every chapter illustrate the essential skills needed to manage crisis communication effectively in a wide range of situations. Expanded coverage of social media throughout this new edition demonstrates its increasing impact on crisis communication and crisis management.