This research is the first to test aspects of Situation Crisis Communication Theory
and media effects. Due to the fact that most organizational crises are going to have a
media component, this is an area where much more exploratory research must be
conducted. It must be noted that the media suppliers are also steadily changing. It is
not enough as an organization in crisis to simply understand that the traditional media
now has interactive online components or that the organization can communicate via its
own website. Increasingly, opinion leaders are emerging out of the Web 2.0. No longer
does a journalist need to be hired by a large national newspaper to have his/her stories
read, with the proliferation of Web 2.0 anyone with some knowledge of any subject,
access to the Internet, and the time it takes to type a blog can become an opinion
leader know worldwide