فصلنامه مدیریت بحران و وضعیت های اضطراری
پیاپی 20-21 (تابستان و پاییز 1392)

Engineering public opinion through the media plays an important role in dealing with crises effectively and managing them. Agitation of public opinion is indicative of the attitudes to which part of the general public are deeply committed and react. In many cases, these attitudes lead to agreements and commonalities that make organizations, groups, governments and people take effective and extensive measures. The media have three functions in regard to public opinion: 1) providing information on various topics through news broadcasting, 2) Transmitting a wide range of messages from government officials to people, and 3) Discussing different issues. Major media bias for directing public opinion occurs when a crisis arises in a community. Successful media should have certain requirements to be able to function correctly in crisis management through providing quick information services and transmitting the necessary messages. Depending on the type of crisis, the psychological and sociological traits of addressees and the type and extent of their understanding of crisis, the requirements of the public opinion engineering media model include different media tools and techniques and for each specific crisis, a particular plan is suggested. What this paper discusses about the role of the media in engineering public opinion is based on the individual and social psychological theories which consider individuals’ free will and inner dispositions, social factors and the role of planning factor in engineering public opinion and is consistent with the religious and national beliefs of Iranians.

Making use of the existing capacities to cope with disasters and violent crises is one of the strategies which has been of interest to researchers in this area. Since the Iranian community has witnessed some of these events in past years, utilization of its available capacities can help control such events with lower costs. Recognizing the capacities of mosques as a symbol of people’s interest in religion, director of their behavior, combat trench and the guardian of the Islamic faith and the prayer performers’ potentials as part of the existing social capital in mosques, this article attempts to evaluate their role in aiding crisis management systems and dealing with security crises. On the basis of the survey method and through a researcher-made questionnaire, a group of daily prayer performers expressed their opinions about the potentials of mosques for dealing with violent movements, their contribution to coping with rioters’ movements and their capacities in this area. The findings suggest that when security crises (riots and violent street protests) occur, daily prayer performers are capable of defending the Islamic system, displaying their public support for it and frustrating the rioters’ attempts to impose their demands on it. The findings, further, indicate that the prayer leader has great influence on daily prayer performers and can be considered a director capable of coordinating and persuading them to fight against protesters.

Rumors arise to fill individuals’ knowledge gaps in ambiguous, critical situations and cause social disruption. The purpose of the present study is to discover the sociological and psychological backgrounds and causes of rumor diffusion in communities and explore its relationship with security crises with an emphasis on 2008 sedition in Iran and in line with helping better management of rumors, particularly in critical situations. Using the descriptive-survey method, this paper has inspected the causes of rumor formation. According to the findings, fear, hatred, hope and aspiration, projection, curiosity, assurance, pleasing others, sexual drive and showing off are the psychological causes and mass confusion on a subject, being inclined to rumor acceptance, social conflict and social anxiety are considered the social backgrounds and causes of rumor formation and diffusion.

Today, organizations and communities encounter various crises. With the advancement of information technology, traditional methods can no longer help managers deal with crises. Accordingly, knowledge management is one of new approaches that can offer effective policies for the efficient and goal-oriented management of crises as well as the prediction, prevention or reduction of the impairments caused by crises. Combining technology-orientedness and human-orientedness, knowledge management approach allows us to manage crises more effectively and efficiently. The present article attempts to explore the role of knowledge management in empowering crisis management, which have been both among the modern issues during the recent decades, and offer the respective practical solutions. Using Chashpara knowledge management model, Mitroff’s crisis management model and Blanchard’s empowerment model, and combining them, the article, further, presents an explanatory model and a prescriptive model.