Rethinking how societies communicate, govern, and respond to crisis
Crises are not communicated in the same way everywhere. How governments, organisations, media, and publics understand and respond to crisis is shaped by political structures, cultural conditions, institutional arrangements, leadership, and the communication environments in which they operate.
Crisis Communication in Southeast Asia is an ongoing research programme led by labC – Lab on Crisis that investigates how crisis communication is shaped by the diverse political, cultural, social, and institutional contexts of Southeast Asian societies.
The programme approaches crisis communication not simply as the management of information during an emergency, but as a strategic, organisational, and governance process. It examines how actors define crisis situations, establish communication objectives, identify publics, construct messages, select communication channels, and coordinate with other organisations.
A particular focus is placed on how context matters. Rather than assuming that crisis communication models developed in one political or cultural environment can be universally applied, the research investigates how different configurations of culture, politics, institutions, leadership, media, and social relations shape crisis communication practices.
A Southeast Asian perspective
Southeast Asia provides a particularly important setting for comparative crisis communication research. The region encompasses diverse political systems, cultural traditions, institutional structures, media environments, and patterns of social organisation.
The programme therefore examines Southeast Asia not merely as a collection of cases in which existing theories can be tested, but as a source of knowledge for developing more context-sensitive theories of crisis communication.
Research within the programme explores how crisis communication operates across different national and organisational contexts, while identifying both shared patterns and significant differences between societies.
Research focus
The programme examines several interconnected dimensions of crisis communication:
Political and cultural contexts
How political structures, cultural repertoires, and social conditions shape crisis communication.
Governance and leadership
How governments and organisational leaders define, coordinate, and manage communication during crisis.
Strategic objectives
How crisis communication goals are established, prioritised, and translated into practice.
Publics and participation
How organisations understand different publics and how citizens, communities, media, and influential actors participate in crisis communication.
Messages and meaning
How crises are framed, explained, warned about, and communicated to affected populations.
Media and communication channels
How official, traditional, digital, and informal channels interact during crisis.
Organisational coordination
How governmental and non-governmental organisations collaborate in preparing for and responding to crisis.
Regional and transnational cooperation
How Southeast Asian actors exchange knowledge, coordinate responses, and develop regional approaches to crisis.
From crisis cases to theory
The programme is designed to move from empirical observation to theoretical development.
Its research draws on qualitative and comparative approaches, including document analysis and in-depth expert interviews. Existing research materials examine governmental disaster communication through official documents and expert perspectives, analysing political and cultural environments, organisational characteristics, leadership, strategic objectives, publics, messages, communication channels, and inter-organisational cooperation.
This empirical foundation supports a broader research agenda: to understand how crisis communication is constructed, governed, negotiated, and experienced within Southeast Asian contexts.
The programme ultimately seeks to contribute to a more plural and context-sensitive field of crisis communication—one in which Southeast Asian experiences are not treated simply as peripheral cases, but as sources of theoretical insight.
Research Programme
Crisis Communication in Southeast Asia
Research focus: Crisis, Risk, Disaster, Governance & Communication
Approach: Comparative · Interdisciplinary · Context-sensitive
Region: Southeast Asia
Principal Investigator: Dr. phil. Ngoc-Son Le
labC – Lab on Crisis