Intensive Course on Crisis Communication under the Project Economic Education in Bulgaria 2030
An intensive course on Crisis Communication was held for students at the UNWE. The event was implemented in the framework of the project BGO5M2OP001-2.016-0004-CO1 - Economic Education in Bulgaria 2030 with guest lecturer Chief Assist. Dr. Simone Splendiani from the University of Perugia.
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The lecturer presented his book Crisis Communication and Social Media. Principles, Theoretical Models and Practical Applications.
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In his presentation Chief Assist. Dr. Simone Splendiani introduced the students to the main aspects and specifics of communication during social media crises, pointing out case studies. He outlined that the entry of digital communication and the widespread of social media have radically changed the context in which the crisis communication operates. Social media communication provides the possibility of very rapid dissemination of videos and messages of all kinds and it often allows the spread of rumours and false information. Therefore, in a crisis, it is necessary to give timely and accurate information about the situation and to designate a person in the company whom people trust and believe to communicate with the affected parties. In a crisis situation it is necessary to have a response plan, to analyze the risk in advance and to develop precautionary measures.
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Chief Assist. Dr. Simone Splendianiи |
He gave as example the COVID-19 pandemic and pointed out that crisis communication in an emerging situation such as the coronavirus is not a traditional case where the established "rules" for this type of communication are used, so in the course of the crisis, along with the efforts of national governments to cope and explain to citizens why and what measures are needed, the social media became an effective communicator through which people appealed to each other to take care and stay in their homes.
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The lecturer outlined that the power of the Internet and social media is enormous and can have a great positive and negative impact on the emergence of reputational crises. This influence should not be underestimated by institutions, companies, organizations, especially in the era of globalization and technical advancement in which we live. Effective use of social media and the global web will increasingly become more important in managing problem and crisis situations as well as public opinion, which is crucial to the well-being of any organization.
The project BG05M2OP001-2.016-0004-SO1 - Economic Education in Bulgaria 2030 is funded under the Operational Programme on Science and Education for Smart Growth 2014-2020, under the procedure Modernization of Higher Education Institutions. The project is worth BGN 5 million. The UNWE should modify its training, respectively the curricula in Economics and Management, in a way that allows them to be similar to programmes in European universities and applicable in modern business conditions. The updating and modernization will be done in partnership with other leading regional universities such as the D. А. Tsenov - Svishtov, Burgas Free University, National Sports Academy and KRIB. Through this cooperation, up-to-date curricula based on digitalization will be created and put into practice. 9 digital classrooms and 3 digital laboratories which are an indispensable addition to the modern learning process, will be put into operation. It will enable the sharing of resources, including know-how between the partner universities and/or between the students and their university lecturers and mentors to be maximized.
The project relies on the inclusion of a large part of the lecturers involved in its implementation in the programmes for further training and/or short-term specialization at the foreign partners as the share of young scientists should be at least 15 percent. It is planned to implement 15 joint programmes with partner Bulgarian higher education institutions and to introduce 7 new programmes with digital educational content, including distance learning. 2 educational programmes in a foreign language will be introduced in cooperation with foreign universities and scientific organizations.
The project will provide support for students to develop entrepreneurial skills and digital creativity. The project will be implemented for 30 months, and all of the above will contribute to the improvement of the quality of education in Economics at UNWE and in Bulgaria as well as to the improvement of the quality of research at UNWE and other partner universities.
