Crisis communication research has primarily focused on universal models guiding managers
of various organisations in times of crisis. Even though this is about to change, a tendency
remains for research in the field to overlook the impact of structural conditions on
organisation’s crisis communication. In order to add to the emergent discussion on new
theoretical and empirical venues within the field of crisis communication, this paper
proposes a framework based on new institutional theory for analysing crisis communication
practices as a societal phenomenon. New institutionalism is advocated due to its ability to
shift the focus from agency to structure and in doing so emphasise the social preconditions
for organisational activities. In line with this, this conceptual paper discusses crisis
communication as an institution, i.e., as a set of more or less conscious ideas about formats
(the organisational structures developed for crisis communication work), contents (the
content of organisations’ communication in times of crisis) and contexts (the situations
during which organisations are expected to perform crisis communication). Moreover, we
discuss how these ideas become translated (i.e., modified) as they travel (i.e., become
legitimate, popular and get widely spread) across organisational and institutional contexts.
In order to illustrate the framework described above, the Swedish authorities’
communication in connection to the A/H1N1 outbreak is used as a case study.
