Frame Analysis Of Power Micro-bloggers’ Texts In Brand Crisis Communication

Nowadays China is at an important stage of social transition as brand crises take placefrequently. An important reason for this is that citizens are safeguarding their rightsthrough we-media. Among we-medium, micro-blog is particularly eye-catching. Newtechnology has dowered the micro-blog with characters such as more freedom andbetter interactive features. With these characters, micro-blog has form a complicatedsocial net in which information spread and public opinions emerge in brand crises.This research innovatively applies social net theory and frame theory to the micro-blogstudies, exploring the difference of text frame of micro-blogging between the forwardnet and the reply net. This research, taking the McDonald crisis event as the case ofstudy, analyzes the forward net and the reply net by social net analysis tool to identifythe power micro-blogger. After coding their text of micro-blog with5frames includingtype of frame, topic, attitude, attribution and rhetoric, the researcher conducts thesignificant test to examine to the difference of5frames between the forward net andthe reply net, then summarize the features of frames in the two net and suggest causes.The research shows that the forward net is an information distribution net, in whichmedium, journalists, the industry and scholars are the leading micro-blogger, while thereply net is an information exchange net, in which the commons is the majorcontributor. The types of frame, topic, attribution and rhetoric are significantly differentbetween micro-bloggers in the forward net and that in the reply net. However, attitudeto the brand does not affect the interactive behavior choice of followers. Basing on thesummary of frames features in the two net, the research suggests the attribution ofpower micro-bloggers, forward/reply function and behavioral motive of followers arethe causes of the difference.