Effectiveness of Twitter's Organizational Rhetoric

Case Analysis 3
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Case Analysis 3
Interestingly, although data security breaches occur online, they mainly stem from human errors and vulnerabilities. In mid-2020, Twitter experienced a security breach where several user accounts were hacked and subsequently used to defraud the public. Following the incident, Twitter posted a message on its webpage, giving the public details of the in. This paper explores the effectiveness of Twitter's rhetoric following the hack. The paper uses an evaluative analysis and establishes that Twitter's rhetoric was fairly effective in doing what it was meant to do.
Theory/Concepts
The facts of Twitter’s situation appear to align with the framing theory, image repair theory, and identification by antithesis. The framing theory is based on the premise that audiences' perception and understanding of the situation are based on how the situation is framed or explained (Sellnow & Seeger, 2021). Framing theory can be utilized by news outlets or by organizations. According to Sellnow and Seeger (2021), organizations utilize the framing theory for publicity and try to frame their response to a crisis in a way that is favorable to them. They do so by focusing the audience's attention on certain elements of the situation while eliminating others, especially those unfavorable to the organization. In Twitter's case, the crisis was framed in a way that was favorable to the company. For instance, the company reported that only the inbox of one elected official was accessed (Twitter, 2020). It failed to report that other accounts of a former US president and an aspiring US president have been hacked (Thompson & Barrett, 2020; Fung, 2020). Yet, news outlets reported this information and, by doing so, magnified the situation and directly influenced audiences' perceptions. Sellnow and Seeger (2021) reveal that in framing theory, news outlets can either accept the organization’s response or reframe it. When they reframe the response, the impact on the audience is different.
The image repair theory is based on the premise that image is vital to organizations. In response to a threat to the organizational image, companies respond using defensive or image repair messages (Arendt et al., 2017). Image repair strategies are many. Two strategies that align with Twitter's situation are corrective action and mortification. In corrective action, the organization tries to fix the issue, while in mortification, it takes accountability for the issue and apologizes to the audience (Arendt et al., 2017). Twitter’s corrective action can be seen in the text, described as “our actions” and “our next steps.” Twitter's attempt to resolve the issue involved moving fast to "…regain control of the compromised accounts" followed by "further securing our systems to prevent future attacks (Twitter, 2020)." It applied the mortification strategy by apologizing to its customers. "We're embarrassed, we're disappointed, and more than anything, we're sorry (Twitter, 2020).” The organization must select the most appropriate image repair strategy for the target audience in image repair...