Transparency on Corporate Websites and Social Media During Crises : A Rhetorical and Semiotic Analysis on the Rhetorical Constructions of Transparency Online

Abstract: This research paper is examining how corporations can create a rhetorical construction of transparency on digital platforms in order to make their communication appear transparent during a crisis. Crisis communication theory and theories of rhetoric and transparency have been used in order to analyse the crises situations and the linguistic means used in crisis related messages. By using the methods of semiotics and digital rhetoric, an analytical framework was developed to be able to analyse the level of both the rhetorical construction of transparency as well as the actual transparency by identifying what information has been disclosed and what has been withheld. The two companies used for the analysis were Toyota and Samsung, who both experienced a crisis in 2016. It was found that the two companies used different strategies in their crisis communication, in which Toyota came across as the best prepared corporation in times of crises due to a clearer reaction, which was not changed. Both corporations managed to construct a level of transparency through their use of language, however, some information was found to have been withheld, causing the actual transparency to be of a lower degree than the constructed transparency. Thus, by using language in certain ways, corporations are able to convince their stakeholders that they are transparent while being able to withhold different information that could prove valuable to some groups of stakeholders.