Case Study of Southwest Airlines Flight 1380: Employee Hero Narrative Effectiveness in the Era of Misinformation

Rebecca A. SchrinerDr. YoungAh Lee

Department of Journalism, Ball State University

RESEARCH-IN-PROGRESS #IPRRC24

A Case for Employee Narratives

• Southwest Flight 1380: 1 passenger death – Riordan

• Southwest: 1st passenger fatality in over 50 years

• National: 1st passenger death from an American Airline accident since 2009

Methods: Case Study

Southwest Press Releases and Social Media Data

6 releases, 7 Facebook posts, 2 tweets + replies

Twitter Tweet DataScrapeHero: Twitter Scraper

4,000+ tweetsApril 17 – June 18, 2018

YouTube Comment Data Youtube Comment Scraper

600 commentsTop 30 videos by view

Data Analysis

• Mention of employee, or death or injuries

• Sentiment analysis over time

• Theme analysis over time

• Other topics mentioned

Timeline (EST)

• Crisis begins• Passenger streams on Facebook Live

APR 17th

11:03 am

• Local & national news pick up story

11:30 am

Statement #1• Gathering information

12:00 pm

Statement #2 & Conference

• CEO video

• Confirm death

4:00 pm

• NTSB press conference

9:00 pm

• Media interviews 2 passengers

9:00 pm

Statement #3• New engine inspection plan

9:20 pm

• National media interviews more passengers

APR 18th

9:45 am

Statement #4• From pilots• No media interviews

9:45 pm

• 1st lawsuit against Southwest

APR 28th

Crew Interviews

• Flight crew begins national media tour

MAY 1st

COLOR KEYExternal events, communication

(media, passengers, public)

Southwest, NTSB communication

Employee Narrative in ActionYouGov—a UK-based international market research and analytics company.

Open Q&AThank you for joining us and listening today.

And thank you to the IPRRC team for hosting this conference.

Rebecca A. SchrinerDr. YoungAh Lee

Department of Journalism, Ball State University