Because crisis happens : analysing the implicit in Parmalat's crisis press releases

At the end of 2003, the Italian dairy giant Parmalat became embroiled in a financial scandal which, in a matter of weeks, led to temporary receivership and the initiatioin of bancrupcy procedures. Pressured by the international media (eager, in the wake of the scandals that had hit the American markets a few years earlier, to point the finger at the perpetrators of financial crimes), as well as by investors and other stakeholders, Parmalat issued a series of press releases which document the unfolding of the crisis and illustrate the approach to crisis communication chosen by the company. This paper analyses the press releases in English (aimed, therefore, at the international public) issued by Parmalat between November 2003 and August 2004. The press releases are analysed both qualitatively, in a discourse-analytical perspective, and quantitatively, with the help of computerised routines (Wordsmith Tools 4.0), with a view to identifying the main features of Parmalat''s crisis communication strategy. The finding suggest that Parmalat did not have a clear communication strategy, and that textual (genre-related), lexical and syntactic choices conveyed implicitly the image of a company unwilling to engage dialogically with its stakeholders and unable to control the course of the events.