The Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication (AIJC) conducted a Teaser Lecture and Virtual Open House on June 17, 2026, featuring an online discussion on issues management and crisis communication. The webinar reviewed a recent drowning incident involving university student-athletes as a real-world case study to analyze institutional crisis response.
During the online event, Janess Ann Ellao, AIJC lecturer and resource person for issues management and crisis communication, mapped the situation using communication expert Joep Cornelissen’s “issue to crisis” pressure curve to show exactly how the problem escalated into a full-blown crisis.
To understand this shift, Ellao analyzed 503 crisis-specific TikTok posts published between June 8 and June 15, 2026. The content contained distinct thematic campaigns: Demands for Justice & Accountability led with 171 posts, followed closely by Grief, Tributes, and Direct Mourning (133 posts) and Independent News Coverage (106 posts). Another 24 posts focused on Archival Receipts & Systemic Leaks, where netizens unearthed older digital logs.
According to Ellao, this digital onslaught thrived in a climate of official silence. In the two-day gap between the university’s art cards dated June 8 and June 10, online content creators rapidly filled the information vacuum, racking up an astonishing 142 million views.
Ellao noted that these art cards apparently violated stakeholder expectations, pointing to crisis framework concepts developed by W. Timothy Coombs. She observed that the university’s seemingly clinical reaction deeply offended the Filipino core value of pakikipagkapwa—which prizes treating others as absolute human equals. By prioritizing brand protection over pakikiramay (shared grief), the institution’s initial corporate response was ultimately coded by the public as arrogance.
The online event featured Dr. Paz Diaz, AIJC Vice President for Academics and Dean of Graduate School, who introduced and explained the Institute’s graduate program offerings to prospective students.
A total of 17 prospective students attended the online event.
AIJC Teaser Lectures and Virtual Open Houses are held twice a month. An upcoming Virtual Open House is scheduled for July 7, 2026. Register here.