PhD Projects
AI in Crisis Communication
This PhD project investigates the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in organizational crisis communication. As organizations face recurring and highly mediatized crises, AI tools are increasingly employed to support fast, data-driven communication processes. Despite their growing importance, the use and acceptance of AI, along with their implications in crisis communication, are not yet fully understood. The project takes a multi-method approach that combines four perspectives: a scoping review of existing research on AI in crisis communication; an experiment to examine whether Generative AI models preserve cultural nuances when translating corporate crisis statements; a representative survey exploring public perceptions, acceptance, and ethical concerns related to AI-supported crisis communication; and expert interviews with communication professionals to gain insights into practical applications and organizational challenges. Overall, the project aims to contribute to strategic communication research, inform organizational practices, and promote responsible and context-sensitive use of AI in crisis situations.
Credible Corporate Climate Change Commitments: Exploring Financial Newswires Watchdog Role
Nadya Masidlover, MSc
Climate change pledges have become a prominent theme in corporate communication. But their proliferation has raised concerns about the tangible action behind these commitments. Through the enactment of the watchdog role, financial news media has the potential to strengthen corporate accountability regarding emission reduction practices and encourage greater transparency and credibility. Previous scholarship has revealed weakness in financial journalists’ watchdog role performance, yet we lack in-depth scholarship one influential type of media organization: financial news agencies.
Positioned at the intersection of financial and climate journalism, this project will explore the watchdog role of global financial new agencies in their coverage of corporate climate action. The project will provide insights into these news organizations’ current watchdog practice and identify areas of improvement to strengthen their role performance.
Constructing Green AI: Corporate Sustainability Discourse and Environmental Authority
Megan Rollerson, MSc
Artificial intelligence is proposed as a driver of sustainable development, even as its energy, water, and resource demands grow. This PhD project investigates how major technology corporations construct AI as environmentally responsible through strategic communication, and how their discourse functions as a legitimacy strategy that shapes public understanding, governance, and accountability. It focuses on techno-optimistic, future-oriented claims about AI's sustainability potential. The project takes an article-based, multi-method approach combining four perspectives: a critical discourse analysis of corporate communication from leading AI developers, identifying the frames through which companies position AI as a sustainability solution while minimizing its environmental impacts; a representative survey of the Swiss public examining how corporate and media frames resonate in public perceptions; an analysis tracing how corporate sustainability claims travel into regulatory and policy discourse; and a study of how news media take up, amplify, or contest these narratives. Overall, the project aims to contribute to strategic communication and sustainability communication research by illuminating how constructed corporate authority influences the imaginaries of AI's environmental impact.