What is crisis communication? Discuss the steps to be followed by an organization during a crisis

Crisis communication requires management in situations that affect an organization's relationships with its stakeholders, particularly those that draw media attention. Discussions of crisis management typically focus on three issues: (i) planning and preparing for crisis events, (ii) behavior of the organization during a crisis, and (iii) communicating with important publics during the crisis.
During a crisis, an organization should follow the steps outlined below:
1. Get control of the situation: This involves defining the problem and setting measurable communication objectives. In addition, it is important to communicate to employees how and where to get information.
2. Gather information about the situation: It is important that an organization has a means to stay up to date with the situation as it is happening so that it can respond quickly and appropriately. One way to accomplish this task is to create a crisis center that creates crisis response plans, monitors potential crises, and develops crisis response capabilities.
3. Communicate early and often: It will benefit the organization's credibility to be prepared and to explain what is happening, what the company is doing about it, and providing information about resources available to affected parties to deal with the situation.
4. Communicate directly with affected parties: It is important to be prepared to communicate with the media and to do so promptly. It is also important to communicate directly with others who are affected, such as employees, customers, shareholders, and communities.