Social Media-Based New Crisis Initiatives in the Pandemic : Survival of the Un-Fittest?

This chapter examines the organizational dynamics of social media-based new crisis initiatives that emerged in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with a particular focus on their communication. Drawing on empirical case studies, the authors explore how these loosely structured grassroots initiatives mobilized resources, coordinated action, and maintained engagement. The study highlights the central role of digital communication—particularly through Facebook—in enabling rapid mobilization and distributed decision-making under conditions of uncertainty. We find that some initiatives managed to adapt to changing circumstances through responsiveness to demands on social media. From a Luhmann-inspired CCO-perspective, the findings on adaptability may be related to the relevance of decision communication on social media, which seems to enable self-referentiality in crisis responses as strategic praxis. The chapter contributes to communication research by challenging conventional assumptions about organizational “fitness”, offering a nuanced understanding of how communicative practices shape the development of ad hoc social collectives in crisis contexts. It calls for greater attention to the communicative constitution of organizations and the affordances and limitations of digital media in facilitating ephemeral but impactful forms of collective action.