Rethinking crisis communication beyond control: a topic modelling analysis

Purpose This study examines crisis communication research in European contexts, where crises such as pandemics, political disruptions and wars have transformed the communicative landscape. It aims to identify dominant themes, methodological trends and conceptual intersections shaping the evolution of European crisis communication research. Design/methodology/approach Using a systematic review of 377 peer-reviewed journal articles from Scopus, this study applies Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modelling to abstracts and author keywords. The analysis integrates computational results with interpretative synthesis to develop a conceptual framework that illustrates how the political, organizational and digital dimensions interact in European crisis communication research. Findings Twelve coherent topics were identified and grouped into five overarching clusters: Political and Public Discourse, Media and Platform Ecology, Health Risk Campaign Practice, Organizational and Strategic Communication, and Meta-Research and Contextual Studies. The interpretative framework demonstrates that European crisis communication operates as a multivocal, adaptive system shaped by contextual antecedents, strategic processes, mediating mechanisms and cultural moderators. The findings highlight Europe’s distinct emphasis on dialogue, participation and institutional trust, extending beyond managerial and message-control paradigms. Originality/value This study offers the first data-driven synthesis of European crisis communication research, bridging computational analysis and theoretical integration. It contributes a holistic interpretative framework that redefines crisis communication as a complex, participatory and context-dependent system. Specifically, the study reveals that while European research emphasizes multivocality, it often treats internal organizational communication as peripheral to external strategy, a gap that must be addressed to fully understand crisis resilience.