DISSERTATION
Abstract: In recent years, the global environment in which modern organizations operate has been dominated by a 24-hour news cycle, rapid information flows, demanding increased sensitivities to diverse populations, and intense scrutiny upon every level of the organization. The evolving informational habits have heightened the pressures on organizations and how they deal with crises, which has reshaped the field of crisis communication. In this complex and global environment, the ability to be creative has been named one of the key components to differentiation and survival. Based on a necessary paradigm shift for crisis communication, where uncertainty and chaos are embraced, I argue that organizations that are Creativity Ready have the ability to be more adaptive and better prepared to respond to unexpected situations. Thus, this study sought to understand how crisis communicators strike a balance between crisis planning and the necessity of being flexible and creative in the face of crises. By designing and applying of the Creativity Readiness construct to branding discourse related to creativity as found on corporate websites and Twitter feeds, as well as crisis communicators interviews, this study maps out to what extent crisis communicators operate in an environment conducive of creative behaviors. Overall, it was found that, in crisis communication, creative work happens mostly out of necessity––at times when plans fail or are simply not enough to appropriately deal with a crisis. Crisis communicators and their organizations have not yet truly carved out a space where creativity is fostered, supported, and expected.
Teaching
Instructor for Advanced Public Speaking - see my syllabus here
Teaching Assistant for Public Speaking (Dr. Matt McGarrity)
Teaching Assistant for Communications Ethics (Dr. Matthew Powers)
Teaching Assistant for Innovation Readiness: Cultivating an Innovation Mindset (Dr. Gina Neff, Dr. Payman Arabshahi)
Assistant for Public Relations Writing (Prof. Kathleen Fearn-Banks)
Guest lecturer
Social Media and Crisis Communication - A Love/Hate story
Social Media Etiquette
The Elevator Pitch (for yourself/for an organization/event)
The Use of Social Media During Disasters (for High Schoolers - Presented at Redmond HS)
How to Use Social Media During Disaster for City Volunteers (Kirkland CERT, Seattle CERT).
Advisory Board Member for the UW Public Relations Student Society of America (UW PRSSA).
Research
Arif, A., John Robinson, Stephanie Stanek, Elodie Fichet, Paul Townsend, Zena Worku and Kate Starbird. (2017). A Closer Look at the Self-Correcting Crowd: Examining Corrections in Online Rumors. To appear in Proceedings of the ACM 2017 Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (CSCW '17).
Elodie Fichet, John Robinson, Dharma Dailey, & Kate Starbird. (2016). Eyes on the Ground: Emerging Practices in Periscope Use during Crisis Events. In A. Tapia, P. Antunes, V.A. Bañuls, K. Moore, & J. Porto (Eds.), ISCRAM 2016 Conference Proceedings – 13th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil: Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
Andrews, C. S., Fichet, E., Ding, Y., Starbird, K., & Spiro, E. (2016). Keeping Up with the Tweet-Dashians: The Impact of ‘Official’ Accounts on Online Rumoring. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW, 27, 452-465.
Received an Honorary Mention.
Fichet, E. (in press). Social Media Is Free Like A Free Puppy: The Challenges Of Implementing and Maintaining Social Media Strategies in a Local Office of Emergency Management. Presented at the NCA 101st Annual Convention (Applied Division), Las Vegas (November, 2015). Request.
Fichet, E. (2015). Toward a Systematic Approach to a Comparative Analysis of the French and American Public Relations Institutions. Presented at the NCA 101st Annual Convention (PR Division), Las Vegas (November, 2015).
Conference presentations
Washington Social Media Summit – June 2016
Clean Pacific Conference – June 2016
NOAA Regional Preparedness Training Workshop, Florida – June 2016
National Communication Association (NCA) – November 2015
evaluations
"I absolutely loved this class. All three speeches were extremely different which allowed me to stretch my skills and speaking abilities. I also loved hearing from different speakers that are actually in the field of the topic we were focusing on. This class has pushed me to want to pursue more public speaking careers in the future and have been actually using the skills attained in my other classes as well." - COM 320 Student Winter 2015
"It was most certainly Elodie's enthusiasm, active participation, and deep pool of knowledge that contributed to everything that I learned over the course. She wanted us to succeed and be the best that we could be and it really showed in how she taught. She went above and beyond for all of us in and out of the classroom." - COM 320 Student Winter 2015
"This was probably my favorite class at UW. Thank you for an amazing quarter!" - COM 320 Student Winter 2015
"I LOVED this class and felt that it really grew my speaking skills. Elodie has great teaching skills, while also making the classroom a comfortable and inviting environment." - COM 320 Student Winter 2015
"Elodie is amazing! great at explaining concepts in memorable ways and always made the class worthwhile to go to information wise without being too dense." - COM 320 Student Winter 2016
"The professor [I'm not quite there yet!] was very enthusiastic, relaxed, and patient. Her communication with the students was both verbal and non-verbal, and since the first day it invited the participation. She always had a smile in her face! and did not even hesitate to become the target of a caricature for one of the last speech presentations!" - COM 320 Student Winter 2016
"Honestly, I felt like this class was extremely well-structured. The instructor was always prepared and knew exactly how each day would run. Even when she was not there, it was extremely organized. I had full confidence in Elodie's abilities and fairness. Often times, with PhD students, they are unreasonably difficult graders or way too easy and I thought she had a really fair grading rubric and class averages weren't extremely low or extremely high which I think is exactly how it should be in a public speaking class. No negative comments for this class or Elodie! It was a great experience and she did a fantastic job instructing the class." - COM 320 Student Winter 2016
"From what I observed, Elodie is teaching this course well, with good subject-matter knowledge and classroom management skills. I especially like that she’s incorporating her own research interests in crisis communication into her teaching of this class in Advanced Public Speaking. This is just the sort of instruction that we hope to see at a research institution like the University of Washington." - Dr. Leah Ceccarelli, Winter 2015