Article
When Crisis Becomes Policy: Credit Card Security Crises and Congressional Speeches
The Electronic Journal of Communication
(2017)
Abstract
With the proliferation of credit card security crises in the 21st century, Congressional actions and debates are likely to increasingly focus on cyber-safety and -security. This study applied the three-phase crisis model (pre-crisis preparedness, during-crisis management, and post-crisis response) to policy debates and emerging legislation relative to major credit card crises. Qualitative analysis methods explored Congressional debates over credit card security, in the context of real-time connections between crisis and public policy development from C-SPAN digital archives. There were 97 bill proposals and afferent Congressional debates between 1992-2015 that included references to “credit card” and “security.” Policymakers predominantly formulated their arguments around (1) past crises foreshadowing future ones, (2) hackers posing a major threat to national security, and (3) assigning responsibility for preventing and fixing credit card security problems. Public policy was most often proposed in reactive terms and discussed in the aftermath of a crisis, as opposed to a sustained focus on crisis prevention and preparedness.
Keywords
- Congress,
- crisis,
- C-SPAN,
- credit cards,
- data breach,
- public policy
Disciplines
Publication Date
2017
Citation Information
Alison Novak and Marilena Olguta Vilceanu. "When Crisis Becomes Policy: Credit Card Security Crises and Congressional Speeches" The Electronic Journal of Communication Vol. 27 Iss. 1 (2017) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/alison-novak/19/