La comunicación y gestión de crisis. Notas comparativas entre el Caso Prestige y la tragedia del Golfo de México

a reflection on public relations techniques and instruments used in crisis management of two petroleum spillages: prestige and mexican gulf cases are proposed. these two cases occurred with a difference of eight years; the political and institutional management of the crisis has been different and its recovering phases have taken different ways. going from different researches carried out in galician universities in which the prestige case was analyzed from different points of view of communication (journalism, publicity, public relations, institutional repercussion, advertising effects, etc.), this article intends to show a comparison on the management of the situation in both cases. besides, other researches which make similar comparisons between crisis situations in petroleum sector will be taken as reference, for example the case of prestige/exxon-valdez. with this research it is intended to prepare a document in which a short comparative analysis of the crisis management of both cases and in which the main actions, instruments, tactics, and techniques of public relations applied on each one of them are clearly recognized. it is also expected that this study allows observing the evolution in crisis management in this specific sector and disposed to environmental problems, since in the last years the development of websites, blogs, social networks, etc. have been keys in crisis communication.