Social Risk Amplification and Brand Trust: A Comparative Analysis of Media Framing in the PR Crises of Ferrero and Fage

The subject of the research is the process of forming and transforming trust in a brand under the influence of media framing during a PR crisis in the FMCG sector. The author examines various aspects such as the mechanisms of social risk amplification in media discourse, the structure and dynamics of media frames that impact the perception of threat, as well as the relationship between the "private" and "public" phases of the crisis. Additionally, the parameters of media coverage are analyzed, including the volume of publications, the share of threat frames, the delay of corporate response, and the presence of public acknowledgment of the problem. Special attention is given to how media transform individual consumer experiences into a collective perception of risk, leading to a decrease in trust regardless of the actual level of threat. In this work, the subject of research integrates media discourse, consumer perception, and corporate communications. The study is based on a comparative case study, content analysis of media publications, and secondary analysis of consumer reactions. To assess the dynamics of trust, the Trust model is applied, which includes parameters of media coverage and the intensity of negative frames. The novelty of the research lies in the application of the Social Amplification of Risk Framework (SARF) to the analysis of PR crises in the FMCG sector, with cross-cultural comparisons of the Ferrero/Kinder and FAGE cases. The Trust model is introduced, allowing for a quantitative description of changes in trust as a function of media parameters, including corporate response delay, the share of threat frames, and the fact of public acknowledgment of the problem. The research identifies specific mechanisms of risk amplification, whereby trust may decline regardless of the actual level of threat. The main conclusion of the study is that the determining factor in the decline of trust is media discourse, which sets the symbolic interpretation of events and shapes societal perceptions of risk. The results obtained confirm the central role of media framing in the dynamics of trust and can be utilized in the development of crisis communications for FMCG brands.