Taxonomy of mediated crisis responses

The article highlights the importance of organizations taking advantage of new media to handle crisis situations. Taylor and Kent (2007) point out how effective the appropriate use of the internet can assist an organization in dealing with a crisis. Their points are based on research of mediated communication and their analysis of over 100 crisis responses, conducted over a period of 7 years, from 1998-2005. Based on the findings of successful outcomes, Taylor and Kent (2007) have listed the following taxonomy for mediated communication:

Best practice #1: upload traditional tactics to the Web site

Best practice #2: integrating innovative tactics

Best practice #3: reducing uncertainty during product recalls

Best practice #4: create different Web pages for different stakeholders

Best practice #5: work with government agencies during the crisis

“Organizations can write as much as they want with no editing by the media, and they can provide supporting materials such as pictures, documents, speeches, interviews, white papers, fact sheets, and news releases to support their arguments and explanations.” (Taylor & Kent, 2007) I think this one sentence helps sum up the entire article. During a crisis, being able to handle the situation and recover quickly is a true test of P.R skill. In addition to being able to think-on-your-feet, being prepared before a crisis can even be on the radar is extremely vital. This will ensure that strategies and tactics to deal with the crisis are already drawn up and when the crisis actually happens, all that is required is execution of the tactics.

The most important point made in this article is that the internet has revolutionized the way the corporate world functions. Before, organizations were at the mercy of the media. The media could interpret the situation as they sought fit. However, now with the internet, the organization gets to explain their side of the story, without any media filters. In this way, the organization can deal with the crisis in a timely, effective and inexpensive manner.

Bibliography:

Taylor, M., & L.Kent, M. (2007). Taxonomy of mediated crisis responses. Public Relations Review , 33 (2), 140-146.

Chapter 2: Two Theories of Media Relations

This chapter basically introduces the idea that it is crucial for PR practitioners to build relationships in which "trust and integrity are the underlying elements" (Stanton, 2007, p. 15). This is because the media is recognized as a driving tool in PR campaigns, especially in the public sphere where additional stakeholders need to be reached. However, it is also important to note that in building relationships with the media, one cannot forget that this is done in a business environment where there are plenty of other stakeholders that can, and are willing to, offer better deals than yours. Habermas, a German philosopher, describes it as a "public forum in which literate and wealthy citizens exchanged information... with the object of profit" (Stanton, 2007, p. 16).

In order to develop a strategic media relations campaign that is competitive, practitioners need to be able to measure the success of their campaign. In measuring the success of the campaign, it is vital to understand the different theories that come into play and how they affect every stage of the campaign. There are a lot of theories that are brought up when it comes to media relationship building. However, one theory that is highlighted in this chapter of the book is the framing theory. It is defined as the "capacity of a media relationship builder to comprehend and interpret the agenda-setting policies and source selection processes employed by the media" (Stanton, 2007, p. 18). In other words, it requires the practitioner to sell the story according to the interest of the news provider that they are pitching to and to understand the target audience of the news provider.

Using avian flu as an example, different aspects of the news is interesting to different groups of people. The general public would most probably be interested in whether the virus have been controlled and preventive measures to keep their loved ones safe. The pharmaceutical companies on the other hand, would be interested in the vaccines that have been developed to counter the virus. Similarly, if I was a PR practitioner for P&G, my news story would have a different angle from a PR representative from MOE because of the different target audience that we cater to.

At the end of the day, we frame news a certain way in order to elicit a certain response or interpretation from the other party. However, in eliciting this desired response, certain practitioners go to the extent of unethical news framing where fabricated issues and events are framed in a certain way that it takes up the form of reality to the extent that it becomes difficult to tell fake from real.

-Noraida Mohamed Yunos-

Chapter 7: Framing the Story in a Corporate Campaign

In a nutshell, this topic is mainly trying to say that indeed the media’s perception or the way they are going to write about the company is very crucial.

“…Overall the frame will reflect the image of the vehicle…” The media somehow creates the image of the company to the general stakeholders’ also known as consumers. Like in the recent case with the Apple iPhone 4, consumers or yet to be consumers had a negative impression of the Smartphone. In this case it was an overly smart design that can even block out reception! Indeed, iPhone 4 faced an antenna issue. During the press conference, Apple CEO Steve Jobs had one Friday morning to change the perception of millions of users through a press conference. Many wrote about how Jobs will solve the matter however the key point that journalists took notice of was that the 55-year-old CEO was responsible and courageous enough to admit the problem and providing a free solution, which I say in my opinion change my perception of the phone. Consumers’ will know that “if my iPhone faces a problem, Apple will solve it and not hide”.

Slowly trying to lead consumers’ negative impression of the iPhone 4, Apple in August 18, 2010 came out with an exclusive interview with a diversified automotive company, JM Family Enterprises. A short but well written article, which in my opinion says “ look even an $8 billion corporation is using the iPhone as a medium to connect to their customers, gosh! iPhone must be a reliable phone and a user friendly phone”.

-Klara Wu C3098954

Developing Media Relationships Around News

This chapter points out that media relations is a two-way process and that both the media and sources are equally dependent on each other. The media worry about how they can get information about various issues and events from organisations as much as media relations practitioners worry about how they can secure the media's interest in their client's events and issues.

Stanton (2007) mentioned that there are two factors to building a successful media relationship; information that the media would be interested in, and the ability of a media relations practitioner to provide the information. Therefore, media relations practitioners need to be able to find a news angle on events and issues of their clients to generate media interest. This however leads to the following questions.

1. What is news and how is it perceived by different media?
2. Is news the only element in a media relationship building process that interests a practitioner?
3. Is news something that exists between the media and those issues or events from which it emanates?
4. How is news imagined by the media? how is news imagined by practitioners? (Staton 2007)
   

We can thus tell from the points that Staton mentioned that developing media relationships around news is indeed a complex matter that can go haywire if not handled appropriately.

Since we have been on the case of Apple, I shall elaborate on the same company's strategy in this case also. Apple's strategy in turning what was supposedly negative news for them into positive news as mentioned earlier in klara's entry is a sign of good a well developed media relationship. Apple managed to find yet another angle in all the negativity that was first reported and turned it around and made it beneficial for their company's image. It is also only thanks to having a good media relationship that allowed Apple to make clarifications and to maintain the image of the company.

We can thus conclude that it is indeed important to develop good media relationships because as much as the media can help to make an organisation rise above all, it can also cause the demise of it.

you min.

Chapter 11 “Risk, uncertainty and crisis” of Media Relations by Richard Stanton

The main objectives of this chapter are to help readers to understand and identify risk and uncertainty in media relations. While it is impossible to eliminate all levels of risk, it is important for media relations to reduce the level of risk and uncertainty for their primary stakeholders, namely the client and the media.

Stanton (2007) Listed down four stages for ricks and uncertainty:

1. 1. When we deliver a campaign proposal to a client
2. 2. When we send out material to the media
3. 3. When there is a knowledge gap
4. 4. When our frame does not match the media agenda

While the client remains as a stakeholder of utmost importance, it is also necessary to balance the agenda of the clients with that of the other stakeholders. A client may who understands the risk that involves their business does not necessarily understands the risk involved in media relations and the important to educate them to minimize risk.

In the recent “Antenna-gate” incident involving Apple’s iPhone antenna’s signal issues, Apple had to embark on a massive PR campaign to prevent the issue from escalating. It started with an increasing number of complains made by users about its reception problems and various technology websites such as Consumer Reports stating that they could not recommend the iPhone because of its reception issues.

Apple CEO, Steve Jobs had to hold a press conference to address the issue and state that the problems had been exaggerated by the media as hand phones from other companies also experience reception issues when held in a certain way. He also went on to quell any suggestions that Apple had not done enough testing with its phones by showing journalist their high-tech testing centre.

This incident from Apple gave a vivid example of how a company manages its crisis and uncertainty and it is certain that Apple will do its best to prevent such incidents from happening again.

-Frederick Leow Beng Wee-