Business Use of Media in Crisis Management

Business Use of Media in Crisis Management 1 – Introduction 2 – Why business should engage with media during crisis? 3 – What strategies are successful during crisis? 4 – Recent new stories 4.1 – Barilla Pasta 4.2 – Costa Concordia Cruise 5 – Conclusion REFERENCES: BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1 – Introduction Organizations have always lived crises, some economic, others policies, more common administrative and internal, although many of them without if it is aware. Currently, the speed with which information is sent and received and with the development of the media, much of the attention is focused on organizations and their actions because the population is perceived as an integral part of the social process that organizations develop. Crises are not merely problems or conflicts that happen daily in organizations. Crisis is an event that involves failure, which generates general distress and affects relationships. It is a fact that happens suddenly threatening the organizational image, business and may result in large financial losses. In this essay, it will be discussed why it is important for business to engage with the media during crisis. Next the strategies that are successful in public relations for businesses during such times will be explored. In the end, two recent news stories which centred on crisis for different business will be commented. 2 – Why business should engage with media during crisis A significant threat to the business that can impact negatively if not controlled is considered crisis. The threat can have negative consequences for the organization, for the industry and for the stakeholders in general. Three related threats are created by the crisis: the safety of the public, the financial loss, and reputation damage. For example, flight and industrial accidents can have serious injuries and deaths as well. Financial loss can be created due to the operations break causing a decrease in the market share or due to the decreased in purchase intention (Coombs, 2007). Dilenschneider (2000) stated that all crises will affect the company’s reputation to some extent. When a company faces a crisis, the management have to do and say something to the public. This is called crisis response. In this case the Public Relations (PR) has an important duty by helping the organization to reach the public with its message. The response needs to be very quick, accurate and consistent. According to Fearn-Banks (2011) an organization has to prove to its customer and to the general public as well that the negative image is not a fact. Therefore, it is really important that the business engage with the media during a crisis as soon as possible. The media is the best way to reach a wide variety of public and stakeholders very fast. The message spread out quickly and to a great amount of people. Probably some non-targets will receive the message; however, the most important is the speed and reach of the message. According to Dolphin (1998) a good message sent to the stakeholders can create an opportunity to make the organization’s image better. Even in a bad disaster a good message has a beneficial effect. It is also important for the business to engage with the media because when a company respond to the stakeholders about what happened it is a way of improve the corporate image and create a relationship with them. The best way to explain the crisis is using the media engagement (Barton, 2001). Besides, the engagement with the media can show that the organization is responsible and is trying to do the best for those who have been affected. The message has to be accurate and consistent in order to improve the corporate image. 3 – What strategies are successful during crisis? A great number of researchers have studied public relation strategies for business during crisis time in order to improve the organization’s image. As a result of this research it was developed a list of reputation repair strategies. The person who contribute more in order to determine the reputation strategies were Benoit (1997). From a great different number of researches which showed a matter for reputation strategies, Benoit evaluate and combine all of them (Combs 2007). With the work of Benoit and others, Coombs (2007) created a list of reputations repair strategies integrating all writings. Coombs stated that the reputation repair strategy can change in terms of how to help the victims and more than the organization interest. The list of reputation repair strategy is composed with ten strategies for crisis communication. Those strategies were divided in primary and secondary crisis response strategies. The primary has three main topics: Deny crisis response strategy, Diminish crisis response and Rebuild crisis response strategy. The secondary has one main topic: Bolstering crisis response strategies. The table 1 below show the strategies. Table 1: Crisis response strategies – Coombs (2007) In order to assess the reputational problem of a crisis, managers should follow a process based in two steps. The first one is to define the crisis type considering the way that the media and stakeholders are describing the crisis. Coombs and Holladay (2002) create a list of crises types according to the threat each one offer. See the table 2 below. Table 2: Crisis types by crisis clusters – Coombs and Holladay (2002) The second one is to inspect the previous reputation and important point of crisis history. In case of the organization had a negative reputation before, the threat can be enhanced. Reputation is considered an important asset for the company and it is very valuable and very important to protect. A crisis can probably affect the reputation with the negative word-of-mouth and it will decrease purchase intention. However, the reputation strategies will assist to reduce this probability (Coombs 2007). 4 – Recent new stories Several recent new stories which centred on a crisis for different businesses can be used as an example to highlight the communications strategy. Two recent new stories will be analysed. The first one is about the Barilla Pasta and its chairman, Guido Barilla, for his antigay comments. The second one is about the Costa Concordia Cruise and its captain, Schettino, for do not follow the navigation system causing a serious accident. 4.1 – Barilla Pasta The crisis started in September 2013. Having said that gay couples never will do advertising campaigns for Barilla, the president of the Italian pasta maker, Guido Barilla, apologized through media. The announcement was made after the statement had negative repercussions around the world and netizens started a campaign to boycott the products of the brand on social networks. The crisis type of the action taken by Guido Barilla can be classified as organizational misdeed management misconduct. According with the table 2 seen before, this crisis type is considered a preventable cluster because in that situation the organization knew that was taking an inappropriate action. Of course all the disorder could have been avoided if Barilla had not made the statement to the Italian radio La Zanzara. However, since a problem of this nature occurs, there are ways of minimizing the impact. The company took a primary crisis response strategy. The rebuild crisis response, apology, was used to indicate that the organization takes the full responsibility and ask stakeholders for forgiveness. Barilla was quick to respond to the crisis. The company post press releases on their official website and a video apology on company Facebook page. The retraction and apology from Barilla represent fundamental attitudes. It was necessary that he said he was not well understood and acknowledge the mistake. These cases it is important to accept the error and enhance the brand does not want to leave a bad image. The speed with which the message of the President of Barilla was posted on Twitter less than 24 hours after his interview with radio was another point where the company did the right thing. Have chosen Facebook and Twitter to rule was also a hit from the company. This is because the message first came to followers of the brand, which were probably inside the controversy. Knowing where relaying retraction is essential. It has to be directed to the right people, because they take it to those who still do not even know of the incident, will only arouse the curiosity of those people to the fact. The chairman also met some different LGBT organizations to apologize once again. In general, the crisis situation was well controlled by the organization. 4.2 – Costa Concordia Cruise In the year of 2012, on the night of January 13, a disaster occurred with one of the Costa Concordia cruise ship in Italy. It hit a rock and started to sink with 3,206 passengers and 1,023 crew on board. The commandant was Captain Schettino and the cruise was supposed to travel around the Mediterranean sea, including ports of Savona, Marseille, Barcelona, Palma, Cagliara, and Palermo. They are not absolutely sure that the Captain has not followed the navigation system. However, they assure that if this task was followed it would show clearly the dangerous that they were approaching. Schettino said â€Å"I have to take responsibility for the fact that I made a judgment error. This time I ordered the turn too late.† Then, at 22:54 on that night, the captain gave the order to the crew and passengers to abandon the ship. This tragedy was classified, by the Costa Concordia Full Investigation Report, as a very serious accident with dead or missing of 32 people. Also more 157 were injured, and from this number 20 were admitted to the hospital. In addition at the end they had total loss of the ship. With regard of the classification of the type of this crisis, it can be said that is a Human error accident (see table 2). This identification came, because as said before if the captain had followed the navigation system accordingly, this tragedy could be avoided. Also they said that the procedure to abandon the ship did not follow the Decision Support System and the â€Å"general emergency† alarm was given late. The company took a primary crisis response strategy. The rebuild crisis response, compensation, was used to offers money or other gifts to victims. Under these circumstances, after 5 days of the accident, the company’s CEO tweeted : I gave my personal assurance that we will take care of each every one of our guests, crew and their families. And some days after the CEO gave to the passengers that were on board, a 30% of discount on future trip cruises with the company. In addition, neither the CEO nor the Costa executives appeared in the pear of Giglio, the place where the ship sank, to speak with the survivors or to check the situation directly. In conclusion it can be said that the company Carnival did not know how to deal with the Concordia ship accident. As can be expected the physical appearance of corporate executives at the scene of the occurrence can be considerable significant. Also such attitude is crucial to prove the corporationsinvolvement and benevolence toward the victims. 5 – Conclusion To conclude, organizations have always faced a crisis. Sometimes economic, others policies or more common administrative and internal. Crisis is an event that disrupts the relationship and the normal business activities resulting in financial losses. Business has to engage with media very quickly because it is the best way to reach a wide variety of public and stakeholders very fast and it is the way of improve the corporate image and create a positive relationship with the stakeholders. Business has to identify the crisis type and after choose one of the several crisis response strategies that are successful in public relations to handle with the crisis. Two recent stories were presented. The first one, the Barilla Pasta, was an example of a well-managed crisis communication. The organization took some action very fast and before the first 24 hours. The organization apologized in different communication channels. The chairman made a video apologizing and also met some LGBT organizations to apologize once again. On the other hand, the second one, the Costa Concordia Cruise, was an example of not well managed crisis communication. The organization just took some action on tweeter 5 days after the accident. The CEO had the courage to offer 30% of discount for a future trip. Anyone from the organization, neither the CEO appeared in the place where the ship sank to check the situation directly. REFERENCES: Barton, L. (2001). Crisis in organizations ll. Cincinnati. 2th edition. Benoit, W. L. (1997). Image Repair Discourse and Crisis Communication. Public relations review. Coombs, W. T. (2007). Crisis Management and Communications: http://www.instituteforpr.org/topics/crisis-management-and-communications/ Coombs, W. T. (2007). Protecting Organization Reputation During a Crisis: The development and application of situational crisis communication theory. Corporate Reputation Review. http://www.palgrave-journals.com/crr/journal/v10/n3/full/1550049a.html Coombs, W. T. and Holladay, S.J. (2002). Helping Crisis Managers Protect Reputational Assets: Initial tests of the situational crisis communication theory. Management Communication Quarterly Dolphin, R. R. (1998). Fundamentals of Corporate Communications. Butterworth-Heinemann. Oxford. Dilenschneider, R. L. (2000). The Corporate Communication Bible: Everything you need to know to become a public relations expert. New Millennium. Fearn-Banks, K. (2011). Crisis Communication: A Casebook Approach. Routledge, New York, 4th edition. BIBLIOGRAPHY: For the recent new stories Barilla Pasta http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-07/barilla-in-hot-water-offers-a-lesson-in-reputation-management http://www.queerty.com/barilla-chairman-meets-with-lgbt-groups-in-an-attempt-to-reverse-global-boycott-20131008/ Costa Concordia Cruise http://www.cruiselawnews.com/2012/01/articles/social-media-1/cruise-crisis-management-fail-how-carnival-is-ruining-its-reputation-following-the-costa-concordia-disaster/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16563562

My Favourite Place

MY FAVOURITE PLACE IN MY CITY I am in love with a place in my origin city. It is a special spot for me. It is called El Cejo. My father discovered it to me. He is keen on walking and I have inherited his hobby. Since I have been a child he has taken me to spend the afternoon hiking. This place is located quite near my house but with some steps you have the feeling you are not in Lorca. My region is extremely dry but this place is like an oasis in the desert. To gain access to El Cejo you need to go up a sandy hill. Arriving to the hill the first thing you can find is an imposing castle.Its two towers have been policing the city for many centuries. It dates from the Muslim period when the city played a significant role. It was in the frontier of two important kingdoms in medieval times. In one side of the castle there is a hidden path. This narrow path takes you to my paradise. The ground is red limestone with tiny pebbles. At the start you can glimpse the chain of mountains of the va lley, several reservoirs and farmers working in the countryside. The range of colours of the crops spread over the landscape. Sometimes you can even smell distant bonfires.There are abrupt slopes with cliffs joint by stone cement bridges. The bridges are secured with steel banisters, seeing as the height is considerable. You can find caves carved by the nature and decorated by prehistoric inhabitants with red and ochre drawings. Lizards and birds singing form the inhabitants of this wood. Nobody escapes the eye of the eagles that fly over their home. The pines stand in line like schoolchildren and drop their needles leaves when they are not green any more. The bushes accompany the trees, leaving pleasant fragrances like the rosemary.At the same time, the silence fills the place; sometimes it is interrupted by the barking of the dogs accompanying their owners in a relaxing walking. The paths are sculpted by the footprints of bicycles and hikers. Moreover, there are streams of fresh w ater where you can drink. Steep stairs and uneven ground can be found in some parts of the path. In some parts the way is narrow because of enormous rocks. The vegetation breaks into them. The ground is plastered with roots of trees that quietly have seen the time passing. The sun is always smiling.In winter days the wind whistles around the trunks. In summer days it can be hot as hell. All the plants are resistant to long periods of droughts. The rain is hardly ever present. Halfway there are several viewpoints where hikers sit on rotten wood benches eating snacks to recover from the walking and admiring the turquoise blue sky with clouds like sponges. They can see the valley with its empty river. However, sometimes this river cause fear when it wakes up in rainy periods threatening the city with floods. At the end of the path you can find the reason of the name of the place.Cejo in Spanish is a vertical deep cut in the mountain. At the bottom of it there is a fountain with water a s cold as ice. A legend says that a Muslim princess and a Christian soldier fell in love and as their love was impossible, they committed suicide throwing themselves over the cliff. After that, a source appeared and the people named it after the lovers (enamorados). The people who know this place are like a family. Maybe they have never seen you before but they greet everybody who enjoys the wonders of the place.Walking through this forest it is a pleasure for your senses. You can smell pure air from the nature. Nevertheless, everything is not perfect. You can find rubbish and dogs’ faeces thanks to thoughtless people. People jogging leave the sweat aroma. Normally there are not many people but in September the city holds a sport festival and there is an organized walking to this forest from city centre. Every year the wood meets new people that feel surprised by this heaven. Children walk holding their parents’ hands and adults chat while they enjoy the scenery.I like to take my dogs with me and leave them loose. Therefore, for them El Cejo has a special meaning. It is where they can run freely. Their big ears move like ears of rabbits. They love to speed and stop to smell the scented wildflowers. The path boasts being well-known among nature lovers who can use signs to avoid getting lost during its eight kilometres. It is by far one of my favourite places in my city. Maybe this place is not great thing but for me it is unique. I can relax and forget all my problems.

Weight Of A Nation Consequences

In order to see proper as made the problem needs to be addressed and programs created to benefit the lifestyle f Americans. It was very interesting for me to see how much of an impact the Bugaboos He art Study has had on our nation. It was the only study of its kind that was able to monitor or obesity from young children into their adulthood lives.Some of the statistics that shocked me were: children who are obese are eight times more likely to have heart disease as a n adult 77 percent of children who were obese remained obese as an adult h of society are able to maintain a healthy weight people who come from a lower socioeconomic status have higher obesity rat sees obesity increases asthma rates by 52 percent limited play space for children affects their overall health As I took the time to really think about obesity and what is means to America thought a lot about my family.Growing up we didn't have the greatest socio anomic status. There were always challenges and struggles. As a result there are members w ho struggle with obesity within my family. I can look further back and can see the results of o exist generations in the past. This video really helped me to understand the many consequence s that occur due to obesity. Live that access to fast food just killing lifestyle in our nation. T here was a quote that really liked from the video. Order to make a change, it has to be a co and nation outreach for change. † I couldn't agree more. In order to be able to see a change think that it needs to be targeted not only in communities but as a nation. Very go d video that opened my eyes to the reality of obesity.

Comparison of Bao Ninhs book The Sorrow of War and Oliver Stones film Heaven and Earth essays

Comparison of Bao Ninh's book The Sorrow of War and Oliver Stones film Heaven and Earth essays War has always been destructive, both of land and people. The war in Vietnam was no different, and the testimony of the people that lived it makes the events memorable and tragic. In later years the voice to speak for the people involved in the war changed, and so did the point of view. There is no longer just the American side of the story, the hardship that American soldiers went through or had to deal with on return home, but there is also the Vietnamese story, and in no way is these peoples story less dramatic or moving. Both Bao Ninh's book, The Sorrow of War, and Oliver Stones film Heaven and Earth deal with the war in Vietnam as a story told from the perspective of the Vietnamese. In doing so they offer a unique understanding of the people that were involved in the conflict on first bases, the people that lived and fought the war. Because of the media bias with regard to the Vietnam conflict, readers and movie goers world wide know about how the American's suffered in Vietnam and about how it's war veterans have trouble adjusting to life back home in the US. But the American's lost less than a million men in that war and their social institutions and infrastructure survived relatively the war relatively intact. The Vietnamese lost two million men, and their culture, society, landscape, and traditions were literally obliterated by the conflict. Yet their side of the story has seldom been told. Worse still, they have always been portrayed in the media as faceless "gooks", "Charlie", or "VC". Up un til a few years ago, it would have appeared that the Vietnamese participants in the conflict were people without an identity. 1 Bao Ninhs first novel is about his most influential life experience, the war in which he participated as a young man. Born in 1952, he served in the Glorious 27th Youth Brigade during the Vietnam war. Out of the five hundred youths who went to war...

Dayton, Mark essays

Dayton, Mark essays When Mark Dayton was sworn in as Minnesota's newest U.S. Senator in January 2001, it was the latest stop in a career that has kept public service to Minnesota and to the nation as its top priority. In more than three decades of service, in a variety of capacities, Mark has worked to use his skills and experience to make life better for the people of Minnesota and for people around the country. Mark was born in Minneapolis on January 26, 1947, and grew up in Minnesota's most prominent retailing family. Mark could have chosen many careers, but he chose to help those less fortunate than himself, and he has dedicated himself to that end throughout his career. After graduating cum laude from Yale University in 1969, where he played varsity ice hockey, he worked for two years in the New York City Public Schools as a 9th grade general science teacher. After spending the next four years as a counselor and administrator for a Boston social service agency, Mark went to work as a legislative as sistant to Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale, where he worked on a variety of issues important to his home state. In 1977, Mark returned to Minnesota to take a spot on Governor Rudy Perpich's staff. After one year, he was named the state's Commissioner of Economic Development. In 1982 he decided to make his own run for public office when challenged Republican U.S. Senator David Durenberger in a hard-fought race. Although he fell short, he gave the popular incumbent by far the toughest race of his Senate career. The following year, Mark became Minnesota's Commissioner of Energy and Economic Development, a post he held until 1986. In 1990, the people of Minnesota elected Mark to a four-year term as State Auditor. Throughout his career, he has also played an active role in helping Democratic candidates in Minnesota and across the country win public office and has been just as helpful to state, district and county Democratic organizations. In 1995 and 1996, Ma...

Rationale for Collaboration of Rival Firms Essay

Rationale for Collaboration of Rival Firms - Essay Example For him there is no tension between competition policy that allows collaboration and intellectual property rights and antitrust laws. On the contrary, the competition policy based on pure economic reasoning will at the same time promote innovation of new ideas and new ways of doing things and the firms that facilitate these innovations will reap a great benefit in the process. This type of competition policy also seek to promote co-operation between firms so as to pull funds and ideas together to accelerate economic development which otherwise could have been dragged due to barriers to innovation and the perception of sole ownership of innovative ideas (Teece, 1986, p.297). As widely taken, competition policy affects the very fabrics of competition and business behaviour. The U.S economy impressive performance is linked to the competition that promoted innovations through antitrust policies such as patent rights, intellectual property right, and copyright just to mention a few. The assurance that whatever one invent have a right to enjoy the fruits of it for a given duration of time have been the motivation drive towards more innovation and large investment in R&D. Although the competition policy is seen as in conflict with patents and copy right laws, both works to stimulate innovation and subsequent commercialisation of technologies. Competition policy requires a firm to deal with its competitor through 'essential facilities' doctrine and 'reasonable royalty'. This invites the negotiations that may lead to mergers, license or even joint ventures and alliances. These are rationale of collaboration by rival firms thus improving global economy in the long run (Buckley and Casson, 1988, p.48). Competition policy can be used... The researcher states that competitive markets are widely viewed as major drivers in fostering innovation. Competition regimes are conducive environment for innovation as companies learn from each other various techniques and strategies to improve their service delivery and products from their rivals in order to survive in the market. Nevertheless, global partners impact in bring a change in market structure might be a great impetus to economic growth and the rate of innovation to the countries involved in a global arena in general. The countries therefore are advised to make reasonable and strategic competition policies that allow for a certain degree of collaboration and partnering with rival firms. From the analysis, that was presented in the essay, it is clear that global competition attracts some kind of partnership from the rival firms. Firms’ collaboration promotes innovation as well as creativity and thus propelling global economic growth. The rationality behind collab oration of rival firms is to undertake such projects that require a huge capital and technical investments a single firm cannot be able to sustain. The cooperation is in such a way that each firms will at the end reap some benefits through a well regulated antitrust policy. We have also seen that not all cooperation is meant for the greater good of the society. In conclusion, the researcher states that rival firms collaboration promotes global competition while at the same time it can be anti-competition.

A paper which explores one particular issues or dimension of legal Essay

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