Classmate's blogs

This week our assignment in class was to review two of our peers blogs. The first person blog I decided to read was week two of Kaitie Lovett's blog. The reason I picked her is because we are both focusing in on crisis management PR.  I thought it would be interesting to see another viewpoint on the topic. I picked her second week blog because I had issues with really finding information on the topic of research behind crisis management. The first thing I thought was really insightful was how she picked a crisis like a school shooting and the research everyone does afterwards - almost like an evaluation of everything NOT to do. I really liked in this section how she related it back to the public relations field with this quote:

"...in a situation like a school shooting the research results plays a huge role, because it’s the research of what would make people feel safe again; what can others do to make something that drastic go back to normal? But, that’s the job of anyone in the PR field, to know how to handle crisis situations; and you want to make sure you do your research all the way through because if the research is wrong, the way you go about solving the issue at hand could be completely thrown off."

So to sum it up I thought the idea of taking something like a school shooting - where one might not realize the importance of research for the crisis was unexpected and well thought-out. 


The second blog I chose was one from the entertainment side of public relations. I chose this blog because on the first day we went around the room and it seemed like a lot of my peers were interested in this topic. I really wanted to find out more so I decided to do Nikki's blog on The Spin Crowd. I've never watched the show so I thought she did a good job of providing a synopsis of the show. She related well back to research and compared it to the lack there of in the show. 

Results without Religion?

Every year we constantly see any type of person running for government use religion as one of their stepping stones into government. We saw George W. Bush appeal to the Espicopalian faith; John Kerry look for his support in the Christian world.It gave the American public a sense that the person running had a clean past. But is it possible with newer voters being less religious does the image of a devout religious person with a spotless past no longer produce results?

The Republican (Tea Party sponsored) candidate, Christine O'Donnell, for Delaware senate is no cookie cutter image for government.   Her money problems according to the New York Times cause the Tea Party to donate a ton of money into her campaign. O'Donnell has struggle with unpaid taxes and housing foreclosure. Another dirty little secret about this running mate is the fact that she had once claimed to "dabble in witchcraft."

Its funny how a statement like this 20 years ago might caused an up roar with the attendance in churches being higher than what it is now. But this image of a used-to-be witch with money problems didn't stop Delaware Republicans from voting her in. Can it be that religion is no longer on the throne that our ancestors put it. Could it be that we as a country want people in office that can relate more to us instead of the elite social powers behind government?

According to Wes Isley of the Huffington Post - its about time. "...some people like Karl Rove are calling for O'Donnell to explain herself more thoroughly. What else can she say? And why should she say anything more? True, I'm not running for political office, but the twists and turns of our spiritual paths are really no one's business but our own. At least, that's the way it should be."

To recap Delaware Republicans has elected a person to run for Senate without the cleanest reputation. We're not talking drugs but actual debt and a shaky past that happened when she was in high school. Are we coming to an age where public image isn't about being spotless as we once portrayed it to be but to a world where having a relatable past produces better results?

Ethics of research

Whenever a crisis hits a company they have to be ready to react. For instance very recently Toyota had a recall happen with questionable pedals. The recall went as far as overseas and in Canada. What did they do? They put their COO out on the web with an instructional video and apology. Toyota Apology

Now other companies don't handle their crisis very well. For instance this past summer BP oil put all the fishermen of the Gulf Coast out of jobs. Sure, apologies were given. Money is being disputed. But is this really what should have been out in the public? The biggest mistake of that clip was the fact the CEO made it about himself.

Now when learning or seeing about these companies and what made a successful it all came back to one solid fact. They had the research ready and they had to have some game plan in action. With this weeks blog I was curious to see the restrictions placed on the research companies like Toyota and BP can do.

When researching the ethics and research behind research I came across a thesis by Paul Stuart Lieber for the Louisiana State University. He said in his study that "Unlike journalism, there is no research pertaining to the public’s perceptions of public relations practitioner ethics and/or their ethical influences." I found this incredibly interesting but ethics in general in PR is wishy-washy that how could there actually be ethics for research.

So with this in mind I took to the textbook to figure out the facts. What I found really interesting about ethics is that for research there has to be voluntary participation, making sure there is no bribing for a study. When it comes to interpreting the data - no tampering and being open with the test results are major ethical rules.

After learning this all of this information I thought about how each crisis management team must have done to come up with the crisis plan. Its common sense that every company is going to run into problems nothing can ever run smoothly. There was a point in the book where it says "...if an advertising campaign generated a modest increase in awareness, it is not a researcher's job to suggest the if the client spent more media dollars on advertising the awareness would increase dramatically." (Jugenheimer 309). After reading this it made me wonder - did BP not realize in the mist of a crisis they need the media on their side? How did Toyota know that the media would be their best friend with a recall so big?

Crisis Management in the world of Public Relations

When sitting down to figure out what my blog was going to be about all I kept doing was drawing a blank. I kept asking myself what I was interested in learning more about. Thats when I came to the conclusion that I really wanted to spend my time researching about crisis management in Public Relations. I have always been drawn to this type of public relations because I find it the most interesting. To be able to keep your  cool while your client needs a course of action to be carried out in a way that doesn't do more damaged to them is something unbelievable to me.

I started to think more and more about crisis management and how important it was to have up-to-date research.  I think it'll be worth while to see the behind the scenes of what makes a crisis turn successful or damaging. I hope that the more I dig into crisis management the more it will solidify my desire to be in that field. One day I hope to make something as bad as BP oil spill seem like a speed bump instead of the mountain it became.