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CRISIS BRIEFING Restoring Organizational Image While Protecting Public Interests AUDIENCE: Assume that you are an organizational spokesperson responding to a specific organizational crisis event. Your audience consists of various television and other media representatives (newspaper, TV, radio, etc.). Depending on the nature of your organization and the scope of the crisis, you can assume they represent a mix of local, state, regional, national, and international media sources. TOPIC: Your goal is to create a briefing based on a case study of a particular organizational crisis. Consider organizational crises similar to those identified in the Crisis Communication chapter in your text. You need to pick a real organizational crisis that has occurred within the last year (~365 days from the date the assignment is presented in class). Thoroughly research the crisis to discover the background and precipitating events, what the organization did and said in response to the crisis, and any critique or praise that commentators made about the organization's actions. Because you need to know what the organization did/didn’t do in response to the crisis and what was/wasn’t effective, the information you uncover during your research will help you form the backbone of YOUR crisis briefing. You are NOT to just parrot what your organization said and did; you are to come up with something original and BETTER than what your organization did. (So, if an organization did a good job dealing with the crisis, that organization is not a good choice because you have to be better than they were!) Assume the role of a corporate representative for the organization experiencing the crisis and create a media briefing that responds to the crisis using image restoration strategies covered in Chapter 13. Select the strategies that are most appropriate for the circumstances you have discovered (primarily your understanding of audience perceptions) in your research. Select/Assume the title of a person in a position who would be the most appropriate person to respond to such a crisis on behalf of the organization. This is a persuasive presentation. Your goal is to deal with organizational image damage while protecting affected publics. Therefore, it is vital that you provide solid, unbiased support from independent information sources for the image restoration strategies you use. STRUCTURE: All crisis briefings should conform to the N-A-R persuasive speaking structure. Because of the nature of this speech, there is a chance that the refutation section will be eliminated from the speech structure. If you deny anything in your briefing, though, clearly, you’ll need your refutation section! Also, there are some strategies in the reducing offensiveness category and some strategies in the evading responsibility category that tend to be refutations, so think through what you are doing to determine if you are refuting anything or not. Compose a full-sentence, preparation outline of the crisis briefing. You can refer to the sample outline in Chapter 13, but the outline you upload through the turnitin link on Moodle must also include/recognize the following: · Identify each image restoration strategy used in the outline. Do this by inserting IN RED the name of each strategy used in brackets immediately following the sentence representing that strategy. (This is so I can see that you understand what strategies you are using.) Be thorough! Ex: I. I didn’t do it. (simple denial) A. Kerry did it. (shifting the blame) · ADDITIONALLY: 1. Please realize that there are better ways of getting attention than what you see in the sample outline in the text. Be original! 2. Also recognize that the sample outline in the book does not include the required credibility section in the introduction. You need a credibility section in your intro. COVER PAGE: Create a cover page(s) to be included with the manuscript that includes the following information: 1.The name of the organization you are representing. 2.A concise single sentence statement identifying the crisis situation. 3.The approximate date (or date range) of the crisis itself and what specific strategies the organization used in response to the crisis. Why were these strategies not helpful/effective? You could also discuss who was the first member of the organization to respond to the crisis and if this person was the most appropriate representative. 4.The hypothetical date the crisis briefing would have taken place. Be sure the sources you cite would have been available at the time of the hypothetical briefing date. 5.A thorough paragraph that clearly explains what strategies you will use that will be different from what the organization used. You also want to justify what you consider to be the one most important image restoration strategy used in the briefing. Justification must take into account an analysis of the target audience. Note: Do not choose a hypothetical briefing date that is too close to the actual crisis situation. You will need to give yourself some “distance” from the event so that it will be possible to locate and include various written sources as supporting material (see below). Responses immediately following crisis events are almost always limited to unsupported and unverified speculation. On the flip side, don’t pick a response date that is too far out. If you don’t respond in an acceptable period of time, it looks like you don’t care. Note: You will read 3-6 of your cover page to us before you start your speech. This does not count as part of your time. It just sets the stage so we know what crisis you are responding to in your speech. Please verbally indicate when you will be starting the attention getter of your briefing. SUPPORTING MATERIAL: Use appropriate supporting material (statistics, testimonies, examples) throughout your speech to clarify, defend, and validate your points, where needed. This support must come from a minimum of three highly credible independent sources. You will likely rely on reputable news outlets. Information originating from your own organization (comments from members of your organization, information on your organizational web site, etc.) does not count as independent support. Sources of support material must be clearly and thoroughly cited orally for your audience in the speech. Prepare two separate/clearly labeled reference pages. One is for support sources (only those sources specifically cited in the speech); one is for background sources (those you used to find out about the crisis but didn’t need to cite in your speech). Both reference pages should be formatted using 7th edition of MLA. Include these with your manuscript. There may be overlap in your reference pages (ie – you may list the same sources in both, if need be). PRESENTATIONAL STYLE: Deliver the briefing using an extemporaneous style of presentation. As always, reading will not be considered acceptable delivery. Good speakers “know” their material well, establish sustained eye contact, incorporate gestures, and develop a natural sounding vocal quality. You should be VERY FAMILIAR with the ideas in your speech and how you plan to share them (practically memorized) so that you can really engage with the audience through eye contact. Even if it is through a camera, you still need to convey a sense of “speaking from the heart.”