Write an essay on one of the following topics:
a Analyse how a well-known company has managed a specic PR crisis. Possible subjects might be Nike’s image problems regarding third-world labour, Johnson & Johnson’s Tylenol poisoning crisis or the various problems besetting Qantas in recent years (such as the airline grounding in 2011). Analyse and critique the approach of the company to this particular event.
b How do Australian political parties conduct their crisis management? Select one example of a recent political crisis and track the way the party managed (or mismanaged) it through its release of information. The two major Australian political parties, the Australian Labor Party and the Liberal Party, have both experienced signicant crises both in and out of government in recent years.
c Dene and discuss the main themes of the critique of public relations as exemplied by the work of Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber, authors of Toxic Sludge Is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry (1995) and Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush’s War on Iraq (2003). What is the essence of their criticism of PR, and how has the PR industry responded?
d How has public relations in‑uenced the conduct of military campaigns by Western governments? Focus upon one recent con‑ict (for example, Kosovo, Iraq or Afghanistan) or you may compare an earlier campaign with a more recent one. One possible combination might be comparing the media management of the Vietnam War with either the Gulf War of the early 1990s or the Iraq war of 2003.