Crisis Communication

Crisis communication is designed to help a company or individual which is facing a challenge of defending their reputation. A crisis is any situation that threatens the reputation of your company. This can be brough through negative media attention. Situations can include: legal dispute, theft, accident, fire, flood or manmade disaster that could be attributed to your company. It could also be a situation where, in the eyes of the media or general public, your company did not react to one of the above situations in the correct manner. This is a more detailed description: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisis_communications

A companys reputation is one of their most valuable assets. When the image of a company is tarnished sometimes it is hard to get it back. This link describes a "Blue Print Plan" for acting in a crisis. http://www3.niu.edu/newsplace/crisis.html It is important to select a media spokesperson.

In IUP's case they have Michelle Fryling, who came to speak to our class. I already discussed this topic in the Media Relations portion of my blogs. It is important for media to have this one reliable source to get their information from, because then they know it is true and do not have to root around for any bit of information they can get. It is also important to counteract negative press with positive press. For example, leak stories of social awareness acts. By doing this the media will have positive stories to discuss instead of focusing on the negatives.