Crisis Management in a World of Media

In this day and age of a media savvy society, crisis management situations are becoming harder to handle for many organizations. News media outlets are gathering information faster than ever, putting companies in a bind with little or no warning. Companies must be able to answer questions quickly in a looming crisis. In nearly all of crisis management scenarios, how the organization responds with in the first few hours is critical on the outcome of the crisis. It can also have an immense impact on the future reputation of the company.

A crisis management plan is essential for all organizations so they will be prepared if a crisis ever arises. Some important things to remember in a crisis situation is to tell it fast, tell it all and tell the truth. The plan should be laid out before a crisis ever occurs. DPK public relations services say that in a crisis management situation, the organization must have two priorities:

1.) Bringing the crisis under control
2.) Dealing with the intense media and public scrutiny

Although it is sometimes hard to deal with the media, there are ways to minimize the damage to the organization. One of these ways could be to create a crisis management team comprised of individuals who are key to the situation such as the president of the company or the public relations manager. It is important for this team to come up with a plan of action and to decide on a spokesperson.

The success of the crisis management plan is measured in many ways. Do company stakeholders remain supportive? Did the company maintain their reputation? And is the media still at the front door? All of these determine how well the crisis was handled within the organization.

After researching more on crisis management situations, I realize that it is important for public relations practitioners to know how to handle a company crisis. This is one of the many jobs that PR specialists must know how to handle before going out into the work force. I learned that one of the biggest things a company can do in this situation is to work fast in order to get the information out to the public. The faster you can resolve the situation, the faster it will be put to rest in the media.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1612698,00.html?cnn=yes
http://www.winning-newsmedia.com/crisis.htm
http://www.prweekus.com/During-crises-leaders-have-to-provide-company-perspective/article/104380/
http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring01/Hayes/
http://www.dpkpr.com/crisis/