Portfolio Analysis
The media has a massive influence on the public. This influence increase when the public has little or no opinion on the subject. Similarly, when the subject is non-ego threatening and the public has no direct experience with the subject. The media coverage ensures there is framing of views in its coverage. This is shaping of views and discussions via selective choices of facts, words and themes. Public relations has a significant influence in framing how the media will explain the product and the company This is so because framing of views creates the context in which the discussion occurs. However, there are difficulties encountered when using a traditional evaluation method.
The organization sends out a message and requires checking whether the message has been interpreted as intended. Thus, analysis of media coverage is the oldest and most traditional method by which to measure the outcome of public relations activities. The method is faced with challenges government regulations, which interferes with their policies and freedom of expression. This affects their ability to cover critical issues because they are being regulated. Since the method is traditional, it encounters the technological difficulties because of new technologies that are being used such as satellites.
Similarly, the public confidence about the traditional method is extremely low because a greater percentage of organizations to do trust the media report. This is so because political forces, which end up manipulation the news, are influencing some media. Similarly, most of the public find factual mistakes in the news stories due to lack of proper editing which end up creating low confidence in the media coverage. The level of inaccuracy in the traditional method is extremely high, which result of misinterpretations of the actual errors. Meanwhile, the traditional method encounters sensation difficulties because they tend to dwell on stories such as company's scandal and murders, therefore facing great conflict from the institution and the people involved (Botan & Hazleton, 2006, PP. 87). Another challenge is the lack of intensive coverage due to lack of facilities and not well informed about the issue. The traditional method also encounters difficulties from poor coverage because of environmental condition. The environmental issues have resulted in the misleading information, which is a significant issue.
The media coverage is about The Gulf Mexico disaster that caused the second largest environmental tragedy in U.S. history. The company tries to communicate the causes of the deep-water disaster in Gulf Mexico and how it has affected the stock price in the global market. It shows it is clean up and compensation plan for the damages by showing it is legally accountable for the disaster. Although BP had failed to disclose the results of its tests of chemical dispersants used on the spill, its media coverage is trying to show that it is concerned with compensating the individuals who were affected during the disaster. In its media coverage, the company tried to withhold a video showing the true magnitude of the leak (Shaw, 2009, PP. 45). The BP did extremely poor at covering the oil spill disaster, which shows lack of accountability. This affected its refutation because information disclosed was insufficient.
PR Report
Executive Summary
The paper focuses on the public relations related to the BP’s drilling rig “Deepwater Horizon” in the Gulf of Mexico. The major issue is how BP opted to relate to the media and the public during the incident. On the methodology, the paper examines the PR theory, which is used in the management of reputation and crisis. Moreover, the study indicates that communication cycle is extremely important in managing crisis and reputation. The finding indicates that lack of effective communication with the crisis reduces credibility of stakeholders and the company. Therefore, the company should ensure the public is informed in order to manage crisis and reputation.
Background
BP Company is a global oil and gas company and Fourth largest company in the world. BP operates in over 80 countries producing about 3.8 million barrels of oil per day servicing 22400 stations. BP never had a driving need to formalize a PR strategy. It company’s core customer base valued its global reputation and keen production of oil. Recently the company started losing market share due to the explosion on BP’s drilling rig “Deepwater Horizon” in the Gulf of Mexico, near Louisiana (Ambellas, 2013). The oil spill caused the second largest environmental disaster in U.S. history. The incident has buried the BP deepest in a disaster that will be hard to overcome. The major issue is how BP opted to relate to the media and the public during the incident. This resulted in misleading information, poor communication and neglect from the company to dodge responsibility for the spill.
The public watched the incident in disbelief as oil gushed into the rivers of the Gulf of Mexico. The public would not understand the way BP and the united government handled the disaster. In order to build public relations and a legal mess of the incident, BP started paying claims within the week of the disaster, has spent over $25 million for compensation, and clean up. The way BP handled the oil spill serves as a standard to avoid for any company facing such disaster in the future. With the PB spill the backlash has gotten was because the company has not communicated effectively. The poor communication has also affected the public’s opinion on the government. Since the incident, neither the government nor the BP has been able to successfully connect with the public, which could have left irreparable damage in terms of public opinion.
Methodology and Findings
Since issues strain organization-public relations, it is vital to cultivate and maintain pre-crisis ties. An organization’s efforts to cultivate relations with its public can influence the public opinion on the crisis and how the organization is involved. These relations shape how the organization will respond during and after a crisis. The BP experienced crisis communication during the spill oil disaster (Alon, 2003, pp. 89). Therefore, the study considers variables such as crisis response strategy, attribution of crisis responsibility and relations to quality outcomes to evaluate the communication crisis during the oil spill incident.
The public relations is the development and management of ethical strategies using communications to create relationship with stakeholders or publics. In additional, public relations is about reputation which show what the company is supposed to do, what to say and what the public will say about it (Onkvisit & Shaw, 2009, pp. 34). It is a concept that looks after reputation with the objective of creating understanding and support and influencing opinion and behavior. Therefore, it is planned and targeted to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between the company and its stakeholders. This activity can be done by companies, groups or individuals as they interact with their various stakeholders to seek objectives and goals. This view recognizes that communication should not simply be strategic because this shows the potential exploitation of the imbalance of power between the communicator and the recipient. Ethical principles allow the company to ensure that public relations programs and activities remain fair to those involved in the communication process (Kotabe, 2009).
The public relations activities help to have a change to evaluate the organization from inside out and the ease of access to management and facilities among others. The public relations are mainly a communication function, but with the emphasis on the dialogue nature of the communication process. This create and keep mutual understanding between the organization and the stakeholders. The public relations are concerned with helping the organization to formulate and achieve socially acceptable goals, therefore achieving a balance between commercial imperatives and socially responsible behavior ( Doole & Lowe, 2008, PP. 78). Similarly, the role of public relation is to serve as intelligence function, analyzing and interpreting trends and issues in the environment that may have potential consequences for the organization and its stakeholders. It has been argued that the need for the existence of various definitions of public relations is based on the diverse and constantly evolving nature of the profession.
The variety of activities that fall under the remit of public relations practices arises from the four models of public relation activities. These models include public information model, the press agentry model, the two-way asymmetrical model and the two-way symmetrical model of public relations (Bradley, 2005, PP. 123) Each of these models describes a set of values and pattern of behavior that depict the approach taken by the public relations departments to carry out a specific campaign. Thus, these public relations models are capable of capturing the diversity found within public relations practices.
However, the models differ based on direction and the purpose of the form of public relations practice they describe. Direction describes the extent to which the communications between the organization and its publics are either one-way or two- way. For instance, in the press and public models, the communications are characterized by monologue or one-way, whereas in the case of the two-way asymmetrical and symmetrical they are characterized by two-way communication (Ruler, 2004, PP. 47). The asymmetrical communication are imbalanced and leave the organization unchanged and attempt to change the stakeholders, whereas symmetrical communication are balanced and attempt to adjust the relationship between the company and its stakeholders (Bennett & Blythe, 2002, PP. 34).
The communication cycle ensures complete transparency and disclosure of information. Until it makes the decision on how to increase the market share after a disaster, the company should be in front about its decision-making process and solutions (Foster, 2012, PP. 56). However, the portfolio indicates that BP is stuck behind a roadblock toward creating public awareness about the incident. It is impossible to start re-establishing relationships with customers and the public in general when the company is not being honest and up-front with information about what happened. As BP has found out, a lack of transparency initiates close monitoring and evaluation. At different strategies of the event has been that BP was not being completely truthful about the spill. At one point, it was not allowing the media to get close to the site. Therefore, developing a deep relationship with the news media is the key to becoming a go to source for the company’s information. The media play a major role in monitoring and evaluating the company performance before and after the crisis (Botan & Hazleton, 2006). The media rely on quality sources in order to offer thoughtful and reliable information and are responsive.
Similarly, the portfolio indicates the company had a higher quality video feed much earlier than previously revealed. BP executives have affected the company’s reputation and their credibility which makes it hard for the public to trust any communication the company puts out. For instance, Wildlife and environment groups accused BP of not releasing information about the extent and impact of the oil spill disaster, and urged the US government to order a more direct federal role in the spill response (Heath, 2004, PP. 37).
Moreover, BP had failed to disclose the results of its tests of chemical used on the spill, and tried to withhold a video showing the true magnitude of the leak. Empathized on external stakeholders that suffered as well from the oil spill instead of focusing on corporate liability. The public want to hear the company is doing to handle the incident and want it planning to do to help the citizens of the Gulf coast. However, recently, the company gave their plan on want they are planning to handle the damages (Ambellas, 2013).
Currently, the companies are experiencing a variety of active audiences wanting to be monitoring their activities and expecting transparency and accessibility instead of closed doors in the case of oil spill disaster (Paul, 2013, PP. 26). There is a need to improve the quality and communication of corporate self presentation. The development toward more transparent and expressive organizations has occurred concurrently with the widespread introduction of corporate websites. Web sites have provided companies with a virtual shop window for communicating their ethos to a global audience (Maribeth, 2010, PP. 35). Therefore, in developing websites, companies need to understand the types of messages their website visitors afford the highest priority. Similarly, stakeholders will require something that incorporates the core concepts of ethos. This means the company has to go beyond mere knowledge about products and services and the expertise behind it all.
Therefore, the aim is to establish whether the BP websites use simple or more complex words in planning of their customs. This is because there is increasing public demand for information regarding corporate responsibility actions (Aym, 2013). Various stakeholders are monitoring companies’ operations and actions related to their immediate global society.
Similarly, the public relations theory is based on and related to the two of the most significant aspects of current PR practices. These aspects include reputation management and crisis management. Since many reputation management is how PR is defined, as it represents its future and has been embraced by several industries (Bernays, 2000, PP. 67). However, there are organizations which would show caution believing that PR is not in a position to meet such demands. On the other hand, crisis management demonstrates the practice of PR at its best and most effective by offering clear information and help at the most difficult times. Therefore, PR theory is vital because its aim is to assist practitioners in the practice of PR, making them better and more effective. This is reflected in the crisis management study.
Crisis response strategy defines crisis response strategy as the specific frame that the company’s spokesperson can use to respond to the disaster. The article selected for this variable report a communication crisis that threatened the BP reputation and the price of its shares which affected the financial performance of the company in the global market. This crisis was chosen given the harsh reality of this disaster and the dynamic and direct impact of this crisis to the public. The messages were manipulated using statements from the Company lawyers and CEO used the communication crisis strategy to address the issue (Kennedy, 2013). As indicated in the appendix, the portfolio was created to represent the media coverage on the oil spill crisis and the crisis response strategy presented in the news articles containing the specific response strategy to the issue. Similarly, The research refers the attribution of crisis responsibility as the observation and measurement of the amount of responsibility and blame placed on the organization for causing the disaster.
In managing reputation, the company is supposed to get in front of the crisis, it does not eliminate the issue but at least it shows the stakeholders such as customer, suppliers, shareholders, regulators and owners among others that the company cares and has plans to resolve the issue. This could help to restore the image and build reputation again. Since BP was adamant to accept responsibility and showing that it cares about what the disaster did to the Gulf Coast, people perceive the company as if it does not care about them. This made it hard to rebuild reputation because the public feels it has been wronged.
Conclusion
Therefore, in the management of reputation and crisis, the quality of communication is vital but so is quantity. It is vital to stay in front of the public and keep them constantly informed. In the case of the oil spill, the United government is supposed to be steadfast in its efforts to stay in front of the people to mitigate the long lasting effects on the environment in the region. In case there is insufficient communication, the outcome is a conflict which makes it hard to rebuild. Both BP and the government should embrace the PR theory, which aims at management of reputation and crisis. This can be achieved via communicating effectively on the plans to make a difference and allow media coverage on the issue.
The company should not shy away from tough questions because they help in crisis management. This will help to reconnect after a crisis despite the situation. However, BP executives seemed annoyed that the public was questioning them about the issue. The company’s spokespeople including its former CEO Tony Hayward were dismissive when approached for questioning. Therefore, PR aims at embracing constant communication to manage the crisis and reputation.
References List
Alon, I. 2003. Economic Transition and International Marketing Strategy. Westport, Conn.: Praeger
Ambellas, S. 2013. "BP Oil Lawyer Scandal To Hold Up Settlement Fund - | Intellihub News." Intellihub News | Civilian Intelligence Agency. http://intellihub.com/2013/07/17/bp-oil- lawyer-scandal-to-hold-up-settlement-fund/ (accessed December 5, 2013).
Aym, T. 2013."How BP Gulf disaster may have triggered a world-killing event - by Terrence Aym - Helium." Helium - Where Knowledge Rules. http://www.helium.com/items/1882339-doomsday-how-bp-gulf-disaster-may-have- triggered-a-world-killing-event (accessed December 5, 2013).
Bennett, R., & Blythe, J. 2002. International marketing: strategy planning, market entry & implementation (3rd Ed.). London: Kogan Page.
Bernays, E. L. (2000). Public Relations. Norman, University Of Oklahoma Press.
Botan, C. H., & Hazleton, V. 2006. Public Relations Theory Ii. Hoboken, Taylor & Francis
Bradley, F. 2005. International marketing strategy (5th ed.). Harlow, England: Financial Times/Prentice Hall.
Doole, I., & Lowe, R. 2008. International marketing strategy: analysis, development and implementation. (5th ed.). London: Cengage Learning.
Foster, J. 2012. Writing skills for public relations: style and technique for mainstream and social media (5th ed.). London: Kogan Page.
Heath, Robert L. (2004). Handbook Of Public Relations. Sage Pubns.
Kennedy, C. 2013. "Gulf oil spill: BP has a long record of legal, ethical violations | McClatchy." McClatchy | Homepage. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/08/93779/bp-has-a- long-record-of-legal.html#.UkbfS4b7CbY (accessed September 28, 2013).
Kotabe, M. 2009. The SAGE handbook of international marketing. Los Angeles: SAGE.
Kotabe, M. 2010. The SAGE handbook of international marketing. Los Angeles: SAGE.
Macnamara, J. 2011. Public Relations: Theories, Practices, Critques. Frenchs Forest, N.S.W., Pearson Australia.
Maribeth, K. (2010). Lessons From The Gulf Oil Spill. Aba Bank Marketing,42(7), 36-40.
Onkvisit, S., & Shaw, J. J. 2009. International marketing strategy and theory (5th ed.). London: Routledge.
Paul, M. 2013. Spillapalooza: How Bp Got Screwed In The Golf.Bloomberg Businessweek, 43(3), 52-57.
Ruler, B. V. 2004. Public Relations And Communication Management In Europe: A Nation- By-Nation Introduction To Public Relations Theory And Practice. Berlin [U.A.], Mouton De Gruyter.
Shaw, J. 2009. International marketing strategy and theory (5th ed.). London: Routledge.
"The 10 Companies Burned Worst by Bad Press - 24/7 Wall St. - The Atlantic. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/06/the-10-companies-burned-worst- by-bad-press/240448/#slide10 (accessed September 28, 2013).
Appendix
The media analysis
"The 10 Companies Burned Worst by Bad Press - 24/7 Wall St. - The Atlantic. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/06/the-10-companies-burned-worst- by-bad-press/240448/#slide10 (accessed December 5, 2013).
- Placement: Publication was placed in the inside WALL ST. as as the lead story on the evening news on JUN 14 2011, 2:15 PM ET
Source: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/06/the-10-companies-burned-worst- by-bad-press/
- Audience reach: The publication reached a wider audience because circulation of the WALL ST. newpaper.
- Length: The publication was measured din column-inches in the WALL ST. newpaper.
- Context: The publication was editorial
- Content: The publication focused on the the share price decline due to the oil spill disaster. Others include Johnson & Johnson's, HP company, AIG among others.
- Tone: the tone was negative
- Stakeholders: the key stakeholders mentioned were the former CEO Tony Hayward, Transocean, U.S. government, British Petroleum, Residents and World Population
The views of three major Stakeholder on the oil spill disaster
CEO Tony Hayward
Source: http://www.helium.com/items/1882339-doomsday-how-bp-gulf-disaster-may-have-
Hayward would change BP’s careless corporate culture; he pledged in an early speech to focus “like a laser” on safety.US Government
"The full value of losses resulting from the spill cannot be captured without consideration of changes in ecosystem services – the benefits delivered to society through natural processes,"
Transocean
"This is a positive step forward, but it is also a time to reflect on the 11 men who lost their lives aboard the Deepwater Horizon," Transocean said in a statement. "Their families continue to be in the thoughts and prayers of all of us at Transocean."
- Placement: Publication was placed in the inside New Time as the lead story on, 05/25/11, 05:35 PM ET
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/03/bp-oil-spill-2010-latest_n_561320.html?utm_hp_ref=bp-oil-spill
- Audience reach: The publication reached a wider audience because the circulation of the New Times newspaper.
- Length: The publication was measured din column-inches in the New Times newspaper
- Context: The publication was editorial
- Content: The publication focused on environmental effect due to the oil spill disaster.
- Tone: the tone was negative
- Stakeholders: the key stakeholders mentioned were the former CEO Tony Hayward, Transocean, U.S. government, British Petroleum, Residents and World Population
Placement: Publication was placed in the inside New Time as the lead story on, 05/25/11, 05:35 PM ET
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/05/bp-caps-one-of-three-leak_n_564258.html
- Audience reach: The publication reached a wider audience because circulation of the New Time
- Length: The publication was measured din column-inches in the New Time
- Context: The publication was editorial
- Content: The publication focused on how U.S government employed its officials during the disaster
- Tone: the tone was positive
- Stakeholders: the key stakeholders mentioned were the former CEO Tony Hayward, Transocean, U.S. government, British Petroleum, Residents and World Population
- Placement: Publication was placed in the inside WALL ST. newpaper
as the lead story on, 04//11, 03:35 PM ET
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/06/feds-let-bp-avoid-filing-_n_566224.html
- Audience reach: The publication reached a wider audience because circulation of the WALL ST. newpaper.
- Length: The publication was measured din column-inches in the WALL ST. newpaper.
- Context: The publication was editorial
- Content: The publication discusses how the disaster affected Gulf Environment
- Tone: the tone was negative
- Stakeholders: the key stakeholders mentioned were the former CEO Tony Hayward, Transocean, U.S. government, British Petroleum, Residents and World Population
- Placement: Publication was placed in the inside huffingtonpost as the lead story on, 6/25//11, 03:35 PM ET
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/21/oil-accidents-waiting-to_n_582470.html#s90498title=Deepwater_Nautilus_Gulf
- Audience reach: The publication reached a wider audience because circulation of the huffingtonpost
- Length: The publication was measured din column-inches in the huffingtonpost
- Context: The publication was editorial
- Content: The publication focused on how U.S government reacted toward the disaster.
- Tone: the tone was negative
- Stakeholders: the key stakeholders mentioned were the former CEO Tony Hayward, Transocean, U.S. government, British Petroleum, Residents and World Population
Placement: Publication was placed in the inside the huffingtonpost lead story on, 05/26/11 04:35 PM ET
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/24/gulf-oil-spill-bad-cement_n_586952.html
- Audience reach: The publication reached a wider audience because circulation of the huffingtonpost
- Length: The publication was measured din column-inches in the huffingtonpost
- Context: The publication was editorial
- Content: The publication focused environmental issue due to the oil spill disaster
- Tone: the tone was negative
- Stakeholders: the key stakeholders mentioned were the Transocean, U.S. government, British Petroleum, Residents and World Population
Placement: Publication was placed in the inside the huffingtonpost lead story on, 05/26/11 04:35 PM ET
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/23/bp-mile-long-tube-collect_n_586445.html
- Audience reach: The publication reached a wider audience because circulation of the huffingtonpost
- Length: The publication was measured din column-inches in the huffingtonpost
- Context: The publication was editorial
- Content: The publication examines how the U.S government reacted towards the disaster
- Tone: the tone was negative
- Stakeholders: the key stakeholders mentioned were the Transocean, U.S. government, British Petroleum, Residents and World Population
Placement: Publication was placed in the inside the huffingtonpost lead story on, 05/26/11 04:35 PM ET
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/23/gulf-oil-spill-cleaning-w_n_586240.html
- Audience reach: The publication reached a wider audience because circulation of the huffingtonpost
- Length: The publication was measured din column-inches in the huffingtonpost
- Context: The publication was editorial
- Content: The publication examines how Cleaning Wetlands May Be Impossible After Disaster
- Tone: the tone was negative
- Stakeholders: the key stakeholders mentioned were the Transocean, U.S. government, Residents and World Population
Placement: Publication was placed in the inside the huffingtonpost lead story on, 05/26/11 04:35 PM ET
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/25/bp-oil-spill-video-to-sho_n_589641.html
- Audience reach: The publication reached a wider audience because circulation of huffingtonpost
- Length: The publication was measured din column-inches in the huffingtonpost.
- Context: The publication was editorial
- Content: The publication focused on BP agreement compensate the people affected
- Tone: the tone was positive
- Stakeholders: the key stakeholders mentioned were the former CEO Tony Hayward, Transocean, U.S. government, British Petroleum, Residents and World Population
- Placement: Publication was placed in the inside New Time as the lead story on, 05/25/11 05:35 PM ET
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/24/bp-spins-the-oil-spill_n_587242.html
- Audience reach: The publication reached a wider audience because the circulation of the WALL ST. newspaper.
- Length: The publication was measured din column-inches in the WALL ST. newpaper.
- Context: The publication was a letter to the editor
- Content: The publication focused on the amount of oil that leaked during the disaster
- Tone: the tone was negative
- Stakeholders: the key stakeholders mentioned were the former CEO Tony Hayward, Transocean, U.S. government, British Petroleum, Residents and World Population
