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Remembering disaster: Since the media do, so must public relations
Public Relations Review 33 (2007) 313–318
Remembering disaster: Since the media do, so must public relations Jeffrey L. Courtright a,∗ , Gerald Z. Slaughter b,1 b
a School of Communication, Fell Hall 428, Illinois State University, Normal, IL 61790-4480, United States Department of Communication, 322 Erickson Hall, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, IN 47809, United States
Received 9 October 2006; received in revised form 26 January 2007; accepted 26 January 2007
Abstract Only recently has research begun concerning the longer-term aftermath of organizational crisis. This essay presents the genre of disaster rhetoric as a viable strategy to address the problems and opportunities that arise when the media write about crisis anniversaries or news stories that refer to any crisis or disaster, past or present. After a brief review of genre theory, the authors outline the seven functions of the “rhetoric of disaster” and provide multiple examples of their application to public relations activity and its news coverage. The essay concludes with questions that practitioners may use proactively in the development of copy points to address each of the rhetoric of disaster’s functions. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Rhetoric; Genre; Writing conventions; Disaster; Crisis; Message design
1. Overview The bulk of the crisis communication literature has been devoted to crisis plans and the principles behind them (e.g., Fearn-Banks, 2006; Seeger, Sellnow, & Ulmer, 2003), using issues management to prepare for potential crises or avoid them (e.g., Heath, 1997; Olaniran & Williams, 2001), and how organizations “speak” during crises (e.g., Hearit, 2006)—and rightly so. Yet what happens after the crisis’ aftermath merits attention for, as Birch (1994) argues: Things will return to normal—but the story won’t be over yet. It will run again and again. When a public inquiry begins and when it finally reports, when legal actions start and, if it is a quiet news day, on the anniversary of the initial crisis, and sometimes each year thereafter. (p. 34) It is this last case – and others like it – that is the focus of this research note. We contend that attention to anniversaries of crises and disasters and other newsworthy situations that may bring them to mind provide important public relations problems or opportunities because the news media likely will cover them. The more dramatic the news story, the more likely organizations and institutions (e.g., governments) should be ready to address the remembered crisis. Preparation for such news coverage need not be a matter of guesswork. A genre approach to public relations messages provides an appropriate guide to dealing with recurring situations. In this particular case we review Hikins’ (1996) ∗ 1
Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 309 438 7310. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (J.L. Courtright), [email protected] (G.Z. Slaughter). Tel.: +1 812 237 3257.
0363-8111/$ – see front matter © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2007.01.001
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outline of the “rhetoric of disaster” and present its functions as key elements of the talking points the practitioner might use when crisis/disaster anniversaries arise or when similar situations are apt to generate news stories referring to the previous crisis. 2. Genre theory There are many approaches to types of messages, often studied as “writing conventions” or rhetorical genres. Categorization may take place on various levels from the most obvious to the more abstract. For example, the average person recognizes a message as a memorandum, eulogy, or inaugural address from basic aspects of the setting, the source, and the medium used (a short message for the record issued by a member of management on company letterhead, a speech given at a funeral, or the new or reelected president addressing the nation after taking the oath of office at noon on January 20 every 4 years). Linguistic approaches tend to class messages by their purposes and their patterns of organization (Miller, 1984; Orlikowski & Yates, 1994; Yates & Orlikowski, 1992). The average person may recognize a news release only by the heading at the top of the page but the professional recognizes and understands the rationale behind the inverted pyramid as a standard form. Communicative approaches, in contrast, have focused in the main on the constraints of the situation and how a message’s style and substance come together in recurrent patterns over time (Campbell & Jamieson, 1978; Harrell & Linkugel, 1978). For example, a eulogy that fulfills genre expectations is phrased in respectful tones and includes five essential strategies: (1) to acknowledge that a death has occurred; (2) to transform the relationship of the audience to the deceased from present to past; (3) to address the audience’s confrontation with the fact that each person is mortal; (4) to comfort mourners with the idea that the ideals that the deceased valued live on; and (5) to reunite the community after its loss (Jamieson & Campbell, 1982). If the eulogy fails to perform any of these functions, the average person likely will sense the inappropriateness of the message but may not recognize what is missing. The knowledgeable critic does and also is able to explain the significance of such an omission. The reason behind genre theory therefore is to understand message conventions and their functions in society: “The purpose of criticism by genres is not so much to classify as to clarify . . .” (Frye, 1957, pp. 247–248). Both linguistic and rhetorical approaches to genre allow us to understand conventions more deeply. Some rhetorical genres entail a variety of strategies and functions. An excellent case in point is the literature on corporate apologia. As Benoit (1997) has demonstrated, responses to charges of organizational wrongdoing may range from simple denial to evasion of responsibility to reframing the situation with transcendent strategies to accepting responsibility and providing corrective action. The public relations crisis communication literature is extensive in documenting the possible strategies to be used in apologiae and their relative effectiveness (Hearit, 2001, 2006). We suggest that similar, more abstract and sophisticated rhetorical genres documented in the communication literature offer good potential for analysis of public relations campaigns and for message design in the development of campaigns to address corporate problems and capitalize on situational opportunities. Hikins’ (1996) discussion of the seven functions of disaster rhetoric serves as a case in point. 3. Seven functions of the “rhetoric of disaster” In his research surrounding the genre of disaster rhetoric, Hikins (1996) studied seven different events that have remained in cultural memory during the 20th century: the 1982 crash of Pan Am flight 759 near New Orleans, the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, the 1974 tornados that devastated Xenia, Ohio, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the 1917 explosion that leveled Halifax, Nova Scotia, the 1984 Dow Chemical incident in Bhopal, and the 1912 sinking of the Titanic. It is this last event that is the primary focus of Hikins’ (1996) study. Disasters such as the Titanic not only create a crisis situation as public relations scholars and professionals have come to define it. Their magnitude contributes to their historical and cultural significance. Hikins (1996) documents how the White Star Line dealt with the crisis and then illustrates how discourse regarding the Titanic has continued to arise in news stories, films, and popular discourse. In so doing, he articulates seven characteristic functions that disaster rhetoric provides. First, disaster rhetoric utilizes one strategy also found in eulogies: consolation (Hikins, 1996). The audience is comforted. Second, some sort of deity is invoked as a source of inspiration and explanation. Hikins calls this function theological. In the immediate aftermath of the Titanic sinking, news stories recounted how the Titanic’s musicians
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demonstrated their faith in God by playing “Autumn,” a hymn of the Church of England (p. 118). Third, disaster rhetoric is prescriptive in that it describes the actions of individuals in the midst of the disaster and offers them as examples to follow. A fourth function, the didactic, is related to the third because it focuses on how rhetoric surrounding disasters teaches lessons to audiences—at the time of the disaster and beyond. The remaining characteristics work in concert with the first four. Fifth, the heuristic function is “to mitigate the audience’s feeling of great personal loss by offering an explanation of the disaster in terms of some noble purpose served or by pointing out that the calamity might have been much worse” (Hikins, 1996, p. 120). Sixth, disaster rhetoric demonstrates the preservative function of rhetoric: Messages not only are instrumental to address audiences in the immediate situation, but records of what was said about the disaster remain in our cultural memory, providing various framings of it for use in later message making. Later reminders of a crisis and what it means to us today also fulfill this function since those framings also become part of the lore regarding the disaster. Finally, disaster rhetoric serves an adjudicative function. Determinations of blame (and who should be lionized as heroes) occur at the time and can be repeated and debated as time goes on. The application of these seven characteristics of disaster rhetoric is readily apparent in news coverage of organizational crises at the time of a disaster, on anniversaries of the disaster, and in similar situations that invite newsworthy comparison. 4. Application to public relations In this section we illustrate each of the seven characteristics of disaster rhetoric with a variety of news stories surrounding disasters, anniversaries of such events, and public relations efforts that make use of the genre. Clearly consolation is in order in the wake of a crisis and in the face of litigation. Smudde (2000) reports that General Motors expressed concern for human lives lost as part of its crisis communication efforts related to the C/K pickup truck, which lasted over 5 years: “No amount of statistics or other proof of vehicle safety can comfort the loved ones of those affected. General Motors understands that and is fully sympathetic with the grief experienced by the families and friends of crash victims” (p. 134). In a situation much later than the original incidents (some three to four decades), the Christian and Missionary Alliance held a “reconciliation event” with former students who had abused at its school in western Africa, expressing regret for what representatives of the denomination had done to them (Courtright & Hearit, 2002). As an example of the theological function of disaster rhetoric, invocations of “god” may be expressed in many ways since there are many approaches to spirituality today. Note the transcendent values of science and progress couched in remarks during a NASA ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the Challenger incident: I think the risks the astronauts take can be compared to the valor of the men and women who serve our country in the Middle East now, or during 9–11 when those firemen climbed those stairs, because without risks there is no discovery, there’s no new knowledge and there’s no new bold adventure, all of which help the human soul to soar. (NASA, 2006) Although these remarks were made by the widow of Challenger Commander Dick Scobee, they become part of NASA’s disaster rhetoric when they appear in an official news release. With environmental issues, the sanctity of the earth or noting the mercurial behavior of “Mother Nature” might appear logical to some publics. For public relations professionals, concerns for what recommendations and lessons the news media offer when presenting an anniversary story may be of greatest concern because the results may not put the organization in a favorable light. For example, the Manchester Guardian (Davis, 2006) recommended that the United Nations live up to its commitment (stated exactly 1 year earlier), to protect civilians in the world’s troubled hot spots. Likewise, many news articles commented on the lack of crisis plans in organizations on the 5th anniversary of 9/11 (Hicks, 2006; LaGrone, 2006). The financial media also have continued to focus on broader lessons learned from the economic disaster brought about by companies such as Enron and Arthur Anderson. In contrast, the Tylenol tampering case is a perennial example of how management engaged in proper decision-making processes. Holocaust museums and other Jewish organizations sum up the lessons of the Holocaust in two words: “Never again.” It is up to public relations to recall the best practices organizational members performed during a crisis and to demonstrate how organizations have learned lessons from disaster to regain public trust, thus fulfilling the prescriptive function of disaster rhetoric in a positive manner. Intriguingly, rather than mitigate a sense of loss, application of the heuristic function to public relations work suggests that messages can be designed to intensify the audience’s sense of loss from a disaster so that publics are more receptive to its lessons and act upon them. A good case in point would be Holocaust museums. For example, CANDLES
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Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Terre Haute, Indiana, has sponsored a pilgrimage to Auschwitz on the 40th, 50th, and 60th anniversaries of the camp’s liberation (e.g., Ayer, 1995; Sandweiss, 2005). The organization’s founder, a survivor of the Mengele twins experiments there, in speeches around the country and in news interviews, has emphasized the loss of her family during the Holocaust (e.g., Loughlin, 2005). The preservative function of disaster rhetoric not only sustains cultural memories and framings of events such as the Holocaust but can provide message resources for years to come. This can be bad news since poor handling of a corporate crisis is not forgotten by the media (e.g., Dow Chemical and Bhopal and the Exxon Valdez have become synonymous with how not to handle a disaster) or by an organization’s critics (e.g., Greenpeace International, 2004). With news footage or photography files available, “the media loves an anniversary.” As the Baltimore Sun observed, “networks and cable outlets outdid themselves in reliving the tragedy” of 9/11 (Madigan, 2006). Yet positive outcomes may accrue from a crisis (Ulmer & Sellnow, 2002). What the organization said and did positively may become fodder for positive media attention later on. The day of the death of Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter (and for the next 2 weeks), the Animal Planet cable channel repeated programs that presented who Irwin was and his philosophy (Irwin & Stainton, 2000) and “Confessions of the Crocodile Hunter” (Irwin & Stainton, 2004), which first aired after Irwin had been criticized for being too close to animals when he was filming programs in Antarctica. The available messages preserved a more positive image of the Crocodile Hunter, in contrast to the interview that NBC’s Today Show repeated that morning—an interview in which Irwin continually interrupted Matt Lauer to respond to criticism for taking his month-old son into a crocodile feeding area (Lauer & Adams, 2004). In addition to the prescriptive and didactic functions of disaster rhetoric, perhaps the other function to which public relations must attend to more than others is the adjudicative. News recollections of crises past may renew the blame placed at an organization’s door during the original disaster. For example, USA Today reported a survey which found that less than half of company officials reported that their organizations were better prepared for disasters 1 year after Hurricane Katrina; and “some companies have plans but have not communicated them to employees or practiced what to do in a mock disaster. And others have done nothing. About 25% of organizations have not communicated or tested their plans” (Armour, 2006). In conjunction with the prescriptive function, handling a crisis well and adopting sound policies may allow an organization to place a positively framed message regarding a past disaster when anniversaries or other opportunities arise. 5. Recommendations The identification of these seven characteristics and the classification of messages as part of a genre of disaster is thus instructive to our understanding of the functions such messages perform in our culture. More can be learned by taking the principles learned from communication criticism and applying them to the creation of public relations messages (Smudde, 2004). For organizations and practitioners who are faced with media contacts that are likely to bring up major crises upon their anniversaries or long after their critical status has ended, we offer the following questions, based on seven functions of disaster rhetoric, to be asked in the development of copy points for public relations messages: (1) Consolation: How might consolation still be required in addressing a past crisis or disaster? What specific publics warrant special attention due to the phases of the grieving process or ongoing trauma effects? (2) Theological: What religious or spiritual values may be associated with the organization, its publics’ worldviews, or with the disaster itself? How should the theological function of disaster rhetoric be addressed, if at all? (3) Prescriptive: What examples from how the crisis was handled by individuals or groups within the organization may be used as best practices and examples to follow? (4) Didactic: What evidence is there that the organization has learned lessons since the disaster? (5) Heuristic: To what degree should a sense of loss associated with the disaster or crisis be addressed? Should it be mitigated to bring about healing between an organization and its publics? Should it be emphasized to increase organizational and audience commitment to action based on lessons learned? (6) Preservative: What messages and actions taken by the organization during the disaster may be used to cast the organization in a positive light? What news files and footage might the media use, negative or positive? (7) Adjudicative: What message strategies will help the organization as it once again comes before the court of public opinion?
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Clearly these questions can be asked during a crisis or disaster as well as much later. Communications at a time of catastrophe make a significant contribution to a fully developed corporate strategy (Dolphin, 2005). For example, the United Nations, on the 1-year anniversary of its pledge to protect civilians (Davis, 2006), issued a news release merely reported the increase of human rights abuses in the Sudanese region of Darfur (UN News Service, 2006). Such apparent faux pas need not occur. Not only should practitioners be prepared for crises (e.g., Olaniran & Williams, 2001) but they can be prepared to draw upon them and the functions of the rhetoric of disaster when the need arises. References Armour, S. (2006, September 11). Companies get disaster plans going, but gaps remain. USA Today [On-line]. Retrieved September 18, 2006, from http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2006-09-11-disaster-plans x.htm. Ayer, T. (1995). Auschwitz stirs valley delegation. Terre Haute, IN: Tribune-Star., pp. A1, A3 Benoit, W. L. (1997). Image restoration discourse and crisis communication. Public Relations Review, 23, 177–186. Birch, J. (1994). New factors in crisis planning and response. Public Relations Quarterly, 39(1), 31–34. Campbell, K. K., & Jamieson, K. H. (1978). Form and genre in rhetorical criticism: An introduction. In K. K. Campbell & K. H. Jamieson (Eds.), Form and genre: Shaping rhetorical action (pp. 9–32). Falls Church, VA: Speech Communication Association. Courtright, J. L., & Hearit, K. M. (2002). “The good organization speaking well”: A paradigm case for institutional reputation management. Public Relations Review, 28, 347–360. Davis, I. (2006, September 16). Taking responsibility seriously. The [Manchester, England] Guardian [on-line]. Retrieved September 18, 2006, from http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ian davis/2006/09/avoiding disaster in darfur.html. Dolphin, R. R. (2005). Crisis communications: Today’s strategic imperative. International Journal of Management Practice, 1, 294–308. Fearn-Banks, K. (2006). Crisis communications: A casebook approach (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Frye, N. (1957). Anatomy of criticism: Four essays. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Greenpeace International. (2004, December 3). Bhopal disaster still unresolved 20 years on: Dow in denial [News release]. Retrieved September 18, 2006, from http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/bhopal-disaster-still-unresolv. Harrell, J., & Linkugel, W. A. (1978). On rhetorical genre: An organizing perspective. Philosophy & Rhetoric, 11, 262–281. Hearit, K. M. (2001). Corporate apologia: When an organization speaks in defense of itself. In R. L. Heath (Ed.), Handbook of public relations (pp. 501–511). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Hearit, K. M. (2006). Crisis management by apology: Corporate response to allegations of wrongdoing. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Heath, R. L. (1997). Strategic issues management: Organizations and public policy challenges. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Hicks, J. (2006, September 10). 9/11 anniversary underscores need for disaster preparedness. Sulphur Springs (AK) News-Telegram [on-line]. Retrieved September 18, 2006, from http://www.ssnewstelegram.com/news/2006/september/nt091006johannahicks.html. Hikins, J. (1996). Discursive response to calamity: The rhetoric of disaster. In D. D. Cali (Ed.), Generic criticism of American public address (pp. 107–136). Dubuque, IA: Kendall-Hunt. Irwin, S., & Stainton, J. (2000). Steve’s story [Television series episode]. In J. Stainton (Ed.), The Crocodile Hunter. Santa Monica, CA: Family Home Ent. Irwin, S., & Stainton, J. (2004). Confessions of the Crocodile Hunter. [Television series episode]. In J. Stainton (Ed.), The Crocodile Hunter. Santa Monica, CA: Family Home Ent. Jamieson, K. H., & Campbell, K. K. (1982). Rhetorical hybrids: Fusions of generic elements. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 68, 146–157. LaGrone, P. (2006, September 11). Daycare centers unprepared for disaster, studies show [Broadcast news transcript]. NBC2 News (Fort Myers, FL) [On-line] Retrieved September 18, 2006, from http://www.nbc-2.com/articles/readarticle.asp?articleid=8800&z=3&p=. Lauer, M., (Writer) & Adams, R. C. (Director). (2004). Steve Irwin, “The Crocodile Hunter,” responds to outrage over a crocodile stunt while holding his baby. In T. Touchet (Executive Producer), The Today Show. New York: National Broadcasting Company, Inc. Loughlin, S. (2005). Terre Haute’s top 40—Eva Kor/CANDLES Holocaust Museum: Tenacious survivor strives to teach. Terre Haute, IN: TribuneStar., pp. A1, A4 Madigan, N. (2006, September 11). TV watchers face blitz of anniversary coverage: Millions tune in to networks, cable outlets; “It’s definitely overdone.” Baltimore (MD) Sun [On-line]. Retrieved September 18, 2006, from http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/balmedia0911,0,5031121.story?coll=bal-home-headlines. Miller, C. R. (1984). Genre as social action. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 70, 151–167. National Aeronautics and Space Administration [NASA]. (2006, January 31). Fallen space heroes honored [News release]. Retrieved September 18, 2006, from http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/news/f memorial prt.htm. Olaniran, B. A., & Williams, D. E. (2001). Anticipatory model of crisis management: A vigilant response to technological crises. In R. L. Heath (Ed.), Handbook of public relations (pp. 487–500). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Orlikowski, W. J., & Yates, J. (1994). Genre repertoire: The structuring of communicative practices in organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 39, 541–574. Sandweiss, L. A. (2005). Reporting from Auschwitz. Indiana (University Bloomington). Alumni Magazine, 68(1), 38–43. Seeger, M. W., Sellnow, T. L., & Ulmer, R. R. (2003). Communication and organizational crisis. Westport, CT: Praeger. Smudde, P. M. (2000). The rhetorical and organizational nature of public relations: The case of General Motors’ C/K pickups (Doctoral dissertation, Wayne State University, 2000). Dissertation Abstracts International, 61(10A), 3982.
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Smudde, P. M. (2004). Implications on the practice and study of Kenneth Burke’s idea of a “public relations counsel with a heart.” Communication Quarterly, 52, 420–432. Ulmer, R. R., & Sellnow, T. L. (2002). Crisis management and the discourse of renewal: Understanding the potential for positive outcomes of crisis. Public Relations Review, 28, 361–365. UN News Service (2006, September 18). Large scale human rights abuses mounting in Sudan’s Darfur—UN rights chief [News release]. Retrieved September 18, 2006, from http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=19871&Cr=&Cr1=. Yates, J., & Orlikowski, W. J. (1992). Genres of organizational communication: A structurational approach to studying communication and media. Academy of Management Review, 17, 299–326.
Remembering disaster: Since the media do, so must public relations Jeffrey L. Courtright a,∗ , Gerald Z. Slaughter b,1 b
a School of Communication, Fell Hall 428, Illinois State University, Normal, IL 61790-4480, United States Department of Communication, 322 Erickson Hall, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, IN 47809, United States
Received 9 October 2006; received in revised form 26 January 2007; accepted 26 January 2007
Abstract Only recently has research begun concerning the longer-term aftermath of organizational crisis. This essay presents the genre of disaster rhetoric as a viable strategy to address the problems and opportunities that arise when the media write about crisis anniversaries or news stories that refer to any crisis or disaster, past or present. After a brief review of genre theory, the authors outline the seven functions of the “rhetoric of disaster” and provide multiple examples of their application to public relations activity and its news coverage. The essay concludes with questions that practitioners may use proactively in the development of copy points to address each of the rhetoric of disaster’s functions. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Rhetoric; Genre; Writing conventions; Disaster; Crisis; Message design
1. Overview The bulk of the crisis communication literature has been devoted to crisis plans and the principles behind them (e.g., Fearn-Banks, 2006; Seeger, Sellnow, & Ulmer, 2003), using issues management to prepare for potential crises or avoid them (e.g., Heath, 1997; Olaniran & Williams, 2001), and how organizations “speak” during crises (e.g., Hearit, 2006)—and rightly so. Yet what happens after the crisis’ aftermath merits attention for, as Birch (1994) argues: Things will return to normal—but the story won’t be over yet. It will run again and again. When a public inquiry begins and when it finally reports, when legal actions start and, if it is a quiet news day, on the anniversary of the initial crisis, and sometimes each year thereafter. (p. 34) It is this last case – and others like it – that is the focus of this research note. We contend that attention to anniversaries of crises and disasters and other newsworthy situations that may bring them to mind provide important public relations problems or opportunities because the news media likely will cover them. The more dramatic the news story, the more likely organizations and institutions (e.g., governments) should be ready to address the remembered crisis. Preparation for such news coverage need not be a matter of guesswork. A genre approach to public relations messages provides an appropriate guide to dealing with recurring situations. In this particular case we review Hikins’ (1996) ∗ 1
Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 309 438 7310. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (J.L. Courtright), [email protected] (G.Z. Slaughter). Tel.: +1 812 237 3257.
0363-8111/$ – see front matter © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2007.01.001
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outline of the “rhetoric of disaster” and present its functions as key elements of the talking points the practitioner might use when crisis/disaster anniversaries arise or when similar situations are apt to generate news stories referring to the previous crisis. 2. Genre theory There are many approaches to types of messages, often studied as “writing conventions” or rhetorical genres. Categorization may take place on various levels from the most obvious to the more abstract. For example, the average person recognizes a message as a memorandum, eulogy, or inaugural address from basic aspects of the setting, the source, and the medium used (a short message for the record issued by a member of management on company letterhead, a speech given at a funeral, or the new or reelected president addressing the nation after taking the oath of office at noon on January 20 every 4 years). Linguistic approaches tend to class messages by their purposes and their patterns of organization (Miller, 1984; Orlikowski & Yates, 1994; Yates & Orlikowski, 1992). The average person may recognize a news release only by the heading at the top of the page but the professional recognizes and understands the rationale behind the inverted pyramid as a standard form. Communicative approaches, in contrast, have focused in the main on the constraints of the situation and how a message’s style and substance come together in recurrent patterns over time (Campbell & Jamieson, 1978; Harrell & Linkugel, 1978). For example, a eulogy that fulfills genre expectations is phrased in respectful tones and includes five essential strategies: (1) to acknowledge that a death has occurred; (2) to transform the relationship of the audience to the deceased from present to past; (3) to address the audience’s confrontation with the fact that each person is mortal; (4) to comfort mourners with the idea that the ideals that the deceased valued live on; and (5) to reunite the community after its loss (Jamieson & Campbell, 1982). If the eulogy fails to perform any of these functions, the average person likely will sense the inappropriateness of the message but may not recognize what is missing. The knowledgeable critic does and also is able to explain the significance of such an omission. The reason behind genre theory therefore is to understand message conventions and their functions in society: “The purpose of criticism by genres is not so much to classify as to clarify . . .” (Frye, 1957, pp. 247–248). Both linguistic and rhetorical approaches to genre allow us to understand conventions more deeply. Some rhetorical genres entail a variety of strategies and functions. An excellent case in point is the literature on corporate apologia. As Benoit (1997) has demonstrated, responses to charges of organizational wrongdoing may range from simple denial to evasion of responsibility to reframing the situation with transcendent strategies to accepting responsibility and providing corrective action. The public relations crisis communication literature is extensive in documenting the possible strategies to be used in apologiae and their relative effectiveness (Hearit, 2001, 2006). We suggest that similar, more abstract and sophisticated rhetorical genres documented in the communication literature offer good potential for analysis of public relations campaigns and for message design in the development of campaigns to address corporate problems and capitalize on situational opportunities. Hikins’ (1996) discussion of the seven functions of disaster rhetoric serves as a case in point. 3. Seven functions of the “rhetoric of disaster” In his research surrounding the genre of disaster rhetoric, Hikins (1996) studied seven different events that have remained in cultural memory during the 20th century: the 1982 crash of Pan Am flight 759 near New Orleans, the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, the 1974 tornados that devastated Xenia, Ohio, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the 1917 explosion that leveled Halifax, Nova Scotia, the 1984 Dow Chemical incident in Bhopal, and the 1912 sinking of the Titanic. It is this last event that is the primary focus of Hikins’ (1996) study. Disasters such as the Titanic not only create a crisis situation as public relations scholars and professionals have come to define it. Their magnitude contributes to their historical and cultural significance. Hikins (1996) documents how the White Star Line dealt with the crisis and then illustrates how discourse regarding the Titanic has continued to arise in news stories, films, and popular discourse. In so doing, he articulates seven characteristic functions that disaster rhetoric provides. First, disaster rhetoric utilizes one strategy also found in eulogies: consolation (Hikins, 1996). The audience is comforted. Second, some sort of deity is invoked as a source of inspiration and explanation. Hikins calls this function theological. In the immediate aftermath of the Titanic sinking, news stories recounted how the Titanic’s musicians
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demonstrated their faith in God by playing “Autumn,” a hymn of the Church of England (p. 118). Third, disaster rhetoric is prescriptive in that it describes the actions of individuals in the midst of the disaster and offers them as examples to follow. A fourth function, the didactic, is related to the third because it focuses on how rhetoric surrounding disasters teaches lessons to audiences—at the time of the disaster and beyond. The remaining characteristics work in concert with the first four. Fifth, the heuristic function is “to mitigate the audience’s feeling of great personal loss by offering an explanation of the disaster in terms of some noble purpose served or by pointing out that the calamity might have been much worse” (Hikins, 1996, p. 120). Sixth, disaster rhetoric demonstrates the preservative function of rhetoric: Messages not only are instrumental to address audiences in the immediate situation, but records of what was said about the disaster remain in our cultural memory, providing various framings of it for use in later message making. Later reminders of a crisis and what it means to us today also fulfill this function since those framings also become part of the lore regarding the disaster. Finally, disaster rhetoric serves an adjudicative function. Determinations of blame (and who should be lionized as heroes) occur at the time and can be repeated and debated as time goes on. The application of these seven characteristics of disaster rhetoric is readily apparent in news coverage of organizational crises at the time of a disaster, on anniversaries of the disaster, and in similar situations that invite newsworthy comparison. 4. Application to public relations In this section we illustrate each of the seven characteristics of disaster rhetoric with a variety of news stories surrounding disasters, anniversaries of such events, and public relations efforts that make use of the genre. Clearly consolation is in order in the wake of a crisis and in the face of litigation. Smudde (2000) reports that General Motors expressed concern for human lives lost as part of its crisis communication efforts related to the C/K pickup truck, which lasted over 5 years: “No amount of statistics or other proof of vehicle safety can comfort the loved ones of those affected. General Motors understands that and is fully sympathetic with the grief experienced by the families and friends of crash victims” (p. 134). In a situation much later than the original incidents (some three to four decades), the Christian and Missionary Alliance held a “reconciliation event” with former students who had abused at its school in western Africa, expressing regret for what representatives of the denomination had done to them (Courtright & Hearit, 2002). As an example of the theological function of disaster rhetoric, invocations of “god” may be expressed in many ways since there are many approaches to spirituality today. Note the transcendent values of science and progress couched in remarks during a NASA ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the Challenger incident: I think the risks the astronauts take can be compared to the valor of the men and women who serve our country in the Middle East now, or during 9–11 when those firemen climbed those stairs, because without risks there is no discovery, there’s no new knowledge and there’s no new bold adventure, all of which help the human soul to soar. (NASA, 2006) Although these remarks were made by the widow of Challenger Commander Dick Scobee, they become part of NASA’s disaster rhetoric when they appear in an official news release. With environmental issues, the sanctity of the earth or noting the mercurial behavior of “Mother Nature” might appear logical to some publics. For public relations professionals, concerns for what recommendations and lessons the news media offer when presenting an anniversary story may be of greatest concern because the results may not put the organization in a favorable light. For example, the Manchester Guardian (Davis, 2006) recommended that the United Nations live up to its commitment (stated exactly 1 year earlier), to protect civilians in the world’s troubled hot spots. Likewise, many news articles commented on the lack of crisis plans in organizations on the 5th anniversary of 9/11 (Hicks, 2006; LaGrone, 2006). The financial media also have continued to focus on broader lessons learned from the economic disaster brought about by companies such as Enron and Arthur Anderson. In contrast, the Tylenol tampering case is a perennial example of how management engaged in proper decision-making processes. Holocaust museums and other Jewish organizations sum up the lessons of the Holocaust in two words: “Never again.” It is up to public relations to recall the best practices organizational members performed during a crisis and to demonstrate how organizations have learned lessons from disaster to regain public trust, thus fulfilling the prescriptive function of disaster rhetoric in a positive manner. Intriguingly, rather than mitigate a sense of loss, application of the heuristic function to public relations work suggests that messages can be designed to intensify the audience’s sense of loss from a disaster so that publics are more receptive to its lessons and act upon them. A good case in point would be Holocaust museums. For example, CANDLES
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Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Terre Haute, Indiana, has sponsored a pilgrimage to Auschwitz on the 40th, 50th, and 60th anniversaries of the camp’s liberation (e.g., Ayer, 1995; Sandweiss, 2005). The organization’s founder, a survivor of the Mengele twins experiments there, in speeches around the country and in news interviews, has emphasized the loss of her family during the Holocaust (e.g., Loughlin, 2005). The preservative function of disaster rhetoric not only sustains cultural memories and framings of events such as the Holocaust but can provide message resources for years to come. This can be bad news since poor handling of a corporate crisis is not forgotten by the media (e.g., Dow Chemical and Bhopal and the Exxon Valdez have become synonymous with how not to handle a disaster) or by an organization’s critics (e.g., Greenpeace International, 2004). With news footage or photography files available, “the media loves an anniversary.” As the Baltimore Sun observed, “networks and cable outlets outdid themselves in reliving the tragedy” of 9/11 (Madigan, 2006). Yet positive outcomes may accrue from a crisis (Ulmer & Sellnow, 2002). What the organization said and did positively may become fodder for positive media attention later on. The day of the death of Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter (and for the next 2 weeks), the Animal Planet cable channel repeated programs that presented who Irwin was and his philosophy (Irwin & Stainton, 2000) and “Confessions of the Crocodile Hunter” (Irwin & Stainton, 2004), which first aired after Irwin had been criticized for being too close to animals when he was filming programs in Antarctica. The available messages preserved a more positive image of the Crocodile Hunter, in contrast to the interview that NBC’s Today Show repeated that morning—an interview in which Irwin continually interrupted Matt Lauer to respond to criticism for taking his month-old son into a crocodile feeding area (Lauer & Adams, 2004). In addition to the prescriptive and didactic functions of disaster rhetoric, perhaps the other function to which public relations must attend to more than others is the adjudicative. News recollections of crises past may renew the blame placed at an organization’s door during the original disaster. For example, USA Today reported a survey which found that less than half of company officials reported that their organizations were better prepared for disasters 1 year after Hurricane Katrina; and “some companies have plans but have not communicated them to employees or practiced what to do in a mock disaster. And others have done nothing. About 25% of organizations have not communicated or tested their plans” (Armour, 2006). In conjunction with the prescriptive function, handling a crisis well and adopting sound policies may allow an organization to place a positively framed message regarding a past disaster when anniversaries or other opportunities arise. 5. Recommendations The identification of these seven characteristics and the classification of messages as part of a genre of disaster is thus instructive to our understanding of the functions such messages perform in our culture. More can be learned by taking the principles learned from communication criticism and applying them to the creation of public relations messages (Smudde, 2004). For organizations and practitioners who are faced with media contacts that are likely to bring up major crises upon their anniversaries or long after their critical status has ended, we offer the following questions, based on seven functions of disaster rhetoric, to be asked in the development of copy points for public relations messages: (1) Consolation: How might consolation still be required in addressing a past crisis or disaster? What specific publics warrant special attention due to the phases of the grieving process or ongoing trauma effects? (2) Theological: What religious or spiritual values may be associated with the organization, its publics’ worldviews, or with the disaster itself? How should the theological function of disaster rhetoric be addressed, if at all? (3) Prescriptive: What examples from how the crisis was handled by individuals or groups within the organization may be used as best practices and examples to follow? (4) Didactic: What evidence is there that the organization has learned lessons since the disaster? (5) Heuristic: To what degree should a sense of loss associated with the disaster or crisis be addressed? Should it be mitigated to bring about healing between an organization and its publics? Should it be emphasized to increase organizational and audience commitment to action based on lessons learned? (6) Preservative: What messages and actions taken by the organization during the disaster may be used to cast the organization in a positive light? What news files and footage might the media use, negative or positive? (7) Adjudicative: What message strategies will help the organization as it once again comes before the court of public opinion?
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