As a majority of us are already aware, Penn State has been involved in a massive sex abuse scandal. Accusations have been made against former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. However, Sandusky is not the main face under attack by the media and the university; instead it is head coach Joe Paterno.
The interesting part about this crisis is how the university is handling the situation. They have not conducted one press conference and have cancelled the remaining press conferences originally scheduled. No one is saying a word to the media. What this crisis at Penn State really teaches us is to address situations head on. Ignoring the media, students, faculty, staff, alumni and fans is a bad idea in a situation such this severe.
During my Mass Communication Theory class last night, we discussed the Penn State crisis, all agreeing that as an organization, Penn State cannot nor should not hide from the media. The university should have held a press conference (not taking questions or anything) with just a brief statement of the facts such as, “We are investigating the matter and will let you know when we learn more.” Easy and simple, yet it does let people know that the university is aware of the situation and taking steps to solve it.
I also am having an issue with Joe Paterno’s statement last night. I just cannot wrap my head around who advised the university to let him give that statement. For starters he called the children involved “victims.” While it appears that these people are indeed victims, it has not been officially investigated to prove the accusations. Therefore, Paterno makes it sound like he already believes the accusations against defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. Audiences thinking that Paterno believes the accusations will make it more difficult for the university to solve and handle. Paterno is the face of Penn State, so his opinions can and most likely will influence and be shared by a majority of fans.
Also, Paterno ended his statement with a Penn State cheer. In this type of situation, a university should want their leaders to be professional. Leading a cheer made Paterno appear as if he didn’t think the sex allegations were a big deal, almost as if he was not taking the situation seriously.
It will be interesting to see what Penn State decides to do crisis management wise in the upcoming days and throughout the investigation. I believe that this scandal will be studied by PR professionals for many years to come. How much damage was done to the universities image by this situation? How could they have prevented it? How could their crisis communication plan been activated and implemented differently? How many years will it take the university to get back their reputation and image?
Silence is Golden?.. Great review of the situation at hand. In all honesty, can you name similar situations where something was handled very well by an individual or institution regarding such accusations? -- I mean, c'mon, look at what happened when Michael Jackson had his sex scandal... Should more press conferences take place, it could potentially incriminate other members of the faculty and staff and also taint any potential jury's out there. I think Penn State taking an approach of "Mum's the word" might actually be a good idea in this case-- despite the horrible allegations.
ReplyDeleteTypo correction-- Jurors
ReplyDeleteApparently, I can't edit my post =(
I think its time to clean house. Duke had the right idea a few years back when they had rape allegations. Cancel the season. Clean house and start fresh as a university. The fact that so many people were told these allegations nobody went to the cops blows my mind and is sickening. Your job as a role model coach teacher president assistant or human being is to protect children and none of them went to the cops. I hope this Guy goes away for a long time.
ReplyDeleteInteresting point about following the example of Duke. One of the major things the school could have done in preparing for a crisis such as this is to research what other universities have done in the past to handle similar situations.
ReplyDeleteWhile I think their lack of comments has certainly made people speculate more and has definitely worsened the situation, Their reputation is forever tainted. Look at Bill Clinton, while we can argue he had many accomplishments during his time, we all know what the first thing to come mind is and it has been a decade since his scandal. This will forever haunt Penn and the coaches involved. I'm sure there is some famous quote out there that refers to how you can do tons and tons in the positive direction but it only takes a single negative act to bring it all crumbling down. I think Penn better get it together because they can either handle this with grace and salvage what little rep they have or they can continue to hide in the shadows and continue to let everything they have slip away.
ReplyDeleteWhile I can understand why the university is trying to be careful about what they are saying, so much so they are saying nothing at all, I agree that this is probably doing a lot more damage. In my Corporate Media class we often talk about how people need to watch what they say to the media because if they put their foot in their mouth then it is generally a constant uphill battle to gain back the favor/trust of the public or whoever their target audiencee is. I am sure there was at least one PR person shaking their head or making "cut it" motion as he was saying all this. Chances are no one advised the university to let him say exactly what he said, he probably said that all on his own without thinking. They were most likely advised to have him make a statement to break the silence and he went a little off book. It happens though.. Just look at what's been going on with Cain.
ReplyDeleteand it looks like Penn State has finally spoken for themselves (sort of)... Paterno has been fired.
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