The effects of poor practice in public relations: the Pennsylvania State football scandal

2014-08-07The following white paper explores the effects of poor public relations practice as it pertained to the Pennsylvania State University football scandal. More specifically, it looks at how the media can monopolize on poor communication and action taken by a group of people, or in this case the university. ❧ After the news broke that former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky had been sexually abusing children, focus in both traditional and social media shifted from the actual events of the abuse to the actions, or lack thereof, of the university and its administration. ❧ The majority of the analysis focuses on how the media portrayed the scandal to its readers and why they expressed such opinions. The purpose of this study was to examine what the university did or didn’t do, to cause such a negative reaction amongst the media and their audiences. The other side is to better understand what they could have done better, and to explore and provide insights gained from the content analysis on good practice policies. ❧ The author focused on how the media not only portrayed the scandal, but how they may have changed and evolved in their stories as the school took certain steps, how and when information was released and how the whole case unfolded right through the trial dates. The other key findings were surrounded by how non‐media members responded to these articles and their feedback. ❧ The major conclusion found was the university’s choice to selectively release information, or stay completely quiet, allowed the media to fill that empty space with their own thoughts and opinions that, while not surprising, were overwhelmingly negative and therefore the general public felt generally the same way