The Good, The Bad, The Spin

I previously posted about the racial crisis in Jena, La. There is a fourth lesson to learn from this situation: No human or human system–in this case, an entire community–is immune from the general rules of public relations. When a crisis hits, things seemingly small and insignificant can quickly escalate to immense degrees. This happened in Jena and the town appears ill equipped to handle it from a public relations perspective.

The irony is that public relations budgets, and personnel, are usually the first to go when finances are tight. This happened with a local government near me: PR took a hike, and when a crisis hit, all that was left to handle media relations were the chief offenders in the crisis. When public relations is not being addressed, the effect is resounding.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 23rd, 2007 at 6:44 pm and is filed under crisis communications, public relations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.