To minimize devastation and maximize opportunities provided during a corporate crisis, public relations professionals should collaborate with lawyers on crisis response strategies. The purpose of this study was to examine coverage of the Ford Motor Co. and Bridgestone/ Firestone, Inc. tire recall from May 2000 through May 2001 to determine whether there was a difference between the strategies used by each company and whether Ford Motor Co. and Bridgestone/Firestone, Inc. used more traditional public relations than traditional legal strategies during each crisis stage.A content analysis was conducted of articles covering the crisis from The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post containing sentences attributed to each company's spokespeople. The search yielded 234 usable articles with 2,192 sentences.Coders identified strategies as traditional public relations, traditional legal, mixed, diversionary, or other. A chi-square was used to test the hypotheses.The first hypothesis, which said there would be no significant difference between strategies used by each company, was rejected. The second and third hypotheses, which said Ford Motor Co. and Bridgestone/Firestone, Inc. used significantly more traditional public relations than traditional legal strategies during each time period, were accepted. / Department of Journalism

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The importance of image management has created the need to for organizations to continually work in order to improve their image or defend it against perceived threats. Since organizations engage in a constant struggle to preserve their reputation, it is important to understand the persuasive discourse associated with image repair strategies. In addition, a successful rhetor must also acknowledge the importance of perception of the appropriateness and effectiveness of the apologetic discourse from the perspective of an audience. Focus groups were conducted and analyzed in order to better understand the perceived appropriateness and effectiveness of the image repair strategies employed by the Big Three Automakers as perceived by the audience. The findings of this study complement the original findings of Benoit and Drew’s quantitative study assessing the appropriateness and effectiveness of image repair strategies in an interpersonal setting. However, there were observable differences between the studies in terms of the perception of both the appropriateness and effectiveness of bolstering and the effectiveness of differentiation. The implications of these differences can be important in developing a better understanding of the utilization of image repair strategies in the apologetic discourse of organizations. Specifically, the results demonstrate how the audience determines the appropriateness and effectiveness of the strategies and how rhetors are able to successfully use different strategies based in context.