This thesis examined how Pennsylvania State University administrators managed the Sandusky sex abuse scandal in 2011. Coombs’ (2006) Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) strategic response strategies were the theoretical basis for this thesis. This study found Penn State primarily demonstrated the corrective action response strategy. This content analysis also uncovered the dominant tone of Penn State’s messages, which was a traditional public relations tone, as defined by Fitzpatrick and Rubin (1995). This content analysis focused on newspaper articles between November 5, 2011 and January 22, 2012, which were collected from The New York Times and State College’s local newspaper the Centre Daily Times that were reporting on the Sandusky crisis. / Department of Journalism

Within two months of its emergence, the BP Gulf Oil spill had become the worst environmental disaster in United States history. However, for those studying public relations the oil spill brought more than ecological disaster, by providing a case study of crisis communication. Although there were a number of crisis responses from BP throughout the course of the oil spill, the primary crisis response crafted by BP was an image restoration campaign which premiered in early June 2010. This campaign, though it exhibits qualities of a standard crisis response, was wildly unpopular with the United States Government and citizenry. This rhetorical analysis attempts to uncover the reasons behind the campaign's failure through an application of the genre model of criticism. By defining the crisis communication genre and applying it to the artifact, the current study uncovers the reasons behind the failure of the campaign. Through this discussion, this analysis identifies that BP did not address all necessary exigencies, nor did it consider the influence a rhetor can have on a message. An explanation for the failure of BP' s campaign provided a plethora of implications to the fields of public . relations and rhetorical criticism, while beginning a discussion to help define the crisis communication genre.