When I think of public relations conflict/crisis management, an image of Kerry Washington playing the character Olivia Pope comes to mind. However, public relations crisis happen everyday and not just at a dramatized level that concerns national security. Conflict management involves monitoring the image of a person or organization in the public and then working to change their image if it is unfavorable. Once conflicts arise it is important that someone skilled in crisis management be present to help the organization or person muddle through and restore a positive public image.
The conflict I chose to cover is the recent Academy Awards scandal. When the Oscars nominations were released it became overwhelmingly obvious that the work and performances of people of color were once again being overlooked and excluded from the ceremony. This led to public backlash coming from members of the black community, celebrities, and people that care about the ongoing diversity issue in Hollywood. Social media got involved with the trending hashtag #OscarsSoWhite. Also, many celebrities like Jada Pinkett Smith, Michael Moore, and Spike Lee, decided that they would boycott the Oscars and some people urged Chris Rock to step down from hosting it (O’Neal 2016).
The conflict management life cycle can be applied to this this current issue. The first phase in conflict management is proactive. The Oscars engages in this phase by always being informed on current trends, which is known as environmental scanning. The Oscars does this by offering services like online streaming of the awards when the trend towards online streaming emerged. Additionally, the Oscars engages in issues tracking by having social media accounts to monitor, interact, and inform the public.
The next phase in conflict management is the strategic phase. This involved the Academy identifying the crisis and then analyzing how best to tackle this situation. They had to devise a strategy of the best way to address the diversity issue and be viewed favorably by the public. This is the second year in a row that the Oscars has had to deal with criticism in regards to diversity so they probably already had some sort idea of how they were going to deal with this issue.
The third phase to the conflict management life cycle is reactive. This is when the Academy implemented the strategy that they came up with in during the strategic phase. The Academy chose to implement the crisis communication strategy of a corrective action. In a press release, Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs stated “The Academy is taking dramatic steps to alter the makeup of our membership. In the coming days and weeks we will conduct a review of our membership recruitment in order to bring about much-needed diversity in our 2016 class and beyond” (Georgantopoulos 2016). Isaac acknowledge the issue and said that the Academy will work to rectify this situation. She also addressed the fact that this has been a repeated issue when she said, “As many of you know, we have implemented changes to diversify our membership in the last four years. But the change is not coming as fast as we would like. We need to do more, and better and more quickly” (Georgantopoulos 2016). Additionally, the Academy has increased promotion of Chris Rock as the host. Although social media criticized and mocked them for the lack of diversity, the Academy is trying to use social media as a way to restore their image. In a study of the efforts to defund Planned Parenthood in 2011, Rasmussen (2015), found that although social media was part of the major push for defunding, Planned Parenthood was able to to use it for their benefit to inform the public of the consequences of what would happen is they were defunded.
The last phase of the cycle is recovery. This involves reputation management which includes researching the organizations reputation or sometimes image restoration. In my opinion, the Academy is undergoing image restoration because they are striving to make genuine changes in the organization to become more inclusive and restore their public image.
It’s hard to say how successful this the conflict management of this situation is. The Academy completed all the steps of the conflict management life cycle, however the jury of public opinion is still out. In some way, this will be easier to judge after the actual Oscars takes place. The ceremony could help improve the image of the Academy or things could take a turn for the worse and Chris Rock could choose to use his hosting gig as a platform to further the criticism of the lack of diversity amongst the nominees. Or maybe one of the award winners will take this as an opportunity to bring more attention to this issue, similar to when Marlon Brando won an oscar for The Godfather. Only time will tell if the image of the Oscars can be restored. If the Academy actually follows through with Isaacs’ promise to improve diversity, then hopefully instead of facing controversy for another year, the Oscars can return to focusing on trivial matters like the red carpet coverage.
References
Georgantopoulos, M. A. (2016). Academy President “Heartbroken and Frustrated” Over Lack of Oscars Diversity. Retrieved from http://www.buzzfeed.com/maryanngeorgantopoulos/spike-lee-to-boycott-the-oscars-over-lack-of-diversity#.hrNz7PBGV
O’Neal, L. (2016). Is it better for Chris Rock to host the Oscars or Boycott it. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/should-chris-rock-host-the-oscar-ceremony-0r-boycott-it/2016/01/23/53e0f7ea-c131-11e5-bcda-62a36b394160_story.html
Rasmussen, L. (2015). Planned parenthood takes on live action: An analysis of media interplay and image restoration strategies in strategic conflict management.Public Relations Review, 41(3), 354-356. doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2015.01.004
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