Working With the Media During a Business Crisis

• In a capstone course at Rowan University’s Rohrer College of Business, students develop detailed scenarios describing realistic crises that could occur in business settings.
• To understand how such events could be covered by the media, students then role-play the parts of journalists and company representatives reacting to the situations.
• Students receive instructional materials that outline specific types of incidents and list typical questions reporters might ask when covering emergencies.

 
Throughout their careers, many graduates will face moments when they need to interact with print, radio, television, and online media outlets. Unfortunately, most business schools do not equip graduates with the knowledge, skills, and confidence they need to successfully handle the news media—particularly during emergencies.

At Rowan University’s Rohrer College of Business in Glassboro, New Jersey, we prepare students for these situations through a media relations module that is incorporated into our Business Policy capstone course. This offering builds upon four crisis management modules that are embedded in four business core courses (Management Information Systems, Organizational Behavior, Principles of Marketing, and Business Policy).

The media relations module expands on a theme that runs throughout the business capstone course: the importance of understanding, meeting, and ideally exceeding the expectations of organizational stakeholders. The module specifically addresses what news outlets and the general public will want to know when a company is dealing with a crisis. It also emphasizes how important proper media coverage is to corporate reputation management.

Several years ago, supported by a teaching grant, I developed the four crisis management modules. In large part, I drew on my extensive experience in crisis management and media relations. In addition to holding an affiliate appointment as a professor of crisis and emergency management, I have authored Emergency Incident Media Coverage, a book that is used by media, emergency services, and business professionals. I also sought insights from both faculty members and business leaders to create all four modules.

Responding to Crises

Students spend the semesterlong capstone course working in seven-member teams to complete a series of activities related to developing a strategic plan for an assigned organization. A comprehensive consulting project spans the entire 16 weeks, but the media relations module is handled somewhat differently. It is introduced during the first few weeks of the course, and additional relevant information is provided through mini-lectures during the first half of the semester.

The module really gets underway during the second half of the semester, when I assign each team a specific emergency incident. I base each assignment on events that have occurred in our region within the past few years and could certainly confront organizations again in the future. During the recent semester, the five selected incidents included a building fire, a hazardous materials fire, an outside fire, a hazardous materials incident, and an infrastructure emergency.

Students learn that stakeholders will expect media coverage to be accurate, comprehensive, credible, professional, and timely.

Team members first must expand these incidents into realistic scenarios that could draw media attention to their organizations. For example, students in one group developed a comprehensive scenario about an oven fire that occurred in the bakery of a major regional superstore several days before Thanksgiving.

Next, teams must show how coverage of those events could play out in the media. To do so, they develop presentations where they play various roles, including representatives of the impacted business, emergency services personnel, field reporters, and news anchors. Having gained knowledge and confidence by completing the previous crisis management modules, students enthusiastically embrace the opportunity to develop media relations skills during these role-playing activities.

Students learn that stakeholders will expect media coverage to be accurate, comprehensive, credible, professional, and timely. For example, students on the superstore bakery team responded by crafting media interviews that incorporated details such as the fact that the oven fire caused extensive damage to the store, resulted in its closure for several days, and created challenges for shoppers and drivers in the surrounding area.

Designing Aids and Prompts

To enable students to successfully enact their roles, I provide them with instructional material about media coverage of emergency incidents. I also provide them with representative scenarios developed by past student teams, as well as segments of those teams’ media interview scripts. In addition, I encourage them to view real media coverage of past incidents so they can add realistic details to their own scenarios. These resources help students understand the types of crises their teams will face and what parts they will play in the management or media coverage of these events.

Students also receive job aids—resource guides specifically tailored to the type of emergency that each student team has been assigned. These aids cover the essential aspects of both incident management and related media coverage. Given that most students do not have prior public safety experience, these job aids are essential in preparing them to carry out their roles during media interviews, particularly when they are acting as fire service or law enforcement representatives.

For example, the incident management job aid for a building fire covers various types of fires, including those occurring in offices, industrial spaces, storage spaces, mercantile settings, and assembly settings. It emphasizes that the priorities in managing any emergency incident are life safety, incident stabilization, and property conservation. It also discusses operational tactics, safety considerations, types of responding agencies, and resources required to effectively manage a building fire.

Students predict that successfully working with the media is likely to contribute to their professional success and the well-being of the organizations they will lead.

Each media coverage job aid provides prompts and interview questions that help students prepare to play roles as reporters and organizational representatives. It delineates typical questions asked during media interviews—usually structured around “who, what, when, where, why, and how”—and suggests sidebar story ideas and other resources.

The student teams perform their media interviews before an audience that includes their classmates and sometimes faculty and staff members. Both students and faculty provide feedback at the completion of each media interview. I am considering inviting media professionals and business leaders to attend these presentations to provide even more targeted feedback.

Considering Different Approaches

The crisis management and media relations modules have been well-received by students, recruiters, and professional development staff. Students routinely note that the knowledge, skills, and confidence that they develop in these modules are instrumental in distinguishing their professional qualifications and in preparing them for careers as business professionals. Students also predict that successfully working with the media is likely to contribute to their professional success and the well-being of the organizations they will manage and lead.

Business schools that want to design similar modules could do so even if they don’t have faculty with backgrounds in media relations and crisis management. They could seek input from media professionals, emergency services personnel, and professors from other fields who have relevant experience. In fact, journalists, public information officers of emergency service organizations, and business leaders who have experience in working with the media may welcome the opportunity to lend their expertise to such classroom events. This inclusive approach could result in a highly engaging interdisciplinary teaching opportunity.

While Rohrer College of Business embeds the media relations module in our capstone course, other schools could incorporate similar modules into other classes that touch on crisis management. These might include courses on topics such as organizational behavior, leadership, or marketing.

Additional related opportunities also might open up. For instance, since we launched the crisis management modules at Rowan, I have worked with Suzanne FitzGerald, a member of our communications faculty, to co-author the book Survival Skills for Crisis Management Communication Professionals. We anticipate offering a related special-topics course designed to help communication and business students build knowledge, skills, and confidence in media relations.

The bottom line is that business schools must constantly innovate their curricula to ensure that tomorrow’s business leaders are ready to embrace the many challenges they will face. One of those challenges will be managing crises—and managing the media response. By role-playing scenarios in the classroom, students will be fully prepared to act as company representatives in the real world.