A "Titanic" Sized PR Problem - Blog 2

    Irony. That is what I would call it. I couldn’t help but play the Alanis Morissette song “Isn’t It Ironic” in my head when I saw the Titanic preview in the theater. In both of my journalism classes we have discussed the Costa Concordia cruise ship at some point within these two weeks of school. In Mueller’s history of the media class he taught us about “present-mindedness” where people today compare events in our present time to events in the past. He used the example of the cruise ship that wrecked off the coast of Italy and the Titanic. Immediately after the wreck the news articles began comparing it to the Titanic saying it was the Titanic of today. As far as news coverage goes, that is all nice and dandy but it makes me think back to my other journalism class this semester. Public relations communications. I wonder where is the PR for this wreck.

Costa Concordia. dallasnews

     Now I have to admit upfront and be honest with my readers that I am not the strongest news follower. By that I mean, I like the "spark notes" version of news. I like to hear what people are saying and then go look it up. Newspaper articles seem to go right over my head and make me feel unintelligent, so I normally like a friend to explain things to me in everyday terms I can understand. But my PR teacher is right. If I’m going to be in the journalism world than I need to read and be apart of it. So I have been trying to read the news more. I like to see the top stories on Yahoo and then look them up on the NY Times or Dallas Morning News sites.

    On Tuesday, Jan.17, the Dallas Morning News published an article that contained statements from the recording of the cruise captain and the Coast Guard captain. These statements clearly show the negligence of the cruise captain and his refusal to reboard the ship due to the fact that it was dark. I can only imagine that most readers would have a similar reaction to the dialogue as I did. The recorded argument was aired on television for the nation to hear as well.

   I would not know where to really even begin if I were the PR person for the cruise line but I am also still a student and am pursuing my education so that I learn things like this. The ship had wrecked on Friday, Jan. 13, and since then there were many articles like the Tuesday one that made its way to readers. It was not until today, Friday Jan. 27, that I came across an article that had a little bit of PR from the cruise line. The cruise line is offering survivors a $14,460 settlement. Now I cannot say that I came across every article regarding the wreck but I can say that of the ones I read this one was the first one that contained the other side’s response.

    Is a payoff really PR? I am a senior now and I can honestly say that in all that I have learned, I was never taught that money solves a bad PR moment. I am curious as to where are the responses from the cruise captain saying he is sorry? Where are the responses from a CEO with the company saying they are sorry and willing to do all that it takes? That was the second thing we were taught. To always apologize. The first was “be prepared for anything” and the second was to “admit fault.” I am not saying it is strictly the CEO’s fault, not at all, I personally blame the captain, but someone should have been reassuring the public that they are incredibly sorry and are doing everything they can.

   Even with the settlement offer of $14,460, there isn’t a statement of how they realize no money in the world can fix what happened and their deepest sympathies are with the survivors. They just offer money as if it fixes things. I also don’t remember being taught that. I believe we were taught to make it personable and sincere if we were having to clean up after something “sticky.”

    “Foschi, the Costa CEO, said he was certain "we'll be able to find a material solution that will make them happy." ”

That statement just didn’t seem right to me. I’d like to see if all the survivors agree that the 14K is the certain solution to make them happy. All around I realized that the PR for this terrible accident was a prime example of “what not to do.”


Sources:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/italian-cruise-ship-survivors-offered-14-460-person-pain-suffering-article-1.1012861

http://www.dallasnews.com/incoming/20120117-coast-guard-to-italian-cruise-captain-go-back-aboard.ece

http://www.newsday.com/news/world/officials-29-people-missing-from-costa-concordia-1.3454773

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_ITALY_CRUISE_AGROUND?SITE=TXDAM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

http://www.dallasnews.com/incoming/20120114-divers-in-italy-find-2-more-bodies-in-shipwreck.ece