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Syllabus
This is a sample
CRISIS COMMUNICATION
Course Objectives
This course examines the variables involved in crisis planning, communication and management. To do
so, we must consider the organization’s vulnerabilities, the environment in which it thrives, the
stakeholders who can influence its operation and the strategies best suited to maintaining or enhancing
its reputation. The media plays a crucial role in crisis management and we will discuss this factor
throughout the course. We will consider how the media acts as a catalyst as well as intermediary in this
process. Some of the questions that will arise will be: Is the relationship inherently antagonistic? Should
it be?
By the conclusion of the course, participants should have developed a deeper understanding of the range
of crises facing organizations, an enhanced appreciation of communication tactics that can be brought to
bear in such situations and a greater familiarity with the historical antecedents of current crises.
Required Readings
1) Irv Schenkler and Tony Herrling, Tony. Guide to Media Relations, Prentice-Hall, 2004. Available in the
NYU Bookstore.
The following two readings need to be downloaded electronically from the NYU Bookstore. Instructions
follow:
2) "Strategic Planning and Assessing Crisis Vulnerability." From Crisis Management in the New Strategy
Landscape, by William Crandall, John Parnell and John Spillan. Sage Publications, 2009.
3) “Communicating When It's Code Red." From Crisis Leadership Now: A Real-World Guide to Preparing
for Threats, Disaster, Sabotage, and Scandal, by Laurence Barton. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008.
Here are the ordering instructions:
Go to the NYU Book Store web site: http://www.bookstores.nyu.edu
Click on the front page link, Textbook Inquiry & Ordering. Enter your NYU student ID and all of the course
materials will come up. Follow purchase instructions.
Teaching Approach
The course will be conducted in three modes: lecture, discussion, and team participation. In teams,
participants will analyze cases and present problem-solving strategies in class. Along with the text, video
material will be viewed and used as the basis for discussion and role-play.
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Prefatory Reading and Assignment
READING: Guide to Media Relations, Chapter 1
PRE-WORK: DUE Feb. 8 (Not Graded) “Crisis in Your Organization”
Submit in class
Think about the company you work for or in which you have once been employed. Describe a crisis that
has affected or could conceivably affect:

its operations ,reputation or profitability
Break down the nature of the crisis according to how it would affect significant stakeholders. Provide
background on:

the company and the industry in which it operates
Frame the potential crisis within a narrative structure. Try to keep the length to one page, single spaced.
Graded Assignments
50%
Report Paper: An industry or particular company confronting crisis and media inquiry.
Write about a company or industry that has faced or currently faces a crisis (or that is grappling with an
issue which threatens to become a crisis.)
Include the following components: 1) analyze the underlying causation); 2) a stakeholder analysis; 3)
review what the organization did in response, and 4) evaluate its effectiveness and determine whether
other approaches might have been taken. You may not use the company you wrote about in “Crisis
in Your Organization.”
At heart, I am looking for analysis rather than description. I’m also interested in documentation of source
material. Finally, whichever sort of topic you choose should be of real interest to you.
Please check in with me about the topic (via e-mail) by Match 7 at the latest.
Length: 5 pages (it’s expected that you employ sources, attributions and bibliography.)
Due March 25 by midnight. Submit via Blackboard/Assignments
25%
Revisit the “Crisis in Your Organization” paper. You wrote the first version before you
attended our class sessions. In the ensuing weeks, presumably you will have enlarged your
understanding of that organization’s problem as a result of the class discussions, readings and guest
speakers. In this “revisit,” reflect on the scenario as you originally wrote about it and reassess your
viewpoint about the situation and how it was resolved. The paper should reference as appropriate, course
readings, discussions and speakers’ observations. Length: 2 pages. Submit at any point or by March 22.
Submit via Blackboard/Assignments
25%
Participation
Course Outline
Session One:
February 8
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Introduction to the Subject
Business, the Media and Public Opinion
Preparing for Crisis: environmental scanning and issues management. Strategies for crisis planning.
The components of a plan. Executing and assessing the impact of a crisis plan.
Review of Significant Crises: 1980-2011
Readings for Next Session:

Materials on Wal-Mart (handout)

Laurence Barton, “Communicating When It’s Code Red.”

Guide to Media Relations, Chapter 5
Session Two:
February 15
Grassroots and Advocacy: Wal-Mart and Sprawl Busters
Focus on Wal-Mart and its opposition in the U.S. during the past two decades. We will examine how
issues develop, and chart the course events from 1994-2012 as Wal-Mart encountered growing
opposition to its growth strategy and business model. Viewing of 60 Minutes segment.
Crisis Response Framework
Organizational response to crisis—a theoretical framework. Lecture/discussion.
Readings for Next Session:

Materials on Ford-Firestone (handout)

Guide to Media Relations, Chapter 2

Crandall, Parnell and Spillan, “Strategic Planning and Assessing Crisis Vulnerability.”
Session Three:
February 22
Guest Speaker: Claudia Deutch, former senior financial reporter, New York Times
Media and business: inherent versus perceived conflicts. For more than twenty years, Ms. Deutch was
a New York Times reporter covering finance, management and real estate. She also was a reporter for
Business Week and other publications. She will reflect on changes and continuities in media-business
relations.
Ford Motor Company and Bridgestone/Firestone: A Case of Misplaced Adversaries (Part One)
A look at the dynamics and the choices senior management of both firms employed to counter the
criticism they received. One of the most complex corporate crises to emerge in the U.S. involved these
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two companies whose relationship spanned nearly a century. Student teams will devise
communication strategies intended for primary stakeholder groups.
Reading for Next Session:

Materials on Ford-Bridgestone/Firestone (handout)
Session Four: February 29
Guest Speaker: Chris Atkins, Vice President, PWC
Crisis Preparation and Response from both sides
Mr. Atkins spent 25 years on the agency side as
managing director of Burson-Marstellar, Ketchum, and Ogilvy. In 2005, PR Week named him as one
of the country’s go-to consultants in crisis situations. Between 2007-2011, he ran the corporate
communication area of S&P. Now he oversees U.S. public relations for PWC. He will reflect on the
differences.
Ford Motor Company and Bridgestone/Firestone: A Case of Misplaced Adversaries (Part Two)
A look at the dynamics and the choices senior management of both firms employed to counter the
criticism they received. Student teams will present their communication strategies intended for primary
stakeholder groups. Viewing of 60 Minutes segment.
Reading for Next Session:

Guide to Media Relations, Chapter 3
Session Five:
March 7
Guest Speaker: Tony Herrling, Managing Director, Brainerd Communicators
Communicating with the Media: A Hands On Approach
How to adapt to different kinds of journalistic inquiry and remain in
control. Getting your message across under pressure. Next week, we will
meet in NYU's TV Station Studio, 8 Washington Place and the class will
involve media training.
Crisis in Your Organization
Role-plays focusing on potential crises that could affect your company. Participants exchange and
discuss short scenarios.
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Session Six: March 21
Communicating with the Media: A Hands On Approach
We will meet in NYU’s TV Station Studio, 8 Washington Place. Tony
Herrling will follow up last week's session with simulations
involving crisis scenarios. You will be videotaped and we will
review/critique the recordings.
They Heard it on the Grapevine: Rumors and Crisis
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Bibliography
Barton, Laurence. Crisis Leadership Now. McGraw Hill (2008).
Fearn-Banks, K. Crisis Communication: A Case Book Approach. Erlbaum Press (1996).
Fombrun, Charles and Van Riel, Cees. Fame and Fortune: How Successful Companies Build Corporate
Reputations, FT/Prentice-Hall, (2004.)
Gottschalk, Jack (ed.) Crisis Response. Gale Research (1993).
Heath, Robert. Crisis Management. Financial Times/Pitman, (1998.)
Kimmel, Allan J. Rumors and Rumor Control. Erlbaum, (2004.)
Larkin, Judy. Strategic Reputation Risk Management, Palgrave Macmillan, (2003)
Lerbinger, Otto. The Crisis Manager, Erlbaum Associates, (1997).
Marconi, Joe. Crisis Marketing: When Bad Things Happen to Good Companies. Probus (1992).
Mitroff, Ian. The Essential Guide to Managing Corporate Crises: A step-by-step handbook for Surviving
Major Catastrohies. Oxford University Press (1996).
__________. Crisis Management: A Diagnostic Guide for Improving Your Organization’s Crisis
Preparedness. Jossey-Bass (1993).
__________. We’re so Big and Powerful Nothing Bad can Happen to Us: An Investigation of America’s
Crisis Prone Corporations. Carol Publishing Group (1990).
Pauchant, Thierry C. Transforming the Crisis-Prone Organization: Preventing Individual, Organizational
and Environmental Tragedies. Jossey-Bass Publishers (1992).
Pinsdorf, Marion K. Communicating When Your Company is Under Seige: Surviving Public Crisis.
Lexington Books (1987).
Regester, Michael and Larkin, Judy. Risk Issues and Crisis Management. Kogan Page (1997).
Sheffi, Yossi. The Resilient Enterprise. MIT Press, (2005.)
Shrivastava, Paul; Mitroff, Ian; Miller, Danny; and Miglani, Anil. “Understanding Industrial Crises” Journal
of Management Studies, vol. 25, No. 4, July 1998.
Smith, Denis. “The Dark Side of Excellence: Managing Strategic Failure”, CIMA Strategic Management
Handbook, J. Thompson (ed) Butterworth-Heinemann (1995).
__________. “Beyond Contingency Planning: Toward a Model of Crisis Management”, Industrial Crisis
Quarterly, No 4, 1990.
Turner, Barry and Pidgeon, Nick. Man-Made Disasters. Butterworth-Heinemann (1997).
Winter, Matthias. Managing Outside Pressure: Strategies for Preventing Corporate Disasters. Wiley
(1998).
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