FINAL BLOG POST ON IMAGE REPAIR PAPER

By Shayla Kelley & Kiara Nowlin

Abstract: Mariah Carey was the target of media scrutiny after she flubbed her live performance at the 2016 Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve event. After refusing to sing the words to her hit song, “Emotions”, she utilized bolstering, minimization, defeasibility, denial, attacking the accuser and corrective action in her image repair strategy. Overall, this was unsuccessful because, she never apologized and took responsibility for her actions.

Mariah Carey Gif

Initial Findings:

Although Benoit argues mortification is the best image repair tactic, and this seems to be true for most situations, previously-studied celebrities do not initially utilize mortification. Early in the scandal, they attempt to explain the reasoning behind their actions. Celebrities use denial, bolstering, attacking the accuser, evasion of responsibility and minimization. It is not until a few days after being the target of public scrutiny that they apologize for their actions; however, many never take complete responsibility for their actions or statements.

Much of the public was upset that Carey refused to perform the song, even with technical difficulties, as they claimed that as an experienced professional, she should have been able to cope with the issues better. Furthermore, the public was bothered by the fact that she made excuses instead of owning up to her mistake. Carey’s loyal fans stayed supportive during this time, defending her on social media and in the comment sections attached the video circulating around the internet. Additionally, a sect of the public that understands the difficulty of live performances sympathized with Carey and her inability to sing with a malfunctioning earpiece.

Research Questions

1. How does social media affect image repair?

2.  Do celebrities hurt or help themselves when they post on social media about their mistakes?

3. Is mortification the best strategy to use in all situations?

4. Does gender play a role in the public accepting an apology?

5. How much does immediate   reaction affect the ability to repair one’s image?

Literature Review

Similar image repair studies have been completed on Rush Limbaugh, Kanye West, David Letterman and Rickey Gervais. These celebrities’ situations share the common theme of messing up on their own industries’ “stage” (radio show, talk show, etc.) in some form or fashion. Additionally, “The Critical Interrogation of Female Apology Discourse: A Case Study of Martha Stewart, Oprah Winfrey and Hillary Clinton’s Multiple Attempts at Image Repair Discourse”, by D. L. Oles, examines how gender roles play a part in image repair in the eyes of the public, which is another interesting aspect to study.

 Image Repair Tactics: Analysis

Kiara and I examined Carey’s immediate reaction on stage, her social media posts and her interview about the performance with Entertainment Weekly. During the performance, Carey utilized bolstering, as she attempted to divert the audience’s attention by talking about the single’s success. She later took to social media to minimize the situation by posting a Gif of herself with the caption, “S—t happens. Have a happy and healthy new year everybody! Here’s to making more headlines in 2017”. She then employed bolstering by posting another 10 times about her new show, “Mariah’s World”, on January 1, 2016. Lastly, in her interview with Entertainment Weekly, she used several image repair tactics, including defeasibility, denial, attacking the accuser, mortification and corrective action. She accused Dick Clark Productions of being unprofessional by letting her perform knowing her earpiece was not working correctly. Carey never apologized but did state that it would never happen again because she lost trust in other people outside of her own team. This could be seen as corrective action; however, this could also be seen as attacking the accuser because she is implied that the Dick Clark Productions’ team was at fault for the mishap.

Tactics:

Mariah Carey tweets “Sh** Happens” after her new years eve performance. Now  everyone is focused on her TV show and her recent messy break up with her fiance

Initial Findings for Image Repair of Mariah Carey

By: Shayla Kelley

Initial Findings: Mariah Carey has been a very well-known singer who is most famous for hitting her high-notes. During her New years performance, Carey’s lip syncing messes up and she eventually just stops singing along. The most effective strategies for Carey would be mortification and corrective action.

LINK: ATTACKING THE ACCUSER

Image Repair Tactics: For this project my partner and I will analyze how Carey was portrayed by the media after the messed up performance took place.

Audience Response: After the live performance went to shambles, Carey’s fans were outraged and confused. Carey tweeted a gif of herself saying, “SH** Happens”.

Mariah Carey

By: Shayla Kelley

Mariah Carey has been known as a very talented and amazing singer in our generation, but over the past year her live performances have not showcased her vocal talent.

On New years, Carey was singing her song, Auld Lang Syne. Audience members quickly realized that her lip syncing didn’t match her music.

Below is the video of her singing during New years Eve:

According to Us Weekly: “A source tells Us that the five-time Grammy winner and her team “only had a quick run-through” ahead of the televised performance and that the wrong “Emotions” backing track played, adding to Carey’s confusion on stage. “She was so thrown off she couldn’t go through with it,” the insider explains. “Without the right tracks, it messed her up and threw her off from even faking it.”

Not only has she been messing up her career, but she also is currently going through a nasty break up with James Packer. According to laTimes, a “report on Monday had the two in the middle of contentious settlement talks involving money, a mansion and claims that another woman and another man are involved, though not in the ways you might imagine. ”

Blog Post 3

 

These past few weeks we have discussed the Executive summary as well as write a few questions for our publics in order to get a better understanding on what we need to improve as well as what platforms we need to improve on.

This video helps further describe what we are trying to accomplish:

 

The Humane Society of Central Texas is a partner with the City of Waco Animal Shelter and together we are an advocate for the community goal of maintaining a no-kill status at the Animal Shelter. The aim of this public relations campaign is to spread awareness about the Humane Society and to reach 100% no-kill status. The Humane Society of Central Texas has done an astounding job of increasing their no-kill status from 60 to 90% in two years, but it seems that the public does not grasp what the concept of “no-kill status” means. We have three primary goals: diminish the misconception of no-kill status, connect with our publics through social media, and achieve 100% no-kill status. To reach our first goal of diminishing the communities misconception of no-kill status our objective is to decrease the number of animals dropped off at the shelter by 10%. To better connect with our publics through social media our objectives are to gain at least 5 new likes/followers on social media a week, have at least 10% of followers view live videos, and increase the amount of posts by 2 a week. To help achieve our over-arching goal of becoming a 100% no-kill shelter our objectives are to decrease euthanization rates each month by 5% by increasing the number of adoptions and to increase the amount of animals fostered by 5 a month. This campaign is built to serve the Humane Society to increase their digital marketing in addition to their traditional marketing efforts. Our keys to success for this campaign will help us better connect to our publics. These keys will include utilizing newer social media and digital marketing tactics such as: live videos, snapchat and a regular posting schedule for social media. Another major key will be to raise awareness among the public about fostering opportunities and providing temporary homes for animals. Since there is no target age range for people looking to adopt an animal, this campaign is set to raise community awareness about services the Humane Society has to offer. The Humane Society offers adoption, rescue and foster opportunities for the homeless animals at the shelter as well as community education regarding responsible pet ownership.

These were the questions that we came up with:

1. Have you heard of the Humane Society of Central Texas?

2. Would you consider volunteering at the Human Society?

3. Would you attend an event run by our organization?

4. What is your understanding of the no-kill status?

5. Have you or would you consider adopting an animal from a shelter versus buying from a breeder?

6. Would you consider fostering an animal?

7. What social media do you most frequently use?

8. What do you think about our text-line donations versus going to a website to donate?

Dog & Cat up for adoption

Bongo is a great dane mix who is one years old. He is currently awaiting a forever home!

Honey is a 7 month old orange tabby and white Domestic Shorthair. She is also waiting for someone to take her home!

 

Blog Post 2

Over the last two weeks my group and I have been discussing what our goals are for this non profit as well as our key publics.

Our key public would be the homeless animals. The soul purpose and goal of the shelter is to get the homeless animals out of the cages and into the loving arms of a new owner.

This is Booger Red, he is currently up for adoption.

This is Gunsmoke, he is currently up for adoption.

Our Reputation Management Goal would be to diminish the misunderstanding of “no-kill” status. So many people believe that the Humane Society does not kill any animals, however we have not yet reached a 100% no kill status. An objective would be to decrease the number of animals dropped off at the shelter by 10%. A way we can reach our publics would be to post a blurb on a website, and post an info graphic on social media.

Our Relationship Management Goal would be to connect with our publics through social media. We would like to gain at least 5 new followers/likes on social media a week and have at least 10% of followers view our live videos. We will be posting weekly live videos on Facebook and Instagram. The key is to make the dogs and cats KNOWN to the public. Here is an example video of the point we are trying to make:

Our Task Management Goal is to achieve 100% no kill status. However this wont happen unless we increase the amount of animals fosters to about 5 a month. We will post on social media about the dogs and cats up that are about to be euthanized, and even do a live video over fostering/ what fostering is/means. We will also continue to partner with Target Zero.

Initial Blog Post

By: Shayla Kelley

Photo from the humane society website

During this spring semester of 2017, my group will be helping The Human Society of Central Texas, a no-kill animal shelter located in Waco TX, by creating a PR campaign.

After speaking with the Humane Society, we found out their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Upon speaking with them, we did realize that their social media presence was lacking quite a bit. Because of how close they are to Baylor University, this is an important factor because college students are so active on social media. We hope to help them launch new platforms as well as help them with previous accounts. Here is the initial SWOT analysis of the organization:

Our main goal in this PR campaign is to keep their mission and vision statements