Written by: Aleira Martin
I have recently started watching Scandal, a television series, and I’ve never felt closer to a character like I’ve found myself to Olivia Pope. She is a black woman who dresses professionally with style, and she works in the PR world. In a short time of watching the show, I have started to aspire to be her.
Scandal is an American political thriller series. Olivia Pope is a crisis manager in Washington, D.C. who runs her own firm, Olivia Pope & Associates (OPA), that specializes in "fixing" political situations and scandals. Through this series, I have found an avenue of PR I want to learn more about and potentially work in.. I have heard of Crisis Management before but I’ve never really understood it or knew how it worked. Although this is all fictional, it gave me something to think about. I thought of many questions about this kind of crisis management work. How important is crisis management? How can it be used well in a career?
In today's world, anything and everything can be turned into a PR crisis. Recently, brands like Gucci, Prada, and Burberry's controversial designs have dealt with this. In a broad sense, Colin Kaepernick's career was destroyed by kneeling during the national anthem. Crisis management is becoming huge in the PR world.
According to PR Week, “[T]Here are five key principles to keep front and center as you confront this new reality:
Authenticity
Transparency
Speed
Agility
Creativity”
With news breaking events every second, I hope these tips are a reminder. Social media has changed the PR game, and crisis management is more important than ever.
https://www.prweek.com/article/1455625/5-principles-crisis-management-digital-age
Author: Aleira Martin