Do not attempt this deliverable until you have completed Modules 1, 2, 3, and 4.
This deliverable is the second step in building your final course project, a professionally written analysis report and presentation on a communication issue in an organization.
This deliverable continues the research you have started on your chosen company, a communication event, and the stakeholders involved. In this deliverable, you will conduct a basic content analysis, a kind of primary research (return to Module 2 for a refresher) to discover how the company and its stakeholders interacted before, during, or after the communication event. As with Deliverable 2, you may need to limit your focus to a particular group of stakeholders in order to make this project manageable (Also, don’t worry if you find your focus needs to shift a little from the stakeholders you wrote about in Deliverable 2–editing and rewriting is part of the research process).
Step 1:
Using online sources, find evidence of how the company communicated with stakeholders during the event you have chosen. There are several ways to collect this information:
Search company publications for official statements or press releases related to your topic. Many large corporations have specific parts of their website devoted to media relations where this kind of information is posted. For example, Apple has a page called “Newsroom” specifically for press releases. Link: Apple Newsroom. Google has a similar page, titled “Press Center” that includes contacts, as well as links to press releases, images, and corporate information. Link: Google Press Center. Coco-Cola calls their page “Media Center,” and includes a search feature for company statements. Link: Coca-Cola Media Center. Many companies also have official blogs that can be useful as well.
Search news articles for company statements. This is a good way to find quotes directly from company leadership that may be less polished than official published statements or press releases.
Search company social media accounts for posts related to your topic. You may find links to longer official statements or short “Tweet length” versions of statements. Don’t forget to also check the company leaders’ accounts. Depending on the company, you may find very different versions of the same story. For example, Elon Musk’s personal Twitter account will likely use a different tone than the official Tesla account. Don’t forget to look at company replies as well as posts!
Step 2:
Using online sources, find evidence of how the stakeholders communicated with each other or the company during the event you have chosen. There are several ways to collect this information:
Search news articles relating to the event. Many may include statements or quotes from affected stakeholders. Online or television news websites are also a good place to find video clips of interviews with stakeholders.
Search social media for posts relating to the event. There are a couple of ways to do this. First, look for posts directly from stakeholders on things like company Facebook pages or Instagram posts. For Twitter, you may want to look at replies to company posts, quote-tweets, or search hashtags (for example, #boycottNike was trending among stakeholders after their controversial ad campaign). For events that happened months or years ago, limit your searches to a certain date range as needed.
Think outside the box for information sources. Did stakeholders start websites or social media groups because of the issues? (For example, several years ago a now-off-the-market birth control product caused terrible side effects. Women who were injured formed a social media group, where eventually enough of them came together to form a lawsuit against the company). Are their product reviews or Consumer Report rankings? (When Apple was accused of slowing down phone batteries, Apple customers struck back with harsh product reviews). Did employees protest or unionize? Depending on your topic, there might be lots of other places on and off-line to find examples of stakeholder communication to and about the company.
Step 3:
Using the information you found in Steps 1 and 2, analyze the communication by the company and the stakeholders around your chosen event. What medium and channel were used? What’s the tone of the messages? Are stakeholders angry, or supportive, or frightened, or worried, or something else? Does the company address the problems or try to sweep them under the rug (go back to the Module 4 materials on handling crises for a review)? Is the communication different depending on the channel? For example, do the leadership’s personal statements align with the company’s official message, or is there some incongruence? Are stakeholders unified, or are their different groups sending different messages? Is the company responding to stakeholders personally?
Step 4:
Write a synthesis of your analysis. This means describing the methodology (more below) used to find the information, then describing your findings, using examples as needed.
Your paper should include two main sections, your methodology and your findings. Your findings may be divided into several sub-sections depending on your chosen event and what you found.
Methodology. This is simply a short paragraph or two describing how you did your research. Remember, formal writing should avoid first and second person (I, you, we, etc.). Instead, you might write something like:
“In order to better understand how Wells Fargo communicated about the fake account scandal with internal and external stakeholders, a content analysis was conducted. This analysis involved examining company documents, as well as official Wells Fargo social media accounts. Additionally, the hashtag #wellsfargoLies was searched to identify customer reactions to the scandal. Additional company and stakeholder statements were discovered in news articles from May 2011 to August 2017.”
Findings. In this section, describe and summarize your findings. This may include several subsections, such as “Company Statements,” “Customer Complaints,” and “Company Response” (these are only examples; every event will be different). Use examples as needed. For example, if perhaps your company issued several “no comment” statements officially, maybe to news media or through their website and social media. At the same time, a co-owner of the company tweets, revealing new information. You might want to quote that tweet in your paper as an example of the mixed messages the company was sending. You might include examples from stakeholders’ messages or news articles to illustrate your points. Avoid using too many quotations. Instead, summarize your findings, then only offer one or two clear examples for each point.
Submission Details:
No need for a title page
No need for an introduction or conclusion or to repeat information from Deliverable 2; you’ll tie all of your information together in Deliverable 7.
Times New Roman 12 point font; double spaced throughout, 1” margins
This report should be between 4 and 6 pages long, not counting your reference page.
In-text citations (we’ll use APA style for everything in this class–I don’t expect these to be perfect the first time, but you must cite your information. Module 3 includes more detailed information on APA style, so you can look back as needed).
Reference page. At this stage, there is no required number or sources, but for the information required, expect to need about 5-8 sources. You do not need to cite social media posts, hashtags, etc. unless you directly quote them. You do need to cite websites and news stories. Use this link to see how to cite social media sources: Citing Style Guide
Proper grammar, spelling, capitalization, word choice, and punctuation.
Submit as a Word document or PDF to the Canvas assignment.
Optional (but suggested!): It is