Image Repair Strategies, Local News Portrayals and Crisis Stage: A Case Study of Duke University's Lacrosse Team Crisis

Abstract

The case analysis presented here studies Duke University's strategic use of communication to defend its image during the scandal involving its men's lacrosse team. Benoit's (1995, 1997) image repair theory is used to analyze Duke's strategy in 54 public statements, news releases, and documents. Additionally, 870 local newspaper stories about the Duke case from The News & Observer (n = 443) and The Herald Sun (n = 427) are analyzed by crisis stage. Results show that Duke initially relied most on simple denial and mortification to defend its athletes, and engaged in bolstering, corrective action, separation, and attacking one's accuser to defend the university's reputation. Findings suggest a new defense category: expression of disappointment, which is related to the concept of separation. Use of the strategy of attacking one's accuser was associated with the most positive local news coverage.

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Sun-A. Park and Kelly Brdika for their help with the content analysis. A previous version of this manuscript was presented to the Public Relations Division at the 2008 annual meeting of the International Communication Association, Montreal.

Notes

¹ Brinson and Benoit (1999) argue, “the conditions for successful use of separation (or dissociation) have yet to be articulated” (p. 505).

²The data were from http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/mmedia/features/lacrosse_incident/announce_archive.html. Other links on the site “Committees examining issues – membership, reports, releases” “Frequently asked questions,” and “Media guidelines” were not analyzed because the focus was on public statements and news released to the media.

³North Carolina Central University was an important partner because it is where the alleged rape victim was enrolled in school and because most of its students are African American (Meadows & Thomas, 2006).

⁴The University refrains from making outright statements against the alleged female rape victim, although it does release a police report that shows the victim changed her story several times and states in various locations that the victim was not seen as credible.