Public Opinion - Assignment Example

One area where public opinion has been used for positive influence is in the political field. In the United States and most European countries, although public opinion poll results are sometimes not a true reflection of election results, there is a tendency of voters supporting the political candidate who is portrayed as a winner in the polls. On the other hand, public opinion can be used as a negative influence. In the Yugoslav Wars, public opinion in the form of propaganda was used to breed hatred and incite the Serbians against other ethnic groups such as the Croats and Albanians (Price 93). 2. What are the three factors involved in source credibility?

List and define each factor. Give an example of a product or service that describes the use of each factor.There are three main factors that are involved in source credibility (KoEun 112). These are supposed expertise, attractiveness and a source’s trustworthiness. Expertise can be defined as having capability, knowledge and sufficient skills in a given field of specialization. Trustworthiness refers to the capacity of believing somebody as being honest. Attractfulness refers to the motivation towards something or somebody.

An example of a product that can be influenced by source credibility is the design of different websites. For any website to appeal to its customers, it must feed them with true and gorgeous information. This cannot be achieved unless skilled and highly qualified personnel are employed to do web designing. 3. Define Crisis?A crisis can be defined as a threat to operations that can have a negative impact if not appropriately handled (Coombs 6). It refers to the probable damage that a crisis can cause a given organization or industry and its stakeholders.

Examples of crises include industrial accidents, industrial product harm and organizational communication breakdown among others. If not properly handled, such crises may result in reduced financial gains and loss of an organization’s reputation.4.) There are many ways to respond to a crisis of conflict. Timothy W. Coombs offers several strategies for organizational use when dealing with a crisis. What are the elements/strategies that are included in the model?According to Coombs, there are several strategies that organizations’ managements use in dealing with the crisis.

These include denying that there is no crisis, finding a scapegoat outside the organization, confronting the people who are claiming that all is not good within the organization, reminding the stakeholders about the past achievements and good works of the organization, compensating the victims involved in a crisis, giving an apology and justifying the crisis by minimizing what can be perceived as damage as a result of crisis among other strategies (Coombs 123).5. Name an example of an organizational crisis that you feel was handled well and why.

An example of an organizational crisis that I feel was handled well is the Johnson and Johnson Tylenol Crisis (Coombs 146). Prior to the crisis, unknown persons had exchanged the Tylenol Extra-Strength capsules with poisonous cyanide-laced capsules whose consumption left seven people dead. To avoid the negative media coverage the company’s chairman, James Burke, formed a seven-member strategy team to work on ways of restoring the customers’ confidence. This involved inventing ways of saving people and ways of saving the product.

The team advised the consumers to discard all Tylenol stokes in their houses and stop using the tablets until the cause of the problem could be established (Coombs 147). On the other hand, the production and advertisement of the product were temporarily stopped. These measures enhanced a reduction in the supply of cyanide laded tablets. This way, the company demonstrated that it was concerned with the public safety and this helped to show the public that Tylenol was a victim of a malicious crime.

Today, Tylenol has fully recovered its lost market share and it is one of the most trusted products in the United States.