Navigating the Storm: Managing Representative Crises in News Organizations Amidst Sexual Misconduct Allegations

<p dir="ltr">Crisis, while potentially becoming disastrous, offers organizations a chance for renewal and growth (Ulmer et al., 2018). While not a new phenomenon, this paper gives a name to a crisis that occurs when an organization, that uses public figures to represent it to the public, becomes embroiled in scandal. Despite the organization itself not being the cause of the crisis, it must conduct crisis management strategies. This is called a representative crisis. More specifically, this paper looks at a representative crisis in relation to sexual misconduct by utilizing the two cases of Fox News and Roger Ailes and NBC News and Matt Lauer. A series of codes were discovered by conducting a content analysis of articles on these crises to gauge public perception. Furthermore, a series of recommendations were provided to help organizations successfully navigate a representative crisis in relation to sexual misconduct.</p>