'I am Deeply Sorry’: An Exploration of the Application of Apologetic Moves and Image Repair Strategies in the Celebrity Apology

The apology is a component of post-crisis communication that has become a prominent subject of study (Slocum et al., 2011). Specifically, scholars agree that the proliferation of the official apology suggests that it is a genre of speech that is on the rise in the Western world (Wooten, 2009). While an extensive amount of literature on apology focuses on its use by organizations and political figures, little of it fails to address how celebrities apply the crisis response strategy to repair their reputation and/or restore relationships. For this reason, a qualitative content analysis rooted in a grounded theory approach was used to explore in what ways the celebrity apology conforms to or breaks the patterns of apology that have been established by scholars.