Introduction

Icks, Martijn; Shiraev, Eric

doi:10.1057/9781137344168.0005

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…Character attacks are typically related to personal traits, social and professional affiliation, and individual decisions or actions (Icks & Shiraev, 2014). A good example of character assassination involves allegations of inappropriate reporting by the Los Angeles Police department's ("LAPD") public information officers to create propolice bias among the public.…”

Section: Character Assassination Pre-trial Publicity and The Negative...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Character assassination is defined as “the deliberate destruction of an individual's reputation or credibility” and it can occur to shift blame from one entity to another during a crisis (Icks et al, 2019; p. 12). Character attacks are typically related to personal traits, social and professional affiliation, and individual decisions or actions (Icks & Shiraev, 2014). A good example of character assassination involves allegations of inappropriate reporting by the Los Angeles Police department's (“LAPD”) public information officers to create pro‐police bias among the public.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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All the news that is fit to print? Reporting on a victim's character during a crisis

Laufer

Einwiller

Neureiter

2023

Contingencies & Crisis Mgmt

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Using the United Airlines “bumpgate” crisis as example, this research analyses how reporting of irrelevant information on a crisis victim's bad character impacts on empathy towards the victim, the victim's reputation as well as the reputation of the news medium that published the information. A one‐factorial experiment was conducted with two conditions manipulating the reporting on the crisis victim's character plus a control condition. Respondents were 245 online‐panel participants from the UK. The findings show that when journalists violate the code of ethics by reporting irrelevant negative information on the character of a crisis victim, they harm not only the reputation of the victim, but also that of their news organization. This study contributes to the scarce research on the impact of media reporting during a crisis on victims of the crisis and on the reputation of the newspaper. Journalists must be aware that violating the journalistic code of ethics by reporting on irrelevant negative characteristics of a victim is not only detrimental for the victim but can also significantly hurt the reputation of their organization.

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Section: Character Assassination Pre-trial Publicity and The Negative...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%