College Athletes Case Study

When a college athlete gets into trouble, it is important that the school issue a statement as soon as it can because the public will usually form its own perception about the event in the first 24 hours (P. Pedersen, K. Miloch, & P. Laucella, 2007, p. 280). With a women’s basketball player who has had multiple incidents since the beginning of the year, as a member of the public relations department it is vital that I would make sure to get all the information about the incident as possible from the coach and/or player. It is important when dealing with the media that you have all the correct information, if you do not have the correct information or all of it the media will more than likely try making it seem as if the school is trying to cover …show more content…
The best way to deal with this issue is to hold a news conference late that Monday afternoon. The new conference would be the best way to get the information out to the media in and it will give the media an opportunity to ask questions and get quotes for a story (Pedersen, et al, 2007, p. 272). Having the news conference scheduled in the afternoon will give me time to sit down with the head coach and player and prepare them for questions that the media could ask and what kind of punishment the player in question will be facing. This will also give me an opportunity to work with the player on a statement to give to the media where she will need to admit that there is a problem, whether it is alcohol, drugs, or anger issues (Johnson, 2013). The coach will need to address the media with a statement of their own that will acknowledge what the player did. The coach should also let the media know what the punishment will be for the player and what policies will be put in place to keep something like this from happening again (Fiske,