2010 - Public Relations Society of America

Using a Gaming Scenario in Reputation Management
Gregg Feistman
Temple University
greggf@temple.edu
Introduction
Learning public relations in the classroom often is guided by listening to lectures,
taking part in discussions, examining case studies, developing good writing,
understanding social media, and putting together strategic PR plans. But another teaching
technique can be just as effective, informative and even fun: using games.
In Reputation Management, a graduate level course on public relations, I use a
gaming scenario to give my students a taste of the “what if?” aspect of high-level
strategic public relations. According to Fombrum and Van Riel (2004, p. 20), reputation
is defined as:
A mirror that reflects an [organization’s] relative success at convincing upstream,
downstream, and diagonal stakeholders about the current and future validity of
the [organization]. But the mirror is also a magnet: if stakeholders like what they
see and hear, they support the [organization].
The structure of this three week game is based on a scenario developed by the
MIT-Harvard University Public Disputes Program, entitled “Dealing With An Angry
Public,” (Ansell, Susskind & Wheeler, 2000) which is modified for this particular class.
The scenario especially works well for classes with enrollments under 20 students.
Three parties
In the game, students are divided into three groups: A corporation, a consumer
rights advocacy group, and media organizations (e.g., local electronic or print). The
corporation and consumer rights advocacy group are purposely put into an adversarial
relationship. The third group represents the mass media and will continually report on the
goings-on as the scenario develops.
All three groups are given the same basic background information and context
about the two respective organizations and a medical product about to come into the
market with great promise and potential patient benefits. After this initial phase however,
the corporate and advocacy groups are each given proprietary information, the details of
which are to remain private within the context of the game.
Procedures
In the next stage, students are given approximately 30-45 minutes to consult with
each other in their respective groups, prepare strategies, anticipate questions and create
and deliver mock public positioning statements for an “open meeting.” Prior to the
meeting, the corporate group and the consumer rights group prepare a statement on their
position, which is videotaped and shown before the entire class. The “open meeting”
occurs in class for 30 minutes while the student “reporters” cover the event. It’s their job
to write mock media stories and post them through the class’ Blackboard electronic
grading system. After the initial meeting, “live” interviews with designated spokespeople
from each group are again videotaped, using a reporter-spokesperson format. The taped
interviews are shown to the entire class who discuss and analyze what happened, what
changes could have been made, and come up with suggestions for future actions or how
the results could have been different.
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