This paper critically evaluates the communications response to the Virginia Tech (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University) shootings in 2007.
It considers what mistakes were made during the crisis and how communications could have been improved. It looks at the crisis from the perspective of a communicator working at a large university and considers what lessons can be learnt for the future
Frequently Asked Questions: Critically evaluate a case study of reputation, issue or crisis management: The Virginia Tech shootings
What was the Virginia Tech shooting?
On April 16, 2007, a student, Cho Seung-Hui, shot and killed 32 people and wounded many others at Virginia Tech before taking his own life. This remains one of the deadliest shooting rampages in American history.
What were the main criticisms of Virginia Tech's crisis communication response?
The University's crisis communications response faced significant criticism, primarily due to a more than two-hour delay in issuing a campus-wide warning after the first shootings. This delay was deemed to have contributed to the loss of life. The university was later fined for violating federal law by waiting too long to notify students.
What communication methods were used and what were their shortcomings?
The primary method of communication was a campus-wide email, which was considered too slow and ineffective. Social media, while in its early stages, was used by students in a bottom-up manner, highlighting the potential of alternative communication channels that were not fully utilized by the university.
What mistakes were made during the crisis, and how could communications have been improved?
Mistakes included the delayed warning, lack of clear and unambiguous messaging, and failure to effectively utilize available communication channels (social media, intranet systems, etc.). Improvements could have involved quicker dissemination of information via multiple channels, clearer instructions to students (e.g., shutting down lectures), and a more proactive engagement with social media.
What challenges do large universities face in crisis communication?
Large universities face challenges in quickly and effectively communicating with large numbers of students and staff across a geographically dispersed campus. The feasibility of immediate actions like campus shutdowns needs to be carefully considered against the potential for further harm.
What lessons can be learned for the future?
Universities need comprehensive emergency plans that consider various scenarios, including shootings. These plans should prioritize clear, unambiguous messaging, the use of multiple communication channels (including social media), and a high level of police involvement in decision-making. Establishing strong relationships with support teams and considering the needs of secondary audiences (parents, etc.) are also crucial.
How did the University of Sheffield's response to the Virginia Tech shooting highlight the importance of crisis communication planning?
The University of Sheffield's experience showed the need to consider all possible audiences, including those indirectly affected (students studying abroad). The incident highlighted the importance of pre-existing strong relationships between departments, and the potential challenges of communicating with concerned families and the media amidst a global crisis.
What is the significance of media relations in crisis communication?
Effective media relations are vital. A well-defined strategy for handling media inquiries is necessary to avoid overwhelming communication teams and to provide timely, factual information. The Virginia Tech response highlighted the pitfalls of inadequate media management, leading to public distrust.
What was the overall conclusion regarding Virginia Tech's crisis response?
The university's crisis response was found to be deficient in several areas, primarily due to communication failures. The lack of a comprehensive emergency plan and inadequate consideration of multiple communication channels led to a delayed response and contributed to loss of life.
Critically evaluate a case study of reputation, issue or crisis management:
The Virginia Tech shootings
On Monday April 16 2007, the relative peace of the campus of ‘Virginia Tech’ (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University) in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States, was shattered when, in two separate attacks, a student shot 32 people and wounded many others, before taking his own life.
English student Cho Seung-Hui, who had suffered from documented mental health issues (BBC News 2007), initially shot two people at a dormitory. More than two and a half hours later, he killed 31 others, and then himself, across the campus in a classroom building.
The attack was, and remains, one of the “deadliest shooting rampage[s] in American history” (Hauser 2007).
But, even before the dust had begun to settle on the tragedy, serious questions were being asked of the University’s crisis communications response: “why was there a lag of more than two hours after the first shootings before an alarm was e-mailed campus wide?...And more generally, some security experts wondered, was the school's crisis planning and emergency communications system up to the task?” (Fox News 2007).
Four months after the shooting, an investigation panel determined that “lives could have been saved” [CBC News 2007) if a campuswide warning had been issued sooner. Lack of decisive action shown by university administrators was deemed to have contributed to the loss of life that day [CBC News 2007). Indeed, the institution was this year ordered by the US Department of Education to pay a $55,000 fine for “violating federal law by waiting too long to notify students” of the shootings (Boston Herald 2011).
Here, I will attempt to critically evaluate the communications response during this crisis, applying knowledge and understanding of the principals of crisis communications.
I will consider what mistakes were made during the crisis and how communications could have been improved. I will look at the crisis from the perspective of a communicator working at a large university and consider what lessons can be learnt for the future.
One of the main challenges for communicators working in “educational institutions, especially large sprawling universities” (Burton 2007) is communicating with large numbers of people, staff and students alike, quickly and effectively. Various different methods should be employed, depending on the situation and the ways in which these audiences access information. In the case of Virginia Tech, a campuswide email was eventually sent to inform staff and students of the attack, but this was seen as neither quick nor effective enough to prevent further deaths.
Nowadays, social media such as Twitter and Facebook are proving increasingly effective tools for communicating with student populations, as are intranet-style systems and websites, as well as email. It is imperative that crisis plans should consider their use alongside more traditional communications methods. Social media channels were in their relative infancy during the Virginia Tech shootings, Twitter having been launched less than a year before in 2006 (Crunchbase n.d). But, according to Palen (2008) were used in a “collective and bottom-up” way, rather than orchestrated and top-down” to communicate the impact of the situation. Indeed, she states: “compiled information across all online lists correctly identified the victims beforethe university released their names to the public” (Palen 2008) demonstrating that even five years ago, online communication was significant. This perhaps undermined Virginia Tech as a credible source of fast, accurate information during the crisis and existing social and online media could have been more effectively used as a way of quickly communicating information to numerous people.
As already stated, communication at Virginia Tech during the crisis relied on campuswide email to inform staff and students of the situation. Despite not knowing where the gunman was heading, university communicators did not tell students to stay away from lectures and did not shut down the campus leading, perhaps, to students continuing to the classrooms where the second wave of attacks took place.
This demonstrates the need not only for quick communication methods, but also for the dissemination of “clear, unambiguous” (Roxan 2011) messages.
These priorities, however, should be balanced with the practicalities of an organisation. Would shutting down lectures and telling students to stay where they were have been feasible in such a large and spread-out institution? And would this response prevented Cho from killing others? The answer to both questions is probably “no” and thus demonstrates the challenges faced by large institutions in a crisis situation such as this.
So how can universities prepare for similar situations? Burton (2007) states that it is “prudent for university security directors, local school boards, parents and students to review or establish emergency plans” for such situations.
The investigation into the response at Virginia Tech concluded: “the campus emergency response plan, which was two years old, was deficient in not considering a shooting scenario and didn't put police high enough in the university's emergency decision-making hierarchy” (Facilities Net 2007).
When planning for a crisis, it is essential that an organisation’s audiences are considered and the best method for communicating with them decided upon. This includes, in the case of universities, internal audiences such as staff and students, as well as external audiences like the emergency services, local authorities, parents and partner institutions overseas.
At the time of the shooting, I was working in the press office at the University of Sheffield, UK. As the news reported on events taking place thousands of miles away, it became obvious that they were about to have an unforeseen impact on our institution – we had three students studying on exchange programmes at Virginia Tech at the time of the massacre.
Thanks to good, already-established relationships, the University of Sheffield’s student support teams were quick to inform the press office of the situation. But, it took a number of hours before the students could be reached (by mobile and email) and before it could be confirmed that they were safe and unhurt.
In the interim, concerned parents and friends had to be communicated with and reassured that the University was doing all it could to contact the students. Attempts by the press office to contact counterparts at Virginia Tech proved fruitless, as the story gathered world-wide attention and overwhelmed the small communications team in Virginia.
This anecdote demonstrates the need, when planning for a crisis, to carefully consider all possible audiences, including “secondary” audiences who may be “inactive but affected by an issue” (Roxan 2011).
When planning for a crisis, the significance of the media should of course not be overlooked and methods for dealing with a potential barrage of calls and emails from journalists should be established. As already stated, the intense interest the shootings generated overwhelmed the small communications team at Virgina Tech, meaning they were unable to effectively deal with both requests from the media, as well as tend to the needs of concerned parents and other publics.
Roxan (2011) states that during a crisis, the media should be used as an “ally” and provided with “timely, specific, factual information regularly updated”. This, of course, needs planning and managing and any crisis plan should consider this. In the case of Virginia Tech, the response to the media found to be lacking in some areas.
Despite calling a press conference in the early hours of the crisis, the university was criticised for relying so much on “a Q&A format where the chief’s facts were [so] few and guidance non-existent, [that] reporters and public had to cobble together the story” (Amme n.d). This resulted in the public “beginning to suspect an administration and crisis response that was out of control” (Ames 2010 p26).
- Quote paper
- Tessa Humphrys (Author), 2011, The Virgina Tech shootings: a critical evaluation of the communications response, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/173519