Summary:

The Corporate Communication Project asks students to identify a real-world corporate crisis that has occurred within the last five years, analyze its causes and effects, and respond to it with multiple documents. To prepare the class will examine a case study: a large GM automobile recall that occurred in 2014 because of faulty ignition switches. (Students will be unable to select this scenario for their projects.) Students will position themselves as part of the chosen corporation's public relations team at the time of the crisis and produce a variety of separate but related materials for distinct audiences:

• a Crisis Analysis Report for corporate executives
• a Press Release for news media outlets
• an Internal Memo email for employees
• a Video Message for customers

All of these materials should address the crisis in a professional, ethical, rhetorically-effective manner. Materials will be submitted electronically.

It is likely that some of the corporate crises students select already have corresponding materials available. This project requires students to produce original work, so the instructor will check for similarities between any official and student versions of these documents. (Students of course may draw rhetorical strategies from official materials or other models.)

Deliverables:

1. Intention Document (5 points)
2. Crisis Analysis Report (20 points)
3. Press Release (20 points)
4. Internal Memo (20 points)
5. Video Message (20 points)
6. Materials Analysis (10 points)
7. Postmortem (5 points)