Helping Hosts Protect The Image In Crisis:A Study Of Hosts Apology Strategies

Many hosts were taking steps to protect their image in crisis through apologies recently, but the effects were different. The aim of this dissertation was to find the answer that how to make an apology based on the analysis of39hosts’apology cases.This dissertation both studied the effects and strategies of apology, which was different from the previous research that only pay attention to one of them. The dissertation adopted the method of grounded theory methodology and content analysis. The effect of an apology was evaluated by100comments followed according to isometric mechanical sampling mainly and other methods secondarily.Firstly, I offered five broad categories of hosts apology strategies with variants guided by5W Model after analyzing, comparing and generalizing:communicators strategies (apologize in person, look for aids of group and victims), audience strategies (consider all the audience, be pertinent, praise the audience, be amiable),channel strategies (combine the old and new media, find new channels), content strategies (combine the verbal and non-verbal sign, show the noble motive, acknowledge the mistakes, an offer of repair, guide the public opinion)and effect strategies(communicate with the audience, correct the strategies). The more strategies also had been demonstrated.Secondly, multivariate linear regression method was used to examine the influence of ten variables:sex, the lever of work unit, program type, timeliness, site, responsibility, attribution, degree of offensiveness, apology history, the effectiveness of apology strategies. It concluded that only two factors degree of offensiveness and apology strategies influence the effectiveness of apology mainly. The two factors both had a negative correlation with the effectiveness of apology.The dissertation was innovative. Firstly, the construction of hosts apology strategies based on the effect filled the gap of correlational study and was helpful for hosts to protect image in crisis. Secondly, the conclusions perfected and adjusted the IRT and SCCT and also advanced the study of apology.