Handling a public relations crisis in a top 50 television market: A case study of WNEP-TV 16 in Moosic, Pennsylvania

In light of the millions of dollars local television stations pay to promote their images and increase their ratings in their markets, what are their choices when one of their on-air personalities becomes involved in a scandal?;The researcher interviewed management at WNEP to try to learn what motivated the decisions they made regarding how to cover the story and how to relate to outside media who were also anxious for information about Renick. The researcher also looked into the station's handling of Renick's termination.;The researcher also conducted a survey of one hundred people living in the Scranton area to get a sense of how the viewing public reacted to WNEP's handling of the situation, and also asked how viewers felt WNEP's coverage stacked up in quantity and quality to its local competitors.;Another resource the researcher used was a columnist who covered the local television scene. The researcher interviewed her for her professional perspective about how Channel 16 handled the Renick case and its coverage.;This thesis examined as a case study ABC affiliated station WNEP-TV 16 in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Pennsylvania area, which was the forty-seventh market at that time. One of the station's senior reporters, 45-year-old Jim Renick, was arrested on charges of child molestation and child pornography on June 20, 1995.;Finally, the researcher took a look at the Nielsen ratings for the month following the scandal, and compared them to the previous year's numbers to see exactly what the resulted from WNEP's approach to the problem. The Nielsen figures showed a small loss in audience for the station's early newscast at 6:30 a.m., but showed a rise in audience for the noon, the 6 p.m. and the 11 p.m. newscasts. The loss in the early newscast was not attributable to the Renick incident---Renick's stories, when he reported, usually ran in the noon newscast or later.;The Nielsen ratings supported WNEP management's approach to the situation as the best possible course of action.