Restoring a reputation: The Duke University lacrosse scandal

Duke University was thrust into a crisis situation when three members of its lacrosse team were indicted on charges of first-degree rape and sexual assault. As the story received extensive media coverage and while the prosecution and defense were making their legal arguments, the reputation of Duke University was called into question and it too was in need of appropriate public relations communication strategies. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the actions and public relations communication emanating from Duke in its attempt to frame the story and restore its reputation. Public relations theories that focus on image restoration as articulated by Benoit [Benoit, W. L. (1995). Accounts, excuses, and apologies: A theory of image restoration strategies. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press; Benoit, W. L. (2000). Another visit to the theory of image restoration strategies. Communication Quarterly, 48(1), 40–44] and Coombs [Coombs, W. T. (1995). Choosing the right words: The development of guidelines for the selection of the “appropriate” crisis response strategies. Management Communication Quarterly, 8, 447–476; Coombs, W. T. (2006). Crisis management: A communicative approach. In C. H. Botan & V. Hazleton (Eds.). Public relations theory II (pp. 171–197). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates] as well as the concept of message framing are presented and used to analyze Duke's communication response. Studying the Duke case provides an example of an organization executing theoretical concepts in a practical situation.