'I'm sorry' - an analysis on CEO apologies through YouTube as part of corporate crisis communication. Case study: BlackBerry RIM, Skype and Stratfor

摘要

Objective of the Study:The objective of the study was to determine the elements that constitute a true apology, how it is delivered and how the elements are connected to each other. Three international case organizations were chosen for the study: BlackBerry RIM, Skype and Stratfor. The thesis explored the delivery of three corporate apologies in order to answer two research questions: "What are the different dimensions of an apology speech act?" and "What is the relationship between the conveyed apology and the intended apology when the medium is YouTube?"Methodology and the Theoretical Framework:The primary data in the study was the three videoed corporate apologies from the CEOs of the organizations in question. Previous material on the CEOs was the secondary data. This qualitative research was executed through content analysis, speech act analysis and multimodal semiotic analysis. Additionally, GreenBlueRed theory was applied to each part of the analysis in order to code the results and then to better compare the case examples to each other. The theoretical framework consisted of uniting different aspects of social media, business communication, nonverbal communication and visual studies in order to create the basis for the true apology.Findings and Conclusion:Different dimensions of an apology speech act were found as: offering compensation, corrective action, conciliation and mortification. Also two different forms of apology speech acts were discovered: the formulaic utterance and the apology referring to a specific set of closed settings. It was found that YouTube served as a platform to share the statements with ease. A videoed apology enables the organization to portray emotions along with the content, thus making it possible for the audience to better receive the message as it was intended. It was noted that the speaker should portray empathy both in content and delivery of the apology in order for the audience to perceive the apology as a true apology. Empathy was found to be the element to define the relationship between the conveyed apology and the intended apology.