The Media NEVER forgets

Each day there will be a damaging story in the paper. Whether it be on an organisation or an individual. Unfortunately once its being printed it never goes away. It may be ten, twenty or even 100 years down the line but you can be sure that once that negative story has come through its almost certain to one day rear its ugly head again. Mark my word, some point in the future when you least expect, or need it too.

Crisis Communication can help convince your Publics something or someone is a postive public figure, but once you have been tarnished with a bad brush it is much harder to change the public opinion as people love dirt and mud does stick. Its that old saying "Schadenfreude" we all love to relish in others misfortune.

And for one bad story it could take over 100 good ones just to attempt at getting the public back on side again. But now with resources being so easily available via the internet, its just too easy to click a few buttons and trace that negative story again...so best behave.

An example of someone getting unwanted attention from the Media at the present time is Amanda Knox who was yesterday aquited for the murder of British Student Meredith Kercher.
For the past four years the Media have shown an extreme interest in the American Student nicknaming her "Foxy Knoxy", because of her love of partying and sexual nature, and generally because she is an extremely intriguing person to have followed. The question now in the media is what the furture now hold for Knox and the decisions she makes will have a massive impact on her reputation as a whole. Should she have a good PR team guiding her she will hopefully fade into the background and not use this unwanted publicity to make money, as the media are now speculating.

Obviously the Amanda Knox trial is an extreme example of the impact the Media can have on an organisation/individuals reputation. Over the past four years the Media have effectively convinced the public to question and be suspicious of this individual through stories of her private life and the way she handled the murder enquiry as a whole. But now she has been aquited I suspect the way the public perceive her over the coming weeks will change dramatically dependant on the route she decides to take. One thing is for sure though, should Knox choose to go public and discuss her view on the trial and how she has been treated, she will never ever be able to get rid of the view that people will always have on her. Yes she has now been proved "not guilty", but in the back of most of the public's mind will always be a leering dark cloud and the image of the spooky, strange character that has been carefully constructed and portrayed to us over the past four years by the Media. That is something she is very unlikely to EVER get rid of.

Overall ones reputation is tarnished.