Big brother whom has great
support by the audience sudenlly become one of the few racist
program. It's started when the fellow housemate called Shilpa Shetty
whoose one of the contestant called “the indian” as the reason of
hard spelling name by the housemate. That's the only begining, the
issue become bigger when the channel 4 decline that these incident is
only “girl rivalry”, giving the mass submit more complaint up to
8000. These incident is very sensitive even the eyes of politics.
It's prove that the prime minister Tony
Blair with the Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell agreed that these
case can be categorized as racist issue. These
issue escalated coincided when the prime minister of UK Gordon Brown
visit India where the effigies burnt of by programms producer. This
event create outrage over India.
This
issue can be categorized as Internal issue. According to Kriyantono
(2012, p. 156) “The source of issue comes from organzation
internal. Usually only detected by managerial team and other member
of organization. As we can see, the issue itself comes from the one
of housemate nicknamed Shilpa Shetty “the indian”. But strangely,
the producer or program's crew didn't act on this case and it leads
to many protest received by Ofcom. From
this isssue that the channel 4 didnt do significant action, it
creates crisis. As in outcomes the Big Brother program marked as
“national disgrace” by the media. This makes the channel 4 lost
their credibility in serving public service principle. According to
Devlin (2007) in Kriyantono book (2012 p. 171) Crisis is “an
unstable time for an organization, with a distinct possibility for an
undesireable outcome” Based on the case, the Big Brother programme
discontinued on 2008 because of the so many complain and many problem
unresolved.
Thiss
issue also can be explained in Issue Lifecycle. Regester
& Larkin (2008) in
Kriyantono (2012, h. 159-161)
there
are 4 stage of issue that is:
1.
Origin State.
In
this state, people or groups express their attention and giving their
own oppinion for the issue. The incident of Shilpa Shetty cause
attention to the public. In can be seen on 200 complain to Ofcom
entry from the audience.
2.
Amplification State.
It's
the state where the issue developed because it has public support
from the group whose express their attention to the case. According
to Regester&Larkin (2008:50) in Kriyantono (2012:160) this
state can be called emerging. The mediation itself means that
peoples and groups has the same vision and exchange their oppinion
that can spread the issue wider. From the Big Brother case, the
early complain that counted 200 didnt responded well by Channel 4,
this even create more attention and up to 8000 complain entry
received by Ofcom. Troughout
that escalation number of the complain, Channel 4 still deny that
those case is racial issue. The worst part comes from Endemol, Big
Brother's producer whose sidestep the racial accusition. These
thing make the case become public interest. Only three days it's
counted up to 20,000 complaints entry received.
3.
Organization Stage.
At
this stage, the public has begun to organize themselves and form
networks. Current Stage, which developed into a more popular issue
because the media repeatedly proclaimed and the various
interactions in social media and networking. Channel 4 and the
program Celebrity Big Brother got an unfavorable impression of the
mass media in every headline news. Among the headlines the Daily
Express wrote "Desperate C4 Retain cash ", then The
Times said "Channel 4 had either been complicit in promoting
racial bullying to boost ratings, or worse, cynically contrived a
cast list to elicit a row".
4.
Resolution Stage
At
this stage it is basically an organization can address the issue
properly and the news media began to decreased. Chanel 4 and
Endemol, Producer of Big Brother agreed to apologize and accept
Ofcom rule and sanction. Also,
Channel 4 act these thing as the result of agreeing the Ofcom rule:
●
appoint its first viewers’ editor and launch a right-to-reply
programme;
●
introduce a new written intervention policy that explains how the
show will tackle seriously offensive language or behaviour; and
●
appoint a senior welfare officer whose sole task is to observe
housemates and to advise producers of any concerns.
The
company reaction and the lesson learned
These
are folowwing action that Channel 4 do:
-
Apologizing and agreed for Ofcom rules
-
Keith Vaz MP called Andy Duncan to apologize to Silpha Shetty personaly and step down as Chief executive of Channel 4.
-
On subsequent series, Channel 4 eject one of housemate whom use racial language in the show.
-
On 2008 Channel 4 discontinue the program due to financial decrease.
My
review is :
1.
Assing Crisis team is important. This case can be a good example how
desperate the channel 4 handling the crisis in order to deffend the
Big Brother Program. The spoke person should be communicate the
crisis and be cautious to anything that he/she said to the public.
Especially racial issue, it's very sensitive to handle but once it's
handled correctly, it would save the company image.
2.
Managing the issue is the first start to handle the posible crisis,
it's better to resolve the issue rather than crisis. The Channel 4
didnt do it from the begining of the issue. The action of channel 4
whose act deffensively for the program didn't turn well. The company
should save the public first. It mean, in handling the issue, the
company should listen to public favour so the public may calm.
3.
Content filtering should be very monitored especially for the program
that involve diversity on challange game or social case. In Big
Brother, people issolated from the outer world it means no contact
with outside the “house”, the contestant should act naturally and
win the several games. From the Shilpa Shetty case, we can see that
channel 4 no longer serve public interest.
4.
Maximizing connection with mass media is the key to muffle issue.
From the case, we can see that media marked Big Brother as “National
Disgrace”. The branding of the program can be an example of how
much the channel 4 has good connection with media. If they had good
friendship with mass media, the mass media will reconsider to give
bad headline that may affect to the company image.
Sources
Kriyantono,
R. (2012).Public
Relations & Crisis Management: Pendekatan Critical Public
Relations Etnografi Kritis & Kualitatif.
Jakarta: Prenada Kencana.
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