A Critical Analysis Of USAir's Image Repair Discourse

Faced with a crisis, what can a business say? Crisis communication literature tends to focars on what to do before and after a crisis and on the kinds of crises corporations face. Less attention is given to the options available within mes sages about a crisis. The theory of image restoration provides a useful key to composing such messages. This article applies the theory to one case study in image repair discourse: USAir's response to media coverage of the crash of one of its aircraft in Pittsburgh in 1994. Introducing such case studies in the classroom helps students to understand the basic tenets of persausion in the highly charged context of repairing a corporate reputation after an attack.