Case Study Conflict Scenario - Intercultural Communication

PingMe is a social media app company that distributes videos amongst its users, similar to Snapchat and TikTok. In an effort to reduce bullying and hate speech online, the app has recently rewritten its content use guidelines and have employed additional measures to sift through certain tags on videos that often get abuse, sometimes deleting the videos and/or otherwise making them harder to locate online. The company's main office is in Beijing, China, where the founder Li Zhang is from. The company is small and consists of no more than ten regular employees based in China and some regular contract workers employed on a case-by-case basis. While it was the office in China that developed the new content guidelines together, it was a hired team of contractors who undertook the implementation of these guidelines in the app itself. Most of these contractors are based all over the world. These new content guidelines were done in a good faith effort to make the online space for those using the app better. However, one of the side effects of the algorithm used to implement the content guidelines has been an incidental flagging and removing of videos which contain LGBTQ people. Most of these videos have been harmless--they were not targets of abuse and did not contain hate speech--but they have been incidentally removed or made difficult to find online, which has now sparked outrage among PingMe's users in the US accusing the company of homophobia. When the founder, Zhang's, Twitter page is also examined by a US-based user, they find numerous old tweets where Zhang has spoken negatively towards a 'fairy' in a gym and several other tweets where he quotes song lyrics that contain the word 'faggot' or otherwise negative imagery towards the LGBTQ community. This sparks more outrage among PingMe's US users; Western news media picks up the story; and soon the new content guidelines seem to be a deliberate attempt to silence the LGBTQ community's participation on the app. Li Zhang remains silent on the issue, choosing to delete his Twitter rather than respond to accusations directly. After hiring a new set of contract workers to fix the algorithm's errors in the implementation of the guidelines, he reaches out to a Public Relations firm based in San Francisco to help recover from this conflict. You are the team leader at the San Francisco PR firm called Better Solutions. Though you are not part of the LGBTQ community, numerous people on your staff are and several have outright refused to take this case based on the public perception so far. You decide that you will work it alone and have several long meetings with Zhang over Zoom to discuss solutions. You realize that while Zhang's old Twitter posts are negative and hurtful, he is deeply apologetic for his past statements, especially as he now understands that his Canadian cousin and two of his coworkers in Beijing are part of the LGBTQ community. He wants to make amends but feels as if it will be impossible, especially as some people in the Beijing office believe the algorithm did the right thing, while some no longer feel safe at work. He also fears the loss of his company or his country's support, due to the censorship that already exists towards LGBTQ people within his current culture, and how his company's US stockholders are responding to his treatment in the media.

task: Zhang asks for you, as his PR leader, to help him write a message to his employees at PingMe. The problem with the app's algorithm has been fixed, but office morale is not good and many people seem divided as to who is at fault in this matter. Whatever message you help Zhang write should be in his own voice and contain an action plan for the employees' next steps. It is up to you to decide what the best next course of action is and how to implement it. Zhang also asks for your help constructing a press release. This should also be in his own voice, but the exact form of the press release takes can be up to you. It can also be multiple press releases, for different countries/cultures, if you think this is the best approach. Finally, Zhang asks for your help constructing an apology to those affected by this issue the most. It is up for you to decide who is the target of this apology and how it will be delivered. Once again, this must be in Zhang's voice. This can also be multiple apologies if you believe this to be the best option. Be sure to also fill in the reflective questionnaire on this final project when you hand in your final documents. See the rubric for full grading criteria.

three main communication tasks:

1. composing an internal office communication within the appropriate genre that addresses the issue for the employees to understand and/or what their next steps should be
2. writing a press release for the workplace that address the public image of the company
3. exchanging a personal communication with the members affected by the conflict; this piece can be either written or verbal.

Answer these 3 question with help of case study.