Case Study Scenario Questions

Assume that you have been retained by the airport authority to develop a public relations program to prepare a media packet announcing that the city airport will be relocated. Your client thinks there is agreement between the airport authority board and the majority of registered voters that a new airport should be relocated to the recently closed military base. You decide to use the coorientational model to analyze the relationships between your client and registered voters in your community on the issue.

Using airport relocation as the object of coorientation (the X in the model), you begin researching the state of public opinion and the nature of coorientational relationships your client has with registered voters on this issue. You learn from surveys that, contrary to what your client thinks, a vast majority of registered voters feel the airport should be expanded and should remain where it is. In addition, a majority think that the airport authority has no plan to move the airport.

1. Which coorientational description best defines this relationship?

A. High agreement, high congruency, and high accuracy

B. High agreement, low congruency, and low accuracy

C. Low agreement, high congruency, and low accuracy

D. Low agreement, low congruency, and high accuracy

E. Low agreement, low congruency, and low accuracy

2. Which of Scheffs states of coorientational consensus best describes the relationship between your client and the majority of the registered voters interviewed?

A. Monolithic consensus

B. False consensus

C. Pluralistic ignorance

D. Dissensus

E. Salience

3. What should your public relations firm recommend to the board members of the airport authority?

A. Your firm should develop the most persuasive media packet possible. The client wants to make the announcement, and your job is to facilitate the clients plan.

B. Your firm should tell the client that what is really needed is a campaign to convince registered voters that the airport needs to be relocated.

C. Your firm should report the survey results showing that a majority of registered voters do not support the relocation.

D. Your firm should come up with a message strategy that features the advantages of the relocation and argues that the military base is too good a deal to pass up.

E. Your firm should recommend that the client find a political advertising agency, because this situation calls for an advertising campaign.