Yvonne Najera COMM 518 Public Relations Theory Application Paper 5

US Faces Phone Tapping Storm

The US faces a storm of criticism worldwide as news surfaces that the US has been spying on its international friends. In a statement on October 21, 2013, Former Mexican President Felipe Calderon says the reported spying on his presidential email system by the U.S. is an "insult" to Mexican institutions that should be addressed by current Mexico authorities. Calderon says in a tweet Monday that he will closely follow the efforts by Mexico's Foreign Relations Department to get an explanation from the United States. A report Sunday by the German news magazine Der Spiegel says documents from National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden indicate the U.S. gained access to Calderon's email system when he was in office. The U.S. ambassador to France met with French diplomats the same day over the same allegations that the National Security Agency had intercepted more than 70 million phone calls in France over a 30-day period. Ambassador Charles Rivkin was summoned to the French Foreign Ministry in Paris after the details of the alleged spying appeared in the French newspaper Le Monde. "These kinds of practices between partners, that violate privacy, are totally unacceptable," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters at an EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg on Monday. "We must quickly assure that these practices aren't repeated (CNN, 2013)." In reply to the statements made, President Obama responded, "I guarantee you that in European capitals, there are people who are interested in, if not what I had for breakfast, at least what my talking points might be should I end up meeting with their leaders. That is how intelligence services operate (CNN, 2013)."

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was questioned on the matter when he arrived Monday in Paris for talks on the Middle East. He declined to talk about the specific allegations, but said the United States will discuss the matter privately with French officials and other concerned allies. He said protecting the security of people in today's world is very complicated and challenging. President Obama said very clearly in a recent speech that he gave at the United Nations General Assembly just a few weeks ago, We in the United States are currently reviewing the way that we gather intelligence. And I think that is appropriate, and our goal is always to try to find the right balance between protecting the security and the privacy of our citizens, he said (VO, 2013).''

Attribution Theory Attribution theory is a dominant conception in the area of motivation, social psychology, and educational psychology. It has stood the test of time, as not only does it have a powerful empirical support, but also it has acted responsively to empirical challenges (Weiner, 2000, p14). This theory was introduced by Fritz Heider in 1958 and developed by other scholars including Kelley, Jones, Davis, and Weiner (Feshbach, Weiner, & Bohart, 1996). The study of attribution began to attempt to provide a systematic, conceptual explanation of "naive" psychology. Heider maintained that people strive to understand, predict, and control events in their everyday lives in much the same way as scientists do in their professional lives. On the basis of observation, individuals form theories about their social worlds, and new observations then serve to support, refute, or modify these theories. Because people act on the basis of their beliefs, Heider argued that it is important to understand this layperson's psychology (Hart, 2005). Attribution theory can be in conjunction with situational crisis communication theory (SCCT), as a theoretical framework in determining a crisis response to a crisis situation. There are two types of attributions, internal and external. Internal attributions place the cause for behavior within a person, whereas external attributions assign the cause to some factor outside the person. In other words, internal attributions focus on some aspect of a

person, including stable traits or characteristics, such as intelligence or personality; variable behaviors, such as effort; and temporary states, such as mood or exhaustion. Locating the cause outside the person, external attributions place responsibility on some force or agent in the situation or environment. Such agents include rules and restrictions, difficulty of tasks, availability of resources, and chance or luck (Hart, 2005). Attribution theory believes that people try to explain why events happen, especially events that are sudden and negative. Generally, people either attribute responsibility for the event to the situation or the person in the situation. Attributions generate emotions and affect how people interact with those involved in the event. Crises are negative (create damage or threat of damage) and are often sudden so they create attributions of responsibility. People either blame the organization in crisis or the situation. If people blame the organization, anger is created and people react negatively toward the organization. Three negative reactions to attributing crisis responsibility to an organization have been documented: (1) increased damage to an organizations reputation, (2) reduced purchase intentions, and (3) increased likelihood of engaging in negative word-of-mouth. In 1995, Timothy Coombs pioneered the application of attribution theory to crisis management in the public relations literature. His 1995 article began to lay out a theorybased approach to matching the reputation repair strategies to the crisis situation. This research with the help of Sherry Holladay has evolved into the Situation Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT). SCCT argues that crisis managers match their reputation repair strategies to the reputational threat of the crisis situation (Coombs, 2007b; Coombs & Holladay, 2006). Implications In this situation, there is now fall-out from the leaked documents by fugitive Edward Snowden, a contractor with the US National Security Administration, have surfaced and the US is now facing questions of their surveillance practices on its European neighbors. In using a diminish crisis response attempt, they can assure the international public that the crisis is not as bad as it seems or that the organization had nothing to do with the situation, i.e., (claiming that some of the allegations were distorted). These strategies help lessen the

connection between the organization and the crisis and help the organizations public see the crisis in a less negative light. They then can rebuild confidence and help change perceptions of the US by taking positive actions, (i.e., Obama stating he will review the current intelligence gathering procedures) and weather the storm.

References Feshbach, S., Weiner, B., & Bohart, A. (1996). Personality (4th ed). Hart, J. L. (2005). Attribution Theory. In R. L. Heath (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Public Relations (Vol. 1, pp. 47-49). CNN. Mexico lashes out against report of U.S. spying. (2013). Retrieved from October, 21, 2013 from http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/20/world/americas/mexico-nsaspying/index.html?hpt=wo_c1 Weiner, B. (2000). Interpersonal and Personal Theories of Motivation from an Attritional Perspective. Educational Psychology Review, 12(1), 1-14. Voice of America. (2013). Obama Calls French President Over Spying Allegations. Retrived October 21, 2013 from http://www.voanews.com/content/obama-calls-frenchpresident-over-spying-allegations/1774170.html