Analysis of Four News Events and the Pr Moves Involved

Introduction to Public Relations Term Paper

The Introduction, Analysis of Four News Events and the PR Moves Involved.

 Table Contents:

I. The Brief of Our Term Paper

II. The 4 News-Event studies from Our Group Member:

A. The Extramarital Affair of Taiwan Legislator, Yu-Sheng Wu.

B. Lewinsky Scandal.

C. Nicaragua's President was Accused of Raping His Stepdaughter.

D. Israeli President Sexually Harassed a Series of Former Female Employees.

III. Discussion and Conclusion

IV. References for All Studies

A. The Extramarital Affair of Taiwan Legislator, Yu-Sheng Wu.

B. Lewinsky Scandal.

C. Nicaragua's President was Accused of Raping His Stepdaughter.

D. Israeli president sexually harassed a series of former female employees.

I. The Brief of Our Term Paper

Our group topic might be different from others since our group members are all from different countries and cultures. As a result, instead of focusing solely on one single event, we tried to analyze the resemblance and difference of PR moves of 4 stories from both eastern and western culture. Each of us covers a detail study into one event, and then we integrate our results together.

By doing this, we hope that we can excellently exercise PR knowledge we've gained so far from our PR course, and hopefully we can also figure out what's beneath the surface of such events-- seemingly independent but correlated in nature.

II. The Four News-Event Studies from Our Group Member

A. The Extramarital Affair of Taiwan Legislator, Yu-Sheng Wu.

1. Introduction

Legislator Yu-Sheng Wu majored in politics in National Chengchi University and studied further to earn a master degree in administration field in National Chengchi University.

The prominent resume of his also includes later on his becoming the spokesperson of Taipei City Government, and from then on, he had become legislator of Taipei century since the legislator election in 2004. He was one of the most shining stars of President Ma's brain trust, and was even nicknamed as "the number one election fighter" of President Ma's election council.

Unfortunately, only a few years later, the media found out that Legislator Wu had been in an extramarital relationship secretly. Such disclosure did a tremendous harm to him, his family and his image alike.

Since Legislator Wu has been a public figure and a politician for so long, the development of his sex scandal is not only important, but also will be brilliantly interesting like the film Prof. Yang had shown us, Wag the Dog, only that it happens closely for real.

The following research focuses on how this event had broken out, the reactions of parties of the sex scandal, and the PR moves Legislator Wu had taken.

2. Literature Review

Legislator Yu-Sheng Wu (吳育昇) is now 51 years old, and has a wife (劉娟娟) about his age. Together Legislator Wu and Mrs. Wu have two daughters and one son. Legislator Wu was first elected as legislator from Taipei County century in 2004 and succeeded in retaining the post again with high votes last year. Legislator Wu had a fresh image until his sex scandal with Ms. Sun (孫仲瑜) was first disclosed by Apple Daily (蘋果日報).

The reporter (or paparazzi) groups was informed by a reporter within the press who happened to walk pass the "Neo 19" building and saw Legislator Wu walking and talking at ease with "a woman" at a fancy restaurant (同壽司), on Nov 11, 2009. There's no "deep throat" involved in this event the reporter claimed. Since he knew Legislator Wu is married, he suspected that "the woman" might not be his wife. So paparazzi group waited around the fancy restaurant (同壽司) and its parking lot to see what was coming up next. The identity of the woman was later proofed to be Ms. Sun (Rebecca Sun, 孫仲瑜) who dressed up in expensive brands from head to toe that night.

During that night, though Legislator Wu and Ms. Sun intended to keep in low profile by walking out the restaurant separately, their trace just couldn't escape from the paparazzi. They left for a motel in Taipei (薇閣汽車旅館) in a BMW RV at 9:21 p.m., and did not left the motel room until 11:50 p.m.

Next day, the reporter from Apple Daily went to Legislator Wu's office to confront him with all the photos the paparazzi team took the other day. Legislator Wu didn't deny anything, but instead he asked the reporter when the story would be run on news. And he declared that he would not do any more explanation involving privacy of all parties involved in this sex scandal- which includes himself, his family, and Ms. Sun.

Nov 13, 2009, Legislator Wu's sex scandal was all over the media, newspapers and TV news alike. The extramarital affair was officially disclosed to the public. And at the same time, Legislator Wu had a press conference in the Legislative Yuan.

Though the press conference didn't last more than 7 minutes but he had apologized for at least 9 times! Legislator Wu appeared in a simple white, so called "the priest dress", with low spirit and puffy eyes. He claimed that he and Ms. Sun were acquaintance for years, and hadn't met for a long time. The derailing affair had just began, which he admitted to be a false judgment he made.

Legislator Wu bowed to the press from time to time. He was not the cocky and eloquent Legislator Wu the public were familiar with. During the press conference, Legislator Wu apologized to his wife as a cheated husband and to the public as a public figure who failed his voters and impacted the society in a bad way. Also, he appealed to the public not going further investigation of Ms. Sun for she's just a simple musician, and furthermore, he declared that he would retreat for 5 days to self-examine and to atone with his wife and family.

And after 5 days of retreat, Legislator Wu dressed in suits and rushed to his old election century in Taipei County (淡水、三芝). And he held a press conference there. There Legislator Wu apologized to voters that he made a mistake