Media & Public Relations: A Bridge Between Society, Organization and Government

The assignment discusses the importance of media in ensuring transparency and correct news dissemination during incidents like the Dreamworld theme park malfunction that resulted in four fatalities. The media played a crucial role in reporting the incident objectively, without biasness, and effectively communicating information to internal and external stakeholders. The incident had significant impacts on internal stakeholders such as employees and customers, while external stakeholders including citizens and society at large were also affected. The business suffered a loss of credibility and revenue, and there was an environment of caution among people. Ultimately, the media's transparency in reporting the incident helped establish a bridge between the organization, government, and society.

Running Head: BUSINESS, SOCIETY & PLANET
DREAMWORLD FATALITIES – BUSINESS & SOCIETY
STUDENT NAME
NAME OF THE INSTITUTE

BUSINESS, SOCIETY & PLANET
Table of Contents
Introduction........................................................................................................................................... 3
Incident background..........................................................................................................................................................3
Analysis................................................................................................................................................... 3
Stakeholders Analysis...................................................................................................................................................... 4
Media & the Influence......................................................................................................................................................6
Possible outcome of the issue........................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................. 7
References.............................................................................................................................................. 8
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Introduction
The incident that happened at Dreamworld theme park was an unfortunate incident. The
incidences like this have a great impact on society. The people may forget the incident in the
time to come; however, the impact of these incidents remains high on the mind of people in the
society. It can be said that the society at large is influenced by these incidents (Colleoni, 2013).
The objective of this paper is to discuss the issue of Dreamworld theme park in detail. The paper
would discuss the key issues and the key stakeholders. The paper would also discuss the issue as
presented in the media. A brief background the incident can be discussed as:
Incident background
The issue or the incident happened on 27th Oct 2016 when a ride in the Dreamworld
theme park malfunctioned. The ride malfunctioned and as a result two people felt from the raft.
In all, there were four causalities (McKirdy, 2016). Their raft malfunctioned at about two o’clock
on Tuesday, with witnesses describing people running from the ride screaming. It was an
unfortunate incident where the machine malfunctioned. The Queensland ambulance was fast
enough to response and as a result few lives were saved. The theme park was closed immediately
after this incidence (McKirdy, 2016). The Gold Coast Bulletin has reported that one of the rafts
flipped on the conveyer belt, dragging two people underneath it.
Analysis
These sorts of issues are not new to Australian society. Along the course of history there
are various incidences like this that have shattered the Australian society. There are various
stakeholders involved in the issue and it would be interesting to study and analyze the issues
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from the perspective of various stakeholders. The stakeholders could be further divided into
internal stakeholders and external stakeholders (Mazutis & Slawinski, 2015). The internal
stakeholders would be the immediate families of victims, the victims, the management of theme
park, etc. The external stakeholders would be government, Australian citizens and society at
large.
Stakeholders Analysis
The analysis for various internal and external stakeholders can be discussed as:
Victim: It would be correct to say that the victims are the most important stakeholders in this
incident. It is very unfortunate that some victims lost their lives. The victims who were injured
were at the receiving end in this incidence. They can still feel the pain of this incidence.
Families of these victims: It would be correct to say that families of the victims are also key
stakeholders that were influenced by this incident (Nwagbara & Reid, 2013). The families of the
victims have to suffer a lot as victims are directly dependent on their family members.
The park management: The management of the theme park is also one of the key internal
stakeholders. It can be said that the management is ultimately responsible for this incidence as it
was the duty of management to ensure that a safe environment could be provided to all the
visitors (Wilson & Post, 2013).
The employees/ union of the theme park: It can be said that the employees of the theme park
also an important stakeholder. Along with management, there exist some responsibilities for the
employees also. Among all the employees, the onus lies on the maintenance department that was
ultimately responsible to ensure that the ride is maintained.
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Business or Organization/ Dreamworld theme park: It is also important to analyze the issues
from the perceptive of business. The business was shut down immediately after this incident. The
loss was observed and it would be very difficult for Dreamworld theme park to overcome the
loss. Moreover, the business also lost its trust and respect among the visitors, citizens and society
at large.
Local government: The local government of the Queensland is one of the most important
external stakeholders. It can be said that the society would mostly look towards the government
and analyze their action during any incidences (Wilson & Post, 2013). The government ensured
that the immediate help is provided to the victims and their family members.
Media & Public Relations: It can be said that media is an important pillar of democracy (Rydén
& Ringberg, 2015). The role of media is to ensure that the communication is transparent and the
correct news is spread in the region. It appears that media was able to complete its
responsibilities on time. There were various articles that were published in the local newspaper.
These articles communicated the news effectively and ensured that the transparency is
maintained.
Australian citizens/ Society at large: These are the citizens that were not directly influenced by
the incident. It can be said that the external citizens and society at large are the key external
stakeholders in these types of incidences. The society should work with the media and
government to ensure that a pressure is developed on the organization (Dreamworld theme park
in this case).
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Media & the Influence
As stated above, media is an important pillar of democracy. It is important that media
should present the issue as-it-is. It means that the media should not distort any facts. At the same
time the media or the journalists should ensure that they report the issue without nay biasness. It
appears that media was transparent in this incident. The various news channels and press
agencies like Guardian, ABC News, were fast enough to respond. The media channels and news
reporters visited the site and ensured that the information is communicated effectively. The good
thing about the media reporting in this case was that the journalists or the reporters were not
biased. The newspapers and reporters went ahead to even publish the photos of the victims. The
media wanted to have an emotional connect with various internal and external stakeholders of
this event. There are times when media may not be transparent and there are times when the
media would use the biasness to report the issue. O’Neil (2018) argued that the biasness of media
is generally high when they have to report the political issue. This was a public issue and luckily
there was not biasness involved. The political pressures and lobbying is one thing that can create
biasness in the situation. However, it is expected that media would function beyond all these
biasness. In fact, this is an ideal or desired state where the media functions without biasness.
However, it is observed that in reality, it never happens. In this case also, the biasness was very
limited or minimal for media.
Possible outcome of the issue
It would be correct to say that the issue influenced all the key internal and external
stakeholders. The impact could be observed not only for the internal stakeholders but also for the
external stakeholders. The major outcome for this issue was for the business. The business,
‘Dreamworld theme park’ was shut down after this incident. It resulted in a lot of loss for the
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business. However, more than the monetary loss it was an issue of credibility for the
organization. The people would never feel the same when they would visit Dreamworld theme
park. It can be said that this incident has done irreparable damage on the operations of
Dreamworld theme park.
Another possible outcome could be observed for the citizens or public. After this
incident, the people are cautious to visit the theme parks. It is observed that there is an
environment of chaos and mistrust among the citizens. Though it can be said that the
environment has improved in last 11 months. This event happened last year during October and
it can be said that the month of November and December was most difficult. Typically,
November and December are the festive months when the people spending are high towards the
leisure activities like theme parks (Murray & Wahlquist, 2016). However, due to these incident
there was a dip in the overall revenue of leisure industry.
Conclusion
The above paper discusses the issue of Dreamworld theme park that happened last year
when a ride malfunctioned and four people were dead. The paper discussed various internal and
external stakeholders involved in the issue. The paper also discusses the role of media in this
incident. With the above discussion it can be said that media has an important role to play in the
incidences like these. This incident resulted in loss of business for Dreamworld theme park. At
the same time, there was an environment of caution among the people and they did not want to
risk their lives in the dangerous life. The good light in this incident was the role of media. The
media was transparent enough to report the issue on time. It can be said that the media
established a bridge between the society, organization and government.
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References
Colleoni, E. (2013). CSR communication strategies for organizational legitimacy in social
media. Corporate Communications: an international journal, 18(2), 228-248.
Mazutis, D. D., & Slawinski, N. (2015). Reconnecting business and society: Perceptions of
authenticity in corporate social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics, 131(1), 137-
150.
McKirdy, E. (2016). Dreamworld accident: 2 children survive fatal theme park malfunction.
Retrieved from: http://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/25/world/queensland-theme-park-
fatalities/index.html
Murray, W. & Wahlquist, C. (2016). Dreamworld accident: four dead at Gold Coast theme park.
Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2016/oct/25/dreamworld-accident-
gold-coast-theme-park
Nwagbara, U., & Reid, P. (2013). Corporate social responsibility communication in the age of
new media: towards the logic of sustainability communication. Revista de Management
Comparat International, 14(3), 400.
O’Neil, J. (2018). ‘People, Planet, Profits’ and Perception Politics: A Necessary Fourth (and
Fifth) Bottom Line? Critiquing the Current Triple Bottom Line in the Australian Context.
In The Goals of Sustainable Development (pp. 19-42). Springer, Singapore.
Rydén, P., Ringberg, T., & Wilke, R. (2015). How Managers' Shared Mental Models of
Business–Customer Interactions Create Different Sensemaking of Social Media. Journal
of Interactive Marketing, 31, 1-16.
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Wilson, F., & Post, J. E. (2013). Business models for people, planet (& profits): exploring the
phenomena of social business, a market-based approach to social value creation. Small
Business Economics, 40(3), 715-737.
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