(This picture was taken from https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2019/01/31/miami-doctors-plastic-surgery-empire-becomes-floridas-deadliest-clinics/2729802002/)

On Jan. 31, 2019, USA Today online platform published an investigation story “This business helped transform Miami into a national plastic surgery destination. Eight women died” which was reported by Michael Sallah and Maria Perez. According to the story, there were eight women died under plastic surgery at Jolie Plastic Surgery in the past six years. Dr. Ismael Labrador, the owner of Jolie Plastic Surgery, built up his business on plastic surgery and popularized it through social media. The biggest fraud behind his business was that there were “doctors” without official medical licenses in his clinic, and they were paid highly to do plastic surgery for patients and put the patients in danger. Also, Labrador offered promotions with absolutely low price for plastic surgery to attract customers. According to Sallah and Perez, Labrador has changed the name of his business for several times over the years, so there were less and less information about previous medical accidents of the clinic that could be found by patients when they did research for the clinic before they decided to take the surgery at there.

(This picture was taken from https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2019/01/31/miami-doctors-plastic-surgery-empire-becomes-floridas-deadliest-clinics/2729802002/)

Although this was an investigation story, it definitely revealed a tremendous fraud behind Jolie Plastic Surgery. This story caused negative effects toward American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. Nowadays, more and more women would want to make themselves look more beautiful, and plastic surgery has become more and more popular. After the fraud of Jolie Plastic Surgery has been revealed, women who have done the surgery and who would like to do the surgery would be impacted most. According to this investigation story, Brazilian butt lift is a kind of plastic surgery with highest risk, but doctors who have accepted official training and had official licenses could finish the surgery and ensure safety of patients. Therefore, as PR people from American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, they are responsible to build up the reputation and trust in the public. They should think about how to inform the public that American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery take responsibility to implement the regulation toward plastic surgery clinics, clarify procedures of surgery, and require clinics give official documents to patients before surgery.

Since this was an investigation story, it was not generated by media, but it was generated by what has actually happened in the beauty industry in Florida. As medical techniques have developed rapidly in recent years, cosmetic surgery has become a method for women to gain beauty and good shape of body they wanted. However, it is important to know clearly about the procedures of surgery, find standard hospitals or clinics to learn more information, and think carefully before making the decision. Yes, becoming beautiful is the dream for every woman, but life values much more than that.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reply for me.

USA Today published “Shark attacks drop dramatically in ’18,” which was reported by Doyle Rice, on their newspaper on Jan. 29, 2019 (Tuesday). According to Rice, shark attacks in the United States were decreased in 2018. The average shark attacks was 84 and average kills was 6, and there was 66 unprovoked shark attacks and 4 kills in the United States in 2018, which was a great amount of decrease. However, the reason of decreased shark attacks was unknown. One possibility was the population of sharks decreased in the ocean, and the other one possibility was people followed the rules and instructions while they were on the beach. Comparing with the kills of human by sharks, there are about 100 million sharks that are killed by human every year. Shark won’t hurt people easily. Shark attacks could be prevented by following instructions of safety guide on the beach and share the ocean with marine organisms politely.

(This picture was taken by Juan Oliphant via AP, and I took it from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/01/28/shark-attacks-decline-2018-both-us-and-worldwide/2700571002/_)

This was a positive news story that indicated much less people being hurt or being killed by sharks, but on the other hand, it was critical to think about indiscriminate killing toward not only sharks, but also other marine organisms. Since this news story was mainly about the ocean life, oceanographer and people who cared about ocean would think about it seriously. It was necessary for people to increase awareness that we should share the environment with animals and protect them from being killed. To achieve this goal, influencers would play a significant role to deliver the message of protecting ocean effectively. There was a picture in the news story, which showed a girl whose name is Ocean Ramsey was swimming with a large white shark (as shown above). She learned about the ocean and was a person who would like to lead the protection sharks and ocean. From her standpoint, sharks were her friends, and to protect sharks from being killed and affected negatively by human activities, it would be an effective way that other ocean protectors and she start a petition to appeal more and more people join them. Therefore, a message from her to social media platforms would make positive effects to this issue.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to make a reply to me. Thank you.

(This photo was taken from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/23/nyregion/dream-act-bill-passed.html, and it was taken by Cindy Schultz for The New York Times)

On the New York Times daily newspaper for Thursday (Jan. 24, 2019), Christina Goldbaum published the news article “Legislature Passes Bill Giving College Aid to Undocumented Students.” New York State Legislature would provide financial aid to students who were undocumented immigrants, and they would be able to pursue higher education. Governor Andrew M. Cuomo has already confirmed Dream Act, which will be signed into law by him. Other than New York State, California, Texas, New Mexico, Washington, Oregon and Minnesota are states that has provided undocumented students financial support for education. When New York State Legislature passed Dream Act, Republican State Senators argued with Democratic State Senators on the issue regarding to undocumented immigrants. Republican State Senators held the point that they should concern on legal citizens of the United States, especially for middle-class families. On the other side, Democratic State Senators believed that supported undocumented students would bring more benefits to the state in a long term. Dream Act was an important action that both sides considered in different aspects for the election in 2020.

(This photo was taken from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/23/nyregion/dream-act-bill-passed.html, and it was taken by Stephanie Keith for The New York Times)

The pass of Dream Act was a good news for those undocumented students, and it was a positive sign to undocumented immigrants as well. However, Republican party held different opinions on this issue, and there might be opposite voice from the public. From this stand point, after Dream Act passed, there were positive and negative effects and arguments between Republican and Democratic political parties. In my opinion, I think this news article was generated by a news release because the purpose was give notification to the public about the approval of Dream Act, and it was achieved well. Definitely, there were potential problems, so public relations for New York State Legislature should follow up with updates of the implementation of Dream Act. Meanwhile, it would be important to deal with opposite voices and prepare answers to reply when there is a need to make clarification of it.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to make a reply to me. Thank you.

(This picture was taken from https://finance.yahoo.com/news/activists-already-targeting-google-facebook-075312110.html)

Adam Satariano from the New York Times reported “Google Is Fined 50 Million Euros Under Data Law” on their daily newspaper on Jan. 22, 2019. As he mentioned in the news article, the General Data Protection Regulation has already been effective since May, 2019, and Google was charged for not properly notifying their users how they would use their information, and Google has not given final decision of the appeal. According to Satariano, the essential concept of European Data Privacy Law is to make users of internet be aware of the main usage of their information that they provide, and the penalty to Google in Europe indicated a beginning to develop the security of information through the internet today. This news coverage kept a neutral tone when it happened, but as more and more people started using the internet and relying on it, the security of the internet has become a main concern for users, so when the news reported Google’s case, most of users of the internet would be impacted significantly. As a result, the reputation of Google’s security to users’ information would be affected negatively because people would doubt and hesitate when they use the services of Google.

(This picture is taken from https://design.google/library/evolving-google-identity/)

Under this circumstance, the public relations practitioners of Google should work to gain reputation back and build up trust between the public and the company. Since the impact of this issue was negative to the company, PR practitioners should response to the public immediately with sincere apology and clear explanation on how they would do to prevent such issue from happening again. It would be necessary to update information about the appeal to the penalty in Europe for the public. As the regulation of data privacy has been recognized seriously and strictly in Europe, more regulation could be expected in more other countries. Therefore, it is important for Google to take the penalty carefully and regulate their services on the internet under the law.

If you are interested to read more about this news article, please follow this link.

Please feel free to leave your comment or questions below. I really appreciate that.

(This picture was taken from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/16/technology/microsoft-affordable-housing-seattle.html)

“Microsoft Pledges $500 Million To Ease Seattle Housing Crisis” was a news article that was reported by Karen Weise and published on The New York Times newspaper on Jan. 18, 2019. According to Weise, Microsoft gave $500 million to help low-income and middle-income group of people gain better living environment. In the news article, not only Microsoft, but several technological companies were mentioned such as Amazon, Google and Facebook. These companies have supported programs and helped with housing problem in the region in recent years.

In my opinion, the message that Microsoft would like to send was that they were willing to put effort and money to help local residents gain better life, and when this message was out, local residents, especially for low-income and middle-income class, were most impacted because it was indeed a serious problem for them to worry about. Along with other technological companies, the contribution that Microsoft put to the local region helped increase their reputation in the positive way. Next, if I was the PR person of Microsoft, I would follow up with updates of company’s implementation of the plan and think about how to make this implementation help more local residents. However, it would be important to know real need from local residents when Microsoft implement their plan. Making it beneficial for most low-income and middle-income residents would involve large amount of research and analysis to the current housing situation of the region.

From my perspective, I think this news article was generated by a news release from PR of Microsoft. The main purpose of this news message was generating awareness from the public about the implementation of Microsoft to the housing problem in Seattle, and it was more organizational. I think this news article helped PR people of Microsoft achieve their goal.

If you have any thoughts or ideas that want to share with me, please feel free to leave a comment below or email me by jql6069@psu.edu. Thank you!

The New York Times published the article “Days of Plotting To Kidnap a Girls Seen by Chance” (Online Version Link) on their newspaper on Jan. 15, 2019, which was reported by Matt Furber and Mitch Smith. In this news story, my client is Jayme Closs who is a 13-year-old girl at middle school in Barron, Wisconsin. She was kidnapped by Jake Patterson on Oct. 15 and escaped successfully last Thursday. According to Furber and Smith, Mr. Patterson planned and prepared for this kidnapping before he actually did it, and he was arrested and confessed what he had done to Jayme’s family. After Jayme escaped, she was cared by her family members because both of her parents were killed by Jake Patterson. Due to this kidnapping, parents of Barron have increased concern about their children’s safety.

(this picture was taken from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/us/jayme-closs-updates-jake-patterson.html)

From my perspective, this news coverage had a neutral but sad voice because to the public, it was a good news that Jayme escaped successfully from Jake Patterson, but she lost her parents. Meanwhile, this incident exposed the risk of children’s safety that most parents worried about. After this news story was published through news websites and newspapers, parents of not only Barron, but also the entire country, are most impacted because it was such a severe circumstance for children, and nobody would want this happen again. Jayme Closs was concerned by the public after her experience was published. In my opinion, as a PR folk, I should update the current situation of my client, Jayme Closs, and present as her spokesman to the public to protect her from any other disruptive interviews when she needs rest and careful mental treatment. Also, there is a need of appeal for action to protect children’s safety and prevent kidnapping from happening again.

I think this story was generated by media driven because it provided detailed information about this kidnapping and the current situation of the kidnapper Jake Patterson and the victim Jayme Closs. The reporters didn’t address any specific circumstance related to this news by purpose but kept neutral voice and presented the story to the public.

US teenager Jayme Closs went missing in October

After three months in captivity, she escaped – this woman found her

[Tap to expand] https://t.co/QlcMuDOgAP pic.twitter.com/8avhhfRsLU

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) January 15, 2019