30-minute online simulation; 500-word news release in correct format
Submission Instructions
News release submitted to D2L
Background
Casey Jones’ Caboose is an upscale Canadian chain restaurant, similar to Milestones or Jack Astor’s. Founded in 1996, the chain now has 46 restaurants, spread across all provinces. It is a publicly traded company with shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Casey Jones’ Caboose has no previous experience with crisis communication and hasn’t developed a crisis communication manual.
Scenario
As a crisis communicator, you have been hired by Edwina Jones, the Marketing Manager of Casey Jones’ Caboose, to draft a news release about a developing crisis. Any information shared with you is CONFIDENTIAL. It is imperative that the information shared with you stays confidential until the organization is ready to make a public statement.
Edwina has requested your advice on how to proceed and is receiving regular updates that they will relay to you via a digital channel as the situation progresses. Knowing that silence or evasion might worsen the situation, you will work towards a meaningful response to this developing crisis with a press release.
Reflecting on what you’ve learned throughout this term, consider the audience(s), and what messages would be most appropriate for this circumstance. The correctly formatted news release you draft for this assignment will be for immediate release.
Simulation
During the 30-minute simulation, you will receive prompts from a variety of sources as the crisis evolves. Once you start the simulation the prompts will appear automatically at irregular intervals. You cannot change the speed of the prompts. You cannot respond to the prompts.The purpose of the prompts is to provide you with information you’ll need to write your news release. As with a real-world crisis, information may be confusing at first. Take notes as the prompts will only remain onscreen for a few minutes and you will only have one opportunity to run the simulation.
