Monday, December 9th, 2013...12:38 am

Social Learning Theory: Paula Faces the Today Show

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By: Leigh Scheffey

Paula Deen was faced with numerous criticisms following her “racist remarks” and lack of clean-up in the weeks following their public entry. One of the biggest down-points in Mrs. Deen’s scanal was the way that the Food Network star handled the backlash from her actions. In the days after the star made several apology videos, and tried to do all that she could to erase the situation from its original surface. Arguably the biggest problem that Paula created was a poorly managed her apology and the need to run from all opportunities to fix her mistake. After losing her deal with the Food Network and cook book publishing agency, Paula was down to the last string merely holding onto her deal with QVC. Paula was scheduled for an interview with the today show, a chance for the star to share her side with the public, however, at the last minute Paula completely missed her interview with the show.

The start tried to manage her losses by informing the NBC correspondents that she was unable to attend due to the stress and later agreed to an interview with the Today Show’s Matt Lauer. The missed first interview grew the audience for her Today Show appearance further facing her with accusations of being insincere and uneasy to apologize in the final interview below.

 

So how exactly do Paula Deen’s actions influence the public? A Social Learning Theory, commonly studied in the field of PR, allows for a public to role model to massly produce media from which our personal observations allow us to learn. Through this a subject is able to positively or negatively learn from a series of either rewards or punishments. In the case of Paula, the public was able to assess the initial action of Paula–her racial comments– and observe the losses she received: her TV show, book deal, ect.. The public is then able to look at the punishment faced by Deen to evaluate whether or not Paula was correct in her actions of dealing with the problem. In this case the loss of TV show and further missed TV appearances show us how our actions can negatively affect us during and after a crisis. Paula’s interview with the Today Show fits this theory because viewers ultimately learn that running from a problem may be worse that facing it in the eye.

Other Sources:

http://www.today.com/food/paula-deen-i-would-not-have-fired-me-6C10454147

Matthews, Kelli. “Social Learning Theory.” J 350 Class Lecture. University of Oregon, Eugene. 21 Oct. 2013. Lecture.

 

 



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