Stella Liebeck v McDonald’s. A tale of a good PR strategy

In 2013, Stella Liebeck sued the fast food giant McDonald’s because the company’s coffee provoked third-degree burns on her legs and the genital area. This might come as a surprise to many, either because they haven’t heard the story or they know it is as ‘The One Million Dollar Coffee Lawsuit’ where this old lady spilt her coffee reportedly while driving and sued McDonald’s for a million dollars, despite this being far from the truth. Why? Because the corporate lawyers McDonald’s employs are very good at their job.

The story goes: Stella Liebeck was in the car with her grandson. While parked, Stella accidentally spilt her coffee on her lap and because the coffee was 190 degrees Fahrenheit, it caused third-degree burns. Even though McDonald’s themselves admitted that the temperature of their coffee was indeed a hazard, they weren’t predisposed in helping Stella, who only wanted $20 thousand to cover medical expenses, and therefore, left her with no choice but to go to court. In the light of over 700 people reported to have been burned by the companies’ coffee in the previous decade, the jury decided to fine McDonald’s $2.7 million, but Stella settled with 600 thousand. Because McDonald’s lost the court case, they instigated a disinformation campaign to convince Americans that there was an ‘epidemic of frivolous lawsuits’ and the media fell for it. False or exaggerated stories can be politically significant because they help to influence legislative and judicial agendas, but in this case, it resulted in a witch hunt against ‘frivolous lawsuits’.

The news media and shows like the Tonight Show with Jay Leno portrayed Stella Liebeck as an incompetent old lady who got lucky in a court case. However, the McDonald’s damage control tactic went further than that. Protests sponsored by large corporations sprang up using the Stella Liebeck v McDonald’s case as an example to convince the population not to sue for their unsafe products.  Companies like Texaco and Philip Morris sponsored organised protest groups to turn public opinion against lawsuits. Fear of lawsuits can change behaviour and the news media plays an important role in this fear (McCann, 2016). Reporting incidents that seem trivial will encourage other journalists to change the behaviour (Williams, 2006). Because of this campaign against lawsuits, the number of civil lawsuits against damaging products has decreased in recent decades.

While this case may not have changed any laws, it is indirectly related to politics in today’s society. The media plays a crucial role by serving as a messenger between political organisations and the public. One of the pillars of the political communication process is via the media; this includes websites dedicated to news reporting such as the BBC and social networks which spread the information rapidly (McNair, 2011).

McDonald’s had a coffee temperature policy that almost killed someone and it took Stella’s lawsuit to change it. McDonald’s realised this would be bad for the companies’ image and may lead to more lawsuits. Corporates lawyers bamboozled an old lady, successfully dodging any damage to the company. However, as I mentioned before, corporations aren’t the only ones using the media for damage control, political organisations also use it to defend themselves or attack their opponents.

CollegeHumour (2016). The Truth About the McDonald's Coffee Lawsuit. [YouTube] available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9DXSCpcz9E [Accessed 27 Mar 2017]

Lunney, M. and Oliphant, K. (2008). Tort law: text and materials. Oxford University Press, 

McNair, B. (2011) An introduction to political communication [e-book] London; New York: Routledge. Available from: https://www.dawsonera.com/readonline/9780203828694 [Accessed 29 Mar 2017]

Williams, K., 2006. Politics, the media and refining the notion of fault: section 1 of the Compensation Act 2006. Journal of personal injury law. [Accessed 28 Mar 2017]

Stella Liebek reference 1:44 - 1:50 

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The Future of Journalism

Journalists; the heroes that we support in films like ‘Spotlight’ and ‘The Great Muppet Caper’.  While ‘The Great Muppet Caper’ provides audiences with an hour of entertainment, ‘Spotlight’ underlines a crisis that newspapers are undergoing: extinction.

In 2012, Rupert Murdoch predicted that newspapers could be obsolete in 10 years (5 years from now) because of the competition from the internet.  It is true that he made this argument to then urge the government not to over-regulate them, furthering his argument to deregulate the UK’s press, but that doesn’t make the argument less invalid. Newspapers are dying out. They are losing readers and revenue despite many of their efforts and, while this may not be a concern for many, it should.

The digital technology that emerged in the late 90s and early 2000s is sweeping through every aspect of traditional journalism. Because of this, as ratings and readers declined, shareholders pressured media organisations to find a way to make a profit, leading to ‘if you can’t defeat it, join it’ and, while the digital culture allows us to enlarge our information possibilities, it also has a more trivial environment full of cat videos, attention seeking pranks and ‘listicles’, leading to a temptation for more clicks.

“It is clearly smart for newspapers to expand online but the danger of doing that is the temptation to gravitate toward whatever gets the most clicks”. (John Oliver, 2016)

This can lead newspapers to resort to the so-called click bait. “My attitude on journalism is very simple. I want to make enough money so I can afford you” said Sam Zell (2009), former owner of the Orlando Sentinel.  However, while it can lead to finding hundreds of ‘18 Times Facebook Was The Gift That Keeps On Giving’, it can also lead to more concerning issues: like lack of will to take governments into account.  David Simon (2009), former Baltimore Sun reporter but best known for the creation of the award-winning HBO series ‘The Wire’, said in a hearing on the future of Journalism “it is going to be a great time to be a corrupt politician”. He argued that high-end journalism is dying in America and unless we establish a new economic model, it will not be reborn online.  

It is true that on the one hand ‘New Media’ does allow more demand for accountability, but this accountability is then usually carried out in the blogosphere and, while bloggers can also have a political influence, they may mix their political views by assuming a political stance (Siapera, 2011). Sooner or later, either we pay for journalism or there will be consequences that will affect all of us. Books like ‘The 13 Unwanted Reports’, by Günter Wallraff (1969) who uncovered the secret police regarding neo-Nazis and unmasked secret government business, may not be written again because there will either be a lack of will by the editors, or because journalists won’t have the time (nor willingness) to do the research as they have to be the journalist, producer and director at the same time.

We can argue that journalism is changing, but into what? One of the first codes in journalism is to seek truth and report on it, but now it seems like that code has changed to ‘don’t let the truth get in the way of a lucrative story’.

Democracy Now! Archives (2009).David Simon testifying about the future of Newspapers. [YouTube] available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Llnbzq7b4Ww [Accessed 23^rd Mar 2017]

Dvorkin, J. (2016). Column: Why click-bait will be the death of journalism. [online] PBS NewsHour. Available at: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/what-you-dont-know-about-click-bait-journalism-could-kill-you/  [Accessed 22 Mar. 2017].

LastWeekTonight (2016). Journalism: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO). [YouTube] available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq2_wSsDwkQ&t=927s [Accessed 22^nd Mar 2017]

Siapera, E. (2011). Understanding new media, London: Sage.

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Globalisation

Globalisation; something from which big corporations have benefited from; something from which some people as consumers have also benefited from; something far-right political parties rally against. Globalisation has many pros and cons. In my case, like many others, I have benefited from Globalisation but I will also be affected by it.

Right now, I am an EU student. I have lived all my life in a small town fairly near Barcelona called Torelló and studied there until 2015, when I was able to move to the UK and study. In my case, however, Globalisation, not only benefited my studies, but it also allowed me to have an advantage throughout my childhood and possibly my career life. Despite having been born in Spain (more specifically Catalonia), my mother was born and raised in Croydon (London). Because of that, English was my first language throughout my early life (despite my accent) and, although I had to be the personal Google Translator for many, that gave me a great advantage in school and it will probably help me in the future if I decide to work in Spain. 

As a broadcast journalism student, I intend to find a career that involves some level of journalistic practice. Besides the fact that I will be able to work in this field because of Globalisation, it will also affect me if I get in. Globalisation empowers those with more capital. It makes easy for big conglomerates to control small organisations affecting the content consumers receive. In terms of journalism or media this can lead to a narrow variety of opinions. I spoke about media and control in a previous post in which I intended to explain how media is used as a reinforcer (in most cases), but what I’m leading to now are the famous techniques of ‘clickbait’, articles praising some product (essentially long text ads) or extremely pandering products targeting a group to create controversy, which will attract people. 

The primary purpose of private media firms is to gain the maximum revenue at minimum cost (Lorimer and Scannell, 1994). Because most companies seek to maximise profits they chose stories with attractive and sometimes misleading titles to lure consumers, attracting more traffic to the platform and increasing advertising revenue. An example of this is the Buzzfeed. While not all content from Buzzfeed is bad, it has tried to pander to different groups of people, using controversial topics. Videos such as ‘36 Questions Women Have for Men’, where Buzzfeed throws in stereotypes, many outdated or non-typical from western countries, attempting to pander to as many women as possible, are fairly common among producers in Buzzfeed. Online posts and YouTube videos such as ‘You won’t believe what happened…’ and ‘Only People with Perfect Colour Vision Can see this’ are extremely popular on the Internet, especially on YouTube, where the ‘YouTuber’ can earn money just for clicking on the video.

To conclude, Globalisation has its upsides and downsides. It gives me (and has given me) the chance of getting ahead of the game in some aspects, but, due to its nature, it promotes large transnationals whose objective is to make as much wealth as they possibly can. In terms of the industry I want to get in, this leads to attractive titles designed to lure people in, even if what follows is just a lazy article.

Blom, J.N. and Hansen, K.R., 2015. Click bait: Forward-reference as lure in online news headlines. Journal of Pragmatics, 76, 87-100.

BuzzFeedYellow (2016) 36 Questions Women Have For Men. [YouTube] available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_J0Ng5cUGg [accessed 15 Mar. 2017]

BuzzFeed. (2017). BuzzFeed. [online] Available at: https://www.buzzfeed.com/?country=en-uk [Accessed 15 Mar. 2017].

Servaes, J. and Lie, R., 2003. Media, globalisation and culture: issues and trends: theory. Communicatio: South African Journal of Communication Theory and Research, 29(1_2), 7-23.

‘23 Pictures That Are Too Real If You’ve Ever Had Sex With A Penis’ (Actual article on Buzzfeed listed number 6 on the ‘Trending’ list) (16/03)

https://www.buzzfeed.com/laraparker/putting-the-d-in-disney?utm_term=.eco8boVe2#.jjjdgor3E

I will admit this isn’t needed but it just comes to prove the point we’ve reached to for attention and serves as an example for my argument earlier, of how people want to be controversial and ‘edgy’ for attention.

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Nazi Mania!

In 2011, an independentism ideology started to grow in the Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia. This movement, while not new, became especially important in 2013 and since then, political parties have tried to stop it; some with questionable techniques.

Several politicians from conservative parties have criticised the movement insinuating it is like Hitler’s Nazism and Mussolini’s fascism. Michel Foucault’s idea of discourse is a way of organising knowledge in a way that appears to be truthful, creating opinions and claiming they are the truth. Discourses are mainly used to undermine something; in this case: Catalan independence. The argument that what Catalonia is doing is following a fascist path seems to be quite popular among ultra-right media and politicians. Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra, a politician of the PSOE (socialist party) once said in an interview with a national broadcaster (Antena 3):

“We were used to coups with guns and shootings, but not from inside” - referring to the Catalan referendum - “As if they were familiarised with the Germans, who had Hitler, and the Italians with Mussolini”. (Ibarra, 2013)

Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra, 2003 (la Razón)

In 2014, Rosa Díez, MP for the Union, Progress and Democracy party, said in the Spanish parliament that Catalan nationalism is perverting and stealing democracy.  “They want to steal Spain’s democracy” (Díez, 2014).

Rosa Díez, 2013

Politicians in Spain create these discourses to undermine this movement. However, the media are usually creators of discourses. Roger Silverstone (2007) said the media have always tried to have the task of creating some distance between communities. He argues, in all the media’s actions, it tries to resolve the ambiguities of life. Media representations tend to produce a sort of polarisation. The unfamiliar is either pushed until they become the ‘odd ones out’ or dragged closer until it becomes ‘invisible’ (Silverstone, 2007).  It will be common in Spain to find newspapers referring to Catalan voters as ‘secessionists’, underlining that Catalonia wants to be its own state, without discussing the idea that Catalan voters have the right to decide their future. Challenge and defiant are words commonly used by Spanish media, continuing to underline Catalonia as a defiant community; highlighting the rivalry between Catalonia and Spain, insisting on the fact that Catalans are those who will compete against the rest of the state to achieve independence. Some newspapers even refer to Catalans as those who ‘don’t know what they are talking about’.

“We find ourselves being positioned by media representation as so removed from the lives and worlds of other people that they seem beyond the pale, beyond reach of care or compassion, and certainly beyond reach of any meaningful or productive action”. (Silverstone, 2007, pp. 283)

Historically, Spain and Catalonia haven’t always been on the same page. The worst example is Franco’s dictatorship; an age where if anyone spoke Catalan they would get killed instantly, but before that, there were other complications between both cultures (as an example, the independence movement is not new. There were many people during the Second Spanish Republic who were aiming for it). These historic differences are reflected in the media and politics. In terms of media, there is a clear differentiation between ‘them’ and ‘us’, but in terms of politics, these clashes and slanging arguments are nothing new (although some have found a more controversial way to criticise the movement).

Artur Mas (former president who started the movement) photoshopped as Hitler in the film 'The Great Dictator' by Charles Chaplin, in a Facebook page of a local PSC group (Catalan Socialist Party).

References:

Caraurta2 (2013). Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra equipara a Artur Mas con Hitler y Mussolini y habla de "golpismo" [video online] Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQNT1ecUsWM [Accessed 8 Mar. 2017]

El Periódico (2017). Felipe equipara la situación en Catalunya con la de la Alemania nazi [online] Available at: http://www.elperiodico.com/es/noticias/politica/felipe-equipara-situacion-catalana-con-alemania-nazi-4467629 [Accessed 7 Mar. 2017]

Muñoz, L. (2014). El tratamiento en la prensa del movimiento independentista en Cataluña [ebook] Murcia: Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia. Available at: http://sphera.ucam.edu/index.php/sphera-01/article/view/231/207 [Accessed 7 Mar. 2017]

Eldiario.es (2013). Seis episodios de comparaciones (odiosas) del nacionalismo catalán con los nazis [online] Available at: http://www.eldiario.es/catalunya/episodios-comparaciones-odiosas-nacionalismo-catalan_0_108839791.html [Accessed 7 Mar. 2017]

Silverstone, R.(2013), Media and morality: On the rise of the mediapolis, Cambridge: John Wiley & Sons

Upydmedia, (2014). "No es cierto que no haya opresión en Cataluña. Los ciudadanos no nacionalistas viven oprimidos" [video online] Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJdeKgjNZmM&t=1493s [Accessed 8 Mar. 2017]

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Media as political reinforcers

The media has been part of our society for a long time and it is no surprise that arguments start springing up on whether the media puts their private interests forward before objectivity. For many scholars, such as Javier Mateos-Pérez (lecturer at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid), media firms are used as political reinforcers by using a biased political engagement.

It is largely spoken about the fact that Rupert Murdoch controls the media he owns, using it to spread his beliefs and ideas through the publishing of news stories on these platforms. However, that’s just an overgeneralisation; the subject is obviously more complicated than that. The modern structure of media firms does not always allow a direct influence from the owners of a firm, instead, viewers are influenced by the journalists themselves, employed and supervised by the editors. While the editors work with Murdoch and share many of his ideologies, it doesn’t mean Murdoch has a direct influence on the firms he owns. However, while the subject of ownership and control has a wide range of arguments, the sociology in the political influence which media wields on consumers, is rarely spoken about. Information interaction and interpretation will vary depending on people's information needs (Michael, 2012). While there is an influence, it is also important to consider that if those who bought the newspaper, known to be politically inclined towards a Tory government - for instance - already share similar beliefs to the man owning such newspaper. Different objectives will determine which media people consult and what information we believe to be important.

Baring that in mind, it is also important to consider the fact that if we chose what information we deem important, we risk influencing our political views by finding information that agrees with a belief we have on a topic. This belief could be led by the cum hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy: the mistake of thinking that one thing occurring at the same time as another have anything to do with each other. This is a very common logic fallacy and can be very problematic. For instance: High Mexican immigration in America does not mean all - nor most – people convicted for rape cases in America are Mexican. In 2013, the Daily Mail published an article arguing the dangers of immigration (contradicting a report by the government). In the article, they essentially said: ‘There is high immigration, services are poor. Therefore, immigrant’s greediness causes poor services’. It is true that this fallacy can be used to politically incline the population (as the Daily Mail arguably did). However, as argued before, those more susceptible to beliefs like that will usually look for (or accept easily) that information.

It is important to mention that while those who read, watch or listen a media firm known to have a set ideological tendency tend to have a similar set of beliefs, it doesn’t undermine the influence the media can exercise on the public (As what happened in the 2004 Spanish elections where the conservatives gained a considerable advantage to the socialists thanks to the media (Berrocal and Fernández, 2004) contributing to a simplification of a political message. However, things like the cum hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy strengthen the idea that the media serves as a political reinforcer.






Amat, P., 2014. Orthodontics, authors’ opinions and scientific facts: Cum hoc ergo propter hoc?. Journal of Dentofacial Anomalies and Orthodontics. [Online] 17(4). Available from: doi: 10.1051/odfen/2014026 [Accessed 12 Nov. 2016]

MATEOS-PÉREZ, J. (2009) La información como espectáculo en el nacimiento de la televisión privada española (1990-1994) [e-book] Madrid: Centro Universitario Villanueva. Available at: http://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/ESMP/article/view/ESMP0909110315A/11681 [Accessed 28 Feb. 2017].

Michael, J. (2012) Human-Information Interaction and Technical Communication: Concepts and Frameworks [e-book] East Carolina: IGI Global. Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=v9WrklJArJcC&source=gbs_slider_cls_metadata_2_mylibrary&redir_esc=y [Accessed 27 Feb. 2017].

U.S. Department of Justice (2000) An Analysis of Data on Rape and Sexual Assault Sex Offenses anti Offenders. [online] Washinton DC: U.S. Department of Justice. Available at: https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/soo.pdf [Accessed 1 Mar. 2017].

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The not so rational critical debate in the Habermasian Public Sphere

The Public Sphere is the concept of an area in social life that allows all individuals to freely discuss societal problems. In principle, a Public Sphere would be anything that allows anyone to engage in a political discussion. Jürgen Habermas, a social theorist committed to the project of the Enlightenment, says that the Public Sphere is a place where informed citizens have a rational debate following an Ideal Speech Situation (ISS), where all parties take turns to make an argument.

An issue with the ISS is that to decide who starts arguing tends to be set by the social position of one group. Many contexts of moral interaction and political conflict involve groups from two different parties with different social and cultural backgrounds. Because of this social and cultural difference, these parties often stand in different positions on privilege and oppression (Young, 1997). Habermas believes that moral dialogue requires people to adopt an impartial point of view towards all particular experiences and to acknowledge the principles and judgments consistent with the impartial view, but Young believes this makes those who start the argument adopt the perspective of the opposing party. Iris Young argues that the idea of reversing perspectives is incoherent because of the social and cultural predisposition, the standpoint of those starting the argument in a particular situation will be partly a result of our experiences. A recent example of this argument is the highly conservative idea that - if someone’s poor, is because they don’t work enough-.

Young furthers this argument by saying that to recognise the other person is to acknowledge that that person is an “I” to himself and that for him, someone else would be an “other”. Despite the fact that this structure is a condition of communication, it doesn’t describe a reversibility of standpoints. This idea of reversing perspectives makes those who are more privileged make assumptions influenced by their privilege and can lead to misrepresenting the other’s situation. This can lead to the use of stereotypes and damaging stereotypes can be used to undermine the respect of those in oppressed groups (Young, 1997). During the formulation of the 1931 Spanish constitution, the idea of giving women the right to vote was almost set back by the belief that female voter would not vote because the policies each party presented, they would vote for the most handsome candidate. However, this is not the only issue Young describes. She also defends that in a society were a structure social injustice exists, perspectives brought to a situation might not be equally legitimate as the privileged party might seek to preserve its privilege.

To conclude, the Habermasian structure of a rational critical debate presents problematic assumptions he did not take into account. The idea that all parties are expected to make truthful claims about a subject in a society with societal prejudice can be considered utopian. The Idea Speech Situation tends to favour the privileged group and it can be argued that it can damage the integrity of certain groups of people.

Habermas, J. (1970). Towards a theory of communicative competence. Inquiry, [Online] 13(1-4). Available from: doi:10.1080/00201747008601597 [Acessed 21 Feb. 2017]

Hernández, A. (1997) Pedagogy, Democracy, and Feminism: Rethinking the Public Sphere [ebook] New York: State University of New York Press. Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=oZv8F6W1vFMC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=feminism+in+the+public+sphere&ots=GdXRQ9eZva&sig=kABJ70fdkY_2vZoZcSNX1LkQ8Bs#v=onepage&q&f=false [Accessed 21 Feb. 2017].

La Vanguardia (2011) Se cumplen 80 años del sufragio femenino [Online] La Vanguardia. Available at: http://www.lavanguardia.com/politica/20111001/54223717009/se-cumplen-80-anos-del-sufragio-femenino.html [Accessed 22 Feb. 2017].

Young, I. (1997) Intersecting Voices: Dilemmas of Gender, Political Philosophy, and Policy [ebook] Chichester: Princeton University Press. Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7AosnEfS7wQC&pg=PA41&dq=ASYMMETRICAL+RECIPROCITY:+ON+MORAL+RESPECT,+WONDER,+AND+ENLARGED+THOUGHT%E2%80%A0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjF2K2otJ_SAhXGK5oKHYleD-0Q6AEIHzAB#v=onepage&q&f=false [Accessed 21 Feb. 2017].

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HELLO WORLD!

main( )
{
        printf("hello, world\n");
}

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