Rachel Barkley Leeds Boris Johnson Mayor of London Greater London Authority City Hall The Queen's Walk

London SE1 2AA Wednesday, 18 January 2012 Dear Boris Johnson, I am writing to assess the damage caused by recent news stories in London and how I propose we could rebuild a sense of community and ensure that the London Olympics are a success. The financial crisis and London riots happened at a time when London should have been celebrating its success with the upcoming Olympics ceremony and looking forward to the benefits of holding the events. Londoners are now facing a less positive Olympics with it estimated that millions of pounds of potential revenue may have been lost. One particular story during the riot that damaged Londons reputation is the attack and robbery of Asyraf Haziq, a Malaysian student. Potential visitors from abroad may have viewed the story through the media as a portrayal of how London treats its tourists and as such do not feel safe as tourists in London. In theory both the London Riots and Financial Crisis were preventable according to the Coombs situational crisis communication theory. They were both created through human behaviour and lack of managing behaviour. For example many people believe the London riots would not have escalated to the same levels if the Police had taken stronger action sooner. Similarly with the Financial Crisis many people blame the authorities for not having adequately monitored abuse of the financial system. The situational crisis communication theory suggests that the strategy that should be used in a preventable or high responsibility crisis is rebuilding reputation. This strategy was used in my home city of Nottingham; in 2005 the council hired a Reputation Manager in response to headlines labelling the city Assassin City and Gun Capital of the UK. The reputation of Nottingham was damaged by several high profile gun deaths including that of 13 year old Danielle Beccan. Nottingham does not have a particularly prominent tourist industry and instead a substantial part of Nottinghams economy is its student. The damaged reputation resulted in a significant impact on university applications with decreased interest in the educational establishments. Recently the applications Nottinghams universities have recovered indicating that the city has lost much of its previous reputation. Another indication that it has shed the reputation is through the reduced connections made between the city and gun crime in the media. In rebuilding Londons reputation is it vital to honour the citys intrinsic identity. I believe for London this is its community. The city is built of a huge variety of communities which are united and combined to create the unique London that we recognise and appreciate. I believe to rebuild Londons reputation we need to promote its community spirit.

As a Public Relations student I propose that social media is an ideal platform to promote community spirit. During the riots social media was blamed for some of the problems, and it is important to note that the nature of social media is such that information shared online is hard, even impossible to control and can be spread very quickly. On the other hand social media has changed the way we communicate and connect. It is open to everyone, relatively easy to use and allows us to interact with anyone anywhere in the world. Gabriel Adkins says that if crisis planning is limited to one groups perspective it is likely to fail, however the nature of social media allows us to reach many groups even beyond the internet as news outlets will use stories originating online. I propose that we use social media to create a competition promoting Londons sense of community spirit. The aim of the competition would be for Londoners to create videos in which they would share what they love about the spirit of London. These videos would then be uploaded online, and the creators of the videos would share and promote the videos. The top 100 most viewed videos would be taken to a judging panel who would choose a winner. The prize for the competition would be tied to London Olympics with prizes consisting of vouchers and merchandise from sponsors such as McDonalds, Adidas and Coca Cola. The overall winner would have their video incorporated into the Olympic broadcasts, allowing them to showcase their work on national television; they would also win tickets to the Olympics opening ceremony. This strength of this campaign is the message source. Publics can be immune to organisations or authorities trying to send positive messages, however London residents who experience the community spirit daily would be viewed as far more credible sources. They would choose to enter the competition not only for the exciting prizes but also because they have a true love for London which they want to share with the world. The competition is also accessible. Video production is no longer the luxury of film makers; videos can be created through inexpensive products such as mobile phones and can be easily uploaded online. Another strength of the campaign is the self-promotion aspect. To have a chance of winning the competition competitors have to promote their own videos. As a result they can send them to people who would ignore messages from organisations or authorities but will listen to messages from their friends or peers. At the same time you would promote the actual concept of the competition through the usual corporate channels. Finally the use of social media means that the message can be easily sent across the globe and potentially could be picked up by international media which would spread the message to more publics. London is a fantastic city and it has a great opportunity to show this to the world this year through the promotion of the true spirit of London, not the media portrayal of an unruly city in crisis. Yours Sincerely,

Rachel Barkley