This research focuses on the crisis that the documentary Blackfish precipitated at SeaWorld. The study begins with a brief account of the growth and evolution of SeaWorld and the financial and reputational damage that followed Blackfish’s release in 2013. A literature review of framing and frame theory follows. Next, the three issue-related, transformative frames embedded in the text/video of Blackfish are identified and analyzed; then the three main counter frames deployed by SeaWorld are identified and analyzed. The conclusion discusses how and why Blackfish prevailed in this high-profile framing contest. It does so by discussing the resonance, coherence, and credibility of the documentary’s anticaptivity narrative and its superiority over SeaWorld’s counterframing campaign. Perhaps even more important, the conclusion briefly examines how the tectonic shift in late-20th-century public opinion regarding animal rights—the kairotic backdrop of this crisis—forced SeaWorld to fundamentally change its business model in order to meet the dictates of this new ethos and to reestablish its postcrisis legitimacy.
This multiple descriptive case study explores how university students responded to their Business Communications course’s transitioning to an emergency remote course during the spring semester of 2020. Thirty-nine students completed an end-of-semester questionnaire that recorded their impressions of learning and course satisfaction. Nine of those students also participated in semi-structured interviews about these topics. The data revealed that most students enjoyed and felt they learned more from their in-person course, they missed learning from their peers, and they missed the community that was created during the in-person class sessions that were suspended due to university-sanctioned COVID-19 protocols. This article discusses the need for instructors to integrate continuous interactive community into online courses and the need for universities to provide training for online instructors in this essential component in course preparation and execution.
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