Are there any resources available for people interested in public apology?

Are there any resources available for people interested in public apology?

1 Expert Answer

Kevin Stein

Director MAPC Program/Professor of Communication,  Southern Utah University

There are many books and journal articles examining individual apologies, but I recently noticed there wasn't a specific website dedicated to archiving the most prominent examples of image repair in our culture.


With the help of some grant money, I created Public Apology Central (www.publicapologycentral.com). The website is the web's best source for crisis summaries, transcripts, videos, and audio of public apologies (apologia) from politicians, celebrities, athletes, organizations, religious leaders, media figures, heads of state, and lay citizens. Although the term "apology" means taking responsibility, apologia includes a variety of defensive strategies used by those accused of wrongdoing, including denial (“I didn’t do it), shifting blame (“He did it”), minimization (“It wasn’t that bad”), and mortification (“I’m sorry”). The site deals with all forms of persuasive defense and not simply “apology,” where one takes responsibility for his or her actions.


The site also contains a wealth of educational resources for those interested in this type of rhetoric, including definitions of the key strategies, some data on recent trends in apology, examples of apologia in movies, and a reference list of the most noteworthy publications on apology.

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