Discussing The Dreamworld Theme Park Incident: Key Stakeholders And Media's Role

Question:

Discuss About The Dream World Fatalities Business & Society?

The incident that happened at Dreamworld theme park was an unfortunate incident. The incidences like this have a great impact on society. The people may forget the incident in the time to come; however, the impact of these incidents remains high on the mind of people in the society. It can be said that the society at large is influenced by these incidents (Colleoni, 2013). The objective of this paper is to discuss the issue of Dreamworld theme park in detail. The paper would discuss the key issues and the key stakeholders. The paper would also discuss the issue as presented in the media. A brief background the incident can be discussed as:

The issue or the incident happened on 27^th Oct 2016 when a ride in the Dreamworld theme park malfunctioned. The ride malfunctioned and as a result two people felt from the raft. In all, there were four causalities (McKirdy, 2016). Their raft malfunctioned at about two o’clock on Tuesday, with witnesses describing people running from the ride screaming. It was an unfortunate incident where the machine malfunctioned. The Queensland ambulance was fast enough to response and as a result few lives were saved. The theme park was closed immediately after this incidence (McKirdy, 2016). The Gold Coast Bulletin has reported that one of the rafts flipped on the conveyer belt, dragging two people underneath it.

These sorts of issues are not new to Australian society. Along the course of history there are various incidences like this that have shattered the Australian society. There are various stakeholders involved in the issue and it would be interesting to study and analyze the issues from the perspective of various stakeholders. The stakeholders could be further divided into internal stakeholders and external stakeholders (Mazutis & Slawinski, 2015). The internal stakeholders would be the immediate families of victims, the victims, the management of theme park, etc. The external stakeholders would be government, Australian citizens and society at large.

The analysis for various internal and external stakeholders can be discussed as:

Victim: It would be correct to say that the victims are the most important stakeholders in this incident. It is very unfortunate that some victims lost their lives. The victims who were injured were at the receiving end in this incidence. They can still feel the pain of this incidence.

Internal Stakeholders

Families of these victims: It would be correct to say that families of the victims are also key stakeholders that were influenced by this incident (Nwagbara & Reid, 2013). The families of the victims have to suffer a lot as victims are directly dependent on their family members.

The park management: The management of the theme park is also one of the key internal stakeholders. It can be said that the management is ultimately responsible for this incidence as it was the duty of management to ensure that a safe environment could be provided to all the visitors (Wilson & Post, 2013).

The employees/ union of the theme park: It can be said that the employees of the theme park also an important stakeholder. Along with management, there exist some responsibilities for the employees also. Among all the employees, the onus lies on the maintenance department that was ultimately responsible to ensure that the ride is maintained.

Business or Organization/ Dreamworld theme park: It is also important to analyze the issues from the perceptive of business. The business was shut down immediately after this incident. The loss was observed and it would be very difficult for Dreamworld theme park to overcome the loss. Moreover, the business also lost its trust and respect among the visitors, citizens and society at large.

Local government: The local government of the Queensland is one of the most important external stakeholders. It can be said that the society would mostly look towards the government and analyze their action during any incidences (Wilson & Post, 2013). The government ensured that the immediate help is provided to the victims and their family members.

Media & Public Relations: It can be said that media is an important pillar of democracy (Rydén & Ringberg, 2015). The role of media is to ensure that the communication is transparent and the correct news is spread in the region. It appears that media was able to complete its responsibilities on time. There were various articles that were published in the local newspaper. These articles communicated the news effectively and ensured that the transparency is maintained.

Australian citizens/ Society at large: These are the citizens that were not directly influenced by the incident. It can be said that the external citizens and society at large are the key external stakeholders in these types of incidences. The society should work with the media and government to ensure that a pressure is developed on the organization (Dreamworld theme park in this case).

External Stakeholders

As stated above, media is an important pillar of democracy. It is important that media should present the issue as-it-is. It means that the media should not distort any facts. At the same time the media or the journalists should ensure that they report the issue without nay biasness. It appears that media was transparent in this incident. The various news channels and press agencies like Guardian, ABC News, were fast enough to respond. The media channels and news reporters visited the site and ensured that the information is communicated effectively. The good thing about the media reporting in this case was that the journalists or the reporters were not biased. The newspapers and reporters went ahead to even publish the photos of the victims. The media wanted to have an emotional connect with various internal and external stakeholders of this event. There are times when media may not be transparent and there are times when the media would use the biasness to report the issue. O’Neil (2018) argued that the biasness of media is generally high when they have to report the political issue. This was a public issue and luckily there was not biasness involved. The political pressures and lobbying is one thing that can create biasness in the situation. However, it is expected that media would function beyond all these biasness. In fact, this is an ideal or desired state where the media functions without biasness. However, it is observed that in reality, it never happens. In this case also, the biasness was very limited or minimal for media.

It would be correct to say that the issue influenced all the key internal and external stakeholders. The impact could be observed not only for the internal stakeholders but also for the external stakeholders. The major outcome for this issue was for the business. The business, ‘Dreamworld theme park’ was shut down after this incident. It resulted in a lot of loss for the business. However, more than the monetary loss it was an issue of credibility for the organization. The people would never feel the same when they would visit Dreamworld theme park. It can be said that this incident has done irreparable damage on the operations of Dreamworld theme park.

Another possible outcome could be observed for the citizens or public. After this incident, the people are cautious to visit the theme parks. It is observed that there is an environment of chaos and mistrust among the citizens. Though it can be said that the environment has improved in last 11 months. This event happened last year during October and it can be said that the month of November and December was most difficult. Typically, November and December are the festive months when the people spending are high towards the leisure activities like theme parks (Murray & Wahlquist, 2016). However, due to these incident there was a dip in the overall revenue of leisure industry.

Conclusion

The above paper discusses the issue of Dreamworld theme park that happened last year when a ride malfunctioned and four people were dead. The paper discussed various internal and external stakeholders involved in the issue. The paper also discusses the role of media in this incident. With the above discussion it can be said that media has an important role to play in the incidences like these. This incident resulted in loss of business for Dreamworld theme park. At the same time, there was an environment of caution among the people and they did not want to risk their lives in the dangerous life. The good light in this incident was the role of media. The media was transparent enough to report the issue on time. It can be said that the media established a bridge between the society, organization and government.

References

Colleoni, E. (2013). CSR communication strategies for organizational legitimacy in social media. Corporate Communications: an international journal, 18(2), 228-248.

 Mazutis, D. D., & Slawinski, N. (2015). Reconnecting business and society: Perceptions of authenticity in corporate social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics, 131(1), 137-150.

 McKirdy, E. (2016). Dreamworld accident: 2 children survive fatal theme park malfunction. Retrieved from: https://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/25/world/queensland-theme-park-fatalities/index.html

Murray, W. & Wahlquist, C. (2016). Dreamworld accident: four dead at Gold Coast theme park. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2016/oct/25/dreamworld-accident-gold-coast-theme-park

Nwagbara, U., & Reid, P. (2013). Corporate social responsibility communication in the age of new media: towards the logic of sustainability communication. Revista de Management Comparat International, 14(3), 400.

O’Neil, J. (2018). ‘People, Planet, Profits’ and Perception Politics: A Necessary Fourth (and Fifth) Bottom Line? Critiquing the Current Triple Bottom Line in the Australian Context. In The Goals of Sustainable Development (pp. 19-42). Springer, Singapore.

Rydén, P., Ringberg, T., & Wilke, R. (2015). How Managers' Shared Mental Models of Business–Customer Interactions Create Different Sensemaking of Social Media. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 31, 1-16.

Wilson, F., & Post, J. E. (2013). Business models for people, planet (& profits): exploring the phenomena of social business, a market-based approach to social value creation. Small Business Economics, 40(3), 715-737.