Consequences of bad publicity: one example

When Houston's leading newspaper investigated local for-profit psychiatric hospitals and ran a series of stories that ranged from unflattering to shocking, any hospital administrator might reasonably have expected dramatic effects on public perceptions of the specific hospitals named, and also perhaps on other psychiatric hospitals in the metropolitan area. In fact, a survey that tracks consumer awareness and impressions of all Houston-area hospitals found no such outcome. These results may be counterintuitive, but they are easily reconcilable with communications theory.