Kevin Stein

Director MAPC Program/Professor of Communication

  • Cedar City UT UNITED STATES
  • Communication

Specializing in the rhetoric of attack, apology, and responses to apology as well as political campaign communication.

Contact

Biography

Dr. Kevin A. Stein is a professor of communication at Southern Utah University and director of the Master of Arts in Professional Communication program. His research focuses primarily on the rhetoric of attack (kategoria), defense (apologia), and persuasive responses to defense (antapologia). Other academic interests include political campaign communication and popular culture.

Dr. Stein has published numerous articles addressing a variety of apologetic contexts, as well as books and peer-reviewed articles on different types of political campaign messages including debates, advertisements, acceptance addresses, direct mail brochures, and television talk show appearances. He has presented his academic work at regional, national, and international conferences, including presentations at the University of Athens in Greece and the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. He received SUU's Distinguished Scholar award in 2020 and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences Outstanding Scholar award in 2019.

While on a year-long sabbatical in China, Dr. Stein directed the American Studies Center at Hunan Normal University in Changsha (Hunan Province). Since then he has returned several times as a liaison for the SUU Office of International Affairs and as a teacher in a dual degree communication program offered by Wuhan Polytechnic University and Southern Utah University.

Dr. Stein is the webmaster for Public Apology Central (www.publicapologycentral.com), which archives 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.

He earned a bachelor's degree in communication from Southern Utah University (1999), a master's degree in communication in speech from Idaho State University (2002), and a Ph.D. in communication from the University of Missouri (2005).

Spotlight

2 min

How Public Figures Avoid Genuine Apologies

Professors Kevin Stein and Matthew Barton of the Department of Communication at Southern Utah University published a comprehensive analysis of apologies offered by public figures to understand the ways people use language to take or avoid responsibility for harmful behavior, such as infidelity, domestic violence, and deception.Research on apologia (image repair) is incredibly extensive and probably one of the most popular areas in the communication discipline when it comes to “public” address.  The reason scholars typically look at each case in isolation is because individual offenses (such as nudging another man’s foot in a neighboring bathroom stall) tend to be somewhat unique and the insights extracted from these contexts can be illuminating.Our intention, at least in the beginning stages of the project, was to include every “prominent” defense ever offered.  This became rather difficult as we discovered that many apologies are not archived online, purchasable videos are incredibly expensive, and that certain public figures have an interest in their embarrassing moments disappearing from cyberspace.  However, we believe our sample of texts is fairly comprehensive in light of these difficulties. In the end, we collected 409 apologetic statements from 351 different contexts. Transcripts of the texts were accessed from a variety of locations including websites, newspapers and magazines, and library databases.  Dr. Barton’s research focuses on persuasion and rhetoric in public apologies as well as teaching communication theory. Dr. Stein’s research focuses primarily on the rhetoric of attack, defense, and persuasive responses to defense.  Dr. Barton and Dr. Stein are both familiar with the media and are available for interviews. Simply visit their profiles.

Kevin SteinMatt Barton

2 min

Public Apologies - A Look at YouTuber Laura Lee's Apology

Public apologies are almost an everyday occurrence in today’s society, from CEOs to celebrities incidents and accidents happen. When something goes publicly wrong, there is a fine art to executing a genuine apology and maintaining damage control. With the case of YouTuber Laura Lee, her recent apology came six years after the initial incident. She was forced to apologize for after racist Tweets from 2012 came to light. Dr. Kevin Stein, professor of communication at Southern Utah University and expert in defense rhetoric, typically gauges the effectiveness of an apology by the structure and language used by the apologist as well as audience reaction to the apology.“Laura Lee lost 200,000 of her 4 million subscribers following the release of her racist Tweet. After her apology, if we found she was able to recoup many of those fans and that her scandal disappeared from the news cycle, we might say it evidence that her apology worked. But we also have to look at whether or not her apology worked based on the strategies that she used, whether they contradicted each other, and if the words she chose demonstrate real remorse or instead try to excuse her behavior or soften the harm she has done.” Dr. Stein believes that in Laura Lee’s case, she did do several things well; she repeats that she is sorry and she doesn’t make any excuses for what she has done.“However, her displays of emotion don’t feel authentic. She gives off a strong vibe that she is really upset that her fans are disappointed in her, rather than being sorry for the harm she caused to the African-American community. She’s very upset that she is under attack for her behavior and not upset for the behavior itself.”Though YouTube is a newer channel for apologies, Dr. Stein believes the content of the messages is fundamentally the same as traditional avenues. “The apologies only differ in terms of the form or style of them. The apologist's nonverbal cues are different in terms of the somber or even sometimes tearful demeanor.  The apologists act like they are facing a judge and jury, although they are really just placing themselves at the mercy of their fans in a very public and visible way.”“William Benoit, who wrote the book Accounts, Excuses, and Apologies, argues that there are fourteen primary strategies people use when they defend themselves against harmful attacks. People explaining their mistakes rarely deviate from these fourteen strategies.”Dr. Stein’s research focuses primarily on the rhetoric of attack (kategoria), defense (apologia), and persuasive responses to defense (antapologia). He has published numerous articles addressing a variety of apologetic contexts, as well as books and peer-reviewed articles analyzing political campaign messages.Dr. Stein is familiar with the media and available for an interview. Simply visit his profile.

Kevin Stein

6 min

2018 Academy Awards - The Films That Impacted Me the Most This Year

As a lifelong film fan, I love to see movies that have not only great aesthetic quality, but also tremendous entertainment value (no, they are not the same thing--ask any fan of the Transformer movies) being celebrated in a single (often 4-hour plus) evening of glamour and self-congratulatory speeches. In fact, I must admit that my lifelong love of the Oscars has even spilled over into my professional life; from academic papers examining the verbal and nonverbal strategies used during Oscar speeches, to scheduling a formal end-of-the-semester faux-Oscar party where my students will screen and then possibly receive awards for elements of their own B-Movie films.As a scholar of apologia rhetoric (rhetoric of apology or defense), the Oscars also provide plenty of ammunition for discussion. Last year, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway incorrectly announced the Best Picture winner as La La Land when it was, in fact, Moonlight that had actually won the award. I’ll never forget Tom Hanks’ speech after winning Best Actor for his 1993 performance in Philadelphia. He paid tribute to his acting mentor who he affectionately referred to as “one of the finest gay Americans.” Unfortunately, his mentor had kept his sexuality secret up to that point. Some Oscar missteps are more harmless, such as Jennifer Lawrence tripping on her way up the stairs to accept her Oscar for Silver Linings Playbook.In 2018, we should be treated to another fantastic ceremony. SUU alumna Keala Settle will be performing the Oscar nominated song “This is Me” from the film The Greatest Showman. The song, written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, has already picked up the Golden Globe and the Critics Choice awards for Best Original Song, and I expect Settle to knock it out of the park in her performance and then be on stage again later in the show as Pasek and Paul win their second Oscar in a row (taking the same prize last year for La La Land).This year’s Academy Awards will also showcase some other extremely talented women who have already made history in securing nominations, and could set a new mark by winning in their respective categories. Meryl Streep has been nominated for a record-setting 21 Oscars (actually breaking her own record) with her performance in Steven Spielberg’s The Post, and looks to tie Katharine Hepburn for the most Oscar wins at four wins.Another first at the Oscars is Rachel Morrison receiving the first ever nomination for a female cinematographer for her work in Mudbound, a film about a black soldier facing racism in the South after returning home from World War II. The cinematography in the film is beautiful and I will be rooting for Morrison to provide women their first win in this category.In my opinion, history could have been made several times in earlier years. Past incredibly shot films included The Wrestler, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Frozen River, Fruitvale Station, and Hustle and Flow. These all had talented female cinematographers at the helm and none received nominations. Many are critical of the Academy for not celebrating women earlier. However, it’s probably more of the fault of the American Society of Cinematographers, who didn’t admit women to their organization until 1980. Even to this day, women have only 4% representation in the organization. So, let me be clear. Plenty of female cinematographers should have been celebrated between 1980 and now, but it hasn’t been nearly a hundred years of exclusionary behavior by the Academy as many tend to argue.If you are reading this commentary because you want help with your Oscar pool, I’m not the man to assist you. I’m one of hundreds of people who mistakenly think they can predict the winners. I will, however, tell you who I think should win in some of the key races. Some academic film critics believe their opinions matter more than others because of our film training; I’m a big believer in what communication theorist Walter Fisher argues when he says that stories resonate with us uniquely because of our personal values and experiences. You can tell someone that on an objective level, this film isn’t well-shot, well-acted, or well-scripted. However, you can’t tell someone which films should and should not resonate with them on a personal level. So whether you like them or not, these are the films/performances that impacted me the most this year.Best Picture: The Post. The movie felt to me like a natural prequel to one of my all time favorite films All the President’s Men. Spielberg should have won many more times than he actually has and Saving Private Ryan losing to Shakespeare in Love in 1998 was perhaps one of the biggest mistakes in Oscar history (next to Goodfellas losing to Dances with Wolves and Forrest Gump beating both The Shawshank Redemption AND Pulp Fiction). I also feel compelled to give a shout out to The Greatest Showman, which should have secured a place among the year’s best as a nominee for Best Picture.Best Actor: Gary Oldman, The Darkest Hour. This one should be about as obvious as when Daniel Day-Lewis ran away with the award for Lincoln. A no-brainer! If someone were to shock the world by beating Oldman, I would expect it to be one of the two Daniels--Daniel Day-Lewis (Phantom Thread) or Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out).Best Actress: Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. I absolutely hate it when great actors win awards for performances that are excellent, yet inferior to much of their other work. This happened with Al Pacino when he won for Scent of a Woman. It was given to him more as a way of correcting past snubs than for his current performance. I would love to see Streep win her fourth Oscar, but McDormand was the best actress this year. I think if Streep wins, it’s out of respect for her body of work and not her specific work in The Post.Best Supporting Actor: Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Sam Rockwell is one of the most underrated actors working in Hollywood today. If you don’t believe me, go watch Duncan Jones’ film Moon, his work in The Way Way Back, or his current work in Three Billboards…Best Supporting Actress: Allison Janney, I, Tonya. I really think Janney and Mary J. Blige offer the most powerful performances, but I have to pick Janney here as she plays Tonya Harding’s abusive mother. Harding herself has praised Janney for her accurate portrayal of her mother and Janney has expressed sadness over the reality of Harding’s life in many interviews. I believe the film provides a misguided view of Harding’s despicable behavior during the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships by recasting her as a victim, but this doesn’t detract from the power of Janning’s performance.Best Director: This category is stacked with directors who have made some of my favorite films. We have Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Inception, Memento) nominated for Dunkirk, Paul Thomas Anderson (Punch Drunk Love, Magnolia) nominated for Phantom Thread, and Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth) nominated for The Shape of Water. I am not very familiar with Greta Gerwig’s previous work, though she is nominated for a movie that put me to sleep (Lady Bird). I would like to see Jordan Peele win this year for Get Out because I still can’t believe the comedian from Key and Peele made such an intense and well-crafted horror/suspense film.Other races: I’m hopeful that Edgar Wright’s (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) amazingly edited film Baby Driver sweeps all of the awards for Film Editing, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing, though I know these awards are probably going to more high profile movies like Star Wars: The Last Jedi or Dunkirk. I would also very much like for Kobe Bryant to NOT win for Dear Basketball, a really lame animated short film that only got nominated because he’s Kobe Bryant.Whatever films you’re cheering for, I hope you enjoy the Oscars this year. Even if the show is too long (the record is 4 hours and 23 minutes), the opening monologue is underwhelming (worst hosts ever Anne Hathaway and James Franco), or your favorite movies get snubbed in every category (maybe you’re mad The Emoji Movie was left out), we know one part will be great. SUU’s very own Keala Settle will represent our small community amazingly well as she belts out the hit “This is Me” on a global platform that usually draws around 33 million television viewers. The woman is an undeniable talent! Dr. Stein is known for his Popular Culture Messages course at SUU, combining his research in popular culture and rhetorical criticism. He is comfortable with the media and available for interviews. Simply visit his profile.

Kevin Stein

Answers

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

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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How has public apology changed with the advent of new technology and social media?
Kevin Stein

Not only has technology changed the way people apologize, but it has also functioned to increase the overall number of apologies. I recently completed (with my colleague Dr. Matt Barton) a fairly comprehensive content analysis of over four hundred apologies from the past century and discovered that the sheer number of apologies is on the rise. Our sample contained 554 apologies between 1920 and 2000 and 1,584 apologies after the year 2000. Are people in the 21st century more socially deviant than previous generations? I don't think so. I think that technology has placed a spotlight on offensive behaviors. It's simply harder to get away with things than it used to be. Technology, particularly social media, has also changed the way people apologize. For example, public relations professionals have to be bothered that they craft careful messages for their clients only to find that the client posts contradictory (and much less polished) statements on Facebook or Twitter. This certainly occurred with Kanye West after he grabbed the microphone from Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. West was contrite in his interview with Jay Leno where he said, "It was very…it was rude, period. And, you know, I’d like to be able to apologize to her in person, and, you know, I’m going to do that.” However, on his Twitter feed, he posted: "I’m sorry to my fans if I let you guys down! I’m sorry to my friends at mtv. I will apologize to taylor 2mrw. welcome to the real world! everybody wanna booooo me but i’m a fan of real pop culture!" So clearly social media apologies look different from traditional apologies offered in interviews and press releases. Some argue they are more authentic because they do not come from the public figure's "handlers," and I would agree there can be great value in this level of authenticity. However, the strategies on social media must be consistent with other released statements and these public figures are sometimes too emotional to be able to objectively determine which strategies are the best choice for repairing their images.

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What are the best strategies to use when attempting to repair image after a public scandal?
Kevin Stein

There are no easy answers to this question and public relations professionals are sometimes confounded any time a new scandal arises. Just when they think they've got a good playbook in place for dealing with controversy, someone will come along and do something crazy like Justin Timberlake tearing off Janet Jackson's shirt during a Super Bowl halftime performance or crematorium owner Ray Marsh stacking up corpses behind his place and business and giving the relatives urns of concrete rather than the remains. Aristotle defined rhetoric as "the faculty of discovering in any particular case all of the available means of persuasion." This means that professionals have to be somewhat flexible in developing strategies for image repair. An awareness of what scandals have occurred before and what strategies were used in hundreds of cases should help one to hone in on just the right combination of strategies. That being said, there are some strategies that are generally more effective than others. The first of these is the strategy of mortification, wherein one takes full responsibility for his/her actions. A person accused of wrongdoing should say "I'm sorry for what I've done. Please forgive me." Often, however, people will waffle on this strategy and say things that evade responsibility, such as "I'm sorry you were offended" or "I regret that this incident occurred." Other times, they will combine their mortification with other evasive strategies, such as provocation ("He made me do it") or minimization ("The thing I did was not that bad"). Sometimes the accused person is limited in what responses he/she can provide because of specific elements of the context. If a person was caught on video doing something egregious, he/she can't say the act didn't happen or that it was less significant than it appeared to be for audiences who watched the video. In short, a good rule of thumb is to take full responsibility and to offer some form of corrective action (restitution). It sounds so simple and you might wonder why anybody would pay consultants for this advice. Well, people are not good at following advice because their pride sometimes gets in the way and they can't resist the temptation to use strategies that detract from the sincerity of their apologies.

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Industry Expertise

Public Relations and Communications
Education/Learning
Motion Pictures and Film
Writing and Editing

Areas of Expertise

Antapologia Strategies
Political Campaign Messages
Film
Rhetoric of Defense
Apologia
Rhetoric
Communication
Pop Culture
Political Communication
Kategoria
Rhetoric of Attack
Critical Thinking
Public Apologies

Education

University of Missouri

Ph.D.

Communication, emphasis in Rhetoric and Political Communication

Idaho State University

M.A.

Communication in Speech

Southern Utah University

B.S.

Communication

Media Appearances

As Obama Stumps for Struggling Democrats, Biden and Team Muddle the Message

Newsweek  online

2022-11-04

"Sadly, it is true that candidates of both parties have tried to argue that their opponents are simply pawns of other political figures," Kevin Stein, a communications professor at Southern Utah University and an expert in political communication, told Newsweek. "This is really prevalent in the history of political advertising."

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Two Communication Professors Publish Research on How Public Figures Avoid Genuine Apologies

Southern Utah University News  online

2018-10-09

Professors Kevin Stein and Matthew Barton of the Department of Communication at Southern Utah University published this week a comprehensive analysis of apologies offered by public figures to understand the ways people use language to take or avoid responsibility for harmful behavior, such as infidelity, domestic violence, and deception.

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5 Secrets Politicians Use in Debate Battle

Fox 13  online

2015-11-06

Announcements. Polls. Ads. Debates. Attacks. Policies. We’ve been inundated with presidential campaign news since early 2015, but what do all of these messages mean? Kevin Stein, associate professor of Communication at Southern Utah University, researches the content of political campaign messaging, and shares strategies to look for when watching the news.

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Articles

"I'm Sorry You Interpreted My Behavior the Way You Did": Toward A New Understanding of the Nuances of Mortification

Western Journal of Communication

Kevin A. Stein and Matthew H. Barton

2018-10-02

The study uses content analytic and grounded theory approaches to analyze 409 cases of public apologia from 351 different incidents in order to develop a typology of mortification-specific strategies. Its purpose is to offer a critique of existing scholarship and its inattention to the specific nuances of mortification. Historically, scholars have limited their conclusions to a discussion of strategy, while ignoring the reality that specific language choices need only appear to be sincere in order to satisfy the rhetor’s goal.

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Taco the Puppy is Super Sick: Student Excuses as a Unique Form of Apologia Rhetoric

Relevant Rhetoric

Kevin Stein and Michael Ostrowsky

College students use a plethora of excuses in their interactions with professors in order to accomplish​ various goals, such as securing more time to complete an assignment or to obtain a reprieve for an absence. But why? Simply put, some students attempt to limit their responsibility for the negative behaviors necessitating the excuse. Our focus is not on whether the excuse is true, but rather to understand the manner in which students construct messages so that they function to account for their undesirable classroom behaviors.

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Listening to Unheard Voices: Nurses ’ Communication Experiences with the NRS Pain Scale

The Journal of the SCASD

Matthew H. Barton and Kevin Stein

This study examines nurses’ experiences with the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS). These responses characterize the communication trials that nurses face with pain diagnosis, pain management, and overall patient care. Interviews with 20 nurses reveal three themes: subject dissatisfaction, feeling limited, and subjective satisfaction. An analysis of these themes reveals the need for renewed discussion about the way pain is communicated and the challenging expectations nurses must regularly confront. Implications for listening to important, but often quiet, even silent, voices in pain management and clinical practice are discussed.

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Courses

COMM 1310 Thinking & Listening Critically

A study of critical thinking and reasoning skills toward messages delivered and received through various communication formats. The course is designed to aid the student in the ability to define a problem, select pertinent information for the solution of the problem, recognize stated and unstated assumptions, formulate and select relevant hypotheses, and make valid conclusions and inferences.

COMM 2010 Media & Society

A study of the power and responsibility of newspapers, magazines, radio, television, computer networks, motion pictures students strive to improve media literacy and other mass media and their significance in contemporary society.

COMM 2110 Interpersonal Communication

A study of interpersonal communication variables and situations, designed to aid the student in improving social relationships, increasing self-awareness and in using effective communication to achieve personal goals.

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