ABSTRACT
An attempt to project a relatable, credible corporate entity can be fraught with execution problems, however, for a company like Chesapeake Energy (CE), the second-largest producer of natural gas in the US with operations in Pennsylvania, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming. Fracking companies have taken note of the developments and have put in place public relations efforts to blunt criticism of the industry. Scholars have observed that newsletter design offers particular challenges, not the least of which is integrating pictures and text, as large blocks of text can be intimidating for a reader. Company-consumer identification’s emphasis, indicated in the word “consumer,” is tightly focused on the transactional, stressing how the purchaser of a product or service reifies a sense of identification with the corporation through consumption. Chesapeake Energy’s projecting a credible, anthropomorphic image can help it articulate to the public why fracking, an industry increasingly in crisis, is beneficial to society.
