Josh Bentley
Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies Texas Christian University
- Fort Worth TX
Expertise in: Public relations, crisis communication, public apologies, corporate social advocacy, and fundraising strategies.
Media
Social
Biography
Areas of Expertise
Accomplishments
Top Faculty Paper
National Communication Association '24 (Communication Ethics Division)
Top Student Paper
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (Religion and Media Interest Group)
Top Student Paper
National Communication Association (Public Relations Division)
Top Poster
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (Public Relations Division)
Top Faculty Paper
National Communication Association (Public Relations Division)
Education
The University of Oklahoma
Ph.D.
Mass Communication
2013
Oklahoma State University
M.S.
Mass Communication
2010
John Brown University
B.S.
Broadcasting
2002
Affiliations
- Member: National Communication Association
- Member: Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
Languages
- English
Media Appearances
Do Apologies Still Work?
Cultivate Talk
2026-05-06
In this episode of Cultivate Talk, Emily sits down with Dr. Josh Bentley to unpack the evolving role of public apologies in today’s media landscape. Drawing from his research in crisis communication and his book Devaluing Public Apologies in the Age of Social Media, Dr. Bentley explains what people actually expect from apologies — and why those expectations are often unmet.
How to Apologize Explained in 60 Seconds
Texas Christian University online
2025-10-15
Josh Bentley is an expert on how to effectively apologize. The TCU Strategic Communication professor's research on apologies has been published in multiple academic journals, and he has some solid advice for all those who need a little forgiveness.
Articles
Devaluing Public Apologies in the Age of Social Media: How Polarization and Cancel Culture Complicate the Mea Culpa
Lexington BooksJoshua M. Bentley
2024-12-15
In Devaluing Public Apologies in the Age of Social Media, Joshua M. Bentley argues that apologies are losing their meaning in American society as organizations and public figures treat them as strategical tools without considering their ethical implications. This book offers insight on how individuals and organizations can ensure their apologies reflect their authentic values.
Apologies as identification management: A theoretical model
Public Relations ReviewJoshua M. Bentley, Amiso George and Jacqueline Lambiase
2021-06-10
Apology research within public relations tends to focus on how to craft effective apologies. Research in psychology and other disciplines offers explanations for how changes in people’s state of mind lead them to forgive their offenders. This study uses rhetorical theory to bridge the gap between how apologies are constructed and how they produce psychological changes in recipients.
Representations of reliability: The rhetoric of political flip-flopping
Public Relations ReviewJoshua M. Bentley, Taylor Vogues
2019-03-05
This study used a qualitative analysis of political flip-flops (N = 141) to create a typology of rhetorical strategies for politicians who are perceived to have changed positions on political issues. The core purpose of such rhetoric is to achieve a representation of reliability. Politicians who appear to change positions must do so in a way that does not make them seem unreliable to their key stakeholders.
A balance theory approach to stakeholder network and apology strategy
Public Relations Review2017
Apology is an important area of research in crisis communication. Scholars have largely explored apology from an organization-centric, dyadic approach. We argue that this type of research has made unrealistic assumptions about a much more complex social system and may be challenged by increasingly interconnected social reality.
We're sorry but it's not our fault: Organizational apologies in ambiguous crisis situations
Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management2017
Crisis management theories encourage organizations to use different response strategies depending on how much responsibility for the crisis stakeholders attribute to organizations. However, theory has not fully addressed what organizations ought to say when responsibility for the crisis is ambiguous, as in a data breach crisis.
What Counts as an Apology? Exploring Stakeholder Perceptions in a Hypothetical Organizational Crisis
Management Communication Quarterly2017
Many scholars have studied the role of organizational apologies in crisis communication, but they have defined and operationalized apologies inconsistently. This study uses a grounded theory approach to explore what constitutes an effective organizational apology from the perspective of organizational stakeholders.
