scholarly journals CSR Communication, Corporate Reputation, and the Role of the News Media as an Agenda-Setter in the Digital Age

2020 ◽  
pp. 000765032092896
Author(s):  
Daniel Vogler ◽  
Mark Eisenegger

By using social media, corporations can communicate about their corporate social responsibility (CSR) to the public without having to pass through the gatekeeping function of the news media. However, to what extent can corporations influence the public’s evaluation of their CSR activities with social media activities and if the legacy news media still act as the primary agenda setters when it comes to corporate reputation have not yet been thoroughly analyzed in a digitized media environment. This study addressed this research gap by looking at the effect of CSR communication through Facebook and news media coverage of CSR on corporate reputation in Switzerland. The results of this longitudinal study show that the salience and tone of news media coverage of CSR were positively related to corporate reputation, even though the news media coverage about CSR was predominantly negative. Thus, reputation was still strengthened even in the face of negative publicity. No effect of CSR communication through Facebook on corporate reputation was found. The results suggest that legacy news media still were influential in determining how the public evaluates corporations in the digital age.

Author(s):  
Amit Kumar

The face of a news room in India has been changed radically with the ever growing popularity of social media, where it sets agenda for the news organizations to follow. The #Lalitgate is a classical example, where the Ex IPL Commissioner, Lalit Modi, who has gained a notorious image due to his controversies, broke news on twitter, from there it has been picked up by 24x7 news channels, subsequently online portals do a piece on it, again there is a prime time discussion on that news, followed by a morning coverage by the news papers. As a person gain ability to create sensationalism, he utilizes the ability of social media to create some dialogues, with a larger worldwide audience, which was earlier not possible due to the monologue approach of traditional media. The ability of that piece of information to get retweeted by followers allows it to trend high on twitter. As the number become astonishing some time, it automatically qualifies for the attention of the editors of media organizations and eventually sets the agenda of the day. The social media platforms; Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp etc. have become the essential tool of news gathering of a modern news room. Twitter with its 302 million followers worldwide, eventually became a credible online source of news gathering as the tweets are usually came through a first person, citing his/her views or, opinion on a subject matter. This research paper aims to critically analyze the role of twitter as an agenda setting tool in #Lalitgate, where, the cricket administrator turned whistleblower, Lalit Modi, used twitter effectively for his revelations, and he not only trolled successfully on twitter but news media as well. The scope of this paper is limited to the media coverage by English medium news channels and papers only.


2021 ◽  
pp. 9-19
Author(s):  
Gea Ducci ◽  
Alessandro Lovari

The pandemic crisis has led to a renew centrality of public sector communica-tion in a hybrid and convergent media ecosystems aiming at (re)building relation-ships based on trust between institutions and citizens. This contribution reflects on the strengths and fragility of the Italian public communication in the face of the pandemic, considering regulatory processes and paths of professionalization. It focuses also on the challenges of social media use in public sector, suggesting a critical approach towards the platformization of the public sector communication activities. The last part of this manuscript presents the different articles that com-pose the special issue.


October ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 159 ◽  
pp. 3-6
Author(s):  
Hal Foster

In the face of Trumpism and its peculiar mix of the buffoonish and the lethal, Foster suggests that we “pump up” past theoretical concepts by raising them to a higher degree. Social media, for example, could thereby be considered the “fifth estate,” a force that outdoes the “fourth estate” of journalistic media and thereby evacuates the last residues of the public sphere that, over fifty years ago, Jürgen Habermas associated with the advent of print culture. Peter Sloterdijk's notion of cynical reason, too, must be raised to a higher power in order to comprehend the Trumpist mentality; perhaps in this post-truth era, we should speak instead of “noncynical unreason”? And while the concept of the “primal father” is so outrageous that it cannot be inflated, Foster argues, it is one that we must grapple with in the face of a figure who, like Freud's figure, embodies the law and simultaneously performs its transgression.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benny Nuriely ◽  
Moti Gigi ◽  
Yuval Gozansky

Purpose This paper aims to analyze the ways socio-economic issues are represented in mainstream news media and how it is consumed, understood and interpreted by Israeli young adults (YAs). It examines how mainstream media uses neo-liberal discourse, and the ways YAs internalize this ethic, while simultaneously finding ways to overcome its limitations. Design/methodology/approach This was a mixed methods study. First, it undertook content analysis of the most popular Israeli mainstream news media among YAs: the online news site Ynet and the TV Channel 2 news. Second, the authors undertook semi-structured in-depth interviews with 29 Israeli YAs. The analysis is based on an online survey of 600 young Israelis, aged 18–35 years. Findings Most YAs did not perceive mainstream media as enabling a reliable understanding of the issues important to them. The content analysis revealed that self-representation of YAs is rare, and that their issues were explained, and even resolved, by older adults. Furthermore, most of YAs' problems in mainstream news media were presented using a neo-liberal perspective. Finally, from the interviews, the authors learned that YAs did not find information that could help them deal with their most pressing economic and social issue, in the content offered by mainstream media. For most of them, social media overcomes these shortcomings. Originality/value Contrary to research that has explored YAs’ consumerism of new media outlets, this article explores how YAs in Israel are constructed in the media, as well as the way in which YAs understand mainstream and new social media coverage of the issues most important to them. Using media content analysis and interviews, the authors found that Young Adults tend to be ambivalent toward media coverage. They understand the lack of media information: most of them know that they do not learn enough from the media. This acknowledgment accompanies their tendency to internalize the neo-liberal logic and conservative Israeli national culture, in which class and economic redistribution are largely overlooked. Mainstream news media uses neo-liberal discourse, and young adults internalize this logic, while simultaneously finding ways to overcome the limitations this discourse offers. They do so by turning to social media, mainly Facebook. Consequently, their behavior maintains the logic of the market, while also developing new social relations, enabled by social media.


Author(s):  
Deniz Akbulut ◽  
Metin Enes Dönmez

As with all their assets, organizations need management when it comes to their reputation. Having a successful corporate reputation is closely related to how corporations manage their existing reputation. The main components of long-term corporate reputation are categorized as appealing to emotions, product and service quality, vision and leadership, financial performance, workplace environment and social responsibility (Fombrun et al., 2013: 253). Among these components, financial performance is positioned as one of the main factors that come to the fore especially in crisis situations. Financial performance is also an effective factor in building trust in all relationships established with the target audience. Therefore, organizations should reflect their financial performance with a good corporate communication strategy in order to create a solid corporate reputation based on trust. The Covid-19 pandemic, which affected the whole world in 2019, negatively affected many corporations in Turkey economically. In the face of this situation, which can be described as a global crisis, corporations carried out corporate communication activities that support corporate reputation management in order to turn the crisis into an opportunity. It is seen that especially the financial performances of the corporations are highlighted among these activities carried out with the aim of strengthening the positive image of the corporations in the eyes of their stakeholders and the public. Within the scope of this research, the press releases published by five companies operating within the automotive sector in Turkey, among the sectors given in the Sectoral Impact of Covid 19 on the Economy report of Global Times (2020), were examined through the content analysis method in the context of financial performance indicators. The purpose of the research is to reveal how organizations reflect their strategies, which include the elements that reflect their financial performance in their press releases, to the public. As a result of the research, the financial performance indicator that took the most place in all the press releases examined was determined as “competitive advantage”.


2021 ◽  
Vol 123 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Jeanne M. Powers ◽  
Kathryn P. Chapman

Background In the past decade, the laws governing teachers’ employment have been at the center of legal and political conflicts across the United States. Vergara v. California challenged five California state statutes that provide employment protections for teachers. In June 2014, a California lower court declared the statutes unconstitutional because they exposed students to “grossly ineffective teachers.” Purpose The purpose of the article is to document and analyze how Vergara was presented in the print news media. It is important to understand how the print news media presents education policy debates to the public, because the print news media shapes the general public's understanding of education and other public policy debates by providing frames and themes for interpreting the issues in question and people associated with them. Research Design Using the social construction of target populations and political spectacle as conceptual lenses, we conducted a content analysis of print news media articles on the Vergara case published between June 2012 and November 2014. We provide a descriptive overview of the full corpus of articles published during this period and a thematic analysis of the 65 unique news articles published in the aftermath of the decision. The latter focuses on news articles because they are intended to provide more objective coverage of the case than opinions or editorials. Findings In the print news media coverage, the word “teacher” was often paired with a negative qualifier, which suggests that Vergara was an effort to change the relatively advantaged social construction of teachers. Similarly, metaphors and the illusion of rationality associated with political spectacle were used in ways that bolstered the plaintiffs’ claims. While Vergara consumed a substantial amount of philanthropic and public dollars, ultimately it did not change the policies that govern teachers’ employment in California. Vergara may have been more successful in shaping the general public's perceptions of teachers and the conditions of teachers’ employment in the period following the trial.


Author(s):  
Abbigail J. Tumpey ◽  
David Daigle ◽  
Glen Nowak

Effective communication during an outbreak or public health investigation is crucial for fostering adoption of public health recommendations and minimizing or preventing harm. During outbreaks, a comprehensive communication strategy integrating news media, social media, and partner engagement is essential for reaching affected persons and for keeping everyone informed about public health actions and recommendations. The strategies outlined in this chapter are the foundation for rapidly and effectively conveying information and public health recommendations to the persons at risk, the media, and the different entities involved in the response. Regardless of the public health event’s cause, core communication actions and steps will be similar; however, in every outbreak or public health investigation, perceptions and needs will vary among target audiences, partners (i.e., persons or organizations that can play a role in the crisis response), and persons or organizations with a connection or interest in the outbreak (stakeholders).


2020 ◽  
pp. 000276422091024
Author(s):  
Alessandro Lovari ◽  
Valentina Martino ◽  
Nicola Righetti

This article aims at exploring a case of information crisis in Italy through the lens of vaccination-related topics. Such a controversial issue, dividing public opinion and political agendas, has received diverse information coverage and public policies over time in the Italian context, whose situation appears quite unique compared with other countries because of a strong media spectacularization and politicization of the topic. In particular, approval of the “Lorenzin Decree,” increasing the number of mandatory vaccinations from 4 to 10, generated a nationwide debate that divided public opinion and political parties, triggering a complex informative crisis and fostering the perception of a social emergency on social media. This resulted in negative stress on lay publics and on the public health system. The study adopted an interdisciplinary framework, including political science, public relations, and health communication studies, as well as a mixed-method approach, combining data mining techniques related to news media coverage and social media engagement, with in-depth interviews to key experts, selected among researchers, journalists, and communication managers. The article investigates reasons for the information crisis and identifies possible solutions and interventions to improve the effectiveness of public health communication and mitigate the social consequences of misinformation around vaccination.


2018 ◽  
Vol 167 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Fisher ◽  
David Marshall ◽  
Kerry McCallum

Traditionally politicians have been dependent on political news media to get their message across to the public. The rise of social media means that politicians can bypass the Press Gallery and publish directly to their target audiences via Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms. This article argues that Prime Minister John Howard’s (1996–2007) use of talk back radio and early forays on YouTube were pivotal in the trend towards ‘disintermediation’ in Australian politics. It draws on two studies. One involving interviews with 87 key media actors from the Howard era including journalists, broadcasters, politicians and media advisers; and a second, which includes fresh interviews with contemporary press secretaries. This article examines the shift from a ‘mass media logic’ to a ‘hybrid logic’, considered from a mediatization theoretical position. We also ask important questions about the press gallery’s ongoing relevance in the digital era, when politicians preside over their own social media empires.


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