Corporate Reputation and the News Media

Book excerpt: This volume examines agenda-setting theory as it applies to the news media’s influence on corporate reputation. It presents interdisciplinary, international, and empirical investigations examining the relationship between corporate reputation and the news media throughout the world. Providing coverage of more than twenty-five countries, contributors write about their local media and business communities, representing developed, emerging, and frontier markets – including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Germany, Greece, Japan, Nigeria, Spain, and Turkey, among others. The chapters present primary and secondary research on various geo-political issues, the nature of the news media, the practice of public relations, and the role of public relations agencies in each of the various countries. Each chapter is structured to consider two to three hypotheses in the country under discussion, including: the impact of media visibility on organizational prominence, top-of-mind awareness and brand-name recognition the impact of media favorability on the public’s organizational images of these firms how media coverage of specific public issues and news topics relates to the associations people form of specific firms. Contributors contextualize their findings in light of the geopolitical environment of their home countries, the nature of their media systems, and the relationship between business and the news media within their countries’ borders. Incorporating scholarship from a broad range of disciplines, including advertising, strategic management, business, political communication, and sociology, this volume has much to offer scholars and students examining business and the news media.