Is Business News Starting to Bark? How Business News Covers CSR After the Economic Crisis

• In Event: ICA Plenary Interactive Paper/Poster Session I
  In Interactive Paper Session: Journalism Studies Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

This study seeks to give a timely perspective on understanding how business news covers corporate social responsibility, in light of heavy criticism that financial journalists have faced since the latest economic depression in the United States. Building upon previous research and using agenda setting, framing and agenda building as a theoretical base, a content analysis was conducted to examine how business news sources portray CSR, whether they adopt a positive, neutral/mixed or negative tone, and investigate whether corporate sources influence business news coverage of this topic. The ultimate goal was to see if business news outlets were still heavily influences by corporate sources and whether most adopt a positive tone, as previous research has shown, or if financial journalists are taking a more a skeptical approach after receiving criticism for not predicting the financial crisis.

Authors

• Lauren Darm, University of Florida

• Moonhee Cho, U of Tennessee

• Tiffany Lynn Schweickart, U of Florida