How Do Media Companies Gain Legitimacy ?

Ingenhoff, Diana; Bachmann, Philipp

doi:10.1080/1553118X.2016.1249282

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Journal article

How Do Media Companies Gain Legitimacy ? : An Experimental Study on the (Ir)Relevance of CSR Communication

Ingenhoff, Diana DCM Department of Communication and Media Research, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
Bachmann, Philipp IPMZ–Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

2017

Published in:

International Journal of Strategic Communication. - Taylor & Francis. - 2017, vol. 11, no. 1, p. 79-94

English Due to structural changes in the media industry, the topic of CSR has gained more and more attention among media companies. Our research question was whether media companies can gain legitimacy through CSR disclosures. There is reason to assume that CSR disclosures both directly increase and indirectly decrease a media company’s legitimacy. On one hand, CSR is regarded as a means of strengthening legitimacy; on the other hand, stakeholders might become skeptical and distrust disclosures about generous deeds. The experimental study detailed here considers both possibilities by using five CSR disclosures of a fictional media company as the stimuli, ranging from low- to high-communicated CSR engagement (single-factor between-groups design, 274 participants). According to the results of the Structural Equation Model (SEM), both assumptions are incorrect: CSR is not the crucial factor in determining whether or not stakeholders perceive a media company as legitimate, but rather its corporate credibility.

Faculty

Faculté des sciences économiques et sociales et du management

Department

Département des sciences de la communication et des médias

Language