Journalists are more amenable to writing positive articles about CSR than is generally thought, reports new research.
A study of the opinions of 75 senior UK journalists found two-thirds
professed to be more prepared to provide positive, rather than
negative, coverage. Although most admitted this was not necessarily
borne out by the actual coverage, researchers concluded that ‘while the
media will always cover corporate social irresponsibility, there is a
latent willingness to cover more positive or optimistic angles on CSR’.
The study, conducted by research agency Connectpoint for Business in
the Community and Leeds Metropolitan University, showed journalists
were keen to write articles based on case studies of how CSR policies
and practices make a difference to a company’s performance.
But they felt they were not being fed enough such case studies, and
that many of those they were offered were one-sided, showing too little
recognition of the dilemmas and difficulties that companies face in the
field.
The most common reason why CSR communication by an organization was
considered irrelevant to a media audience was a lack of serious effort
to present ‘honest stories put into their complete context’. Most
respondents complained of receiving biased media packs and ‘advertising
waffle’, boring emails with pictures of cheque donations and
fund-raising events, and badly written press releases giving little
insight into CSR challenges. In general, said the researchers, CSR communications were felt to be
‘poorly targeted or inappropriate or – at a mechanical level – poorly
written and structured’.
Journalists preferred to receive CSR news by personalized email.
Face-to-face briefings with senior directors, even if off the record,
were also highly prized. Press conferences and press packs were seen as
poor ways of getting information out.
Three-quarters of the journalists responding to the poll were from
newspapers and the majority wrote about business matters. The remainder
were from radio, television and online media outlets. About
three-quarters were at the senior level of editor or deputy editor and
more than eight in ten worked for daily news outlets, including those
at the BBC, Sky News and The Times.
