1
Organisations, Media and Society (77641SP06Y)
part 1 & 2
LM1. INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................... 3
LECTURE 1 SLIDES. INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................... 3
STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION: DEFINING THE FIELD AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO RESEARCH AND PRACTICE (ZERFASS ET
AL., 2018).............................................................................................................................................. 5
BACK TO THE ROOTS? THE APPLICATIONS OF COMMUNICATION SCIENCE THEORIES IN STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION
RESEARCH (LOCK ET AL., 2020).................................................................................................................. 7
ORGANISATIONS, MEDIA, AND SOCIETY (VAN DER MEER ET AL., 2024).................................................................8
FINAL REFLECTIONS ORGANISATIONS, MEDIA AND SOCIETY..................................................................................9
LM2. ORGANISATIONS AND LEGITIMACY.............................................................................9
LECTURE 2 SLIDES. ORGANISATIONS AND LEGITIMICY........................................................................................ 9
TOWARD A THEORY OF SOCIAL JUDGMENTS OF ORGANIZATIONS: THE CASE OF LEGITIMACY, REPUTATION, AND STATUS
(BITEKTINE, 2011).................................................................................................................................. 12
JOURNALISM AND BUSINESS LEGITIMACY (KJÆR & BLACH-ØRSTEN, 2020)..........................................................13
FINDING THE TIPPING POINT: WHEN HETEROGENEOUS EVALUATIONS IN SOCIAL MEDIA CONVERGE AND INFLUENCE
ORGANIZATIONAL LEGITIMACY (ILLIA ET AL., 2023)........................................................................................ 13
FINAL REFLECTIONS ORGANISATIONS AND LEGITIMICY.......................................................................................14
LM3. ISSUE ARENAS........................................................................................................ 14
LECTURE 3 SLIDES. ISSUE ARENAS.............................................................................................................. 14
TOWARDS A MORE DYNAMIC STAKEHOLDER MODEL: ACKNOWLEDGING MULTIPLE ISSUE ARENAS (LUOMA-AHO & VOS,
2010).................................................................................................................................................. 17
ISSUE ARENAS: DEFINITION AND IMPORTANCE................................................................................................. 17
POLITICIZATION OF CORPORATIONS AND THEIR ENVIRONMENT: CORPORATIONS’ SOCIAL LICENSE TO OPERATE IN A
POLARIZED AND MEDIATIZED SOCIETY (VAN DER MEER & JONKMAN, 2021)........................................................18
CIVIL SOCIETY NETWORKS AND MALAYSIAN GOVERNMENT REFORM: CONSIDERING ISSUE HOMOPHILY IN
INTERORGANIZATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS (SOMMERFELDT ET AL., 2022)..............................................................19
ISSUE HOMOPHILY: DEFINITION AND SIGNIFICANCE...........................................................................................20
CONNECTING POINTS BETWEEN (LUOMA-AHO & VOS, 2010), (VAN DER MEER & JONKMAN, 2021) AND (SOMMERFELDT
ET AL., 2022)........................................................................................................................................ 21
FINAL REFLECTIONS ISSUE ARENAS............................................................................................................... 21
GUEST LECTURE FGS GLOBAL..........................................................................................22
LM4. FRAMING................................................................................................................ 22
LECTURE 4 SLIDES. FRAMING..................................................................................................................... 22
POLITICAL FRAMING ACROSS DISCIPLINES: EVIDENCE FROM 21ST-CENTURY EXPERIMENTS (BRUGMAN & BURGERS,
2018).................................................................................................................................................. 24
FRAMING IN A FRACTURED DEMOCRACY: IMPACTS OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY ON IDEOLOGY, POWER, AND CASCADING
NETWORK ACTIVATION (ENTMAN & USHER, 2018)........................................................................................26
FIGURATIVE FRAMING: SHAPING PUBLIC DISCOURSE THROUGH METAPHOR, HYPERBOLE, AND IRONY (BURGERS, KONIJN
& STEEN, 2016).................................................................................................................................... 27
CONNECTING POINTS BETWEEN (BRUGMAN & BURGERS, 2018), (ENTMAN & USHER, 2018) AND (BURGERS ET AL,
2016).................................................................................................................................................. 27
FINAL REFLECTIONS FRAMING..................................................................................................................... 28
LM5. ORGANISATIONAL VISIBILITY IN THE NEWS...............................................................28
LECTURE 5 SLIDES. ORGANISATIONAL VISIBILITY IN THE NEWS...........................................................................28
BUFFERING NEGATIVE NEWS: INDIVIDUAL-LEVEL EFFECTS OF COMPANY VISIBILITY, TONE, AND PRE-EXISTING ATTITUDES
ON CORPORATE REPUTATION (JONKMAN ET AL., 2020)...................................................................................31
PERSONALIZATION OF TECH CORPORATIONS: EXAMINING PERSONALIZED NEWS AND THE MEDIA REPUTATION OF
GOOGLE, FACEBOOK, AND APPLE IN SWISS NEWS MEDIA (MARSCHLICH & EISENEGGER, 2025).............................31
NEWS VALUES ON SOCIAL MEDIA: EXPLORING WHAT DRIVES PEAKS IN USER ACTIVITY ABOUT ORGANIZATIONS ON
TWITTER (ARAUJO & VAN DER MEER, 2020)................................................................................................ 32
CONNECTING POINTS BETWEEN (JONKMAN ET AL., 2020), (MARSCHLICH & EISENEGGER, 2025) AND (ARAUJO & VAN
DER MEER, 2020)................................................................................................................................... 33
, 2
FINAL REFLECTIONS ORGANISATIONAL VISIBILITY IN THE NEWS...........................................................................33
GOLDEN IDEAS............................................................................................................... 33
OVERALL CONNECTIONS BETWEEN ARTICLES....................................................................37
REAL-WORLD CASE EXAMPLES FOR COURSE THEORIES.....................................................39
EXAM QUESTIONS........................................................................................................... 42
REAL WORLD EXAMPLES................................................................................................. 44
STRATEGIC ISSUES.................................................................................................................................... 44
LEGITIMATE ORGANISATIONS....................................................................................................................... 47
CORPORATE INVOLVEMENT IN POLITICAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES.............................................................................50
CURRENT CHALLENGES CORPORATE COMMUNICATION......................................................................................52
THE PRESENCE OF INFLUENCERS IN ISSUE ARENAS..........................................................................................58
TATA STEEL CASE.................................................................................................................................... 58
FRAMING IN POLITICS, MEDIA AND SOCIETY.................................................................................................... 62
FIGURATIVE FRAMING................................................................................................................................ 64
LM6. THE COMMUNICATIVE CONSTRUCTION OF RISK AND CRISIS.......................................64
LECTURE 6 SLIDES. THE COMMUNICATIVE CONSTRUCTION OF RISK AND CRISIS......................................................64
SITUATIONAL THEORY OF CRISIS: SITUATIONAL CRISIS COMMUNICATION THEORY AND CORPORATE REPUTATION
(COOMBS, 2013).................................................................................................................................... 67
HOW AUDIENCES SEEK OUT CRISIS INFORMATION: EXPLORING THE SOCIAL-MEDIATED CRISIS COMMUNICATION MODEL
(AUSTIN ET AL., 2012)............................................................................................................................ 70
REVISITING SOCIAL-MEDIATED CRISIS COMMUNICATION MODEL: THE LANCÔME REGENERATIVE CRISIS AFTER THE HONG
KONG UMBRELLA MOVEMENT (MAK & AO, 2019).........................................................................................72
CONNECTING POINTS BETWEEN (COOMBS, 2013), (AUSTIN ET AL., 2012) AND (MAK & AO, 2019)......................73
FINAL REFLECTIONS THE COMMUNICATIVE CONSTRUCTION OF RISK AND CRISIS......................................................74
LM7. POLITIZATION & CSR...............................................................................................74
LECTURE 7 SLIDES. POLITIZATION & CSR..................................................................................................... 74
EXPLORING CORPORATIONS’ DIALOGUE ABOUT CSR IN THE DIGITAL ERA (ILLIA ET AL., 2017).................................76
TO SUPPORT OR TO BOYCOTT: A PUBLIC SEGMENTATION MODEL IN CORPORATE SOCIAL ADVOCACY (HONG & LI, 2020)
............................................................................................................................................................ 78
THE MORAL FOUNDATIONS OF RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS: USING COMPUTATIONAL TEXT ANALYSIS TO EXPLORE THE SALIENCE
OF MORALITY IN CSR COMMUNICATION (EISELE ET AL., 2024).........................................................................79
CONNECTING POINTS BETWEEN (ILLIA ET AL., 2017), (HONG & LI, 2020) AND (EISELE ET AL., 2024)...................82
FINAL REFLECTIONS POLITIZATION & CSR..................................................................................................... 82
LM8. BIASES AND MISINFORMATION................................................................................83
LECTURE 8 SLIDES. BIASES AND MISINFORMATION..........................................................................................83
LOOPHOLES IN THE ECHO CHAMBERS: HOW THE ECHO CHAMBER METAPHOR OVERSIMPLIFIES THE EFFECTS OF
INFORMATION GATEWAYS ON OPINION EXPRESSION (GEIB ET AL., 2021)...........................................................88
DEGREES OF DECEPTION: THE EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF COVID-19 MISINFORMATION AND THE EFFECTIVENESS
OF CORRECTIVE INFORMATION IN CRISIS TIMES (HAMELEERS ET AL., 2023).........................................................90
CONNECTING POINTS BETWEEN (AMAZEEN, 2023), (GEIB ET AL., 2021) AND (HAMELEERS ET AL., 2023)..............91
FINAL REFLECTIONS BIASES AND MISINFORMATION...........................................................................................92
LM9. AL, ORGANISATIONS AND SOCIETY...........................................................................92
LECTURE 9 SLIDES. AI, ORGANISATIONS AND SOCIETY.....................................................................................92
FROM GREENWASHING TO MACHINEWASHING: A MODEL AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS DERIVED FROM REASONING BY
ANALOGY (SEELE AND SCHULTZ, 2022)...................................................................................................... 94
“ROGUE MACHINES” AND CRISIS COMMUNICATION: WHEN AI FAILS, HOW DO COMPANIES PUBLICLY RESPOND? (PRAHL &
GOH, 2021).......................................................................................................................................... 97
CHATGPT, AI ADVERTISING, AND ADVERTISING RESEARCH AND EDUCATION (HUH ET AL., 2023)...........................98
CONNECTING POINTS BETWEEN (SEELE & SCHULTZ, 2022), (PRAHL & GOH, 2021) AND (HUH ET AL., 2023)........99
FINAL REFLECTIONS AI, ORGANISATIONS AND SOCIETY.....................................................................................99
LM10. A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE.....................................................................................100
LECTURE 10 SLIDES. A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE............................................................................................. 100
, 3
THE OTHER SIDE OF MEDIATIZATION: EXPANDING THE CONCEPT TO DEFENSIVE STRATEGIES (NÖLLEKE ET AL., 2021)
.......................................................................................................................................................... 102
HOW ARE FRAMES GENERATED? INSIGHTS FROM THE INDUSTRY LOBBY AGAINST THE SUGAR TAX IN IRELAND (CAMPBELL
ET AL., 2020)...................................................................................................................................... 104
STEPPING ON TOES? ROLE DYNAMICS BETWEEN JOURNALISTS AND LOBBYISTS REGARDING BIG TECH’S ACCOUNTABILITY
AGENDA (SCHWINGES ET AL., 2024)........................................................................................................ 106
ORGANISED LYING AND PROFESSIONAL LEGITIMACY: PUBLIC RELATIONS’ ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE DISINFORMATION DEBATE
(EDWARDS, 2021)................................................................................................................................ 107
CONNECTING POINTS BETWEEN (NÖLLEKE ET AL., 2021), (CAMPBELL ET AL., 2020), (SCHWINGES ET AL., 2024) AND
(EDWARDS, 2021)................................................................................................................................ 108
FINAL REFLECTIONS A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE...............................................................................................108
LM11. REFLECTIVE COMMUNICATION..............................................................................108
LECTURE 11 SLIDES. REFLECTIVE COMMUNICATION.......................................................................................108
SOCIETY’S MEGATRENDS AND BUSINESS LEGITIMACY: TRANSFORMATIONS OF THE LEGITIMIZING BUSINESS PARADIGM
(HOLMSTRÖM, 2020)............................................................................................................................ 110
ORGANIZATIONAL LISTENING: ADDRESSING A MAJOR GAP IN PUBLIC RELATIONS THEORY AND PRACTICE (MACNAMARA,
2016)................................................................................................................................................ 114
CONNECTING POINTS BETWEEN (HOLMSTRÖM, 2020) AND (MACNAMARA, 2016)..............................................116
FINAL REFLECTIONS REFLECTIVE COMMUNICATION.........................................................................................117
GOLDEN IDEAS.............................................................................................................. 117
OVERALL CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THE ARTICLES...........................................................120
ORIGINAL CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THE ARTICLES..........................................................123
REAL WORLD EXAMPLES................................................................................................ 125
THE COMMUNICATIVE CONSTRUCTION OF RISK AND CRISIS..............................................................................125
LIST OF CORPORATE CRISES..................................................................................................................... 127
POLITIZATION & CSR............................................................................................................................. 128
LIST OF CORPORATIONS CSR/CSA............................................................................................................ 130
BIASES AND MISINFORMATION................................................................................................................... 132
AI, ORGANISATIONS AND SOCIETY.............................................................................................................. 135
LIST OF AI CRISES.................................................................................................................................. 137
A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE LECTURE QUESTIONS.............................................................................................138
A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE EXAMPLES........................................................................................................... 140
REFLECTIVE COMMUNICATION................................................................................................................... 142
LM1. Introduction
Lecture 1 slides. Introduction
1. Course Focus: Organizations in a Mediatized Environment
Organizations operate within society and must navigate complex media dynamics to maintain
visibility, legitimacy and reputation.
The course examines three key areas:
1. Organizations and their societal environment – Issue arenas, stakeholder
relationships, and social evaluations (e.g., legitimacy, reputation).
2. Organizations and the news – The role of media framing, agenda-setting and crisis
communication.
3. Broader societal context – The impact of macro-level changes, such as corporate
social responsibility (CSR), politicization, misinformation, and AI.
This shift moves away from organization-centric thinking, instead emphasizing the role
organizations play in society and how they adapt to media-driven pressures.
2. Strategic Communication (Zerfass et al., 2018)
, 4
Definition:
“Strategic communication encompasses all communication that is substantial for the survival and
sustained success of an entity. It is the purposeful use of communication to engage in
conversations of strategic significance.” (Zerfass et al., 2018, p. 493)
Key Elements of Strategic Communication
Monitoring stakeholder expectations – Organizations must understand public sentiment and
adjust their strategies accordingly.
Informing and influencing stakeholders – Communication is not just about conveying
information but actively shaping stakeholder perceptions.
Multichannel presence – Strategic communication spans traditional and digital
platforms, requiring organizations to adapt to different audiences.
Complexity, uncertainty, and risk – Many strategic communication efforts only reveal their
true impact in hindsight, necessitating continuous environmental scanning.
Subjective vs. Objective Dimensions
1. Subjective – The perceived importance of an issue, based on collective sense-making
(Thomas Theorem: If people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences).
2. Objective – The actual impact of an issue, often only recognized in retrospect (complexity,
uncertainty, and ambiguity).
This framework highlights the importance of proactive communication management in shaping
public discourse and protecting organizational legitimacy.
3. A Communication Science Approach (Lock et al., 2020)
A communication science approach integrates various theories to analyze strategic communication
beyond management-focused perspectives.
Three Key Traditions in Communication Science
1. Interpretative/Critical/Cultural – Explores subjectivity, power relations, and the researcher’s
role in shaping meaning.
2. Social Science (Dominant Paradigm) – Empirical, value-neutral approach, using
quantitative research to study communication effects.
3. Rhetorical Approaches – Focuses on persuasion, discourse theory, and rhetorical
strategies in shaping public perception.
Strategic communication research has increasingly incorporated social science theories in fields
such as:
Crisis communication – Managing reputational risks.
Public relations – Stakeholder engagement and corporate messaging.
Agenda-building and media influence – Understanding how organizations shape news
coverage and public debate.
Going “back to the roots” of communication theories helps scholars develop new insights by
focusing on how communication itself creates meaning and relationships.
4. Organizations, Media, and Society (van der Meer et al., 2024)
This section explores the dynamic relationship between organizations and media, focusing on
visibility, mediatization, and legitimacy.
Key Themes
1. Organizations and News Media – The visibility of organizations is shaped by media
agenda-setting and framing.
Organisations, Media and Society (77641SP06Y)
part 1 & 2
LM1. INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................... 3
LECTURE 1 SLIDES. INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................... 3
STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION: DEFINING THE FIELD AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO RESEARCH AND PRACTICE (ZERFASS ET
AL., 2018).............................................................................................................................................. 5
BACK TO THE ROOTS? THE APPLICATIONS OF COMMUNICATION SCIENCE THEORIES IN STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION
RESEARCH (LOCK ET AL., 2020).................................................................................................................. 7
ORGANISATIONS, MEDIA, AND SOCIETY (VAN DER MEER ET AL., 2024).................................................................8
FINAL REFLECTIONS ORGANISATIONS, MEDIA AND SOCIETY..................................................................................9
LM2. ORGANISATIONS AND LEGITIMACY.............................................................................9
LECTURE 2 SLIDES. ORGANISATIONS AND LEGITIMICY........................................................................................ 9
TOWARD A THEORY OF SOCIAL JUDGMENTS OF ORGANIZATIONS: THE CASE OF LEGITIMACY, REPUTATION, AND STATUS
(BITEKTINE, 2011).................................................................................................................................. 12
JOURNALISM AND BUSINESS LEGITIMACY (KJÆR & BLACH-ØRSTEN, 2020)..........................................................13
FINDING THE TIPPING POINT: WHEN HETEROGENEOUS EVALUATIONS IN SOCIAL MEDIA CONVERGE AND INFLUENCE
ORGANIZATIONAL LEGITIMACY (ILLIA ET AL., 2023)........................................................................................ 13
FINAL REFLECTIONS ORGANISATIONS AND LEGITIMICY.......................................................................................14
LM3. ISSUE ARENAS........................................................................................................ 14
LECTURE 3 SLIDES. ISSUE ARENAS.............................................................................................................. 14
TOWARDS A MORE DYNAMIC STAKEHOLDER MODEL: ACKNOWLEDGING MULTIPLE ISSUE ARENAS (LUOMA-AHO & VOS,
2010).................................................................................................................................................. 17
ISSUE ARENAS: DEFINITION AND IMPORTANCE................................................................................................. 17
POLITICIZATION OF CORPORATIONS AND THEIR ENVIRONMENT: CORPORATIONS’ SOCIAL LICENSE TO OPERATE IN A
POLARIZED AND MEDIATIZED SOCIETY (VAN DER MEER & JONKMAN, 2021)........................................................18
CIVIL SOCIETY NETWORKS AND MALAYSIAN GOVERNMENT REFORM: CONSIDERING ISSUE HOMOPHILY IN
INTERORGANIZATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS (SOMMERFELDT ET AL., 2022)..............................................................19
ISSUE HOMOPHILY: DEFINITION AND SIGNIFICANCE...........................................................................................20
CONNECTING POINTS BETWEEN (LUOMA-AHO & VOS, 2010), (VAN DER MEER & JONKMAN, 2021) AND (SOMMERFELDT
ET AL., 2022)........................................................................................................................................ 21
FINAL REFLECTIONS ISSUE ARENAS............................................................................................................... 21
GUEST LECTURE FGS GLOBAL..........................................................................................22
LM4. FRAMING................................................................................................................ 22
LECTURE 4 SLIDES. FRAMING..................................................................................................................... 22
POLITICAL FRAMING ACROSS DISCIPLINES: EVIDENCE FROM 21ST-CENTURY EXPERIMENTS (BRUGMAN & BURGERS,
2018).................................................................................................................................................. 24
FRAMING IN A FRACTURED DEMOCRACY: IMPACTS OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY ON IDEOLOGY, POWER, AND CASCADING
NETWORK ACTIVATION (ENTMAN & USHER, 2018)........................................................................................26
FIGURATIVE FRAMING: SHAPING PUBLIC DISCOURSE THROUGH METAPHOR, HYPERBOLE, AND IRONY (BURGERS, KONIJN
& STEEN, 2016).................................................................................................................................... 27
CONNECTING POINTS BETWEEN (BRUGMAN & BURGERS, 2018), (ENTMAN & USHER, 2018) AND (BURGERS ET AL,
2016).................................................................................................................................................. 27
FINAL REFLECTIONS FRAMING..................................................................................................................... 28
LM5. ORGANISATIONAL VISIBILITY IN THE NEWS...............................................................28
LECTURE 5 SLIDES. ORGANISATIONAL VISIBILITY IN THE NEWS...........................................................................28
BUFFERING NEGATIVE NEWS: INDIVIDUAL-LEVEL EFFECTS OF COMPANY VISIBILITY, TONE, AND PRE-EXISTING ATTITUDES
ON CORPORATE REPUTATION (JONKMAN ET AL., 2020)...................................................................................31
PERSONALIZATION OF TECH CORPORATIONS: EXAMINING PERSONALIZED NEWS AND THE MEDIA REPUTATION OF
GOOGLE, FACEBOOK, AND APPLE IN SWISS NEWS MEDIA (MARSCHLICH & EISENEGGER, 2025).............................31
NEWS VALUES ON SOCIAL MEDIA: EXPLORING WHAT DRIVES PEAKS IN USER ACTIVITY ABOUT ORGANIZATIONS ON
TWITTER (ARAUJO & VAN DER MEER, 2020)................................................................................................ 32
CONNECTING POINTS BETWEEN (JONKMAN ET AL., 2020), (MARSCHLICH & EISENEGGER, 2025) AND (ARAUJO & VAN
DER MEER, 2020)................................................................................................................................... 33
, 2
FINAL REFLECTIONS ORGANISATIONAL VISIBILITY IN THE NEWS...........................................................................33
GOLDEN IDEAS............................................................................................................... 33
OVERALL CONNECTIONS BETWEEN ARTICLES....................................................................37
REAL-WORLD CASE EXAMPLES FOR COURSE THEORIES.....................................................39
EXAM QUESTIONS........................................................................................................... 42
REAL WORLD EXAMPLES................................................................................................. 44
STRATEGIC ISSUES.................................................................................................................................... 44
LEGITIMATE ORGANISATIONS....................................................................................................................... 47
CORPORATE INVOLVEMENT IN POLITICAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES.............................................................................50
CURRENT CHALLENGES CORPORATE COMMUNICATION......................................................................................52
THE PRESENCE OF INFLUENCERS IN ISSUE ARENAS..........................................................................................58
TATA STEEL CASE.................................................................................................................................... 58
FRAMING IN POLITICS, MEDIA AND SOCIETY.................................................................................................... 62
FIGURATIVE FRAMING................................................................................................................................ 64
LM6. THE COMMUNICATIVE CONSTRUCTION OF RISK AND CRISIS.......................................64
LECTURE 6 SLIDES. THE COMMUNICATIVE CONSTRUCTION OF RISK AND CRISIS......................................................64
SITUATIONAL THEORY OF CRISIS: SITUATIONAL CRISIS COMMUNICATION THEORY AND CORPORATE REPUTATION
(COOMBS, 2013).................................................................................................................................... 67
HOW AUDIENCES SEEK OUT CRISIS INFORMATION: EXPLORING THE SOCIAL-MEDIATED CRISIS COMMUNICATION MODEL
(AUSTIN ET AL., 2012)............................................................................................................................ 70
REVISITING SOCIAL-MEDIATED CRISIS COMMUNICATION MODEL: THE LANCÔME REGENERATIVE CRISIS AFTER THE HONG
KONG UMBRELLA MOVEMENT (MAK & AO, 2019).........................................................................................72
CONNECTING POINTS BETWEEN (COOMBS, 2013), (AUSTIN ET AL., 2012) AND (MAK & AO, 2019)......................73
FINAL REFLECTIONS THE COMMUNICATIVE CONSTRUCTION OF RISK AND CRISIS......................................................74
LM7. POLITIZATION & CSR...............................................................................................74
LECTURE 7 SLIDES. POLITIZATION & CSR..................................................................................................... 74
EXPLORING CORPORATIONS’ DIALOGUE ABOUT CSR IN THE DIGITAL ERA (ILLIA ET AL., 2017).................................76
TO SUPPORT OR TO BOYCOTT: A PUBLIC SEGMENTATION MODEL IN CORPORATE SOCIAL ADVOCACY (HONG & LI, 2020)
............................................................................................................................................................ 78
THE MORAL FOUNDATIONS OF RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS: USING COMPUTATIONAL TEXT ANALYSIS TO EXPLORE THE SALIENCE
OF MORALITY IN CSR COMMUNICATION (EISELE ET AL., 2024).........................................................................79
CONNECTING POINTS BETWEEN (ILLIA ET AL., 2017), (HONG & LI, 2020) AND (EISELE ET AL., 2024)...................82
FINAL REFLECTIONS POLITIZATION & CSR..................................................................................................... 82
LM8. BIASES AND MISINFORMATION................................................................................83
LECTURE 8 SLIDES. BIASES AND MISINFORMATION..........................................................................................83
LOOPHOLES IN THE ECHO CHAMBERS: HOW THE ECHO CHAMBER METAPHOR OVERSIMPLIFIES THE EFFECTS OF
INFORMATION GATEWAYS ON OPINION EXPRESSION (GEIB ET AL., 2021)...........................................................88
DEGREES OF DECEPTION: THE EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF COVID-19 MISINFORMATION AND THE EFFECTIVENESS
OF CORRECTIVE INFORMATION IN CRISIS TIMES (HAMELEERS ET AL., 2023).........................................................90
CONNECTING POINTS BETWEEN (AMAZEEN, 2023), (GEIB ET AL., 2021) AND (HAMELEERS ET AL., 2023)..............91
FINAL REFLECTIONS BIASES AND MISINFORMATION...........................................................................................92
LM9. AL, ORGANISATIONS AND SOCIETY...........................................................................92
LECTURE 9 SLIDES. AI, ORGANISATIONS AND SOCIETY.....................................................................................92
FROM GREENWASHING TO MACHINEWASHING: A MODEL AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS DERIVED FROM REASONING BY
ANALOGY (SEELE AND SCHULTZ, 2022)...................................................................................................... 94
“ROGUE MACHINES” AND CRISIS COMMUNICATION: WHEN AI FAILS, HOW DO COMPANIES PUBLICLY RESPOND? (PRAHL &
GOH, 2021).......................................................................................................................................... 97
CHATGPT, AI ADVERTISING, AND ADVERTISING RESEARCH AND EDUCATION (HUH ET AL., 2023)...........................98
CONNECTING POINTS BETWEEN (SEELE & SCHULTZ, 2022), (PRAHL & GOH, 2021) AND (HUH ET AL., 2023)........99
FINAL REFLECTIONS AI, ORGANISATIONS AND SOCIETY.....................................................................................99
LM10. A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE.....................................................................................100
LECTURE 10 SLIDES. A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE............................................................................................. 100
, 3
THE OTHER SIDE OF MEDIATIZATION: EXPANDING THE CONCEPT TO DEFENSIVE STRATEGIES (NÖLLEKE ET AL., 2021)
.......................................................................................................................................................... 102
HOW ARE FRAMES GENERATED? INSIGHTS FROM THE INDUSTRY LOBBY AGAINST THE SUGAR TAX IN IRELAND (CAMPBELL
ET AL., 2020)...................................................................................................................................... 104
STEPPING ON TOES? ROLE DYNAMICS BETWEEN JOURNALISTS AND LOBBYISTS REGARDING BIG TECH’S ACCOUNTABILITY
AGENDA (SCHWINGES ET AL., 2024)........................................................................................................ 106
ORGANISED LYING AND PROFESSIONAL LEGITIMACY: PUBLIC RELATIONS’ ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE DISINFORMATION DEBATE
(EDWARDS, 2021)................................................................................................................................ 107
CONNECTING POINTS BETWEEN (NÖLLEKE ET AL., 2021), (CAMPBELL ET AL., 2020), (SCHWINGES ET AL., 2024) AND
(EDWARDS, 2021)................................................................................................................................ 108
FINAL REFLECTIONS A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE...............................................................................................108
LM11. REFLECTIVE COMMUNICATION..............................................................................108
LECTURE 11 SLIDES. REFLECTIVE COMMUNICATION.......................................................................................108
SOCIETY’S MEGATRENDS AND BUSINESS LEGITIMACY: TRANSFORMATIONS OF THE LEGITIMIZING BUSINESS PARADIGM
(HOLMSTRÖM, 2020)............................................................................................................................ 110
ORGANIZATIONAL LISTENING: ADDRESSING A MAJOR GAP IN PUBLIC RELATIONS THEORY AND PRACTICE (MACNAMARA,
2016)................................................................................................................................................ 114
CONNECTING POINTS BETWEEN (HOLMSTRÖM, 2020) AND (MACNAMARA, 2016)..............................................116
FINAL REFLECTIONS REFLECTIVE COMMUNICATION.........................................................................................117
GOLDEN IDEAS.............................................................................................................. 117
OVERALL CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THE ARTICLES...........................................................120
ORIGINAL CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THE ARTICLES..........................................................123
REAL WORLD EXAMPLES................................................................................................ 125
THE COMMUNICATIVE CONSTRUCTION OF RISK AND CRISIS..............................................................................125
LIST OF CORPORATE CRISES..................................................................................................................... 127
POLITIZATION & CSR............................................................................................................................. 128
LIST OF CORPORATIONS CSR/CSA............................................................................................................ 130
BIASES AND MISINFORMATION................................................................................................................... 132
AI, ORGANISATIONS AND SOCIETY.............................................................................................................. 135
LIST OF AI CRISES.................................................................................................................................. 137
A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE LECTURE QUESTIONS.............................................................................................138
A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE EXAMPLES........................................................................................................... 140
REFLECTIVE COMMUNICATION................................................................................................................... 142
LM1. Introduction
Lecture 1 slides. Introduction
1. Course Focus: Organizations in a Mediatized Environment
Organizations operate within society and must navigate complex media dynamics to maintain
visibility, legitimacy and reputation.
The course examines three key areas:
1. Organizations and their societal environment – Issue arenas, stakeholder
relationships, and social evaluations (e.g., legitimacy, reputation).
2. Organizations and the news – The role of media framing, agenda-setting and crisis
communication.
3. Broader societal context – The impact of macro-level changes, such as corporate
social responsibility (CSR), politicization, misinformation, and AI.
This shift moves away from organization-centric thinking, instead emphasizing the role
organizations play in society and how they adapt to media-driven pressures.
2. Strategic Communication (Zerfass et al., 2018)
, 4
Definition:
“Strategic communication encompasses all communication that is substantial for the survival and
sustained success of an entity. It is the purposeful use of communication to engage in
conversations of strategic significance.” (Zerfass et al., 2018, p. 493)
Key Elements of Strategic Communication
Monitoring stakeholder expectations – Organizations must understand public sentiment and
adjust their strategies accordingly.
Informing and influencing stakeholders – Communication is not just about conveying
information but actively shaping stakeholder perceptions.
Multichannel presence – Strategic communication spans traditional and digital
platforms, requiring organizations to adapt to different audiences.
Complexity, uncertainty, and risk – Many strategic communication efforts only reveal their
true impact in hindsight, necessitating continuous environmental scanning.
Subjective vs. Objective Dimensions
1. Subjective – The perceived importance of an issue, based on collective sense-making
(Thomas Theorem: If people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences).
2. Objective – The actual impact of an issue, often only recognized in retrospect (complexity,
uncertainty, and ambiguity).
This framework highlights the importance of proactive communication management in shaping
public discourse and protecting organizational legitimacy.
3. A Communication Science Approach (Lock et al., 2020)
A communication science approach integrates various theories to analyze strategic communication
beyond management-focused perspectives.
Three Key Traditions in Communication Science
1. Interpretative/Critical/Cultural – Explores subjectivity, power relations, and the researcher’s
role in shaping meaning.
2. Social Science (Dominant Paradigm) – Empirical, value-neutral approach, using
quantitative research to study communication effects.
3. Rhetorical Approaches – Focuses on persuasion, discourse theory, and rhetorical
strategies in shaping public perception.
Strategic communication research has increasingly incorporated social science theories in fields
such as:
Crisis communication – Managing reputational risks.
Public relations – Stakeholder engagement and corporate messaging.
Agenda-building and media influence – Understanding how organizations shape news
coverage and public debate.
Going “back to the roots” of communication theories helps scholars develop new insights by
focusing on how communication itself creates meaning and relationships.
4. Organizations, Media, and Society (van der Meer et al., 2024)
This section explores the dynamic relationship between organizations and media, focusing on
visibility, mediatization, and legitimacy.
Key Themes
1. Organizations and News Media – The visibility of organizations is shaped by media
agenda-setting and framing.
