The superfluousness of CSR in media organisations

Abstract

PurposeHowever, the scale of corporate social responsibility (CSR) implementation in Polish media organisations is diversified. The survey, which was conducted among the CEOs of some regional radio broadcast partnerships in Poland, indicates that only one of them has in fact accepted the CSR solutions. The majority of this group think there is no need to implement CSR because they consider it to be a duplication of the public media mission. Considering commercial media, all the biggest TV and radio stations apply CSR. The pressure is manifested by the fact that numerous media organisations – commercial and public ones – have accepted solutions of CSR. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approachTo verify the hypotheses, a survey was conducted from January to June 2015, in 12 (out of 17) Polish regional radio stations (independent partnerships). The research was of quality character – each media organisation selected for the survey was a separate case study. To collect the required data, two research methods were applied: in-depth interviews with the radio station CEOs (N1-N12); analysis of organisation documents concerning the mission of public organisations. We assumed that an in-depth analysis of a fragment of the empirical material in the form of a case study comes as an element of universal experience, and it reflects the universe (Denzin and Lincoln, 2009).FindingsThe survey suggests that only one organisation implements CSR standards. Its CEO, however is mainly driven by business reasoning. He considers that “it is an excellent tool to improve the image of the organisation in the advertisement market” and “a good way to present a radio company as a reliable business partner”.Research limitations/implicationsA critical attitude to CSR in media organisations has a double source: generally, CSR is not adequate to all organisations; CSR multiplies social functions of a media organisation, and a role which it plays in the society. It comes as an immanent feature of the way how a media organisation functions in its basic dimension. As presented above, the attempt to define specific elements, which allow us to analyse the level of “advance” characteristic for a media organisation, drives us to a following conclusion: communication and implementation of the CSR standards seems natural in the context of such activities of media companies as placing orders (relations with business partners, internal policy of employment, etc.), however, it only comes as a confirmation of such expectations from media organisations which are connected with maintenance of journalist standards.Practical implicationsAs the survey of the CEOs of Polish public radio companies suggests, the problem of multiplying social responsibility of media refers, first of all, to public media. Majority of the executives considers CSR as duplication of fulfilling the public mission, and as some superfluous practice in public media.Social implicationsConsidering this situation, it is possible to state that the concept of CSR, first of all, results from the presence of media entities in the market, where they compete mainly for the attention of listeners and advertisers. The consumer-investor dimension of media operations also contributes to the perception of CSR as the operation which is apparently pro-social, however which truly aims at increasing the company value by the improvement of its image as goods and service provider.Originality/valueThe source of acceptance for public media is a strong belief in social value of honest and competent information reporting and its contextualisation. At the same time, however, a basic deteriorating factor of media legitimisation is their transformation into market-oriented economy. Commodification of media means constant pressure to increase the role of “business” rhetoric and “business” solutions. The pressure is manifested by the fact that numerous media organisations – commercial and public ones – have accepted solutions of CSR.