Media Attention Research Articles

Social media attention and corporate greenwashing: Evidence from China

AbstractThis study examines the effect of social media attention on corporate greenwashing using a sample of Chinese A‐share listed firms from 2011 to 2021. We find that social media attention increases corporate greenwashing, and the effect is more pronounced for firms with negative financial performance and those with violations, supporting the pressure hypothesis. Drawing on fraud triangle theory, which considers the interplay of pressure, opportunity, and rationalization, we also find that the pressure effect is more pronounced for firms with higher CEO power, greater information asymmetry, as well as firms located in regions with a gambling culture and non‐state‐owned firms. This indicates that firms are more inclined to greenwash when they perceive an opportunity and can rationalize this behavior. Furthermore, our heterogeneity analyses demonstrate that the pressure effect is more significant for firms located in regions characterized by higher marketization, firms operating in non‐heavily polluting industries, and those that do not provide assured non‐financial reports. This study contributes to the literature on the role of social media and determinants of corporate greenwashing, providing important implications for firms' sustainable development.

How to select green technology acquisition paths for enterprises: An analysis based on evolutionary game theory

AbstractAs an important method of reducing pollution, green technology innovation (GTI) is receiving more attention. However, facing the challenges in conducting GTI, it is crucial for enterprises to find the optimal path to acquire green technology. This paper investigates how high‐pollution manufacturing enterprises make decisions on independent innovation and green technology introduction under government intervention and public involvement. The influences of other factors, such as media attention and product market competition, have also been considered in the tripartite evolutionary game model. The simulation after applying MATLAB indicates that government intervention and public participation have a significant impact on the decision‐making of green technology acquisition paths for enterprises. Government subsidies and penalties are important policy tools for enterprises to make decisions on the selection of green technology acquisition paths. Meanwhile, reputational incentives or losses brought from public involvement are also essential in encouraging government intervention and green technology acquisition of enterprises. Finally, the extent to which the changes in various influencing factors affect the selection of enterprises' green technology acquisition paths have been tested and simulated. This paper aims to provide policy implications for governments, as well as decision‐making strategies for enterprises that urgently require green transition to achieve sustainable development.

The Impact of Fiscal Councils on Public Perception: A Survey Experiment in the Czech Republic

Abstract This study examines the influence of fiscal councils on public opinion regarding fiscal issues. Using a survey-framing experiment on a representative sample of 900 inhabitants of the Czech Republic, the study evaluates how the framing of a message regarding the negative effects of rising government debt would impact the attitudes of respondents. The results show that framing the message as coming from the Czech Fiscal Council does not increase its credibility. Fiscal councils should not focus on persuading the public of their viewpoint on public finance issues, but rather utilize the knowledge of agenda-setting theory to gain media attention for fiscal issues.

GP workforce sustainability to maximise effective and equitable patient care: a realist review of what works, for whom and in what circumstances?

UK general practice has been described as being in crisis. A shortage and exodus of GPs is an urgent and challenging problem, attracting significant media attention, widespread public debate, and policy action. Our review aims to examine which aspects of the healthcare system affect GP workforce sustainability, how, why, and for whom. A realist review is an interpretive, theory-driven approach to evidence synthesis, that brings together data from quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods research, and the wider grey literature (e.g., policy documentation). Using this data allows us to examine a diverse range of evidence with a clear focus on understanding factors which support (or hinder) GP workforce sustainability, how these are shaped by contexts, and the mechanisms that underpin them. We identify important individual and system-level contexts that may be amenable to change. We present our emerging findings in the form of a programme theory which explores human connection with patients, colleagues, and across organisations, gaining intellectual enrichment and learning systems comprising socially-situated knowledge. Relational continuity is key across these, supporting GP workforce sustainability. Challenges include standardisation, alienation and professional loneliness, inflexible organisation, and restrictive technologies. Our research generates new knowledge about the interdependencies between contexts, mechanisms, and outcomes. The findings can inform strategies and interventions intended to support, facilitate, and assist the GP workforce in delivering equitable and effective patient care. We identify critical gaps in knowledge and prioritise the expectations for scope and nature of future GP work and retention strategies.

The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Financial Performance: A Comparative Study of Green and Non-Green Firms

This research compares green and non-green companies to investigate how corporate social responsibility (CSR) affects financial performance (FP). Although the relationship between CSR and FP has been studied in the past, the findings have been contradictory, and the conclusions can’t be reached with certainty because there isn’t enough specific data on CSR. The main goals of this study are to examine the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and financial success, as well as the possible effects of increasing media attention on CSR initiatives on business outcomes. The study intends to address important concerns about the advantages and results of CSR participation while acknowledging the variety of stakeholders engaged in assessing the business value of organizations. The study looks at the kinds of CSR activities that provide positive CSR effects and assesses whether CSR initiatives add to or subtract from profit maximization objectives. The study advances our knowledge of how corporate social responsibility (CSR) affects financial performance, especially when it comes to green versus non-green businesses. Keywords: Corporate social responsibility, financial performance, comparative study, green firms, non-green firms, stakeholders

Invoking Identity? Partisan Polarization in Discussions of Race, Racism, and Gender in 2022 Midterm Advertising in the United States

Context: Media messaging matters for public opinion and policy, and analyzing patterns of campaign strategy can provide important windows into policy priorities. Methods: The authors used content analysis supplemented with keyword-based text analysis to assess the volume, proportion, and distribution of media attention to race-related issues in comparison to gender-related issues during the general election period of the 2022 midterm campaigns for federal office in the United States. Findings: Race-related mentions in campaign advertising were overwhelmingly focused on crime and law and order, with very little attention to racism, racial injustice, and the structural barriers that lead to widespread inequities. In stark contrast to mentions of gender, racial appeals were less identity focused and were competitively contested between the parties in their messaging, but they were much more likely to be led by Republicans. Conclusions: The results suggest that discussions of race and gender were highly polarized, with consequences for public understanding of and belief in disparities and policies important to population health.

Lithuania: Political Developments and Data in 2023

AbstractIn 2023, the NATO Vilnius Summit was the major political event in Lithuania that attracted significant global media attention. In addition, Lithuania underwent local elections and faced a municipal expenses scandal that nearly brought down the government. Nevertheless, the Cabinet remained stable with only one minister being replaced.

Stock exchange comment letters and MD&A tone management

This paper investigates the impact of stock exchange comment letters on MD&A tone management by Chinese listed firms. Our findings are twofold. First, abnormal positive MD&A tone is significantly reduced for firms receiving comment letters from stock exchanges. Second, comment letters have made abnormal positive MD&A tone more informative about future accounting earnings. Further analysis suggests that the treatment effect of stock exchange comment letters on MD&A tone management is more pronounced when the comment letters make stronger demands, or firms face greater concerns over proprietary information or attract more media attention. These findings are consistent with the view that stock exchange comment letters can restrain uninformative tone management leading to enhanced financial reporting quality.

Can the registration system reform improve the disclosure quality?——Evidence from the ChiNext board

As an important institutional reform in the Chinese capital market, the registration system reform aims to improve the disclosure quality of public companies. Using the exogenous shock from the registration system reform as a quasi-natural experiment, we probe the effect of the registration system on disclosure in two stages: IPO admission and post-IPO supervision. We find that the registration system reform significantly reduces the performance deterioration of “incremental” companies in the IPO admission stage and improves the disclosure quality of “existing” companies in the post-IPO supervision stage. In addition, curbing earnings manipulation is a possible channel the registration system reform affects disclosure. Furthermore, these effects are more pronounced in firms with lower internal governance levels and less external media attention. Collectively, these findings respond to the theoretical controversy over whether the registration system will improve or worsen disclosure quality and confirm the reform has positive effects.

Digital Transformation and the Quality of Green Innovation in Manufacturing Companies

The digital economy has given rise to the digital transformation of enterprises, supply chain management welcomes new opportunities, and the contradiction between economic development and resources, energy and environment needs to be solved urgently. This paper takes China's Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies in the manufacturing industry from 2010 to 2022 as a sample, and adopts Python crawler technology, SA index, and two-way fixed model to construct a green innovation evaluation system, and builds a mediation effect model with "supply side optimization-demand side pull" as a chain to explore the influence mechanism of digital transformation on the quality of enterprises' green innovation. Explore the influence mechanism of digital transformation on the quality of green innovation of enterprises. A two-way fixed model is used to test the moderating effects of environmental regulation, media attention and the heterogeneity between supply and demand. Finally, suggestions for green innovation of enterprises in the perspective of digital economy are proposed.

Political connections and corporate ESG performance

With the popularization of the concept of sustainable development, corporate ESG performance has attracted more and more attention from all walks of life. However, there is still a lack of in-depth discussion on what factors affect corporate ESG performance, especially in a political and economic system like China. This article takes A-share listed companies as a sample to empirically analyze the impact of political connections on corporate ESG performance. The study found that political connections can promote corporate ESG performance by increasing media attention and reducing financing constraints. Further research found that this promotion performance is more significant in non-state-owned enterprises. This article combines the national conditions with Chinese characteristics, enriches the research on the factors that promote corporate ESG performance from the government perspective, and deepens the research on the role and consequences of political connections.

Path analysis of digital development on the green industrial transformation of Chinese resource-based enterprises

In the context of the rapid development of the global digital economy, the digital transformation of enterprises and their resource consumption has become crucial for countries to enhance their competitiveness and cultivate new growth areas. This study examines the effects of corporate digitalization on green transformation within resource-based firms listed in China from 2009 to 2021. The analysis reveals that digital transformation substantially enhances the sustainability of these enterprises. Nonetheless, the effects are not uniform across all sectors: they are more pronounced in mining-based companies, large entities, and businesses operating in the central and western regions of China. In contrast, impacts appear negligible for energy production and supply companies, smaller firms, and enterprises based in the central regions. The robustness of these findings is confirmed through various methodological adjustments, including variations in the explanatory variables, adjustments to the study's sample size, the inclusion of additional control variables, and the application of diverse empirical models. Finally, we further finds that internal and external factors such as increased corporate social responsibility, increased media attention, and financialization support can contribute to the greening effect of digital transformation on resource-based enterprises.

Media framing on news of the Hartal Doktor Kontrak (HDK) movement in Malaysia: a quantitative content analysis of two Malaysian newspapers

Hartal Doktor Kontrak (HDK) Movement first surfaced in June 2021 following prolonged dissatisfaction towards the contract appointment policy of medical doctors in Malaysia. On the 26th of July 2021, an unprecedented strike (Hartal) was organised by contract doctors across Malaysia. It generated major media attention. This study sought to evaluate how the HDK movement was framed in the mainstream media and to analyse the framing trend in conjunction with the chronology of HDK movement events. A total of 109 news articles in two major national newspapers were analysed from 1st June 2021 until 28th February 2022 using quantitative content analysis method. The five-dimension media frame (responsibility, human interest, conflict, morality, and economic consequences) by Semetko & Valkenburg was applied to determine the trend of media framing. MANOVA test was performed to scrutinise the differences in frame portrayal before and after Hartal. Overall, the responsibility frame was the most used (76.2%) both pre- and post-strike, with the most frequently highlighted items being solutions to the HDK issue and the roles played by the government. The human interest frame and conflict frame followed next, with at least one item of each frame being featured in 33.0 and 32.1% of all news articles. Despite more news articles published post-strike, the aggregate mean scores of all the frames were higher during the pre-strike period, demonstrating how media framing in the earlier period significantly affected the subsequent events of the HDK movement and its impact on the contract appointment policy. In this case, media framing set an agenda for stakeholders to implement necessary policy changes to prevent subsequent strikes and to seek long-term solutions. Lastly, this study presents a novel approach to evaluating certain controversial matters that may not be suitably addressed by the conventional research method such as primary quantitative data collection or qualitative interviews.

The Influencing Mechanism of Managerial Myopic Behavior on Enterprise Sustainable Development Performance: Evidence Based on Listed Companies in China

Corporate sustainability is a key concern in today’s world. This research examines the relationship between managerial myopic behavior and corporate sustainability performance in Chinese A-share listed companies from 2013 to 2022. Based on behavioral finance theory and time orientation theory, our research provides novel insights into how time preference in managerial decisions significantly affects corporate sustainable development. We also investigate how myopic behavior by managers can adversely affect a company’s sustainable development performance. Using a robust dataset, we describe the mechanisms by which managers’ myopic behavior affects sustainability performance, especially in two aspects: financialization of assets and green innovation capability. The results of our research show the following: (1) managers’ myopic behavior adversely affects corporate sustainability performance; (2) asset financialization and green innovation capability play mediating roles; and (3) unlike the findings of the existing research, this study found that the linear moderating effect of media attention plays a significant “inverted U-shaped” moderating role in the relationship between the two influences.

Climate summits and protests have a strong impact on climate change media coverage in Germany

Media inform the public, thereby influencing societal debates and political decisions. Despite climate change’s importance, drivers of media attention to climate change remain differently understood. Here we assess how different sociopolitical and extreme weather events affect climate change media coverage, both immediately and in the weeks following the event. To this end, we construct a data set of over 90,000 climate change articles published in nine major German newspapers over the past three decades and apply fixed effects panel regressions to control for confounders. We find that United Nations Climate Change Conferences affect coverage most strongly and most persistently. Climate protests incite climate coverage that extends well beyond the reporting on the event itself, whereas many articles on weather extremes do not mention climate change. The influence of all events has risen over time, increasing the media prominence of climate change.

Can the enterprise intelligent transformation promote accounting information transparency? Pressure from media attention

As digital technologies advance, the intelligent transformation of enterprises has emerged as a prevailing trend. By adopting sophisticated digital tools and platforms, enterprises can enhance the transparency of accounting information, thereby reducing information asymmetry between businesses and their stakeholders. This enhancement plays a pivotal role in stabilizing and developing financial markets. This study examines the relationship between intelligent transformation, accounting information transparency, and media attention using sample data from Chinese listed companies from 2007 to 2022. The findings indicate that: 1) Intelligent transformation positively impacts accounting information transparency; 2) Media attention moderates the relationship between intelligent transformation and accounting information transparency; and 3) Heterogeneity tests reveal that, compared to non-state-owned enterprises, state-owned enterprises experience a stronger effect of intelligent transformation on accounting information transparency.

Factors influencing risk perception during Public Health Emergencies of International Concern (PHEIC): a scoping review.

The unknownness and dread potential of a risk event shapes its perceived risk. A public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) declaration by the World Health Organisation (WHO) is a signal for such an event. Understanding perceived risk then shapes risk-avoiding behaviours, important for health prevention. The review aims to consolidate the determinants of risk perception during a PHEIC, underscoring the need for grounding in context and theory. Studies published from 2010 until end-2020, searching PubMed, PsycINFO, MedlinePlus, PubPsych, and CINAHL, were included. Studies with only biological conceptualisations of risk, or no association to risk perception, were excluded. A total of 65 studies were included. Quality of the cross-sectional studies was assessed using Newcastle Ottawa Scale (NOS), yielding an average of 5.4 stars (out of 10). Factors were classified into three broad categories - individual, contextual, and media. Individual risk factors include emotions; beliefs, trust, and perceptions; immutable physical traits (sex, age, ethnicity); mutable traits (education, income, etc.); and knowledge, with no definitive correlation to risk perception. Contextual traits include pandemic experience, time, and location, with only time negatively correlated to risk perception. Media traits include exposure, attention, and framing of media, with no clear association to risk perception. One limitation is excluding a portion of COVID-19 studies due to censoring. Still, this lack of consensus highlights the need to better conceptualise "risk perception". Specifying the context and timing is also important since jurisdictions experience different outbreaks depending on outbreak histories. Using theories to ground risk perception research assists with these tasks.

Non‐controlling shareholder activism and executive pay‐for‐performance sensitivity: Evidence from the over‐appointment of directors in the Chinese market

AbstractWe examine the impact of non‐controlling shareholder activism on the effectiveness of executive compensation contract, particularly focusing on the over‐appointment of directors in A‐share firms listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2008 to 2021. We discover that such over‐appointments by non‐controlling shareholders significantly promote executive pay‐for‐performance sensitivity of these enterprises. This effect becomes even more pronounced in enterprises that display a weaker government intervention and media attention. Further mechanism analysis indicates that over‐appointments improve the effectiveness of compensation contract by improving the quality of accounting information and restraining executives' opportunistic behaviour. Our further research finds that over‐appointments by non‐controlling shareholders can effectively reduce executive compensation stickiness, while significantly increasing the absolute salary level of executives. There is no evidence to suggest that independent directors increase executive pay‐for‐performance sensitivity.

Employment wages and diseases of despair in early adulthood: Links through subjective socioeconomic status and cumulative stressor exposure

Rising mortality due to suicides, overdoses, and substance-related diseases, also called “deaths of despair,” has attracted significant academic, public, and media attention in recent years. This type of mortality, and key precursor “diseases of despair” like depressive mood and substance-related problems, tend to concentrate in people affected by deindustrialization and the loss of well-paid industrial jobs, that is, working-age adults with less than a BA degree. It is thought that risks build up when young adults with less education struggle to find decent jobs upon entering the labor market, which in turn triggers (1) subjective perceptions of being stuck in lower socioeconomic rungs; and (2) exposure to chronic stressors in various domains (e.g., housing, relationships). This study examined whether wages were related to diseases of despair (i.e., depressive mood and substance-related problems) through these two types of processes in a longitudinal sample (N = 543) overrepresenting young Canadian adults with lower educational attainment followed from their mid-teens to their mid-20s. Psychological processes and outcomes were self-reported, whereas exposure to stressors was assessed with a gold-standard interview-based protocol. After taking into account key potential confounders measured in adolescence (e.g., stressor exposure, mental health symptoms), results show that wages in early adulthood (in the early and mid-20s) were indirectly associated with depressed mood and substance-related problems in the mid-20s, through internal psychological processes and external exposure to chronic stressors. The specific processes in play varied by outcome. For depressive mood, subjective perceptions of one's relative socioeconomic position emerged as particularly relevant, whereas for substance-related problems, significant indirect associations emerged only when both internal psychological processes and external exposures to stressors were considered jointly. Access to decent jobs offering good wages among young adults without university degrees should thus be considered when designing policies aimed at reducing diseases of despair in younger generations.

The Racial Limits of Disruption: How Race and Tactics Influence Social Movement Organization Testimony before Congress, 1960–1995

Abstract Social movement theory holds that disrupting social and political processes is among the most effective tools social movement organizations (SMOs) use to motivate recognition for themselves and their constituents. Yet, recent research suggests that the political reception of disruption is not racially neutral. Black SMOs face a dilemma in that, although disruption is a powerful tool for change, the public often perceives nonviolent Black disruptive protest as violent. We investigate this bind by analyzing how nondisruptive protest, nonviolent disruption, or violence helps or hinders both Black and non-Black SMOs to gain state “acceptance” as legitimate spokes-organizations for their issues. We combine data on newspaper-reported protest events with data covering 41,545 SMO Congressional testimonies from 1462 SMOs from 35 movement families. In panel regressions, we find that Congress is generally more accepting of nondisruptive protest but that nondisruptive protest is only roughly one-tenth as effective for Black SMOs compared with non-Black SMOs. Furthermore, whereas non-Black SMOs are significantly more likely to testify after using nonviolent disruption, Black SMOs using nonviolent disruption are significantly less likely to testify before Congress. Regardless of race, violence was associated with fewer congressional testimonies. Collectively, these findings suggest that Black SMOs face a tactical bind: Black SMOs can use nondisruptive tactics that are resource-intensive and slow, or they can use nonviolent disruption that gets media attention but hinders congressional acceptance. These findings contribute to a growing literature on how racial inequality and prejudice impact the outcomes of social movements.