Role of Social and News Media in Business Essay

Must be your own work and not copy and paste and read the study guide

Instructions

In this unit, you have learned about the role of social and news media on a business. Compose an essay examining this topic. In your essay, be sure to include the criteria below.

Distinguish the pros and cons of social media in successful business strategy.

Explain how business strategy is affected by the news media.

Discuss ways that businesses implement strategies to interact with the news media.

Your essay must be a minimum of two pages in length. It should include an introduction, a clear thesis statement, and a conclusion. In addition, a minimum of two academic sources (only one of which can be an assigned source, such as the textbook) must be used, cited, and referenced in APA format.

Book reference: Ferrell, O. C., Thorne, D., & Ferrell, L. (2016). Business and society: A strategic approach to social responsibility & ethics (5th ed.). Chicago, IL: Chicago Business Press.

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Course Learning Outcomes for Unit VI Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:

2. Critique nonmarket issues affecting successful business strategies including the role of the news media. 2.1 Distinguish the pros and cons of social media in successful business strategy. 2.2 Explain how business strategy is affected by the news media. 2.3 Discuss ways that businesses implement strategies to interact with the news media.

Reading Assignment Chapter 8: Consumer Relations Additional Reading Assignment: In order to access the following resource, click the link below: Roy, J. (2015). Role of media in our society. Retrieved from

http://www.globalethicsnetwork.org/profiles/blogs/role-of-media-in-our-society

Unit Lesson Introduction: The Media’s Role in Society For centuries, the media has maintained an exciting role as an informant in society. In the early 1800s, this excitement was portrayed by the popular cry of newsboys saying, “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” while delivering a special edition of a newspaper.

Newspapers published “extra special” or “extra” editions after a big news event, such as a presidential election, a war, an assassination, or a trial verdict. The media’s role as an informant has become increasingly important over time. Manifestations of the news media’s role are observed in the market and nonmarket environments in many significant ways.

First, the news provides information to the general public about issues that affect people’s lives and the society in which people live. Activists, the government, interest groups, and the public at large are alerted based on information received in the news media.

Second, the media identifies nonmarket issues and stimulates the necessary action that affects the progression of the issues. It is responsible for raising concerns about the policies and practices of firms.

In recent years, the expansion of media sources, including the most well-known social media sites, has enhanced the strength of the media’s ability to share more information to an expanded audience. Issue Coverage and Forms of Treatment Despite efforts to disclose information among stakeholders, the news media protects its independence from issues and carefully avoids being used as a part of a nonmarket strategy.

Its main objective is to cover an issue of interest to viewers. The intrinsic audience theory suggests that coverage increases with the interest of an audience. For example, there is a tendency for the media to dwell on stories that appeal to the audience’s sensation or that elicit an emotional response from the audience.

Examples of these issues include automobile accidents, kidnappings, riots, demise of industry leaders, natural disasters, and other related stories. Other important factors related to coverage depend upon whether an issue is newsworthy, the cost of coverage, and balance and fairness. These factors are discussed below.

Unit VI Study Guide

The Role of the Media and the Importance of Consumer Relations

http://www.globalethicsnetwork.org/profiles/blogs/role-of-media-in-our-society

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• Newsworthiness: An issue is more newsworthy and will receive greater attention if it involves a degree of immediacy or urgency (natural disaster), involves a celebrity, or has a human-interest element with which the audience identifies. The type of coverage depends on the cost of obtaining information and producing a story.
• Cost of coverage: Media organizations rely on low-cost sources of information. Often, this information comes from citizens. With the rise of Internet usage, citizen journalism has become an important phenomenon because of blog and social media capabilities. Many citizens use the Internet to voice their opinions on nonmarket issues that affect business developments.

The Internet also presents an opportunity for the news media to gain increased exposure by creating their own social media and blogging sites for citizens to comment on various issues regarding business developments.

• Balance and fairness: Most nonmarket issues involving businesses are quite complex. Presenting high-level, complex issues with accuracy, fairness, and balance will vary considerably among media organizations. Regardless of the source, journalism standards and editorial controls mandate that stories are accurate with balanced and fair treatment. These standards are enforced by news media organizations and professional associations.

Media forms of treatment include straightforward presentation of facts, straightforward description of events, interpretation of facts and events, exploration of the potential significance and ramifications, and advocacy of a course of action. News Media and Business Interactions Because the media provides a safe haven for citizens to voice their opinions, business interactions with the news media are essential to minimize public scrutiny.

Since the media desires to strike a balance and ignite controversy, it also exercises control over the editing process and carefully selects interview parts that make an interesting story. Many times, these stories are not the ones firms desire for the general public to know. In fact, many firms wish to avoid media coverage and will provide minimal comments to satisfy the media to avoid full-blown stories from appearing.

To protect its public face, most businesses implement strategies to interact with the media. For example, research the Hewlett-Packard (HP) media guidelines. In particular, HP encourages all employees to consider the front-page test that requires employees think about what the decision would look like on the front page of the local paper (HP, n.d.).

Most companies that grant interviews to the media often designate a public relations specialist or company figurehead to speak with journalists. When media coverage of an issue is anticipated, firms should prepare to speak to the media to curtail any negative publicity that might arise.

Even firms that are well prepared often encounter unanticipated events for which they must give a response. An increasingly important component of this issue relates to social media. For more information on the importance of social media, see an example in the Ciccatelli article in the suggested reading section of this unit.

Another way that businesses can manage their public relations is to be proactive. Indeed, many businesses today develop corporate social responsibility (CSR) annual reports. These are designed to articulate specific CSR initiatives and report annually on the organizational achievement of those goals.

A good example of this type of report is the case of Dell. Dell has developed socially responsible goals, and it takes achieving these goals very seriously (Dell, 2016).

Many other companies follow this voluntary example of compliance. In some respects, these types of reports follow the guidance in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act that requires firms to be more transparent. Also, these types of reports are helpful in addressing media-related issues.

Consumer Relations and Strategic Philanthropy Another element that is important in our understanding of business, government, and society is related to the importance of consumers and consumer relations.

Consumers have a series of basic rights including the right to choose, the right to safety, the right to be informed, the right to be heard, the right to redress, and the right to privacy (see Table 8.5 on p. 275 of the textbook). These rights are protected by a series of key consumer laws (see Table 8.3 on p. 267 of the textbook).

This legal framework has developed over time, and reflects a fundamental shift in the framework of business, government, and society in general. Specifically, the change reflects the fact that the system is holistic and that all three elements (business, government, and society) are interrelated and mutually supportive.

This framework reflects a shift from the previous period in which businesses were viewed as more independent and looking simply to generate profits to support their own business interests.

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Another aspect of this more holistic perspective of business is being a partner with government and society; many businesses have developed strategic philanthropic interests. The benefits of these interests include consumer trust, stakeholder loyalty, employee engagement, reputation, enhanced brand image, increased shareholder value, and positive publicity.

Summary This unit outlines the fact that businesses are increasingly viewed by others as a part of the communities in which they operate. Businesses are subjected to increasing scrutiny by the media and by consumers. To retain a competitive advantage, firms must be aware of this new reality and act accordingly.

References Dell. (2016). An annual update on our 2020 Legacy of Good plan. Retrieved from

http://i.dell.com/sites/doccontent/corporate/corp-comm/en/Documents/fy16-cr-report.pdf Hewlett-Packard. (n.d.). Our standards of business conduct: Building trust together. Retrieved from

http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/globalcitizenship/csr/sbcbrochure.pdf

Suggested Reading social media can be a great tool for businesses to use; however, it does have its drawbacks and risks. This article examines the risks of social media and how to navigate them. Ciccatelli, A. (2014). The reality of managing social media risk in business. Retrieved from

http://www.insidecounsel.com/2014/04/24/the-reality-of-managing-social-media-risk-in- busin?slreturn=1480269872

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