Public Relations Review 37 (2011) 166168

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Public Relations Review

Short Communication

Dimensions of disclosures: Corporate social responsibility (CSR)

reporting by media companies
Jiran Hou , Bryan H. Reber
Grady College of Journalism & Mass Communication, The University of Georgia, Journalism Building, 120 Hooper Street, Athens, GA 30602, United States

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 14 September 2010
Received in revised form 12 January 2011
Accepted 12 January 2011
Keywords:
Corporate social responsibility
CSR disclosure
Media companies

a b s t r a c t
In this study, we examined the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives and disclosures of major media companies in the United States. We conducted content analysis to
analyze ve dimensions of CSR disclosure: environment, community relations, diversity,
employee relations and human rights, as well as their media CSR activities. Our ndings
showed that nine of the ten companies have engaged in different types of CSR activities.
These companies CSR initiatives differ by the types of the company, and the size of the
company also has inuence on the reporting of CSR initiatives.
2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

CSR is dened as a voluntary corporate commitment to exceed the explicit and implicit obligations imposed on a company
by societys expectations of conventional corporate behavior (Falck & Heblich, 2007, p. 247). For corporations, the adoption
of CSR strategies can enhance their relationships with multiple stakeholders. Therefore, it is necessary to communicate
CSR activities and use effective relationship management to satisfy stakeholders expectations and achieve the expected
goals of CSR initiatives (Clarke, 2000; Podnar, 2008). To date, there have been several studies examining the practices and
communication of CSR in different industries (e.g., Chen & Bouvain, 2009; Sweeney & Coughlan, 2008). However, as one of
the most inuential industries in a society, the media industry has been neglected by CSR research.
The nancial realities of todays media environment require media outlets to satisfy both public interests and shareholders scal expectations. Given the special status of media companies in a society, it is important to know whether media
companies have integrated CSR strategies into their strategic public relations management. And if they have engaged in CSR
activities, how do they use CSR initiatives to differentiate themselves from competitors, meet the general corporate mandate
to make prots, and behave as a responsible corporate citizen for the public? This study analyzed the CSR disclosures of
major media companies in the United States through the lens of four research questions: (1) Do media companies in the
United States disclose their CSR activities? (2a) If media companies disclose their CSR activities, what are their CSR activities
and engagement? (2b) Are there any discernable differences in their CSR reporting? and (3) How do media companies CSR
initiatives differ by the types of company?
1. Method
The researchers conducted content analysis to examine the CSR disclosures of the top ten media companies in the United
States. The media companies publicly available CSR reports, online CSR information and annual reports were used. The top
ten were chosen based on their annual net U.S. media revenue in 2008. They are Comcast Corp., The Walt Disney Company,

Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 7062064551.

E-mail addresses: jiranhou@uga.edu (J. Hou), reber@uga.edu (B.H. Reber).
0363-8111/$ see front matter 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2011.01.005

J. Hou, B.H. Reber / Public Relations Review 37 (2011) 166168

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Time Warner, DirecTV Group, Time Warner Cable, News Corporation, NBC Universal, Cox Enterprises, Dish Network Corp.
and CBS Corporation.
Coding identied mention of codes of ethics, ve dimensions of CSR disclosure, media specic CSR activities (e.g., producing responsible content), and media product categories.
Two researchers did independent coding using a structural coding format. Comparisons of the coded content found no
major differences between the two coders analysis.
2. Results
Only one of the ten companies, Dish Network Corporation, had no form of CSR disclosure within the coded areas. Among
the other nine companies, Time Warner, Walt Disney Company and CBS Corporation, had complete CSR reports in PDF format
that could be accessed from their primary websites. The other six companies had specic sections of CSR information either
on their primary websites or on a parent companys website.
2.1. Environment
Seven of the nine companies disclosed environmental policies and activities. Their policies focused on reducing a companys overall impact on the environment in terms of climate change, energy efciency, waste reduction and recycling.
These media companies have engaged in various programs related to the major focus areas of environment policy, such as
building high-performance green ofce buildings, measuring and analyzing energy used, and engaging stakeholders with
environmental issues. Comcast Corporation, Time Warner Cable and Cox Enterprises are national cable operators, and their
environmental activities focus on energy usage, facilitate management, and using eco-friendly vehicle eets. In contrast,
Walt Disney Company, CBS Corporation, Time Warner and News Corporation not only adopted environmental programs on
conserving natural sources and energy, they also have launched programs or used popular programming to engage audiences
to take action for the environment. For example, News Corporation explained:
News Corporation is beginning to address its own use of energy, but we recognize that our carbon footprint is small
compared to the footprint of our audiences. We hope to engage our audiences and enable them to nd ways to reduce
carbon emissions in their own lives. We believe we can connect meaningfully with audiences on the issue of climate
change by entertaining and informing them in ways that inspire and enable them to make changes in their own lives.
2.2. Community relations
Among the nine media companies having CSR disclosure, eight of them mentioned their policy and initiatives on building
community relations. The major goals of their policies are quite similar, as they all mention the importance of being a
responsible and good corporate citizen to the communities they serve. Comcast stated its policy as:
Comcasts community investment strategy focuses on powering dreams in the communities we serve. Comcast cares
about creating lasting impact, strengthening communities, and fostering diversity and opportunity. We work with
existing local organizations to positively impact each community we serve while using our resources to bring visibility
to important local issues.
The major activities each company has engaged in can be categorized into three parts: corporate donation/giving, community service, and employee volunteerism. One similarity among Comcast, Time Warner Cable and DirecTVs activities is
that they all stated the importance of expanding digital literacy and fostering education using new media technology. In
terms of the activities on community service, these media companies either build partnerships with external organizations
to support local communities, or create multi-platform campaigns and use programming to educate audiences about social
and health issues.
2.3. Diversity
Seven of the nine media companies have launched different types of strategies to promote diversity, such as using a diversied workforce, producing diverse content, working with diverse suppliers, and cooperating with schools and organizations
to support diversity in the media industry. Specically, the media companies are using corporate training and leadership
programs to encourage and develop current employees from diverse backgrounds. They are hiring future employees who
represent diverse backgrounds. CBS Corporation and NBC Universal offer a diversity institute or other training programs,
such as acting, writing and directing programs, to identify and develop future media talent. Programming content and audiences also play important roles in media companies CSR diversity activities. For example, Walt Disney Company mentioned
that their programming serves the needs of children in different age groups, and their shows incorporate many ethnicities,
cultures, religions, geographic locales and physical and developmental differences . . .

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J. Hou, B.H. Reber / Public Relations Review 37 (2011) 166168

2.4. Employee relations

Unlike the disclosure of the rst three dimensions of CSR activities, only three media companies, Comcast Corporation,
Walt Disney Company and Time Warner, disclosed information on employee dimension. Basically, their goals are fostering
safe and respectful workplaces for employees, and improving their working experience. These companies are using open
communication strategies, diverse benet packages and training programs to attract and retain employees.
2.5. Human rights
For this dimension, Comcast Corporation, Walt Disney Company, Time Warner and Cox Enterprises mentioned their
policies and actions in protecting human rights. Their focus areas are employee and workplace safety, food safety and park
safety (Walt Disney Company).
2.6. Media specic CSR activities
Six of the nine media companies mentioned media specic CSR activities in their CSR disclosures. Providing responsible
media content, committed to diversity in content, and supporting creativity were most-mentioned by the media companies,
and no company disclosed whether they had activities on media literacy or media education.
3. Discussion
The companies whose primary domain is media delivery (i.e., DirecTV, Comcast) focus their CSR efforts on donating
technology or service to schools and the underserved. The companies whose domain includes entertainment (i.e., Walt
Disney Company, CBS, Time Warner) promote programming among their CSR initiatives.
It appears that the size of the organization also matters in its CSR reporting. Media conglomerates such as Walt Disney
Company and Time Warner are more mature and complete in their reporting. The three companies that had free-standing
CSR reports as downloadable PDFs (i.e., Time Warner, Walt Disney, and CBS) had packaged their information in clean, logical,
complete, and easily communicable bites. Only three companies (i.e., Comcast, Time Warner, and Walt Disney) mentioned
any type of business code or code of ethics. The results suggest that organizations do a good job linking organizational
mission to CSR behaviors.
This research provides a new typology for analyzing CSR initiatives. While economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic have
been widely used categories in past research, this research suggests a logical reporting categorization would be: environment,
diversity, community, and employee relations. These are the dominant areas for CSR programming. Subcategories were also
identied.
This research provides both scholars and practitioners with valuable insights. Scholars can use and develop the CSR
reporting categories tested and identied in this research. Practitioners should standardize CSR reporting in order to provide
stakeholders with relevant comparisons among organizations.
The complete study can be requested from the authors.
References
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