The V Word
Exploring the social responsibility of journalists and if traditional news outlets still influence us?
Vegans. They’re like marmite, it appears in the media you either love them or you hate them. As explored in one of my previous blog posts, there is a huge online argument surrounding veganism and the ‘hate’ towards them in the mainstream media. But today I’m looking deeper to see if people even listen to and adopt the headlines and potential views of these news outlets. To explore the subject further I have recorded a podcast episode featuring an interview with Francesca Leanne about her views on the topic after going vegan this January. While also exploring the social responsibilities of these outlets and could they do more? Take a listen below…
Episode 1 : DFC Journo Podcast — Social Responsibilities and Veganism
Social Responsibility
It is often argued that clothing companies, restaurants as well as supermarkets have a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) when it comes to sustainability. But very little scholars and researchers have looked into the CSR of journalists. As touched upon in my podcast, Grayson identified that CSR was just not newsworthy due to its positive connotations. Craig E Carroll explored this even further and devised a Three Level Analysis model to examine how the media covered CSR. The overall findings of report acknowledged that there is now a growing interest in the part of the new media for reporting CRS. This can be seen in conjunction with the rise of veganism and search of terms such as sustainability, this could indicate that brands are changing the way they present themselves and now obtain CSR objectives, all while making themselves sustainable.
Overall it feels although journalists and brands don’t use their platforms to promote positive stories surrounding sustainably due news values. It appears the negative outreach in the mainstream outlets pushes people to social media where they are met with open and positive approaches. I feel the adoption of more sustainable stories would drive a greater audience to the bigger outlets.
Thank you again for reading and if you would like to discuss any issues with me give me a tweet over on @DFCJourno.
WEEK 8 — TEDxTalk of the week
Welcome to another week ‘TEDxTalk of the week’, make sure your subtitles are on and go give ‘Why journalists have an obligation to challenge power’ a watch.
