Corporate Social Responsibility and its Media and Social Media Representation

Digitalization and the rise of social media transformed the way people interact with media. Simultaneously, the environmental concerns and societal pressure regarding the activities of corporations increased the popularity of corporate social responsibility. The concept, predominantly rooted within the business perspective, has been increasingly positioned in the socio-political landscape. However, its practical implications have been a subject of controversies. Due to its low legislative categorization, CSR have been used by some companies to mislead the public about their activities, resulting in greenwashing, damaging the image of the concept. In 2022, owner of Patagonia transferred ownership to a designated trust and a non-profit organization to fight climate change. This radical move has been met with a considerable reactions across various news media. Thus, this study examines corporate social responsibility and how is the meaning around Patagonia’s ownership created throughout mainstream news media and social media. Hence, the research is guided by the following research question: “How is meaning about Patagonia’s founder decision to give away the company to a designated trust and a non-profit organization to fight climate change in September 2022 created across the mainstream media from the US and the UK, and social media?“ To provide an answer, the study used qualitative thematic analysis upon 25 articles from traditional mainstream media and 216 social media comments. The study sheds a light on the way meaning regarding corporate social responsibility is created throughout interaction with media. The results suggest the active role of media in polarisation of the portrayal of corporate social responsibility, due to its inherent connection to politicised aspect of climate change and liberal rhetorics. Moreover, the findings identified the cautious manner of reporting on climate change across the articles, with the specific emphasis lying on the conflict between believers and deniers of climate change. Skepticism plays a prominent role throughout the findings, interestingly appearing throughout various perspectives, including the supporters of Patagonia. Moreover, the study examined the passive role of government in combatting climate change due to its politicised aspect, simultaneously shifting the responsibility to the “one percent”, increasing the dependency on the wealth of the few, whose actions are further evaluated on a social level in terms of politics. Lastly, the study revealed a prominent critique of capitalist system, and the need for more sustainable solutions regarding consumerism.