University of Amsterdam Graduate School of Communication Communication Science Master’s Thesis
What Frames Do Media Use Reporting Foxconn and France Telecom Crises?
By Jurgita Geleziute 10841733
Data 29.01.2016
Abstract
This research paper examines the differences in media frames used reporting two very similar suicide crises France Telecom (Europe) and Foxconn (Asia). The purpose is by employing media frames to analyse the effects of proximity, cultural differences on media coverage of corporate crises. The research set-up enables to study the differences between two media systems European and Asian and demonstrate the role of proximity.
Data was collected from 2009 to 2014. Articles on Foxconn and France Telecom cases were collected from 4 British and 4 Chinese newspapers. 311 articles were coded using quantitative content analysis method.
The results suggest that cultural differences such as media censorship influenced the use of attribution of responsibility frame. Moreover, France Telecom crisis was more
reported in European newspapers than Foxconn one. While Foxconn case was predominantly more reported in Asian media. Surprisingly, this study reveals that journalists use human interest frame reporting on proximal crises more than on reporting distant crises. Therefore, this study not only showed that proximity takes place but also that it take a form of human interest frame.
Recent years have witnessed a raise of human rights and general public
consciousness. Most of the companies adapted and started to contribute to the well-being of the society and environment. It starts to be increasing important to practice post-reflective communication and become a part of the society. Societal involvement is beneficial for the corporations’ image and reputation as it gives a human face to an otherwise economic entity (Johansen & Valentini, 2013). With reflective and post-reflective perspective the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) becomes a very important part of the companies’ practices as well.
Even though many companies engage in the CSR activities, they still have problems ensuring the wellbeing of their own employees. There are many people who for one or the other reason feel unsatisfied with their jobs. Many employees face such problems as stressful working environments, poor working conditions, depression, or even worse. Paradoxically, some companies take advantage of cheap labour possibility and hire manufactures in such countries as China or Taiwan. In this region many companies not only underpay their employees but also mistreats them. Particular circumstances force people to resist and retaliate. Therefore, employees react to unsatisfying conditions differently. In a worst case scenario some might even attempt to commit a suicide. It might result in organisational crisis as happened in France Telecom and Foxconn (China) case.
Increasing globalisation lets people be updated with the newest development 24/7. The constant interconnectivity and ability to see events from the other side of the globe supports a global village idea (McLuhan, 1964). The accessibility to information creates and shapes global culture making it more unite and diverse at the same time. With raising
globalisation the media become more influential. Many news channels are available all over the world. Media have decision power to decide what is worthy to be disseminated and what is not.
There are many different factors that affect news agenda and how it will be covered. Some scholars identify news values (Galtung and Ruge, 1965), while others argue that news values (Galtung and Ruge, 1965) down-play the issue of ideology (Palmer, 2005, p. 174). Galtung and Ruge (1965) identified 12 factors that predict how events are transformed into news. The main factor is identified to be proximity. The media’s role is particularly crucial in critical crises situation. The first coverage might set the path for further development and measures which will be taken. As a result, it is still unclear how proximity affect media coverage of organisational crises.
In addition, there have been a number of research done analysing effects of crises coverage on reputation. While it is still hard to determine the effect of cultural differences between media systems (Chinese and European in particular) on media coverage of corporate crises. Hofstede made a valuable distinction of cultural differences but it still did not explain the effect on media coverage. Hofstede recognised 4 cultural dimensions (Hofstede, 1980). The first one, is individualism vs collectivism. It simply identifies the overarching values of the society. The clear example is the USA vs Asian countries. The second, is uncertainty avoidance. Societies with low uncertainty avoidance usually have lower levels of stress, and risk taking (Hofstede, 1980). The third, is power distance differences which evaluate the level of acceptance of more or less powered member’s inequality. The last but not least, is the division between masculine and feminine cultures. It assess if there are strong gender role differences.
Therefore, baring it in mind, this research will focus on different frames used in media coverage which will be studied for the cases of France Telecom and Foxconn. France
Telecom and Foxconn (China) are two culturally very different companies which experienced a very similar crisis.
France Telecom is a quite well-known telecommunication provider. In this case everything started in 2008, since then there have been several suicide outbreaks. Many blame tough management methods, company itself claims that the numbers is normal to a
multinational company. This is one of the crises that caught the media attention in 2008 and 2013.
Another similar crisis happened in China for a company called Foxconn. This is one of the largest electronic manufacturing company which has produced electronic supplies for such companies as Apple, Dell and Sony. The outbreaks have started in early 2010 and haven’t ended since. The biggest one happened in 2010. Company has several times been accused of inhuman working conditions and violation of human rights. Officially all of the victims had health issues, which was the predominant reason of their suicides.
Many scholars have addressed the reputation of the company in post- crisis period. There are also many analyses on the media frames applied for crises. It order to better understand corporate crises and be able to see them objectively it is equally important to understand cultural and ideological differences among countries that produce the coverage.
Both of these crises have the same theme but happened in totality different cultures. Using this case study should provide us with the better understand if and how the news coverage of two similar crisis is influenced by different factors. In order to compare these two crises this study will analyse the frames and attributions of the media regarding these crises.
Theoretical Background
The media play a crucial role not only in shaping public opinion but also influencing the development of crisis itself. The first step for all news media is to decide what news are worthy to get on the agenda. Scholars have identified many different lists of news values (Golding & Elliot, 1979, p. 115 or Galtung & Ruge, 1965, p. 65) that might influence the choice made by the media. In this globalized era people are able to see coverage from all around the world. The foreign news are interpreted and treated differently than national ones (Nossek, 2004). It also has an effect on agenda building process.
There have been a number investigations showing that the press concern with ‘objects in the news is a key determinant of their perceived salience in public opinion’ (Dearing & Rogers, 1996). Agenda setting analyses how the media sets the public’s agenda while agenda building questions how the agenda is actually created (Marchionni, 2012). Theories are explained in more detail in the following subsections.
Corporate crisis and working conditions
Crises are an unavoidable part of the organisational development. In general, organisational ‘crises are low-probability and high-impact situations’ (Pearson, & Clair, 1998). The main goal of an organisation is to survive. Crises pose a serious threat to a
survival of the company but it is also an opportunity to reshape and re-establish reputation as well as key goals of the company itself (Carmeli, & Schaubroeck, 2008). There are
recognised three main crisis threats: 1 to public safety, 2. financial loss, and 3. reputation loss (Sohn & Lariscy, 2014). There are a number of scholars who indicate successful crises
management plants (e.g. Coombs, 2007). Economic recession had a negative effect on organisations and caused a number of crises outbreaks (e.g. bank system).
In addition, increasing awareness and concern for corporate social responsibility (CSR) might be one of the reasons for increased number of crises as well. Many brands and companies are affected by the raising expectation and community demands for higher standards (Fearn-Banks, 2011). Instead of trying to find the cheapest way of production, organisations also have to think about the impact on society and environment. Lamberti, & Lettieri, (2009) identify ten CSR dimensions. One of them particularly addresses employees’ well-being, equal treatment, safety and etc. Many companies take part in environmental or community CSR while neglecting the needs of their own employees.
The study on workplace vs non-workplace suicide rate in the USA was conducted (Tiesman, Konda et al., 2015). It revealed that workplace suicide rate has been increasing since 2007 (in the USA). Working conditions have been one of the topics escalated by human rights activists (e.g. Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch). This problem is
relevant not only to developing countries but also to Western world as well. In such
developing countries as China or Taiwan the main problem is inhuman working conditions while in Western countries employees sometimes have to face such problems as bullying or harassment (Lozaday, 2016 and Einarsen, 2011). Oftentimes these problems are not
publicized and escalated as much as they should be.
Agenda building
Media form a powerful institution which is able to shape and influence audience’s opinion about organizational issues and crises. Agenda building and agenda setting theories explore media’s ability to affect what society see as important issues and how society see that issue. Kim and Kiousis (2012) identify two-level model of agenda-building. The first level
refers to the ‘salience of issues that the organisation is communicating about’ it might be the organisation itself (Kim and Kiousis, 2012, p.659). It refers to emphasising or discarding information (Kim and Kiousis, 2012). Second level ‘agenda building is about salience of attributes that the organisation emphasises on particular issue’ ((Kim and Kiousis, 2012, p.659). The chosen attributes draw attention to particular aspects of the crisis while
overshadowing other ones. The first level of agenda setting concerns attention to particular issue while second level deals with effects on comprehension of that issue (p. 659).
Most studies on agenda building address the relationship between journalists and PR. This theory is predominantly used in political communication. Good instance, is studying political campaign material and comparing it with the media coverage (Kiousis et al., 2006). News factors identified by Kariel & Rosenvall (1984) are strongly connected with agenda building techniques.
News values, agenda building and framing theories are strongly inter-related. One could not exist without the other. After the information is received journalist and editors use various techniques on determining what should be on the media agenda. One of the key theories used to explain how events are chosen to become news are explained by media value.
News Values
News values have a huge explanatory value (Galtung & Ruge, 1965). It helps to better understand the news generation process. Galtung and Ruge (1965) Being one of the most influential news values authors identify 12 factors witch determine the selection of news (e.g. frequency, threshold, unambiguity etc.). Unfortunately, as both of the authors acknowledge that it is hardly a complete list of factors and that the existence and effects of these factors is ‘hypothesised rather than demonstrated’ (p. 64-65). Many other authors have built their
grounds based on research done by Galtung and Ruge. Kariel & Rosevall describe factors influencing international news flow.
One of the factors is proximity (Kariel & Rosenvall, 1984 or Carroll & McCombs, 2003). Media typically cover events from all over the world. Naturally, some events get more attention and are escalated more extensively. The geographical distance of the occurrence is one of the key determining factors. The interest in news declines with the increase of the distance (Chang, 1975). Newspapers cover companies important to the local economy more profoundly than those which effects are minimal (Shoemaker and Reese, 1996).
Organisations within the same region might receive more attention as well. Readers are mostly interested in information affecting them directly. Therefore, some events end up left out of the agenda or being only briefly mentioned depending on the origin. There is also psychological aspect of proximity. Some countries might feel psychologically more distant than others. A good example could be the United Kingdom and Australia and the United Kingdom and China. Australia might feel psychologically closer than China.
The more reader or editor identifies with the story the bigger the likelihood for the story to make it to the news (Schramm, 1949). Economic trade relations is another factor which might explain why news from one or another country is more likely to end up being published. Cultural and economic relations among countries makes information more relevant for the reader. There are other factors which play a role: significance of the issue, and, of course, prominence elite people get more coverage that others (Kariel & Rosenvall, 1984).
News values can change over time, therefore, it is bounded to have limited validity. Consequently it is important to explore other factors. Ritchardson (2005) points out that despite of the usefulness of the news factors it downplays the importance of the ideology (p.
175). As it was mentioned before that cultural, geographical affinity might influence journalist choice. Beck (1994) study found that journalist views and shaped by historical ‘traditions and political, economic and social environment’. Therefore, (Shamir, 1988) journalists were likely to consider country’s morale above professional norms.
Framing
McCombs (2004) concludes that ‘thinking of frames as attributes of an object provides the theoretical link between agenda-setting and framing research…Salience is, of course, the central concept of agenda-setting theory’ (p. 24). The media not only influence the salience of particular issues but also ‘by selecting what to include and what to exclude from a story, the news media frame a story’ (Iyengar & Kinder, 1987; Pan & Kosicki, 1993). The media limit or define the story’s meaning and thereby shape people’s interpretation of that story (Hallahan, 1999). By adopting a particular frame media set the tone and promotes particular problem definition (Entman, 1993, p. 53). It helps audience to faster comprehend and perceive information (Entman, 1993). It is particularly relevant when the media put emphasis on e.g. economic or conflictual aspect of an issue. It helps to make a judgment and form one’s own opinion. Many scholars have identified the importance of frames and their consequences for audience and the issue (Cappella & Jamieson, 1997).
It is especially relevant in critical crises situations as it influences not only audience’s reaction but also reputation of the organisation. There are five main news frames identified by Semetko & Valkenburg (2000): human interest, conflict, morality, economic and
attribution of responsibility frames (Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000, p. 95). After adopting one of them the media influence the perception of the society on particular issue.
If the media adopt a human interest frame they are portraying the organizational crisis with the emotional note. This frame provides human face to the issue/crisis. It explores personal experience and hardships. The main journalist’s intention is to trigger audience emotions. The news message usually becomes highly personalized and touching (Neuman et al., 1992). It usually leads to a negative attitude toward the crisis and the company (Padin, 2005).
Using conflict frame suggests that there is a disagreement among parties. This frame triggers readers’ interest. One of the main purpose is to keep a reader engaged. According to Neuman et al. (1992) research, conflict frame was one of the most commonly used in the US. In crises situations conflict frame represents disagreement between parties. It indicates that company is on media’s agenda.
While using economic frame the media would bring financial losses or gains on the agenda. The article mostly refers to financial changes, consequences or damage for one of the parties. The main focus is past/present/ future financial changes which might take place. In crises situations it mostly means that the company has experienced big financial loss or gain. This frame does not entail emotional stimulus for audience. Therefore, if this is the only frame used it is unlikely to affect the reputation of the organisation.
Morality frame concentrates on the moral aspect of the crisis. The issue is interpreted using religious or moral point of view. It usually suggests a way society should behave. It might also represent activists’ opinion (Neuman et al., 1992). It influences and shaped societal moral norms and values. In crises situations this frame might indicate that there was an immoral event taking place. In this case, it negatively effects company’s reputation as the organisation does not follow societal norms.
The attribution of responsibility frame helps the reader to identify accountable party. It explaines who is to blame for a particular problem. By attributing responsibility the media
might strongly influence the further development of crisis and can effect company’s
reputation (Kiousis, Popescu, & Mitrook, 2007). In crisis situation this frame has a particular influence. If the media attribute responsibility to something else but the organisation, the company’s reputation will not be affected. In contrary, if responsibility is attributed to the organisation most likely it will affect reputation and financial situation of the company.
Attribution theory
Crisis happen all the time and people want to know who caused it. Wiener (1986) built Attribution theory which proclaims that people want to know a reason of particular event, especially for a negative occurrences. Audience will try to understand who caused the event ((Weiner, 1986). There are three main antecedence for attribution. First, the attribution is affected by information (Kelley & Michela, 1980). The information and frames provided by the media play a crucial role (Kelley & Michela, 1980). Second, attribution is affected by perceiver’s beliefs (Kelley & Michela, 1980). It is based on the notion how the company should have acted. The final antecedent is motivation. The last one takes the direct effect to the perceiver into consideration (Kelley & Michela, 1980).
Using attribution of responsibility frame journalists can affect the development of crisis itself. It has ‘behavioural consequences for an organisation’ (Coombs & Holladay, 2005). Therefore, the media play an important role by framing the media messages. The frame choice will determine audience reaction.
Cultural differences in media systems
The United Kingdom and China are very culturally different countries. China is still a communist state. In Western culture freedom of speech is one of the key values which shapes entire Western media. While in China communism ideology focuses on societal good
(Hutchings, 1996). Therefore, the only reason to express your opinion would be to better the society. Theoretically, Chinese citizens have a right to express their opinion by writing it down but it has to be authorized (which is unlikely) by government-licenced publishers (“Freedom of Expression in China”, nd). Consequently, all of the media reports are authorized by government.
Cultural differences were systematized by Hofstede (1980). He distinguished 4 dimensions. China is more power distanced country compared to the United Kingdom. It represents the degree of inequality present in the country. It also entails the acceptance of the hierarchical establishment (Hofstede, 1980). Power distance is present not only in workplace but in every aspect of the society. It shapes societal norms. High power distant societies are characterized by uneven income distribution and frequent corruption (Hofstede, 1980). The second dimension is individualism vs collectivism. China is highly collectivist society while the United Kingdom individualistic. In the United Kingdom everyone is classified as an individual who speaks his own mind (Hofstede, 1980). In China people are defined by groups where harmony has to be maintained (Hofstede, 1980). Uncertainty avoiding societies relay on rules, and security measures (Hofstede, 1980). It helps to tolerate the level of ambiguity (Hofstede, 1980). Chinese society precisely could be defined as uncertainty avoiding one. In contrast, the United Kingdom is uncertainty accepting society. New environment and
experience is not that frightening. The last dimension is masculinity. It refers to the
distribution of emotional roles (Hofstede, 1980). Masculine culture is identified by social and emotional role differences between genders (Hofstede, 1980). While feminine culture, on the contrary, minimum level of differences between genders. All of these differences affect media systems in both of the countries.
Research Focus
This research will focus on Asian and British media coverage of two otherwise quite similar crises. Both companies France Telecom and Foxconn experienced a wave of
employees’ suicides most of which were work-related. Analysing British and Chinese news media coverage on two similar crises enables to compare similarities and differences in media systems and cultures. Using type of frame as a key outcome variable will outline the differences of British and Chinese media fame choice. It should help to better understand how and if previously discussed cultural differences influence the reporting and
comprehension of crises (the comparison is illustrated by the connected blue stars in table 1). In addition, this study design also study the effect of proximity. Taking into consideration the similarity of crises this research should provide an understanding if proximity really
influences the media agenda. Moreover, using attribution of responsibility, human interest, morality, economic and conflict frames should give an indication of what form of frame proximity takes. (The comparison is illustrated by orange triangles in table 1) Based on the proximity theory, it is expected that proximal crises will receive more media attention than distant ones. European (British) Media Asian (Chinese) Media France Telecom Foxconn
Methodology
Design
This study was carried out using quantitative manual cross-sectional content analyses. The main research units are articles in such newspapers as The Guardian UK, the
Independent, the Daily Telegraph, the Times, China Daily, South China Morning Post, Xinhua General News Services, and Shanghai Daily benchmark. All of the newspapers present news coverage in English. The codebook is designed to measure frames and
attribution of responsibility of the crises. After the collection of data all of the material was coded by one coder. Data was analysed by frequencies and Two-way ANOVA analyses using SPSS program (20.0). A second coder coded 10 % of the sample.
Sample
The main criteria selecting newspapers were English language and the circulation of at least 100.000 copies per day. The final choice was made based on the articles availability for each of the crises. Newspapers with the highest coverage on both of the crisis were chosen. The analysis was carried out using: The Guardian UK, the Independent, the Daily Telegraph, the Times, China Daily, South China Morning Post, Xinhua General News Services, and Shanghai Daily benchmark. (“Top 200 Newspapers in the world”, 2015). Four Asian (China Daily, South China Morning Post, and Xinhua General News Services) and four Western (The Guardian UK, the Independent, the Daily Telegraph, and the Times) newspapers were chosen. Random sampling was not used in this case. The “Top 200 Newspapers in the world” article (2015) was used as a list (convenience sample) and all publications from China and United Kingdom were entered in LexisNexis. Top 4 newspapers with the most articles on each of the crises from China and the United Kingdom were chosen.
Sample consisted of all articles that covered at least one of the crises and were released between 2009 and 2014. The main key words to generate articles were used:
‘Orange Telecom OR Foxconn AND suicide OR kill OR death’. There were generated a total number of 311 articles (the number of articles for each of the case can be found in table 1). It represents 74 articles from The Guardian UK, 20 from the Independent, 28 from the Daily Telegraph, 66 from the Times, 9 from China Daily, 53 from South China Morning Post, 44 from Xinhua General News Services, and 17 from Shanghai Daily benchmark. There were 67 articles on France Telecom and 241 on Foxconn cases. Taking into consideration the power issue for the number of articles found on France Telecom all 67 articles were coded. In Foxconn case all articles found in British media were coded as well but stratified sample was used coding Chinese articles. Therefore, articles were arrange by date and every third article was coded. All articles were gathered using Nexus Lexus program and analysed using SPSS (20.0).
Newspaper France Telecom Foxconn
The Guardian 16 57
The Daily Telegraph 7 21
The Independent 6 13
Xinhua General
News Services 3 41
South China Morning
Post 2 51
Shanghai Daily 3 14
China Daily 1 8
Table 1. The number of articles for each crisis Procedure
Codebook was designed as the basis of the quantitative content analysis of the material. The values of the variables included in the codebook constitute the substantive variables (to see the full codebook see appendix 1). The main variables were: the name of the newspaper, the number of word, the name of the crisis, media frames, and attribution of
responsibility clusters. After obtaining all of the data from Nexis Lexis it was entered and coded with SPSS. It some cases a coder had to choose one of the options (e.g. the name of the newspaper). To measure the extent to which each frame was present in the article, 4 point scale was used 0 (no) 1 (a little bit) 2 (some), and 3 (a lot).
Variables
There are several variables which were used for identification purposes. These are the type of the crisis (France Orange crisis is coded as 0 and Foxconn as 1), the name of the newspaper (1- Guardian, 2- Times, 3-Daily Telegraph, and 4- Independent, 5-Shanghai Daily, 6- South China Morning Post, 7-China Daily, 8-Xinhua General News Services), the date, number of words and page number where the article was published.
Media frames. One of the key variables for this research is media frames. This variable helped to compare two different crises. Semetko and Valkenburg (2000) based on Neuman theory established 6 predominant frames and their definitions which were used in this research. The Measurement scale was also adopted from Semetko and Valkenburg (2000). Despite the fact that it was an established scale Cronbach’s Alpha and interrater reliability Krippendorff’s alpha were calculated for each of the variables.
Attribution of responsibility. This variable measures if any party is identified
responsible for the crisis. 5 items scale was used in order to measure this variable (e.g. ‘Does the story suggest that some level of management is responsible for the crisis? ‘or ‘Does the story suggest that any group pf society of people is responsible for the crisis’). Each item was measured with the scale of 3 (0 (not at all) to 3 (a lot)). The reliability of the scale was
satisfying Cronbach’s α=.73 and the interrater reliability Krippendorff's α=.74 was also acceptable.
In order, to get a deeper understanding of the attributions media used 7 additional items were coded. Each of the item was measured on a scale from 0 (not at all) to 3 (a lot). Coder had to code to what extent the story attributes responsibility of the crisis to 1. Internal Company’s culture 2. Working conditions 3. Economic company’s situation 3. Internal Pressure (pressure from colleagues) 4.Buying Companies (such as Apple) 5. Inhuman Treatment by Management (bullying, harassment and etc.) 6. Country’s statistics (suicide rate) 7. Attribution to personal, unknown reasons.
Economic frame. If this frame is applied in the media coverage the main emphasis is drawn to the economic damages that had been made. It was measured using 3 items scale (e.g. ‘Is there a reference to economic consequences of pursuing or not pursuing a cause of action?’). The measurement scale also ranged from 0 (not at all) to 3(a lot). The reliability of the scale was good: Cronbach’s α=.96 the interrater reliability Krippendorff's α=.78 was also satisfying.
Human interest. This frame focuses on human emotions. In order, to test human interest frame 4 items such as ‘Does the story goes into the private or personal lives of the actors?’ and ‘Does the story emphasize how individuals and groups are affected by the crisis?’ were used. The measurement scale ranged from 0 (not at all) to 3 (a lot). The
reliability of the scale was good Cronbach’s α=.87 interrater reliability Krippendorff's α=.70 was also satisfying.
Morality frame. This frame concentrates on the moral aspect of the crisis. It was measured using 3 items such as ‘Does the story contain any moral message?’ or ‘Does the story make reference to morality, God, and other religious tenets?’ the measurement scale ranged from 0 (not at all) to 3 (a lot). The reliability of the scale was good Cronbach’s α=.79 and interrater reliability Krippendorff's α=.80 was good as well.
Conflict frames. This frame concentrates on the disagreement between two parties. It was coded using 4 items such as ‘Does the story refer to two sides or to more than two sides of the crisis?’ or ‘Does one party-individual-group-country reproach another?’. The
measurement scale ranged from 0 (not at all) to 3 (a lot). Reliability of the scale was also acceptable Cronbach’s α=.71 and interrater reliability Krippendorff's α=.73 was satisfying.
Results
Attribution of Responsibility Frame
To test if there were significant differences between two crises and the two regions, a two-way ANOVA analysis was run (see Table 2). The two-factor analysis of variance
showed no significant main effect for the crisis factor, F(1,304) = 0.07, p > .05; but there was a significant main effect for the region factor F(1,304) = 19.45, p<0.001, ηp2 =.06. British
newspapers used attribution of responsibility significantly more often compared to Chinese newspapers (see Table 2). From the Mean score it is apparent that Chinese media hardly ever used attribution of responsibility frame for both of the crisis. The interaction between crisis and region was also not significant, F(1,304) = .00, p>.05.
Company British Newspapers Mean (SD) Chinese Newspaper Mean (SD) Total France Telecom 1.37 (.91) .63 (.61) 1.27 Foxconn 1.4 (.86) .68 (.87) 1.06 Total 1.11 (.87) .68 (.85)
Table 2.Mean scores for attribution of responsibility frame (Scale: from 0 to 3)
Consequently, the next section will only present the sources to which the responsibility for the suicide crisis was attributed by the British media.
Attributes used in British Media France Telecom (Mean) Foxconn (Mean) Total (Mean) Working Conditions 1.80 2.22 2.08
Internal Company’s culture 1.78 .19 0.7
Economic Company’s situation .95 .01 0.29
Internal Pressure .18 .02 .07
Buying Companies (Mostly Apple) .00 .31 0.2
Country’s statistical position (suicide rate,
economy) .04 .02 .03
Attribute it to personal or unknown reasons .00 .04 .03 Inhuman Treatment by the Management
(harassment, bullying and etc.) 1 0 0
Table 3. Attributes of responsibility used in British Media (Scale: 0 (not at all) to 3 (a lot))
The table 3 presents the most used reasons for both of the crises. The first cause for both of the crisis is working conditions in the company. Interestingly, in Foxconn case it was one of the main causes identified by the British media M=2.22. Most of the British
newspapers “blamed it on harsh working conditions” (Arthur, 2012). All the other factors’ Mean scores were substantially lower compared to working conditions. The second most used attribute is international companies (e.g. “Apple has not lived up to its own standards” (Armitage, 2013)) buying Foxconn production M=.31. The third most reported cause is internal company’s culture M=.19. Articles in the British media also mention atmosphere in the factory and living quarters.
In France Telecom case, there is a bigger distribution of variance among different factors. Contrary to Foxconn, there is no single attribute dominating the British media. The most reported cause is working conditions as well. Suicide victims left notes “blaming unbearable working conditions and enforced job changes” (Chrisafis, 2009). Internal
Company’s culture has a very similar Mean score as well (e.g. “leaders blame the suicides on a brutal, target-obsessed company culture” (Samuel, 2009)). The third most used attribute is
Economic Company’s situation which simply represents restructuring of financial difficulties faced by the company for example “unions criticised the company's restructuring plan, which cut 22,000 jobs and forced 10,000 workers to move into different positions.” (Chrisafis, 2012)
Conflict Frame
In order to test if there is a significant difference in using conflict frame, a two- way ANOVA analysis was run. The analysis showed significant main effect for the crisis factor F(1,303)=28.3, p< 0.001, ηp2 = .085. Therefore, conflict frame was notable more used
reporting France Telecom crisis than Foxconn crisis. However, the main effect of region was not significant (F(1.303)=2.37, p> .05) neither was the interaction between crisis and region factors (F(1,303)=2.31, p> .05).
Company British Newspapers Mean (SD) Chinese Newspaper Mean (SD) Total France Telecom .67 (.78) 0.42 (.65) 0.73 Foxconn .10 (.3) .40 (.28) 0.29 Total .28 (.56) 0.12 (.33)
Table 4.Mean Scores for Conflict Frame (Scale: 0(not at all) to 3 (a lot))
Human Interest Frame
Two- way ANOVA was conducted to test if there is a significant difference in using Human Interest Frame (See table 4 for Mean scores). Both of the main effects were not significant: region F (1,308) =2.36 p >.05 and crisis F(1,308)=.97 p >.05. However, the interaction between crisis and region factors showed significant results F(1,308)=13.08 p< .001, ηp2 = .04.
Table 5.Mean scores for Human Interest Frame (Measurement Scale: 0(not at all) to 3 (a lot))
After running repeated Two- way ANOVA for each region separately, analysis showed one partially significant and other statistically significant result.
Repeated two-factor analysis of variance using only Chinese media revealed partially significant results F(1,123)=3.12, p=.08, ηp2=.025 (NFrance Tel=9, NFoxconn=114). Human
Interest frames was used more reporting Foxconn than France Telecom crisis in the Chinese media (See table 5). Repeated analysis for the British media showed statistically significant results F(1,185)=22.94, p< .001, ηp2=.11. In contrast, in the British media, Human Interest
frame was used more reporting France Telecom crisis than Foxconn crisis.
The Mean score distribution is visually represented in Chart 1 below. It clearly visualise that Human Interest frame is predominantly more used in proximal crisis (i.e., France Telecom for British newspapers and Foxconn for Chinese newspapers).
C hart 1 Huma n Company British Newspapers Mean (SD) Chinese Newspaper Mean (SD) Total France Telecom .73 (.95) .00 (.00) .63 Foxconn .21(.51) .51 (.86) .35 Total .38(.72) .47 (.84) 0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5 0,6 0,7 0,8
France Telecom Foxconn
Me
an
Sco
re
Human Interest Frame
Interest Frame
Morality Frame
Two- factor analysis of variance was conducted in order to assess if there a
statistically significant difference in using Morality frame. Both of the main effects for region and for crisis did not show significant results F(1,307)=.89, p> .05, F(1,307)=.15 p> .05. The interaction was also not significant F(1,307)=.06, p> .05.
Economic Frame
Two- way ANOVA was conducted, in order, to investigate if there is a significant difference in using Economic frame. Both of the main effects did not show significant results neither for crisis factor F(1,307)=.2 p> .05 nor for region factor F(1,307)=1.01, p> 0.05. The interaction was also not significant F (1, 307)=3.02 p> .05.
Discussion
France Telecom & Foxconn differences and similarities
The initial choice of these crises were motivated by their similar nature. However, differences between these two crises exist as well as similarities. First of all, Foxconn is a manufacturer producing consumer goods. Most of jobs are performed standing and repeating the same action until the shift is over (the example could be cleaning the screen surface), while France Telecom is a telecommunication provider. Most of the victims in France Telecom case worked as sales people. They had to produce satisfying sales numbers by calling and offering France Telecom services. Both type of jobs are monotonic and in a way stressful for employees (Bondy, Buettner, & Zill, 2006 and Loukidou, Loan‐Clarke, & Daniels, 2009). In Foxconn case employees could not relax or loose concentration not even
for a second and in France Telecom situation the job is emotionally intense and high performance demanding. The majority of Foxconn factory employees are young newly graduated students in their 20s. In a period of 2009-2014 not estimating attempts there were 33 suicides reported. France Telecom was to be privatized and the majority of workers were middle- age people not that long to go to be retired. Consequently, suicides cannot be generalised to be relevant just to a particular age group.
There were reported 60 suicide victims in Foxconn factory in the same period. The scale of suicide wave was bigger in France. Another important difference between cases is sample size. This research was not aiming to look at differences in media attention but it is remarkable to see the differences in sample size for each of the 4 situations. There were only 9 articles found in Chinese media on France Telecom case. It could be explained by the fact that Europeans use Apple, SONY products which are produced by Foxconn while Chinese clearly do not use France Telecom services. Evidently, economic relations also influence journalist’s choice (Schramn, 1949). Economic ties between countries make events more interesting and relevant for the readers.
Local newspapers are more prone to report on countries with whom they share cultural or political affinity (Rosengren, 1974). According to this research, culturally and politically similar countries are more likely to report on each other deeds. Britain and China culturally and politically quite different. Therefore, neither editors nor readers might feel that highly engaged with problems in so geographically distant country.
The sample size strongly limited research and analysis. Last but not least, one of the newspapers used in this analysis and accountable for a substantial number of articles coded (Xinhua General News Services) is state-owned. Therefore, it represented higher authorities’ position rather than independent one (Xu, 2014). Government use ‘strict media controls using
monitoring systems firewalls, shuttering publicationsor jailing dissident journalists’ (Xu, 2014).
The differences between crises resulted in newspapers using conflict frame more reporting France Telecom crisis than Foxconn. In France there was a conflictual situation between company’s authorities, trade unions and even the state (state held a stake in France Telecom before privatization) (Simons, 2009). Previously being state-owned France Telecom was undergoing restructuring and cost-cuts. Consequently, the media reported this
confrontation. In contrast, in the Foxconn case crisis did not raise that big of a debate. Society was aware of poor working conditions in Foxconn but still wanted to work there (Foxconn offers higher pay than other factories).
These crises are all about the people. Their choice to end their lives in many cases was blamed on poor working conditions. In Foxconn case employees were forced to stand for 12 hours straight and were not allowed to have toilet brakes (Tze-wei, 2010). Any talking among employees while working was also forbidden (Tze-wei, 2010). In France Telecom case people were being shifted from one position and workplace to the other. Many
employees were not capable of meeting competitive sales targets. One respectable middle- aged man even left a suicidal note blaming solely the company: ‘I am committing suicide because of my work at France Telecom. That's the only reason’ (Chrisafis, 2009c). In France Telecom case company’s culture was also recognised as one of the key factors responsible for the accidents. Unions accused the management of France Telecom adopting bullying terror tactics towards its employees (Chrisafis, 2009b). Interestingly, in Foxconn case the second most popular attribute is buying companies (mostly Apple). Such companies were blamed for not paying enough of money to the factory, in order, to distribute the pay more equally. Both of these crises prove the importance of good atmosphere and internal culture. Desperate people can take unpredictable actions.
British and Chinese crises coverage
European (British) media used attribution of responsibility frame suggestively more than Asian (Chinese) media. These findings can be caused by the difference in media systems.
Many journalists are ready to put national interest, ‘nation’s morale and image above professional values’ (Shamir, 1988). One of the key values of Western world is freedom of speech, equal opportunities and ethics, while Chinese society is more about loyalty, family ties and social relationships (Lihua, 2013). Portraying Foxconn as one to blame for all of the misfortunes of the employees might be seen as a betrayal of the country itself. Therefore, Chinese media used attribution of responsibility frame much less than the British media. The media not only did not attribute responsibility to Foxconn but also rarely used this frame in general.
Culture and customs of the country can resemble societal norms and values. It also influences the media as institution (Hong, Muderrisoglu, & Zinkhan, 1987). It is worth taking into consideration cultural differences before interpreting any piece of information. Hofstede identifies 4 cultural dimensions (Hofstede, Bond, 1984). One of which is power distance. It emphasises the superiority of higher authorities in the society. Chinese journalists will be more likely to obey authority’s orders. They will not challenge authority by expressing their opinion freely and rather follow the ‘rules’ and leave one side of the issue silent this way forming media’s agenda. To the contrary, British journalists might be more likely to put freedom of speech ahead of authorities and even if necessary become whistleblowers. The journalist’s frame choice will immediately outline a certain aspect of a problem to the audience (Entman, 1993, p. 53).
Herman and Chomsky (2002) even argue that in order to survive, journalists have to comply and adapt to particular system demands. This idea was also proven by the fact that a state-owned newspaper (Xinhua General News Services) was specifically told to concentrate on measures that were taken rather than attribution of responsibility (Tam, 2010, p. 04). Government authorities told to use either Foxconn official statements or reports published by state-owned Xinhua General News Service’s newspaper “…newspaper was told by
authorities later yesterday to place more focus on government measures to cope with the scandal and to scale down coverage.” (Tam, 2010, p. 04).
Therefore the media system is strongly shaped by the culture and political structure it originates from. Ideology of the country is an important factor influencing the evaluation and comprehension of the issue as well (Ritchardson, 2005). Social and political environment naturally influences journalists’ perception of life (Wei et al., 1996). In Chinese media one of the main topics was economic consequences for the company rather than grieving victim’s relatives.
Furthermore, news are also influenced by the cultural affinity, national ‘pride’ and system demands (Wei et al., 1996). In France Telecom case all of the information was made easily available and present in the media. Almost all of the articles addressed not only this particular crisis but also societal problems such as suicide rate in general. Even the slightest development such as CEO’s meetings or phone calls with unions were made public. In contrast, reporting on Foxconn case was rather repetitive. It rarely addressed general societal problems. Most of the articles (particularly the ones published by Xinhua General News Services) did not focus on human face of the crisis but rather concentrated on measures and economic development. Chinese as a collectivist society is predominantly loyal (Hofstede, 1986).
Proximity
The biggest contribution of this research paper to communication science is the significant results of human interest frame. Apparently, British media used human interest frame more often reporting on France Telecom crisis, while Chinese media did the opposite. They used human interest frame mostly on Foxconn case. Distant crisis are approached from less sensitive manner than local ones. In case of France Telecom, the media rather report plain events and outcomes without involving human face example. One of the news factors’ particularly addresses the issue of geographical and psychological proximity (Kariel & Rosenvall, 1984).
It also suggests that distant crises are addressed less by the local media. This research takes a step forward and showed not only that distant crises are less represented but also that it takes a form of human interest frame being more widely used in reporting proximal crises. News media tend to prioritize events from culturally similar countries (Ritchardson, 2005). Therefore, for example crises in Australia are geographically distant but psychologically close because of the cultural similarities.
Human interest frame has a power to influence readers’ emotions (Cho & Gower, 2006). Consequently, journalist might be more willing to devote time on developing a human interest story for crises that are deemed to be important. It result in journalist playing an influential role in maintaining the psychological distance between countries. The good comparison could be Boko Haram and ISIL attacks. Events in Paris feel psychologically more proximal than in Nigeria or Cameroon.
Moreover, triggered emotions is a ‘good predictor of attribution of blame and responsibility’ (Cho& Gower, 2006, p. 422). Public evaluation of the crisis is strongly dependent on the frames media adopt (Cappella & Jamieson, 1997). It explains why some
distant crises are not on the media’s agenda or if they are, are perceived as less concerning. Journalists’ choice are naturally based on the targeted audience’s interests. People being affiliated with different cultures fail to understand and evaluate the meaning of distant crises. The main fault in this approach is that many issues and crises are not communicated to broader publics and only escalated in particular region. Looking at these results from corporate perspective, it might be beneficial for the company that particular crisis is not escalated worldwide. Therefore, the organisation does not face big reputation loss threat.
Practical implications
According to research, corporate reputation suggestively depends on two
communication factors (Kiousis, Popescu, & Mitrook, 2007). It is identified to be company’s public relation activities and mass media coverage (Kiousis, Popescu, & Mitrook, 2007). Media play a substantial role in creating public opinion and corporate reputations.
Consequently, in criss situations direct communication with media and audience should help to take part in shaping public’s opinion and reputation. Keeping media informed will leave less room for speculations and will ensure a more transparent process.
In Foxconn case, Western media mostly reported on poor working conditions without elaborating much on human face of the crisis. It did not trigger readers’ emotions and it hardly affected Apple reputation or its sales. While in Foxconn case, Chinese media used human frame quite extensively and people expressed their rage and even organised protests (Meer, 2009). The neglect of workers needs fuelled the crisis even further. For organisation’s crisis management Kim and Cameron (2011) suggested, companies should address human interest and explain how human victims’ situation will be relieved. If corporate reputation is directly affected by media coverage and readers by human interest frame, it would mean that reputation is directly affected by human interest frame when facing crises situations.
In order, to keep readers interested journalists report on proximal crises more than on international ones. Therefore, in crisis situations the organisational reputation will most likely be affected in that particular region. Therefore, the organisation will not experience
reputation loss worldwide. These finding also suggest that in order for organisations to be published and reported on they should embed their information with economic or cultural relevance for the region. The fact, that journalists choose proximal crises might also be seen as a journalistic bias. It is not objective as readers form a biased understand of world and its affairs.
Limitation and Future Research
This study was strongly limited by language constrains. All of the articles had to be in English. Therefore, instead of using French media to get a direct opinion British newspapers were used instead. It also resulted in power issue in the Chinese media regarding France Telecom crisis. It was probably caused by the fact that only English articles were used instead of Chinese. It would have been extremely useful to analyse crises in national language and have a third country in a sample. Sample size in general could have been bigger. Some of the analyses showed partially significant results, having a bigger sample might could have solved this issue.
This research concentrated only on two crises. It is hard to judge if the results can be generalized to other crises. Especially when Foxconn crisis involved international giants such as Apple and Sony. While France Telecom did not. Adding additional crises should give a broader picture. The frames were adopted from already established research. It would be interesting to take an inductive approach and construct frames by doing a pre-test content analysis. This study did not explore effects on company’s reputation or economic situation. A
good idea would be to link used frames with company’s statement and reputation instead of only analysing one side of the equation.
Nevertheless, the advantage of the study is its comparative nature. It compared not only crises but also media systems and presentation of each crisis in different culture. The advantage of using variables from already established scales is high measures reliability.
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Appendix 1
Please indicate the case number of the article below:
A. The title of the news source 1. The Times
2. The Guardian 3. Daily Telegraph 4. The Independent
5. Xinhua General News Services 6. South China Morning Post 7. Shanghai Daily Benchmark 8. China Daily
B. The date article was published
DD/MM/YY
C. If possible indicate the page number of the news outlet where the article was published
D. Is there an author(s) identified? 1. Yes
E. The gender of the author 1. Female
2. Male 3. Both
F. Does the author(s) reveal his/her personal opinion? 1. Yes
2. No
Frames and extent to which they are present (scale: 0- not at all; 3- a lot):
Attribution of responsibility
1. Does the story suggest that some level of management has the ability to alleviate the problem?
2. Does the story suggest that some level of the management is responsible for the issue/crisis?
3. Does the story suggest solutions for the crisis?
4. Does the story suggest that inside or particular group of society of people is responsible for the crisis?
5. Does the story suggest the crisis requires urgent action?
Human Interest
6. Does the story provide a human example or human face on the crisis?
7. Does the story employ adjectives or personal vignettes that generate feelings of outrage, empathy-caring, sympathy, or compassion?
8. Does the story emphasize how individuals and groups are affected by the crisis?
9. Does the story goes into the private or personal lives of the actors?
Conflict
10. Does the story reflect disagreement between parties-individuals-groups-countries?
11. Dies one party-individual-group-country reproach another?
12. Does the story refer to two sides or to more than two sides of the crisis?
13. Does the story refer to winners and losers?
Moral
14. Does the story contain any moral message?
15. Does the story make reference to morality, God, and other religious tenets?
16. Does the story offer specific social prescriptions about how to behave?
Economic
17. Is there a mention of financial losses or gains now or in the future?
18. Is there a mention of the cost/degree of the expense involved?
19. Is there a reference to economic consequences of pursuing or not pursuing a cause of action?
G. Does the article speak about the cause of the crisis? 1. No
2. Yes
If yes, indicate how much attention is devoted to these causes. (0- no attention at all; 3-a lot of attention (all article is about it))
H. Does it attribute the cause of the crisis to:
a. Internal causes
1. Company’s culture 2. Working conditions
3. Peer pressure
b. External causes
1. Personal reasons e.g. lack of mental stability 2. Family issues
3. Working culture in the society 4. Other external factors
c. Coincidence
I. Does the article mention consequences of the crisis? 1. No
2. Yes
If yes, indicate how strongly it speaks of consequences for (0- not at all 3 a lot)
1. Employees 2. Company
3. Society 4. Family
5. Buying companies
J. Does the article speak about the reaction of any party? 1. No
2. Yes
If yes,
K. Which party reaction and to what extent does it speak of (scale: 0- not at all; 3- a lot)? 1. Societal
2. Family 3. Suppliers 4. Company
L. Does the article speak about the measure that were taken? 1. No
2. Yes
If yes, which measures and to what extent are mentioned (0-not at all; 3- a lot)?
1. Psychological support
2. Financial support- compensation 3. Organisational change
