The study tracked a “firm’s news coverage and qualitative content of news stories (slant) in a large database of articles from Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and eight major local newspapers that meet our data requirements (Boston Globe, Chicago Sun-Times, Denver Post, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Washington Post) between 1996 and 2006.”
Determining slant for coverage was according to how positive or negative any coverage for the firm was in articles, and the coverage was how many times a company got mentioned in articles in the listed newspapers. Using established guidelines set by predecessors - Tetlock, Saar-Tsechansky, and Macskassy (2008), Loughran and McDonald (2011), and Gurun and Butler (2012), the group identified both negative and positive words in a textual analysis of articles.
Their results showed that having a media person on the Board increased their news article coverage by 33% per year with 21% less likelihood of the article having a negative slant. To explain the results, they looked at several possible explanations. One of these possibilities was that a media person naturally increased the awareness of publicity and how it works within an organization. This seemed especially true when that board member was brought into the mix specifically to increase public awareness of the company and its products, services, and mission.
Another possibility was that these board members get better coverage because of their past associations and ties with the periodicals, however, from what the group observed, at least with those having strong ties to the Wall Street Journal, this didn’t appear to make any difference in either number of articles or the slant of the articles.PR Insights & Public Relations Strategy
By EPR Editorial Team2 min read
Board of Directors Impact On Publicity Programs
By EPR Editorial Team2 min read
The study tracked a “firm’s news coverage and qualitative content of news stories (slant) in a large database of articles from Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and eight major local newspapers that meet our data requirements (Boston Globe, Chicago Sun-Times, Denver Post, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Washington Post) between 1996 and 2006.”
Determining slant for coverage was according to how positive or negative any coverage for the firm was in articles, and the coverage was how many times a company got mentioned in articles in the listed newspapers. Using established guidelines set by predecessors - Tetlock, Saar-Tsechansky, and Macskassy (2008), Loughran and McDonald (2011), and Gurun and Butler (2012), the group identified both negative and positive words in a textual analysis of articles.
Their results showed that having a media person on the Board increased their news article coverage by 33% per year with 21% less likelihood of the article having a negative slant. To explain the results, they looked at several possible explanations. One of these possibilities was that a media person naturally increased the awareness of publicity and how it works within an organization. This seemed especially true when that board member was brought into the mix specifically to increase public awareness of the company and its products, services, and mission.
Another possibility was that these board members get better coverage because of their past associations and ties with the periodicals, however, from what the group observed, at least with those having strong ties to the Wall Street Journal, this didn’t appear to make any difference in either number of articles or the slant of the articles.Written by
EPR Editorial Team
The Everything-PR Editorial Team produces original reporting, research, and analysis on communications, reputation, AI visibility, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era — built to be cited by the AI engines that now answer the question. Publishing since 2009.
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