Contested Issues and Organisations: Media Debates about Sustainability and Diversity

Sustainability and diversity are two contested issues in contemporary societies that are often linked to organisations. This chapter outlines research by ASCoR’s Corporate Communication group that assesses the causes, content, and consequences of media debates on sustainability and diversity. Organisations engage in these issue arenas in various roles: as employers having responsibilities toward internal stakeholders, as corporations seeking to respond to societal expectations to garner legitimacy, or as advocacy organisations entering public discourses with the aim of accelerating social change. Drawing on diverse methodological approaches with an emphasis on content-analytic techniques, the group’s research contributes to communication theory and research on agenda setting, framing, climate change communication, and stereotype communication with relevant implications for communication practice.