The Nexus Between Media Coverage and Top-of-Mind Awareness of South African Platinum Companies in News Consumers

Abstract

Using the media agenda setting and media agenda building approaches as theoretical lenses, this qualitative study investigated whether media coverage of South African platinum mining companies results in a proportionate top-of-mind awareness of the companies among mining news consumers. This is a timely topic, considering the growth in business news coverage in recent times. This growth has been spurred on by, among others, the increasing popularity of share ownership in many countries, the 2007 to 2009 global financial crisis, which resulted in stock market investors desiring to be savvier about the workings of the financial system, and the rise of the internet, a technology that has enabled media houses to distribute news to much larger numbers of news consumers than previously. The study entailed content analyses of news stories published by Mining Weekly, a Johannesburg-based news magazine, over a 14-month period and of the transcripts of 27 semi-structured interviews, after which the two datasets were compared. A positive relationship between media coverage and top-of-mind awareness was demonstrated.

Keywords:

• media agenda building approach
• business news
• corporate reputation
• platinum mining industry
• qualitative content analysis
• semi-structured interviews
• digital journalism