Media CSR (Corporate and Social Responsibility) Forum

Forum Activity

The Forum meets quarterly and most meetings include an invitation to a relevant stakeholder unless an internal workshop is being held. Since 2005 we have met with the following members.

• Prof David Grayson, Doughty Centre for CSR, talked about changing perceptions of CSR and media reporting.
• The Media and Society Foundation presented a quality management system for media companies.
• SROI UK explained the key principles behind the Social Return on Investment Framework.
• The London Benchmarking Group gave details of the steps companies are taking toward measuring their impact on society.
• The Cultural Diversity Network gave a presentation on how they are changing the face of British broadcasting.
• The Media Trust talked about the role of media in creating healthy local Communities.
• Migrant Voice presented their thoughts on creating a platform for migrants to have their say in society.
• OriginsInfo introduced a new software tool to help members understand the diversity of their workforce.
• Lundquist PR talked about the CSR Online Awards and future trends in CSR reporting.
• RSCG Europe discussed the empowering role of social media and what this means for the CSR agenda.
• Intellect UK gave a presentation about how developments in the ICT sector will change business models and the implications for combating the causes of climate change.
• The South East Media Network presented on how and why play and serious games hold the potential to achieve positive, large-scale behavioural change amongst citizens.
• One Young World presented the initiative "The Young World Global Summit", encouraging members to get involved by nominating delegates.
• The Prince of Wales' Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change provided future perspectives and explained what a coherent corporate strategy on climate change would look like.
• C-Change gave an introduction to their partnership-driven model to increase awareness and reduce carbon emissions.
• Big Bang Lab presented the concept of cultural social responsibility as a means of preserving cultural heritage and improving media literacy.
• 10:10 encouraged Forum members to back the 10:10 campaign and explained what this would mean in practice.
• Eco:metrics presented a tool that allows companies to measure and compare the carbon emissions of media campaigns.
• The Oxford Internet Institute talked about digital engagement in the information society using evidence from their annual survey.
• Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) explained their partnership approach to improving labour conditions in the supply chain and more specifically how to locate good 'ethical' suppliers for promotional merchandise.
• The Publishers’ Database for Responsible Environmental Paper Sourcing (PREPS) talked about risks in the paper supply chain.
• Shadow Minister for the Arts Ed Vaizey presented his views on converging media platforms and the effects on 'public service'.
• UK Refugee Council gave insights as to how the media affect perceptions on refugees.
• WWF presented the findings from their report Signposts and Weathercocks on the behavioural change needed to combat climate change.
• Julie's Bicycle presented its study on how to reduce the carbon footprint of the music industry.
• Ammado talked about using online communities as a platform to promote CSR and charitable activities.
• The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and Linguistic Landscapes shared the findings from their report Warm Words: an analysis of UK constructions and conceptions of climate change in the public domain.
• International Alert talked about the immense challenges faced by the world's poorest communities in the wake of climate change.
• Futerra discussed an initiative to improve the environmental content of the advertising and broadcasting sector, arguing that creativity is a prerequisite for achieving sustainability.
• TwentyFifty and the MTV Foundation who presented their work on The Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights and the MTV EXIT campaign to raise awareness of the trafficking of women from Eastern Europe.
• WWF presented their Media Manifesto published in Through the Looking Glass.
• Ofcom's Media Literacy representatives presented the results of Ofcom's Media Literacy Audit.
• Plan UK presented their Youth Media Development 06 initiative. Following this the Forum and its members donated £10,000 to found a children's press agency in India.
• The Media Literacy Task Force presented its work and the Charter for Media Literacy.
• The Voluntary Action Media Unit presented its services inviting members to become project partners for one or more of their initiatives.
• Goldman Sachs presented the first wave of their findings from their European Media Sector Environmental Social and Governance framework research.
• The Global Reporting Initiative suggested how we might work with the GRI to develop a Media Sector supplement.
• Business in the Community outlined their work on responsible Marketplace behaviour.
• An embryonic US Media CSR Forum presented their ideas for forming a sister forum.
• Defra consulted the group on the workings of the Carbon Reduction Commitment.
• The International Broadcasting Trust presented their latest Reflecting the Real World report.
• Foreign and Colonial Investment analysts presented the findings from their report Managing Access Security and Privacy in the Global Digital Economy.

In 2008, we conducted a stakeholder survey to validate the focus areas for the group. The report looked to identify the main corporate social responsibility issues the forum members, and media industry in general, face. Download Mapping the Landscape: CSR Issues for the Media Industry 2008.

In 2003 a stakeholder survey was commissioned in order to identify which issues were key.

The Media CSR forum: key issues for the media industry

Following this work we used facilitated workshops to focus down on the two or three areas that we considered to be the most pertinent and best dealt with on a collective basis. These became Media Literacy and the Measurement and Reporting of CSR for the Media Sector.

Measurement and Reporting

A sub group of members looked at the progress of CSR reporting and specifically at the use of indicators relevant for the media sector. Much of the Group's early discussion was concerned with materiality; attempting to understand which topics were truly significant for the sector and – within this – which were both significant and unique to media companies. As part of this exercise Aegis developed an on-line survey which the majority of members completed. This tested a wide range of possible indicators, inviting members to rate their importance to their own organisation, and the extent to which they currently reported on the topic. At the same time, the group heard from others who were developing indicator sets for the sector, including the research team at Goldman Sachs and the GRI.

The conclusions from the group were as follows:

• In the two years since the sub group was formed, the general level of CSR Reporting in the sector has increased markedly and is now commonplace. This change has been stimulated in part by discussions at the Forum meetings.
• The sector is not homogeneous: even within it there are distinct sub-sectors (e.g. print media, broadcast media, music, advertising) each of which faces subtly different issues.
• Many of the sector's most important issues (particularly those around broadcast content and editorial and regulatory process) do not lend themselves to quantitative analysis, and individual members are making great strides in reporting these issues clearly and in turn improving the "Media Literacy" of Corporate Responsibility analysts.

Ultimately, the view was that there was little marginal benefit from a sector specific framework, largely because of the rapid progress made by individual members and others in reporting and analysing the sector in other ways.

Media Literacy

A Media Literacy sub group was also formed and one of the group's first actions was to research and establish a working definition for the topic. We found that there was broad agreement that being 'Media Literate' has three components:

• Being able to access the media. Barriers to this could be technology, affordability or skills related.
• Being able to understand and critically evaluate media. E.g. the journey information and ideas go through to become content and to be able to discern the differences between fact, opinion, entertainment and advertising etc.
• Being able to create/interact with media.

We concluded that this is a critical and specific CSR topic for the media sector, which presents a number of very significant issues, for example:

• Rational ignorance. With such ferocious competition for space and time there is a threat that people will choose to either switch off completely or only trust a very limited number of media sources for their news, information and entertainment, missing out on other perspectives and opportunities. In turn this has an impact on people's ability to participate fully in a democratic and plural society, and intensifies any potential effects from editorial bias or mistakes in the limited sources being used.
• The speed of technological change and platform convergence within the media sector is leaving many members of society behind, limited by an out of date understanding and an inability to take advantage of new opportunities for interaction. At the same time other sections of society are forging ahead with new models such as citizenship journalism and platforms such as mobile phones. These changes represent both threats and opportunities for the sector.

The working group considered the most effective way to address these needs collectively. We researched existing work in both the UK and the US. The group also joined the Associate Parliamentary Media Literacy Group, and met numerous times with the Media Literacy Task Force and with Ofcom.

Whilst the group considers the issues and opportunities around Media Literacy to be substantial and real and significant progress has been made, particularly in the educational arena, there was a feeling that society and business at large are currently unaware of the issue. They are also unaware of the potential impact a media illiterate society could have on civil participation and even on democratic process. One could compare the issue to the state of awareness on Climate Change in the early 1990s.

We believe that by stimulating such a debate we can encourage the public to become more critically aware and to engage more readily with new media. There is also an opportunity to demonstrate the processes and regulatory frameworks behind the British media and share with the public at large the mechanisms by which factual, opinion, entertainment and advertising media are put together and their respective roles within the broader spectrum of media choices.

The following useful links provide a little more context:

Ofcom
NIACE
The Charter for Media Literacy
The European Commission Media Literacy Page