HTC企業新聞稿與媒體報導的議題設定研究 - 政大學術集成

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(1)國立政治大學國際傳播英語碩士學位學程 International Master’s Program in International Communication Studies College of Communication National Chengchi University. 碩士論文. Master’s Thesis 政治. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. HTC 企業新聞稿與媒體報導的議題設定研究. ‧ sit. y. Nat. The Agenda-Setting Effects of Corporate News Releases. er. io. n. al on Media Coverage of HTC iv Ch. n U engchi. Student: 何榮軒. Eddie Ho. Advisor: 陳憶寧教授. Dr. Yi-Ning Chen. 中華民國 102 年 8 月 August 2013.

(2) HTC 企業新聞稿與媒體報導的議題設定研究. The Agenda-Setting Effects of Corporate News Releases on Media Coverage of HTC. 研究生：何榮軒. Student: Eddie Ho. Advisor: Dr. Yi-Ning Chen 政治大. 指導教授：陳憶寧. 國立政治大學. 學. ‧ 國. 立. ‧. 國際傳播英語碩士學位學程. Nat. er. io. sit. y. 碩士論文. al. n. v. C h A Thesis U n i e n g cMaster’s h i Program in Submitted to International International Communication Studies National Chengchi University In partial fulfillment of the Requirement For the degree of Master of Arts. 中華民國 102 年 8 月 August 2013.

(3) Acknowledgement This study would like to acknowledge the assistance of the thesis advisor, Professor Yi-Ning Chen, and two members of the thesis committee, Professor Tsung-Jen Shih and Professor Hong-Chi Shiau, who constantly gave me inspiration and critical comments. Ultimately, with their help and kindness, this study is finalized. Special thanks are also given to all my family, friends, and colleagues, who continuously. 政治大. support and encourage me to complete this study.. 立. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v.

(4) TABLE OF CONTENT 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 HTC Public Relations and Journalism in Taiwan ......................................................................... 2 1.2 Research Purposes ........................................................................................................................ 4 2. Literature Review................................................................................................................................ 6 2.1 Information Subsidies ................................................................................................................... 6 2.2 Agenda-setting Theory.................................................................................................................. 9. 治政 2.2.2 Setting media's agenda ......................................................................................................... 11 大立 2.2.3 Attributes of corporate reputation agenda ............................................................................ 13. 2.2.1 First-level and second-level agenda setting ......................................................................... 10. ‧ 國. 學. 2.2.4 Affective tone of attributes .................................................................................................. 15 2.3 Research Questions ..................................................................................................................... 17. ‧. 3. Methodology ..................................................................................................................................... 18. y. Nat. sit. 3.1 Sample Selection ......................................................................................................................... 18. n. al. er. io. 3.2 Unit of Analysis .......................................................................................................................... 18. i n U. v. 3.3 Variables ..................................................................................................................................... 22. Ch. engchi. 3.4 Intercoder Reliability .................................................................................................................. 25 4. Results ............................................................................................................................................... 27 4.1 Substantive Sub-Attributes ......................................................................................................... 27 4.2 Substantive Attributes ................................................................................................................. 31 4.3 Affective Tones and Agenda Valence ........................................................................................ 33 4.4 Correlation between News Release and News Coverage ........................................................... 40 5. Discussion ......................................................................................................................................... 43 5.1 Substantive Attributes and Sub-attributes ................................................................................... 44 5.2 Affective Tones and Agenda Valence ........................................................................................ 46.

(5) 5.3 Limitations .................................................................................................................................. 47 5.4 Future Research .......................................................................................................................... 47 5.5 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................. 48 References ............................................................................................................................................. 50 APPENDICES ...................................................................................................................................... 54 Appendix A: Codebook .................................................................................................................... 55 Appendix B: Coding Sheet ............................................................................................................... 72 Appendix C: Example: Comparison between the news release and news coverage......................... 73. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v.

(6) Abstract This study intends to examine the relationship between corporate news releases and news coverage in Taiwan based on the theoretical framework of agenda-setting theory and information subsidies, taking a global smart phone company, HTC, which is founded in Taiwan, as an example. A content analysis is utilized as the research methodology. Two purposes are served in the study. One is to gain a better understanding of the relationship. 政治大. between corporate news releases and news coverage, providing a broader portrait for future. 立. studies, for the reason that researches in the past related to news releases and media agenda. ‧ 國. 學. mainly focused on politics, elections, and other political issues. And the other is to examine. ‧. the influence of news releases by corporate public relations practitioners and how much. Nat. io. sit. y. journalists and editors in Taiwan depend on the corporate news releases, as the business. al. er. reference for reputation management and public relations activities in the corporations and. n. v i n C h in Taiwan. ResultsUshows that the sub-attributes in the relationship with news organizations engchi the news release are correlated with ones in the news coverage; however, the attributes are not correlated, suggesting the journalistic autonomy coexist with information subsidies in the agenda-setting process.. Keywords: agenda-setting, information subsidies, news releases, print news coverage.

(7) Running head: AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE. 1. Introduction. The smart phone fever has been widespread through the world recently, including in Taiwan. According to an annual report by Nielsen in 2012, the smart phone penetration rate in Taiwan had already reached fifty percent. In other words, there is one in two people owning a smart phone in Taiwan. Under the circumstance of the worldwide trend, in addition to two smart phone giants in the world, Apple and Samsung Electronics, HTC, a global brand. 政治大. founded in Taiwan, is in the third place of smart phone market share worldwide.. 立. Founded in 1997, HTC built its reputation as the product designer and manufacturer of. ‧ 國. 學. many popular OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) branded mobile devices on the. ‧. market. Since 2006, HTC has regularly introduced mobile devices, including smart phones. y. Nat. al. er. io. sit. and tablets, under its own brand. In 2011, it entered into the top one hundred best global. n. brands evaluated by Interbrands, one of world's largest brand consultancies, and ranked. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. ninety-eighth in the annual report. This was the first time that a Taiwan-founded brand is listed after the evaluation of three key elements, the financial performance of the branded products or services, the role of brand in the purchase decision process, and the strength of the brand. In the same report, it described, A rising star in the mobile devices segment, and a new entry to our Top 100 Best Global Brands, HTC surpassed Nokia to become the third largest smart phone maker in the world in market value, placing it only behind Apple and Samsung. Starting as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) business, HTC has rapidly gained consumer traction at a global level earning it the title of the 2011 Device Manufacturer of the Year by the GSMA at the Mobile World Congress in February. (p. 43) 1.

(8) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE Also, there have been various positive reports and complements to HTC worldwide. For example, an American weekly newspaper, Barron's, described HTC with the title of "a smart play on smart phones" that If you thought the global smart phone market was a two-horse race between market leaders Apple and Samsung Electronics, think again. A third force, Taiwan's HTC, has a slew of pioneering next-generation smart phones, like the Thunder Bolt 4G, Amaze and Vivid, which work on faster networks to wow holiday shoppers. HTC is also a stock that might run faster than its nearest rivals. Today, HTC has transformed itself from an OEM to a well-known global brand. Since. 治政 HTC has been emerging all round the world, it also has been 大regarded as the pride and glory 立 ‧ 國. 學. for people in Taiwan because, in the past, Taiwan only played a role as a product manufacturer for other global brands. Therefore, people in Taiwan would especially treasure. ‧. and closely watch this one of few "BIT (Branded in Taiwan)" companies due to that. sit. y. Nat. io. n. al. er. country-of-origin and consumer patriotism positively influence the brand attitude and brand. i n U. v. strength (Chen, 2010). And for local news coverage in Taiwan, this study assumes that local. Ch. engchi. news coverage would also closely report this locally founded company from any source by different times that the company performs well or falls into the crisis. 1.1 HTC Public Relations and Journalism in Taiwan In order to build up the brand images and good company reputation to consumers and stakeholders locally in Taiwan, there are several ways for HTC public relations practitioners in the case of external communication, for example, Internet word of mouth effects, celebrity testimonials and media advertisements. Moreover, a relatively inexpensive way is to offer 2.

(9) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE corporate news releases to newspaper journalists and editors as a part of the media news coverage reported to audiences. And this process is referred to as information subsidies, highlighting how information serves as an economic commodity exchanged between journalists and news sources (Gandy, 1982). Pavlik (1987) called the relationship between public relations sources and journalists a "symbiotic" one, because public relations practitioners depend on media to distribute their messages to the public, meanwhile, media. 政治大. journalists and editors rely on sources from public relations practitioners to access to the. 立. business information.. ‧ 國. 學. Economically speaking, for journalists and news organizations, reporting the news. ‧. carries several costs, and news releases are able to reduce the costs of reporting the news,. Nat. io. sit. y. which have been labeled "routine channel news." And this routine process will be able to. er. exert greater influence on the news agenda (Kennamer, 1992). McCombs (2004) in his book. al. n. v i n Chalf Setting the Agenda, found that nearly stories were substantially based on press h eofnnews gchi U. releases and other direct information subsidies in the examination of the New York Times and Washington Post across a twenty-year period. There are 17.5 percent of total number of news stories appearing in newspapers based on press releases, and other 32 percent based on press conferences and background briefings in the same finding. Hence, McCombs pointed out that information subsidies, as the key role, play in the daily construction of all media agendas. He also explained that without press releases or subsidies routinely provided by public relations 3.

(10) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE professionals, the media agenda would be considerably changed in the news content. After all, he stated, "agenda-setting is a significant part of what public relations is about." 1.2 Research Purposes Based on the mutual subsidies directly and indirectly for sources and journalists, this study intends to explicate the influence of news releases through the agenda-setting theory as the theoretical framework, especially examining, the second-level agenda setting,. 政治大. attribute-salience relationship between corporate news releases and print news coverage.. 立. Setting the corporate itself and its reputation as the object in the media agenda, a. ‧ 國. 學. measurement, Reputation Quotation, is utilized in the content analysis in this study to. ‧. examine attributes of agenda.. Nat. io. sit. y. There are two major purposes served, on the one hand, this study is designed to gain a. er. better understanding of corporate news releases in the agenda-setting perspective and provide. al. n. v i n a broader portrait for future studies C forh the reason that most e n g c h i Uprevious research in the past related to the news release and its influence to media agenda mainly focused on politics, elections, and other political issues. Therefore, this study intends to serve as a further. explication and a consolidation for the agenda-setting theory, especially the second level, on media content in the field of public relations and business. On the other hand, this study discusses the influence of news release by the corporate public relations practitioners and also examines how much journalists and editors in Taiwan 4.

(11) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE depend on the corporate news releases, as a practical business reference for reputation management and public relations activities in the corporations and news organizations in Taiwan.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 5. i n U. v.

(12) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE. 2. Literature Review. This study aims to compare corporate news releases with local news coverage through the agenda-setting perspectives and to present findings for a clearer picture in the context of direct and indirect information subsidies between source-givers and receivers, corporate public relations practitioners and journalists. The literature review as following consists of two sections.. 政治大. The first section focuses on the concept of information subsidies, which is mainly. 立. explicated by Oscar H. Gandy (1982) with his book, Beyond Agenda Setting: Information. ‧ 國. 學. Subsidies and Public Policy from an economic consideration to a symbiotic relationship. ‧. between source-givers and journalists, and even further to reflect the question "who or what. y. Nat. al. er. io. sit. sets the media's agenda." And the other section focuses on agenda-setting theory, including. n. first-level and second-level agenda setting, explored by a number of studies (e.g. McCombs. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. & Shaw, 1972; McCombs, Lopez-Escobar, & Llamas, 2000; Chen, 2003; McCombs, 2004, 2005; Kiousis, Mitrook, Wu, and Seltzer, 2006). 2.1 Information Subsidies According to the book Beyond Agenda Setting: Information Subsidies and Public Policy, Gandy (1982), who coined the term information subsidies, stated that An information subsidy is an attempt to produce influence over the actions of others by controlling their access to and use of information relevant to those actions. This information is characterized as a subsidy because the source of that information causes it to be made available at something less than the cost a user would face in the absence 6.

(13) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE of the subsidy. (p.61) From an economic perspective that normally people would take the balanced or maintained relationship between consumption and utility into consideration, Gandy suggested that, even though the utility is subjective and may also vary from time to time, maximizing the price and utility of reliable information while exchanging is the priority for both source-givers and journalists. Based on the economic consideration, information is valued due to its expected utility and credibility or reliability that reduce the future uncertainty. For. 治政 source-givers or so-called "subsidy-givers," Gandy noted that 大"because of the relationship 立 ‧ 國. 學. between credibility and source interest, subsidy-givers have an incentive to hide or disguise their relationship to the information they provide in order to maximize its use by the relevant. ‧. others (p. 61)." It is the aforementioned incentive that makes subsidy-givers deliver the. sit. y. Nat. io. n. al. er. information less costly via the relatively objective and unbiased channels to the public, such. i n U. v. as news reports. On the other hand, for journalists, editor, or news producers, he also. Ch. engchi. explained that information subsidies may reduce the costs and the time consumption while producing the news, and also may win the publication as following in his book. The delivery of an information subsidy through the news media may involve an effort that reduces the cost producing news faced by a reporter, journalist, or editor. Faced with time constraints, and the need to produce stories that will win publication, journalists will attend to, and make use of, subsidized information that is of a type and form that will achieve that goal. By reducing the costs faced by journalists in satisfying organizational requirements, the subsidy giver increases the probability that the subsidized information will be used. (p.62) In other words, information subsidies could be regarded as the valuable commodity to 7.

(14) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE the news media by source-givers interested in gaining control and access to the media; likewise, journalists also would rely on the information subsidies, such as news releases, press kits, news conferences, and other forms of public relations activities, for the access to corporations and their available information with fewer costs and less time while producing news. Therefore, he stated the relationship between journalists and source-givers is a mutual one, meaning that journalists receive direct information subsidies while source-givers receive. 政治大. the incentive to make the information relatively objective indirectly.. 立. With information subsidies, media's agenda may be set by the agenda from the source. It. ‧ 國. 學. is said that the information subsidy is the responsibility and general practice of public. ‧. relations practitioners to generate unpaid publicity by delivering the undercover subsidy, such. Nat. io. sit. y. as news releases, to influence media's agenda and even the public agenda. However, some. er. previous studies (Hale, 1978; Pincus, Rimmer, Rayfield, and Cropp, 1993; Curtin, 1999). al. n. v i n C hthe kinds of decision indicated that news releases influenced e n g c h i U that were reported but not the content of coverage quantitatively. Moreover, journalists preferred to use the information they gathered on their own and to be autonomic in the news selection process and used subsidies less directly than reprinting news releases in the case of news releases were provided by sources with obvious self-serving purposes. To sum up with the statement by McCombs (2004) that "their substantial reliance on public relations sources underscores the key role that information subsidies play in the daily 8.

(15) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE construction of all media agendas. (p. 103)" Hence, in this study, agenda-setting theory, from first level to second level, would be explicated next to discuss the relationship, based on the concept of information subsidies, between news releases and news coverage in the following section. 2.2 Agenda-setting Theory Based on the discussed concept of information subsidies in the last sections, news. 政治大. releases, as one of typical forms of it, have strong influences on the decision-making process. 立. and agenda selection while journalists or editors producing the news. Logic implies that. ‧ 國. 學. through news releases and other forms of activities, public relations practitioners supply. ‧. information subsidies for journalists to create media agenda (Gandy, 1982). Furthermore, this. Nat. io. sit. y. study will examine the relationship between the news releases and news coverage under the. er. theoretical framework, agenda-setting theory, especially in the second level. This section. al. n. v i n C hof the agenda-setting consists of the origin and the core value e n g c h i U theory, divides the. agenda-setting theory into two levels, and how media's agenda set by applying agenda setting theory to the information-subsidy relationship between news releases and the printed news. First, the core value of the agenda-setting theory is the "transfer of salience," suggesting that the salience in news influences the salience of topics on the public agenda. This influence process begins with the agenda of "objects" receiving prominent attention in the mass media. The term "object" used here is the same with the term "attitude object" in the social 9.

(16) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE psychology (McCombs, 2005). McCombs also suggested that the famous summary statement by Bernard Cohen(1963) should be revised into that the media not only tell people what to think about, but also tell people how to think about it. Agenda-setting as a concept is not limited to the correspondence between salience of topics for the media and the audience. We can also consider the saliency of various attributes of these objects (topics, issues, persons, or whatever) reported in the media. To what extent is our view of an object shaped or influenced by the picture sketched in the media, especially by those attributes which the media deem newsworthy?...Consideration of agenda-setting in terms of the salience of both topics and their attributes allows the concept of agenda-setting to subsume many similar ideas presented in the past. The concepts of status-conferral, stereotyping, and image-making all deal with the salience of objects or attributes. (Shaw & McCombs, 1977, p. 12). 政治大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. 2.2.1 First-level and second-level agenda setting. Within the theoretical framework of agenda-setting theory, Shaw and McCombs. ‧. explicated that "what to think" is the first-level agenda setting, emphasizing the salience of. sit. y. Nat. io. n. al. er. objects and their attention; and "how to think about" is the second-level agenda setting,. i n U. v. focusing on the salience of "attributes" and the whole comprehension. Normally, the news. Ch. engchi. media do more than presenting an agenda of objects, and they also describe each of those objects with attributes. Some attributes of these objects are emphasized while some are mentioned less frequently and some just only in passing. For each object on the media agenda, there also is an agenda of attributes. In defining attributes, previous research has identified two major classes: substantive and affective. (McCombs, Lopez-Escobar, & Llamas, 2000). For example, for the substantive agenda, describing a politician includes mentions of the position in the ideology or the issue, 10.

(17) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE biographical information, personality and so forth. Meanwhile, the affective agenda includes positive, neutral, and negative descriptions of any of the aforementioned substantive attributes. 2.2.2 Setting media's agenda In 1980s, scholars began to ask "Who sets the media's agenda?" Gandy (1982), for example, argued that “I suggest we go beyond agenda-setting to determine who sets the. 政治大. media agenda, how and for what purpose it is set, and with what impact on the distribution of. 立. power and values in society” (p. 266). McCombs (2004), in his book Setting the Agenda,. ‧ 國. 學. used a useful metaphor for understanding the relationship between all these other agendas. ‧. and the agenda of the mass media, which is "peeling an onion.". io. sit. y. Nat. "The concentric layers of the onion represent the numerous influences at play in the shaping of the media agenda, which is the core of the onion. "(p.98). er. Scheufele (1999) also conceptualized framing as a continuous process where outcomes. al. n. v i n of certain process serve as inputs forCsubsequent and labeled one of four processes h e n gprocesses, chi U as framing setting, which is similar with McCombs and his colleagues' idea "second-level agenda setting." Therefore, this study follows the same route as the process from the news release to the news coverage. Figure 2.1 presents the process model of framing research by Scheufele (1999).. 11.

(18) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE. Figure 2.1 The process model of framing research (Scheufele, 1999). 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. For public relations practitioners, logic implies that they regard journalists as. ‧. audiences/readers and further deliver messages through channels journalists keep. And this. Nat. io. sit. y. study assumes that journalists receiving the news release and referring to it while selecting. er. and producing news is also called frame setting, or called "second-level agenda setting,". al. n. v i n C h 2.2 shows the model transmitting the attribute salience. Figure e n g c h i U the framing setting in this study. Figure 2.1 The process model in this study Outcomes. Process. Inputs. Attributes. Second-level agenda setting. Attributes. (Journalists as readers). News Release. Newspapers. 12.

(19) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE Although most agenda-setting researches in the past had analyzed an agenda of public or political issues, for instance, the first empirical study of agenda setting was conducted during the 1968 presidential election by McCombs and Shaw. Still, other objects on the media agenda include public figures, institutions, and corporations, argued by Carroll and McCombs (2003). Furthermore, McCombs (2004) stated that ...workings of government and business, from the international level down to the local level, originates with public information officers and other public relations practitioners who represent important news sources. These communication professionals subsidize the efforts of news organizations to cover the news by providing substantial amounts of organized information, frequently in the form of press releases prepared in the exact style of news stories.(p.102) 2.2.3 Attributes of corporate reputation agenda. 學. ‧ 國. 立. 政治大. ‧. In this case, the agenda-setting theory, both in first and second level, might fit equally. Nat. io. sit. y. well in the world of business communication. In order to probe the substantive attribute. er. agenda between corporation and news coverage, some previous studies provided general. al. n. v i n C hagendas of corporate gauges for the assessment to attributes e n g c h i U reputation specifically. For. example, Fombrun, Gardberg and Sever (1999) used a series of focus groups to assess exactly what people meant when they referred to corporate reputation, revised from three pilot studies, and finally presented a valid and reliable scale- the Reputation QuotientSM, measuring key attributes of reputation substantively. Table 2.1 presents the reputation scale.. 13.

(20) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE Table 2.1 The Reputation QuotientSM I have a good feeling about the company I admire and respect the company. Emotional Appeal. I trust this company Stands behind its products and services Develops innovative products and services. Products and Services. Offers high quality products and services Offers products and services that are a good value for the money Has excellent leadership. Vision and Leadership Has a clear vision for its future Recognizes and takes advantage of market opportunities Looks like a good company to work for. 立. Is an environmentally responsible company Maintain high standards in the way it treats people Has a strong record of profitability. y. Looks like a low risk investment. Nat. Tends to outperform its competitors. sit. Financial Performance. Supports good causes. ‧. ‧ 國. Looks like a company that would have good employees. 學. Social and Environmental Responsibility. 政治大. Is well-managed. Workplace Environment. io. n. al. er. Looks like a company with strong prospects for future growth. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Furthermore, Kiousis, Popescu, and Mitrook (2007) also used the Reputation Quotient index by Harris Interactive and the Reputation Institute as a valid measurement of corporate reputation among external stakeholders. The Reputation Quotient has been measured by Harris Interactive and the Reputation Institute annually since 1998. This instrument evaluates stakeholder perceptions of the most visible corporations in the United States and Europe across six attributes of corporate reputation and several sub-attributes, as the same as ones listed on Table 2.1. In the study, they analyzed the impact of corporate public relations 14.

(21) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE messages on media coverage of corporations, on corporate reputation, and on financial performance, through two-level agenda-setting theory. And they found that object salience in public relations messages leads to increased salience in news coverage, and that a positive correlation between public relations messages tone and media coverage tone is supported. However, the transfer of salience from media messages to perceptions of corporate reputation did not occur. They also pointed interestingly that they found agenda-setting effects for news. 政治大. coverage and financial performance but only for part of certain newspaper instead of the. 立. different natures and focuses of the publication.. 學. ‧ 國. other, which suggests that agenda-setting effects are likely to vary from different media with. ‧. 2.2.4 Affective tone of attributes. Nat. io. sit. y. For the other type of attribute, for example, Deephouse (2000) incorporated mass. er. communication theory to develop the concept, media reputation, and he referred to the. al. n. v i n C h agenda as media affective dimension of the media’s attribute e n g c h i U "favorability." He used. "favorable" to indicate that a firm was praised for its actions or that the firm was associated with activities that should raise a firm’s reputation. On the other hand, he used "unfavorable" when an organization was criticized for its actions or associated with actions that should decrease its reputation. A "neutral" rating identified a story that was the "declarative reporting of role performance without evaluative modifiers." In the same logic, this study referred to the affective attributes in the news items as positive, negative, and neutral according to 15.

(22) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE aforementioned substantive sub-attributes. For example, it would be positive that there are characteristics describing that HTC has high quality products and/or services, whereas, it would be negative that there are characteristics describing HTC has poor quality products and/or services. But if there are characteristics describing both ways, it would be neutral. In this study, the valence of the object in the agenda, corporate reputation, would be also determined by numbers of positive, negative, and neutral affective attributes in the same news items.. 立. 政治大. Through aforementioned discussion, the agenda-setting effect not only influences public. ‧ 國. 學. opinions in the context of political issues from the news media, but also exists and influences. ‧. among news media and sources in the context of other objects and attributes, especially. Nat. salience of attributes substantively and affectively.. al. er. io. sit. y. corporate reputation and communication in this study in the second-level agenda-setting, the. n. v i n C h subsidies betweenUpublic relations practitioners in Based on the context of information engchi. the corporation and journalists in news organizations, this study intends to examine the influence from corporate news release to media news coverage in Taiwan, taking a Taiwan-founded smart phone corporation, HTC, as an example, within the theoretical framework of the agenda-setting theory. For the second-level agenda setting, attributes would be divided into twenty sub-attributes, substantively and affectively, within six main attributes: overall corporate appeal, products and services, vision and leadership, financial performance, 16.

(23) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE workplace environment and social responsibility, which are referred to previous studies (e.g. Kiousis, Popescu, and Mitrook , 2007; Fombrun, Gardberg and Sever 2000). 2.3 Research Questions With the two-section literature reviews about the concept of information subsidies and two-level agenda-setting theory, this study develops research questions as following. RQ1. What is the relationship between substantive sub-attributes in corporate news. 政治大. release and in news coverage?. 立. RQ2. What is the relationship between substantive attributes in corporate news release. ‧ 國. 學. and in news coverage?. ‧. RQ3. What is the relationship between the agenda valence in corporate news release and. Nat. n. al. er. io. sit. y. in news coverage?. Ch. engchi. 17. i n U. v.

(24) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE. 3. Methodology. This study aims to understand and to expand the knowledge of the agenda-setting in the relationship between the news release and news coverage in the public relations academically and practically. To do so, this study uses a quantitative content analysis and it describes sample selection, unit of analysis, variables, and reliability as following. 3.1 Sample Selection. 政治大. In order to conduct the content analysis of local print news coverage in Taiwan and the. 立. corporate news releases from HTC, according to the circulation, four major local newspapers. ‧ 國. 學. in Taiwan are chosen in this study and they are United Daily News, China Times, Liberty. ‧. Times, and Apple Daily. The China Times, United Daily News, Liberty Times, and Apple. y. Nat. al. er. io. sit. Daily are the best-selling newspapers in the circulation in Taiwan. Here two other financial. n. newspapers, Commercial Times and Economic Daily News, are not selected due to the reason. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. that both of newspapers only focus on specific categories but not complete ones, for instance, main focuses on stock markets and industries. Therefore, this study intends to analyze the relationship of agenda between these four aforementioned local newspapers in Taiwan and the HTC corporate news release. 3.2 Unit of Analysis The unit of analysis is the individual news story and corporate news release. For retrieving news articles, this study would use electronic data services. News articles from 18.

(25) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE four Taiwanese newspapers, the United Daily News, China Times, Liberty Times, and Apple Daily are culled via Wise News, United Daily News data(UDNdata), and Knowledge Management Winner (KMW) databases. Besides, in order to make sure that there would not be missing samples, the study would also double-check each of electronic newspapers on the official website online. And the HTC corporate news releases would be collected from the "Newsroom" on HTC Taiwan official website. All samples are collected through typing the. 政治大. keyword and searching for "HTC" or its Chinese brand name, "Honda Dian" at first, showing. 立. 3107 results. Moreover, after sorting out irrelevant coverage, including visual advertisements,. ‧ 國. 學. editorials, and articles not related to corporate reputation. Take Figure 3.1 as the example of. Nat. n. al. er. io. sit. Figure 3.1 A piece of HTC visual advertisement in Apple Daily. y. ‧. visual advertisements.. Ch. engchi. 19. i n U. v.

(26) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE Furthermore, take two other news articles not relevant to HTC reputation and just passing by for the example, ...王文淵昨天也被眼尖的媒體發現手機從 hTC（堂妹王雪紅的宏達電手機品牌）換成 iPhone，被調侃：「是否因為要投資蘋果所以連手機都換成蘋果？」他大笑看著 iPhone 說：「對ㄟ，這裡也有一顆蘋果，沒有啦！是企業友人送的。」希望媒體不要想太多。(Apple Daily, Nov. 11th, 2012) ...台北商旅於 2006 年推出「商旅行動生活手機」，有如飯店秘書隨伺身邊，取有台灣智財局 20 年的專利權。今年再將房卡與悠遊卡晶片置入手機，三合一功能，讓短期來台洽公的旅客，甚至不必兌換外幣，也能完成工作。台北商旅創辦人劉季強表示，已訂購 300 支 HTC 智慧型手機旅客入住時即發給一支，手機可感應電梯、開啟房鎖；旅客持手機至櫃台加值後，即可搭乘捷運、公車及在提供悠遊卡付費的商店內消費。(United Daily, Aug. 28th, 2012). 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. However, the content analysis in this study tends to search for news articles related to its reputation in the context, including six dimensions (attributes in the study) with twenty. ‧. sub-items (sub-attributes) referred to the Reputation Quotient. For example,. y. Nat. sit. 宏達電衝品牌今年推中低階手機. n. al. er. io. 【林上祚／台北報導】智慧型手機大廠宏達電(2498)，昨日舉辦法說會，受到第一季新台幣升值影響，宏達電第一季營收預估，僅落在 320-340 億元區間，執行長周永明仍重申品牌發展決心，強調今年將採用美商高通 BREW 平台，搶占中低階手機市場。宏達電去年第 4 季，在 Google 的 Nexus One 與微軟平台 HD2 帶動下，營收重新站上 400 億元大關，宏達電財務長鄭慧明表示，去年 12 月最後二周，新台幣對歐元明顯轉強，台幣轉強對宏達電第 1 季營收產生不利影響，加上第 1 季是傳統淡季，因此預估，第 1 季營收區間落在 3 20-340 億元之間。第一季營收估 320-340 億元但周永明強調，「宏達電對今年營收審慎樂觀，今年是品牌行動年」，除了將擴大產品線，推出高通 BREW 平台中低階手機 HTC Smart 外，也會繼續強化與二大合作夥伴微軟與 Google 合作關係。宏達電去年第 4 季手機平均出貨單價仍高達 348 美元，周永明預估， HTC Smart. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 系列產品，雖會拉低平均出貨單價，但由於 HTC Smart 初期出貨占比不會太高，對毛利率影響不大，第一季毛利率預估在 30%上下 0.5 個百分點。去年下半年，宏達電全力攻打北美市場，第 4 季營收已收到效果，北美占營收比重 20.

(27) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE 已近五成，鄭慧明說，「美國 3G 行動上網應用，過去 2 年大幅成長，是北美市場大幅成長主因」，宏達電與 Google 合作的 Nexus One 也與 T-Mobile 與 Verizon 等電信業者合作。搶下北美市場占營收一半周永明表示，去年金融風暴對宏達電營收雖帶來挑戰，但這段期間學到很多，在聖誕銷售旺季過後，美國第 1 季手機買氣雖然相對停滯，但歐洲與亞洲市場買氣，整體仍優於去年，公司經過經營策略快速調整，讓他對今年營收表現審慎樂觀。 (China Times, Jan. 27th, 2010) The example news coverage includes that HTC market opportunities, clear vision for the future, growth prospects, etc. within the dimensions of "vision and leadership" and "financial. 政治大. performance." Compared to the news coverage, all HTC corporate news releases from the. 立. Newsroom on HTC official website are qualified as the sample units and selected. A sample. ‧ 國. 學. article is shown as following below.. ‧. HTC 宣布持續擴展創新投資增加招募 1,000 名研發人才讓頂尖人才與世界接軌在國際舞台實現非凡成就台灣桃園（西元 2011 年 4 月 29 日）-全球手機創新與設計領導者 HTC（宏達國際電子股份有限公司，以下簡稱『HTC』）今（29）日宣佈將持續擴大創新投資，增加招募 1,000 名以上的研發人才，藉此厚實台灣行動通訊產業的研發實力並培育國際級人才的未來競爭力。為吸引更多優秀人才加入 HTC 團隊，公司除規劃一系列大專院校面談會、軍中就業博覽會及其他人才招募活動外，更預計在五、六月間走訪全台，網羅台灣各地的精英份子。未來新生力軍的加入不僅有助於 HTC 全力打造均衡健全的職涯環境，更因 HTC 與全球一流企業與尖端科技無縫隙的接軌，將全面提升年輕人才國際化的視野與多元化的寶貴經驗。創新是 HTC 打造品牌價值的重要基礎，HTC 自成立以來致力於提升無線通訊尖端科技與智慧型手機的最佳使用者經驗，在國際無線通訊市場上擁有強大的創新研發與設計能力。今年更屢獲國際大獎肯定，包括獲頒 2011 年全球行動通訊大會之全球行動通訊產業最高殊榮「2011 年最佳手機公司」大獎，並再次得到美國無線通訊科技展與業界領袖肯定，榮獲美國無線通訊科技展「尖端技術大獎」及多項業界尊榮獎項。 HTC 研發與營運總經理劉慶東表示：「觀察全球當前產業趨勢，唯有創新才能促進. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 企業顯著且持續地成長，而專業人才的培育絕對是刻不容緩。正因如此，HTC 視人才培育為未來企業發展的重點，並一同帶領年輕的下一代，將台灣的創新設計能力行銷到全世界。」他更進一步表示：「HTC 一向秉持『Quietly Brilliant』的精神以及 21.

(28) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE 誠實、謙虛、簡單、活力與創新五項核心特質廣納各方人才。2011 年的人才招募人數，是公司自成立以來成長幅度最積極的一次，相當於擴大 30%的研發團隊，足見 HTC 對於創新發展的重視。」今年 HTC 將以「讓頂尖人才與世界接軌，在國際舞台實現非凡成就」做為人才招募主軸，希望吸引各方精英加入 HTC 研發設計團隊，共同開發出極具影響力、又能成就世界各地人們美好生活經驗的行動裝置。此外，HTC 本於營運管理與企業社會責任的均衡發展，一向致力於培養優質人才並提供員工健康的工作環境。而員工們努力的成果也直接體現在 HTC 的產品上，不只是讓 HTC 這個品牌，更讓台灣的創新能在世界各國發光發熱。這也是 HTC 在追求成長與獲利最大化的同時，對台灣產業轉型、人才培育以及就業發展上所作出的貢獻。關於 HTC HTC 是手機業成長最快速的企業之一。秉持以人為中心的經營理念，HTC 不斷推出創新手機來滿足各種不同消費者的需求，以提升人們的生活。HTC 已於台灣證券交易所掛牌上市，股票代號 2498。其他關於 HTC 的資訊，請參考 HTC 企業網站 www.htc.com。(HTC Corporate News Release, Apr. 29th, 2011). 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. Finally there are 137 corporate news releases and 538 print news articles in four newspapers selected. The present study only analyzes news coverage related to the HTC. ‧. reputation from January 1st, 2010 to December 31st, 2012, when the time HTC started to. sit. y. Nat. io. n. al. er. record the corporate press release on the official website. Moreover, during this period of. i n U. v. time, the reputation and the financial performance of HTC Corporation had peaked and then. Ch. engchi. it also had several crises and challenges, for instance, the controversial lay-off issue in July, 2012, or the "country-of-origin" issue in February, 2012, that a politician and netizens put HTC under a boycott. 3.3 Variables Spearman's rank correlation coefficient is used to measure the relationships in remaining research questions, as the case in most previous agenda-setting research (e.g. McCombs & Shaw, 1972; Kiousis & McCombs, 2004). Also, for the reasons that the sample sizes from 22.

(29) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE two sources, the corporate news release and the print news coverage from four newspapers, are different, and also there may be more than one attributes/sub-attributes or there are even none in each news item, which may cause the cell under the expected counts in Chi-Square test. Therefore, this study ranks both attributes and sub-attributes in two sources separately and further analyzes the consistency and correlation according to the rank. In addition, this study still uses Chi-Square test of homogeneity to measure the percentage of attributes in two. 政治大. sources, the news release and the news coverage, for further exploration.. 立. The variables in Spearman's rank correlation coefficient are the rank of frequency of. ‧ 國. 學. present attributes and sub-attributes in the news item. There are twenty sub-attributes within. ‧. six attributes, according to the Reputation Quotient, to assess the salience of both attributes. Nat. sit er. io. setting.. y. and sub-attributes, and also the affective tones of sub-attributes in the second-level agenda. al. n. v i n In the content analysis, coders C decide with the affective tone U h ewhether h i sub-attribute n g ceach. is present or absent, and further determine three present attributes at most; moreover, according to the affective tones of present sub-attributes, the valence of agenda in each news item is determined. Table 3.1 lists all the aforementioned attributes and sub-attributes as following. Finally, a codebook contains descriptions of each variables as well as coding instructions, and more detailed information of the content analysis and examples can be found in the codebook (Appendix A). 23.

(30) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE. Table 3.1 Attributes and sub-attributes Attributes. Sub-attributes. Overall corporate appeal. Feels good about company Company inspires admiration and respect Company inspires trust. Product and service. High quality products and/or services Innovative products and/or services Company provides good value for money Company stands behind its products and/or services. Vision and leadership. Market opportunities. 政治大. Company has excellent leadership Company/management has clear vision for the future. 立Outperforms competitors. Financial performance. ‧ 國. 學. Company has record of being profitable Company is low risk investment Growth prospects Rewards employees fairly Good place to work Company supports good causes. io. sit. y. Good employees. er. Nat. Social responsibility. ‧. Workplace environment. Company is environmentally responsible. n. aCompany v l C is responsible in then icommunity hengchi U. 24.

(31) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE. 3.4 Intercoder Reliability There are two coders in the content analysis. One of the coder is a second-year graduate student, Bernie Huang, from International Master's Program in International Communication Studies (IMICS) in National Chengchi University; and the other is the author of this study. In order to test reliability and achieve intercoder reliability, after the first meeting and training, 10% of overall sample (68 out of 675), following the general recommendation that a. 政治大. formal reliability test contain at least 10% of the full sample, from five news sources,. 立. including HTC corporate news releases, China Times, United Daily, Apple Daily, and Liberty. ‧ 國. 學. Times, are analyzed by two coders in this study by computing Cohen's kappa coefficient,. ‧. which accounts for agreement to calculate intercoder reliability.. Nat. io. sit. y. However, not all variables achieve the desired value of .8 in the first intercoder. er. reliability test and the average value is below .8. After two coder's meetings and discussing,. al. n. v i n Ch all of the value for each attributes, sub-attributes, i U variables achieved .8 in the last e n g candhvalence. intercoder reliability test, shown respectively in Table 3.2. The range of the value from .81 to 1, and the average value is .93, which indicates an almost perfect agreement between coders.. 25.

(32) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE. Table 3.2 Intercoder reliability for the content analysis (Kappa Coefficients) Variables. Intercoder reliability. Feels good about company.. .97. Company inspires admiration and respect.. .89. Company inspires trust.. .81. High quality products and/or services.. .97. Innovative products and/or services.. .94. Company provides good value for money.. .95. Company stands behind its products and/or services.. .97. Market opportunities.. .91. 立. 政治大. Company/management has clear vision for the future.. .81. ‧ 國. 1.00. Outperforms competitors.. 學. Company has excellent leadership.. Company has record of being profitable.. .93. ‧. Company is low risk investment.. y. n. al. er. io. Good employees.. sit. Rewards employees fairly Good place to work.. .92 .97. Nat. Growth prospects.. .90. Company supports good causes.. Ch. engchi U Company is environmentally responsible.. v ni. .83 .85 1.00 1.00 1.00. Company is responsible in the community.. 1.00. Overall corporate appeal. .91. Product and service. .82. Vision and leadership. .87. Financial performance. .96. Workplace environment. .92. Social responsibility. 1.00. Agenda valence. .92. Average. .93. 26.

(33) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE. 4. Results. This study investigates three research questions. RQ1 asks "What is the relationship between substantive sub-attributes in corporate news release and in news coverage?" RQ2 asks "What is the relationship between substantive attributes in corporate news release and in news coverage?" RQ3 asks "What is the relationship between the agenda valence in corporate news release and in news coverage?" Answering these three questions involves a content. 政治大. analysis of 137 news releases from HTC corporation and 538 news articles from four local. 立. newspapers in Taiwan. And this section details the results of the content analysis using. ‧ 國. 學. descriptive analysis, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, and Chi-Square test of. ‧. homogeneity.. y. Nat. er. io. al. sit. 4.1 Substantive Sub-Attributes. n. First of all, twenty sub-attributes of company reputation in the news release and in news. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. coverage are analyzed descriptively. And according to the frequency of sub-attributes which appeared in the news articles, this study ranks them from one to twenty. Table 4.1 shows the frequency and the first-to-twentieth rank of sub-attributes both in the news release and the news coverage.. 27.

(34) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE. Table 4.1 Frequency and rank of sub-attributes in the news release and newspaper News releases. Newspapers. Frequency. Rank. Frequency. Rank. Sub-attributes Feels good about company Company inspires admiration and respect Company inspires trust High quality products and/or services Innovative products and/or services Company provides good value for money Company stands behind its products and/or services Market opportunities Company has excellent leadership Company/management has clear vision for the future Outperforms competitors Company has record of being profitable. 109 71 25 76 127 34 57 53 9 104 21 10. 2 5 10 4 1 9 7 8 14 3 11 13. 138 116 54 174 103 53 230 161 27 145 58 155. 8 9 12 4 10 13 2 5 14 7 11 6. Company is low risk investment Growth prospects Rewards employees fairly Good place to work Good employees Company supports good causes Company is environmentally responsible Company is responsible in the community. 5 68 2 5 15 6 4 7. 17 6 19 17 12 16 18 15. 196 241 12 11 13 5 3 11. 3 1 16 17 15 18 19 17. n. engchi. y. sit er. io. Ch. ‧. Nat. al. 學. ‧ 國. 立. 政治大. i n U. v. For the corporate news release, the top five present sub-attributes in the rank are "#1 Innovative products and/or services (15.72%)," "#2 Feels good about company (13.49%)," "#3 Company/management has clear vision for the future (12.87%)," "#4 High quality products and/or services (9.41%)," "#5 Company inspires admiration and respect (8.79%)," and they mainly fall on first two attributes, "Overall corporate appeal" and "Products and 28.

(35) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE service." And the last five present sub-attributes in the rank are "#16 Company supports good causes (0.74%)," "#17 Company is low risk investment and Good place to work (0.62%, two 17th in the rank)," "#18 Company is environmentally responsible (0.5%)," "#19 Rewards employees fairly (0.25%)," and they mainly fall on attributes of "Workplace environment" and "Social responsibility." On the other hand, for the news coverage from local newspapers, the top five present. 政治大. sub-attributes in the rank are "#1 Growth prospects (12.64%)," "#2 Company stands behind. 立. its products and/or services (12.07%)," "#3 Company is low risk investment (10.28%)," "#4. ‧ 國. 學. High quality products and/or services (9.13%)," "#5 Market opportunities (8.45%)," mainly. ‧. falling on the attributes of "Financial performance" and "Products and service." And the last. Nat. io. sit. y. five are "#16 Rewards employees fairly (0.63%)," "#17 Company is responsible in the. er. community and Good place to work (0.58%, two 17th in the rank)," "#18 Company supports. al. n. v i n Cishenvironmentally responsible good causes (0.3%)," "#19 Company (0.2%)," which is engchi U. similar with the news release. Figure 4.1 shows a bar graph comparing the percentage of present sub-attributes in the sample of the news release and the print news coverage.. 29.

(36) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE. Figure 4.1 The percentage of sub-attributes in the news release and the news coverage Company is responsible in the community Company is environmentally responsible Company supports good causes Good employees Good place to work Rewards employees fairly Growth prospects Company is low risk investment. 立. Company has record of being profitable. 政治大. Outperforms competitors. ‧ 國. 學. Company/management has clear vision for the future Company has excellent leadership. ‧. Market opportunities Company stands behind its products and/or services. y. Nat. sit. Company provides good value for money. al. er. io. Innovative products and/or services. n. High quality products and/or services. Ch. Company inspires trust. Company inspires admiration and respect. engchi. i n U. v. Feels good about company 0.00% 2.00% 4.00% 6.00% 8.00% 10.00% 12.00% 14.00% 16.00% 18.00% Newspapers. 30. News releases.

(37) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE. 4.2 Substantive Attributes This study analyzes six attributes in company reputation agenda of HTC between sources, company news releases and news coverage from local newspapers, and determines top three attributes represented in each news item by sub-attributes accordingly. And the study further ranks these attributes according to the frequency. Table 4.2 shows the frequency and the first-to-sixth rank of attributes both in the news. 政治大. release and the news coverage. For the corporate news release, the rank of attributes is from. 立. "Product and service (#1)," "Overall corporate appeal (#2)," "Vision and leadership (#3),". ‧ 國. 學. "Financial performance (#4)," "Workplace environment (#5)," to "Social responsibility (#6).". ‧. However, for the news coverage, the rank of attributes is slightly different, which is from. Nat. io. sit. y. "Product and service (#1)," "Financial performance (#2)," "Vision and leadership (#3),". er. "Overall corporate appeal (#4)," "Workplace environment (#5)," to "Social responsibility. al. n. v i n C between (#6)." The only difference of the rank U and the news coverage is that h e n gthecnews h i release the ranking of "Overall corporate appeal" and "Financial performance" is opposite.. 31.

(38) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE. Table 4.2 Frequency and rank of attributes in the news release and newspapers News releases Attributes Overall corporate appeal Product and service Vision and leadership Financial performance Workplace environment Social responsibility. 立. Newspapers. Frequency. Rank. Frequency. Rank. 97 120 101 50 13 9. 2 1 3 4 5 6. 193 364 239 322 27 13. 4 1 3 2 5 6. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. In addition, this study also uses Chi-Square test of homogeneity to measure the percentage of attributes in two sources for the reason that the number of attributes may. ‧. influence the result in Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. By using the test of. sit. y. Nat. io. n. al. er. homogeneity, the study is able to measure the relationship of attributes from two different. i n U. v. numbers of sample, and all cells are above the expected counts. Table 4.3 shows the results of. Ch. engchi. Chi-Square test in attributes frequency and percentage, reflecting a similar consequence that the most difference between two sources falls on two specific attributes, "Overall corporate appeal (24.9%; 16.7%)" and "Financial performance (12.8%; 27.8%).". 32.

(39) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE. Table 4.3 Chi-Square test of homogeneity Attributes Overall Products Vision Financial Workplace Social corporate and and performance environment responsibility appeal service leadership News release Newspapers. Total. Count. 97. 120. 101. 50. 13. 9. 390. %. 24.9%. 30.8%. 25.9%. 12.8%. 3.3%. 2.3%. 100%. Count. 193. 364. 239. 322. 27. 13. 1158. %. 16.7%. 31.4%. 20.6%. 27.8%. 政治大. 學. ‧ 國. 立. 2.3% 1.1% 100% 2 X = 45.479, df = 5, p = .000 < .05. 4.3 Affective Tones and Agenda Valence. ‧. To further discuss the relationship between the news release and the news coverage, this. sit. y. Nat. study also analyzes the presence and absence of affective tones, positive, negative, and. n. al. er. io. neutral, among these twenty sub-attributes. Secondly, according to the present affective tones. Ch. i n U. v. in each news item, the agenda valence is also determined. However, due to the absence of the. engchi. negative tone in the news release, the study only compares the positive and neutral sub-attributes from two sources, and also utilizes Spearman's rank correlation coefficient to explicate the relationship of affective sub-attributes between two sources. For the corporate news release, Table 4.4 shows the results, as almost the same as the substantive sub-attribute, the top five positive sub-attributes in the rank are still "#1 Innovative products and/or services (15.91%)," "#2 Feels good about company (13.66%),". 33.

(40) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE "#3 Company/management has clear vision for the future (13.03%)," "#4 High quality products and/or services (9.52%)," "#5 Company inspires admiration and respect (8.9%)." And the last five positive sub-attributes in the rank are slightly different. They are "#16 Company supports good causes (0.75%)," "#17 Good place to work (0.63%)," "#18 Company is environmentally responsible (0.5%)," "#19 Rewards employees fairly (0.25%)," and "#20 Company is low risk investment (0.13%).". 政治大. On the other hand, for the news coverage, the top five positive sub-attributes in the rank. 立. are "#1 Company stands behind its products and/or services (14.17%)," "#2 Growth prospecs. ‧ 國. 學. (12.63%)," "#3 High quality products and/or services (9.81%)," "#4 Market opportunities. ‧. (9.74%)," "#5 Company/management has clear vision for the future (8.01%)," and the last. Nat. io. sit. y. five positive sub-attributes are "#16 Company is responsible in the community (0.58%),". er. "#17 Good employees (0.51%)," "#18 Company supports good causes (0.32%)," "#19 Good. al. n. v i n place to work (0.13%)," and the lastC one is environmentally responsible h "#20 e n Company gchi U. (0.03%)." Figure 4.2 shows a bar graph comparing the percentage of positive sub-attributes in the sample of the news release and the print news coverage.. 34.

(41) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE. Table 4.4 Frequency and rank of positive sub-attributes in the news release and newspaper News releases. Newspapers. Frequency. Rank. Frequency. Rank. Sub-attributes Feels good about company Company inspires admiration and respect Company inspires trust High quality products and/or services Innovative products and/or services Company provides good value for money Company stands behind its products and/or services Market opportunities Company has excellent leadership Company/management has clear vision for the future Outperforms competitors Company has record of being profitable. 109 71 25 76 127 34 57 53 9 104 21 10. 2 5 10 4 1 9 7 8 14 3 11 13. 115 104 26 153 75 51 221 152 23 125 55 111. 7 9 13 3 10 12 1 4 14 5 11 8. Company is low risk investment Growth prospects Rewards employees fairly Good place to work Good employees Company supports good causes Company is environmentally responsible Company is responsible in the community. 1 62 2 5 15 6 4 7. 20 6 19 17 12 16 18 15. 117 197 10 2 8 5 1 9. 6 2 15 19 17 18 20 16. n. engchi. 35. y. sit er. io. Ch. ‧. Nat. al. 學. ‧ 國. 立. 政治大. i n U. v.

(42) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE. Figure 4.2 The percentage of positive sub-attributes in the news release and the news coverage. Company is responsible in the community Company is environmentally responsible Company supports good causes Good employees Good place to work Rewards employees fairly Growth prospects Company is low risk investment Company has record of being profitable. 立. Outperforms competitors. 政治大. Company/management has clear vision for the future. ‧ 國. 學. Company has excellent leadership Market opportunities. ‧. Company stands behind its products and/or services. sit. y. Nat. Company provides good value for money Innovative products and/or services. io. n. al. er. High quality products and/or services Company inspires trust. Ch. Company inspires admiration and respect. engchi. i n U. v. Feels good about company 0.00% 2.00% 4.00% 6.00% 8.00% 10.00%12.00%14.00%16.00%18.00% Newspapers. News releases. Table 4.5 shows the frequency and the rank of neutral sub-attributes in the news release and the news coverage as following.. 36.

(43) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE. Table 4.5 Frequency and rank of neutral sub-attributes in the news release and newspaper News releases. Newspapers. Frequency. Rank. Frequency. Rank. Sub-attributes Feels good about company Company inspires admiration and respect Company inspires trust High quality products and/or services Innovative products and/or services Company provides good value for money Company stands behind its products and/or services Market opportunities Company has excellent leadership Company/management has clear vision for the future Outperforms competitors Company has record of being profitable Company is low risk investment Growth prospects. 4 6. 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3. 4 6 6 3 2 5 4 2 6. 3 3 3 2 1. 2 3 6 1 2 6 1 3 9 9. Rewards employees fairly Good place to work Good employees Company supports good causes Company is environmentally responsible Company is responsible in the community. -. 3 3 3 3 3 3. 1 1 1 1. 6 5 5 6 5 5. n. engchi. y. sit er. io. Ch. ‧. Nat. al. 學. ‧ 國. 立. 政治大. i n U. v. The frequency of neutral sub-attributes is relatively fewer than the positive one in both sources. However, the frequency of some neutral sub-attributes is overlapped, therefore, this study ranks them into the same places. For the news release, there are only two neutral sub-attributes present, and the rank is "#1 Growth prospects (60%)," and "#2 Company is low risk investment (40%);" and the rest is the third place since being absent. On the other hand,. 37. 5 6 3 1 1.

(44) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE for the news coverage, the first-to-sixth ranking is that "#1 Company is low risk investment and Growth prospects (19.6%, two first places in the rank)," "#2 Innovative products and/or services and Market opportunities (13%, two 2ed. in the rank)," "#3 High quality products and/or services and Company has record of being profitable (6.5%, two 3rd. in the rank)," "#4 Feels good about company and Company stands behind its products and/or services (4.3%, two 4th. in the rank)," and "#5 Company provides good value for money,. 政治大. Company/management has clear vision for the future, Good place to work , Good employees ,. 立. Company is environmentally responsible, and Company is responsible in the community. ‧ 國. 學. (2.2%, six 5th. in the rank);" and the rest rank 6th. Figure 4.3 shows the bar graph comparing. ‧. the percentage of neutral sub-attributes in the sample of the news release and the print news. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. coverage.. Ch. engchi. 38. i n U. v.

(45) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE. Figure 4.3 The percentage of neutral sub-attributes in the news release and the news coverage. Company is responsible in the community Company is environmentally responsible Company supports good causes Good employees Good place to work Rewards employees fairly Growth prospects. 立. Company is low risk investment. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. Company has record of being profitable Outperforms competitors. ‧. Company/management has clear vision for the future Company has excellent leadership. y. Nat. sit. Market opportunities. n. al. er. io. Company stands behind its products and/or services Company provides good value for money. Ch. Innovative products and/or services. engchi. i n U. v. High quality products and/or services Company inspires trust Company inspires admiration and respect Feels good about company 0.0%. 10.0%. Newspapers. 20.0%. News releases. 39. 30.0%. 40.0%. 50.0%. 60.0%. 70.0%.

(46) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE Finally, RQ3 asks the relationship of the agenda valence between the news release and the news coverage. Table 4.6 shows the frequency and the percentage of the agenda valence in the news release and the news coverage. In total 137 news releases, there are 131 positive news items (95.6%), 6 neutral news items (4.4%), and no negative ones. On the other hand, in total 538 news articles from four newspapers, there are 387 positive news items (71.9%), 50 negative ones (9.3%), and 101 neutral ones (18.8%).. 政治大. 立. Item. %. Item. 131. 95.6. 387. 71.9. 0. 0. 50. 9.3. 6. 4.4. 101. 18.8. y. sit. io. Total. Newspapers. 137. 538. n. al. Ch. %. er. Neutral. Nat. Negative. News releases. ‧. Positive. 學. Agenda valence. ‧ 國. Table 4.6 Frequency and percentage of the valence in the news release and newspaper. engchi. i n U. v. 4.4 Correlation between News Release and News Coverage According to aforementioned data, the first two research questions ask the relationship of substantive sub-attributes and attributes between the corporate news release and the news coverage. Table 4.7 indicates that the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient values of sub-attributes, including all, positive, and neutral ones, and attributes between the news release and the news coverage in the newspapers, substantively and affectively.. 40.

(47) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE. Table 4.7 The Spearman's rank correlation coefficient between the news release and newspapers Newspapers Rank of sub-attributes. Rank of attributes. News releases Rank of sub-attributes .602** Rank of attributes Rank of positive sub-attributes Rank of neural sub-attributes. Rank of positive sub-attributes. Rank of neural sub-attributes. .771 (.072) .633** (.003) .535** (.015). 立. 政治大. **Correlation is significant, p < .05. ‧ 國. 學. By comparing the rank of sub-attributes, in RQ1, the relationship between the news release and the newspaper is positively correlated (Spearman's ρ = .602, p = .005 < .05). In. ‧. other words, the rank of sub-attributes in the release is positively correlated with the one in. sit. y. Nat. io. n. al. er. the news coverage. Furthermore, the analysis finds that there is no significant correlation in. i n U. v. RQ2, therefore, the relationship between the news release and the newspaper is not correlated. Ch. engchi. (Spearman's ρ = .771, p = .72 > .05). However, the study also finds that the Spearman's ρ of attributes is higher than the value of sub-attributes, but the result of attributes is not significant. With the concern of insufficient number of items, a Chi-Square test of homogeneity of attributes is used (see Table 4.3). Nevertheless, the relationship of substantive attributes between the news release and the news coverage is still not correlated (X2 = 45.479, df = 5, p = .000 < .05).. 41.

(48) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE In addition to the descriptive analysis of the agenda valence, there is a further exploration to the affective tones of sub-attributes, which determines the agenda valence while coding. Results indicate that both positive and neutral sub-attributes in the news release are positively correlated with ones in the news coverage in the newspaper (Spearman's ρ = .633, p = .003 < .05; Spearman's ρ = .535, p = .015 < .05).. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 42. i n U. v.

(49) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE. 5. Discussion. Within a decade, the smart phone revolution has been widespread all round the world, which also has made HTC Corporation jump off the page in Information Technology field. In addition to the news coverage abroad, there has been a great amount of news coverage related to HTC in Taiwan. Within the news coverage, two questions discussed in this study are how journalists access to information of HTC and how they set the agenda of HTC. According to. 政治大. previous research, public relations sources and journalists are symbiotic for the reason that. 立. messages from the company public relations division are communicated via the media to the. ‧ 國. 學. public, and journalists get the access to the information from the source offered by company. ‧. public relations division. And economically speaking, this cost-and-effect relationship,. y. Nat. al. er. io. sit. so-called "information subsidy," is the most inexpensive path for both the company and. n. journalists (Pavlik, 1987; Kennamer, 1992) Moreover, the information subsidy (e.g. the news. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. release) plays as a key role and could influence media's agenda-setting in the news coverage (McCombs, 2004) Hence, in order to realize how public relations practitioners in HTC manage the company reputation by offering external messages, especially the news release here, and how journalists in Taiwan set the news agenda of HTC through the information subsidy, this study tries to clarify and analyze the relationship between the corporate news release and local printed news coverage. Utilizing and combining Reputation Quotient by Fombrun, Gardberg 43.

(50) AGENDA SETTING OF NEWS RELEASES AND NEWS COVERAGE and Sever (1999), this study uses a quantitative content analysis, from the perspective of second-level agenda-setting theory, to analyze the relationship of the rank of substantive attributes and their sub-attributes in the corporate news release and the printed news coverage in Taiwan. 5.1 Substantive Attributes and Sub-attributes The first two research questions addressed in this study is in order to discuss the. 政治大. relationship of substantive attributes and sub-attributes between the news release and the. 立. news coverage. What is the relationship between substantive sub-attributes in corporate news. ‧ 國. 學. release and in news coverage? What is the relationship between substantive attributes in. ‧. corporate news release and in news coverage? Through the rank of attributes and. Nat. io. sit. y. sub-attributes determined by the frequency in the agenda of company reputation and. er. comparing the news release with the news coverage, results indicate that the rank of. al. n. v i n sub-attributes in the news release isC positively with the news coverage though the h e n correlated gchi U sequence of rank and places are different. However, the rank of attributes in the news release is not correlated with the news coverage. In the news release, the company emphasizes on those sub-attributes about the intrinsic products and service, and company images and appeals; however, the news coverage in the newspaper focuses on company's stance, product quality, investment, profits, and future opportunities, mostly related to the financial performance. And the same situation is reflected 44.