The depiction of marketing and marketers in the news media
Purpose – In an effort to explain the high level of scepticism and distrust towards marketing and marketers, paper explores how marketing practice and practitioners are depicted in the mass media. Design/methodology/approach – The paper analyses 6,877 news reports that discuss “marketing” across tw...
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| Format: | Article |
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Emerald Group Publishing Limited
2016
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37508/ |
| _version_ | 1848795474240208896 |
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| author | Cluley, Robert |
| author_facet | Cluley, Robert |
| author_sort | Cluley, Robert |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Purpose – In an effort to explain the high level of scepticism and distrust towards marketing and marketers, paper explores how marketing practice and practitioners are depicted in the mass media.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper analyses 6,877 news reports that discuss “marketing” across two one-year time periods from three UK newspapers. A systematic content analysis is presented through N-Grams and K-Grams, close readings of individual cases and manual coding.
Findings – The paper finds that the news media cultivates an image of marketing and marketing practitioners whereby marketing is portrayed in the news as a cost to businesses and something that businesses do to consumers. The study finds that marketers are also presented through a narrow viewpoint. Marketers are depicted as male and tend to be viewed a source of authority only when speaking on behalf of their organizations in response problems and crises.
Research limitations/implications – The cultivation effect of mass media is widely accepted among communications scholar, yet its use within marketing research is limited. The paper represents an empirical application of this approach.
Practical implications – Organizations including the Chartered Institute of Marketing and American Marketing Association have attempted to counteract marketing’s image problem by redefining what marketing means. The results of this study suggest that such attempts are unlikely to work as the practice of marketing, in particular PR, cultivates a negative image in the media.
Originality/value – The paper demonstrates the utility of cultivation theory and systematic content analyses of media texts. It develops a methodology to examine how professional practice is depicted in mass media. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:32:40Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-37508 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:32:40Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | Emerald Group Publishing Limited |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-375082020-05-04T17:49:25Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37508/ The depiction of marketing and marketers in the news media Cluley, Robert Purpose – In an effort to explain the high level of scepticism and distrust towards marketing and marketers, paper explores how marketing practice and practitioners are depicted in the mass media. Design/methodology/approach – The paper analyses 6,877 news reports that discuss “marketing” across two one-year time periods from three UK newspapers. A systematic content analysis is presented through N-Grams and K-Grams, close readings of individual cases and manual coding. Findings – The paper finds that the news media cultivates an image of marketing and marketing practitioners whereby marketing is portrayed in the news as a cost to businesses and something that businesses do to consumers. The study finds that marketers are also presented through a narrow viewpoint. Marketers are depicted as male and tend to be viewed a source of authority only when speaking on behalf of their organizations in response problems and crises. Research limitations/implications – The cultivation effect of mass media is widely accepted among communications scholar, yet its use within marketing research is limited. The paper represents an empirical application of this approach. Practical implications – Organizations including the Chartered Institute of Marketing and American Marketing Association have attempted to counteract marketing’s image problem by redefining what marketing means. The results of this study suggest that such attempts are unlikely to work as the practice of marketing, in particular PR, cultivates a negative image in the media. Originality/value – The paper demonstrates the utility of cultivation theory and systematic content analyses of media texts. It develops a methodology to examine how professional practice is depicted in mass media. Emerald Group Publishing Limited 2016-05-30 Article PeerReviewed Cluley, Robert (2016) The depiction of marketing and marketers in the news media. European Journal of Marketing, 50 (5/6). pp. 752-769. ISSN 0309-0566 Marketing Culture (sociology) Media Professions http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/EJM-02-2015-0076 doi:10.1108/EJM-02-2015-0076 doi:10.1108/EJM-02-2015-0076 |
| spellingShingle | Marketing Culture (sociology) Media Professions Cluley, Robert The depiction of marketing and marketers in the news media |
| title | The depiction of marketing and marketers in the news media |
| title_full | The depiction of marketing and marketers in the news media |
| title_fullStr | The depiction of marketing and marketers in the news media |
| title_full_unstemmed | The depiction of marketing and marketers in the news media |
| title_short | The depiction of marketing and marketers in the news media |
| title_sort | depiction of marketing and marketers in the news media |
| topic | Marketing Culture (sociology) Media Professions |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37508/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37508/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37508/ |