ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the agenda-setting capacities of the French media with regard to corporate reputation. It uses public opinion data gathered in late 2004 and content analysis to test a variant of the basic agenda-setting hypothesis, namely, that the number of mentions of French fi rms in the French press will be positively related to the ease with which the public can form an opinion of those fi rms, in other words, assign a reputation to them. This chapter also considers whether other information sources related to a fi rm’s business model, most importantly the existence of a retail relationship with the consumer, play a part in setting the public’s corporate reputation agenda. We fi nd evidence supporting the agenda-setting power of the press. Finally, the chapter uncovers suggestive evidence regarding the similarity of business news reporting across business and mainstream newspapers.
