Corporate Social Responsibility in Chinese Media Industry : A Case Study of CCTV and Tencent

Abstract: This thesis is a case study about Corporate Social Responsibility in Chinese media industry. The implementation of CSR in state-owned media companies and private media companies are different. The role that the government play in Chinese media companies implementing CSR were barely studied before. Since this thesis is a case study, two media companies were chosen for this study. One is CCTV, a state-owned media company, another is Tencent, a private media company. Document analysis was chosen as the main method for the analysis. Stakeholder theory, corporate political connection, and meta-governance are the main theories used in this study. In this thesis, the analysis of implementing CSR is divided into two dimensions, internally and externally implementing CSR. The internal dimension is further analyzed in three aspects, employees and health at work, shareholders, and public welfare and charitable activities. The external dimension is further analyzed in four aspects, customers, business partners, local community, and government. The role of the government in companies implementing CSR is subsequently analyzed. The results show that in implementing CSR, state-owned media companies significantly different from private companies. State-owned media companies follow more on government’s guidance, private media companies have more freedom but they still need to build a good relationship with the government. The role of the government in both companies is different. The role of the government in state-owned media companies is like a leader, and in private media companies is like an important stakeholder.