Abstract

This contribution provides theoretical insights into a planned dissertation project which discusses the mass media as a stakeholder of a company, suggesting that a complex understanding of the mass media, their public-sphere function and their mode of operation is crucial for analyzing the media’s role in conferring corporate legitimacy. Terms such as ‘corporate citizen’ or ‘stakeholder democracy’ or the notion of corporations as civil or political actors imply a link to the public sphere, which in modern democracies is primarily constituted through the mass media. However, up to now, there has been hardly any discussion about the role of the mass media and the public sphere in the realm of stakeholder theory