Scholars differ widely about the way mass media should conceptualized. Thompson (1995) defines mass media in terms of the number of audience exposed to this medium of communication. Scholars also define mass media in terms of the kind of audience influenced by it (Lowery & DeFleur, 1995; McQuail, 2010). However, other scholars disagree, and define it in terms of the channel of distribution of messages (Traudt, 2005). In view of this disagreement, Potter (2011) defines mass media as – “organizations that use technological channels to distribute messages for the purpose of attracting an increasingly large audience and conditioning those audiences for repeated exposures so as to increase one’s resources such that the enterprise is at least self-supporting” (p. …show more content…
In developing countries, people put a lot of trust on news media, which give them information about the outer world. People perceive news media to be a representative of reality (Eveland & Shah, 2003). A major portion of the population of developing countries does not have any other form of medium for collecting information from outside of locality. If the news media plays a negative role in presenting the information concerning an organization, and thereby, creates a negative image of the organization (Dyck & Zingales, 2003), it may adversely affect the legitimacy of the organization, and the overall performance of the organization in the host country. Therefore, MNE managers should always consider maintaining good relationships with the news media so that they can effectively use this strong medium in their favor. By disseminating information on the role played by MNEs in the development of other societies where they have already been operating, host country media can strengthen the legitimacy of MNEs by excessively covering the positive effects of foreign investment in the national economy. News media knows the emotion and concern of people in developing countries - the way people think, the topics and elements of society that people are most worried about (Ogan, 1987). MNE managers should take advantage of this