Business Ethics in Media Industries: A Study of Corporate Social Responsibility Strategies of Internet Service Providers in the World

Objective
Along with the trends of digitization and globalization, media industries are facing a wide range of new ethical challenges due to their structures and functions. In addition to increasing the income and profits of shareholders, media organizations should act in the direction of public interest and develop social values such as social interactions, employment, public participation, collective awareness, and cultural identity. By understanding their social function and legitimizing their activities, media companies work in the face of a "good corporate citizen" through participation in corporate social responsibility activities.
Social responsibility is a sign of the company's interaction with stakeholders, especially when dealing with products that involve the risk of consumer satisfaction and loyalty, which is the situation faced by the Internet service providers industry. The internet service provider industry has evolved to meet the communication and information needs of the digital world, and due to the multitude of stakeholders, there is intense competition between companies. Failure to act under society's expectations has negative consequences on their survival. If an organization violates its obligations to society, its survival will be threatened through the boycott of products and services.
Corporate studies about the media and communication industries consider this industry to be one of the most dynamic industries in the world, where attention to the social responsibility of emerging media companies has increased. In this regard, the current research investigates the social responsibility strategies of the world's top internet service providers as media companies. These are known as leading media organizations in the field of social responsibility, and the present study seeks to understand the strategies of these companies in different dimensions of social responsibility.
Literature Review
The selected research framework for evaluating social responsibility is the CSRH framework. This framework evaluates the social responsibility of organizations and businesses in the four dimensions of society, employees, environment, and governance.
Research Methodology
The purpose of the research is to identify the social responsibility strategies of world-renowned Internet service providers based on the dimensions of the CSRHUB framework. The study was conducted using the directed content analysis method, the purpose of which is to expand the concept of the theory. The data was collected using the library method and based on the reports and information provided on the website of the internet service providers or related websites. The sample size of the research includes the top 10 Internet service provider companies, including France Telecom, Vodafone, MTS, Verizon, Turkcell, NTT, Zain, MTN, AT&T, and Singtel. According to the selected research method, structural qualitative coding was used in data analysis; Thus, based on the framework of CSRHUB, corporate social responsibility reports and strategies have been identified and classified in the four areas of governance, environment, employees, and society.
Findings
Based on the findings, Internet service provider companies defined various social responsibility strategies in different dimensions of governance, employees, society, and environment, which follow their organizational mission. “France Telecom” shifted the direction of its activities towards start-up collaborations and digital infrastructure development to take advantage of existing capacities to create value and empower stakeholders. In addition, in the governance dimension, privacy policies, transparency, business sustainability, and the development of codes of conduct for digital industries are defined in line with social responsibility. “Vodafone” pursues the vision of “creating communication for a better future”. Empowering women, giving customers access to the mobile phone network, improving skills for young people to prepare for the digital age, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions are Vodafone's most important policies. “MTS” is committed to sustainable development and social responsibility. The company's strategic plans in the field of social responsibility include: improving the quality of digital life and community safety through the development of innovations and providing a wide range of modern technology services and creating conditions for sustainable development in business. "Verizon” prioritizes stakeholder engagement in the process of identifying and prioritizing environmental, social, and corporate governance issues. Empowering society, reducing the harmful effects of activities on the environment, and participating in activities with social benefits, are three approaches of Verizon in fulfilling the role of social responsibilities. “Turkcell” is moving from the “donation and help” strategy to the “joint value creation” approach. Paying attention to asylum seekers, providing non-profit and for-profit services, paying attention to educating young people and preparing them for professional activities in companies, and using social capacities to collect data and develop artificial intelligence capabilities are the corporate social responsibility strategies of Turkcell. “NTT” has set its strategies based on four broad approaches: governance based on ethics and protecting people's rights and accepting diversity of views, providing security for people's information and privacy, protecting the environment, and strengthening society. “Zain” considers himself committed to sustainable development goals and has outlined his socio-economic activities based on six foundations: Creating common value, Promoting social innovation, Facing climate change, Considering all aspects and stakeholders, Implementation of sustainable development programs, and Youth empowerment. “MTN” has defined the axis of its social activities in four areas: "Empowerment of communities through the development of educational services, Health and development of health centers, Development of enterprises and entrepreneurshipو and Local empowerment. “AT&T” has made attention to the environment, society, and diversity of human resources among its priorities. This company has defined many of its social responsibility activities in the direction of training and employing skilled workers. “Singtel” has focused its activities in the area of social responsibility on the empowerment of disabled people, along with the development of environmental activities and the development of academic activities.
Discussion & Conclusion
The corporate social responsibility of Internet service providers is related to how they try to manage responsibly, design policies, protect the environment, develop their employees, and support programs and projects related to social development in society. The most important principle of social responsibility of internet service providers is creativity and adaptation (localization) of digital services and products to the social, environmental, economic, and cultural conditions of societies. Social responsibility activities of Internet service providers in different countries are followed and implemented in different ways in similar cases. In the definition of social responsibility, companies focus on the core of the business and also pay attention to all internal and external stakeholders according to the principle of inclusiveness of digital services.
Finally, research studies related to the social responsibility of media industries are mainly about news organizations and the content dimension in these organizations. Investigating social responsibility in media industries in terms of business sustainability has received less attention from researchers; Thus, there is a need to pay more attention to business ethics along with professional ethics. The current research has investigated the social responsibility of digital media organizations by focusing on business sustainability. An issue that has a great impact on the legitimacy and reputation of internet service providers and has been paid more attention to by managers in recent years. The findings show which social responsibility strategies have been adopted and used by well-known Internet service providers.