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This article examines the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication and the commitment to CSR in practice, specifically on the topic of employee diversity. A large-scale textual analysis is used to investigate CSR communication and the factors that differentiate news organizations. By integrating the scholarship on CSR communication, journalism, and management, the article furthers the understanding of ways news organizations publicly signal the implementation of diversity practices. In addition, the article proves useful as news organizations seek ways to institutionalize their CSR communications and evaluate their own commitments to diversity initiatives as an organizational priority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although a great deal of research has focused on communicating Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the literature is diverse and encompasses a plethora of theories and approaches. It is still unclear what communicative behaviors carry the messages of organizational virtuosity and the implementation of responsible initiatives. What is missing is a simple, inclusive assessment of how organizations explicitly communicate the behaviors that constitute CSR. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to provide an illustration of the accounts that constitute CSR communication. Fifty US firms are examined for CSR moves within a variety of organizational contexts. The results show that communicating CSR is limited to large organizations and primarily, that they communicate CSR by conveying information about classically accepted responsible and virtuous behaviors. This patterned communicative behavior is a process that organizations engage in to make sense of CSR. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]