Recent reviews show a rapid increase in the corporate social responsibility communication literature. However, while mapping the literature and the field of CSR communication, they do not fully capture the evolutionary character of this emerging interdisciplinary endeavour. This paper seeks to fill this gap by presenting a follow-up study of the CSR communication literature from a dynamic perspective, which focuses on micro-discursive changes in the field. A bibliometric approach and frame theory are used to examine continuities in the development of (...) field ‘frames’ in three consecutive periods between 2002 and 2016. The article highlights the growing fragmentation of the CSR communication field over time and the existence of 11 distinct frames during the field’s emergence, whereby the two most prominent in the three time periods are the reporting and business case frames. Regardless, they are subjected to discursive changes as well. For example, they become split into stakeholder-focused, business case and institutionalisation frame and contested by the constitutive logic, respectively. The paper argues that interdisciplinary fields like CSR communication can rarely exist without contestation. It also shows that micro-framing processes such as fragmentation, merging and extension visibly shape the identified field frames and the overall discursive dynamic of the CSR communication field while investigating their value for sustaining the field’s polyphonic state and further development. The study findings suggest that additional cross-fertilisation processes between the CSR communication literature and sustainability and digital communication research hold the potential to influence the next stage of the field’s discursive evolution. (shrink)

This paper is concerned with analyzing McDonald's language use in its response to two different social issues: one regarding employees and the other regarding the environment. It discusses and compares these two different social interactions in terms of discourse formations – [MCJOB] and [DEFORESTATION] – based on McAndrew's [2001. Intertextuality, heteroglossia and systemic functional linguistics: A framework for analyzing ideology ; 2004. Towards a framework for analyzing ideology: Applying intertextuality, heteroglossia and systemic functional linguistics. In M. Putz, J. Aerselaer & (...) T. van Dijk, Discourse, and social practice. Frankfruit: Peter Lang] framework for analysis of ideology. In particular, the meanings constructed in each of the DFs are realized by the analysis of social actions and social actors using Van Leeuwen's [1993. Language and representation – The recontextualization of participants, activities and reactions ; 1995. Representing social action. Discourse & Society, 6, 81–106; 1996. The representation of social actors. In C.R. Caldas-Coulthard & M. Coulthard, Texts and practices: Readings in critical discourse analysis. London & NY: Routledge] representational model. It was found that McDonald's responded differently to the criticism in the two different areas. McDonald's challenges the term ‘McJob’ by constructing meanings to disagree with the term, but it collaborates with Greenpeace, which had published two reports blaming McDonald's contribution to deforestation in the Amazon area. However, simultaneously, through intertextual meaning-making, McDonald's commonly attempts to recontextualize its social practices by promoting its socially responsible business practices. (shrink)