Today, in both theory and practice, the concepts of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ethics are not necessarily related. Organizations can demonstrate high levels of social proactivity in their CSR policies with or without having laudable levels of ethical quality or virtuousness. This article introduces the concepts of organizational ethical quality (OEQ) to evaluate the moral excellence of CSR actions and policies, identifying and categorizing varying levels ranging from the absence of ethical virtuousness, termed immoral CSR (ICSR), to high levels of moral CSR (MCSR), or ethical virtuousness. High MCSR is the product of both high levels of OEQ in conjunction with more proactive CSR policies based on social action.

Introducing the concept of Crisis Solution Marketing (CSM), this research explores how metaphor pre-packages information, proposing “solutions” to “problems” they discursively construct in the media. These conceptual frameworks are capable of influencing how readers perceive and interpret news events, ultimately influencing their behavior as consumers and the financial decisions they make. This article explores the relationship between editorial positioning and ideology in financial news and the types or ontologies of metaphors used to describe the nature of the stock market via reporting on the stock market crash of 2008 in online news media. Results indicate a statistically significant preference for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, liberally positioned newspapers, for animate-biological metaphors which promote understanding of the stock market in terms of a living being that must be ‘nurtured’ through intervention as opposed to being ‘left alone’, which is more consistent with laissez-faire approaches to economic crisis scenarios.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a model to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of metaphor when used in financial news media reporting. Design/methodology/approach – Theory in Cognitive Linguistics, Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Frame Semantics are used to demonstrate metaphor’s central role shaping human thought and understanding, producing conceptual frameworks used to understand abstract concepts in not only financial news media but also all human discourse. The deontological principles of the major financial news sources are presented which demonstrate a commitment to common core principles, such as “balance” and “accuracy”, yet few consider the potential role of metaphor toward achieving them. This research presents a minimum source domain model for describing stock market phenomenon to increase “interpretation reliability” based on the concepts of communicative efficiency and effectiveness. Findings – This research presents a model for communicative efficiency and effectiveness of metaphor and metonymy (CEEMM) in financial reporting by presenting a minimum source domain model for describing stock market phenomenon to increase “interpretation reliability” when metaphor is used in financial news media sources. Research limitations/implications – While evidence for the role of metaphor and metonymy on behavior has been provided and in economic contexts, more research into the role that it plays in financial news media and the dynamics of how it influences consumer decisions is necessary. Practical implications – CEEMM provides news media sources with a tool for standardizing the modes they use to semantically create and communicate knowledge of the stock market and stock market phenomenon. Reporting on stock market phenomenon will have, for the first time, objective parameters for using metaphor toward the fulfillment of journalism deontological principles. Social implications – CEEMM has the potential to increase clarity in the metaphors used, as they require less creative exploration on the part of readers. This results in greater levels of trust in news media sources and permits news consumers to make more well-informed financial decisions, as their perceptions of events will be less subjective to creative interpretation. This research should urge news media companies to publicly declare principles for metaphor and metonymic practice in their communication of financial data. Originality/value – The paper presents the first model for increasing the communicative efficiency and effectiveness in the use of metaphor in financial news media.

Research in Cognitive Linguistics, Discourse Analysis and FrameAnalysis has demonstrated that the use of metaphor in news reporting influences and affects how readers understand economic realities and their subsequent behaviours as consumers. However, to what degree are these advances reflected in the policies of financial news reporters and their editors? Analysing a corpus of journalism practices, ideals, principles and ethics declarations of the major and representative financial news media sources, this research seeks to determine whether metaphor is contemplated in their journalism policies and, if so, how. With the exception of a brief mention of metaphor in Reuters, the results appear to indicate a gap between metaphor theory and journalism praxis. Across the board, metaphor is not taken into account and thus no considerations are offered for its effective and ethical use. This research attempts to bridge the gap by identifying core common ethical principles in journalistic practice and how awareness and conversation between metaphor theorists and financial news reporters and their editors concerning metaphor would further the pursuit of core journalism standards to ultimately better serve the needs of news consumers.