CMC's strategic communication with media and stakeholders in Antigua and Barbuda

Strategic Communication: Corporations, Stakeholders and Social Media
Introduction
This paper will examine the company CMC, a corporate entity that assists in the acquisition, distribution and advertising of produce in the Antigua and Barbuda regions. This paper will looks at the very specific relationship that CMC has with large and small media, as manifested by the news and broadcasting, as well as with social media and bloggers. Central Route Persuasion theory will be harnessed as a lens of interpretation. In the second task, there will be the examination of the complex overlap among CMC, the media, stakeholders, consumer opinion, inter-organisational strategy and policy. In this task, systems theory will be used as an interpretive lens.

Background of CMC
The origins of the Central Marketing Corporation (CMC) dates back to 1974 when it was established via and act of Parliament as a means of having an entity available for the acquisition, storage, distribution and marketing of farmer’s fruits and vegetables. The concept behind the creation of this company was to give farmers an immediate way to sell their goods via a secure and certain market. In this manner farmers might be relieved of anxiety and be okay with letting a more experienced entity handle the marketing and distribution in their own expert hands. CMC as an entity is looked after a board that was created by the greater Ministry of Agriculture. This is the board that CMC communicates directly with and together they observe the company’ performance, the managerial performance and the public and private policy that directly impacts the company.
CMC also has the responsibility of verifying that the national agricultural policy directives connect with the overall corporation’s decree and the managerial adherence to the pillars of solid corporate oversight. This decree also means that CMC has a responsibility to handle the creation of methods that ensure all the produce is dealt with the highest standards of excellence. Any company that deal with produce needs to have the most efficient strategies and methods to ensure their fresh consumption. CMC is given the power to both buy and sell produce as well as to import and export produce. However, one of the major issues that CMC is faced with is that it has not engaged in the export aspect of its business in any meaningful way in many years as a result of the fact that the Agricultural planners continue to fail to develop a successful national production plan that mean that export needs cannot be properly forecast.
Media Perception
The media perception of the adopted inter-organisational strategy is very negative at this time, and often misconstrued. The media is constantly portraying CMC as mismanaged and economically floundering, unable to meet its financial obligations, or its debts to the smaller agricultural entities that it works with. Some branches of the media even go so far as to portray the company as deliberately attempting to exploit small farmers around the globe. It can appear that sometimes the most innocuous story will be misconstrued by the media in order to create controversy. For example, one of the more rudimentary things that the company does is that it imports rice and sugar having long standing importation agreements with reputable suppliers that allow the company to purchase these things at a slightly lower cost. Such a move is typical in nearly every business around the world: attempting to get supplies at a lower price-point is a common business practice. However, the media likes to present such strategies as if we are attempting to swindle or purchase these items at unfathomably low prices. For example, when the agreement was made to purchase five 20ft containers of white and brown sugar per month at an annual value of more than $10 million, several media outlets portrayed this as exploitation of the world’s sugar farmers. Negotiating in a competitive manner with one’s suppliers is essential for nearly any business. Many people consider such a move to just be business as usual. However, the media likes to portray such moves as the company being manipulative and exploitative of local farmers around the globe.
CMC is a company known around the globe for offering competitive prices direct to consumers in the meat and vegetables market and in essentially all products. However, the company hasn’t been able to maintain a strong portion of the market because of things like inconsistent supplies and a crippled distribution capacity. Financial resource constraints also played a role in this issue as well. Multiple media outlets made sure to give the appearance that the company was floundering and approaching financial ruin. More than one media outlet even went so far as to argue that it was because CMC had ruined their relationships with suppliers.
When it comes to the media perception of CMC and CMC’s internal strategies, one can accurately assert that there is a wide range of significant domestic, national and international media that impact the company. The domestic media that impacts CMC is twofold: this would be the combination of and small media. Big media refers to the large print and broadcasting organizations. These are big newspapers, magazines, and news shows. The influence that these entities have had on CMC has been largely twofold: in some ways they just report the facts about the company. Other times they get on board a particularly negative bandwagon of press if it appears that everyone is doing it. Big media is often controlled by the government or by corporations that control the government so their interests often come under fire (Turner, 2004). The branch of small media can sometimes appear to be just as powerful and persuasive as big media. Small media refers to the individuals online who have platforms. These would be the bloggers, Youtubers, social media influencers and other such people who are able to influence others in small but significant pockets by expressing their opinion.
The Importance of the Media
For any major business entity, the media is important. The media helps to perpetuate an atmosphere of transparency and keep people informed of relevant actions and reactions, changes and mergers that a particular company may have undergone. The media is also significant because they offer their opinion and can sometimes zero in on risks or concerns that members of the public might not be necessarily aware of at a given time. One of the major factors that highlights the importance of the media is the fact that anything is possible with media: it has such a tremendous influence on how human beings interpret information.
For a company like CMC with the size and level of exposure that CMC receives, redirecting their interests according Central Route Persuasion needs to happen so they can impact others—big media and social media influencers on the strength of their argument. Influencing consumers is crucial as well as they are the systematic decision-makers. It’s important to bear in mind that consumers are social beings and that the consumption of company products is also a social/cultural process. CMC, using their media platform needs to more acutely engage in central route persuasion through their social media accounts and also work to connect with consumers on a more social/cultural level. The more that CMC is able to connect with people on these levels, the more they are apt to be successful becoming a part of the rituals of individuals and communities.

Strengths
The strengths of media, particularly big media for a company the size of CMC is obvious. Big advertising companies are able to create glitzy campaigns for the corporation and essentially slant our image and brand identity however we want them to (Olenski, 2015). Literally, the company can spend buckets of money on finding a way to look more personable or more affordable or as though we have the freshest products. The advertising companies that we hire are able to promote us in a fast an powerful way in the exact manner we wish them to. Furthermore, a company like CMC can use their social media platforms to help fill in the gaps that big advertising can create. For example, the company’s Instagram account can show consumers and followers the “softer side” of the business: how the executives break bread with farmers, how they give to charity, and how they support their communities. This can give the company a strong sense of authenticity and build trust with their consumer base very rapidly.
Weaknesses
One of the major weaknesses of the media on a major corporation such as CMC is the fact that the media has a trend of just highlighting negative news. One can easily forget that new programs are highly competitive with one another and one way to get the attention of others is to talk about distressing topics. This pattern gives the viewer the impression that they have to be informed because something disastrous is happening. “Newspapers, radio, and television programs broadcast the news 24-hours a day, 365 days a year. Therefore, it is nearly impossible to avoid bad news and the negative influence it has on our lives.  School shootings, terrorist attacks and airplane crashes, as well as the incessant onslaught of violence from all forms of media, can have long-lasting psychological repercussions and ultimately lead to thoughts of our world falling apart, stress and anxiety” (cip.org, 2018). This tendency can prove to have a negative impact on corporations like CMC. If there’s one small snafu that occurs or an issue with shipping, or a supplier it can appear as though the big media is there to put a negative spin on this incident.
Furthermore, in terms of small media entities, more and more conspiracy theorists are gaining a platform online through their blogs or their YouTube accounts. This is causing a significant amount of controversy and issues for CMC and companies akin to ours. A recent study conducted found that “…mere exposure to a popular conspiracy theory can make you less pro-social—and less likely to accept established scientific principles” (van der Linden, 2015). For example, people who watch a short clip of a popular conspiracy theory movie on global warming were less likely to believe proven evidence on climate change, less likely to sign a petition to thwart global warming and less likely to volunteer their time (van der Linden, 2015). That is very disturbing but true; despite all the scientific evidence that supports the fact that humans caused global warming is actually happening, “…just watching a two-minute clip about how it all might be part of a global conspiracy appears to be enough to compel us to dismiss science and make us feel less inclined to engage with important societal issues in general, including helping others in need” (van der Linden, 2015). Conspiracy theories online needs to be appropriately managed or they can ruin brands and companies (Brotherton, 2016). This impact has definitely been felt with CMC on a small scale. Negative influencers such as conspiracy theorists have spread lies about CMC online—saying that we commit crimes against our workers and don’t give them bathroom breaks and employ child workers. Most of these conspiracy theories have not had an impact at all on CMC: we have largely been unaffected aside from negative blowback online that has been very manageable. However, this experience has definitely shown us the power of these conspiracy theorists and how crucial it is for CMC to do its best to protect its image and brand identity.
One example from very recent news that illustrates the power and pressure of social media and the greater media of the Internet would how a few years ago, a gun man robbed a staffer at CMC on the compound and robbed him of money and goods, fleeing into a vehicle that was waiting for him (Malone, 2014). The local news pounced on this, decrying it as an example of the lack of safety within CMC property and an irresponsibility of the management for not providing a safer environment for employees. The critics argued that the company’s inter-organisational policies had to have been shoddy if a lone gunman was just able to saunter into the company and open fire.
Leadership of the company was blamed and some people on the internet argued that there should be a boycott of CMC by the workers. This was an incident where traditional advertising had to be harnessed as a means of reassuring the general public and re-establishing a sense of safety.
On the other hand, a story about how CMC was involved in several initiatives to improve the current programs available for social improvements. For example, “…the Social Transformation Zero Hunger programme is targeting low income single female-headed households with children, with the provision of Food Vouchers of EC $100 weekly and linked to the Central Marketing Cooperation (CMC) and other satellite outlets as a food security and nutrition programme,” (Gordon, 2016). This news, though it was distributed by several major news sources, did not make much of a splash online. There were some tweets and retweets, but it didn’t do much to help improve the overall perception of the company image.

Task 2

The media is under unique pressure and strains when it comes to both assessing and reporting the influence of global forces on stakeholder opinions. The media today is in a very unique position: there are a host of social, political, legal and cultural barriers that they are faced with. When it comes to social and political issues, such things are so divided in the nation today, that some experts have referred to the country as being in a civil war of sorts, at least mentally (Freedman, 2008). For the media, they can often feel like they are in very delicate position and have to deliver news in the most robotic fashion without swaying to either side, or else they can risk alienating a large portion of their viewers. On the same note, if they fail to take a stand they may also alienate large portions of their audiences, because so many viewers and readers are very emotional and charged up about a host of social issues that they only want to receive their news from sources that agree with them (Freedman, 2008). During this time, which is a period that is colored strongly by the #metoo movement and the Black Lives Matter (BLM), the media is under increased pressure to report the facts and to put each fact through a rigorous checking process. Just as the media is under increased competition to break the next scandalous story of the period to find out who the next Harvey Weinstein is going to be or who the next victim of police brutality will be, they also have to make sure each story is methodically checked (Talbot, 2005). It’s important that the media not just blindly jump on the bandwagon of #metoo and BLM just because these are the popular topics of the era. Instead, they need to show that they can approach potential news stories with the scrutiny of a district attorney, or else they could get sued and disgraced.
This is particularly true when it comes to reporting stories about inter-organisational policy and strategy. Part of the #metoo movement involves establishing equity in the workforce for women as a whole including pay equality. If the media were say, reporting a story about a company who has pursued a policy of paying women less than their male counterparts, the media would have to proceed very carefully when reporting this story. It might not be as cut and dry as the fact that women were paid less because they were valued less. Or that might be exactly the situation. In this case, the media would be under intense pressure to be able to report the facts as accurately as possible.
It’s also important to look to systems theory as a means of understanding how the attitudes/actions of an organization and the public actually do create a greater cause-effect reaction within a workspace or within society. People, companies, groups and collectives need to remember that they don’t exist in a vacuum. People are constantly impacting one another. The more that a company like CMC keeps in mind that the society they do business in is a complex interconnection of systems that all impact one another, including their business, their competitors, the media, the consumers and social media, the more poised they will be to redirect the dialogue of their greater narrative in terms of their large and small actions.

Open Systems
Focuses on input from external publics & the organizations external environment. Allows for two-way flow.

Global Nature of News
Given the fact that the global environment, time zone differences, social media and other such pressures are so present today, the media needs to be able to focus clearly on the constraints they are up against. This includes their time-critical requirements; all of these elements together need to promote a positive outcome. One things that all of these forces can achieve is that they can give the media a sense of urgency and generally crack the whip when it comes to pursuing stories, promoting justice and keeping the people informed. Time zone differences means that somewhere in the world a story is breaking at all hours and the ripple effect could be felt in the journalist’s own city. There literally is never a dull moment, as people all over the globe are tackling injustice, electing new leaders, creating art, fighting for rights and working hard to pursue common goals. Every journalist has access to these stories through the Internet and the commonality that the internet promotes means that more and more people can be united through the stories they share online (Gitlin, 2003).
At the same time, it’s important to state how the American media is inherently dependent on the support of commercials and advertisements. This dependence cannot but help a certain amount of unhealthy imbalance. Consider the following: “Newspapers in the United States are among the most advertising-dependent in the western world… leading American newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times consist of nearly three-quarters advertising. To combat the compromises inherent in advertising dependence, American journalists have developed the ‘church/state’ doctrine, the idea that just as the prerogatives of church and state are separated in U.S. legal tradition so should business and editorial be kept to their own spheres inside the press” (Benson, 2017). Hence while journalists are under pressure to keep church and state separated, they are also under the pressure of selling papers so that they themselves might stay in business. That can’t help but create a sense of tension within the media about what to report and how to report, and fear of alienating their readership. For example, if a particular newspaper is publishing a factual but unfavorable story about a leading figure, such as Bill O’Reilly (Otterman 2017), knowing that the bulk of their readership loves Bill O’Reilley, they might lose a portion of their audience. This is a daily pressure and awareness that so many media groups have to exist with.
In a similar fashion, means that people are constantly sharing their stories all over the globe and all over the country, and that people can’t help but get a taste of what their unique experiences are like. The media’s constraints and time-critical requirements means that journalists everywhere have to be deeply fluent in the languages of social media and be able to stay abreast of all the things that are trending at the time (Jones et al., 2015). It’s amazing how small local stories that touch upon more global issues of discrimination can become viral. The media has a duty to follow the stories trending around the globe and on social media and contribute these trends to the bigger picture of society and the bigger stories of the day. That is precisely how the media can bring all these constraints and other such issues to a more positive outcome, and this is precisely how the big brands harness social media (Olenski, 2017).
With all these pressures, the organisation can still abide by all local and national requirements. There’s just an increased need to assess the interaction between the news, public and stakeholder opinions and the inter-organisational policies and strategies that exist. The news can directly influence the public and stakeholder opinions, they have a tremendous amount of influence. The public and stakeholders can then start sharing their recently influenced opinions on social media (Kaganer & Vaast, 2010). A solid social media manager should already be on top of these trends, collecting such opinions as big data (Marr, 2015). This can force the hand of the organization to make changes within the policies and strategies. A famous example of this was with Taylor Swift and Apple Music. After Taylor Swift’s fans and contemporaries complained to her about Apple Music’s policy at the time—that Apple offered users a free three-month trial to anyone who signs up but does not pay any of the writers, producers, or artists during that period—Swift wrote a letter. The letter was direct and polite and one of the things that Swift mentioned was “I find it to be shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company.” “Swift felt it unfair for Apple to use artists, especially up-and-coming ones, to grow its new service without compensating them for it. The counterargument, meanwhile, holds that the free trial could bring lots of free publicity to those same lesser-heard artists. The flaw there, however, is that Apple was asking those artists to make a leap of faith in the hopes of more followers and money in the future — but many small artists live essentially paycheck to paycheck, and they can’t stomach a quarter of reduced payouts” (Bajarin, 2015). This was a clear example of how news, public opinion, and stakeholder opinion can influence a massive inter-organizational policy and strategy. Like Apple, CMC needs to find a better way to balance the interests of stakeholders against the interest of shareholders (Pontrefact, 2016). Similarly, for a company like CMC there’s a strong overlap between public opinion, stakeholder opinion and the pressure of local and national requirements. These are some of the factors that have created a push for sustainable agriculture and more responsible farming techniques. One of the reasons that CMC has been floundering of late is a direct result to the fact that it has been under-resourced. Many experts believe this is directly connected to the fact that there isn’t enough infrastructure in place to support the farmers that they rely so heavily upon.
Once more sustainable, organic and responsible forms of farming are in place and farmers are more fairly compensated, CMC can begin to use technology, social media and the 24-hours news cycle on a global scale more strategically. Specifically, they can use all of these pillars as a way of re-honing their image and refining their inter-organizational policies. For example, there’s no reason why they can’t communicate with their team members over social media as a way of creating a greater sense of community, and a brand that has more authenticity and transparency—something that some might refer to as inter-organizational networking (Biermann, 2008). Regardless, such actions make the internal part of a company strong. For today’s stakeholders who are getting younger and younger, communication over social media is often very welcome and feels more natural (Young Entrepreneur Council, 2017). Problems can be anticipated and addressed on Instagram and twitter, empowering the company to get ahead of big media and better control the narrative of their company (Bradley & McDonald, 2011). In this manner, social media can be used to counteract big media and to shape public opinion about a company like CMC.






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