Introduction
Leadership—both as a construct and a practice—attracts massive attention. It holds a pivotal place in policy debates, trend analysis, and global affairs. The media provides a platform for most of the discourse about leadership. The media produce and reproduce notions of leadership in diverse ways when they report on various players, such as politicians, businessmen/women, sports leaders, and conflicts mediators. Dominant notions of leadership—known as leadership representation—has been studied, producing a significant understanding in how journalists and commentators conceptualize leadership (see Campus, 2013; Chen & Meindl, 1991; Hannah & Zatzick, 2008; Iszatt‑White, Whittle, Gadelshina, & Mueller, 2018; Mavin, Bryans, & Cunningham, 2010). However, there is little or no study that looks at leadership representation in industry specific media outlets, such as the business press or e-publications.
Many analysts recognize the media’s role in shaping public perceptions (Caudwell, 1971; Altheide, 1976; Hall, 1977; Williams, 1977; Fishman, 1980; Jensen, 1987). Industry specific media, such as the business press and online publications, have similar roles. They do so by covering a wide range of issues, including organization and management. In addition to dedicated special interest business publications (e.g.,Fortune, Business Week , Wall Street Journal andInc ), general interest press outlets (e.g., New York Times, Time ) regularly feature business and management oriented articles (Chen & Meindl, 1991). Arguably, the business media do not engage only in simple reporting, but also they transmit a variety of messages about organizations and how they function.
One of the specific ways the business media impact public perception is through its presentation of constructs related to actors and their roles in online platforms. In this regard, business media’s increased commitment to regularly and extensively cover various topics on leadership is worth exploring. Not only do the business media report on trends and developments as related to corporate leadership, they also feature various extended accounts on CEOs, leadership development, and leadership challenges. Given their perception shaping role, it is imperative that research explores and examines what the business media cover about leadership and the underlying orientations that inform editorial and authorial decisions regarding what to say about leadership. This paper is part of a larger research effort to analyze the discourse of leadership in the business media (see Tessema, 2019). In this paper, the focus is on common discursive strategies that writers employ to construct dominant meanings of leadership.