A good company gone bad

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate whether or not public relations efforts in corporate social responsibility (CSR) influence the news media in corporate crisis situations. Design/methodology/approach The study conducted a content analysis of press releases and news media based on traditional human-coded cross-lag analyses and a machine learning technique, a novel method of big data analysis to test hypotheses. Findings Results indicate that CSR press releases indeed influenced the news media. During the crisis point, however, agenda-building was not observed. Practical implications Corporations need to continue CSR activities and provide public relations materials consistently even after a crisis, as an agenda-building role could be recovered. Originality/value The study examines the relationship between CSR and crisis situations in an agenda-building theoretical framework. The authors introduce agenda-building in the corporate sector with machine learning techniques.