Dialogue instead of a monologue : advertisers' expectations towards the media

Stakeholders’ expectations can define the future of the media. Due to advertising revenues, producing audiences desirable for advertisers has been considered as a central function of media. Furthermore, it has been claimed that mass media today would not exist without advertisers. If media organizations want to survive, they will have to acknowledge the expectations that their stakeholders such as advertisers have towards them in the new media environment. Even though meeting stakeholders’ expectations can be crucial for an organization’s future in terms of legitimacy and reputation, expectations have been an understudied topic in organizational communication. The aim of this research was to shed light on whether the new media environment has changed advertisers' expectations towards the media, and find out if there is a gap between advertisers’ experiences of the media and expectations towards the media. Furthermore, the aim was to explore whether social media have changed advertisers’ expectations. All in all, the research objective was to find out if advertisers’ expectations towards the media now resemble more those of public relations. The research was conducted as an empirical study using a qualitative research approach. 10 organizational representatives of large advertisers in Finland were interviewed. In addition, a social media observation was undertaken to further explore themes rising from the research interviews. The research results suggested that advertisers direct diverse expectations towards the media. Through media advertisers expect to reach and affect consumers and increase the organization’s sales. Advertisers also expect long-term and close relationships with the media. In addition, the media are expected to provide advertisers measurability of advertising gains as well as tailored and holistic services. Social media had to some extent raised expectations towards the media in terms of dialogue with consumers. All in all, these expectations of advertisers had been met well by the media. Minor expectation gaps were revealed in tailored and holistic services, and measurability. The ethos of advertising was still strong in the advertisers’ fundamental expectations towards the media such as reaching consumers and increasing the organization’s sales. However, the main findings of the thesis suggested that advertisers’ expectations are shifting towards expectations of public relations in terms of the rising expectation of dialogue. Hence, the results propose a need for a holistic view on advertising and public relations