The New Handbook of Communication and Corporate Reputation

The research reference for corporate reputation in an AI-mediated environment Corporate reputation now forms across fragmented publics, algorithmic platforms, and AI-generated content that organizations neither author nor control. The New Handbook of Communication and Corporate Reputation brings together leading international scholars to examine what this change means for research and practice. Its 46 chapters draw on public relations, organizational communication, journalism, media law, rhetoric, and platform studies. This second edition adds the past decade’s most consequential developments: artificial intelligence and algorithmic mediation; misinformation and disinformation; character assassination and “scansis”; moral-outrage crises; corporate social advocacy; narrative governance; and context collapse. The editors also introduce three conceptual contributions: the claims–perceptions–reality diagnostic relationates, a superordinate category encompassing the range of organizational relationship types, with stakeholders as one type among several a map of the problem spaces where reputational trouble recurs The handbook is written for scholars, educators, doctoral and graduate students, and senior practitioners in communication, public relations, management, and marketing. It serves as a research reference and as a core text for doctoral seminars and master’s courses. The authoritative communication-centered reference on corporate reputation, fully reimagined Reputation is no longer an organizational asset to protect but a distributed evaluative phenomenon constituted through communication across stakeholders, platforms, and algorithms. Now in its Second Edition, The New Handbook of Communication and Corporate Reputation assembles 46 chapters from international scholars spanning public relations, organizational communication, journalism, media law, rhetoric, and digital platform studies to map this transformation. This handbook introduces new conceptual architecture including the claims–perceptions–reality diagnostic, the concept of relationates as a replacement for the overstretched stakeholder category, and a map of recurring problem spaces where reputational tensions surface. Coverage addresses artificial intelligence and algorithmic mediation, misinformation and disinformation, character assassination, moral-outrage crises, polarization, corporate social advocacy, and narrative warfare. The book also covers: Diagnostic frameworks for context collapse, DEI authenticity challenges, and the epistemic limits of contemporary reputation measurement approaches Contributions from Manfred Scwaiger, W. Timothy Coombs, Øyvind Ihlen, Juan-Carlos Molleda, Vilma Luoma-aho, Michelle Schumate, and other leading scholars Analysis of stakeholder activism and how public discourse shapes organizational identity construction and legitimacy under contested conditions An editorial stance favoring diagnostic clarity over prescriptive formulas, aligning the volume with current theoretical scholarship rather than practitioner manuals Perspectives from contributors across North America, Europe, and Asia addressing reputation dynamics in varied institutional and media environments Designed for scholars, doctoral and graduate students, and senior practitioners in communication, public relations, management, and marketing, this handbook provides the field's most thorough communication-centered treatment of corporate reputation under conditions of complexity, contestation, and accelerating technological change.