NEWS & EVENTS

Three postgraduate students from the School of Communication, all supervised by COMS faculty, have earned top honours at the 2026 Annual Convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC). Their paper was recognised as First Place in the Top Student Award for the Public Relations Division.

Yijie Ye and Boya Han, supervised by COMS Head Prof. Regina Chen, and Fangyuan Wan, supervised by COMS faculty member Prof. Angela Mak, were recognised for their paper "Reconstructing Legitimacy: The Mechanisms of Cultural CSR Narrative Strategies." The study investigates how Chinese Baijiu companies draw on traditional cultural narratives in their corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication to shape public perceptions of legitimacy. The Baijiu industry, deeply embedded in China's cultural heritage, simultaneously faces persistent social controversy, making the construction of legitimacy both a complex and strategically significant challenge.

Grounded in organizational legitimacy theory, attribution theory, and a cultural capital perspective, the study finds that cultural CSR narratives can meaningfully enhance perceived legitimacy by increasing value-driven attributions while reducing egoistic attributions. Notably, the researchers found that these effects vary according to the degree of ethnic-cultural identity held by audiences. This finding underscores the importance of culturally tailored communication strategies.

The study advances the field by shifting the inquiry beyond whether CSR communication is effective to uncovering how culturally embedded narrative strategies influence legitimacy construction in a non-Western context. In doing so, it offers a more localized understanding of CSR communication and demonstrates how organizations can strategically mobilize cultural meaning to build public trust.

The AEJMC Annual Convention is one of the most prestigious gatherings in the field of journalism and communication studies, drawing together scholars, educators, and practitioners from around the world. The 2026 convention will be held August 5–8 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.