Beyond The Frame: How Strategic Photography Shapes Corporate Sustainability Narratives
Abstract
This study aims to analyze photographs in CSR reports that can attract attention and evoke emotions to create an impression of responsibility in terms of sustainability, as well as to compare Indonesia and Malaysia. Visual content analysis was conducted on 81 sustainability reports from energy sector companies in Indonesia and 28 in Malaysia. Through a difference test, this study found that companies in Indonesia use certain photo features more often to attract attention than companies in Malaysia, such as large, landscape-oriented photos. In addition, companies in Indonesia strategically utilize themes to evoke the emotions of stakeholders. These findings suggest that companies tend to use photos as part of impression management, whether as a strategy for ingratiation (attract sympathy), exemplification (setting a moral example), or organizational promotion (corporate reputation promotion). Therefore, investors should be more critical and cautious when evaluating non-financial.
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.17509/jrak.v14i1.97851
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