This terminal paper focuses on the discussion of corporate social responsibility, social justice, mass media in the Philippines, and GMA7 Network. It aims to present the following objectives:
1. To discuss social justice in the Filipino context.
2. To define the universal or generic meaning of corporate social responsibility.
3. To illustrate how CSR provide social justice.
4. To understand the meaning, role, and history of mass media in the Philippines.
5. To discuss mass media in the business world.
6. To present the profile of GMA7 (Global Media Arts) network.
7. To identify if GMA7 network has corporate social responsibility.
8. To analyze if GMA7 network promote social justice or not.
This paper is a very important tool for understanding the real meaning of corporate social responsibility and how it provides social justice. It specifically discusses mass media as the area for analyzing how social justice is promoted with or without corporate social responsibility. The area is very interesting because mass media is concerned supposedly to the interest of people. Thus, social justice is only provided for the people equally in a specific state. To be realistic, this paper studies mass media company and it comes to decide that GMA7 network is the chosen entity. The paper also uses GMA7 network as to understand how social justice is promoted. Because this paper believes that the state should promote social justice as it is written in Art.2 Sec.10 of the Philippine Constitution.
Social Justice
Social justice is a term often referred to but rarely defined. Which is why the issue of social justice is seen as urgent and important. Social justice refers to the overall fairness of a society in its divisions and distributions of rewards and burdens. Social justice is not a mere catchy slogan to express concern for the plight of the poor and the downtrodden. The aim of social justice is to ensure dignity, welfare and security of all people.
If we can create schools where social justice is somewhat a reality�where people are treated decently, humanely and with honesty�then there is a chance that we will teach our children what social justice means. If just once in their lives they see right triumph over wrong, good over evil, justice over inequity, they will at least know that social justice is possible. Ultimately, that�s what it�s all about: giving young people hope that social justice is not simply a slogan or curriculum package, but something that compels us to treat one another as members of a shared community .
A. What is charity?
�Charity will never true charity unless it takes justice into account� Let no one attempt with small gifts of charity to exempt themselves from the great duties imposed by justice.� Some companies see charity as an opportunity both to advertise their largesse and to attract public interest to their line of business. Whereas, some simply wants to ease the burden of the poor.
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Corporate social responsibility is necessarily an evolving term that does not have a standard definition or a fully recognized set of specific criterion. With the understanding that business play a key role on job and wealth creation in a society, CSR is generally understood to be the way a company achieves a balance or integration of economic, environmental and social imperatives while at the same time addressing shareholder and stakeholder expectations. CSR is generally seen as the business contribution to sustainable development.
A. CSR in the business world
Companies today are exhorted to be �socially responsible�, worry less on profits and be socially responsible instead. The goal of most companies may be to make profits but it must behave honestly and obeys the law. The enlightened company is surrendering some of its earnings to make the world a better place. At its best, CSR should bolster a corporate status and contribute lasting value to its shareholders as well as to society at large.
B. Business ethics
Big firms nowadays are called upon to be good corporate citizens and they all want to show that they are. Companies with a commitment to ethical principles do better financially (based on annual sales/revenues) than companies that do not. Many companies viewed business ethics only in terms of administrative compliance with legal standards and adherence to internal rules and regulations. Today the situation is different. Attention to business ethics is on the rise across the world and many companies realized that in order to succeed, they must earn the respect and confidence of their customers. Like never before corporations are being asked encouraged and prodded to improve their business practices to emphasize legal and ethical behavior. Companies, professionals and individuals alike are being held increasingly accountable for their actions as demand for higher standards of corporate social responsibility.
Managers who are accountable to their shareholders should run their companies. Does this mean that managers need not concern themselves with ethics? Managers should think much harder about business than they appear to at present. It is lack of clarity about business ethics that gives rise to confusion over what manager�s responsibilities are, and over where the limits of those responsibilities lie. Managers ought to behave ethically as they pursue the proper business goal of maximizing profit. But sometimes the aims of business and rational self-interest will clashed with ethics. When this happens, those aims and interest must give way. Some things that are legal is unethical, and many things required by ethics are not required by law. Managers of companies should think about this in running their business, just as individuals in leading their everyday lives. Ethics in short is not an empty box. But what exactly is in the box?