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Understanding the University-Sustainability Link through Media: A Spanish Perspective

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  • Cecilia Elizabeth Bayas Aldaz

    (Department of Business Organization, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain
    Research Institute for Higher Education and Science (INAECU), 28903 Madrid; Spain)

  • Jesus Rodriguez-Pomeda

    (Department of Business Organization, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain
    Research Institute for Higher Education and Science (INAECU), 28903 Madrid; Spain)

  • Leyla Angélica Sandoval Hamón

    (Department of Business Organization, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain
    Research Institute for Higher Education and Science (INAECU), 28903 Madrid; Spain)

  • Fernando Casani

    (Department of Business Organization, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain
    Research Institute for Higher Education and Science (INAECU), 28903 Madrid; Spain)

Abstract

This article provides a procedure to universities for understanding the social perception of their activities in the sustainability field, through the analysis of news published in the printed media. It identifies the Spanish news sources that have covered this issue the most and the topics that appear in that news coverage. Using a probabilistic topic model called Latent Dirichlet Allocation, the study includes the nine dominant topics within a corpus with more than seventeen thousand published news items (totaling approximately five and a quarter million words) from a database of almost thirteen hundred national press sources between 2014 and 2017. The study identifies the news sources that published the most news on the issue. It is also found that the amount of news on sustainability and universities declined during the covered period. The nine identified topics point towards the relevance of higher education institutions’ activities as drivers of sustainability. The social perception encapsulated within the topics signals how the public is interested in these activities. Therefore, we find some interesting relationships between sustainable development, higher education institutions’ missions and behaviors, governmental policies, university funding and governance, social and economic innovation, and green campuses in terms of the overall goal of sustainability.

Suggested Citation

  • Cecilia Elizabeth Bayas Aldaz & Jesus Rodriguez-Pomeda & Leyla Angélica Sandoval Hamón & Fernando Casani, 2020. "Understanding the University-Sustainability Link through Media: A Spanish Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-15, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:12:p:4830-:d:370869
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Daniela De Filippo & Javier Benayas & Karem Peña & Flor Sánchez, 2020. "Communication on Sustainability in Spanish Universities: Analysis of Websites, Scientific Papers and Impact in Social Media," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-21, October.
    2. Fayez Nahedh Alsehani & Ainuddin Wahid Bin Abdul Wahab & Liyana Shuib, 2023. "Exploring Social Media and Organisational Sustainability Performance Goals: Themes, Functional Areas, and Practices Learning from the Preceding Decade," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-17, January.
    3. Mercedes Gaitán-Angulo & Melva Inés Gómez-Caicedo & Maritza Torres-Samuel & Adriana Correa-Guimaraes & Luis Manuel Navas-Gracia & Carmen Luisa Vásquez-Stanescu & Rodrigo Ramírez-Pisco & Marisabel Luna, 2022. "Sustainability as an Emerging Paradigm in Universities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-23, February.

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