Framing a Bank: Reputation Management during Financial Crises

Maintaining a good image and reputation in the eyes of stakeholders is vital to the organisation. Thus, in its corporate communication and discourse the organisation will seek to present itself as favourably as possible while observing regulations stipulating accuracy and precision in the information given. However, in this process the organisation is not operating in a social vacuum but is continuously interacting with various players, such as the media, for its discursive construction. This article will focus on the role of this interaction in metaphorically and conceptually framing a large Danish bank, Danske Bank, during the 2008 financial crisis and hence in shaping its image projected to the public. Through the study of a number of semantic frames adopted by the Danish print press and those adopted by the Bank, this article will argue for the constructions of the press putting considerable strain on the Bank and its image, leading it to reconsider its previous strategy of denial of responsibility