Cooperative's Representation in Media - The presence of the Cooperative model in two Belgian newspapers

The Cooperative model has a long tradition with established standards recognized worldwide. Nonetheless this atypical business form still goes unnoticed by many, mainly due to its inherent characteristics. The cooperative peculiarities may hinder its identity formation and by extension, its legitimacy. This work focused in the cognitive type of legitimacy correlated with the lack of attention that the audience eventually gives to this business model. In order to investigate the absent or reduced cognitive legitimacy in a longitudinal manner, two Belgian newspapers – L’Echo and Le Soir – were researched. All articles having the cooperative business model as subject of discussion were retrieved at 3 different time periods between 2007 and 2018. The investigation allowed to conclude on an increase of the visibility of this business model throughout the 11 years period in both newspapers. A recognized driver in the creation of cooperative organizations are the periods of economic crisis, hence the probability that the increase in visibility of this model along the time span chosen has been initially prompted by the financial and economic catastrophe of late 2008. Despite this growing visibility, further efforts should be performed to publicize this alternative type of organization since, as mentioned in the beginning, a lack of attention still exists and obtaining it is more about showing and less about doing.