The media plays a key role in bridging information asymmetries between parties such as CEOs and third-party observers. However, current research suggest that the media is not just a carrier of information but can actively shape the impression of the audience. An open question remains, hence, whether media reporting is affected by certain CEO traits such as narcissism or humility, two key constructs in the literature. For instance, narcissistic CEOs’ belief in their own superiority may spillover to the media, thereby distorting the function as information carrier and favoring directly or indirectly certain CEO traits. Therefore, by drawing on the differential effects that narcissism and humility can have on the impression of an audience, the study employs a computer-aided content analysis of factual narcissistic and humble CEOs, identified via a video metric approach, and their evaluation through three key journalistic intermediaries (New York Times, Washington Post, and Financial Times). The quantitative data suggest that actual CEO narcissism is related negatively to external performance evaluations of CEOs in subsequent years. In addition, the data suggest that narcissism as well as humility scores increase the emotional tone employed depending on the journalistic orientation of the media outlet. Humble CEOs receive on average more media attention than narcissistic CEOs yet this result is insignificant, providing limited evidence for a systematic (i.e., number of articles) bias across and within journalistic outlets towards either narcissistic or humble CEOs. This suggests that widely considered “quality” media outlets resist to portray CEO traits in an overly positive/negative light.

媒体在弥合首席执行官和第三方观察员等各方之间的信息不对称方面发挥着关键作用。然而，目前的研究表明，媒体不仅仅是信息的载体，而且可以主动塑造受众的印象。因此，一个悬而未决的问题仍然是，媒体报道是否受到某些首席执行官特质的影响，例如自恋或谦逊，这是文献中的两个关键特征。例如，自恋的首席执行官对自己优越性的信念可能会蔓延到媒体，从而扭曲信息载体的功能，并直接或间接地偏向某些首席执行官的特质。因此，通过利用自恋和谦逊对观众印象的不同影响，该研究对事实自恋和谦逊的首席执行官进行了计算机辅助内容分析，通过视频度量方法识别，并通过三个关键因素进行评估新闻中介机构（《纽约时报》、《华盛顿邮报》和《金融时报》）。定量数据表明，首席执行官的实际自恋程度与随后几年对首席执行官的外部绩效评估呈负相关。此外，数据表明，自恋和谦逊分数会增加所采用的情绪基调，具体取决于媒体的新闻定位。平均而言，谦逊的首席执行官比自恋的首席执行官受到更多的媒体关注，但这一结果微不足道，为新闻媒体之间和内部对自恋或谦虚的首席执行官存在系统性（即文章数量）偏见提供了有限的证据。这表明，被广泛认为“优质”的媒体抵制以过于积极/消极的方式描绘首席执行官的特质。