The objective of the thesis project was to explore and portray the current states of news media visibility of fashion commerce in Finland and the societal – economic, environmental and cultural – importances of fashion commerce, to be able to develop new alternative news media agendas that can benefit the fashion commerce business sector while diversifying the case organization’s role as a societal voice.

The case organization is the nationwide representative of the entire commerce sector, of which fashion is part. It is in the interest of a public advocacy organization that the news media coverage of their member companies reflects the societal effects in a versatile way because media has the power to shape people’s opinions and attitudes.

The theoretical framework of the study is based on is public relations and stakeholder relations, namely media as a stakeholder. Furthermore, it uses theories of lobbying and agenda setting. The study also uses literature review of fashion commerce’s importances as research method, therefore fashion research, statistics and news sources are also featured in the theoretical framework.

The study was a mixed-method constructive research consisting of a news media article content analysis, whose purpose was to portray the current state of news media coverage of fashion commerce; and a literature review based on topical sources, whose purpose was to portray the current state of the societal effects of fashion commerce. The practical outcome of the thesis was constructed in the last phase, which was the creation of alternative media agendas for fashion commerce. Mixed method was used – the content analysis was done using both qualitative and quantitative methods.

The results show that the fashion commerce sector has substantial and far-reaching effects, both economically, environmentally, and culturally. The sector is large and multifaceted both nationally and globally, and fashion as a product group plays an important role in the success of the commerce sector as a whole. Analysis of news coverage shows that wider and more diverse news media visibility could be possible, based on the findings about the sector’s importance.

New alternative media agendas that can realistically be taken to use in terms of immaterial resources in case organization were produced during the study project. The agendas can benefit the case organization by diversifying or strengthening its role as a societal spokesorganization. The outcomes of the study can also be utilized by its member associations and member companies. Fashion commerce sector can benefit from taking the new alternative agendas to use. This in turn can advance the success of commerce, Finland’s largest industry field and employer, as a whole.