Mass media play a broad role in raising public awareness. Using a staggered difference-in-differences approach, this study examines the impact of public welfare-oriented media promotion on corporate donations through a natural experiment of the Touching China program. We find that companies in cities where one of the People Who Moved China was born donate 23.9% more than others. The effect is more significant in companies that have gender-diverse boards, are state-owned, receive negative media coverage, and are in the growth stage, and deeds of philanthropy strengthen it. The heterogeneity implies three mechanisms: raising altruistic charitable awareness, maintaining government connections, and bolstering corporate reputation. This paper provides a new perspective on the link between media promotion and corporate social responsibility.

This research examines the impact of mass media on citizens' awareness of environmental protection based on a natural experiment on the release of the environmental documentary titled "Under the Dome" on February 28, 2015 in China. Through a regression discontinuity design with a typical city sample, we find that the release of "Under the Dome" resulted in 2 to 3 more daily calls about air pollution concerns to the citizen hotline per county, more than twice the number of those before the shock. Considering the impact of major political events and public holidays, our results remain robust. Evidence of the "Under the Dome" effects is also found in calls about other pollution and non-pollution concerns in a longer period. We argue that the mass media generally plays a role in triggering the public awareness.