Interest in corporate reputation is up, reports the Christian Science Monitor. It cites a NYSE-Euronext survey of 325 CEOs worldwide, which “found that three-quarters of firms had become more transparent about their risk policies.”

Adding to the mix Edelman‘s Trust Barometer findings that “trust and transparency” were “deemed as important as the ‘quality of services and products,’” the story looks at the way companies today have to manage their reputations online and off, both in terms of public opinion and also political leverage, in cases such as BP’s.

The story quotes Edelman’s Harlan Loeb, director of crisis and issues management, as noting that companies today function in a “24/7 risk environment” with such a high volume of eyes on their activities. He adds, the story says, that social media is simultaneously beneficial because it gives companies “an extraordinary opportunity to break through the static of information flow to tell your own story.”

With regard to BP, the Monitor quotes a communications consultant working for the company as saying that while BP has controlled its narrative “reactively”, there is more to be done “proactively,” especially given litigation that has cast the company in a negative light.