Applied Social Sciences : Communication Studies [1 ed.] 9781443865487, 9781443843409

Citation preview

Applied Social Sciences

Applied Social Sciences: Communication Studies

Edited by

Georgeta RaĠă, Gheorghe Clitan and Patricia-Luciana Runcan

Applied Social Sciences Communication Studies, Edited by Georgeta RaĠă, Gheorghe Clitan and Patricia-Luciana Runcan This book first published 2013 Cambridge Scholars Publishing 12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Copyright © 2013 by Georgeta RaĠă, Gheorghe Clitan and Patricia-Luciana Runcan and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-4340-7, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-4340-9

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Tables.............................................................................................. ix List of Illustrations ..................................................................................... xi Foreword .................................................................................................. xiii

Chapter One: Constructs, Modellisations, Valorisations Social Role of Brand Oana Barbu.................................................................................................. 3 Critical Analysis of Advertising (A Model: Informational Analysis) Gheorghe Clitan......................................................................................... 11 Social Media: Social Representations in Public Relations Cristina Coman and Horea-Mihai Bădău................................................... 19 The Death of Corneliu Coposu: A Martyr Fabricated by the Media Mihai Coman ............................................................................................. 27 Justified Opinions: A Quantitative Approach Ionel NariĠă............................................................................................... .35 More Interactivity, Less Intimacy: Connection between New Media and New Audience or When Feedback Means Control Dorin Popa................................................................................................. 43

Chapter Two: Problematisations, Case Studies, Applications The 2012 French Presidential Election or About how Campaign Discourse becomes Campaign Conflict Georgiana Alexandrescu-Fieraru............................................................... 53

vi

Table of Contents

Mass-Media: Creator and Promoter of Media Events Simona Bader ............................................................................................ 61 Organizational Communication in Cyberspace: A Comparative Analysis Rozália-Klára Bako ................................................................................... 67 Features of Nonverbal Communication in Volleyball Play Liliana Becea ............................................................................................. 73 Implications of New Media in the Public Space ùtefania Bejan............................................................................................ 79 Patterns of Metaphorisation in the Media Discourse Doina Butiurcă........................................................................................... 83 Nonverbal Sensitivity and Students’ Motor Performance Alina Duduciuc.......................................................................................... 91 Brand vs. Social Responsibility Manuela-Rozalia Gabor and Lia-Codrina ConĠiu...................................... 99 Journalistic Approaches in Critical Artistic Research Cătălin Gheorghe..................................................................................... 107 Comic Interjections and Onomatopoeia in Romanian Drama Elena-Alina Grecu ................................................................................... 115 Local and Regional Television in the New Media Landscape Lucian Ionică ........................................................................................... 121 Journalists: “Entrepreneurs of Theirs Competencies” in the Age of Collaborative Web and Digital Technologies Mirela Lazăr and Viorica Pău‫ ܈‬................................................................ 129 Modern Dobruja (Romania): Communication in Advertising Mădălina Lasca........................................................................................ 137 Intercultural Perspectives on Users and Collections of Academic Libraries in Timiúoara (Romania) Maria Micle ............................................................................................. 145

Applied Social Sciences: Communication Studies

vii

Strategies of Constructive Approach of Conflicts Mihaela-Amalia Petrovici........................................................................ 153 Self-Referentiality as a Manipulating Tool of Journalistic Discourse Alina-Mariana Popa, Oana-Camelia Stroescu and Dorin Popa ............... 161 Salt in Food: From Print to Screen Eliana-Alina Pope‫܊‬i ................................................................................. 169 Uninformative News: Between Commentary and News in Brief Sorin Preda and Alin Popa....................................................................... 173 Communication, Manipulation and Censorship: Ceauúescu’s Visit in Australia and its Reflection in Romanian and Australian Media Ilie Rad .................................................................................................... 181 Perception and Communication of Terrorist Risk on Food Supply Chain: A Case Study (Romania and Turkey) Irina Stănciugelu, Hami Alpas, Dan Stănescu, Faruk Bozoglu and Sergiu Stan........................................................................................ 189 Corporate Social Responsibility, as of Public Relations Activity in Multinational Companies Adina Stroescu......................................................................................... 197 Ioan Slavici, the Journalist, on Public Opinion Lucian-Vasile Szabo................................................................................ 203 Preservation and Valorisation of Documentary Heritage through Digitisation: The “Balkan Itineraries” Project Elena Tîrziman ........................................................................................ 211 Promoting Cultural Events and Their Role in Local Development Florica-Elena Vasiliu and Rodica-Eugenia Pascu ................................... 215 Contributors............................................................................................. 223

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1-1. Opinions’ forms and modal values of propositions................................37 Table 2-1. Instances of Denying Common Ground by François Hollande ..............55 Table 2-2. Instances of Denying Common Ground by François Bayrou.................56 Table 2-3. Instances of sarcasm belonging to François Hollande............................56 Table 2-4. Usability and accessibility criteria applied in this study ............................69 Table 2-5. Usability (U) scores for the Romanian municipalities (M) ........................70 Table 2-6. Accessibility (A) scores for the Romanian municipalities (M) ..................70 Table 2-7. E-government scores for the six Romanian municipalities........................71 Table 2-8. Nonverbal skills depending on the subjects’ gender ..............................94 Table 2-9. Values of the analysis of variance depending on the individuals’ gender ...............................................................................................................95 Table 2-10. Nonverbal skills depending on the basketball performance .................95 Table 2-11. Results of the analysis of variance depending on participation in local basketball competitions (ANOVA) ......................................................96 Table 2-12. Nonverbal skills depending on participation in local basketball competitions......................................................................................................96 Table 2-13. Total variance explained ....................................................................102 Table 2-14. Rotated Component Matrix................................................................103 Table 2-15. Cluster analysis results: final clusters centres and ANOVA ..............104 Table 2-16. Quality national newspapers ..............................................................123 Table 2-17. National tabloid press.........................................................................124 Table 2-18. National sports newspapers................................................................124 Table 2-19. Regional newspapers..........................................................................124 Table 2-20. Overview of national and regional print.............................................124 Table 2-21. Competency-building resources of the Romanian journalist in the view of journalists themselves.................................................................133 Table 2-22. Competency-building resources of the Romanian journalist in the view of journalism educators...................................................................133 Table 2-23. Matrix of co-occurrences (noun – verb).............................................165 Table 2-24. SWOT analysis ..................................................................................201 Table 2-25. Hierarchy: Means of information/promotion .....................................220

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Figure 2-1. Average of the types of touches after won actions................................77 Figure 2-2. Average of the types of touches after lost actions.................................77 Figure 2-3. Average per minute of the types of touches..........................................78 Figure 2-4. Brands representation in the factorial plane formed by PC1 and PC4 ..........................................................................................................105 Figure 2-5. Overview of National and Regional Print...........................................125 Figure 2-6. Respondents’ degree of satisfaction related to academic libraries collections and services...................................................................................149 Figure 2-7. Types of information resources accessed by the users of academic libraries ...........................................................................................................150 Figure 2-8. Topic Frequency Indexation (1998-2007) ..........................................164 Figure 2-9. Evolution of phatic function convocation in speeches on heat ...........166 Figure 2-10. Events’ map published on November 17, 2011, by Hotnews.ro .......176 Figure 2-11. Means of faking information ............................................................177

FOREWORD

This volume contains papers from the ISSA – 2012 Conference, which came under the wider range of Communication Studies, also called in Romania Communication Sciences (following the French model). The papers reflect the Romanian researchers’ interests—theoretical and practical—and their progress; these scientists are engaged in the scientific assessment of the phenomenon of communication—as manifested in the daily lives of individuals, professional communities, and organizations—, and of its main approaches and instantiations (public relations, journalism, advertising, library and information science). The volume’s topics range from attempts to exploit, develop and establish ways of approaching communication (media anthropology; communication mediatisation in the information society; constructivism in social media; logic and epistemology of beliefs/opinions; critical analysis of advertising; brand philosophy), to case studies of professionalised communication forms (organizational communication; niche journalism; crisis communication; new media; event communications; new information and documentation technologies; intercultural communication; regional advertising). Hence the volume is addressed to the public interested both in the theoretical and applicative levels of communication studies in Romania, and in the solving of real problems of professionalised communication. The contents of the articles reveal a number of continuances or leitmotifs that can serve as a basis for a picture of the Romanian debates on professionalised communication: information, communication and representation in the informational society; massification, local character and actual globalisation of communication; persuasion, manipulation and critical thinking in media discourse; the epistemological, educational and organisational status of professional communication. The main coordinates of this picture as shaped by the volume’s studies resemble characteristics of the cultural spaces—especially Anglo-Saxon and Francophone—that influenced their authors. This is also reflected by the denominations used for their fields, sometimes interchangeably, by the Romanian researchers and practitioners, namely communication studies and communication sciences.

xiv

Foreword

Another proof is represented by the way professionalised communication is perceived and conceived within the Romanian socio-cultural space. Thus, on the one hand, most authors use terms such as information, communication, and representation as notions that indicate social—mostly organisational—phenomena, aiming at producing, institutionalising and deconstructing meaning in the current Romanian society. On the other hand, media hypostases are viewed as organisational bases of communication circumscribed pragmatically mainly to enterprises’ functioning (economic sense); utilisation of technologies (technological sense); and the development of democratic citizenship (symbolic sense). Likewise, media communication– analysed under its various hypostases—written press; TV; advertising; crisis communication; classic and digital/online information and documentation; cultural and PR events, etc—occupies a central place in the volume. The central role of media communication is not only given by the proportion of studies dealing with the impact of this type of communication means on the Romanians—who are, since 1990, in a constant postcommunist transition to western democracy—but also by the ways media communication is perceived in the context of current globalisation. Either explicitly or tacitly, media are perceived as formative or deforming instruments of institutions’, and political organisations’, images, or as instruments of managing (either manipulatively or not) their social visibility and the public space. In their relation to the financialeconomic institutions and organisations, media are perceived as sources of technological advantage and marketing. From a scientific point of view, media are perceived in different ways: for the natural and technological sciences, they are enhancers of information and data transmission capacities and sources of their own research activities, whereas for the social sciences and humanities they are instruments of analysing the impact of communication on public opinion and space (particularly in case of philosophy and sociology); instruments of studying the attributing of socio-cultural meaning to different types of signs and symbols (e.g., semiotics and semiology); and instruments of scrutinizing communication as social bond in modern and postmodern societies (e.g., philosophy and anthropology). Within the research carried out by the Romanian authors, a particular place is given to questions concerning the contribution media communication should make, within the academic and vocational institutions, to the formation of citizens aware, and critical of, the messages around them, but also of media specialists and practitioners professionally and deontologically independent from the media trusts that tend to integrate

Applied Social Sciences: Communication Studies

xv

them. In this area, the various lines of research endeavour concurrently to identify and assess the skills and competences of a professionalised communicator in various branches of journalism, PR, advertising, library and information science, or in the area of new mass-media systems and technologies. It is worth mentioning at this point that, in the recent years, a number of European programmes have been accessed by the government, aiming at developing competency grids or dictionaries necessary for defining and registering professions, including the communication ones, in registers of professions standardised and officialised at national and European levels. To the experienced analyst, this process has obviously influenced the headings under which the Romanian specialists in communication (both theorists and practitioners) have placed their research interests. Even a simple survey of the volume contributors’ fields of interest—as revealed by the topics and issues approached—would be illuminating in this respect. However, we will not proceed to such a study, for it cannot replace the reading of the full text. The freedom of choice regarding the order in which the articles can be selected is left entirely to the reader, as any text can be read independently from the others. We tried to highlight the volume’s thematic and problematological unity, not by describing the main aspects of its studies, but by outlining the main themes of the picture as a whole. Thus, we hope that the reader interested in the ways communication is reflected in the Romanian academic debates would be able not only to integrate each contribution into the known socio-cultural landscapes, but also into the picture of the Romanian space sketched above. —Gheorghe CLITAN

CHAPTER ONE CONSTRUCTS, MODELLISATIONS, VALORISATIONS

SOCIAL ROLE OF BRAND OANA BARBU

Introduction When we talk about a brand, we establish a clear separation between the product and the nonmaterial attributes that are assigned to it, understood as benefits. In most cases, the brand settles itself as an alternative to the object, harnessing it under a certain sign. Presuming that social values have their roots in our belief system, we state the brand as being a carrier of value signs for the hyper consumption society. According to the axiological theory, one of the research braches renders the value as being objective, considering it as an inevitable and inherent quality of all things. In the same direction, making a difference between self-value and marketvalue, John Locke considered the value as being the capacity of an item to serve a need or a pleasure of human life (Vaughn 1980). In this way, it does not matter if the value is or is not recognized, the carrier of the value is no longer the subject, but the object itself.

Methodology: Hermeneutical Anthropology of the Brand Concept Brand anthropomorphism has been more and more exploited after the year 2000, going from the assertion of sensory brand and emotional experiences offered by this entity, to the idea of a marriage between consumer and brand (McEween 2005) and even until the assertion of Lovemarks by Kevin Roberts, based on respect and love for a trademark. The brand presents itself to modern society as being a nonmaterial entity, “a living entity, enriched or dilated in time, the cumulative result of thousands of small gestures” (ibid.: 26), transformed into a real social and cultural phenomenon. In a society in which a rational consumption choice is more and more replaced by a personal and emotional one, brands define themselves through “clarity, safety, consistency, stature, membership – everything human beings need to define themselves. Brands mean identity” (Olins 1996). Instead, Gilles Lipovetsky (2006) considers that

4

Social Role of Brand

this emotional consumption fits brands only partially; he nominates much more than the effects of a marketing wave, it belongs to a social plan, the consumers’ one, tracing itself into an intimate logic, based on the search for sensations and of the greater subject. This fact tallies, with a changing of the meaning of the individual and its bind with objects; the product is no longer the subject of the search, the object is not wanted anymore, but the vision and imaginary of the social involvement in its consumption. This liberation of the subject will no longer be made in the absence of materials, because the subject is already aware of the power gained by the objects. And so, the revitalization of subjectivity will be made by comparison to objects, the individualization starting itself also with the consumption of certain objects. This actually resembles a “social engine” through the fact that it establishes a bond between people, “touching” them in different ways, transforming their lives and, as a consequence, themselves also. From this point of view, what differentiates a brand from any other type of sign is the extraordinary versatility of its meanings. In other words, the practical quality of a brand locates itself in the fact that neither meaning is being built before or forever. Being tributary to a social context (even global), the brand is destined to perpetual semiotics as a continued re-adaptation of the sign to the constantly changing social reality. In a similar way to certain speeches (Hall 1982), brands can be looked at as ideological statements just because of a limited matrix of meanings and contexts opponent to the ideology in which they were generated. In other words, considering that the brands join the development of the individual in a certain social-cultural space, it becomes necessary for the entire concept frame of the hyper consumption society to recognize the strong presence of brands among our existence. On the other hand, modern sociology reveals upfront that, in order to interact at the social level, the individual sees himself being put in front of the situation in order to adopt certain forms of behaviour that are accepted by the community, taking upon him and summarizing certain accepted forms of behaviour, translated into social and cultural standards, lifestyles. In these conditions, a brand tries to satisfy these needs of the individual in a symbolic way (but not necessarily) and to keep track of the cultural models of society. In hyper consumptionism, stronger than any other time, brands – as nonmaterial realities – are forced to assume this role in terms of a sprayed universe of values, divided and sectioned according to criteria that belong more and more to lifestyle subjectivity and not to the taught standards (whether they are ethic, social, aesthetic and so on). Brands need to locate themselves at the cultural level and to propose individuals

Oana Barbu

5

symbolic satisfactions for their tensions, which need to occur with social models valued by them, and also identity models, lifestyles, self-images, existence and behaviour models through which they can identify themselves. In the same way, standards that determine the role of the individual and also assume along its social existence must be taken into consideration. These standards reveal social attitudes: the individual adapts to each situation. The standards rely on social and social-cultural models, family, professional, on behaviour stereotypes that depend, among others, on age, sex and social status. It is necessary to make from this point of view an observation about the difference between common standards and role standards at practical philosophical level. Common standards are those that can suffer a generalization at group or even society level. All these sum up to the assembly of values, beliefs, and even life habits of the group or society. Role standards have a narrower meaning, an individually social function, being the ones that determine the role the person assumes in social life, the way he/she chooses to participate as a social actor. Still, they are signed up in a collective logic, and need to be first of all socially accepted (McElreath, Boyd & Richerson 2003). The social role of brand consists in the ability to organize, more or less, different forms of affective circuits at the individual level (Lury 2004). So, the brand becomes a mechanism that includes, strengthens and controls this type of emotional investments to offer measurable results, and also, valuable. In the style of the discussed topics so far, we can state that brands are mechanisms that transform affective “energy” into valuable forms of immaterial work.

Brand Culture and its Social Aspects Branding is defined as the creative process of maintenance and individualization of a brand: the summarized methods through which an organization or a product communicates, symbolizes and differentiates itself toward consumers. “Branding has gone so much over its commercial roots, that its impact is practically immeasurable in social and cultural terms.” (Olins 2004) More and more authors, like Schroeder (2008) or Schroeder & SalzerMörling (2006), propose a cultural approach of the brand revealing the opening of this domain towards cultural, sociological and theoretical research. Recently, anthropologists, historians and sociologists approach brands from a cultural perspective, understanding their importance at the

6

Social Role of Brand

social level, and also accepting economic and psychological researches (Bently, Davis & Ginsburg 2008, Koehn 2001, and Lury 2004). The “Brand culture” refers to the cultural codes developed by brands – history, image, myths, art, theatre – influencing the meaning and value of a brand, but especially at the social level. From this perspective, the research of the phenomenon often implies the inclusion and understanding of social-cultural influences and the involvement of brand in the social sphere. First of all, we need to accept a fact: we live in a “branded” world in which brands give culture a certain way of perception and branding activities strongly influences modern society. Secondly, “brand culture represents a third dimension of brand research – in conjunction with traditional domains of brand identity and brand image research. The brand culture offers the cultural, historical and political context required to understand the brand contextually.” (Schroeder 2009: 123-126) There are a lot of definitions for the concept “culture”. The most useful one, in the context presented by us, seems to be the definition given by Clifford Geertz, in which culture represents “a model of inherited conceptions, expressed in symbolic forms through which people communicate, perpetuate and develop knowledge about life” (Geertz 1973). We consider that a brand, in order to be relevant for consumers and durable over time, must function just like a culture. Beyond the manipulation of a series of external images or target-groups, companies need to be aware of their core values and understand why, beyond profit reason, they exist. This means that, in essence, a company must develop (or reveal) an ethos and a constant vision about the world in which it believes, and only then to take action in occurrence with the ethos and the communicated value about the world. Moreover, through the accent that is being put on perception, emotion and valued differentiation, Schroeder (2012) states that brand enters even the cultural spheres of religion, politics and mythology, because of the fact that they promote equivalent models of consumption and joy. Brand communication is making a call more and more towards emotional consumption, labels with strong ethic messages, products that observe strict standards of environment protection and undertake in social responsibility campaigns, but much more than this, values proposed by the great corporations, re-aiming towards more and more human causes that are closer to the consumer making him more responsible. In this context, brand philosophies have the duty and, at the same time, the advantage of noticing social desires, proposing also viable alternatives. With a clean advertising communication speech and social responsibility as overordered proposed values, rules, principles and norms of conduct transform

Oana Barbu

7

the brand into a mass educator and guide in finding the answer to the question: What needs to be done? Here is, for example, a mission declaration of the campaign “Make it count!” that is part of the brand philosophy of the Element brand: “The Make it Count collection celebrates Element’s deep roots, consistency and drive. It represents the importance of being graceful and approaching everything you do with depth and longevity. Leave an imprint deep enough, that it continues to make the world a better place. Make it Count!” (Element. Online: www.elementskateboards.com)

Motivational prescriptions and life leading rules are traced more and more under the shape of campaign slogans: “You are Volcom, do your job, recycle!” “Green works – Panasonic” “Live. Learn. Grow – Element” “Connecting people – Nokia” “Sharp Minds – Sharp” “Come alive! You’re in the Pepsi generation – Pepsi” “Think different! – Apple” “The Power to Be Your Best – Apple” “Together we can do more – Orange” “Impossible is nothing – Adidas” “Nothing is too small to know, and nothing too big to attempt – Element” “In a consumer culture, people no longer consume for merely functional satisfaction, but consumption becomes meaning-based, and brands are often used as symbolic resources for the construction and maintenance of identity.” (Elliott & Wattanasuwan 1998)

The greater involvement of brand philosophies at community level is noticeable also at the levels of new reports that are established at the social level, between the hyper-consumer and the others. At first glance, we can talk back to the modern individual that he had retired into selfish individualism, preoccupied with his self, his security, his health, giving tribute to some abilities to escape the daily routine and, in conclusion, citizenship. But, if we look at it from up-close, modern society presents a strong human character with immense need to create a community of interests and to share common experiences. Proof stands social media networks, more and more often social responsibility campaigns, greater concerns about human rights, ideal of tolerance, philanthropy, charity events, self-helping victims, repealing violence and cruelty. The stronger predilection for online social interactivity websites (Facebook, YouTube,

8

Social Role of Brand

LinkedIn, Twitter) shows that along the products that they consume, the individual is no longer alone, more and more branches of his life are joining the same desiderates. “The Self is being conceived in postmodernism not only as a product of a certain social system, but as something that the person can actively create, through consumption.” (Elliot & Wattanasuwan 1998: 5)

Anthropologists (McCracken 2005) ask themselves the question: What roles do brands and consumption play in this transformation? The answer of most of them is related to the fact that brands are symbolic units that are used together with other symbolic units with cultural character (career, music, fashion, religion), in order to build an identity for the individual. Brands create today’s values not only through products or services, but especially through the meaning that they communicate. This meaning is adopted by consumers to express their own identity: who they are and what they believe in. The creation of value meanings can be seen, today, as the most important product at the social level of a brand. More and more campaigns manifest their interest and try to draw attention on the problems that face the individual at different levels of his existence, trying to offer a personalized answer for the question How do I have to lead my life?; whether we are talking about his social problems (and here we include both socio-professional status problems, but also genre or religion issues), or personal ones (family problems, social relationship or moral aspects, etc), brands become teachers for the masses, regulating socio-cultural or ethical models, lifestyles that are worthy to the century we live in. As a conclusion, the challenge that addresses public brand represents, actually, the voice of an entire media culture that tries to express itself through proper means. We wish to launch a challenge related to the brand philosophy insight seen from a different angle, and that not only assumes a practical-teaching role in modern society, but also maintains to join the chaotic development of an individual that has gone through postmodern misalignment, always raising the value pole of both products and society. Different lifestyles proposed by different brands – like Think different! (Apple), or Just Do it! (Nike) – can be easily exploited for the purpose of modelling socio-cultural progress, to offer alternatives and cultural methods of free speech.

Oana Barbu

9

References Bently, L., Davis, Jennifer & Ginsburg, Jane. (Eds.). (2008). Trade Marks and Brands: An Interdisciplinary Critique. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Elliot, R. & Wattanasuwan, K. (1998). Brands as Symbolic Resources for the Construction of Identity. International Journal of Advertising 17 (2): 131-144. Geertz, C. (1973). The Interpretation of Cultures. London: Basic Books. Hall, S. (1982). The Rediscovery of ‘Ideology’: Return to the Repressed in Media Studies. In M. Gurevitch, T. Bennett, J. Curran & Janet Woollacott (Eds.), Culture, Society and the Media. London: Arnold. 52-86. Koehn, Nancy F. (2001). Brand New: How Entrepreneurs Earned Consumers’ Trust from Wedgewood to Dell. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Lipovetsky, G. (2006). Le bonheur paradoxal. Essai sur la société d’hyperconsommation [The Paradoxic Happiness: Essay on Hyperconsumption Society]. Paris: Gallimard. Lury, Celia (2004). Brands: The Logos of the Global Economy. London: Routledge. McCracken, G. D. (2005). Culture and Consumption II: Markets, Meaning, and Brand Management. Purdue, IA: Indiana University Press. McElreath, R., Boyd, R. & Richerson, P. J. (2003). Shared Norms Can Lead to the Evolution of Ethnic Markers. Current Anthropology 44: 122-130. McEween, W. (2005). Married to the Brand: Why Consumers Bond with Some Brands for Life. Washington, DC: Gallup Press. Olins, W. (1996). The New Guide to Identity: Corporate Identity, Retail Identity, Brand Identity, Organisational Identity, the Corporate Brand...How to Create and Sustain Change through Managing Identity]. Farnham: Gower Publishing Ltd. —. (2004). On B®and. London: Thames and Hudson. Schroeder, J. E. & Salzer-Mörling, Miriam. (2006). The Cultural Codes of Branding. In J. Schroeder & Miriam Salzer-Mörling (Eds.), Brand Culture. London: Routledge. 1-11. Schroeder, J. E. (2008). Visual Analysis of Images in Brand Culture. In E. F. McQuarrie & Barbara J. Phillips (Eds.), Go Figure: New Directions in Advertising Rhetoric. Armonk, NY: E. M. Sharpe. 277-96.

10

Social Role of Brand

—. (2009). The Cultural Codes of Branding. Marketing Theory 9 (1): 123126. —. (2012). Style and Strategy: Snapshot Aesthetics in Brand Culture. In F.-R. Puyou, P. Quattrone, C. McLean & N. Thrift (Eds.), Imagining Organisations. London: Routledge. 129-151. Vaughn, Karen I. (1980). John Locke: Economist and Social Scientist. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ADVERTISING (A MODEL: INFORMATIONAL ANALYSIS) GHEORGHE CLITAN

Introduction Critical thinking is the argumentation practice in everyday life. Advertising is a discourse where critical thinking can occur both as practical reasoning in the everyday life and institutional assessment of skills needed to build and deconstruct such a discourse. To talk nowadays about argumentation is to put oneself either within the frameworks drawn by a few typical distinctions, or outside them: argumentation theory, or theory of argument; argumentation practice, or practical argumentation. Placing oneself outside the frameworks drawn by these distinctions often means cancelling the distinctions themselves: argumentation theory and theory of argument concern the same thing and the same happens in case of argumentation practice and practical argumentation. Such distinctions are generally accepted in the following terms: argumentation theory is the study of argumentation practice (in its normative, empirical or conceptual dimensions), whereas theory of argument is the study of argumentation products (that is, of arguments, from the perspective of their functioning as practical argumentation within a given discourse genre). From such a perspective, theory of argument is a part of argumentation in the same way in which arguments or practical argumentation are parts of argumentation practice. Accepting or cancelling the frameworks drawn by these distinctions is the focal point of the interdisciplinary approaches to critical thinking as argumentation practice, bringing together not only the usual perspectives of philosophers, epistemologists, or logicians, but also those of rhetoricians, communication practitioners, theorists and practitioners.

12

Critical Analysis of Advertising

Critical Analysis of Commercials This paper attempts to emphasise commercials analysis focusing on the models offered by critical thinking tests, from which we retain only the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) approach. Commercials are approached as “advertising discourses”, and advertising discourses as public discourses. We describe in brief the three most important LSAT perspectives on advertising discourse analysis (comprehensive analysis, informational analysis and logical-argumentative analysis) leaving aside the outlook analysis of advertising or marketing psychology, perhaps more accessible to the public. We describe those perspectives focusing on informational analysis. Critical analysis of advertising consists in decoding commercials with at least three types of questions found in LSAT: (a) analytical reasoning questions (for the informational analysis: organization, grouping, structuring information in a discourse), (b) logical reasoning questions (for the logicalargumentative analysis: structuring/destructuring an argumentative discourse), and (c) reading comprehension questions (for the comprehensive analysis: understanding long discourses by comprehensive thinking). Here is a display of the characteristics of the three types of analysis in the critical thinking skills according to LSAT (The Official LSAT Handbook 2010: 2-4): 1) Characteristics of the informational analysis: A. Organizing, grouping, structuring data; B. Identifying a basic information structure; C. Possible use of the given information; D. Compulsory use of the given information; E. Possible use of new information; F. Compulsory use of new information; G. Choosing the entities using the available information; 2) Characteristics of the logical-argumentative analysis: A. Identifying an idea, theme or main problem; B. Constructing an inference; C. Identifying an argumentative structure (explicit or implicit); D. Identifying a similar argumentative structure; E. Identifying a reasoning error; F. Identifying a similar reasoning error; G. Identifying the assumptions and presuppositions in an argument; H. Using the additional evidence/information; I. Explaining an event, including a conflict or apparently paradoxical state;

Gheorghe Clitan

13

3) Characteristics of the comprehensive analysis: A. Identifying the main points of view; B. Explanation of the meaning/significance/reference of the expression; C. Argumentative structure of the text/discourse/advertisement; D. Construction of inferences concerning advanced points of view in advertisement; E. Expansion of the discourse content/gaining new knowledge; F. Identifying and highlighting attitudes; G. Identifying the analogies and the principles that a commercial uses; H. Emphasizing the purpose in which the advertisement is used.

As can be seen, the informational analysis of an advertising discourse is determined primarily by analytical reasoning skills, but its elements are found in the other two types of analysis considered here. We limit only to an analytical approach of advertising discourse, focusing on the questions with which we can identify the course of information in a commercial and the expected effects of different ways of using the information.

Informational Analysis of Advertising: A Model For the informational analysis of the advertising discourse from a critical thinking perspective, we retain only how skills were used to analyze the information in the LAST test. This test consists of multiple choice questions, some of which concern the use of information skills in reasoning or thinking. Among the questions in the structure of the three types of items, analytical reasoning questions are crucial for testing data analysis skills used in reasoning or thinking, but not sufficient. In the analysis of advertising, they must be accompanied by questions aimed at, in one way or another, all information contained in a product ad, regardless of whether they are logical reasoning questions or reading comprehension questions. What questions are to be made in terms of information analysis? Before the analysis, we present briefly what we mean by informational analysis questions (The Official LSAT SuperPrep 2004: 4-39): 1) The purpose of the information analysis questions consists in putting and solving problems, and discussing it assumes the ability to understand a structure of entities and relations and to draw conclusions about those structures, more exactly: A. The ability to identify elements or structures of elements (given information) under the form of default terms of a problem, that can be (a) Groups of contextual elements: conceptions, visions, perspectives, situations, actions, entities, space frames, time frames, background frames, assumptions, relationships, structures and so on); (b) Groups of entities

14

Critical Analysis of Advertising

that can relate between them: persons, places, things, events, images, shapes, colours, expressions, representations, etc.; B. The ability to relate well keeping in mind some default terms, reasoning consisting in putting/representing the problem in data (the perceivable forming/reforming of the problem): (a) Statements, rules, conditioning and reasoning regarding the default terms: highlighting, explaining and stipulating the relations between certain entities or structure of them (entities structures, relationship structures); (b) Structures or organisations under the form of requests of given information (e.g., placing given elements/information from first to last, selecting subgroups of elements/information of a bigger group, matching elements/information from another group; 2) The necessary skills assumed by the informational analysis questions are those describing regular relations, like: A. Designation: 2 entities, P and O, and their subentities, R and S, must be analysed from the informational behaviour point of view during the fourth consecutive instantiation, called 1, 2, 3 and 4; B. Ordering: X is positioned before Y, but after Z; C. Grouping: A discourse tries to analyze, regarding the problem that it discusses, 6 points of view – R, S, U, V, W and X. Each point of view is analyzed from the perspective of its creation: A discourse tries to analyze, on an issue that discusses 5 ways – R, S, U, V, X. Each point of view is analysed from the perspective of its creation – pros, cons and holds and abstentions; D. Space orientation: An advertising poster has 6 information focal points, and each point is connected to at least another point in an interference system, some of them being targeted one way only.

A special category of information analysis questions are “problem-solving questions” regarding the necessity of solving a problem (data-problem). To highlight and better understand the role they play in the analysis of an advertisement, we present briefly the risk of falling into didacticism. Briefly restate two subcategories of these questions: 1) Questions regarding what is necessary, what is possible and what is impossible from the request: A. “Which of the statements regarding X should be true?” B. “Which of the statements could be false?” C. “If Y regards Z, which of the statements regarding X has to be true?” D. “If Y and Q sometimes regard Z, which of the statements regarding X could be true?” E. “What might or must happen regarding X in general or under certain terms?”

Gheorghe Clitan

15

2) Questions regarding understanding the request: A. “In what way the given information must relate to the request?” B. “How can the given information not relate to the request?” C. “Which part of the request is just contextual information?” D. “Which part of the request is background information?” E. “How can you intuitively represent the problem facts (sketches, symbols, formal notations, graphics, diagrams, etc.)?”

Another set of questions closely related to the above ones and to analytical reasoning are the questions regarding the problem solving method: 1) Orientation questions, regarding: A. The way in which the request terms guide answers: (a) “Which of the possible solutions of a problem grants every term of the request?”; (b) “Which of the possible solutions of a problem does not bend any of the request terms?”; (c) “Which of the possible solutions of a problem bends a term from the request?”; (d) “Which of the problem terms is observed by the X solution to the problem?”; (e) “Which of the problem terms is not observed by the X solution to the problem?” B. How the problem-solving and the requirement guide answers: (a) Questions containing the phrase “from which anyone”: “Which of the lists is complete and correct Y-type entities that have the X quality in the Z version?”; (b) Questions containing the phrase “at a certain time before/right after”: “X’s description takes place at a certain time before/right after Y’s presentation?”; (c) Questions containing the phrase “at least/most/exactly”: “X’s intervention regards at least/most/exactly three aspects of the problem in cause?”; (d) Questions containing the phrase “respective/not necessarily in this order”: “If the Y element is presented first, the second, third and fourth element of the presented elements could be T, X and O, respectively, but not necessarily Q?”; (e) Questions containing the phrase: “if…then”: “If the Y element is presented first, which of the T, X, O and Q is presented the second?”; 2) Validation questions, regarding the truth of phrases that indicate the solution to the problem: A. “What has to/might be true?” B. “What has to be true under certain specified circumstances?” C. “What has to be true only under a requested term basis?” D. “What might be true depending on certain specified circumstances?” E. “What might be true only under the requested term basis?”

Logical reasoning questions used in the informational analysis of advertising can also be displayed in three categories. We review them as we have done with the analytical reasoning questions (The Official LSAT SuperPrep: 18-22, 25-33). The first category is that of questions about

16

Critical Analysis of Advertising

what can be logically derived from the information provided in advertising: 1) Questions to identify a position from the information given: A. Questions to identify a position conclusively supported by the information given: (a) “What is the statement whose truth is guaranteed by the information given?”; (b) “What is the statement supported and confirmed by the information given?”; (c) “Which statement must be true if the information given is true?”; (d) “What statement can be deduced logically from advertising expressions?”; (e) “If the information in the advertisement are true, which is the statement whose truth follows from their truth?” B. Questions to identify a position supported in an inconclusive way (non required) by the information given: (a) “What is the statement best supported by information in the advertisement?”; (b) “What is the statement most likely supported by the information in the advertisement?”; (c) “What sentence is likely to be supported based on information from the advertisement?; (d) “What statement is reasonable to be inferred based on the information of the advertisement?”; (e) “If the information in the advertisement are true/authentic, which is the most powerful statement supported?” 2) Questions to identify issues on which the advertisement interlocutors have different views: A. “The main issue in the debate between X and Y is whether...” B. “Which statement correctly expresses the main idea disputed by X and Y?” C. “On the basis of what is said, X and Y shall decide to disagree on whether...” D. “The advertisement claims the most powerful statement that X and Y disagree about...” E. “X and Y do not agree that...”

The second category of logical thinking questions used in the informational analysis of advertising is actually formed of argumentative questions about how the information works in the advertisement: 1) Questions about the impact of additional information (additional) in the argument: A. Questions about additional information that strengthens the argument: (a) “What information, if true, supports the argument the most?”; (b) “To support the argument, which statement would be most useful?”; (c) “Many statements, if true, may weaken the argument, EXCEPT...”; (d) “What statement, if true, supports the most arguments/main conclusion of the advertising?; (e) “What statement, if true, raises the best strength or credibility of X’s argument supported by X in the text/speech?”;

Gheorghe Clitan

17

B. Questions about additional information that weaken the argument: (a) “What information, if true, most weakens the argument?”; (b) “To reduce the force of the argument, which statement would be most useful?”; (c) “Each of the X’s statements, if true, strengthens the argument, OTHER THAN...”; (d) “Which of the statements of X reduces most of the advertisement value of the main conclusion?”; (e) “What statement, if true, reduces the credibility of the claim of X in the ad?”

The third category of logical thinking questions used in the informational analysis of advertising is about tacit information. These questions aim at the tacit informational content of a text advertisement seen as more complex than it appears at first sight. One of these categories is “questions about how the argument operates with tacit information”: 1) Questions about the assumptions of the argument: A. “What statement is assumed to derive a logical reasoning conclusion?” B. “The conclusion follows logically from the premises of the advertisement only if we assume the statement...” C. “What is the assumption from which X starts its argumentation?” D. “What premise is tacitly assumed in the arguments of the advertising?” E. “The argument depends on the assumption that...” 2) Questions about the use of principles in argumentation: A. “What reasoning would be justified by the principle of X, if it is accepted?” B. “In what respect the interests expressed in the advertisement substantially overlap to X and Y?” C. “What principle, if true, helps most to support the argument of X?” D. “What principle is most contradicted by the advocacy of X?” E. “What is the principle to which the arguments of the advertisement comply?”

Useful in the informational analysis of advertising are two categories of reading comprehension questions (The Official LSAT SuperPrep: 53-54) about what the advertisement says or suggests: 1) Direct elementary questions (“What does the commercial really say?”) targeting not the exact wording of certain passages of the text, but rather the meaning of their formulation: (a) “What is textually/explicitly said in the advertisement?”; (b) “What does the ad’s author claim about X?”; (c) “What is stated in the advertisement about X?”; (d) “According to the advertisement, which statement is true about X?”; (e) “Through which statement can we express, according to the advertisement’s author, a feature of X?”; 2) More sophisticated, complex and difficult questions, transmitted by an advertisement on the plus (tacitly) to which it explicitly states (“What are the

18

Critical Analysis of Advertising

information that the author leaves untold or undelivered explicitly based on the public’s ability to highlight them?”): A. Questions sophisticated aimed at what the author assumes that the public already knows: (a) “What are the things or information that the author considers that there was no point in telling them publicly because they are well-known or at least he would be known?”; (b) “What things or information is transmitted tacitly by what is stated explicitly in the ad?”; (c) “What things or information which the commercial explicitly states can be understood by the public?”; (d) “What is transmitted additionally by the advertisement compared to what it explicitly states?”; e) “What does the advertisement’s author not say, leaving for the public to understand?”; B. Complex questions relating to the the ad’s inferential component: (a) “What does the advertising suggest or indicate, without directly saying?”; (b) “What can be implied from what the advertising explicitly states?”; (c) “What is understandable in the examined commercial?”; (d) “What can be inferred from an advertisement about an element of its structure?”; (e) “What is true, according to the ad, about what you can infer from it?”; C. More difficult questions concerning the ideas, opinions or inferences of the public: (a) “What is the idea of the advertisement the public might agree, even if it is not?”; (b) “Which of the ideas of the advertisement is least likely for the public to agree with?”; (c) “What inferences should be made public in order to understand what the author expressed in the advertisement?”; (d) “To what nonexistent information in the advertisement must the public appeal in order to understand what the advertisement’s author says?”; (e) “In which way can be deduced from the ad the author’s claim that an opinion differs about X compared to public expectations?”

Conclusion The focus point of our informational analysis model is to achieve the interpretation of an advertising discourse in according to the critical thinking skills tested by LSAT. We will develop the specifics of critical thinking perspectives of analysis by giving answers to the main types of questions that underlie the three components of critical thinking: analytical, logical and comprehensive.

References The Official LSAT Handbook, (2010). Newtown, PA: Law School Admission Council, Inc. The Official LSAT SuperPrep. (2004). Newtown, PA: Law School Admission Council, Inc.

SOCIAL MEDIA: SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS IN PUBLIC RELATIONS CRISTINA COMAN AND HOREA-MIHAI BĂDĂU

Introduction The purpose of this paper is to identify new methods of action of the public relations professionals in Social Media, more exactly the social representations that one should use in order to build the parts to be played in establishing interpersonal communication relations with clients, in the absence of the journalist whose role of vehicle for information sharing was obscured by the public turning from information consumer to information producer and distributor. Social Media is defined as a set of easily accessible web instruments (online communication channels and social interaction instruments including fora, groups, blogs, social networks and content/video/audio sharing platforms and instant messaging) through which people dialogue, participate, create, recommend, use information and react online to everything happening around them. It is a medium suitable to building social representations which are “cognitive sets consisting of themes, principles, norms of a certain unifying nature and influencing the norms and values used by the society.” (Moscovici 2006: 15-75) The study of social representations in Social Media is important for the public relations specialist since the classic mass-media public adopts the new online communication platforms at an incredible speed. Therefore, if compared to the classic mass media, the radio reached 50 million users in 38 years, the television reached 50 million viewers in 13 years, the Internet reached 50 million users in 4 years and Facebook exceeded 100 million users in only 9 months. In 2012, in Romania, the number of Facebook users exceeded 5,500,000 – while only one year before it had reached 1,500,000; 44% of the users are men and 62% are women, 83% are English speakers and 74% of them are aged 18-35. Many Romanian users switched from Hi5 to Facebook. Currently, the platform has only 1.8

20

Social Representations in Public Relations

million users – as opposed to 2.24 million in 2011; 70% are aged 18-35. Business social platforms are progressing very quickly too. LinkedIn doubled the number of users compared to 2011 and reached 547,398 accounts in the first months of 2012 (February). The average age of the LinkedIn user is 31. Although blogs are the first Social Media component in chronological order, they have only 75,611 owners in Romania. Only 21,436 of them daily update them. Even so, blogs have quite a large public: approximately 1,500,000 Romanians read blogs every day; 73.7% are aged 20-35 and 18.6% are aged 31-45; 49.5% hold university degrees. The second component of Social Media, in chronological order – Twitter – has 54,246 account users in Romania. Most of them are aged 21-30 (73%). The platform had a remarkable upward curve in the last year: from 2010 to 2011, approximately 23,825 persons opened new Twitter accounts.

Key Concepts in Social Media The institution becomes a person. Companies switch to interpersonal communication and begin to be represented, in Social Media, as accessible persons who establish friendly relations with the other online platform users. The stakes are: connection, visibility, gathering friends, inside the network. Connection value is important. Persons with valuable connections are those that hold the influence. User-generated content. Internet users turn from mere readers to content creators. People take over the power. Monologue turns into dialogue based on the word-of-mouth principle. We no longer look for information. Information finds us. Conversation. The e-mail, the desktop and the laptop will be abandoned and the information will be produced and disseminated online through mobile phones (Bădău 2011, Breakenridge 2008, Phillips & Young 2009). Under these circumstances, an important mutation in public relations takes place – the specialist no longer communicates at mass level through the journalist – as the vehicle for sharing information – but switches to interpersonal communication with each Social Media user. In order to establish the bases of this communication one should adopt the most popular roles and values in Social Media – one should conversely identify those situations that place one in the position of the perfect participant in a dialogue. This is the objective of the present research: to identify social representations in Social Media that can be used by communicators for producing and disseminating public relations messages. The research method we used is Edgar Schein’s analysis grid (in Coman 2009).

Cristina Coman and Horea-Mihai Bădău

21

Analysis Grid Schein (in Coman 2009: 81) classified organizational culture cognitive, affective and normative elements into: -

“behavioural regularities when people interact: languages used, customs, traditions and rituals applied in relations and specific situations; group norms: implicit standards and activated values in groups; values shown: principles and values explicitly defined for the organisation members; formal philosophy: ideological policies and principles that guide the actions of persons in their relations with product beneficiaries; personal abilities: specific competences that are expected to be applied in carrying out work tasks and in relations outside the organisation; mindsets, mental models and linguistic paradigms: cognitive frameworks focused on perceptions, thoughts, approaches and communication; activated meanings: methods of understanding daily events or of carrying out work tasks; metaphors and symbols, configured into ideas, feelings, experiences or images of oneself and about the phenomena in the organisation that occur in daily life.”

Corpus Based on Schein’s grid, we have developed 100 questionnaires with open questions. The questionnaires were sent to the first 100 bloggers in the top of influence on Ze List.ro. This top uses an indexing algorithm similar to that of the Google search engine and creates the top based on raking – the number of links those bloggers received to their articles. A high number of links is an influence indicator showing that the topic was spoken of which means that it stirred interest, that it was shared and discussed in Social Media. Out of the 100 received questionnaires, 58 have been filled in; 12 answers belonged to Ze List Top 20 bloggers, 24 answers belonged to Ze List Top 50 bloggers and the rest of 22 answers were in Ze List Top 50 – 100. The research was conducted between January 15 and March, 15 2012. The bloggers were invited to answer the following questions on three levels – normative, cognitive, affective:

22

-

Social Representations in Public Relations

Which are the usual methods for obtaining links and implicitly influence? (for customs, traditions and rituals); What must any blogger know about Social Media? (for implicit standards and activated values); Which are the principles successful persons in Social Media guide themselves by? (values shown – principles and values explicitly defined); Which are the basic principles for the relation with the readers? (ideological policies and principles that guide the actions of members in their relations with product beneficiaries); Which are the usual methods for obtaining links and implicitly influence? (for habits, traditions and rituals); What must any blogger know about Social Media? (for implicit standards and activated values); Which are the principles successful persons in Social Media guide themselves by? (values shown – principles and values explicitly defined); Which are the basic principles for the relation with the readers? (ideological policies and principles that guide the actions of the members in their relations with the product beneficiaries).

Social Representations Based on the answers, we have identified the following social representations created in Social Media: The Guard (12% of the answers) Normative values: -

Control: controls the conversations by censoring certain pieces of information under comments on the blog or under posts inside groups. Power/decision (ambivalent, positive and negative connotations): positive connotations are associated to the term “leader” (which stems from their status of administrator) and the negative ones, associated to the generic term “censorship”, come from persons who were excluded from groups or censored on blogs).

Cristina Coman and Horea-Mihai Bădău

23

The Friend (22% of the answers) Affective values: -

Emotion as generator of the communication relation: builds networks and conversations based on affective criteria and the information is shared based on the mutuality principle. Rituals and rites from one’s personal life: actively participates in the daily socialization rituals (e.g., daily posts a photograph with a cup of coffee and invites all friends to virtually take a sip: friends perform the ritual by posting comments that describe the reaction of their taste buds to the taste of coffee, smell reactions, etc.); they are active participants in all rites of passage in the life of their friends’ network either name day, marriage, birth, death, New Year’s Eve, etc.; they post greetings and virtual gifts on the accounts of all those who celebrate their birthday, they are the first to say Happy New Year a few thousand times on New Year’s Eve.

The Link Person (29% of the answers) Cognitive values: -

-

Connection: these are persons who always create connections in the network, the human correspondent of a link, the result of the disappearance of the monopoly over the mass distribution of information and the emergence of the user-produced content; they are a link in the chain of the word-of-mouth information – like in the Chinese whispers game, in a synchronized interaction context: Blog, Twitter, and Facebook; their actions validate and modify information. Sharing: information must circulate freely, 9 respondents referred to the protests against ACTA; a positive value is attached to terms describing free sharing information platforms: torrents, DC++. Terms: sharing is caring. A negative value is attached to terms that refer to intellectual property – Copyright, etc.

The Buzzman (15% of the answers) Cognitive values: -

Creator of buzzwords: buzzwords are those words that cause a reaction, that determine users to forward the initial message, to retweet

24

-

Social Representations in Public Relations

it on Twitter, to share it on Facebook and re-blog it on blogs; buzzwords help the message “travel” through Social Media; the Buzzman is indicated as the creator of the buzzwords; they create messages in order to disseminate them as far as possible in Social Media. Spreading the word: in the word-of-mouth process, the buzzman is the “initiator”. Terms: creative, viral; the terms describe values close to the profession of copywriter in advertising.

The Influencer (7% of the answers) Normative values: -

-

-

Opinion leaders: their position is determined by indicators such as traffic and number of received links. They are indicated as leaders of certain virtual but also real communities, as organizers of the rituals consolidating the values of those communities, as those who give the news, those who are asked questions in difficult situations, the spokespersons. Reality builder in Social Media: what they claim it happens really happens for the community they lead; the values indicate a position close to that of the shaman; they interpret the mass-media information, the information in the environment and translate it for the members of the community they are part of; they are similar to Lazarsfeld’s group leader. Feudal lord: their actions are of the feudal type – they have the “lives” of their readers in their hands; if they say a blogger is not allowed to be part of Social Media then this will happen; they may determine the popularity or the death of a brand in Social Media.

Conclusion Public relations people should create personal accounts in Social Media and should impersonate one or more of the social representations identified in this research in order to have an interpersonal communication with each member of the public. In Social Media, the journalist is missing – their role as vehicles for information sharing is obscured by the users who produce their own content (Coman 2004). The social representations created by these new content producers and distributors indicate a blogosphere populated by persons similar to those in the “wild” press of

Cristina Coman and Horea-Mihai Bădău

25

the 1990s when, in the forefront of the mass media landscape, there were personalities like the newspaperman in the written press. The factors decisive for the emergence of such image constructs are the professional ideology contributions of journalists who created blogs and the professional mimesis of bloggers (see also Drezner & Farell 2007, Johnson & Kaye 2004). Social representations in this research match those users in Social Media who will carry forward the message of the public relations communicator. Under these circumstances, the public relations professional will have to adopt these social representations in Social Media in order to identify common interests with the users and establish interpersonal communication relations which will help them to control the path of the information they distribute online. The new social representations identified in this research correspond, to a certain extent, to the old representations in the ‘90s press. To continue the parallel, the public relations persons must impersonate Ion Cristoiu in order to establish a friendly communication relation with the real Ion Cristoiu and thus determine him to distribute public relations messages in Social Media.

References Bădău, H.-M. (2011). Tehnici de comunicare în Social Media [Communication Techniques in Social Media]. Ia‫܈‬i: Polirom. Blogul Agentiei STANDOUT [Blog of STANDOUT Agency]. Online: blog.standout.ro. Breakenridge, Deirdre. (2008). P.R. 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences. New Jersey, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. Coman, Cristina. (2004). RelaĠiile publice úi mass-media [Public Relations and Mass Media]. Ia‫܈‬i: Polirom. Coman, Cristina. (2009). RelaĠiile publice: modele teoretice úi studii de caz [Public Relations: Theoretical Paradigms and Case Studies], Bucureúti: Editura UniversităĠii din Bucureúti. Drezner, D. W. & Farell, H. (2007). The Power and Politics of Blogs. Public Relations Review 33. Online: http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~farrell/blogpaperfinal.pdf. Espresso. Live Great Work. Online: brandInfiltration.com. ISSUU. Online: issuu.com. Johnson, T. J. & Kaye, Barbara K. (2004). Wag the Dog: How Reliance on Traditional Media and the Internet Influence Credibility Perceptions of

26

Social Representations in Public Relations

Weblogs among Blog Users. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 81 (3): 622-642. Mashable. Online: mashable.com. Moscovici, S. (2006). Fenomenul reprezentărilor sociale [The Social Representation Phenomenon]. In A. Neculau (Ed.), Psihologia câmpului social: Reprezentarile sociale. Iaúi: Polirom. 15-75. Phillips, D. & Young, P. (2009). Online Public Relations: A Practical Guide to Developing an Online Strategy in the World of Social Media. London: Kogan Page. Rafaeli, S. & Sudweeks, Fay. (1997). Network Interactivity. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 2 (4). Online: httpy/www.207.201.161.120/jcmc/vol2/issue4/ rafaeli.sudweeks.html. ReFresh.ro. Online: refresh.ro. Socialbakers. Online: facebakers.com. Socialnomics. Online: socialnomics.com. Ze List. Online: zelist.ro.

THE DEATH OF CORNELIU COPOSU: A MARTYR FABRICATED BY THE MEDIA MIHAI COMAN

Introduction Corneliu Coposu, president of the National Peasant Christian Democratic Party (NPCDP), died on November 11, 1995, due to pulmonary cancer. His funeral, on November 15, triggered massive social mobilization and monopolized the press. Born in 1914, Coposu was one of the young leaders of the National Peasant Party (rooted in the national liberation movement of the 19th century). He was imprisoned between 1947 and 1964, moved from one prison to another and subjected to various privations. Until the fall of communism, he worked as a labourer, and his house was surveyed by the Securitate, the Romanian secret service. On December 22, the exact moment Ceausescu fled, he announced the return of the Christian Democratic National Peasant Party (Partidul NaĠional ğărănesc Creútin Democrat or PNğCD, in Romanian) to the Romanian political life and, in 1992, he was elected president of the party. Due to his position, but mainly due to his conduct, Coposu was considered the de facto leader of the opposition against the National Salvation Front (Frontul Salvării NaĠionale or FSN, in Romanian) and, later, against the Social Democratic Party of Romania (Partidul DemocraĠiei Sociale din Romania or PDSR, in Romanian), considered as being led by, made up of and representing the former communists. Tall, thin, always smoking a cigarette, eyes always circled, with a cadaverous air, he was far from being a charismatic figure; the politically polarized press varied between disparaging presentations (in pro-PDSR papers: DimineaĠa, Azi, Cronica Română) and encomiastic ones (anti-PDSR publications: România liberă, Dreptatea, Cotidianul, 22), or was confined to neutral stances (Curierul NaĠional, Adevărul, Evenimentul zilei). Given his political and historical background, it was expected that the media use his funeral as an opportunity to “pantheonise” him, along with other leaders of the interwar policy, in a category that historians call “great men” (Amalvi 2011: 27).

28

Media-Fabricated Martyrs

But the main discourse in the media was a religious one, depicting the figure of Coposu in the frameworks of martyrdom and even holiness.

Research Questions and Methods From a religious perspective, Corneliu Coposu was far from fitting the canonical definitions of martyrdom. First, he died at 81, due to cancer, not in the communist prisons, like other anticommunist leaders (in this sense, Iuliu Maniu and Ion Mihalache are closer to the death of political beliefs martyr), or killed by the armed forces, like the partisans in the mountains. On the contrary, he withstood (enduring hardship and suffering), overcame the period of Stalinist terror and then led a normal life, doubled by a clandestine political activity, but not at the level of dissidents known in the Western world and assumed by the national conscience (such as Walesa, Havel, Solzhenitsyn, Zhelev). After 1990, he reappeared in the major political movement, but his image was contradictory, deeply polarized due to denigration campaigns led by the pro-government media and encomiastic reports of the pro-opposition media. But, after his death, the media discourse, irrespective of political colour, presented his very endurance as an argument for martyrdom – the prolonged suffering and serenity in front of it are seen as arguments for an extraordinary destiny. To this end, his life is closer to the archetype of the hermit (the monks, the “martyrs of patience” – cf. Donat & Castelman 2010: 14). On the other hand, his death is not an assumed act: a characteristic feature of martyrdom is the option to abandon life either by accepting the position of victim (as religious martyrs), or by undertaking a role of warrior, of avenger. The rich literature on “martyropathy” underlines the intended undertaking of the act that leads to death, which relies on a certain perception of one’s current political mission and the spiritual gratification received in the future or the afterlife (Aggoun 2006, Khosrokhavar 2003, Lecomte-Tilouine 2010). On the contrary, Corneliu Coposu struggled against death, as he believed he had the historical mission of reviving a historical institution, of contributing to the rebirth of the National Peasant Party. The missionary dimension and the struggle against suffering are symbolic attributes of sanctity, but not of martyrdom. All these aspects lead to the conclusion that the reason for presenting Corneliu Coposu as a martyr is not the substantial dimension, in other words, not the sum of the defining moments of Coposu’s life and death. The answers do not need to be sought in his biography, but in the collective imaginary of the moment, concretized in the media discourse. Hence, the basic question, Which are the cultural frameworks that led the

Mihai Coman

29

media discourse on this case and generated the “translation” of the event in a system of religious references? The present analysis uses elements of phenomenological research, searching for the archetypes and myths that are reflected in the journalistic texts, correlated with the instruments pertaining to the anthropological analysis of the media (Coman & Rothenbuhler 2005); the approach is a processual one, as it was configured by Bell (1992), following the mechanisms by which journalists attempt to obtain the mastery over the production of social construction of reality.

Discussion From the perspective of the anthropological categories of analysis, it is clear that Corneliu Coposu’s funeral triggered a media-event in the category of the consecration (Dayan & Katz: 1992). The constitutive elements of a media event are visible in the use of large numbers: the number of attendants to the funeral (over 100,000), the description of the long queue formed by those who had come to pay their respect, the detailed presentation of the dozens of the political leaders, the list of the priests of various denominations who officiated the mass, the reproduction in extenso of telegrams and messages received from various embassies, of extracts from other national and international media, the announcement of the beginning of the monumentalisation process, by naming streets after Corneliu Coposu, granting the title of citizen of honour of certain cities, creating memorial museums, as well as numerous exaggerations which had no basis in term of journalistic accuracy (it was reported that memorial masses were held in each and every church in the country, that, when he was buried, thousands of citizens of the Gorj and Argeú counties lightened candles and kneeled in front of Coposu’s portrait, etc.). A funeral is a ritual with a fixed and not particularly fancy script, lacking sensational elements and impressive greatness (opposed to summits or weddings, particularly the “royal” ones, which catalyse the media coverage in the sense of fairy tale epics). Journalists had to describe the stages of the funeral procession, the addresses held by political leaders and the masses officiated by priests. With all these limitations, the narratives in the written press excelled in transfiguring the moment, in suggesting a rift with the secular world and a glimpse of the holy one “As if a sign had been given, as if a divine pennon had been flaunted, the tenth of thousands of whispers froze. An overwhelming silence reigned over the entire Carol Boulevard. Afloat above the stoned faces, the coffin carried on men’s shoulders was the only one to interrupt this stillness. As if a signal had been given, all those thousands of persons started to throw

30

Media-Fabricated Martyrs

flowers bouquets towards the dark coffin. The sky was filled with chrysanthemums flying, whose petals were scattered in a cry as deep as that of the people.” (Adevărul, November 15, 1995) “A sacred moment, of national recollection… it was a day of divine grace. The endless procession accompanying ‘the Senior’ on his final road was the proof of a divine phenomenon: we have had amongst us not only an unparalleled politician, but an apostle.” (România liberă, November 15, 1995) “Even the Sun said farewell, as if it knew that Corneliu Coposu had been deprived of seeing it for 17 years.” (Cronica Română, November 15, 1995) “A great man is gone, a myth is born. The candle of Romanian’s revival was lightened Jesus said ‘He who believes in me though he die yet he will live.’ Corneliu Coposu is amongst us, but covered in flowers.” and “Tens of thousands of persons gathered in front of the cemetery just did not want to leave”. (Curierul NaĠional, November 15, 1995) The discourse of the journalists on the scene is doubled by articles of opinion: “The moral leader of the Romanian people is gone […] Made from the royal spirit of this nation, Corneliu Coposu climbed the Golgotha of suffering in the name of a nation for which the belief in God and the fight against the Godless has become the very essence of its existence” and “What divine chance for us, Romanians, to have him amongst us! What would have become of us, hadn’t it been for him, the Senior?” (România liberă, November 15, 1995); “All those who treasured him know that he now sits at the right hand of the Father, where only the chosen spirit get.” (România liberă, November 15, 1995); “Just as world leaders have said these days, taking a bow before the serene Martyr, Mr Coposu holds a special place in the political history of the world (…) because – an unprecedented fact – he sanctified a party. He placed it in eternity. He turned it into a guide in times of sufferings, following the footsteps of the apostles Maniu and Mihalache, of the many martyrs killed in the communist prisons.” (România liberă, November 16, 1995) “Corneliu Coposu bore a visible stigma: that of the political mission.” (Curierul NaĠional, November 14, 1995) All these passages point out the journalists’ tendency to depict Coposu in religious terms (martyr, apostle, saint), to describe the funeral as a hierophany, as a moment and proof of communication between the earthly world and the divine one. The death of the Peasant Party leader is interpreted as an apotheosis (he already had a place at the right hand of God), as an opportunity for revealing the communion between the profane world and the divine one, through and due to the one who leaves the earthly life; thus, the sins of those who remain in the secular world are redeemed, and Corneliu Coposu’s profession of faith was an urge and a parable for their further actions. For

Mihai Coman

31

the political actors and the press, his death was, using a formula coined by Myerhoff in 1948, “a death in a due time”. Firstly, because, against the background of constant symbolic destructuring that marked the postrevolution years, the Romanian society was facing a crisis of role models and icons; in the absence of great martyrs or heroes of the anticommunist fight (in opposition with the anonymous martyrs, victims of the retaliations in December 1989, simple names without a symbolic past), the pantheon of the democratic Romania had been only populated with figures of the past (the closest to the present were the leaders of historical parties, who died in the ‘50s in the communist prisons). Corneliu Coposu’s death brought, suddenly, to the foreground, a model which combined different connotations: the relationship with the glorious past of the Peasant Party – a past of struggle for the national unity, a victim of the communist retaliation and the neo-communist control over the political life after 1989, his being unaffected by the erosion entailed by holding governmental positions, his death, occurred before he reached the political goals for which he had been fighting (the reason for his “political testament” for his successors). Against this backdrop, for political leaders and journalists, “through hagiographic discourses, the martyr becomes a political artefact” (Gayer 2006: 2) capable of feeding the multiple identities of the moment. Firstly, the one of the opposition parties (numerous, divided by leaders’ egos), which, under the patronage of his model, would reject the centrifugal tendencies and will form the Democratic Convention (one year after, the Democratic Convention would win the parliamentary elections and its leader, Emil Constantinescu, the presidential ones). Secondly, although it might seem paradoxical, his image was also capitalized on by the left-wing parties, which, by this post-mortem elegy, were trying to picture themselves as impartial judges of the history, able to recognise the merits of the illustrious Romanians (an attempt aimed at erasing the memory of the extreme denigration campaigns led against the Peasant Party leader). Finally, for the Romanian society, which needed role models, and particularly icons of sorrow and hope to identify with, in this era marked by social turmoil, poverty and deception (in opposition to the confidence and enthusiasm which characterized the first years after December 1989). The liturgical discourse was a feature of the media, which places us even more in the framework of a “metaphoric religion”, namely a mutation of religiousness towards the profane areas “turned into the object of a new kind of religious consecration” (Hervieu-Léger 1993: 102). Such reactions remind us of the discourse of journalists upon the death of François Mitterand (“We had a saint amongst us and we did not know” or “François

32

Media-Fabricated Martyrs

Mitterrand’s death is seen, in a strange manner, as an apparition: a shrine is built for the statesman, in the spirit of a communion with the saints” – cf. Yonnet 1996, in Rasmussen, 1999) or the sacralisation of political leaders, such as Jean Jaurès (Ben-Amos 1990), or Benazir Bhutto (Boivin & Delange 2010). This configuration strengthens the interpretation that we have proposed for the understanding of other cases of use of liturgical language for purely secular events: the visit of King Michael in April 1992 (Coman 1994) and Michael Jackson’s concert in October 1992 (Coman 2003, 2011). Due to the privileged position held in relation to the audience and the events, due to the power of providing and imposing versions that are acceptable (in the cultural references system of that audience) of the events in question as well as due to the capacity of attributing significations that affect the social imaginary, journalists exert a ritual mastery (Bell 1992: 24) on defining reality. By dramatizing certain aspects of the events and especially of their own efforts to reach these events, they succeed in shifting the emphasis from the re-presentation of the facts to the re-presentation of their profession and the media system as one of the main actors of the respective events (Couldry 2003). If we look at journalists’ conduct from this performative perspective, we understand that ritualization is a mechanism by which they can capitalize, in the act of communication, on their social status and role, presenting themselves in instances that mark and legitimise the social difference that provides them, albeit for a short period of time, a ritual mastery over the debates and interpretation of events of great importance for the group. The ritualization of the journalistic performance and the mythologisation of the representation of events are one of the strongest arguments for promoting the journalistic authority: in fact, it enables journalists to exert a complete control over the process of building a version of reality and to present themselves as lithurgic officiants and apostles of the event.

Conclusion The ritual mastery over the process of defining the reality could have been exerted by using other symbolic languages and codes as well (the historic code of the heroes of the nation or the political code of the great men). In the case of the coverage of Corneliu Coposu’s funeral, rather than an assumed religiousness of the journalists, we are dealing with a manner of resorting to a code which places the events in a rupture of the profane order, in a glimpse of sacredness. Presenting his figure as a hierophany, journalists attach an additional, deeper meaning to the events described; they depict them as part of a superior, more mysterious order, to which

Mihai Coman

33

themselves, as liturgical officiants, have privileged access; it is due to them that this unseen order of the world unveils itself and communicates its message, and this message tells something of the destiny of every one, of the chance for the confused daily life agitation to gain a new meaning in the transcendental sense; but, let us not forget, it also tells something of the status of the few chosen ones who can get the message and transmit it further – the journalists.

References Aggoun, A. (2006). Le Martyr en Islam. Considérations générales [Islam Martyr: General Overview]. Etudes sur la mort 130: 55-60. Amalvi, C. (2011). Les héros des français: controverses autour de la mémoire nationale [Heroes of the French: Controversies on National Memory]. Paris: Larousse. Bell, Catherine. (1992). Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice. New York: Oxford University Press. Ben-Amos, A. (1990). La « panthéonisation » de Jean Jaurès. Rituel et politique pendant la IIIe République [“Pantheonisation” of Jean Jaurès: Rituel and Politics during the 3rd Republic]. Terrain 15: 49-64. Dayan, D. & Katz, E. (1992). Media Events: The Live Broadcasting of History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Doss, Erika. (2005). Popular Culture Canonisation: Elvis Presley as Saint and Saviour. In J. F. Hopgod (Ed.), The Making of Saints: Contesting Sacred Grounds. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press. 152168. Hervieu-Leger, Danièle. (1993). La religion pour mémoire [Religion and Memory]. Paris: Ed. Du Cerf. Heullant-Donat, Isabelle & Castelman, Charlotte. (2010). Le martyre: état des lieux [The Martyr: State of Places]. In M. Belissa & Monique Cotteret (Eds.), Le martyr(e): Moyen Age, temps modernes. Paris: Ed. Kimé. 11-23. King, Christine. (1993). His Truth Goes Marching on: Elvis Presley and the Pilgrimage to Graceland. In I. Reader & T. Walter (Eds.), Pilgrimage in Popular Culture. Houndmills: MacMillan Press. 92-104. Lecomte-Tilouine, Marie. (2010). Martyrs and Living Martyrs of the People’s War in Nepal. South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal 4. Margry, J. P. (2008). The Pilgrimage to Jim Morrison’s Grave at Père Lachaise Cemetery: The Social Construction of a Sacred Space. In J. P. Margry (Ed.), Shrines and Pilgrimages in the Modern World: New

34

Media-Fabricated Martyrs

Itineraries into the Sacred. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. 143-171. Nora, P. (1992). L’ère de la commémoration [Era of Communication]. In P. Nora (Ed.), Les lieux de la mémoire III (Les Frances): De l’archive à l’emblème. Paris: Gallimard. 977-1012. Peterson, Anna L. (1997). Martyrdom and the Politics of Religion: Progressive Catholicism in El Salvador’s Civil War. Albany: State University of New York Press. Pitcher, Linda M. (1998). The Divine Impatience: Ritual, Narrative, and Symbolization in the Practice of Martyrdom in Palestine. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 12 (1): 8-30. Pouchelle, Marie-Christine. (1983). Sentiment religieux et show business: Claude François, objet de dévotion populaire [Religious Feeling and Show Business : Claude François, Object of Popular Devotion]. In J. C. Schmidt (Ed.), Les saints et les stars: le texte hagiographique dans la culture populaire. Paris: Beauchesne. 128-141. Puccio-Den, Deborah. (2008). Victimes, héros ou martyrs? Les juges antimafia [Victims, Heroes or Martyrs? Judges of Antimafia]. Terrain 51 : 94-111. Rasmussen, Anne. (1999). La mort annoncée de François Mitterrand [The Announced Death of François Mitterand]. In J. Juillard (Ed.), La mort du roi: autour de François Mitterand. Essai d’ethnographie politique compare (La suite des temps). Paris: Gallimard. 61-79. Rodman, G. B. (1996). Elvis after Elvis: The Posthumous Career of a Living Legend. London: Routledge. Rojek, C. (2001). Celebrity (Critical Concepts in Sociology). London: Reaction Books Ltd. Segre, G. (1997). Les biographies d’Elvis Presley: un récit mythique [Biographies of Elvis Presley: A Mythical Story]. In M. Segre (Ed.), Mythes, rites, symbols dans la société contemporaine. Paris: L’Harmattan. Thomas, G. (2005). The Emergence of Religious Forms in Television. In E. Rothenbuhler & M. Coman (Eds.), Media Anthropology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 79-90. Winock, M. (1992). Jeanne d’Arc [Joan of Arc]. In P. Nora (Ed.), Les lieux de la mémoire III (Les Frances): De l’archive à l’emblème. Paris: Gallimard. 675-734.

JUSTIFIED OPINIONS: A QUANTITATIVE APPROACH IONEL NARIğĂ

Introduction By opinion we mean the assignment of a truth value to a proposition. For instance, somebody has the positive opinion that Mars is a planet if and only if he assigns the value truth to the proposition “Mars is a planet”. Likewise, one other has the negative opinion that Budapest is the capital city of Romania when he admits the falsity of the proposition “Budapest is the capital city of Romania”. Therefore, the following equivalences take place: -

X has the positive opinion that p = X assigns the value truth to the proposition “p”. X has the negative opinion that p = X assigns to the proposition “p” the value false. X has an indeterminate opinion that p = X does not assign any truth value to the proposition “p”.

We call this model of opinion, which reduces the opinions to the assignments of truth values to the propositions, the alethic model of opinion, using the Greek term for truth, Aletheia. The opinions can be correct or incorrect. If the truth value assigned by X to a proposition coincides with the truth value of that proposition, then X has a correct opinion and, if the assigned value is different from the proposition’s real value, then the X’s opinion is erroneous. For example, the positive opinion that Budapest is the capital city of Romania is wrong. The opinions are freely formed. There is no mean to determine someone to adopt a certain opinion. Hence, there cannot be any manipulation of the opinions (Wilcox & Cameron 2008). However, when people reasonably select an opinion, they follow the principle of avoiding error: “Accept the correct and reject the wrong opinions”. This principle has a pragmatic nature; if someone

36

Justified Opinions: A Quantitative Approach

persisted to accept some erroneous opinions, then his actions would fail. The persuasion techniques rely on this principle (Wilcox & Cameron 2008). In order to convince someone to adopt a certain opinion, it should be depicted as a correct opinion. The (c) option belongs to a sceptic subject, who refrains from having a determinate opinion on the ground that any determinate opinion is doubtful, or to the ignorant. The sceptic could be right, but his attitude does not support any action. Therefore, the sceptic, as a reasonable subject, should refrain from any action (Cappelen 2005). The difference between the sceptic and the ignorant is that, while the sceptic considers (c) as the only option which guarantees the avoidance of error, the ignorant one considers it only as a transitory situation.

Logical Analysis of Opinion A proposition can be true in two different modalities. It can be distinguished, on the one hand, the possible true propositions and, on the other hand, the necessary true propositions. As the subject assigns to a proposition one or another of these modal values, we must recognize two forms of opinion: (a) the (simple) belief, when the subject assigns to a proposition the value possible truth; (b) the certain belief, when the subject considers that a proposition is necessarily true. If we introduce the notation B for the belief and C for the certain belief then we can represent the opinion forms in the following way: Cp = X certainly believes that p C~p = X certainly believes that ~p Bp = X believes that p B~p = X believes that ~p We notice that opinions have a strong form, the certainty, and a weak form, namely, the belief. For instance, if someone certainly believe that Mars is a planet, he is sure that the proposition “Mars is a planet” is true, and he does not accept a different possibility. Instead, One other might have the belief that Mars is a planet without entirely exclude the possibility that he could be wrong. As we have already seen, the two forms of opinion correspond to the modal values of propositions. If X certainly believes that a proposition is true, then he assigns to that proposition the modal value necessary true and, if he just believes that a proposition is true, it means that he considers it possible true. Table 1-1 reveals the correspondence between the opinions’ forms and the modal values of propositions:

Ionel NariĠă

37

Table 1-1. Opinions’ forms and modal values of propositions Opinion form Cp ~Cp Bp ~Bp

Modal value assigned to the related proposition necessary true contingent true possible true impossible true

The correspondence between opinion’s forms and modal values of propositions are illustrated through the logical relations between them: Np = ~M~p, “p is necessarily true if and only if the negation of p is not possibly true” Cp = ~B~p, “X certainly believes that p if and only if X does not believe that ~p” As we have previously shown, the opinions can be correct or erroneous. An opinion is correct when the modal value assigned to the related proposition is identical with the modal value of that proposition. The correct opinions are called justified. The justification is a gradual parameter: we are more justified to accept (or reject) some propositions than others. For example, we are more justified to consider as true a tautology than a factual proposition and a factual proposition, at their turn, is more justified true than a contradiction. Inside the alethic model of opinion, we can determine the justification degree of various forms of opinion, using logical relations among propositions. These relations fall into two categories: relations of concordance and relations of opposition. -

Two propositions that can be simultaneously true are in a concordance relationship. x Two propositions are equiveridical when they have the same truth value in any context; x The relation of subcontrariety takes place when two propositions cannot be both false in the same context; x Two propositions are in a consequence relationship when, relatively to any context if one of them is true, the other is also true. The first one is called sufficient condition or antecedent and the second is called necessary condition or consequent. The antecedent is supraaltern relatively to the consequent while the consequent is the subaltern of the antecedent.

38

-

Justified Opinions: A Quantitative Approach

x Two propositions are independently true if and only if combination of their truth values is not excluded. An opposition relationship takes place between two propositions cannot be true together. x Two propositions are contrary if they are opposite but subcontrary. x Two propositions are contradictory if they are both opposite subcontrary. For instance, a proposition and its negation contradictory (Beziau & Payette 2012).

any that not and are

Any of these relationships can be reduced to the relations of consequence and contradiction. If we take into account the previous relations among propositions, we reach the result that any proposition, p, divides the domain of all propositions into the following classes: p = the class of all equiveridical propositions with p ~p = the class of the contradictories of p Ap = the antecedents of p Qp = the consequents of p Ip = the class of the independent propositions relatively to p A~p = the antecedents of ~p (or class of the subcontraries of p) Q~p = the consequents of ~p (or class of the contraries of p) One can easily show that the classes p and ~p, Ap and Q~p, respectively, Qp and A~p contain the same number of elements. Also, the class Ip is identical with the class I~p. More that these, the following relations have place: Ap ˆ Qp = p; A~p ˆ Q~p = ~p. Further, we’ll admit that the domain of propositions is divided into classes of equivalence. Consequently, the class p is elementary. The domain of propositions is also divided into the complementary classes: T = the set of true propositions; F = the set of false propositions. From the principles of logic, it follows that the number of true propositions is the same as the number of false propositions: T* = F* and P* = 2T* = 2F*, (where M* represents the cardinal number of the class M).

Quantitative Analysis of the Justified Opinions According to previous considerations, the certainty about the truth value of a proposition p is justified if the proposition p is necessarily true. Therefore, the justification degree of certitude that p takes place is given by the probability that p is necessarily true (Joyce 2005). A proposition is

Ionel NariĠă

39

necessarily true if a sufficient condition is true or if a contrary proposition is false. Accounting on the fact that the number of true propositions is the same as the number of false propositions, the probability that a proposition be necessarily true depends only on the cardinal number of the class Ap or Q~p. Moreover, in order to calculate the probability of necessity, we can ignore the tautologies and the contradictions since the class of tautologies is an element of any class of consequents and the class of contradictory propositions belongs to any class of antecedents. We focus only on the class of factual propositions. If, through |Cp|, we represent the justification degree of certainty then, in conformity with the previous considerations, we obtain: |Cp| = (Ap ‰ Q~p)*/P* |Cp| = 2Ap*/P*, if Ap ˆ Q~p = ‡ |Cp| = 2Ap*/2T* |Cp| = Ap*/T*, where T is the class of all true propositions We have reached the result that the certainty justification degree about the truth of a proposition p is the ratio of the number of the p’s antecedents and the number of the true factual propositions. The more antecedents a proposition has, the more justified we are to believed it true. In an analogous fashion, it is shown that the justification degree of certainty that p is true is in direct proportion to the number of ~p’s consequents: |Cp| = (Ap ‰ Q~p)*/P* |Cp| = 2Q~p*/2F* |Cp| = Q~p*/F*, where F is the class of all false propositions The lowest level of justification belongs to the certainty that a contradiction would be true (or a tautology is false) while the highest justification level is obtained for the certainty that a tautology is true (or a contradiction is false). If t is a tautology and k is a contradiction, then: |Ct| = (At ‰ Q~t)*/P* = (At ‰ Qk)*/P* = P*/P* = 1 |Ck| = (Ak ‰ Q~k)*/P* = (Ak ‰ Qt)*/P* = ‡*/P* = 0 The justification degree of certainty that proposition p is false, namely, the justification degree of the rejection, Rp, is given through the relation: |C~p| = A~p*/T*, but A~p* = Qp* and T* = F* so, it follows: |C~p| = Qp*/F* |Rp| = Qp*/F*

40

Justified Opinions: A Quantitative Approach

The justification degree of a proposition rejection is proportional to the number of the consequents of that proposition. This result could be also obtained if we took into consideration that a proposition is necessarily false when it has false consequents. Hence, the probability that a proposition be necessarily false (or impossible true) is as higher as that proposition has more consequences. We notice that, besides the certainty of the truth and the certainty of the false, there must be a third possibility, namely, indetermination, Hp, when we cannot certainly establish if a proposition is true or false. Since it takes place Cp › Rp › Hp, it follows that: |Hp| = (P\((Ap ‰ Qp) ‰ (Q~p ‰ A~p))*/P* |Hp| = Ip*/P* The justification degree of an undetermined opinion relatively to the proposition p is proportional to the number of the independent propositions, Ip. If a proposition is not rejected as false, it means that the belief Bp is justified. The justification degree about the belief that the proposition p is true is given through the relation: |Bp| = (P\(A~p ‰ Qp))*/P* = (Ap ‰ Q~p ‰ Ip)*/P* |Bp| = (Ap* + (1/2)Ip*)/T* Therefore, the belief justification degree that p is true is proportional to the sum of the number of antecedents and the number of the independent propositions relatively to p. Using the above relationships, we can calculate the justification degree of different types of opinions: 1) |Cp › C~p›Hp| = 1 |Cp›C~p›Hp| = (Ap‰A~p‰Ip)*/(Ap‰A~p‰Ip)* = 1 2) |Cp›B~p| = 1 |Cp›B~p| = ((Ap‰Q~p)‰(A~p ‰ Qp)‰I~p))*/P* = P*/P* = 1 3) |C(p&q)| = |Cp & Cq| |C(p)| & |C(q)| = (Ap ˆ Aq)*/T* = (A(p&q)*/T* = |C(p&q)| 4) |B(p ›q)| = |Bp›Bq| |Bp›Bq| = |~(~Bp & ~Bq)| = |~(C~p & C~q)| = |~C(~p&~q)| = |B~(~p&~q)| = |B(p›q)| 5) |C(p & q)| < min(|Cp|, |Cq|) A(p & q) = Ap ˆ Aq (Ap ˆ Aq)* < min(Ap*, Aq*)

Ionel NariĠă

41

6) |B(p ›q)| > max(|Bp|, |Bq|) |B(p ›q)| = 1 - |C(~p & ~q)| |B(p ›q)| > 1 – min(|C~p|, |C~q|) |B(p ›q) > max(|Bp|, |Bq|) 7) (p |- q) |- (|Cp| < |Cq|) (p |- q) = (Aq < Ap) (Aq < Aq) = (Aq* < Aq*) (Aq* < Aq*) |- (|Cp| < |Cq|) 8) |Cp & Cq| + |Cp›Cq| = |Cp| + |Cq|. |Cp & Cq| + |Cp & B~q| = |Cp| |Cp & Cq| + |B~p & Cq| = |Cq| 2|Cp & Cq| + |Cp & B~q| + |B~p & Cq| = |Cp| + |Cq| |Cp & Cq| + (|Cp & Cq| + |Cp & B~q| + |B~p & Cq|) = |Cp| + |Cq| |Cp & Cq| + |Cp›Cq| = |Cp| + |Cq| Popper has argued that there are no rational means to justify the certainty that a proposition is true, but only to justify the falsity of a proposition. As long as a proposition is not rejected, we are justified to believe that proposition is true. Our belief that a proposition is true is the more justified so as the proposition resists to more falsifying tests, when Popper says that the proposition is corroborated (Popper 2002). According to Popper, the corroboration level of a proposition increases with the number of proposition’s consequences. (ibid.) But, on the contrary, as we have seen, the justification degree is lower if the consequences number is greater, namely, in conformity to the alethic model of opinion, the more consequences a proposition has, the greater increase the chances that proposition to be rejected. Popper’s thesis leads to several unacceptable consequences, such as a) the corroboration level of tautologies is the lowest; b) the corroboration level of contradictions should be the highest; c) the corroboration level of the necessary condition should be lower than of the sufficient condition. These consequences of Popper’s corroboration theory are contrary to the principles of logic. Popper himself tries to avoid such difficulties reducing the sphere of his model to the factual propositions. The alethic model is valuable for all situations and all kind of propositions, including the tautologies and contradictions, and this model is built on the logical relationships among propositions according to the principles of logic.

42

Justified Opinions: A Quantitative Approach

Conclusion From the communication sciences point of view, the evaluation of justification degree is useful in order to persuade a public acquiring a certain opinion and to elaborate counterarguments against the opponent’s messages. Several rules concerning the optimization of persuasive messages can be drawn from the alethic model of opinion. For instance, in order to influence the public to certainly accept a thesis, p, we may proceed as it follows: (a) an already accepted proposition is shown as an antecedent of the thesis p; (b) a proposition considered by the public as an antecedent of p is shown as being true; (c) a proposition rejected by the public is presented as a consequence of ~p; (d) a proposition considered a consequence of ~p is presented as being false. In order to influence the public to reject a thesis, p, the following rules are useful: (a) an already rejected proposition should be presented in our messages as a consequence of p; (b) a proposition considered by the public as a consequence of p is shown as being false; (c) an accepted proposition is presented as an antecedent of ~p; (d) if the public considers that q is an antecedent of p, then q may be presented in our messages as a true proposition, etc. Similar rules to make an opinion stronger or weaker relative to a certain proposition can be also drawn. On the other hand, the alethic model can be used to select the most reasonable opinion in a given context and to indicate the best decision to adopt.

References Beziau, J. Y. & Payette, G. (2012). The Square of Opposition: A General Framework for Cognition. London: Peter Lang. Cappelen, H. (2005). Pluralistic Scepticism. Philosophical Perspectives 19 91): 15-39. Joyce, J. M. (2005). How Probabilities Reflect Evidence. Philosophical Perspectives 19 91): 153-178. Popper, K. R. (2002). The Logic of Scientific Discovery. London: Routledge. Wilcox, D. L. & Cameron, G. T. (2008). Public Relations. Boston: Pearson.

MORE INTERACTIVITY, LESS INTIMACY: CONNECTIONS BETWEEN NEW MEDIA AND NEW AUDIENCES, OR WHEN FEEDBACK MEANS CONTROL DORIN POPA

Introduction This paper draws the guidelines for an undergoing long-term study research aiming to investigate the following hypotheses: -

-

-

Hypothesis 1: New media act strategically in stimulating the reaction, interaction and feedback of the consumers. Along with technical progress, evolution has to be emphasized as well in the strategic behaviour of the media system. In fact, our belief is that new media ceased to pay attention to ideology and message, being rather interested in the (technical) performance of the channel itself and in the possibilities of controlling the system of meanings. Hypothesis 2: The responses to this strategic action are not counted only in terms of hits, share, Reach/GRP or audience, but also to determine the real preoccupation and the most significant subjects for consumers, as well as the most common interpretative valences, the dominant view and opinion. Hypothesis 3: The feedback is turned into a mean of controlling the reading expectations. Hypothesis 4: While stimulating the interactivity and controlling the feedback, the press actually commit an assault on privacy and intimacy.

Theoretical Framework The interactions between media and society got new valences once we started to massively use and understand the meaning of the collocations

44

New Media and New Audiences

“the information society” and “the new media”. One of the first concepts requiring new circumlocution is the determinant “mass” itself (within the mass communication concept). How much one can speak about mass communication in relation to new and interactive media is still a question of much debate. If we agree that communication mediated by computer or other related gadgets is no longer a mass communication in the traditional acceptance, than we also have to agree that it is not an interpersonal type of communication either. Following Rafaeli & Sudweeks (1997), the socalled Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) requires even deeper distinctions and definitions since it is neither “the classical written nor traditionally spoken communication” and, yet, it appears as “the largest form of conversation, or the smallest form of mass communication”. The term “interactivity” was captured by various disciplines (from psychology, to linguistics, sociology and informatics) long before new media became a reality. However, it is agreed today that the difference between new media and old/traditional media resides in their potential of interactivity (Morris & Ogan 1996, Pavlik 1996a), in the sense that, although traditional media are not entirely missing interactivity, new media allow much more interactivity to occur. Divergences occurred across the studies and authors were concerned with the problem of interactivity, resulting in different definitions and, therefore, affecting the ability of research to be carried on a similar basis, with identical elements and identical variables. The first to attempt a complete turn over in the field were Rafaeli & Sudweeks (1997), who defined interactivity rather as a process or a condition of communication (not of the medium!), “a variable characteristic of communication settings”, based on the assumption that a two-way communication is a common desire of both the communicator and the audience. Nevertheless, in their study from 1997, they clearly notice that interactivity is not a sine qua non characteristic of new media and, sometimes, users have reactive rather than interactive behaviours. The road from reactive to interactive communication requires interchangeable roles between sender and receiver (Schegloff & Sacks 1973) and a continuous feedback (Goffman 1967, 1983). Therefore, as Rafaeli (1998) mentions, interactive communication requires a “thirdorder dependency”, where bi-directionality, control, and feedback are essential, but they do not ensure full responsiveness per se. Other studies focused on control in the attempt to define interactivity, suggesting that interactivity is a tri-dimensional construct based on control, exchange of roles and mutual discourse (Williams, Rice & Rogers 1988, Neuman 1991). Steuer (1993) advances the notion of “telepresence”

Dorin Popa

45

as inherent to mediated environments. He mentions, as technological variables influencing telepresence, vividness and interactivity. While assuming interactivity as “a stimulus-driven variable (…) determined by the technological structure of the medium” (Steuer 1993: 14), he proposes three elements for detecting the presence of interactivity: speed, range and mapping. We shall keep as relevant for our research the last two of these factors, who are related to the notion of control and further to the relation between this and intimacy. “Range’ refers to the “number of possibilities for action at any given time”, and mapping refers “to the ability of a system to map its controls to changes in the mediated environment in a natural and predictable manner” (Steuer 1993: 15). That is, the greater the amount of changes allowed is the greater the range of interactivity of a medium. The crucial question rising up along with the information society is if the scientific theories and principles of mass communication can be broadening up to explain the new media usage and effects. Since these new media allow both interpersonal and mass communication since messages’ exchange is authorized bidirectionally, and the sender and the receiver are changing their places permanently, then a more appropriate term to describe this complex reality is transactional mediated communication (Bryant & Thompson 2001). The strategic resources of this new society are information and knowledge (know-how), replacing the resources demanded by the industrial society – capital and work. Social distinctions are, now, realized in terms of information-rich and information-poor. Technology, as a mediator of access to this main resource (information), came into attention long ago, but theories dealing with it tended to isolate its study, abstracting it from society (the technological determinism was assuming that social changes are the results of technical progress), instead of examining their interactions. J. Ellul (1964) was one of the first to remark that while invading societies, technologies act with the complicity of the citizens themselves (Moore 1998). The technological determinism was, therefore, confronted with theories gravitating around the social determinism, stating that the social usage determines and reinvents technologies. Nowadays, there is a huge flow of information surrounding and reaching us everywhere. Yet, paradoxically, the result of this abundance is rather information overload and confusion than well-informed citizens. A large amount of this information is never received and therefore, never interpreted (Keane 1991). Consequently, traditional democracies feel an increasing restiveness about the loss of personal

46

New Media and New Audiences

privacy and generally unpredictable audience reactions when it comes about the gains and losses of the information society.

Turning the Feedback into Control: Relation between Interactivity and Intimacy If mass communication research was the subject of solid theories over almost one century, the field of new media is still awaiting integrated and consensual analyses, whilst the phenomenon is in a continuous evolution. Nevertheless, we believe that the major trends of the upcoming society of information are already crystallized, the further possible changes concerning mostly the forms and the usage, not the contents of the new media. One of the most appropriate environments to analyze the relation between interactivity and intimacy proves to be at least for the Romanian media context, the forums of the electronic editions of newspapers (Pavlik 1996b). Here, readers expose their opinions and, not once, they get to substitute to the real senders (i.e. the journalists). This general attitude sustains what we believe to be one of the most fascinating dimensions of the new media: journalism as a model of information is overwhelmed and replaced with journalism as a model of conversation. The new media encourage what seems to be a gigantesque conversation (Schegloff 1992): -

first between sender and receiver, who are continuously changing their places; secondly between media themselves (the information sent through a medium gets an answer through another since convergence drop out the distinction between hot media and cold media); thirdly between different cultures, along with the internationalization of communication and the transcultural convergence imposed by the technical convergence.

Communication is dynamic, irreversible, proactive (we are shapers, not mere recipients), interactive and contextual. The information society brings a lot of freedom in using the new media, and a lot of actors, whose responsibility and intentions are often doubtful. While becoming a decisive factor in different fields of social actions, communication requires adequate regulation policies, especially when it comes about issues as private space, usage of information, social control, access to information, etc. The right to know, which dominates our societies, obviously clashes with the right to privacy. Where there is still debate is on how much is

Dorin Popa

47

legally and socially private and how much of public interest. We assume that intimacy and privacy are no longer questioned in terms of humanness, ever since we accepted to be consumers. While accessing newspaper forums, users willingly participate in the disciplining and surveillance of themselves as consumers, for long-term benefits, such as speed, information, entertainment and security. Once individuals decided they want to live in a globalized and mediated world, they made their choice of being publicly exposed: the price to be paid for an increasing interactivity is evaluated in terms of visibility, fragility and less intimacy. Each times we make an operation using all kind of machines, we leave traces of ourselves. We are like cars with GPS systems, allowing others to watch/trace us everywhere and every moment. The inner relation between interactivity provided by all sort of tools and machines and intimacy requires socio-psychological measurement tools. Such a study would prove that more we interact, more we lose our privacy. New media, acting with the complicity of the interactivity means, have the power to turn consumers with low-involvement behaviour into highlyinvolved consumers using the opinions and beliefs which they were previously stimulated to express through forms like “leave a comment” or “write your opinion” or “tell us what you want to read”. In usual processes, when consumers are highly involved with the stimulus, they find inner reasons and justifications for reaction and interaction. Otherwise, however, low-involved consumers are not likely to voluntarily maintain a relation with the producer of the message, unless they are properly stimulated by a very specific and personal reason or belief. Thus, mass media take or, better said, steal the low signal of the lowinvolved consumers and convert it into a significant one. It is the case with rather general or very specialized subjects, where reactions (in forms of comments on newspapers forums) are just a few and usually deplore the lack of information or the manner of presentation (see the Romanian magazines Capital, Business Magazine, Stiinta si tehnica, Terra Magazine or the websites of TV channels or newspapers like ProTv, Gandul, etc.). A highly-involved audience is able and willing to develop more cognitive process, and it is more likely to demand extra-information and details to satisfy its intrinsic need for information and cognition. While adopting this strategy, media producers get what they want: an updated list of subjects of immediate interest for their audiences and, even more, a key reading or an interpretative vision of expectations on reality.

48

New Media and New Audiences

Therefore, new media act strategically in stimulating the reaction, interaction and feedback of the consumers. This behaviour can be better identified and analyzed within media trusts having developed distinctive products – written press, TV and online platform, for instance. While offering an open and apparently free forum of debates within the online edition of the newspaper, for example, the system (the trust) is actually providing itself with an important resource for enforcing its hardest medium – which seems to be, in most of the cases, the TV station. The weaker medium feeds on the stronger one, the first being created or kept alive only for its capabilities to collect valuable social, cultural and economical information and facts on consumers. Along with the technical progress, evolution has to be emphasized as well in the strategic behaviour of the media system. New media or, better said, the forms of journalism promoted through new media ceased to pay attention to ideology and message, being rather interested in the (technical) performance of the channel itself and in the possibilities of controlling the system of meanings. The responses to this strategic action are not counted only in terms of hits, share, Reach/GRP or audience, but also to determine the real preoccupation and the really significant subjects for consumers, as well as the most common interpretative valences, the dominant view and opinion. The feedback is turned into a mean of controlling the reading expectations. Nevertheless, while stimulating the interactivity and controlling the feedback, the press actually commits an assault on privacy and intimacy.

Conclusion New media have, no doubt, huge benefits on all levels of a society, but there is on the social levels where most of the disadvantages occur. The more we use the machines to communicate, the more we expose ourselves. Moreover, the necessity of belonging to a community – proposed by media or a real one – measured by the quality of the feedback, put the control in hands of those who own the means. Thus, we become the prisoners of the so-wanted feedback.

Acknowledgements This paper was supported by the project Negotiating identities – the rhetoric of difference. Representations of abroad Romanian minorities in mass media. Comparative study: Romania – Republic of Moldova – Switzerland – Italy –Spain, financed by CNCSIS, ID PN II/IDEI_1211.

Dorin Popa

49

References Bryant, J. & Thompson, S. (2001). Fundamentals of Media Effects. New York, McGraw-Hill Higher Education. Ellul, J. (1964). The Technological Society. New York, NY: Knopf. Goffman, E. (1967). Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-to-Face Behaviour. Chicago, IL: Aldine Publishing Co. —. (1983). The Interaction Order: American Sociological Association, 1982 Presidential Address. American Sociological Review 48 (1): Online: http://www.csun.edu/~snk1966/Erving%20Goffman%20The%20Intera ction%20Order.pdf. Keane, J. (1991). The Media and Democracy. London: Polity. Moore, R. C. (1998). Hegemony, Agency, and Dialectical Tension in Ellul’s Technological Society. Journal of Communication 48 (3): 129144. Online: http://works.bepress.com/rick_moore/8. Morris, M. & Ogan, C. (1996). The Internet as Mass Medium. Journal of Communication 46: 39-50. Online: http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol1/issue4/morris.html. Neuman, W. R. (1991). The Future of the Mass Audience. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press. Pavlik, J. (1996a). New Media Technology. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon. —. (1996b). Television News: A Crisis of Opportunity. Television Quarterly 28 (1): 21-29. Rafaeli, S. (1988). Interactivity: From New Media to Communication. In R. P. Hawkins, J. M. Wieman, & S. Pingree (Eds.), Advancing Communication Science: Merging Mass and Interpersonal Processes. Newburry Park, CA: Sage: 110-134. Rafaeli, S. & Sudweeks, F. (1997). Networked Interactivity. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 2 (4). Online: http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol2/issue4/rafaeli.sudweeks.html. Schegloff, E. A. & Sacks, H. (1973). Opening Up Closings. Semiotica 7: 289-327. Schegloff, E. A. (1992). Repair after Next Turn: The Last Structurally Provided Defence of Intersubjectivity in Conversation. American Journal of Sociology 97 (5): 1245-1295. Steuer, J. (1993). Defining Virtual Reality: Dimensions Determining Telepresence. SRCT – Social Responses to Communication Technologies. Journal of Communication 42 (4): 73-93. Online: http://ww.cybertherapy.info/pages/telepresence.pdf.

50

New Media and New Audiences

Williams, F., Rice, R. E. & Rogers, E. M. (1988). Research Methods and the New Media. New York, NY: The Free Press.

CHAPTER TWO PROBLEMATISATIONS, CASE STUDIES, APPLICATIONS

THE 2012 FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OR ABOUT HOW CAMPAIGN DISCOURSE BECOMES CAMPAIGN CONFLICT GEORGIANA ALEXANDRESCU-FIERARU

Introduction This paper wishes to analyse the way in which French politicians in the competition for presidency envisage “the electoral battle” at a discursive level. The candidates whose blog and website posts were analysed are the first five politicians campaigning, François Hollande, Nicolas Sarkozy, François Bayrou, Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Their discourses posted on their official campaign website during the four weeks of the official campaign (April 9-May 4) were analysed for the presence of indicators of incivility. No televised or radio interventions were part of our analysis, unless deliberately transcribed and posted by the candidate (or by his team) on his campaign website. The method of analysis used was textual analysis, realised with the aid of TAMS Analyzer, software destined exclusively to use on a Mac Intosh computer. A scheme of codes reflecting impoliteness (which we associated to incivility), authored by Derek Bousfield (2008: 101) was used for demarcating instances of speech that were, consequently, interpreted. The totality of codes was classified into three different categories, following Cho & Benoit’s model (2005: 176): acclaims, attacks – in which we delineate two different sub-categories – one relating to the totality of the campaign and the second one regarding the televised debate at the end of the second electoral tour and defences. Bousfield’s scheme was used for detailing the attack section, of which we hereby detail a part: -

Blocking the opponent: although Bousfield refers to both physical and figurative manners of blocking one’s opponent, we will only focus on reproducing some of the discursive blockage of the opponent

54

-

Campaign Discourse – Campaign Conflict

Criticising the opponent – an instance based on concrete matters, on a policy already implemented or one at the stage of proposition; Denying common ground – the explicit refusal of any connection or association to any of the candidates – policy or ideology wise. Sarcasm, the use of taboo words: this included invectives and lines that profoundly attack a person’s dignity; emotional language.

The analysis was exploratory, wishing to regard the hypothesis of a more virulent discourse on the side of the opposition. All texts published under the section “News” (“Actualités”) during April 9th and May 4th were taken into account. A number of 342 texts, totalling 1,408 instances of incivility were encountered during the analysis.

Criticising the Opponent Instances of criticising the opponents can be understood as those episodes in which some policies of an opposing candidate are being attacked. As one would have expected, the harshest critique remains the one that Hollande directs towards Nicolas Sarkozy. This regards policies implemented during his mandate, as well as policies planned for an eventual second one. For instance, the Hadopi law for taxing artists, the insufficient development of technology in education, reducing access to medical care, sending troupes in Afghanistan, they all are proof of a “difficult” (“lourd”) assessment of governance. Altogether with accusations of hypocrisy, some of the measures Sarkozy undertook during his mandate are the proof of a certain lack of competence: “His uncoordinated programme poorly hides the ruptures of an industrial tissue badly managed for five years” (Hollande 2012a). Another notable criticism regards his will to exclusively protect the fortunate: “the only ones that the candidate chose to protect during these years were the powerful; the stockholders”; “he is the one who implemented the policy of «all owners», thanks to fiscal bonuses” (Hollande 2012c). In the case of Nicolas Sarkozy, critiques regard Hollande’s proposed policies: the closure of the Fessenheim nuclear plant, the growth of the number of public servants to be hired. Evidently, more subtle attacks intervene, such as the MP’s inept management of his region, La Corrèze, in which student scholarships and school bus tickets had to be eliminated: “Due to his poor management, taxes of all corrézians had to be increased” (Sarkozy 2012a). Another noteworthy aspect that Sarkozy mentions is Hollande’s wish of conveying himself as the next president even before the campaign ends (an interesting strategy the socialist candidate deploys

Georgiana Alexandrescu-Fieraru

55

in vue of a favourable outcome of the elections). This strategy, however, will be harshly attacked and ridiculed by the UMP candidate until the end of the campaign (Sarkozy 2012b). Centrist Bayrou, a candidate whose texts convey moderation and balance, realises a brief critique of both candidates: policies installed by the Sarkozy governance are unstable and his propositions for the future (along with those of Hollande) do not solve any of France’s real problems (Bayrou 2012a). “François Hollande has not truly said anything, not a single guiding line, not a single thing that would allow the citizen to find his way” (Bayrou 2012b). Marine Le Pen addresses the same critique to the two main candidates, only in her own extremist manner. Sarkozy would be “the mother of all evil”, somebody “who threw France into a wasp nest” (Le Pen 2012a), a dangerous man whose measures can not benefit the youth. The Front de Gauche candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, directs most if his attacks to president Sarkozy: his measures have not helped augment the minimum wage (Mélenchon 2012a) and, internationally, Sarkozy’s image is not among the best (Mélenchon 2012b).

Denying Common Ground This particular instance of hostility is frequently encountered in an electoral campaign. Many politicians prefer to expose their platform in opposition or comparison to that of their opponents. It seems that portraying the other in a bad, negative shade is much more lucrative a strategy than the simple exposition of one’s own programme. Tables 2-1 and 2-2 briefly illustrate how the two main candidates in the run made use of this strategy throughout the campaign: Table 2-1. Instances of Denying Common Ground by François Hollande

ATT>IMP_DCG ATT>IMP_DCG

ATT>IMP_DCG

Statement I am not a candidate like the others (Hollande 2012c) There where the right does not propose anything and lets the agricultural pensions decrease, François Hollande proposes […] (Hollande 2012d) I am coherent and constant, which distinguishes me during this electoral campaign […] (Hollande 2012e)

56

Campaign Discourse – Campaign Conflict

Sarkozy is a little more restrained in his comparison to the other candidates, whereas Bayrou over-compensates his moderation so far. His comparisons are, however, indirect, most of the times. Table 2-2. Instances of Denying Common Ground by François Bayrou

ATT>IMP_DCG ATT>IMP_DCG

Statement The frivolity and the attempts for diversion of his opponents […] (Bayrou 2012c) The only “free” candidate in this presidential election, for he is “unsubdued and insensible” to the pressure of the extremes (Bayrou 2012c)

Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Marine Le Pen’s texts do not abound in such instances of incivility. The former only expresses his concern for a campaign “à la papa”, regardless of the social issues at stake (Mélenchon 2012c), and the latter is the only one to actually tell French people the truth (Le Pen 2012b).

Sarcasm Most of the 104 instances of sarcasm were traced back to François Hollande (88), which is why we judge adequate to reproduce the most relevant of them in Table 2-3. Table 2-3. Instances of sarcasm belonging to François Hollande

ATT>IMP_SAR

ATT>IMP_SAR ATT>IMP_SAR

Statement The only generosity the retiring candidate has known is in our concern. He never misses the chance to deliver us his sarcasm, his caricature and his debates (Hollande 2012f). With Nicolas SARKOZY, we have broken all records – in fact, the bad ones (Hollande 2012h). With the help of Sarkozy, “real” workers will experience a real VAT increase, a real increase of social security costs and a real frost of the minimum wage (Hollande 2012g).

Georgiana Alexandrescu-Fieraru

57

The Televised Debate, as Transcribed by the Main French News Websites As one would have expected, no instance of reciprocal acclaim exists throughout the confrontation. The two candidates do not even praise themselves or their own policies. What they actually focus on is attacking their counterparts in the most acid way possible. Since the main confrontation here is a direct one, discursive blocking of the opponent comes in the form of simply interrupting the other. The two participants in the debate, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande do not hesitate to cut each other the word whenever they disagree with what is being told: “Don’t make any digression, Mister Hollande!” (Hollande 2012a), “Saying that your propositions are not proper is not an extraordinary insult. We have the right to do it” (ibid.). Criticism, during the debate, was actually more overt than in the posts the two candidates displayed on their websites for weeks prior to the debate. Combined with sarcasm and even invectives that will be exemplified further on during the paper, criticism of the opponent formed the basis of the televised confrontation. The two candidates threw stones at each other for policies implemented by the president in function and for policies to be implemented during a new mandate by each of the two main candidates. For instance, Sarkozy criticises Hollande for having offered Chinese iPads to the children in the department he has been governing: “The iPads offered to all the children in Corrèze had all been made in China”. Hollande’s vote against “The Grand Emprunt” and the “Rocard-Juppé Commission” (and against all other propositions traced back to Sarkozy), his proposition for growth that would eventually lead to increased costs and his willing to grant the right to vote to people having resided France for longer than five years are among the main policies criticised. Hollande turns to Sarkozy by mentioning his desire to always elude himself and to look for scapegoats elsewhere: “You always have a scapegoat. It is never your fault”, the second part appearing not less than five times during the same sequence of speech. The ever-growing VAT, the public debt created during the Sarkozy governance, the fiscal allegiance for the richer and the fortunate (“You have enhanced the taxes of all the French and diminished those of the most privileged!”), are subjects to which Hollande objects. The final touch is represented by Sarkozy’s attitude as a “party leader” (“chef de parti”) throughout his governance.

58

Campaign Discourse – Campaign Conflict

Conclusion It was clear, even before the battle started that the confrontation would comprise the socialist and the UMP candidate – François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy, occasionally assisted (at a discursive level) by the other three candidates. In addition, centrist Bayrou chose to tackle the competition in his own way, not by overtly attacking the others, but by objectively criticising his opponents and their policies. Condescending or ridicule was far less encountered in his case than in that of his opponents. Candidate Bayrou, for instance, chooses to refer to Sarkozy, throughout the campaign, as “the president still in function” or “the presidentcandidate”; unlike Hollande, who picks on the formula “the retiring candidate”, deliberately intended pejorative: “[...] this is the reason why, for months, I have been calling him ‘the retiring candidate’” – formula sometimes replaced by “the retiring president”, which may create the feeling that Hollande already envisages himself as the next president. An interesting remark is that incivility witnessed was harsher on the side of the opposition. Although Sarkozy also displayed brutal instances of insult, main opposition leader and candidate for presidency François Hollande showed an evident attitude of contempt towards the candidate in function – visible in the number of texts posted on his website, as well as in the intensity of invectives. Further research could shed light on how incivility influences voter turnout and the preference for a certain candidate. Although research in the area of negative campaigning has been ample, no certainty exists as to how we choose to vote after having witnessed displays of impoliteness on the candidate’s blog or website.

References Bousfield, D. (2008). Impoliteness in Interaction. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Cho, S. & Benoit, W. (2005). Primary Presidential Election Campaign Messages in 2004: A Functional Analysis of Candidates’ News Releases. Public Relations Review 32 (1): 47-52. Bayrou, F. (2012a). Ma démarche est simple et concrète: gérer les finances du pays en bon père de famille [My Approach Is Simple and Concrete: Manage the Country Finances Like a Family Man]. Online: http://www.bayrou.fr/article/120411-ma-demarche-est-simple-etconcrete-gerer-les-finances-du-pays-en-bon-pere-de-famille.

Georgiana Alexandrescu-Fieraru

59

—. (2012b). Il reste dix jours aux citoyens pour dire qu’il y en a assez de cette mascarade [Citizens Have Ten Days Left to Say They’ve Had Enough of This Mascarade]. Online: http://www.bayrou.fr/article/120412-il-reste-dix-jours-aux-citoyenspour-dire-quil-y-en-a-assez-de-cette-mascarade. —. (2012c). Nous allons réintroduire dans la vie politique, la volonté et le bon sens dont notre pays a besoin [We Are Going to Bring Back in Politics the Will and the Common Sense That This Country Needs]. Online: http://www.bayrou.fr/article/120417-nous-allons-reintroduiredans-la-vie-politique-la-volonte-et-le-bon-sens-dont-notre-pays-abesoin. Hollande, F. (2012a). Script du débat entre François Hollande et Nicolas Sarkozy, le 2 mai [Script of the Hollande-Sarkozy Debate]. Online: http://fh2012.francoishollande.fr/actualites/script-du-debat-entrefrancois-hollande-et-nicolas-sarkozy-le-2-mai/ —. (2012b). PME: passer de l’incantation et de l’instabilité à une politique ambitieuse et durable [PME: Passing From Chanting and Instability to an Ambitious and Durable Policy]. Online: http://fh2012.francoishollande.fr/communiques/pme-passer-de-lincantation-et-de-l-instabilite-a-une-politique-ambitieuse-et-durable/. —. (2012c). François Hollande au JDD : « Je suis prêt pour présider la France » [François Hollande to JDD: “I Am Ready to Govern France”]. Online: http://fh2012.francoishollande.fr/actualites/francoishollande-au-jdd-je-suis-pret-pour-presider-la-france/. —. (2012d). François Hollande s’engage en faveur d’un plan quinquennal pour les retraités agricoles [François Hollande Is Fully Committed to a Five-Year Plan for Agricultural Pensions]. Online: http://fh2012.francoishollande.fr/communiques/francois-hollande-sengage-en-faveur-d-un-plan-quinquennal-pour-les-retraites-agricoles/. —. (2012e). François Hollande invité de Dimanche+ [François Hollande, Guest of Dimanche+]. Online: http://fh2012.francoishollande.fr/actualites/francois-hollande-invite-dedimanche-2/. —. (2012f). L’intégralité du discours de François Hollande à Besançon [Full Script of François Hollande’s Speech in Besançon]. Online: http://francoismaitia2012.fr/actu/l27integralite-du-discours-defrancois-hollande-a-besancon.html. —. (2012g). Fêter le travail, c’est d’abord lutter contre le chômage et agir pour la croissance [To Celebrate Work Is to First Fight against Unemployment and to Act for Growth]. Online:

60

Campaign Discourse – Campaign Conflict

http://fh2012.francoishollande.fr/communiques/feter-le-travail-c-est-dabord-lutter-contre-le-chomage-et-agir-pour-la-croissance/. —. (2012h). Je me suis donné un seul objectif [I Have Given Myself only One Goal]. Online: http://fh2012.francoishollande.fr/actualites/je-mesuis-donne-un-seul-objectif-faire-l-alternance/. —. (2012i). Nicolas Sarkozy et les banlieues: entre incompétence et mensonge [Nicolas Sarkozy and the Outskirts: Between Incompetence and Lie]. Online: http://fh2012.francoishollande.fr/communiques/nicolas-sarkozy-et-lesbanlieues-entre-incompetence-et-mensonge/. Le Pen, M. (2012a). L’aventurisme diplomatique de Nicolas Sarkozy [Nicolas Sarkozy’s Diplomatic Adventurism]. Online: http://www.marinelepen2012.fr/2012/04/08/laventurismediplomatique-de-nicolas-sarkozy/. —. (2012b). Le corps d’un retraité de 89 ans retrouvé ligoté et bâillonné à son domicile [Eighty-Nine-Year Old Pensioner Found Tied and Muzzled in His Own House]. Online: http://www.frontnational.com/2012/04/le-corps-dun-retraite-de-89-ansretrouve-ligote-et-baillonne-a-son-domicile/. Mélenchon, J.-L. (2012a). Trois jours avant [Three Days Before]. Online: http://www.jean-luc-melenchon.fr/2012/04/18/trois-jours-avant/. —. (2012b). Interview aux Echos [Interview in the Echos]. Online: http://www.jean-luc-melenchon.fr/2012/04/19/interview-aux-echos/. —. (2012c). Nous serons au pouvoir dans moins de dix ans [We Will Gain Power in less than Ten Years]. Online: http://www.20minutes.fr/presidentielle/919181-jean-luc-melenchonnous-pouvoir-moins-10-ans. Sarkozy, N. (2012a). Le (lourd) bilan de Francois Hollande en Corrèze [François Hollande’s (Heavy) Duty in Corrèze]. Online: http://umpfontenay-sous-bois.over-blog.fr/article-le-lourd-bilan-de-francoishollande-en-correze-104510626.html. —. (2012b). Les 7 pechés d’arrogance de François Hollande [François Hollande’s Seven Sins of Arrogance]. Online: http://www.u-mp.org/actualites/les-7-peches-darrogance-de-francois-hollande05042012.

MASS-MEDIA: CREATOR AND PROMOTER OF MEDIA EVENTS SIMONA BADER

Introduction Media events is the term commonly used nowadays to illustrate the relationship between mass-media and public events of large interest. This concept refers to public events which - due to a wide mediation spread in mass-media - succeed in igniting some processes of transformation in political, social, cultural areas and sometimes lead to large movements of society. Ceremonies involve a set of rules, of formal, external shapes, usual in festivities. The term implies rituals and public events as well; being used together with mass-media, it determined some scientists to classify this into four areas of interference: -

Mediatization of important public ceremonies; ritual use of mass-media products; Journalists rites of work; Television as a religion (Rothenbuhler 1988: 78-79).

The events represented by the media events term could vary from national festivals, commemorations, public personalities’ weddings or funerals, up to political actions, such as elections, parties’ congresses, visits of important public figures or great cultural or sports events. Such events could be often called large institutional rites, because they are present in all ways of public transmission, like television and radio broadcasting or written press. Being presented simultaneously in all types of mass-media, they highlight “a dazzling historical visibility”, as if something major for the political regimes and institutions take place over there (Lardelier 2009: 136). According to Daniel Dayan’s remark, if the organizing institutions of such great ritual festivities attach so much importance to their mediatization, those transmissions are, practically, given no less than a historical recording.

62

Mass-Media: Creator and Promoter of Media Events

Elihu Katz and Daniel Dayan are the two researches that imposed and later consecrated the media events idiom, although Philip Elliott was the first one using this concept. In 1982, Elliot mentioned in a study “Those occasions in which the society was threatened or overcame a threat or simply celebrated the authority structure in force. […] Presenting the civil disorders or their legal or constitutional resolution, mass-media shows rather its own performance. In such a situation, it means that the press itself is actually the place of the ritual act.” (Elliott 1982: 121)

Thus, the symbolic elements of mass-media activities are preferred, and that leads to the type of messages: “with less information to judge”, therefore, with an emotional and non-rational feature. And so, Philip Elliott proves “the symbolic approach becomes the expression of a low level practice of journalism, and media rituals, a hazard caused by some historical moments and special social status” (Coman 2001: 9).

Mass Media and Local Public Ceremonies Press treats some public events in a special way, due to the specific features of festivity events. According to Daniel Dayan and Elihu Katz that special behaviour of the press leads to presenting the facts in a different way compared to the usual techniques of covering an event (in these cases, the event is launched and prepared through many advertisements), to changing the journalistic style (the event is presented in a ceremonial and sometimes subjective way), and there are, sometimes, presented in an excessive way both elements of the show and the scenes suggesting the strong link between the participants to the event and its receivers through mass-media (Dayan & Katz 1992). Often, in the written press, special supplements are added to festivity events, treating the topic from all perspectives and journalistic styles, from simple news to extended reportage or journalistic investigation. The death of Pope John Paul II was a clear example; even though it was a great international event excessively presented by worldwide media channels, the local newspapers of Timisoara city published special supplements with special graphics presenting the Pope’s life and career, and including also local personalities’ declarations about his death. On the other hand, unlike the way that news are presented in an objective and neutral way, for instance, events of the media events category lead most of the times to emotional merging of the involved people, both protagonists and journalists, and many times the mass-media institution does not only present an event, but it also creates it. In case of

Simona Bader

63

some ceremonies presentation, mass-media use in general a festivity tone when presenting the facts and participations’ state, trying, thus, a grand transposition of the readers, listeners or television viewers exactly in the middle of the event. This, practically, confirms the power of mass-media; it succeeds in having the largest audience possible. Speaking especially about television, one could notice that transmissions of great ceremonies “creates exceptional moments, marked by disconnection of the daily life rhythm; they trigger a large mobilization of people around the TV broadcasting: the TV is watched collectively, it is regarded almost as a must and generates phenomena of solidarity, at social micro and macro level. They lead to the following things: -

Rebuilding social network or even creating new ones; Emotional experiences of high intensity; Generating new topics that reinforce the collective memory, ensuring social integration and consensus; Participation and involvement (not only once in ceremonial forms) to the media event; Dedicating home as a public place, therefore, as a place of participating to major moments, debates and political decisions.” (Coman 2001: 12-13).

In this way, mass-media confirms its capacity to exert strong influences with emotional content and strong impact to all the society levels. A recent example, very much mediated, is the last year wedding of Prince William of Great Britain with Kate Middleton; it became the planet’s most watched event, from a simple family level up to mass mobilizations in viewing the religious ceremony on giant screens. That event not only registered record peaks of TV and radio audience, but it also managed to touch emotionally the whole world population, which relieved the childhood stories with princes and princesses. What makes them media events or ritual mass-media events? In the first place, as Marcel Mauss noticed, it is about social moments of transition, when communities gather again to celebrate a transition towards pain or joy, around values or a hero. Media events concept is different also by the fact that it has not a regular nature like every other journalistic genre, e.g., news or programs broadcasted at scheduled hours. On the contrary, ritual mass-media is episodic and disorganizes regular schedules of programs. “In the same way, these ritual mass-media take a consensual, conservator and conformist

64

Mass-Media: Creator and Promoter of Media Events

aspect, with respect to the tonality and form. Indeed, all of the mediatized actors really open, on that occasion, a socially parenthesis, they take, somehow, the responsibility of an armistice. The polemic and/or ludic tonality usually present in the mediatized discourse is no longer at stake. The communion and celebration takes it towards critics, divisions and reserves. The ritual mass-media events are moments of national reconciliation, already induced by this extremely respectful accent”, stated Pascal Lardellier in his book named The theory of ritual connection (2003). Regarding the presentation of great public ceremonies by local massmedia of Timisoara, one could notice, also, an attempt of ritualization and thus complying with some patterns in presenting the events. One of the events largely presented by the local press (written, audio and televised) is the commemoration of the Revolution of 1989 that began in Timisoara. Every year, from the16th of December until the 25th of December, massmedia channels give space on the main pages or in first minutes of the news programs to the ceremonial events dedicated to the Revolution. On the 16th of December the public remembers the beginning of Revolution in the St. Mary’ Square in Timisoara. The newspapers, radio and local television comply with the date of 17th December officially declared a mourning day in the City of Bega River, adjusting their programs to the day, and also dedicating a great part of their time to show how authorities commemorate the martyrs of Timisoara with flower crowns in the city’s major spots with martyrdom. From the 18th till the 25th of December, the 1989 events are recalled on the first pages of newspapers, interviews with the participants or offspring of the revolutionaries are printed, messages from the local and central authorities are transmitted. Mass media aims at the social mobilization through collective reminding of those events, presenting in newspapers or TV broadcasting the yearly ceremonies, which follow the same ritual every time. On the other hands, the journalists transform themselves into actors of ceremonies, complying with those rituals, inviting to dialog the same representative personalities for events, and even becoming themselves part of rituals, such in case of presenting commemorative flower crowns by news redactions, radio or TV organizations. The role of the politics played in the ritual is to be noticed; as it is imposed as a distinct image, created by journalist actors. In time, the ceremony in the Heroes cemetery in memory of those killed in Timisoara during the 1989 Revolution became a moment of politician pilgrimage in front of the TV and photo cameras, a moment of maximum exposition and its positive campaigning aspect. Mass media cannot miss presenting the whole

Simona Bader

65

ceremony, and many times the politicians take advantage of emotional moments to be mentioned in the newspapers and on TV. Almost every local printed publication edits in this period of the year special supplements dedicated to the 1989 Revolution commemoration, thus showing the ceremonial importance that mass media gives to this event.

Conclusion “Creators of some media events and in the same time shaped by the symbolic power of the festivity, journalists see themselves placed into an ambiguous position, between that (traditionally assumed) of observers and that (charming, but dangerous position) of actors and practitioners of the ritual. Therefore, through the game of this ambiguity, they found themselves in a liminality position; thus, the journalists operate simultaneously inside and outside, as witnesses and participants, as ethnographers and manufacturers of sense, as heroes and event judges.” (Coman 2001).

It becomes obvious that through all this journalists’ involvement both as professionals presenting accurately great event and participants or creators of some facts, mass-media practically takes part in the building of social connections, at regular intervals, but in conditions that could be described many times as historical, producing, in a special way, audience that watch something together and know that belong to the same community. However, it could be called a kind of a pseudo-event, due to its lack of spontaneity, the ritual mass-media action manifests an important force of social cohesion, so that people of different geographical communities find themselves witnessing the same history unfolded under their eyes, in real time. According to Pascal Lardellier (2003), a real and authentic relationship is created between the ceremonies actors and televiewers. The first ones, who are involved in events, take into account the TV or photo cameras, and the second category, the spectators, respond to the show by emotional manifestations, annihilating the distance imposed by the recording means.

References Coman, M. (2001). Mass-media úi universul ritual [Mass-Media and Ritual Universe]. Revista de etnologie X: 9-38. Dayan, D. & Katz, E. (1992). Media Events: The Live Broadcasting of History. Cambridge, MA – London: Harvard University Press. Elliot, P. (1982). Media Performances as Political Rituals. Communications 7 (1): 115-130.

66

Mass-Media: Creator and Promoter of Media Events

Lardellier, P. (2003). Théorie du lien rituel. Anthropologie et communication [Theory of Ritual Link: Anthropology and Communication]. Paris: L’Harmattan. Rothenbuhler, E. W. (1988). Ritual Communication: From Everyday Convesation to Mediated Cermony. London: Sage Publications.

ORGANISATIONAL COMMUNICATION IN CYBERSPACE: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ROZÁLIA-KLÁRA BAKÓ

Introduction This exploratory research focuses on six Romanian Mayor’s offices’ online communication. The comparative analysis of the largest municipalities’ web sites relies on the United Nations’ e-government assessment framework (UN 2012) as well as on web usability and accessibility standards (Petrie & Bevan 2009). According to a recent study (Litan et al. 2011), e-government is the response of public administration systems to globalisation, on their transition from the industrial age to the information age. Despite the intense deterritorialization in a globalised world (Jensen 2008), local organisational identities are increasingly influential in governmental, business, and civil society sectors equally. The present study focuses on local governments’ online presence with a highlight on their electronic government performance. Srivastava & Teo (2007: 20) defined e-government as “the use of information and communication technologies and the Internet to enhance access to and delivery of all facets of government services and operations” for the benefit of key stakeholders: citizens, businesses and governmental agencies.

United Nations’ Four Stages Framework Since 2010, the United Nations’ framework for assessing e-government defines four stages of online service provision: emerging presence, interactive presence, transactional presence, and connected or networked presence. The first stage (emerging presence) deals with providing limited and basic information in a rather passive way, with no interaction features built in the website. In the second stage (interactive presence), governmental actors ensure access to laws, regulations, and databases in a downloadable format. The third stage (transactional presence) allows twoway interactions online between authorities and citizens, such as applying

68

Organisational Communication in Cyberspace

for ID cards or paying taxes. The most advanced stage of e-government is connected presence enabling participation to deliberative processes through web comment forms and other interactive applications. According to UN assessments, e-government services improved in 2012 compared to 2010. However, when we look at the governments’ online communication performance worldwide (UN 2012), with Korea and the Netherlands leading the way and most African countries following behind, there is a strong need to bridge the gaps. Romania’s aggregated e-government performance in 2012 was 45%, ranking 62nd of 190 countries, with 100% service provision for the emergent, 64% for the interactive, 29% for the transactional, and 36% for the connected presence stage (UN 2012: 128). The UN assessment has been performed by testing Romanian central governmental web sites. A case study on Romanian e-government has identified several barriers hindering online service delivery: inadequate leadership, financial inhibitors, digital divides, poor coordination, institutional inflexibility, lack of trust, and poor technical performance in terms of interoperability (Vrabie 2009). A functional e-government relies on organisational interoperability: this means that e-information exchange between institutional stakeholders has to work smoothly (Kubicek, Cimander & Scholl 2011). Service availability does not automatically imply citizen participation: in Europe – the most advanced region in the world in terms of e-government – usage growth rate is lagging far behind availability growth rate (UN 2012).

Six Romanian Municipalities Online A worldwide assessment (Huber & Kim 2007) has shown a steady growth in the number of municipalities with a web site. Meanwhile, studies concerning Romanian municipalities’ online presence have multiplied in recent years (Dobrica 2007, Sabău 2009, Stoica & Ilaú 2009, ‫܇‬tefan 2007). In a previous case study (Bakó 2011), we have assessed three towns’ official web sites – Miercurea Ciuc, Sfântu Gheorghe and Târgu Mure‫– ܈‬ resulting in scores and ranks given for the e-government performance, along with qualitative analysis for accessibility and usability features. We have found a link between organisational size and online service performance: the smallest town – Miercurea Ciuc – was in the emergent stage, the mid-sized Sfântu Gheorghe in transition to the interactive stage, while Târgu Mure‫ – ܈‬the largest town – in transition from the interactive to the transactional stage of e-government. Other studies conducted on Romanian urban environments’ online presence (Sabău 2009, ‫܇‬tefan 2007) did not show any link between organisational size and online

Rozália-Klára Bakó

69

service performance. A larger scale research focused on 165 Romanian cities and towns resulted in ranks along several criteria: again, online service provision did not depend on the size of the city. However, from a regional perspective, the more developed North-Western and Western parts of Romania had better results (Stoica & Ilaú 2009). The six largest Romanian municipalities’ web sites we have assessed in June 2012 were: Bucharest (coded M1), Ia‫܈‬i (M2), Cluj-Napoca (M3), Timi‫܈‬oara (M4), Constan‫܊‬a (M5) and Craiova (M6), ordered by size, with Bucharest the largest. Content analysis and manual testing were the methods we have used to compare municipalities’ online presence, looking at information service provision, functionality of links, user-centered design, utilisation of the available screen space, language options, visibility of content, and other usability and accessibility features. Meanwhile, we have applied a simplified version of the UN 2012 criteria to assess online service provision or e-government performance. Usability and Accessibility of the Web Sites under Study There are several models and methods of assessing usability and accessibility of online spaces, from the simple and comprehensive (Thomason 2004) to the more complex and sophisticates ones (Oztekin, Nikov & Zaim 2009, Petrie & Bevan 2009, Nielsen 2011). Table 2-4 presents criteria of usability and accessibility assessment applied in this study. Selection has been made upon feasibility of manual testing for a non-expert user. Table 2-4. Usability and accessibility criteria applied in this study Usability criteria U1 Structured information U2 Use of available screen space U3 Easy navigation (home search)

Accessibility criteria A1 Easy-to-read, perceivable content A2 No flashy, disturbing features A3 Language options available

Results for usability and accessibility tests are presented below, with scores for total (2), partial (1) and no fulfilment (0) of the criteria. The best usability performance has been achieved by Timi‫܈‬oara (M4) and Cluj-Napoca (M3), while three municipalities have barely reached one point: Ia‫܈‬i, Constan‫܊‬a and Craiova (Table 2-5). Accessibility tests show slightly better results overall, with Timi‫܈‬oara taking the lead again (Table 2-6).

Organisational Communication in Cyberspace

70

The aggregated usability and accessibility scores for the city hall web sites show clear gaps: size does not make a difference, but regions matters. The more developed Western Romanian municipalities (M3, M4) performed better at both assessments – a result in line with previous researches. Table 2-5. Usability (U) scores for the Romanian municipalities (M) U/M U1 U2 U3

M1 1 0 1

M2 0 0 1

M3 1 1 2

M4 2 2 1

M5 0 0 1

M6 0 0 1

Table 2-6. Accessibility (A) scores for the Romanian municipalities (M) A/M A1 A2 A3

M1 1 0 0

M2 0 0 1

M3 1 1 2

M4 2 2 2

M5 0 0 1

M6 0 2 1

Online Service Provision of the Analysed Agencies When assessing online service quality, we used the same scale as previously: 2, 1, and 0 points for total, partial or no fulfilment of the criteria in the emergent, interactive, transactional and connected stage (Table 2-7). Results show that even the largest cities’ websites have a long way to go on the road of e-participation in Romania. For the first stage of e-government (emergent presence), Mayor’s offices have to improve the quality and the amount of public information they provide: laws, regulations, and links to other public authorities’ websites. For the second stage – defined by interactivity – agencies can improve their performance by enabling access to downloadable forms in a user friendly manner and by using audiovisual features. The so-called transactional stage of e-government implies more sophisticated applications for tax payment systems, and some simple improvements, such as online feedback forms for citizens. The connected presence stage requires a multimedia approach to online communication: blogs, social networking sites, internet radios and mobile applications may bring “official” contents closer to people, beyond the invisible and complex front desk – back office integrated information exchange.

Rozália-Klára Bakó

71

Table 2-7. E-government scores for the six Romanian municipalities Stages (S) and e-services S1 Laws and strategies S1 Databases, statistics S1 Governmental links Total score for stage 1 S2 Downloadable forms S2 Online forms S2 Audio/video applications Total score for stage 2 S3 User account S3 Online transactions S3 Online feedback Total score for stage 3 S4 Citizen involvement S4 Subscription via e-mail S4 Web 2.0 applications Total score for stage 4 Total score for all stages

M1 2 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 3 1 0 0 1 7

M2 2 0 1 3 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 6

M3 1 0 0 1 2 0 1 3 1 1 0 2 0 1 0 1 7

M4 2 0 1 3 1 0 1 2 1 2 2 5 2 0 2 4 14

M5 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 2

M6 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 2 0 1 1 2 6

Conclusions The present exploratory study focused on six Romanian municipalities’ online presence. We have assessed the level of usability, accessibility and online service provision of the largest cities’ official web sites. In terms of usability, organisations analyzed had better scores at navigability and structure, and poor performance at utilising available screen space. Accessibility scores were better at language options and rather poor at visualising public information. As for the local authorities’ online service provision, we have found striking differences between the six agencies: while Timi‫܈‬oara was leading the way with the highest score, Constan‫܊‬a’s web site was at the lower end of the scale. The most notable improvement area for the short term is to enhance interactive presence by incorporating video and audio content and enabling user-friendly downloads of official forms. Governmental organisations strive to gain citizens’ trust: participative online communication is a way forward to achieve this goal.

References Bakó, Rozália-Klára. (2011). A Szervezeti Retorika új Média-Terei [New Media-Spaces of Organizational Rhetoric]. Reconnect Working Papers 1: 1-12.

72

Organisational Communication in Cyberspace

Dobrica, L. (2007). Considerations about Cities Websites Evaluation. IADIS International Conference e-Society 2007: 47-54. Huber, M. & Kim, S. T. (2007). Digital Governance in Municipalities Worldwide. Newark, NJ: United Nations & American Society for Public Administration. Jensen, J. P. (2008). Globalizing Governance in a Multi-stakeholder World: the Global Prince, Merchant and Citizen. PhD Dissertation, Budapest Corvinus University. Kubicek, H., Cimander, R. & Scholl, H. J. (2011). Organizational Interoperability in e-Government. Lessons from 77 European Good Practice Cases. Heidelberg – Dordrecht – London – New York: Springer-Verlag, Berlin & Heidelberg. Litan, D., Marinescu, D. M. A., Mititel, E. & Stoian, G. D. (2011). ICT Developments in “Globalization Era” through European Union Funds. International Journal of Systems Applications, Engineering & Development 5 (4): 445-460. Nielsen, J. (2011). Utilize Available Screen Space. Online: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/screen-space-use.html. Oztekin, A., Nikov, A. & Zaim, S. (2009). UWIS: An Assessment Methodology for Usability of Web-Based Information Systems. Journal of Systems and Software 82 (12): 2038-2050. Petrie, H. & Bevan, N. (2009). The Evaluation of Accessibility, Usability and User Experience. In C. Stepanidis (Ed.), The Universal Access Handbook. 20-1. Sabău, D. (2009). E-government în municipiile României [E-government in Romanian Municipalities]. Revista Transilvană de Эtiinаe Administrative 2(24): 110-123. ‫܇‬tefan, Georgiana Ionela. (2007). Quality Evaluation of the Romanian City Halls Web Sites. Theoretical and Empirical Researches in Urban Management 2(2): 30-55. Stoica, V. & Ilaú, A. (2009). Romanian Urban e-Government. Digital Services and Digital Democracy in 165 Cities. Electronic Journal of e-Government 7 (2): 171-182. Thomason, Larisa. (2004). Web Site Usability Checklist. NetMechanic 7 (4). Online: http://www.netmechanic.com/news/vol7/design_no4.htm. United Nations. E-Government Survey 2012. E-Government for the People. (2012). New York, NY: United Nations. Vrabie, C. (2009). Barriers in Implementing e-Government. Online: http://www.nispa.org/files/conferences/2009/papers/20090421134659.

FEATURES OF NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION IN VOLLEYBALL PLAY LILIANA BECEA

Introduction From the point of view of the primary units involved, Knapp & Hall (2006) organise the types of nonverbal communication according to the environmental features and the conditions under which communication takes place, the physical characteristics of the communicators, and the different behaviours displayed by the communicators. Corraze (in Chelcea, Ivan & Chelcea 2008: 28) deems “The term of nonverbal communication applies to gestures, posture, body orientation, the – natural or artificial – somatic features, even to the spatial arrangement of objects and to the distance relationships among individuals, through which an item of information is emitted.” Nonverbal communication comprises everything which is different from the meaning of words. Interpersonal communication in sport is “a selective, systemic, unique, and ongoing process of transaction between people who build personal knowledge of one another and create shared meanings.” (Pederson, Miloch & Laucella 2007: 100) “Sports communication represents the understanding between two or more entities (emitter and receiver), by means of physical/intellectual actions, carried out through contest, organised with or without objects.” (Iacob & Iacob 2008: 36) Very often, in the agonistic-type activities, in a fraction of second, information of rational or emotional nature must be transmitted. To this end, voluntarily, and well often involuntarily, nonverbal communication is used under its various forms. Within its framework, communication through touch is the first manner of expression both in the phylogenetic and the ontogenetic development. Through meanings and effects, the haptic communication is one of the most efficient methods of regulation and self-regulation. The premises that constituted the starting point for our research were: the gender-related features determine the forms of creating internal and external rapport; the type of nonverbal communication is also determined by the gender-specific features; nonverbal communication is more

74

Nonverbal Communication in Volleyball

complex while performing agonistic-type activities; nonverbal communication through touch has multiple functions; in the course of various agonistictype activities, communication through touch is particularly frequently used. The hypotheses of this survey are: in the agonistic-type activities, the haptic communication is more frequently used, the gender differences have an influence on the haptic communication in general and on the agonistic-type activities in particular, way of resolving the play phase has an essential role in nonverbal communication through touch.

Techniques and Methods The research methods used were: the documentation method, the observation method, the experimental method, the statistical-mathematical method and the graphical method. Subjects, Place and Duration of the Research Sixty-five women sports students from seven volleyball teams; 71 men sports students belonging to eight volleyball teams attended this experiment. The survey took place between March 7 and June 21 2011, with the video recording phase running between May 12 and 15 2011 within the context of the “Sports Fest” international student contest 2011, organised by the Ba÷aziçi University in Istanbul (Turkey). The type of bodily activity chosen to be studied from the aspect of nonverbal communication was volleyball play. The reasons for making this choice were: from the regulatory point of view, it does not have time restrictions in the run of a set, thus the sports students having the possibility to manifest themselves completely nonverbally; the body touches between opposing players barely occur, which enables the easier observation of the nonverbal behaviour proposed to be studied; the games take place inside a sports hall, in a space of average surface, which facilitates the creation of high-quality video recordings. Content of the Actioning Systems The independent variables of this experiment were: completion of play phase: won actions – lost actions; the subjects’ gender. The content of the control parameters dependent variables of this experiment were: touches in pair, touches in group, touches in pair and group during the same play phase.

Liliana Becea

75

Recording of the Control Parameters Video recordings of 20 play instances for women volleyball, adding up to 144.11 minutes, were made. They were divided into types of play phases, and the presence of the dependent variables was recorded for each, in a quantitative and qualitative way. For men volleyball, 132.07 minutes were filmed. The films taken were divided into types of play phases and, for each, the types and the number of touches (the dependent variable of the experiment) were recorded.

Outcomes and Discussion In the case of the independent variable “Completion of play actions”, for the women volleyball teams, 177 won play phases and 126 lost play actions, and for the men volleyball teams, 146 won play phases, and 155 lost play actions were analysed. Actions completed by winning. The average of the touches is higher in the women teams than in the men ones for all types of touches “In pair” (F=2.918, M=2.643), “In group” (F=0.81, M=0.514), and “In pair & in group” (F=0.569, M=0.294), in the case of won play actions. Homogeneity is very good both for the women teams and the men ones in the case of the touches “In group” (F=0.39, M=0.5) and “In pair & in group” (F=0.5, M=0.46). There is homogeneity considerably similar and characterised as “average” in the case of the touches “In pair” both in men and women teams. The difference between the values of the standard Deviations in the two groups investigated is 0.01, so being unimportant. Actions completed by losing. More touches “In pair” occur in the women teams than in the men ones (F=2.364, M=1.845). Although the average of the touches is lower for the women teams than for the men ones as concerns the form “In group”, the value itself and the difference prove that this type of touch is extremely rare (F=0.008, M=0.58), touches “In pair & in group” do not occur in the case of women teams and are practised extremely seldom by the men teams (F=0, M=0.006). There is a greater dispersion of values in the case of the touches “In pair” for the men teams compared to the women teams (Ab stand F=1.67, M=1.87). When analysing the results obtained by applying the Student Test, it may be maintained that: in the field of nonverbal touch behaviour after won actions, there is a statistically significant difference in favour of the women teams in the touches “In group” p=0.00001 and those “In pair & in group” p=0.00001; in spite of a difference between the averages of the touches “In pair” in favour of the women teams versus the men ones, it is

76

Nonverbal Communication in Volleyball

not statistically significant; in the case of the touches after lost play actions, there is a significant difference in favour of the women teams only for the touches “In pair” p=0.00527; there is no significant difference as concerns the touches “In group” and “In pair & in group” after the lost play actions between women and men teams. For the independent variable “Gender-specific features”, the average of the body contacts per minute is higher in the case of the women versus the men ones in all the three groups of touches: “In pair” (F=5.32, M=5.09), “In group” (F=0.9, M=0.59), and “In pair & in group” (F=0.63, M=0.33). When analysing the results obtained by applying the Student Test, it may be maintained that: in the domain of nonverbal touch behaviour after each type of play phase, the difference that exists between men and women teams, in favour of the women ones, is statistically significant for all types of body contacts analysed: “In pair” p=0.004, “In group” p=0.0001, “In pair & in group” p=0.00001.

Conclusions Nonverbal communication is intensely used while performing various agonistic-type bodily activities. The total average (men and women) of 5,20 touches “In pair” per minute proves the fact that the agonistic-type bodily activities indeed facilitate interpersonal nonverbal communication. For all types of touches analysed, regardless of the way the previous play action ended, women communicate haptically more frequently. Women provide more mutual support among themselves than men after negative play events (there is a statistically significant difference in favour of the women sports students for the touches “In pair” after lost play actions). Nonverbal communication is critically influenced in both genders by the way in which play actions were resolved, which confirms the emotional structure of nonverbal communication. Nonverbal communication through touch is more frequent in the case of positive events than of those negative ones, which enables us to notice that the haptic nonverbal communication is used more for expressing joy and solidarity than for providing support and assistance The gender-specific features have an influence on the haptic nonverbal behaviour, women using statistically considerably more touches “In group”/hugs than men (Figures 2-1, 2-2, 2-3).

Liliana Becea

Figure 2-1. Average of the types of touches after won actions

Figure 2-2. Average of the types of touches after lost actions

77

78

Nonverbal Communication in Volleyball

Figure 2-3. Average per minute of the types of touches

References Chelcea, S., Ivan, L. & Chelcea, A., (2008), Comunicarea nonverbală: gesturile úi postura [Nonverbal Communication: Gestures and Posture]. Bucureúti: Comunicare.ro. Iacob, I. & Iacob, M. R. (2008). Comunicarea în sport [Communication in Sport]. Iaúi: Demiurg. Knapp, M. L. & Hall, A. J. (2006). Nonverbal Communication in Human Interaction. Stamford, CT: Thomson Wadsworth. Pederson, M. P., Miloch, Kimberly M. & Laucella, Pamela C. (2007). Strategic Sport Communication. Champaing, IL: Human Kinetiks.

IMPLICATIONS OF NEW MEDIA IN THE PUBLIC SPACE ùTEFANIA BEJAN

Introduction It seems that we are dealing with a radically different way of receiving and managing information, of practicing in different domains, of playing the role of post-industrial consumers, all under the defending wing of new technologies. With a starting point in a famous work, a whole discussion has been carried on in recent years and is far from foreseeing its finality: how do the new media “touch” the public space, this place of all opinions, the conceptual and practical discontents, a topos sometimes difficult to define, but certainly hard to “tame” (Habermas 2005). Who guarantees freedom of expression in the new, modern, public sphere? How valid is the confusion between freedom of opinion and freedom of expression?

Methods and Techniques From two seemingly different hypostases (essentially, journalism and the profession of communication sciences teacher are in a complementarity relation), using participatory observation, life history, interview and documentary analysis, results concordant with working hypotheses are reached: the new media take over the universe of communication, and the ability to use them is no longer a secret for an early age; the need to modernise the traditional press (old media) is a real social pressure (Eco 2008); we do not believe there is a professional field in which new media would deny benefits; the recipients of media messages acquire the role of generators of contents, novel position in the history of the press.

Results and Discussion The creative use of digital technologies in the field of education directs attention towards M-learning (which is no longer a rarity in the schoolstudent dialogue, whether we talk about The Chemical Education Digital

80

New Media in the Public Space

Library or the Word Press for iPhone). Explanatory models in 3D, texts, photos, teaching videos, lectures, different transcripts abound in Dragon Dictation 2.0.0, MIT Open Course Ware, Rhan Academy, Live@Edu. Among the most ingenious uses of new media, one can cite the “lessons” of IRIS (Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology), of U.S. Geological Survey about earthquakes, individual and collective security, emotion management during disasters, all culminating with Stop Disaster (a game for students interested in preventing unfortunate events occurring naturally). An area in which new technologies have won ground in recent years, perhaps the easiest to invoke in terms of results, is the world of politics. Gradually, traditional election campaigns remain in the background, the excitement of political marketing and of more and more voters being Facebook pages, YouTube videos, personal blog writing, all of them tools intended for humanising the candidate, closeness with the elector, their “collaboration” in pressing and challenging problems. In almost twenty years, the means to assist those who are seeking power have been ratified, transferring in the responsibility of the recipients of (pseudo) political messages attention, participation, good information, mobilisation to voting, preference between so many names and doctrines (Wall 2005). As for the autochthonous space, there are favourable opinions of the new media applicable to political events, since elements of traditional and innovative media intersect, either on-line, or in the physical supports. Unofficial character of communication with the characters otherwise difficult to reach, YouTube popularity in the public debate, blogosphere as space of “ear pulling” the guilty (but also of sharing crucial decisions) facilitate interaction, the convenient grouping of those concerned about certain subjects, even if the web “will not intensify the democratic dialogue on a national level, either in the US, or in other regions of the world” (Leadbeater 2010). Purely revolutionary is also the opportunity of generating, managing and disseminating journalistic material in a unique environment. Without collaborations, without the outsourcing of services, but with a single concern – to influence the target public constantly, so that its loyalty would “happen” in relatively harsh conditions: the speed of news obsolescence, the increased appetite for commenting the contents, the safety of users assured by the anonymity of the signatories – “judges” of those gathered in the virtual communities of the new journalism. The paradox of the easiness of dissemination – difficulty in maintaining the audience is verified in the context of blogosphere, this “machine of rumours with turbo engine” (Scoble & Israel 2008), which created the alleged amateur journalism (unprofessional journalism), in fact, citizentype journalism performed in social networks. The ambiguity (or, better

ùtefania Bejan

81

said, non-assumption) of the label “unprofessional” needs an explanation. The lack of values associated to the profession of mass communicators cannot be argued, insofar as, in the blogosphere, well-known journalists (not once, the professional value of the individual is found, rather stated, in virtual journals, as compared to the traditional press rightly labelled as “old media”) operate successfully (recognition, excellent image, presence in the top of social influence). Professionalism practised for a long time in the off-line press becomes, implicitly, a mark of the journalists “moved” in the world of blogs. Credibility can no longer be doubted, as it happens to the “players” from the sphere of blogs not found in a communicator career hosted by the “old style” media (Agnès 2011). We consider that a good competition of citizen-journalists will soon determine those of the “old guard” to take account of the exigencies of postmodern users, who wish to be listened, esteemed, respected, and flawlessly “served” in what we call community-shared social experience. After Judy Shapiro, there are a few strategies to adapt to the digital world: the care for the user (providing the chance to interact with the authors, contents, other consumers); creating confidence in the information posted and, especially, in the organisations humanised in the sphere of mass communication (we believe this could be about a simulacrum of interpersonal communication); focusing on communities of interest (this is how the discussion groups or niche audiences are created); seeing some opportunities for long-term financial gain (because the new channel of production and distribution can become profitable also in another register than the symbolic one).

Conclusions and Recommendations Changing the communicational paradigm in the mass media of the new space takes into account the realities of the time: most young people are on-line; companies have a profile, page, or site on the grounds that not keeping pace with technology leads to exit; adults and the elderly, regardless of their socio-professional status, are conquered by virtual communication. The technophiles experience, in a beneficial manner, the partnership of the great (or modest) media channels on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. The “incredible transition period of the media”, in the vision of the paters of some known sites, would read, “The future belongs to those who will combine the best elements from the old media – verifying information, accuracy, transparency – with the best elements of new media – interactivity, involving readers and providing information in real time.” (Arianna Huffington: Mass-media se află într-o incredibilă perioadă de tranziĠie) In summary, the happy meeting of the quality of

82

New Media in the Public Space

contents detectable in quality newspapers and magazines (in the traditional press) with the treatment full of deference of people rightfully extremely demanding.

Acknowledgement This paper was supported by the Sectoral Operational Programme Human Resources Development (SOP HRD) financed from the European Social Fund and by the Romanian Government under the contract number POSDRU/89/1.5/S/56815.

References Agnès, Y. (2011). Introducere în journalism [Introduction to Journalism]. Iaúi: Polirom. Arianna Huffington: Mass-media se află într-o incredibilă perioadă de tranziĠie [Arianna Huffington: Mass-Media Is in an Incredible Transition Period]. Online: http://www.gandul.info/magazin/ariannahuffington-mass-media-se-afla-intr-o-incredibila-perioada-de-tranzitie8500570. Bădău, H. M. (2011). Tehnici de comunicare în social media [Communication Techniques in Social Media]. Iaúi: Polirom. Eco, U. (2008). Apocaliptici úi integraĠi. ComunicaĠii de masă úi teorii ale culturii de masă [Apocalyptic and Integrated: Mass Communication and Theories of Mass Culture]. Iaúi: Polirom. Habermas, J. (2005). Sfera publică úi transformarea ei structurală [The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere]. Bucureúti: Comunicare.ro. Leadbeater, C. (2010). Noi-gândim: inovaĠie de masă, nu producĠie de masă [We-think: The Power of Mass Creativity]. Bucureúti: Publica. Scoble, R. & Israel, S. (2008). ConversaĠii libere. Despre cum reuúesc blogurile să schimbe comunicarea dintre companii úi clienĠi [Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers]. Bucureúti: Nemira. Shapiro, Judy. (2010). Why Old Media really Isn’t Dead. Sure, the Landscape Has Changed, but the Roots Remain Intact. Online: http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/media-dead/146433/. Wall, Melissa. (2005). “Blogs of War”. Weblogs as News. Journalism 6 (2): 153-172.

PATTERNS OF METAPHORISATION IN THE MEDIA DISCOURSE DOINA BUTIURCĂ

Introduction The presentation of the topic is subordinated from the theoretical perspective to the concern to explore the process of metaphorization in the journalistic text, highlighting the differences/similarities of metaphor in the broad context of metaphorization patterns and that of the functions of language. The functions of the metaphor have been studied by many authors (Richards 1965, Goodman 1967) and also by Paul Ricoeur after the 70s, who mentioned the fact that the metaphor “carries information because it ‘redescribes’ reality” (Ricoeur 1997: 380). Referring to the compartment of present-day mass-media, Stelian Dumistrăcel made the distinction between “a discourse of information and the actual language of publicity” (Dumistrăcel 2007: 232). Starting from the analysis of a few types of equivalence, the study identifies within the “units” of the journalistic metaphor a language of “information” which totals the conceptual, the persuasive, the phatic, and the stylistic values through a specific blend of stylistic registers. Within the broad context of linguistic strategies and devices of communication, the metaphor accentuates the tendency to ensure the dynamics of information such as the transparency of reception through its specific functions. There are functions that cannot be approached outside the relation between the strategies of communication and objectives the press aims at. The message, and most particularly the impact of the information upon the public are fundamental objectives. It is the dimension that has permitted us the approach of metaphorization patterns from an anthropological perspective. With this aim, we apply (selectively) the excerption of a few existing patterns of metaphorization in the newspaper articles, and out of these the conceptual – nominal and apositive metaphor (applying it on Cotidianul, Gazeta sporturilor, Jurnalul National).

84

Patterns of Metaphorisation in the Media Discourse

The source-domain of the media metaphor is discussed especially (the sphere of the mythological, the sphere of specialized languages, the domain of history and the domain of family relations), the implications of cognitive linguistics in approaching the journalistic genre, the effects of the message upon the target group, of the social and human categories. The basic premises of the theory of the journalistic metaphor are the conceptual and complex informational schemes with multiple determinations in language, culture, logic, psychology, and with impact upon the great existential structures and/or of power, upon imagination.

Methods and Techniques Applied The approach to the journalistic metaphor is realised contrastively, from the viewpoint of applied linguistics, cognitive linguistics and anthropology. Our presentation follows partially the cognitive theory, developed by Lakoff & Johnson (1980), according to which content organizing in a language is achieved according to a conceptual pattern, known through experience and expressed metaphorically: “No experience can ever be understood...outside its experiential base” (Lakoff & Johnson 1980: 19). By “experiential base” in the journalistic text, we understand linguistic, communicational, cultural, psychological experiences of the journalist – much more complex and varied as opposed to primary experience. The ideas our research relies on are the following: “events” with a special potential of information are communicated with terms of equivalence accessible to an unequal public (intellectual/cultural). The phenomena easiest to conceptualize through the specific strategies are the ones connected to the cultural experience of a community, of the sensorial and corporal experience. The mechanism of these transfers is of a conceptual nature. The paradigmatic analysis has permitted us the interpretation of meanings, while the syntagmatic method regarding the texts and contexts in which equivalence has a fundamental role permits the research of the dynamics of the journalistic metaphor. This all the more so as the variation of the conceptual and informational content based on the contexts in which the journalistic metaphor is present it is important both for the correct identification of the “referent” and for the relaxing of the message.

Doina Butiurca

85

Discussion and Results In his study, Karl Bühler (1990) started from the assertion that in order to be understood the nature of language does not need to be looked for in the thinking of the human being. The social matrix of language and not the speech acts, individual in their nature, constitute the basis for thought, in the concept of the linguist. Starting from these reasons, Bühler (1990) postulates a triadic organon model of cognition, One-The Other-Things. In the present strategies, the objectives of communication in the domain of media are nevertheless strongly centred on the exercise of the dynamics of the dialogue such as their effects upon the psyche of the human and that of the broad public. For example, the campaigns that promote tourism determine the rise in the interest regarding exotic destinations by resorting to conceptual equivalents: “Acest drum […] traversează Pakistanul prin chiar inima lui” (This road [...] crosses Pakistan right through its heart) (Jurnalul NaĠional 2012). The equivalence centre = heart contains a high number of indices within the dynamics of the journalistic text, conferring the transmitted information a psychological depth, while public opinion is conferred a high degree of implication. The equivalence centre = heart is not functional in all journalistic genres. In a political content, for example, the specific meaning of the word centre is compulsory: “De foarte multă vreme, aproape de când a preluat mandatul, […] s-a pus pe sine în centrul propriei atenĠii” (For a very long time, almost since he took over his mandate [...] he put himself in the centre of his own attention) (Cotidianul 2012), but also in the report which imposes a certain degree of linguistic specialization: “Aflat în centrul rotondei, Mormântul Lui făcea parte…” (Placed in the centre of the rotonda, His Grave was part of...) (Cotidianul 2012) Journalistic Metaphorization The process of journalistic metaphorization follows a logical and objective pattern, even if the adaptation of style to the “event”, making the language adequate to the message does not eliminate a certain note of subjectivity of the journalist, through the rhetoric of “labelling”. Metaphorization respects and algorithm of selecting a lexico-semantic and informative element, always in consonance with the message and/or with the finalities of the “event” (social, economical, political, sports, society related). The metaphors in the structure: “drumul spre cetatea feminităĠii” (the road to the castle of femininity) (ùtiri.com.ro.) – “road” (which road?) and “castle” (which castle? from which time/space of national/universal

86

Patterns of Metaphorisation in the Media Discourse

history?) do not send through historical suggestion to this area of human culture the language of which the reader identifies through excellence. Equivalence, the relation of contiguity between “signs” of the same degree confer the language a marked note of expressivity, through which the journalist stimulates the interest towards a certain social group. The language is loaded by magic of femininity and will sensitize within the context this social sphere with predilection. The relevance of the information produced by the journalistic metaphor is quasi-autonomous as related to a certain target group. What is relevant for the feminine psychology is not relevant for the target-group of the man on town if we will compare the two series of media metaphors in the following texts: “ActriĠa se pare că úi-a găsit din nou cavalerul în armură strălucitoare, în persoana lui James Righton” (The actress seems to have found the knight in shining armour again in the person of Janes Righton) (Cotidianul.ro 2012), “Sirenele sunt printre noi” (The mermaids are among us) (Cotidianul.ro 2012), “naúul stilului Go’, Chuck Brown, a lansat în 1979, piesa ‘Bustin Loose’” (the godfather of the Go’ style, Chuch Brown, launched in 1979 the song Bustin Loose) (Cotidianul.ro 2012). On the one hand, the medieval metaphor of “the knight in shining armour” and the mythological metaphor of “the mermaids” (loaded with femininity), on the other hand the metaphor of the spiritual filiations, “the godfather” loaded with a note of authority. Comparing the different types of label metaphors, we notice that the “media imagery” (with the exception of the tabloids) ennoble the information with values coming from superior patterns of humanity, capable of evoking a referent. The metaphor of the “knight” is such an element of universal culture that evokes – assigning a romantic load to the information – “the role” of James Righton. The information related to the world of the arts and especially to that of music develop in the majority of the analyzed examples through the metaphors with cultural substratum (mermaids, nymphs) superior values in consonance with the referents situated under the same emblem of higher aspirations. Parameters of Individualization within the Process of Journalistic Metaphorization Finality. The process of journalistic metaphorization differs from poetic metaphorization and that of the same process within the domain of science through finality. In terminology, metaphorization meets “an algorithm which selects a name according to the identity of the object, its characteristics, its function between two heterogeneous objects (usually

Doina Butiurca

87

one of a concrete material nature, and the other of a conceptual nature)” (Butiurca 2011: 45). The finality of the terminological metaphor is to create a term for the concept, a process that attracts with itself the separation of two semantic fields, the cutting of the scientific meaning from the usual meaning. The finality of the journalistic metaphor is the cutting of the media meaning from the cultural meaning. The reconceptualization of the metaphorical model coincides in the specialized languages, with the stage of fixation of the term as a selected and normative nominative unit for a new notion. Within the journalistic discourse, the reconceptualization of the model coincides with the stage of the fixation of the metaphor as an “ennobled informational unit. The new unit maintains based on the nature of the “event”, of the context the “explicative”, “descriptive”, “motivational”, “persuasive”, “cognitive”, “expressive” traits, it maintains the subjective labelling of some events, attitudes, people and by extension, the content of the whole text (CvasnîiCătănescu 2007: 78). There are three terms used in this process: “the object” of the media information (the target-domain in Lakoff’s terms), “the object” which transfers its own name (the source domain, based on Lakoff), and the label. “Quality” of Information. The process of journalistic metaphorization differs from the scientifically/poetic metaphorization through the “quality” of information. In science information is a combination of signals and symbols. In the journalistic discourse, the label-metaphors represent a type of informational unit enriched by value parameters – of a cultural nature (transhistorical symbols, space and historical time) subjective (ideality, morality, canon, quality of unpredictable), expressive (the quality of style, intensity, originality, semantic usage) that individualizes the discourse. The metaphor of the “Gordian knot” from one of the titles of the Cotidianul newspaper: “I. R…, faĠă în faĠă cu nodul gordian al adjuncĠilor IPJ” (I. R.... faced with the Gordian knot of the deputy inspectors...) (Cotidianul.ro 2012) makes a certain type of representation of social realities having the meaning of “an extremely complicated situation”. Through the traits of “unprecedented”, “unpredictable”, “original”, this label-metaphor outgrows every other used and banal pattern of equivalence. It is a rare cultural cliché, and due to this characteristic of uniqueness it is capable to stimulate the interest of the receiver in a highly more accentuated nature than other clichés, redundant, de-semanticized – within the process of media communication. The example allows us to make a generally valid observation regarding the theory of information: the more frequent a metaphor is within the journalistic language, the less information it transfers; the less frequent metaphors are, the more meaning

88

Patterns of Metaphorisation in the Media Discourse

they carry and transmit more information. The journalistic metaphors are not interesting just as linguistic phenomena: the “Gordian knot”, for example, can be interesting for the researcher as a verbal strategy or within the context of cultural anthropology, of conceptual equivalents, but also due to the quality of code of the quality of information. “Quantity” of Information. The metaphor is the bridge between what we know and what we want to know through the media, especially in the dynamics of the title. The statement: “Cenuúăreasă de România: la 11 ani a primit cadou un super palat, dar locuieúte într-o cocioabă” (Cinderella of Romania: at the age of 11 got a palace as a present, but she lives in a shack’ ‘Cinderella of Romania) (Jurnalul.ro 2012) – is an undefined, incomplete description under a pragmatic aspect – updates a large amount of information in the article title, whether we appeal to linguistics or pragmatic resources. We may observe how the amount of information differs in terms of communication strategies of the “event” and/or message: if the “event” is certain or almost certain, information is quantitatively reduced. If the “event” is totally unexpected and unusual (as mentioned in the discussed example), the amount of information developed by the metaphor-label is big. Cultural “substratum”. The transfer of the metaphor from the linguistic sphere into the sphere of thought occurs in most informational disciplines. The cognitive approach highlights the fundamental feature of metaphorization: the relation between competence of conceptualization and efficiency at the level of communication media. The journalist’s appeal to metaphor has psychological, linguistic, methodological, stylistic reasons, has deep motivations in the information theory, etc. The usage of journalistic metaphors is determined by the “event” which anchors the reader in everyday life. In the dynamics of scientific discoveries, world premiere activities, corruption scandals, information coming from the world society and so on, the metaphorical term conceptually reconstructs reality. The journalists “possess” a certain culture that will allow specific equivalences, knows a wide range of conceptual patterns. The two domains, at the level of which the logic transfer is performed, are structurally and functionally different. The term that denotes the failure a soccer team – “Vinerea Neagră” (Black Friday) (subheading in Cotidianul.ro 2011) – comes from the economic language, “Pirineii” (Pyrenees) is the conceptual equivalent for the Tour de France: “Pirineii au scuturat serios Top 10” (The Pyrenees seriously shook the Top 10) (Cotidianul.ro 2011). Also, in the language of natural science, we may identify the source domain of the metaphor “tide”, backed up in the statement by a well defined referent: “Sub o maree de steaguri, sute de mii

Doina Butiurca

89

de persoane au rezervat o primire entuziastă Suveranului Pontif” (Under a tide of flags, hundreds of thousands of people have reserved an enthusiastic welcome of the Pope) (Cotidianul.ro 2011), etc. In the given contexts, “Vinerea Neagră” (Black Friday), “Pirineii” (Pyrenees) are nominal metaphors based on conceptual correspondences, with multiple meanings: are revalorized information units, are communication strategies and forms of knowledge (see Pyrenees), etc. In journalist texts, the conceptualising models are heterogeneous: in the field of arts (a spokesman is a “trompeta televizată” (televised trumpet) (Cotidianul.ro 2011), nature of the event (the absence of a remarkable result is “secetă” ‘drought’): “Drought of 44 years for Dinamo (Romanian soccer club)” (Gazeta Sporturilor.ro), cultural stereotypes (a difficult to estimate situation is “nodul gordian” (Gordian knot)), mythological sphere (a President of the State is “Zeus”), animal bestiary (a politician with image problems is “un câine bătrân hărĠuit de un pisoi…” (an old dog harassed by a cat) Cotidianul.ro 2012), family relationships (the Minister of Finance may be: “Tătucul bugetului, personaj care Ġine cifrele” (The daddy of the budget, character with the numbers) (Cotidianul.ro 2012). From this perspective, the journalistic metaphor can be funny, ironic, sarcastic, romantic or dramatic.

Conclusions and Suggestions The first conclusion of the research is that not all language functions established by Roman Jakobson (1963) can be considered sufficient for the journalistic field. To define the statute of metaphor in nonartistic, written press, five specific functions are important, which are more or less autonomous: information, knowledge, mobilization and manipulation, expressive. The second conclusion is that the journalistic metaphor is a unit, an information code “ennobled” through conceptual, cultural and expressive values, in a cognitive and logic process of media communication strategies. This trait associates itself with parameters of subjectivity, specific to the journalist. Every journalistic metaphor has a clearly defined referent in the statement, being uniquely decoded. The last observation is of a general nature: diversification of journalistic metaphor values in recent years is a function of the democratic process, in comparison with the doctrinal metaphor, that used to limit, before 1989, the expansion of information in the Romanian society.

90

Patterns of Metaphorisation in the Media Discourse

The study of journalistic metaphor may interest the researcher from a linguistic, stylistic and functional aspect, but also from the aspect of a lexical theory of informative value.

References Bühler, K. (1990). Theory of Language: The Representational Function of Language. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Butiurca, Doina. (2011). The Conceptual Metaphor and the Cultural Substrate. Paris: Prodifmultimedia. Cotidianul. Online: http://www.cotidianul.ro. Cvasnîi-Cătănescu, M. C. (2007). Titlul jurnalistic [The Journalistic Title]. In I. Rad (Ed.), Stil úi limbaj în mass-media din România [Style and Language in the Romanian Media]. Iaúi: Polirom. Dumistrăcel, S. (2007). “Radio úanĠ” úi “Zvon-press” ca marker ai comuniunii fatice în satul global [“Grapevine” and “Gossip” as Markers of the Phatic Community in the Global Village]. In I. Rad (Ed.), Stil úi limbaj în mass-media din România [Style and Language in the Romanian Media]. Iaúi: Polirom. Goodman, N. (1967). Languages of Art: An Approach to a Theory of Symbols. Indianapolis, IN: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc. Jakobson, R. (1963). Essais de linguistique générale [Essays in General Linguistics]. Paris: Minuit. Jurnalul. Online: http://www.jurnalul.ro. Lakoff, G. & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Richards, I. A. (1965). The Philosophy of Rhetoric. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ricoeur, P. (1997). La Métaphore vive [Vivid Metaphor]. Paris: Seuil.

NONVERBAL SENSITIVITY AND STUDENTS’ MOTOR PERFORMANCE ALINA DUDUCIUC

Introduction Over the past 50 years, nonverbal skills have been described, both in theory and research, as a communication and social relationships facilitator; playing a role in the human development and the individual’s adaptation to the environment and a motivating role in the prosocial and cooperative behaviours (Bandura 1997, Carton, Kessler & Pape 1999, Saarni 1991, Greene & Burelson 2008, Spitzberg 2008, Ivan 2009). Nonverbal skills have also been associated with the social actors’ personal and professional success (Ekman & O’Sulivan 1991, Butovskaya, Timentschik & Burcova 2007, Ivan & Duduciuc 2011), with the individuals’ mental health, the satisfaction and dissatisfaction experienced during their varied activities (Argyle 1967, Spizberg & Cupach 2002). The importance of nonverbal skills in predicting the results of individual interactions has long been studied in the social and psychosocial literature (Argyle 1967, Bandura 1997, Greene & Burelson 2008, Goleman 1997, Spitzberg 2008), as a constant behavioural flexibility in relations with others, as a mutual adaptation and influential process with assertive value, through which the individuals thus acquire popularity and experience a subjective state of well-being (Burgoon & Hoobler 2002). The very first studies on this topic showed that individuals with interpersonal communication disorders during the primary socialization period will subsequently develop mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, depression and alcohol related problems (Argyle 1967), whereas children with superior interaction skills are more likely to become successful in their academic life, professional career, as well as in their interpersonal relationships (Spizberg & Cupach 2002). This research relates the nonverbal sensitivity of individuals with group performance, analyzing the extent to which highly interpersonal sensitive subjects proved best performance in competitions, in this case, in

92

Nonverbal Sensitivity and Students’ Motor Performance

the basketball game. In this paper, “nonverbal sensitivity” refers to the capacity of decoding nonverbal messages and using nonverbal cues in order to estimate other people’s emotions, attitudes and behavioural intentions (Hall 1984). They are measured by conducting the PONS test (The Profile of Nonverbal Sensitivity), developed by Robert Rosenthal et al. (1979), one of the first standardized tools for measuring the nonverbal decoding skills. There are 220 sequences, 2 seconds each, representing 20 interaction situations of various affective intensities, transmitted by a sole receiver whose face and body or paralanguage elements or combinations between these communications channels are being videotaped.

Nonverbal Skills and Sport Performance Social psychology applied in sports conveys a series of empirical data about the role of communication in sportsmen groups’ dynamics (Sullivan & Feltz 2003). Thus, communication has been considered a success element in competitive activities, in close relationship with the individuals’ cognitive and motor skills, with the efforts made, the size of the group, the group’s norms and its degree of cohesion (Hagger & Chatzisarantis 2005). It has been indicated that the communication process in sportsmen groups intensifies when the members are to solve problems, such as adapting to a task and reacting to danger. Also, the social-affective dimensions of communication were analyzed, namely its role in the individual’s adaptation to the group and in obtaining the affective support needed to overpass difficult situations, such as losing an important contest (Eccles & Tenenbaum 2004). Though these studies revealed a positive correlation between communication skills and sport performance, the experiments relating communication nonverbal aspects with contest success are sporadic. It is relevant to mention the research carried out by the psychologists at the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports of the Florida University. Domagoj Lausic et al. (2009) tested the link between athletic performances and the types of verbal messages between the tennis team players of a double match. The authors recorded ten tennis matches and codified verbal exchanges between the participants (tennis players aged 20) in four categories: factual messages (“the court is slippery”), explicit emotional messages (“I’m nervous”) and implicit messages (nonverbal cues), tactic messages (“Do a long serve!”), feedback messages, through which co-players obtain approval of their actions during the match. The authors pinpointed a difference between the winning and losing teams, the first had a higher rate of tactic messages as compared to the latter which

Alina Duduciuc

93

concentrate on the messages related to the approval of actions during the match. Nonverbal cues did not turn out to be performance predictors; both winning and losing teams registered the same amount of nonverbal emissions. Research Hypotheses The study’s general hypothesis is to prove that nonverbal skills play a role in the individual and group performances. We test the following hypotheses: -

-

Supposing there is a positive correlation between nonverbal skills and the basketball players’ performances, we would, therefore, expect those who scored high at the PONS test to have a good competitive evolution. We suppose that the individuals who related with members of other cultures have superior skills in decoding nonverbal cues as compared to those that did not interact this way. Therefore, we expect the players that performed in international contests to have superior decoding skills as compared to those who only played locally.

Methodology Fourteen students participated in this research (M=7; F=7), all members of a basketball team in the national university championship, aged between 19 and 22 years. They used to interact almost twice a week, for four hours, during their training sessions in groups of 10. Most of them had previously participated (92%) in the national basketball championship, having on average, a 9 years experience in professional competitions. Only 3 out of 14 players had previously performed in international competitions. The research was carried out during the first semester of the academic year, November 2011 respectively. In order to measure nonverbal skills at the level of the visual channel, a shorter form of the PONS test was used with 40 “face” and “body” items. This short PONS version positively correlates (r=.50, p