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Review of the book: Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2018). The review focuses mostly on the complexity of McIntyre’s analysis, the author succeeding to draw, in an introductory book, a truly multifaceted picture of a phenomenon that is defining the word we live in.
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Black Mirror, the critically acclaimed TV anthology series famous for presenting a dystopian future where high technology meets humanity’s dark side has also received a lot of attention from the academia. Generally considered a reflection on the dark side of technology, it has stimulated debate on the philosophical implications of contemporary society’s infatuation with technological innovations. Virtual realities and social control made possible by the digital world are salient topics for discussion, and they have inspired comparisons with the work of philosophers such as Michel Foucault and Jean Baudrillard. This paper aims to give a presentation of the series focusing on the philosophical implications some of its episodes suggest. It analyses the relation between dilemmas of contemporary societies and the dystopian future which the series presents. In the end, it suggests a complementary perspective that interprets Black Mirror beyond its discourse about the effects of technology. This suggested reading argues that Black Mirror depicts a society governed by principles that failed to ensure justice and stability in the face of concurrent drives and forces brought by the new technologies.
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A significant change in consumer viewing habits has taken place globally with the introduction and growth of over-the-top television services (OTT TV). In the absence of scientific evidence on television consumer behavior viewership changes, this paper's objective was to ascertain the television viewing patterns, given the rise of OTT TV services in South Africa. The study adopted a quantitative research approach using a convenience sampling method. Online survey questionnaires were distributed on reputable social media networks and collected 391 responses. The study results suggest changes to TV consumption, in that more TV consumers are binge-watching and streaming content online. Furthermore, more than five hours a day are spent online consuming TV content, especially by male respondents. The sharing of OTT TV logon credentials with family and friends is prevalent across all demographic groups. The fundamental aspect of this paper is that it illuminates the rivalry between the Pay-Tv operators and OTT TV service providers while aiding the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) to regulate the market.
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We are living complicated but interesting times concerning the environment communication area, reflected by contradictory statements especially from political leaders. There is a strong disagreement among them of what really means saving the environment and what are the global warming effects for the human kind and for the globe. While there is one single but strong voice who said that global warming doesn’t really exists, we have other political leaders who are the champions of protecting the environment. In 2015 in Paris, nearly 200 countries were agreed to diminish greenhouse gas emissions in order to decrease the temperatures spiral with 2C or more above the pre-industrial era. In this paper we will analyses what are the effects of these declarations and if back home their own countries, these leaders are really implementing their political statements. In order to do so, we are using comparative analysis with public data from different sources, PESTEL and SWOT analysis. Even though it is well known that politicians don’t really keep their words it is worth to check factual what is the economic, environment and social reality regarding this subject.
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Currently, market conditions are becoming more and more competitive, and organizations can only survive through a top-level activity. Current studies have highlighted that the key factor in the success of an organization is the knowledge and satisfaction of consumers targeted by a higher supply, and public relations is that function of society, responsible for defining the target consumers and the best ways to meet their needs, exigencies and wishes at a competitive and profitable level for both the consumer and the manufacturing company. The present paper attempts to pronounce on the interaction of two complex elements: the image of a company and public relations, highlighting the deep links between them
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The SARS-Cov-2 virus pandemic made it necessary to implement new standards of behaviour in public spaces. As instruments of communication, brief messages in a generally accessible public space aimed at limiting infections by changing social behaviour. This way, such messages contributed to modifying public space in its physical, social and communicative aspects. The article attempts to capture the communicative and linguistic practices used for this purpose.
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The paper discusses the function of catchwords and slogans, as well as the role that these forms play in political communication. Not only are they short and catchy sayings, but they also carry important meanings – from the point of view of both the government and the society. Political slogans and catchwords are a significant part of political campaigns, politicians’ presentations and election programs, as well as social movements and protests. As multimodal carries, they can be examined with the use of systemic functional linguistics methods. The analysis and conclusions are based on the collection of more than 3100 items: political catchwords from Polish political discourse, excerpted from written (ephemera, press) and oral texts (protests, demonstrations, live presentations) published in 1918–2018. The collection is the part of the project which aims at publishing A Dictionary of Political Catchwords.
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The article presents an analysis of public speaking in terms of the style of revealing emotions, from self-promotion to self-presentation. Performers show their (desirable) features, building their image and identity, but at the same time they influence decisions of the recipients. Self-presentation behaviours include all activities, both verbal and non-verbal, which, in addition to the persuasion potential, build a positive self-image of the sender and increase his/her attractiveness in the eyes of the interlocutor. The author of the article discusses some examples of such behaviours based on statements and gestures of public figures recorded during television programs, which are perceived as signals and indicators of interpersonal attitude and reactive behaviour.
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The Russian Federation has been carrying out long-term and successful disinformation and propaganda activities against Ukraine. Due to its powerful, state-supported media structures, it is able to impose its vision of reality on its respective audiences. The purpose of this article is to determine the lexemes and topics of the “landscape” of analytical reports produced by Russia Today (RT) in 2018–2020. Lexemes and topics lay the groundwork for the RT propaganda discourse aimed at interfering and disbalancing Ukraine’s media space. This paper, based on quantitative and qualitative analysis, focuses on (1) the vocabulary structure of analytical materials, which may indicate Russian priorities, and (2) the thematic content (hidden topics) of RT messages. The RT analytical reports titles and relevant metadata were analyzed. The body of data was subdivided into periods of presidencies of P. Poroshenko and V. Zelensky. The authors argue that personalities do not play a significant role in the Kremlin’s attitude toward Ukraine; only the UkraineRussia opposition is decisive, in which the RF assigns Ukraine the only acceptable role as Russia’s “puppet.”
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The visual identity of a brand is what comprises a substantial part of its value, as it is the logo and the symbols used by a brand that distinguish it from competition and confer its competitive advantage. Logo can even be perceived as a work of art, which, however, beside its artistic value, needs to respect several principles. It needs tofulfil all the requirements posed on visual form, such as aesthetic aspect, as well needing to be a visual representation of what the brand has to say and how it seeks to operate on the market. The aim of the article is to clarify the issue of branding, which is closely related to the creation of the logo, on the basis of available domestic and foreign literature and online and magazine sources. The methods of description, analysis and synthesis were applied in the paper, particularly a descriptive approximation of theoretical knowledge relating to brands and logo creation presented by both domestic and foreign authors and by internet and magazine sources, connecting separate parts into a coherent whole and the analysis of the use of logo by individual brands.
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This article examines how the delivery of letters and messages was organised by way of couriers between Tallinn and Stockholm in the latter half of the 16th century and first third of the 17th century, that is before the introduction of a regular state-run postal system in 1636. The article examines Tallinn’s place in the Swedish crown’s communication system, the speed of the delivery of letters, and factors that affected that speed. When Tallinn was incorporated into the Swedish state in 1561, the need arose to exchange written and oral information between the motherland and her new overseas possession. As the territory under Swedish rule expanded in Estland and Livland, letters were already distributed more broadly by way of Tallinn to Pärnu, Narva, Haapsalu, and other fortresses. At least some of the couriers delivering letters between Sweden and its neighbouring countries, Russia and Poland, passed through Tallinn. The royal authorities sent all manner of notices and orders to Tallinn. Letters in the form of reports and enquiries were sent in the opposite direction by the crown’s local representatives, the Stadthalters and governors, and the town council. Royal letters moved as necessary by way of courier postal service until the state-run regular postal system was established in Sweden–Finland and in the overseas provinces.
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This text is focused on the socialisation process of the photo image since its appearance in the 19th Century to this day. In spite of its timely occurrence which catered to the growing need for image memory of industrial society, this type of photography was perceived diversely at the beginning. The scientific, technical and cultural elites gladly embraced it and immediately found application for it, whereas the prevailing population, immersed in its daily routine, perceived it with suspicion, and in countries that were rather backward in their pictorial tradition, even with hostility. It took some time for it to become part of everyday life, and, later, to make the next cultural revolution after Gutenberg‘s, so that we arrive at today‘s fast-paced world, which is undoubtedly prevailed by the image. This text outlines the main visual constructs through which this happens, and tries to answer the question of why today's new or rather modified types of photography are constantly appearing.
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Celebrity politicians usually have an advantage – their image is already created outside politics. The so-called celebrity status supports their goals with the ability to reach and mobilize otherwise apathetic audiences. It is also perceived as an added value to the image of a politician. That’s why the subject of the study is the role of the celebrity status phenomenon and its transformation into political capital in modern political communication. The study aims to analyze this phenomenon in two different socio-cultural contexts – the pre-election campaign in social networks of Donald Trump in the USA (2016) and that of Vladimir Zelensky in Ukraine (2019). The last three weeks of the campaigns are considered, answering the questions which specify the research task.
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It is posited that the Covid-19 crisis proved to even the most dedicated modernist that long-term macro-public relations strategies, imbedded in modernistic public relations practices, will no longer suffice. Equally problematic, however, is a purely postmodern perspective with its criticism of closure, certainty and control in business environments subjected to predominantly modernistic management styles. An alternative paradigm has become necessary. The purpose of this paper is thus to address the tension between the two dominant paradigms in public relations practice, namely modernism and postmodernism, by introducing metamodernism as a new perspective. A qualitative, interpretivist approach was followed by exploring and analysing existing literature on the use of metamodernism in the field of public relations. It is argued that modernistic public relations perspectives still have relevance when applied from a metamodern perspective. It is suggested that a metamodern worldview will provide public relations practitioners with a new paradigm, uniting both modernistic and postmodernistic perspectives into creative solutions.
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Communication in and by organizations is ostensibly managed under a plethora of titles and functions including public relations, communication management, corporate communication, marketing communication, organizational communication, and strategic communication. Theory in a number of these fields claims to include all internal and external communication in and by organizations. Building on previous literature, this analysis of the internal and external communication of three companies operating in three different countries explores the boundaries of contemporary communication management. In doing so, it challenges disciplinary ‘siloes’ and normative theories and suggests ways to reimagine the future. While three cases do not provide generalizable findings, this analysis adds weight to arguments for broadening understanding of strategic communication and contributes to discussion of paradigms and theories of public relations, as well as the future of corporate communication.
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This article examines public relations education in the context of neoliberalism and argues that, if we want public relations practitioners to have an important role in public discourse, we must first educate public relations students for public life. Neoliberalism, however, stands in the way because the growing emphasis in public relations education is on vocational skills and training, rather than on comprehensive liberal arts education. The authors discuss the tensions between theory and practice that is reflected in part in those who teach public relations courses, as well as in the current state of public relations education. The article concludes that public relations education must undergo a paradigmatic shift away from vocational training and toward a more comprehensive liberal arts education.
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Design as a profession differs from other communication practices in its socio-psychological and epistemological features. These features need to be considered to understand recent public relations strategies (Taylor & Botan, 2004). We analyze design practices and identify the five essential features which should be taken into account in the management of public relations: 1) the aspect of (necessarily) tolerated randomness; 2) the rejection of explicit methods and theory; 3) emotions as a constant, but implicit, background disposition of practices, and as a finality via the desirability paradigm; 4) a tendency towards auto-centered working perspectives; and 5) a large share of determined logics contrasting with creative sparks. We demonstrate that these features are implicit in the discourses and practices of designers, and we confront these features with our assumption that design practices are grounded in the Dasein (referring to Heidegger, 1963/1927) of designers. These features raise management challenges. The rationalization of design practices and the democratization of design tools make design more easily realizable by non-designers like communication professionals; consequently, other communication professionals are also pushed to consider these features of design practices. In the future, design and communication professionals will collaborate even further. The results of this research represent an ongoing challenge for socioeconomic actors to ensure the effective management of public relations.
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Examining the interpretations on the “U.S. observation case,” I am trying to answer the question of which contemporary theory may serve as the adequate context for telling the story of the birth of our right to privacy and the modern power structures endeavoring to oppress this right. Relying on the relevant literature, I have attempted to reconstruct two possible theories in light of the strength of the relationship between privacy and power: the paradigm rooted in the sociology of work; and one judicial approach based on human dignity. The analysis of the two privacy paradigms in contrast with each other highlights their advantages and disadvantages. I also attempt to outline normative points of view relevant when analyzing the relationship between power and privacy in the digital age.
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The abrupt onset of the COVID -19 pandemic brought devastating consequences to society as we know it. Connected to the obvious medical, societal, and economic changes, the pandemic also ushered in a world of isolation. Within this world, both media and violence are connected to imposed quarantine and confinement. During the pandemic, many studies indicated the rise of gender-based violence. For example, Mittal and Singh (2020) study the rise of quarantine violence in India. Equally disturbing is the rise of gender-based violence in digital spaces. Anon-IB is an image-based discussion board where anonymous images are posted. However, the board has become a hotbed for revenge porn and incel activity. Dutch police shut the site down in April 2018 (Vaas, 2018), but during the pandemic Anon-IB was able to find loopholes to restart itself. Users can also post headshots of a woman on the site and then ask for “wins,” which translates into nude photos. Anon-IB is location-based, and users often ask for photos of women in the surrounding area. The site also reaches an international audience. One example is a past thread from The University of Georgia in Tbilisi, Georgia. This paper discusses the rise of extreme online violence and revenge porn during the pandemic through a discourse analysis of Anon-IB. A discussion of incel culture will also be discussed, using the work of O’Malley et al. (2020) and others as a framework to discuss the internet’s role in ideological extremism and violence.
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The article follows the way the institution of the State Archives was presented in the Romanian press at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Although the articles on this topic were rare, they still offer the possibility to form an image about how this institution was perceived by the general public, but also about what was expected from the documents kept in the archive deposits. The public interest is gradually increasing, as can be seen in the growing attention for the archives of photographic and sound documents
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