Being a 'strategist': Communication practitioners, strategic work, and power effects of the strategy discourse (64)

Autor: Rickard Andersson

Keywords: discurso estratégico, profesionales de la comunicación, relaciones públicas 

Abstract: This article analyzes communication practitioners’ accounts to interpret what power effects the strategy discourse has on their ‘way of seeing’ themselves and their work. Through an analysis of 26 interviews with communication practitioners, the findings show that strategy, understood as a discursive body of knowledge, has empowered practitioners by enabling them to produce an understanding of themselves as worthy ‘strategists’ possessing unique expertise and competencies essential to their organization, and empowered them to claim intra-organizational power and power over others. The article empirically shows how practitioners engage with the strategy discourse to construct accounts of themselves and their work, and makes a theoretical contribution by exemplifying the problematizing potential of the strategy as discourse perspective by discussing the power effects strategy has on the profession and practice. Thus, the article complements classical and emergent perspectives on strategy in public relations and strategic communication by offering an approach more attentive toward the constitutive effects of strategy on the practice of public relations and strategic communication.

Idioma: Inglés. 

Publicación: 24 de mayo del 2020.

Volumen: Volume 9, Issue 3.

 Enlace Permanente

Building organizational resilience through strategic internal communication and organization-employee relationships

Journal of Applied Communication Research, Vol. 49, No. 5 (2021) https://doi.org/10.1080/00909882.2021.1910856

Autor: Young Kim; Department of Strategic Communication, J. William and Mary Diederich College of Communication, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, USA; young.kim@marquette.edu;  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9708-6714  

Keywords: Internal crisis communication, two-way symmetrical communication, organization–employee relationships, organizational resilience. 

Abstract: This study explores the impacts of internal strategic communication and relationship management with employees for organizational resilience in effective internal crisis communication, thereby filling a gap in crisis communication research. Specifically, it provides empirical evidence for how organizational resilience in a crisis can be achieved through strategic internal communication and relationship building with employees. A nationwide survey (N = 830) was conducted among full-time employees in the United States. The results revealed the important mediating role of organization–employee relationships (OER) between resilience and its antecedent, demonstrating that OER is a strong underlying factor in understanding how two-way symmetrical communication indirectly impacts organizational resilience. Thus, this study extends the scope of current crisis communication theories to emphasize managerial efforts directed at organizational resilience. Practical insights for developing organizational resilience include managers investing in two-way symmetrical communication and positive employee relationships before a crisis occurs.

Idioma: Inglés 

Publicación: 07 de febrero del 2020 

Volumen: Journal of Applied Communication Research, Volume 49, 2021 - Issue 5.

Enlace Permanente 

Disinformation, social media, bots, and astroturfing: the fourth wave of digital democracy

 

Profesional de la Información, Vol. 30 Núm. 6 (2021): Democracia https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2021.nov.03

Autor: García- Orosa, Berta; Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Facultad de Ciencias de la Comunicación, España; berta.garcia@usc.es; https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6126-7401

Keywords: Artificial intelligence, Astroturfing, Automation, Bots, Covid-19, Big data, Democracy, Algorithms, Disinformation, Election campaigns, Political communication, Hoaxes, Fake news.

Abstract: This article reflects on the conceptualization and the salient features of the ecology of e-democracy. The authors identify four distinct waves marked by technological innovations and studied under the control-participation dichotomy. In the first wave, during the 1990s, political actors begin to establish their online presence but without any other notable changes in communication. The second wave takes place from 2004 to 2008 and features the consolidation of social networks and the increasing commodification of audience engagement. The third wave begins to take shape during Obama´s 2008 election campaign, which featured micro-segmentation and the use of big data. The fourth wave, starting in 2016 with the Brexit campaign and the Cambridge Analytica scandal, has been defined by the front and center use of Artificial Intelligence. Some recent phenomena that challenge or buttress the make-up of critical public opinion are the following: a) digital platforms as political actors; b) the marked use of Artificial Intelligence and big data; c) the use of falsehoods as a political strategy, as well as other fake news and deep fake phenomena; d) the combination of hyperlocal and supranational issues; e) technological determinism; f) the search for audience engagement and co-production processes; and g) trends that threaten democracy, to wit, the polarization of opinions, astroturfing, echo chambers and bubble filters. Finally, the authors identify several challenges in research, pedagogy and politics that could strengthen democratic values, and conclude that democracy needs to be reimagined both under new research and political action frameworks, as well as through the creation of a social imaginary on democracy.

Idioma: Original Inglés (documento disponible para descarga en español)

Publicación: 28 de octubre del 2021. 

Volumen: Profesional de la Información, Vol. 30 Núm. 6 (2021): Democracia.

Enlace Permanente

Real fictions: fictionality, factuality and narrative strategies in contemporary storytelling

Narrative inquiry 2019, Vol.29 (2), p.245-267 https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.19025.bro

 Autor: 

1. Sam Browse, Department of Humanities, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Sheffield Hallam University, Owen Building, City Campus, Howard Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, UK; s.browse@shu.ac.uk; https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8709-5468
2. Alison Gibbons; Department of Humanities, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Sheffield Hallam University, Owen Building, City Campus, Howard Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, UK, a.gibbons@shu.ac.uk; https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8912-9350
3. Mari Hatavara; Tampere University, Finland; mari.hatavara@tuni.fi  

Abstract: “In the fiction of the future”, writes Raymond Federman in the 1970s, “the distinction between the real and the imaginary, between the conscious and the subconscious, between the past and the present, between truth and untruth will be abolished” (Federman, 1981, p. 8). In the late 1990s, Marie-Laure Ryan spoke of a similar “crisis” whereby fiction dominated to the extent that non-fiction seemed less real. Certainly, in today’s post-millennial and so-called “post-truth” age, the boundary between reality and fiction seems increasingly hard to distinguish: politicians spin stories; everyday reality in (social) media is invested in live narratives; historical events are narrativized in literary texts; fantasy as a genre is more popular than ever; and new genres – such as autofiction and fanfiction – blur the boundaries between autobiography and artistic creation on the one hand and referentiality and readerly reception on the other. This post-truth sensibility reaches beyond the intentions of creators and beyond the fabric of texts, impacting the way people live their everyday lives together with and inspired by the stories that surround them. For all these reasons, stories as tools for making sense of human action in situated social realities are today more important than ever. Stories are, for example, one of the primary vehicles through which politics is articulated and debated (Andrews, 2014). In a study on a large, public deliberative forum, Polletta and Lee (2006) suggest that those who identify with minority opinions, prefer using personal stories as part of their argumentation, and so tend to get a more favorable response from those who have a different opinion. Moreover, the spread of new media affects the affordances and constraints available in interaction and interpersonal sense-making. These new media narrative forms and the hybrid ontologies of post-truth modes of storytelling in the twenty-first century make fictionality a more pressing critical concern. Stylistic and narratological tools and models must keep pace with the complexities of these narratives in order to remain relevant and to adequately elucidate their formal properties, the interpretive processes they involve, and the experiential effects they generate. 

Idioma: Inglés 

Publicación: 2019

Volumen: Narrative inquiry 2019, Vol.29 (2), p.245-267

Enlace Permanente

Some like it bad: testing a model on perceiving and experiencing fictional characters

Media Psychology; Vol 7, issue 2 (2005) https://doi.org/10.1207/S1532785XMEP0702_1

Author: 

1. Konijn, Ellie A.; Department of Communication Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, De Boelelaan, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; elly.konijn@vu.nl;  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6134-8700 
2. Hoorn, J.F; Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Sciences, De Boelelaan, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; j.f.hoorn@vu.nl; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3427-5681

Keywords: Readers of fiction, spectators of motion pictures, affective relationships, fictional characters, media exposure.  

Abstract: We developed an encompassing theory that explains how readers of fiction and spectators of motion pictures establish affective relationships with fictional characters (FCs). The perceiving and experiencing fictional characters (PEFiC) theory is anchored in art perception, psychological aesthetics, and social and emotion psychology and addresses both the complexity and intrinsic affectivity involved in media exposure. In a between-subject design (N = 312), engagement and appreciation were measured as a function of the ethics (good vs. bad), aesthetics (beautiful vs. ugly), and epistemics (realistic vs. unrealistic) of eight protagonists in feature movies. The PEFiC model best fit the data with a unipolarity of factors and outperformed traditional theories (identification, empathy): The trade-off between involvement and distance explained the appreciation of FCs better than either distance or involvement alone. The mediators similarity, relevance, and valence exerted significant (interaction) effects, thus complicating the results. Furthermore, the effects of mediated bad persons differed strongly from ethically good ones.

Language: English 

Publication: 17 Nov. 2019 

Volumen: Media Psychology; Vol 7, issue 2 (2005) 

Enlace permanente