Journal of Media Cri�ques Vol.4 No.14 2018
COMinG SPECIAL ISSUE III
Editors
ARİF YILDIRIM
MARGARITA KEFALAKI
P-ISSN: 2056 9785
E-ISSN: 2056 9793
doi: 10.17349/jmc118200
Journal of Media Critiques
Vol.4 No.14, 2018
Communication Institute of Greece (COMinG)
SPECIAL ISSUE 4
EDITORS
Arif YILDIRIM
Margarita KEFALAKI
P-ISSN: 2056-9785
E-ISSN: 2056 9793
© Jour al of Media Critiques, Vol.4 No.14, 2018 COMinG SPECIAL ISSUE 4
doi: 10.17349/jmc118200
Vol.4 No.14, 2018
Journal of Media Critiques
www.mediacritiques.net
email: jmc@mediacritiques.net
Editor-in-Chief
Dr.Arif Yıldırı
EDITORS of COMING SPECIAL ISSUE 4
ASST.PROF. DR. ARİF YILDIRIM, is an Assistant Professor, working as Head of
the Departments of Journalism, Canakkale 18 Mart University, Canakkale,
Turkey holding a PhD in Informatics with the thesis subject as "Data Security
Approach in Information Technology and Cryptography: DNA Algorithm".
Yildirim established a faculty, two undergraduate departments, and one
graduate department. Additionally, worked as Vice Director of Institute of
Social Sciences and the editor-in-chief of Journal of Social Sciences in
Gaziantep University. He is founder Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Cyber Security,
Privacy and eCrime (www.jcspe.org). Dr.Yildirim teaches lectures as
"Neurohacking with Social Media", "Social Media Journalism and Hacktivism",
"Activism, Digital Activism and Hacktivism" and "Community Media and ICTs
for Development and Social Transformation". His research focuses on social
media, cryptography with genetics, neurohacking with social media,
marketing, activism, digital activism, hacktivism, civil disobedience, privacy,
P2P, online behavior and identity.
DR. MARGARITA KEFALAKI, is the founder and current President of the
Communication Institute of Greece (COMinG). She holds a Ph.D. in Cultural
Communication and a Master degree in Communication from universities in
France (Pascal Paoli university, Corsica). Additionally, she holds a Bachelor
degree in cultural communication and organization of events from Vauban
University in Nimes (Montpellier III). Her research focuses on intercultural
communication, particularly the role of music and dance to connect people
and nations. Margarita has taught in several universities in Greece and France,
and has published widely in academic and policy journals such Journal of
Busi ess a d Ma age e t ‘esear h a d the I ter atio al “ all Busi ess
Jour al . Moreo er, she has su essfull led se eral i ter ultural proje ts as
the one of the creation of a musical disc in three languages (Action3 of the
European Program for young People of INJEP). Margarita believes that we can
better communicate through intercultural exchange and education Academics
can contribute to this international exchange procedure. This is what she is
trying to achieve with the creation of the Communication Institute of Greece
and the organization of International Academic Conferences.
ADVISORY BOARD of JMC
Prof.Dr. Angeles Moreno, University Rey Juan Carlos, Spain
Prof.Dr. Bernard D. Frischer, Department of Informatics, Indiana University, USA
Prof.Dr. David J. Gunkel, Northern Illinois University, USA
Prof.Dr. Erik Malcolm Champion, Curtin University, Australia
Prof.Dr. Frank E Parcells, Austin Peay State University, USA
Prof.Dr. John Chetro-Szivos, Fitchburg State University, USA
Prof.Dr. Lars Rademacher, h_da Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Prof.Dr. Lutz M. Hage , Te h is he U i ersit t Dresde , Ger a
Prof.Dr. Mike Friedrichsen, Stuttgart Media University, Germany
Prof.Dr. Noha Mellor, University of Bedfordshire, UK, United Kingdom
Prof.Dr. Paaige Kelle Turner, Webster University, USA
Prof.Dr. Toby Miller, Cardiff Univeristy, United Kingdom
Prof.Dr. Urs Dahinden, University of Applied Sciences Chur, Switzerland
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Anthony Moretti, Robert Morris University, USA
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Charlton McIlwain, New York University., USA
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Geri Alumit Zeldes, Michigan State University, USA
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Gordon Calleja, University of Malta ITU Copenhagen, Malta
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Judith Simon, IT University Copenhagen & University of Vienna, Austria
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Stephanie Ricker Schulte, University of Arkansas, USA
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Victoria Panova, MGIMO-University, Russian Federation
Asst.Prof.Dr. David Harris Smith, McMaster University, Canada
Asst.Prof.Dr. Erin Schauster, Bradley University, USA
Asst.Prof.Dr. Lauren Jaclyn DeCarvalho, University of Arkansas, USA
Asst.Prof.Dr. Rick Sheridan, Wilberforce University, USA
Asst.Prof.Dr. Robert Mckeever, University of South Carolina, USA
Asst.Prof.Dr. Ryan Rogers, Marist College, USA
Dr. Margarita Kefalaki, Open University of Greece, Greece
Dr. Panayiota Tsatsou, University of Leicester, United Kingdom
SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE (REFEREES) of JMC
Prof.Dr. Angeles Moreno, University Rey Juan Carlos, Spain
Prof.Dr. Bernard D. Frischer, Department of Informatics, Indiana University, USA
Prof.Dr. Bonnie Rohde, Albright College, USA
Prof.Dr. E et Gürel, Ege U i ersit , Fa ult of Co
u i atio , Turke
Prof.Dr. Erik Malcolm Champion, Curtin University, Australia
Prof.Dr. Erhan Ak azı, Mar ara U i ersit , Turke
Prof.Dr. Frank E Parcells, Austin Peay State University, USA
Prof.Dr. Georgeta Drulă, U i ersit of Bu harest, ‘o a ia
Prof.Dr. Gilso “ h artz, U i ersit of “ o Paulo, Brazil
Prof.Dr. Işık Özka , T.C. Yaşar U i ersit Faculty of Communications, Turkey
Prof.Dr. John Chetro-Szivos, Fitchburg State University, USA
Prof.Dr. Lutz M. Hage , Te h is he U i ersit t Dresde , Ger a
Prof.Dr. Mike Friedrichsen, Stuttgart Media University, Germany
Prof.Dr. Paaige Kelle Turner, Webster University, USA
Prof.Dr. “e ra Atılga , Mar ara U i ersit Fa ult of Co
u i atio s, Turke
Prof.Dr. Stevenson Kohir, Osmania University, Hyderabad, India
Prof.Dr. Toby Miller, Cardiff Univeristy, United Kingdom
Prof.Dr. Will Straw, McGill University, Canada
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Anthony Moretti, Robert Morris University, USA
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Ayla Kanbur, Yeditepe University, Turkey
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Berrin YANIKKAYA, Yeditepe University, Turkey
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Charlton McIlwain, New York University., USA
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Debra Harkins, Suffolk University, USA
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Geri Alumit Zeldes, Michigan State University, USA
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Gordon Calleja, University of Malta ITU Copenhagen, Malta
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Gregory G. De Blasio, Northern Kentucky University, USA
Assoc.Prof. Kirk Hazlett, Curry College, USA
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Natalia Piskunova, National Research University, Russian Federation
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Stephanie Ricker Schulte, University of Arkansas, USA
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Victoria Panova, MGIMO-University, Russian Federation
Asst.Prof.Dr. Asta Zelenkauskaite, Drexel University, USA
Asst.Prof.Dr. David Harris Smith, McMaster University, Canada
Asst.Prof.Dr. Erin Schauster, Bradley University, USA
Asst.Prof.Dr. Lauren Jaclyn DeCarvalho, University of Arkansas, USA
Asst.Prof.Dr. Perri Öğü E re, Kadir Has U i ersit , Turke
Asst.Prof.Dr. Rick Sheridan, Wilberforce University, USA
Asst.Prof.Dr. Robert Mckeever, University of South Carolina, USA
Asst.Prof.Dr. Ryan Rogers, Marist College, USA
Asst.Prof.Dr. Timothy James Pasch, University of North Dakota, USA
Dr. Carolina Oliveira Matos, City University London, United Kingdom
Dr. Margarita Kefalaki, Open University of Greece, Greece
Dr. Panayiota Tsatsou, University of Leicester, United Kingdom
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
12
CHAPTER I - INTERNATIONAL AND INTERCULTURAL EDUCATION
LEADERSHIP
Communication of Leadership Principles: A Critical Need for Leadership
Education for Underrepresented Grade School Students in the Bronx,
New York
19
MICHAEL A. ALTAMIRANO
The Subject Mentor in Moder Foreig La guages Tea her Edu atio
31
FOTINI DIAMANTIDAKI
On Key Terms and Textbooks: Teaching Comm101 in Dubai
45
BRADLEY FREEMAN
Education as Public Diplomacy: How to Build an International Image in
Education
55
MARIA VAXEVANIDOU
CHAPTER II - INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT
Competence Management– A Smart Strategy-Oriented Approach
71
ALEXANDER KARAPIDIS
Profile of the Subcontractor and Performance of the Exchange
Relationship in the Automotive Industry in Morocco
87
AHMED MAGHNI - HAMZA AANAOU
Research and Assessment of Recreational Capacity of the Nizhny
Novgorod Region
99
ELENA KOCHKUROVA - TATIANA ZYKOVA
Development of Community Enterprise Management System for Small
Community Tourism
107
JITTAPON CHUMKATE - THIRAWAT CHANTUK
Connecting Personality Traits with Deviant Workplace Behaviour
ANA ALEKSIC - MATEA VUKOVIC
119
CHAPTER III - INTERNATIONAL AND INTERCULTURAL
COMMUNICATION
A New Way to Enhance China's Cultural Confidence through Internet
Cultural Consumption
131
KEJIN LIU
The Spirit of Defiance in Mentorship Amongst Black Men and Boys
143
KELLY N. FERGUSON
Communication as Organisation: An Exploration of the Constitution
Chamas in Kenya
153
BEATRICE WAIRIMU NJERU
The Image of United Arab Emirates Culture Among the Non-Arab
Expatriates in the UAE
171
KHALED GAWEESH - ANFAL AL HAID
CHAPTER IV - POLITICAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATION AND
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
Knocking at the House with Closed Doors: European Integration in the
Ukrainian Public Discourse
191
OLEKSII POLEGKYI - CHRIST`L DE LANDTSHEER
Conversion of the Existing Monitoring Infrastructure for Manually
Ballot Counting in Albania to the Electronic Counting System
207
ROMEO KICO TENEQEXHI - LORETA KUNESHKA
Populism: Towards a Strategic Communication Framework
215
ARGYO KEFALA
CHAPTER V - SOCIAL MEDIA, MEDIA AND MEDIATED
COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES
Digital Forensic Comparison of Fingerprints
231
LYN HABER
Digital Technology as A Source of Creative Organizational Resource and
Service Delivery: Building a Climate for Organizational Creativity with
Deliberative Democracy
TOMI NIEMI
241
The Role of Regional Television in the Life of a Megacity
255
DARIA SELINA
Analysing New Media: The Layout Strategies of Greek Online Press and
the Audie e s ‘eadi g Pra ti es
261
ELPIDA SKLIKA
Semantic Tools for Participatory Journalism
281
THEODORA SARIDOU - KOSMAS PANAGIOTIDIS - NIKOLAOS TSIPAS ANDREAS VEGLIS
A Multimodal Semantic Model for Event Identification on Sports Media
Content
295
PANAGIOTIS-MARIOS FILIPPIDIS - CHARALAMPOS DIMOULAS CHARALAMPOS BRATSAS - ANDREAS VEGLIS
Augmented and Virtual Reality Technologies in Cultural Sector:
Exploring Their Usefulness and the Perceived Ease of Use
307
GEORGE LOUMOS - ANTONIOS KARGAS - DIMITRIOS VAROUTAS
Tourist Go Home: Communication and Propaganda on YouTube
323
MINOS-ATHANASIOS KARYOTAKIS - NIKOS ANTONOPOULOS ANDREAS VEGLIS - MATINA KIOUREXIDOU
A Case Study on Viral Journalism in Greece: The Figures, the Trends
and the Factors of Success
339
ELENI-REVEKKA STAIOU - ANDREAS GIANNAKOULOPOULOS
A Mobile Cloud Computing Collaborative Model for the Support of OnSite Content Capturing and Publishing
NIKOLAOS VRYZAS - EFSTATHIOS SIDIROPOULOS - LAZAROS VRYSIS EVANGELIA AVRAAM - CHARALAMPOS DIMOULAS
349
INTRODUCTION
We are glad and proud to present you the 3rd special issue that was co-created by the
collaboration of the Journal of Media Critiques (JMC) and the Communication
Institute of Greece (COMinG). We have already co-produced Vol.2 No.8 20161 and
Vol.3 No.11 20172.
This volume includes selected papers presented at the 3rd Annual International
Conference of Communication and Management (ICCM2018), 23-26 April 2018,
organized by the Communication Institute of Greece. In total 40 papers were
presented by 75 presenters, coming from 21 different countries around the world
(Pakistan, USA, UAE, Germany, Finland, Beijing, Malaysia, Turkey, Russia, France, UK,
Belgium, Spain, Albania, Kenya, Thailand, Lithuania, Croatia, Morocco, China, Greece).
This audie e o prised professors, resear hers, stude ts a d ke people,
interested by education, politics, cultural affairs, etc.
The themes of this issue are separated into sections/chapters, similar with the ones of
ICCM2018 conference, in order to facilitate the readers. From the twenty-six (26)
papers of this volume, we have four (4) papers on International and Intercultural
Education –Leadership, five (5) papers on International business and Management,
four (4) papers on International and Intercultural, three (3) papers on Political
sciences Communication and International affairs, and ten (10) papers on Social
Media, Media and Mediated Communication Technologies. More particularly:
Chapter 1: International and Intercultural Education –Leadership
The first paper of this se tio ,
Dr.Mi hael A. Alta ira o, e titled Co
u i atio
of Leadership Principles: a Critical Need for Leadership Education for
U derreprese ted Grade “ hool “tude ts i Ne York Cit , prese ts leadership as a
way to understand and improve a short of transformation to people within their
constituency. More particularly, this article seeks to explore why grade school
students of urban areas like the Bronx, New York struggle to surpass their social status
through education and professional achievement.
The “u je t Me tor i Moder Foreig La guages , is the se o d stud of this
session. Dr.Fotini Diamantidaki explains that this paper comes at a time of curriculum
and Initial Teacher Education (ITE) change in England [secondary ITE- Post Graduate
Certificate in Education (PGCE)]. The study aims to restate the definition of the
subject mentor, focusing on the qualities, the complexity and evolution of the role. It
also explores the type of collaboration that subject mentors would appreciate having
1
http://coming.gr/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/ICCM2016-MAGAZINE.pdf
http://coming.gr/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/2017_ICCM2017_PUB_Journal-of-MediaCritiques-JMC.pdf
2
with Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and observes whether the subject mentoring
role in MFL is changing as a result of government policy changes.
Dr.Bradle Free a ith O te t ooks a d ke ter s: Tea hi g Co
i Du ai ,
explores the appropriateness of Western textbooks given a Global South context, as
well as identifies and attempts to address several key terms of increasing importance
in both the higher education and media landscapes.
Edu atio as Pu li Diplo a : Ho to uild a i ter atio al i age i edu atio , is
the last article of this journals first session, authored by Dr.Maria Vaxevanidou. The
paper aims to present effective and enduring models of public diplomacy applied in
education all over the world, in order to: a) identify the main factors that can make a
country obtain a strong reputation in education, b) find out common factors between
different international education systems which are aligned to a certain public policy
applied by different countries and c) examine the public diplomacy methodology that
could make you a reputational leader in education.
Chapter 2: International business and Management
Co pete e a age e t– a smart strategy-orie ted approa h ,
Ale a der
Karapidis, is the first resear h paper of the se o d part. Frau hofer Ko pete zKo pass is illustrated i this paper as a age e t approa h de eloped to gi e
orientation on how to implement competence management into an organization in a
systematic and standardized way. The approach is conceptualized as a modular kit,
including necessary steps and approaches.
The second paper of this journals second session, by Dr.Ahmed Maghni and Hamza
Aa aou, is e titled The Profile of the “u o tra tor a d Perfor a e of the
E ha ge ‘elatio ship i the Auto oti e I dustr i Moro o . This stud ai s to
better understand the performance of car subcontracting relations in Morocco,
focusing on the performance of the exchange relationship between subcontractors. A
qualitative study (sixteen interviews), with competent stakeholders, including buyers
and suppliers of subcontracting companies, has highlighted performance perceptions
ranging from cost reduction for Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEMs), to the
search of institutional support for 3rd tier subcontractors.
Dr.Ele a Ko hkuro a a d Dr.Tatia a ) ko a, fro ‘ussia, follo s ith ‘esear h a d
Assess e t of ‘e reatio al Capa it of the Nizh No gorod ‘egio . Do esti
tourism program is characterized by the authors as the most important part of the
import substitution program, the implementation of which is claimed necessary to
ensure the stability and sustainability of economic development of Russian
Federation. The article evaluates the recreational potential of the Nizhny Novgorod
region using the method of expert, proposing identified risks of tourism development,
taking into consideration the value of each component and calculating the
quantitative value of recreational capacity of the region.
The forth paper of this session and eighth of this special issue, is entitled
De elop e t o Co
u it E terprise Ma age e t for “ all Co
u it
Touris , Dr.Jittapo Chu kate a d Dr.Thira at Cha tuk. This resear h e a i es
Community Enterprise Management System for Tourism and the guideline of
Community Enterprise Management System for sustainable tourism. More
particularly, it focuses on the career building in the small community of Cha-am
district, Phetchaburi Province, located in the west region of Thailand.
The last paper of this sessio is e titled Co e ti g perso alit traits ith de ia t
orkpla e eha ior ,
Dr.A a Aleksić a d Dr.Matea Vuko i . This resear h paper
deals with deviant workplace behavior as an element that can affect individual work
outcomes and can also have different social and psychological effects on them and
consequently on the overall organization. Personality traits are presented as a strong
predictor of various forms of deviant workplace behavior. An empirical research on a
sample of 189 individuals, is proposed to test the proposed connection. The work is
based on the big five personality model, as a popular method of assessing personality
traits, and deviant workplace behaviour is analysed from individual and organizational
point of view.
Chapter 3: International and Intercultural Communication
Keji Liu ith the resear h The i ter atio al communication of Chinese cultural
o fide e , is the first paper of this hapter. This paper ai s at larif i g the
necessity of developing Internet culture industry in China and illustrating the new
trend and characteristics of Internet culture consumption. It adopts cases from
differe t i dustries a d a al ses the i order to predi t i dustr s dire tio a d put
forward some proposals.
The “pirit of Defia e i Me torship a o gst Bla k Me a d Bo s , prese ted
Dr.Kelly N. Ferguson, explores how defiance becomes an integral force in the lives of
Black males from boyhood to manhood and how schools can contribute to the
development of this unique expression of resilience. Understanding the spirit of
defiance will aid teachers, schools and communities in minimizing cultural
misunderstandings that lead to punitive and exclusionary disciplinary referrals.
The third paper of this chapter and twelfth of this special issue, is entitled
Co
u i atio as orga isatio : A e ploratio of the o stitutio of social
olle ti es Cha as i Ke a , Dr.Njeru Wairi u B. This stud prese ts Cha as, a
common phenomenon of social collectives in Africa. This qualitative study, through a
case study design, and using observation of Chama meetings, focus group discussions
with select members, in depth interviews with Chama leaders, documentation from
Cha as, a d otes fro a refle ti e jour al, dra s fro M Phee a d )aug s Four
Flows, a CCO model, in order to better understand how Chamas are communicatively
constituted.
The following study, presented by Dr.Khaled Gaweesh and Anfal Al Haid, is entitled
The I age of U ited Ara E irates Culture a o g the No -Arab Expatriates in the
UAE . The ai goal of the resear h is to e plore the i age of UAE ulture a o g the
non-Arab expatriates who live and work in UAE. A structured survey with a sample of
121 non-Arab expatriates, was developed.
Chapter 4: Political Sciences Communication and International Affairs
Dr.Oleksii Polegkyi and Dr.Christ`l De Landtsheer, have authored a research paper
e titled The house ith losed doors: Europea i tegratio i the Ukrai ia pu li
dis ourse . This is the first arti le of this hapter o Politi al “ ie es a d
International Affairs. This paper focuses on a study of how the European integration
was conceptualized and metaphorically presented in the Ukrainian press in the period
of 2005 – 2010. Based on the Critical Metaphor Analysis and Conceptual Metaphors
approach, the authors investigate in this paper the main frames and metaphorical
representations of Europe and the European integration in Ukrainian media.
Dr.Romeo Teneqexhi and Dr.Loreta Kuneshka, presents the second paper of this
hapter a d fiftee th of this issue e titled, Co ersio of the e isti g o itori g
infrastructure for manually ballot counting in Albania to the electronic counting
s ste . This paper proposes to tur e isti g i frastru ture i to a ele tro i
counting system of votes. This monitoring system (computers - cameras - big screens)
can be converted into an electronic counting system. Each counting table will need
only one person and the ballot counting time will be drastically reduced. Every ballot
will be photographed, archived in digital format, will go to the Data Base and the
results will be reported i real ti e to the Ce tral Ele tio Co
issio . There o t
ea
allot papers left u ou ted a d sheets o t e ou ted ore tha o e.
The third paper of the forth hapter, Politi al Populis : To ards a “trategi
Co
u i atio Fra e ork , prese ted by Dr.Argyro Kefala, argues for the need to
work towards an integrated model of interpretation that takes into consideration the
social, ideological, and political conditions that make populism possible or thriving
together with the communicative elements of populist phenomena. As the author
explains, evidence from existing empirical and analytical work is applied in the
framework of a Strategic Communication model in an effort to enhance our
understanding through a multidisciplinary perspective. She adds that since political
parties have become professional election fighting machines, a strategic
communication approach of populism, as goal-oriented communication on behalf of
political organizations, is necessary in our effort to provide a better account of the
current successes of populist actors.
Chapter 5: Social Media, Media and Mediated Communication Technologies
Digital Fore si Co pariso of Fi gerpri ts ,
L Ha er, is the first paper of this
special issue last chapter. The author explains that fingerprints today in the U.S. are
routinely compared digitally by Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS).
Nevertheless, this novel procedure has much potential for error. The technology has
been put into widespread use before its accuracy has been demonstrated, and it is
open to many sources of error that could result in putting innocent people in prison.
The error rate for latent to exemplar searches alone appears to have a range of 20%
to 30%, apart from further potential for error introduced by human bias and
imprecise science. Yet more than 50% of criminal fingerprint cases in the U.S. rely on
these searches.
The eightee th paper of this issue a d se o d of this hapter, is e titled Digital
Technology as a Source of Creative Organizational Resource and Service Delivery:
Buildi g a Cli ate for Orga izatio al Creati it
ith Deli erati e De o ra ,
Tomi Niemi. This article identifies deliberative democracy as potential option for
creative development processes. It claims that deliberative democracy processes
deliver a solution for organizations to benefit digital transformation in creative ways.
The article concludes by recognizing the interconnectedness between considered
concepts.
The , Daria “eli a prese ts The role of regio al tele isio i the life of a ega it .
The author aims to reveal the technologies of the district broadcasting in a megacity.
Taking the example of the TV channel "TKT-TV" for the period from 2013 to 2016, the
author presents the channel that called itself «the losest TV to ou», at a ti e she
also used to work there. Spectators did not find reportages about what happened in
the country; instead, the channel talked about the events in their districts and even in
their homes, as the author claims.
The next paper of this issue, A al zi g Ne Media: the La out “trategies of Greek
O li e Press a d the Audie e s ‘eadi g Pra ti es ,
Elpida “klika, e a i es the
layout and infographics of a digital article and the possible reading practices of the
audience of online press. Data consist of 114 texts from Greek online newspapers,
magazines and pure players from three journalistic genres: news articles, opinion
articles and interviews, and five semantic fields: art/fashion, environment/ecology,
health/sports, science/technology and politics/finance, with the purpose to examine
the structure of these texts and discuss the strategies of reading online articles often
containing hyperlinks that reflect other texts in an explicit or tacit way (Fairclough,
2006).
“e a ti Tools for Parti ipator Jour alis , is prese ted
Theodora “aridou &
Kosmas Panagiotidis & Nikolaos Tsipas & Dr.Andreas Veglis. The paper seeks to
identify the existing use of semantic technology for the purpose of UGC exploitation
and to propose a model for semantic annotation of UGC.
The twenty-se o d paper of this issue a d si th of this fifth hapter, e titled A
Multi odal “e a ti Model for E e t Ide tifi atio o “ports Media Co te t ,
Panagiotis-Marios Filippidis, Dr.Charalampos Dimoulas, Dr.Charalampos Bratsas and
Dr.Andreas Veglis, presents a multimodal semantic event identification model of
occurring events in sports games. Given the current state of research, the current
paper proposes multilevel event classification taxonomies that could be used in
multimodal semantic processing and conceptualization approaches.
Aug e ted a d Virtual ‘ealit Te h ologies i Cultural “e tor: E plori g their
useful ess a d the per ei ed ease of use ,
Georgios Lou os, A to ios Kargas a d
Dr.Dimitrios Varoutas, is the seventh paper of this fifth chapter. This work focus on
cultural sector and aim to discuss and present sector challenges and opportunities for
Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) Technologies implementation.
Specific results regarding AR/VR perspectives for cultural industries (with a special
discussion for Greek cultural industry), technology appraisal criteria as well as the
perceived ease of use from both content – providers and end – users will also be
presented.
Tourist go ho e: Co
u i atio a d Propaga da o Youtu e ,
Mi osAthanasios Karyotakis, Dr.Nikos Antonopoulos, Dr.Andreas Veglis and Dr.Matina
Kiourexidou, is the eighth paper of this chapter. This research focuses on the incidents
that occurred in Barcelona, e ause of the tourists go ho e
o e e t. The
analysis of YouTube video characteristics such as comments, views, likes, dislikes,
channel subscribers etc. revealed that they might be used for influencing the public
opi io . Moreo er, it as pro ed that the tourists go ho e
o e e t has
challenged the current image of Barcelona as world-class tourism destination.
A Case “tud o Viral Jour alis i Gree e: the Figures, the Tre ds and the Factors
of “u ess ,
Dr.Ele i-Revekka Staiou & Andreas Giannakoulopoulos, is the twentyfifth paper of this issue. The aim of this article is to study the phenomenon of viral
journalism in Greece, centered on the Mikropragmata (http://mikropragmata.lifo.gr ),
a column of the free press Lifo that has become so large that it has acquired its own
micro-site and corresponding channels in social media. By studying the content of the
website, the authors try to understand what kinds of articles are posted and which
appear to be more successful to the public. How do readers react? Are there any
similar examples in Greece? In order to answer these questions, an online survey will
be carried out. Quantitative and qualitative data will be gathered on the website
under study and other relevant examples from Greece and abroad, as well.
The last paper of this special issue, by Nikolaos Vryzas, Efstathios Sidiropoulos,
Lazaros Vr sis, Dr.E a gelia A raa a d Dr.Charala pos Di oulas, is e titled A
Mobile Cloud Computing Collaborative Model for the Support of On-Site Content
Capturi g a d Pu lishi g . It i estigates the desig of a olla orati e Mo ile Cloud
Computing model to support the workflow of collecting, editing and publishing news
reporting material, aiming at better managing technology and human resources. With
the proposed framework, the authors claim that the journalists, reporters, technical
experts and editors can cooperate remotely and simultaneously on the cloud,
collaboratively producing and publish timely, authentic and high-quality content, with
proper documentation.
We wish you an excellent reading!
Dr.Margarita KEFALAKI
Dr.Arif YILDIRIM
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC]
doi: 10.17349/jmc118201
P-ISSN: 2056-9785
E-ISSN: 2056 9793
http://www.mediacritiques.net
jmc@mediacritiques.net
COMMUNICATION OF LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLES: A
CRITICAL NEED FOR LEADERSHIP EDUCATION FOR
UNDERREPRESENTED GRADE SCHOOL STUDENTS IN
THE BRONX, NEW YORK
MICHAEL A. ALTAMIRANO
ABSTRACT
The term leadership has gained popularity over the last twenty years as an area of research
and education for scholars and those seeking to understand and improve their method of
transforming others within their constituency. While the term has transcended all levels of
society, this article seeks to explore why grade school students of urban areas like the Bronx,
New York struggle to surpass their social status through education and professional
achievement. In an area of the United States that represents enormous wealth, the economic
and professional disparity between those who prosper and those who struggle can be
expounded through an understanding of poor communication, levels of education, and cultural
background(s). The majority of children who grow up in New York City are from
underrepresented groups in American society. These groups are Black, of American, African, and
Caribbean heritage; Latino (Hispanic), of Central American, South American, and Caribbean
heritage; and Asian and Middle-Eastern heritage. Poor communication emerges from the fact
that a large proportion of grade school children in NYC are first-generation students, many of
which struggle with language mastery. The vast majority of school-aged students live in
economically challenged areas of the City where income levels are at or below the standard of
poverty. The cultural impact of this study further examines the struggle of these students to
learn and relate to espoused leadership principles from educators, community leaders, and
organizational leaders.
Keywords: Leadership, Education, Communication, Economic Disparity, Culture.
INTRODUCTION
The communication of any principle would seem like a simple action to most
academicians. This paper seeks to explore the challenge of communicating the
principle of leadership to grade school children in the Bronx, New York. The Bronx is a
Professor, School of Business and Accounting, King Graduate School, Monroe College, Bronx, New York,
U.S.A. maltamirano@monroecollege.edu
20
Communication of Leadership Principles: A Critical Need for Leadership Education for
Underrepresented Grade School Students in the Bronx, New York
diverse and economically disparate area within the United States that is not a
universally understood demographic. This study attempts to add to a growing
discussion on accurate cultural struggles of the urban student (Woodson, 2015, p. 23).
A sociological challenge for most students in this environment is the development of
leadership traits that could help transcend their economic and cultural boundaries. This
challenge is further exasperated when those charged with serving this community are
from different backgrounds (Allard, Mehra, & Qayyum, 2007)
The education of leadership principles to students of under-represented ethnic
communities has several challenges. The system of education in the Bronx, New York
is not adequately prepared and funded to meet the challenges of educating the most
diverse student population in the world. Barriers to education include language,
cultural differences, and the vast disparity in educational competency levels (Birney &
McNamara, 2018, p. 9). Socio-economic reasons also hinder success such as economic
disparity and immigration issues (Smith, 2009, p. 49). Most public-school students in
the Bronx live at or below poverty levels, and many of these kids grow up in homes
where parents have to work full-time and often do not have sufficient time to work
with their children on lesson plans and overall guidance (Johnson, 2018, p. 39).
Unfortunately, this presents an irony of events where the school system bears most of
the responsibility of guiding children through educational and sociological development
issues.
This article purposely focuses on issues that pertain to grade school children
between the first and eighth grade. High school aged teenagers were deliberately
omitted from the research to study a narrower focus on this topic. Grade school
children are more receptive to learning new ideas and tend to be more impressionable
than their teenage counterparts are. Kitsantas, Steen, and Huie suggest that learning
at an elementary aged level has a direct correlation to motivation, academic
performance, and self-regulation (2017). Exploring how the concept of leadership is
communicated among grade school aged children presents an idealistic opportunity to
enhance and develop leadership traits at an early age.
Methodology
The topic of this article was researched qualitatively and presented in a case study
method. There were several participants interviewed for this study, and some were
grouped as one participating group. The participant breakdown is as follows:
•
Participant A – Teacher
•
Participant B – Teacher
•
Participant C – Teacher
•
Participants D – Nuclear Working Family with Three Children
•
Participants E – Single Working Mother with Two Children
•
Participants F – Undocumented Single Mother with Four Children
•
Participant G – School Principal
The nature of this study is exploratory with a focus on the communication and
education of leadership within a specific group and geographical location. It is
important to note that this research is from a limited sample in one geographic area
and does not represent the communication challenge from an entire city, region or
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
21
country. A case study format of this research presented an intimate exploration of
issues that impede the learning of leadership development principles for a specific
population. Case study research method focuses on specific situations, using
information from multiple sources (Cronin, 2014). Cronin goes on to explain that
"everything" can or may be relevant in the scope of the proposed study including
individuals, groups, activities, or specific phenomenon (2014).
The data for this case study was gathered using semi-structured interviews, thus
creating an exploratory opportunity for forming the research, as explained by
Pietkiewicz and Smith (2014). The use of predetermined questions aided in discovering
relevant information on the topic of this investigation. The research study used
purposeful sampling through the selection of individuals directly involved in grade
school public education in New York City. The research questions explored were as
follow:
R1. Are grade school students in the Bronx learning leadership principles as part of
their academic education?
R2. What are the challenges of communicating and teaching leadership to grade
school students in the Bronx?
R3. What methods are used to teach leadership principles to grade school students
in the Bronx?
Leadership Education from the Perspective of Three Educators
Teachers in New York City public schools are expected to fulfill their duty of
education and teach life lessons synchronously (Shoffner, 2018, p. 3). The participants
of this study had varying opinions on the topic of leadership education, but they all
agreed that it is difficult to teach a topic, where one has no expertise. A lack of
expertise is not an indictment on their qualifications or education on the subject of
leadership. In fact, they are quite qualified, but because they never specifically studied
the subject, they fail to understand their capacity to educate others on the topic.
Simply stated, leadership education begins with the understanding that anyone has the
ability to influence the future actions of others. Teachers can exceedingly influence
school-aged children, between first and eighth grade. Through their actions, educators
can inspire students to achieve, they have the ability to teach positive life lessons
through curriculum and role modeling, and they have a daily opportunity to motivate
students to learn and complete their assigned tasks (Harris, 2017). Unfortunately,
many teachers will focus on their charge of ensuring the completion of academic
teaching requirements and will often fail to find a balance that includes essential life
lessons such as leadership education.
Participants A, B, and C were interviewed separately outside of their school
environment and were eager to participate. They are from different schools located in
different areas around the Bronx, New York. The interviews began with the inquiry as
to whether they knew the definition of leadership. The three could not define it
accurately but attempted to explain the concept with outdated perspectives.
Participants A & B described themselves, and leadership as a person in charge. Since
they describe themselves as being in charge of their respective classrooms, they
identify themselves as leaders. Participant C defined leadership as heroism and that
leaders are often government officials and people that are capable of achieving great
22
Communication of Leadership Principles: A Critical Need for Leadership Education for
Underrepresented Grade School Students in the Bronx, New York
things. Interestingly, participant C did not perceive teaching as heroic or something a
leader would do.
After discussing leadership and its definition, the participants were asked to analyze
and relate whether or not they are effective at teaching this concept. Participants A &
B who initially defined themselves as leaders continued to do so with validated vigor.
Participant A felt that leadership was adequately taught within the curriculum
through educational lessons that focus on responsibility and a visionary approach
toward student's future aspirations. Participant A also believes that the example of
leadership teachers' model is instrumental for student development of this skill. The
participant was also asked if any child is capable of being a leader. The participant
responded, "No.", explaining that some children are natural born leaders and those
who are not, have a difficult time leaning this concept. When asked, if students from
the Bronx are capable of learning leadership, the participant again responded, "no,"
further clarifying,
"Many kids in the Bronx have language issues and are from cultures that have poor
leaders. Their home upbringing has a lot to do with their success. If their parents are
successful, they are probably leaders and their kids will probably grow up to be
successful. Unfortunately, a lot of these kids come from homes where parents struggle
professionally, and their kids tend to struggle academically."
The views of participant B were similar to participant A except for in regard to the
capacity of learning leadership. Participant B feels that all students are capable of
learning leadership but that many students in the Bronx come from immigrant
households and they have cognitive learning issues due to language issues. The
participant further clarified that students with language issues are often placed in ESL
(English as a Second Language) classes, but these sections are so overpopulated that
if students can minimally express themselves in English, they are then placed in
regular classrooms. According to participant B, this poses a challenge for teachers that
only speak English. The participant described communication with immigrant students
as being a focal educational challenge, and this is partly a reason why immigrant
students initially perform poorly in school.
Participant C did not view teachers as leaders, therefore, had a difficult time
understanding how a teacher could or should be responsible for teaching leadership to
students. This participant views leadership as a direct correlation between
achievement and professional success, and that grade school students are not capable
of learning leadership because they have yet to accomplish anything significant. Even
after being informed of the definition of leadership, the participant dismissed it as
"everyone keeps trying to define things differently nowadays." For clarification, this
participant was older than participants A & B, and has been a New York City teacher
since 1978.
The viewpoint from educators is significant to understand the reciprocal relationship
between educators and students. The topic of this research is to understand if there
needs to be more leadership education and if there are barriers that currently exist to
that process. The teachers interviewed represent a cross sample of this relationship.
The participants responded in the affirmative when asked if there was a need for a
formalized way of teaching grade school students' leadership, but all three participants
expressed concern with over-saturating an already robust educational curriculum. All
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
23
three also claimed that they do their best to incorporate education principles and
examples into their daily lessons albeit with little guidance or support from educational
administrators. The three participants further lamented on the consuming factor of a
directive called CCSS - Common-Core State Standards. This edict is a teaching
standard that was updated over five years ago that affects math and English language
arts education. According to the educational participants of this study, it has taken
several years to re-educate themselves on how to teach this new curriculum, and it
leaves them little time to focus on extra teaching agenda items. Participant C added,
"I've been teaching for many years, and I believe I do it well. Teaching an old dog
new tricks is not easy, but I do what I'm supposed to do. Back in the days when we
discussed leadership, we talked about astronauts, Martin Luther King Jr, and people
like that. Now everyone talks about leadership like it's something anyone can do and
frankly, it's not. This world has leaders and followers. Not everyone can be a leader,
and it's not that simple to become one."
Leadership Education from the Perspective of Three Families
Three families with multiple children in grade school were interviewed for this
study. They represent a diverse cross-section of race, ethnicity, and economic
segmentation. The participants agreed to be interviewed in their private residence. The
parents approved for their children to be interviewed one by one first, as the parents
observed without interference. Then the parents were interviewed, followed by every
participant in the household being interviewed together.
The three families interviewed consisted of three different and distinct sets of
under-represented groups of American society. Participants D are a nuclear family
where both parents work full-time. They are first generation Americans of Hispanic
heritage. Their children range in age from 3. 10, and 13. Participants E represent a
single-parent household. The sole parent is an African American female, and the
children are aged 10 and 12. Participants F also represent a single-parent household
except that they are undocumented residents and residing illegally in the United
States. The family is from the Dominican Republic. The parent is female, and children
are aged 3, 5, 9, and 15. The information gathered through this set of interviews was
rich with data because of the cross-segment of participants and the disparity in ages.
All the contributors spoke openly after they were assured that all identifying
information would be kept confidential. This was a main source of concern for the
parents participating in this study. Their initial apprehension was potential retribution
in one form or another from school officials. The undocumented parent's foremost fear
was deportation if her name and location was to be divulged.
Participants D are a male and female couple in their 40s. Their youngest son is a
boy aged three. Their other two children are females aged 10 and 13. The youngest
child did not participate in the interview process. The parents work full-time, and all
three children are in school from 7 AM until 3 PM and participate in afterschool
programs until 6 PM when one of the parents picks them up. The three-year-old is in a
pre-school/daycare program from 7 AM until 6 PM. After explaining their schedule, the
father added, "we spend more time apart [from each other] than we do together." At
the start of the interview, the parents were asked if there was any way they could
spend more time with their kids. They expounded that their schedules were a result of
financial necessity and cutting back on work hours would create pressure on what they
24
Communication of Leadership Principles: A Critical Need for Leadership Education for
Underrepresented Grade School Students in the Bronx, New York
described as an already strained financial situation. They are renters that pay a
premium to live in a better neighborhood where they can send their kids to a public
school that offers a better educational opportunity for their children. Their opportunity
cost is a better external environment for their children but at the same time, sacrificing
time spent with their children. They conveyed remorse over the lack of time they
spend together but feel they have no choice. The mother expressed the following:
"As much as I want to spend more time with my kids, I cannot because doing so
would mean I have to quit my job and doing that would put us in a financial bind. The
crazy thing is that we're working only to pay bills, and we're not saving any money.
We dream about buying a house but, we find it's impossible to save that money. So
we're like trapped, and the ones who need us most [children] have to basically grow
up on their own."
The parents of participant group D were very expressive and needed to be
redirected toward the original topic of this study, leadership. When asked if they knew
the definition of leadership, they explained that they knew what it was but could not
put it into words. After they were enlightened as to the definition, they were then
asked if their children were learning it, they both replied, "yes and no." The father
explained that his children learn leadership from both him and his wife. They described
how their children are forced to be independent and that this aspect is critical in their
development of leadership. The parents of this group were correlating independence
with leadership development. The parents were then asked to describe a typical day
for their children and how they feel their children develop a leadership aptitude
because of it. The father communicated the following:
"We teach our kids from the time they are young to be independent. They spend
about 12 hours a day without our supervision. They know they have to take care of
themselves. School is for learning, but they don't learn everything there. The only way
they learn proper leadership is through what we teach them. They don't learn it from
their teachers, or their friends. School is all about school work. School's important
because education is the way to success. I don't want my kids growing up like me…I
sometimes feel bad when it is 8 PM, and they are still doing HW, but in this world, only
smart people succeed."
It was clear during the interview that the parents did not fully understand the
concept of leadership nor did they fully understand how their children could fully
develop this skill. They were correct in certain aspects, for example, the idea that
children learn leadership from their parents. That idea is correct, but to limit the scope
of leadership education to teaching independence is restrictive in approach.
The children of participant group D were very insightful and well spoken. When
asked if they understood what leadership was, the 13-year old said she knew but could
not put it into words. However, the 10-year old said, "someone who leads by
example." She could not recall when she learned this but was certain she learned it in
school. Throughout the interview, they expressed how leadership is taught in school
through project work, group activities, and lessons. They described how leadership
lessons in school often related to historical examples. Their educational experience
focuses on learning about great leaders and the accomplishments that made them
great leaders. They were also asked if they received formal lessons on the topic of
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
25
leadership, to which they replied in the negative. The 13-year old expressed the
following:
"We don't actually have lessons on leadership, but when we learn about great
people in history, we learn why they were great leaders. We learn about great people
like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. We learn that they were great leaders
because they fought racism and made Americans treat everybody equally. They were
great leaders because when they spoke, everyone listened. I think I'm a leader
because when I speak, my friends listen to me."
Participants E was made up of a single mother and two boys aged 10 and 12. Like
participants D, the mother of participant E worked full-time, but her boys were not in
an after-school program. Their grandmother cares for them after they are released
from school. The mother describes how this arrangement comforts her because she is
confident her sons are well cared for while she is at work all day to try and build a
better future for them. When asked if she knew the definition of leadership, the parent
said, "someone who is charismatic and can get other people to follow them," This
response was close to accurate, and it proved to be a harbinger of very profound
responses from this parent. This single parent went on to respond to the question of
leadership education this way:
I don't think it's a school's responsibility to teach leadership. We want our kids to
get an education, first and foremost. Learning leadership is something that starts at
home. It is my responsibility to teach my boys about this. I'm not saying they don't
learn it in school. It's just that school and their friends just supplement what they
know about leadership from me. I don't expect teachers and principals to worry as
much as I do about my own children."
The mother went on to say, "a parent has more influence on a child than a teacher
ever will." She was also quick to explain how she did not have a diminished view of
educators, but the topic was about learning leadership and not academics.
The two sons of participant group E were shy and seemed initially introverted
throughout the interview. Their responses were short, and they were hesitant to
elaborate on my points. Their responses were in stark contrast to their mother who
was very outspoken. They could not define leadership but did offer two examples of
leaders Stephen Curry and Michael Jordan, professional basketball players. They also
appeared very reserved because their mother was in the room observing the interview.
Parental supervision during the meeting was necessary because of the age of the
children. Both children said they learned about leadership mostly from participating on
athletic teams and could not relate the same type of lessons to an academic
environment. Throughout this interview, talking about sports seemed to elicit more
animated responses than talking about school. They believed coaches were better
suited to teach leadership through instructions and encouragement while celebrating
athletic accomplishments. Teachers, however, "they're just focused on making sure
everybody is equal," the 12-year old. He also said, "leaders aren't equal to anyone,
that's why they're leaders." The boys were also asked how they could advise their
teachers on how to educate children on leadership, the 10-year old said, "they should
have more competitions in class and let the winners be class captains."
Participant group F did not yield any direct data with regards to leadership. The
single parent is an undocumented female from the Dominican Republic. She is
currently illegally residing in the Bronx with her four children. No one in the family
26
Communication of Leadership Principles: A Critical Need for Leadership Education for
Underrepresented Grade School Students in the Bronx, New York
speaks English, three of the four children are in school, and two are enrolled in ESL
(English as a Second Language) classes, the 9 and 15-year old. The mother did not
understand what leadership is. She defined it as someone who tells others what to do.
She could not say if her children were receiving any education on leadership. As far as
she knows, her children are in school learning English and getting an academic
education.
Only the 9 and 15-year old of participant group F were interviewed for this study.
Both children were males, and both reiterated what their mother defined as leadership,
"someone who tells other what to do." They seemed disengaged with their educational
experience. The 15-year old should be in high school, but he is enrolled in the eighth
grade. The 9-year old should be in the fourth grade but is enrolled in the third grade.
When asked if they were learning leadership in school, the older child replied, "all we
do is learn English and arithmetic all day." The youngest child said they learn about
leadership when learning about historical characters but could not recall any specific
lesson on leadership.
Leadership Education from the Perspective of an Administrator
The final participant of this study was a senior principal for a school in the Bronx
that educates children from kindergarten to the eighth grade. The interview took place
in her office, and she was very gracious with her time. Participant G understood the
concept of leadership. The school she leads is one of the top academic performing
grade schools in New York City. The school's excellent performance is a result of an
overall culture of excellence that the teachers subscribe to and they instill this belief in
the students. This school principal appeared to be determined and focused on
academic performance. The participant was asked if the students of her school were
learning the concept of leadership. She replied, "I believe all our students are learning
leadership through academic curriculum." She was then asked to describe specific
programs or lessons that are specifically designed to teach leadership.
"I do not think the programs and curriculums purposely teach leadership.
Leadership here is learned through the application of educational lessons and other
programs. I believe leadership starts with academic success. This is our focus. Our
teachers encourage our students to be independent thinkers, and I believe that is a
necessary leadership trait. We encourage group work in all our class sections, and
every student gets an opportunity to be a group leader at some point. We believe
these kinds of activities foster leadership development."
Participant G is engaged in all aspects of educational programs in her school. There
is no denying that through her leadership, this is one of the best performing schools in
the Bronx. However, while most students in her care are excelling at academics and
developing leadership skills, there is no specific leadership development program in
place. The success of participant G does challenge the notion of an intentional
approach to leadership education of grade school children if it can be developed
through an intense focus on academic development.
Analysis
Several emerging themes ascended during the progression of this study. Should
schools or parents be accountable for the leadership education of grade school
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
27
children? Grant and Mitchell suggest that for students to succeed in all aspects of
education, the responsibility needs to be shared by educators, parents, and the child's
community (2017). Is leadership education necessary and should it be part of an
academic curriculum? Research supports the idea of linking education to professional
skills, such as leadership (Wiener & Pimental, 2017). What role does organizational
culture play in communicating leadership traits? Organization culture can have a
positive impact when it purposely designs a sustainable, collaborative network of
inspirational behavior (Bushe, 2017). Finally, who is role modeling leadership for
children of the Bronx? Studies show that the vast majority of teachers in urban areas
do not racially represent the community they serve. An intentional approach to hiring
multi-cultural teachers and offering multi-cultural training would bridge the gap of
familiarity in urban educational areas (Sleeter, 2017).
The results of this investigation illustrate that parents feel that the teaching of
leadership is the responsibility of educators. Educators believe they have a
responsibility to carry on the educational process through programs and curriculum,
suggesting that leadership development is an offset of their guidance and does not
need to be added to what they already consider a fully loaded educational process.
Unfortunately, both parties feel their responsibility is limited to fulfillment of their
obligations as parents and teachers, respectively. This view of responsibility seems
very one dimensional, without a focus on total quality leadership development by a
community.
The teachers interviewed for this study believe that a specific focus on leadership
education is not required if leadership lessons can be learned through regular
educational programs such as history and social studies. The parents in this study
believe that leadership is taught in school, but they are not sure how it is taught. This
case study reveals that except for participant G, no one seems to understand what
leadership is and how it can be developed as an additional focus of an education
curriculum. Teachers believe they are role-modeling leadership behavior as instructors
and through lessons that focus on influential leaders, past, and present. Parents feel
they model leadership but do not necessarily understand what leadership is.
Conclusion and Recommendations
The purpose of this case study is to focus attention on the phenomenon of
leadership and its education in one specific area, the Bronx, New York, USA. Precisely,
how it is learned, communicated, and role-modeled to elementary school children
grades 1-8. The students in this segment range in age from 5 to 14 years with a few
exceptions. Apart from attending school in an area of the United States where
academic performance is usually poor, students and educators in this area are also
challenged by immigration, language, cultural, and economic issues. All of these
challenges affect the communication and teaching of academic principles, as well as
soft skills that teach children how to interact with others. Presenting an educational
environment that fosters education in leadership is a reasonable expectation, but
parents or guardians need to also share in the accountability of this process.
This study revealed a few issues that should be explored further. Explicitly, the
matter of understanding a shared definition of leadership and whether or not urban
students should be taught this as part of their curriculum. Another concern is the
assumption that teachers understand leadership and if they could benefit from more
28
Communication of Leadership Principles: A Critical Need for Leadership Education for
Underrepresented Grade School Students in the Bronx, New York
training in this area. Lastly, is there a different approach to communicating these
lessons to urban students? Administrators, teachers, and parents share a stake in this
process and could benefit from transparent communication and a deliberate approach
toward leadership education.
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
29
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Communication of Leadership Principles: A Critical Need for Leadership Education for
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Journal of Media Critiques [JMC]
doi: 10.17349/jmc118202
P-ISSN: 2056-9785
E-ISSN: 2056 9793
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THE SUBJECT MENTOR IN MODERN FOREIGN
δAσGUAGESΣ TEACHER EDUCATIτσ
FOTINI DIAMANTIDAKI
ABSTRACT
This paper comes at a time of curriculum and Initial Teacher Education (ITE) change in
England. The need to hold on tightly to many first principles is vital and one of these is the role
of the modern foreign languages mentor in schools, in the context of secondary ITE, the Post
Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) more specifically. This paper aims to restate the
definition of the subject mentor, focusing on the qualities, the complexity and evolution of the
role. A theoretical framework has been developed based on the theory of mentoring and
associated concepts of reflective practice and professional dialogical relationships. Theory and
practice of mentoring are then supported with a small-scale research study based on openended questionnaires to subject mentors of PGCE Modern Foreign Languages (MFL). The paper
also explores the type of collaboration that subject mentors would appreciate having with Higher
Education Institutions (HEIs) and observes whether the subject mentoring role in MFL is
changing as a result of government policy changes.
Keywords: subject mentor, modern foreign languages (MFL), mentoring, ITE, PGCE.
INTRODUCTION
Over the last 20 years, the nature of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in England has
witnessed much change, during which the Οemphasis on school practical experience as
a major part of the traineesΣ curriculum timeΣ started (Heilbronn, 2008, p.15).
Subsequently, the debate arose on as to who is to have the main responsibility for
Initial Teacher Education and the preparation of new student teachers (STs) for the
teaching profession: Higher Education Institutions (HEIΣs) or schools.
HEIs have had up until recently a central role to play in Teacher Education,
nurturing and preparing STs for the teaching profession through the Post Graduate
Certificate in Education (PGCE) programme. During the PGCE year, time is divided
between attending lectures in HEIs and completing two school placements. This dual
process allows a very gradual initiation into teaching, prepares STs to become critical
thinkers and permits them to familiarise with educational theory and the realities of
Lecturer in Education, University College London (UCL), Institute of Education, Department of Culture
Communication Media (CCM), Room 614, 20 Bedford Way, Bloomsbury, WC1H0AL London UK,
f.diamantidaki@ucl.ac.uk,Tel:0044(0)2079115514
32
The Subject Mentor in Modern Foreign Languages’ Teacher Education
what it actually means to be a teacher. STs eventually graduate with a double bonus:
Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) which is a set of standards that every qualified teacher
must meet in order to be eligible to teach in England, and masters credits gained
through academic assignment work and which can vary amongst different HEIs. The
main aim of writing assignments for student teachers is to reflect critically upon their
own practice; articulate what they are observing and what they are asked to teach;
academic assignments, in this light, help student teachers to progress in their own
practice. Students can use their mastersΣ credits to pursue further studies, should they
wish to do so.
The partnership between HEIs and schools involves a group of experts all working
in their different roles to support the development of the student teacher: the HEI
subject tutor, the school subject mentor (SM) (i.e. languages) and the professional
coordinating mentor (PCM), who oversees the more generic professional development
needs of a student teacher, such as discussing different types of policy - behaviour
management policy, safeguarding and child protection policy, inclusion policy- to name
but a few. Therefore, the mechanisms of support in the developmental process of
becoming a qualified teacher through a PGCE programme are strong in subject-specific
input from both HEI tutor and school SM and equally strong in terms of a more generic
input from the PCM in school and the generic lectures that all student teachers receive
as part of their professional studies programme with an HEI.
However, the balance between a strong subject specific input and a more generic
input has radically changed with the introduction from the current government of three
further school-based Initial Teacher Training routes: School Direct (with two choices:
Salaried or Non-Salaried), School-Centred Initial Teacher Training and Teach First
(DFE, 2015).
In the newly introduced teacher training models, schools are asked to play the
central role in the training process and outcomes for STs. There is, therefore, a
significant shift from Initial Teacher Education (ITE) led by HEIΣs, to Initial Teacher
Training (ITT) led by schools, which also leads into a change in terminology, for the
purposes of this introduction, from student teachers to trainee teachers. Trainee
teachers, hence, find themselves teaching from day one in a school of their choice and
mainly learning on the job, through the process of trial and error. This reality has
implications for the mechanisms that are put into place to support the trainee
teachers. In all three school-based models the HEI tutor specific input is diminished or
is absent, the role of the subject specific mentor (SM) is not formalised or is totally
absent. It has been replaced by a senior member of the school team who may or may
not be familiar with the subject specific pedagogy and therefore when observing a
trainee teacher, the only aspect that can actually be commented upon is behaviour
management policies and how well or not they have been applied. It seems then that
the introduction of new school-based models completely disregards the value of
subject specific input that has been put into place so thoughtfully in the first place;
input which allowed student teachers to be gradually nurtured into the profession.
Changes in teachers’ standards
In the newly introduced Teaching Standards in England (DFE, 2015), a significant
absence of subject pedagogy is observed when compared with the old teaching
standards (TDA, 2007). In the old teaching standards, the first part of the section on
subjects and curriculum was: ‘Q14: Have a secure knowledge and understanding of
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
33
their subjects/curriculum areas and related pedagogy to enable them to teach
effectively across the age and ability range for which they are trained. […]Σ (TDA 2007,
p. 9)
In the new teaching standards subject pedagogy is absent and the first part on
subjects and curriculum knowledge, is now worded as such: ‘Demonstrate good
subject and curriculum knowledge: have a secure knowledge of the relevant subject(s)
and curriculum areas, foster and maintain pupilsΣ interest in the subject, and address
misunderstandings [...]Σ (DFE, 2015, p. 11). From the latter comparison it is evident
that subject pedagogy is no longer prominent, and professionals involved directly in
the process of nurturing subject pedagogy, with student teachers, such as subject
mentors, are to find their role significantly disadvantaged.
In this context, I aim to restate the qualities, the complexities of a subject mentor
in Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) and observe the specific challenges that they
face. The necessity to hold on to the role for the purposes of preparing reflective
language teachers is vital and also exploring new types of collaboration between HEIs
and Schools is also very relevant, due to the swiftly changing climate in education
policy in England.
In an attempt to restate the distinctiveness of the subject mentor role during a
period of radical restructuring of initial teacher education, I will engage mainly with the
theory of mentoring and associated concepts of reflective practice and professional
dialogical relationships, less with the theory of subject mentoring; there is a paucity of
published research to be observed around subject mentoring and subject pedagogy,
due to the fact that the process of mentoring in subject areas is a private exchange
between a mentor and a mentee, deeply rooted in practice, with practically no official
quantifiable evidence for the direct impact of mentoring on the student teachersΣ
development (Hobson et al, 2009).
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The definition of the ‘mentorΣ is adopted from Feiman-Nemser, Parker (1992) who
state that: ‘the promise of mentoring lies not in its contribution to novicesΣ emotional
well-being or survival, but in its capacity to foster an inquiring stance towards teaching
and a commitment to developing shared standards for judging good practiceΣ,
elements of practice which ‘clearly state a transition from a classroom teacher to a
teacher educatorΣ as explored in Dobbins and Walsey (1992, p. 7).
In this respect,
a mentor is more than a classroom teacher; it is someone with the ability to critically
reflect upon and capture the essence of learning how to teach and with the ability to
share their knowledge with the STs during the mentoring process. It is implied that a
subject mentor needs to be an expert in their subject area as well as an experienced
teacher. Their role is to induct the student teacher into the practice of teaching,
imparting expert knowledge of pedagogy in that particular subject. The entire process
cannot be completely undertaken by a generic mentor who deals with no subject
specific pedagogy.
Subsequently, the process of mentoring is deeply rooted in a ‘collaborative learning
experienceΣ (Parker-Katz & Bay, 2008, p. 1260) between a mentor and a mentee,
between an experienced teacher and a student teacher.
Part of the collaborative learning process would be to enter into some kind of
relationship. A well-grounded reflective relationship (Furlong, Maynard, 1995) would
34
The Subject Mentor in Modern Foreign Languages’ Teacher Education
be welcomed within which a fruitful dialogue could take place and allow the student
teacher to evaluate and interpret subject pedagogy: ‘The discourse of subject
pedagogy is engaged with when the student teacher makes connections between his
sense of the ways in which interpretations are constructed and the method used to
teach the pupilsΣ (Arthur, Davison, εoss, 1997, p. 132). Through a transactional
activity and conversation with their subject mentor, student teachers could eventually
start making sense of what they observe, start forming evaluations on a specific
teaching episode with the optimum aim to internalise their own practice (Schön,
1983); It is only then that their own ‘development of teacher knowledge and
understandingΣ (Heilbronn, 2008, p. 115) can actually start taking place successfully.
As the developmental process takes place on the basis of a continuous professional
dialogue and a ‘learning conversationΣ (Boud et al., 1985, p. 92) the subject mentor
should allow the student teacher to articulate her/his own experiences and identify
new qualities in her/his teaching personality. According to Boud et al (1985), this can
be achieved through three very distinctive stages: the stage of ‘mirroringΣ whereby the
subject mentorsΣ feedback, needs to be ‘specificΣ ‘behaviouralΣ and ‘non-interpretativeΣ.
The next stage is for the subject mentor to ‘deal with the emotional context of
learningΣ whereby a supportive relationship is to be built, which aids the student
teacher through the period of learning. Finally, the last stage and the most difficult
one, is to allow the student teacher to ‘articulate new dimensions of qualityΣ, meaning,
allowing the student teacher to reflect upon their practice and help the student reach a
new level of independence in her/his teaching practice.
Considering the above theoretical framework as a ‘journeyΣ which starts from selfdiscovery and leads to independence, I sought to support the theory and practice of
mentoring with a small-scale research study. I used open-ended questionnaires
addressed to Subject Mentors in Modern Foreign Languages, in the hope that by
presenting their own views and giving them a strong voice, I will persuade the reader
that the subject mentor is a vital role in the process of educating new student teachers
into the profession and one that needs to remain.
METHODOLOGY
The small-scale study was conducted through open-ended questionnaires for two
reasons: firstly, because I believe that ‘reality is socially constructedΣ (Robson, 2002, p.
27) and secondly that ‘meaning does not exist in its own right; it is constructed by
human beings as they interact and engage in interpretationΣ (Robson, 2011, p. 24).
Hence, the choice of gathering data through open-ended questionnaires in order to
allow subject mentors to express their opinion and interpret the reality freely. I
recognise however that ‘participantsΣ accounts can lack validity or credibilityΣ (Hobson
et al. 2009, p. 213) for the very true reason that ‘participants have a tendency, […] to
seek to present themselves in a favourable lightΣ (Dingwall, 1997 discussed in Hobson
et al., 2009, p. 213).
Questionnaires
1. According to your experience, what are the qualities of a good subject mentor
specifically in Modern Foreign Languages (MFL)? (Please give reasons)
2. How is the role of the subject mentor in MFL particularly complex (in
comparison with other disciplines)?
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
35
3. In this ever-changing climate for Initial Teacher Education (ITE) with a range of
teacher education and teacher training models (School Direct -salaried and
non- salaried route, Teach First, PGCE), what kind of collaboration would you
appreciate taking place between Training and School providers?
4. As a consequence of the changes in ITE do you think that the demands on the
role of the subject mentor in MFL are changing? If yes then how?
The open-ended questionnaires were distributed in two different ways: Firstly, to
twenty subject mentors attending a mentor training day for the PGCE Modern Foreign
Languages course on which I am a tutor and secondly the questionnaires were sent
via email to twenty subject mentors with whom the entire PGCE Modern Foreign
Languages team works.
As background to the study, in the first context, during the mentor training day, the
day was split into two halves whereby in the morning session the novice subject
mentors attended and in the afternoon session they were joined by the more
experienced mentors. Out of twenty attendees only five were men, and all between
the ages of 25 and 55. Their teaching experience varied from 3 to 20 years and the
mentoring experience from first timers to 10 or more years of experience. The
questionnaires were distributed at the end of the mentor training day for everyone to
complete, which made the sampling representative of both novice and experienced
mentors. Participation in the questionnaire was optional and anonymous. A total of
eleven questionnaires was handed back in at the end, and by a mix of novice and
more experienced subject mentors.
In the second context, where the questionnaire was sent via email, the only
criterion for the selection of recipients was mentors who are currently working with
PGCE Languages student teachers. The selection of the recipients was made at
random and by using contact details of email addresses provided in the timetables that
student teachers have submitted to their University tutors on the online platform
Moodle. I sent twenty email-questionnaires and got three back. All three subject
mentors were asked whether they wished to be named, as I sent the questionnaires to
their personal email addresses; two out of the three subject mentors wished to be
named (please see acknowledgements).
All the answers collected from the mentor day and the ones from the email
questionnaires, were coded with numbers between 1 and 14. The answers were of an
open-ended nature, the informants had the choice to write mono-lexically or provide
answers in full prose. The majority of the informants did indeed take the time to write
in full prose. This meant that an answer of similar content was written in many
different ways. I then undertook the task of categorising similar answers together,
‘open-codingΣ (Robson 2011, p. 149) with the aim to ‘include responses that are similar
in natureΣ (Robson 1993, p. 253), under one theme. This task was completed as read
through the responses. The discussion of findings that follows is ‘driven by the nature
of the responses and the themes and dimensions they suggestΣ (Robson 1993, p. 253).
Finally, I am fully aware that this is a very small-scale research study and
generalisations cannot be made. However, I am hoping to shed some light into the
complexities of subject mentoring in modern foreign languages.
36
The Subject Mentor in Modern Foreign Languages’ Teacher Education
RESULTS
According to your experience, what are the qualities of a good subject
mentor specifically in Modern Foreign Languages (MFL)?
The experienced teacher
There is a consensus from the responses for the need of extensive experience.
Experience is measured in many different ways: experience from teaching in different
learning environments, experience from extended time spent in a specific learning
environment and experience measured against the nature of advice given to students
in relation to any issues they may have; advice which will eventually allow a student
teacher to develop in a specific school placement and prepare them for the next.
The notion of experience is also associated with maturity and acceptance of new
ideas. It is about learning to share the experience and good practice acquired over the
years. At the same time the SM should welcome new ideas and not dismiss them. An
experienced subject mentor will know how to accept and use new ideas in order to
develop his/her own practice with an open mind so that she/he does not impose a
certain way of teaching on STs when it is not the only way.
Finally, an experienced subject mentor should also be able to keep up to date with
new developments, work within the school training scheme so that the routines,
systems, support, training opportunities given to student teachers are robust.
Quality of mentoring skills
A key component is the quality of mentoring skills which is interpreted in several
ways: the ability to draw out answers from the student teacher and the ability to be
able to provide solutions to problems; to create the right circumstances for the student
teacher in order for her/him to be able to experiment with a variety of approaches and
for her/him to observe the application of theory in the classroom. Finally, to allow the
student teacher to do all the above in their own style, to allow them to experiment as
opposed to giving answers.
An important skill needed to achieve all of the above is honesty, a good subjective
knowledge of where the SM is and the ability to be objective within the faculty, school
and national scheme. An SM should also be honest about their own practice and
always say ‘I make mistakes and I sometimes shoutΣ then explain why it is important
to be honest and highlight the fact that there is never a right way or right answer.
A vital skill highlighted in the answers is patience in many respects: making time
where there is none, letting the trainee explore different approaches, identifying the
fact that it is their time to experiment and listening to the problems the student
teachers may face.
Subject knowledge and pedagogy
Part of the basic subject knowledge needs in MFL, is the competence in language
skills. It is acknowledged from the responses that all Subject Mentors have different
linguistic backgrounds and competences, but the teaching and learning needs to
encompass neither too much academic linguistic knowledge nor weaker skills in the
second language. Student teachers need someone who can lead by example, someone
who is realistic and challenging the ST to improve in their subject knowledge and
subject pedagogy.
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
37
Specifically in MFL a subject mentor should be prepared to spend enough time with
the ST looking at lesson plans and focusing on the childrenΣs learning not just on the
STΣs teaching, therefore a mentor is to be confident in their subject knowledge both of
the language and teaching, show willingness to help and be enthusiastic as s/he would
be about her/his subject area with a class of students! The ability to provide
constructive, detailed productive feedback and encourage reflection to student
teachers forms a vital component of subject knowledge and pedagogy.
The lesson planning and evaluation cycle is an aspect that a student teacher in MFL
should gradually develop in their practice. For the latter to take place effectively the
student teacher needs a SM who knows what works in class.
Emotional support and intelligence
Another quality of a good mentor, as highlighted in the responses, is someone who
serves as an emotional support for student teachers, someone who can establish a
supportive relationship and is able to spend time advising the ST, giving constructive
advice. Part of the emotional support is also giving praise for things well done, or
attempted.
A good subject mentor is also someone who can give empathy and someone who
understands that many STs, are under pressure in the new environment and career
field. The latter, emphasises the idiosyncrasy of the MFL subject mentoring where
Student Teachers may be either career changers or new comers in the country.
Moreover, the importance of emotional intelligence is interpreted by focusing
holistically on a student as if they were an integral part of the faculty, seeking out
practical issues (e.g. child care, travel, weakness in the second language) and
providing support where necessary within the school policies/framework.
Assessing teaching practice
Finally assessing teaching practice is also identified as one of the roles of the
subject mentor. It is stated in the responses that the assessment is needed as it will
help the ST to develop as a classroom practitioner.
How is the role of the subject mentor in MFL particularly complex (in
comparison with other disciplines)?
The second question was aimed to further explore the qualities of the subject
mentor but more specifically to show the added complexity of what it means to be a
subject mentor in Modern Foreign Languages, what is distinct from other subject
areas, and what are the challenges that subject mentors face with MFL student
teachers.
Nurture the quality of subject knowledge and subject pedagogy
As highlighted in the responses, one of the major complexities in MFL is the quality
of subject knowledge. The challenge is either more or less defined in the first place by
the quality of the subject knowledge that a student teacher brings. Additionally, to
what subject knowledge was stated to be in the section above, in this section subject
knowledge is associated to subject pedagogy. In this respect a very specific kind of
subject knowledge and pedagogy is recognised that a student teacher in MFL needs to
have. Pachler and Redondo summarise it as such -and it reflects exactly what the
38
The Subject Mentor in Modern Foreign Languages’ Teacher Education
participants think too- : ‘a high level of proficiency in the [Target δanguage] Tδ, good
structural knowledge as well as the ability to make effective use of the TL, wide
ranging awareness of the culture(s) of the countries where the TL is spoken, some
knowledge of the linguistic theories underpinning the language learning/acquisition
process as well as a familiarity with the respective statutory framework and related
documents. It also comprises knowledge and the ability to make effective use of
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in the specific subject, i.e. to apply
ICT appropriately to the benefit of learners in εFδΣ (Pachler, Redondo, 2009, p. 33).
From the responses and the definition provided, the quality of subject knowledge in
MFL extends to the knowledge of the syllabus and the concept of progression within;
fact which emphasises the need to help the student teacher familiarise themselves
with the syllabus and guide them in making sense of the programme of study; helping
them in planning a series of lessons and allowing them to think in the context of
medium term planning, rather than planning for individual lessons only is vital; this
way the student teacher can see the bigger picture and gradually mature in her/his
practice.
Finally, responses revealed that most student teachers also go into their school
placements offering two languages and with a variable level of proficiency in both. It is
possible but rare to have a high level of proficiency in both languages. Therefore,
helping the student teacher to realise and even develop their confidence in their
second language falls upon the subject mentor. Student teachers are capable, but not
necessarily confident. It is, hence, the responsibility of the subject mentor to offer
opportunities for the student teacher to apply and develop their subject knowledge in
practice.
Help with planning and teaching the four skills
According to the answers provided, the subject mentor needs to help with planning
and teaching well-structured lessons including all four skills: listening, speaking,
reading, and writing. The idea of dealing with different skills adds also to the
complexity of the behaviour management in the classroom, as when working across
the four skills, one has to recognise that there are a lot of transition moments where a
teacher can ΟloseΠ the students. Equally managing a classroom where talking and
dialogue are integral to learning can prove to be a challenge, especially when you have
a school and departmental policy on silence!
An element that has evolved over the years is the student-centred teaching
approach requiring a different kind of planning and teaching by creating various short
activities for all four skills and in consequence there is the need for a different kind of
mentoring that reflects the specific knowledge in pedagogy for MFL.
Motivating MFL students
Answers revealed that a student teacher should learn how to set the ball rolling and
keep it rolling, without losing the studentsΣ attention and motivation and by her/him
being the only language experts in the classroom.
As a consequence of the reality in MFL classrooms, it is the role of the subject
mentor to nurture ways for the student teacher in how to keep the learners engaged
at all times, as the sole source of the target language. The need for a subject mentor
to share with the ST their expertise on how to keep the students motivated through a
variety of activities is of paramount importance here. The need to know the learners in
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
39
order to adapt the teaching according to their needs is an important piece of
information that initially the SM holds, and it is the SεΣs duty to transmit this
knowledge to the Student Teacher.
According to the responses MFL is also particular in the sense that the student
teacher needs to learn to teach very active, very engaging lessons without becoming
exhausted! It is quite a different challenge from other subjects and an additional one.
To learn to perform effectively, takes a lot of commitment and guidance from the
subject mentor. There is evidently the issue of pressure to perform and the added
pressure to motivate students to choose languages for GCSE (15-16 years old) and Alevel (17-18 years old) as MFL is not compulsory in England after the age of 14.
Finally, the subject mentor must guide the student teacher to find the way of making
key terms clear, as well as the application of languages in the adult world Ν while still
making it enjoyable and reachable to all students, of differing abilities. The subject
mentor is a role model and should indicate ways to do all of the above and help the
student teacher to learn and manage the workload.
The use of Target Language (TL) in the classroom
Another key facet in MFL is the use of Target language (TL) in the classroom
where, according to the responses, the subject mentor needs to guide the student
teacher to be diagnostic about the appropriate use of TL in relation to teaching and
learning. Profiles differ from student teachers with a native command of the Target
Language taught, who tend to use too much, to those who are not confident enough
and who do not use it at all. The role of the subject mentor is to ensure judicious
target language use for the specific context.
Cultural awareness
Cultural awareness is finally a big issue according to the answers given, as in MFL,
student teachers do come from different parts of the world and that comes with its
complexities in relation to the acculturation process, the use of professional English,
the time they would need to familiarise themselves with the English education system
and also to challenge in some cases their beliefs and established routines.
Sometimes, it is more difficult for student teachers from other countries to fully
understand the system they work in and to adapt their language to the requirements
of the curriculum, to be more child centred rather than subject focussed, and to look
at discipline as not the key focus, that good quality teaching will mean that pupils will
need to be motivated and co-operate.
In this ever-changing climate for Initial Teacher Education (ITE) with a
range of teacher education and teacher training models (School Direct salaried and non- salaried route, Teach First, PGCE), what kind of
collaboration would you appreciate taking place between Training and
School providers?
In this section I synthesize and discuss the responses from the third question on
possible collaboration models between HEIs and schools. Three facets emerge: One,
that schools are very busy places and they appreciate the partnership as it currently is,
two, they highlight the never-ending pressure of time and that they cannot be asked
40
The Subject Mentor in Modern Foreign Languages’ Teacher Education
to undertake more than they are already doing but three that they would welcome on
line collaboration systems to be set up by HEIs.
According to the responses, HEIs provide lots of practical and theoretical support to
PGCE student teachers, more than any other route, which is an advantage. At the
same time schools have also the expertise to train student teachers, through the
medium of established subject mentors. The methodology and collaborative work
should be organised via the HEIs and the school. Subject mentors appreciate meeting
the HEI tutors in lesson observations to discuss the lesson and to share methodology.
This gives the student teacher confidence in the partnership. However, the reality is
that schools are busy places, and therefore it is stated that there is no time to develop
collaborative work beyond the subject mentor role.
Finally, as face to face meetings between HEIs and schools become increasingly
difficult, what would be really useful would be to set up forums and blogs through
online media facilities. HEI educators and subject mentors in school can then have a
common platform for sharing ideas for best teaching practice, sharing methodology,
engaging in more meaningful discussions and sharing pedagogy and resources.
As a consequence of the changes in ITE do you think that the demands on
the role of the subject mentor in MFL are changing? If yes then how? Is the
Subject Mentor role evolving?
I finally asked subject mentors whether they see their role evolving as part of the
changing landscape. The responses and thoughts very much vary according to school
context and circumstances, which make the results a very mixed landscape.
Some believe that the subject mentor role is not changing because a good subject
mentor always makes sure that the priority is the pupilsΣ and student teachersΣ needs,
so they believe that changes in the ITE would not affect this. Also, the focus on basic
principles and the role of the subject mentor still remain no matter what changes are
to come. The aim is to help the ST to become a competent teacher in the MFL
classroom, no matter which standards are in place. There will always be changes, but
the basic principles do not change.
Some believe that the role of the subject mentor is evolving as the role of the
teacher does in the current climate, influenced by the changes in the curriculum for
MFL in England and the demands on the teachers to change their way of planning and
teaching. That is to say, as the role of languages changes in the curriculum Ν to be
included in the E-bacc (newly introduced performance measure that students
undertake at the age of 16, please see DFE, 2014), is changing how many lessons per
week students have each language course Ν the role of the MFL teacher will continue
to change as well. They become more involved with planning trips to immerse
students in culture and finding ways to elicit target language from Year 7 up to A-level.
The subject mentor needs to be prepared to assist student teachers in discovering the
nuances when teaching pronunciation, writing, reading and listening. Striking a
balance between fun and effective learning strategies, the SM must be prepared to
help the ST on giving her/him ideas on how to make the language come alive and
simultaneously be easily memorised.
Some fear the introduction of further school-based routes. If more teacher training
models are introduced within a department, then the landscape would become more
demanding, but if they continue to take student teachers who are following the
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
41
traditional route of a PGCE with a university then they do not see that the role will
change very much.
Another problematic issue is that the role of the subject mentor is an addition to
the existing workload which means that they are not allocated adequate time to
operate in the role of the subject mentor, so it results in more work for them.
Normally, a subject mentor should be given an hour a week in their timetable to be
able to meet with their student teacher weekly. As this is not always the case across
all boroughs and schools, subject mentors find themselves using personal non-contact
time.
CONCLUSION
This paper may be set in the English context but the attributes and complexities of
the subject mentor in MFL are applicable wherever there is a learning how to teach
programme in Languages in any context and under whatever label. I hope to have
persuaded the reader on the qualities, the complexity of the subject mentor role in
MFL, the pressures that they face and the need to maintain the role in this everchanging climate. I also hope to encourage further study in the area of subject
mentoring and pedagogy and I hope that this attempt will generate many more.
There are indeed a lot of changes surrounding education at the moment in England
(changes in teacher education, changes in qualifications, changes in teaching
standards) and schools and teachers in schools are very much at the receiving end of
those changes. From the responses provided mainly in the third question, however
busy and under pressure schools may be, subject mentors welcome and need
collaboration models between HEIs and school departments in order to nurture a
shared methodology and pedagogy.
The qualities and complexities of the role of the subject mentor in MFL have a
direct impact on educating future teachers of languages. They are the ones who shape
and nurture their studentsΣ teaching personalities. As things are changing towards a
school - based model and new policies do not recognise the need for subject
pedagogy, there is not a better time to reaffirm the qualities, the complexity and the
distinctiveness of the subject mentor role in MFL.
42
The Subject Mentor in Modern Foreign Languages’ Teacher Education
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Journal of Media Critiques [JMC]
doi: 10.17349/jmc118203
P-ISSN: 2056-9785
E-ISSN: 2056 9793
http://www.mediacritiques.net
jmc@mediacritiques.net
ON KEY TERMS AND TEXTBOOKS: TEACHING
COMM101 IN DUBAI
BRADLEY C. FREEMAN
ABSTRACT
A handful of words have come to the forefront in global higher education and media,
including globalization, internationalization, de-westernization, among others. These concepts
and their application to universities and media may have slightly different implications depending
on the locale. Nevertheless, for communication programs graduating future media workers these
concepts are likely to spark important considerations in the development of the curriculum. In
the case of the UAE, both the higher education and media landscapes are advancing rapidly.
This has created a situation where many media outlets are sprouting up, creating original
content and seeking a larger share of the regional audiences, and where schools are adding
programs to meet the training needs. This paper explores the appropriateness of Western
textbooks given a Global South context, as well as identifies and attempts to address several key
terms of increasing importance in both the higher education and media landscapes. As any
instructor who has taught introductory media and communication courses will know, it is often
difficult to find a ‘required’ textbook that exactly ‘fits the bill’. All textbooks are not created (or
greeted) equally in the global higher education landscape. For those who are teaching in the
United States and Britain the textbooks are full of pertinent and timely examples, along with
stories that help illustrate numerous points and terms. As the media industry matures globally,
educational learning facilities follow suit and western-based introductory textbooks are
increasingly becoming less appropriate for use in other regions.
Keywords: Comm101, global media, textbooks, internationalization, indigenization.
INTRODUCTION
One of the most significant difficulties in teaching in an international classroom is
determining the ‘field of play.’ That is to say, one must learn about, and take into
consideration multiple aspects of the locale and then attempt to merge this knowledge
into one’s courses. One’s own culture and experience may help or possibly get in the
way. The process is bound to be imperfect. Learning and adapting to new cultures (at
both the university and country-level), is not something that happens overnight. It
Professor of Communication & Information Studies, Mohammed Bin Rashid School for Communication,
American University in Dubai, P. O. Box 28282, United Arab Emirates, Bfreeman@aud.edu
46
On key terms and textbooks: Teaching Comm101 in Dubai
requires time, observation, patience, and much research (formal and informal) to
accomplish. There are factors involved that one may not be aware of at first, or ever,
and these nuances surely vary from country to country and academic department to
department.
Globalization, Education, and Media
A number of researchers, and research groups, have been observing from various
angles the elements of global higher education over the years. We have many more
‘key concepts’ and definitions than ever before. Hayden (et al., 2015) wrote that
“international education research includes the study of multiple topics” (p. 1) before
going on to list ten such topic areas. Some of the more prominent concepts related to
these topics, ‘buzzwords’, if we may call them such, would include: internationalization
(comprehensive internationalization – CI), globalization, indigenization, dewesternization, ‘international mindedness’ and ‘intercultural-mindset,’ to name only a
few (Altbach & Knight, 2007; Bodycott & Walker, 2000; De Wit, 2002; Fitch & Surma,
2006; Gray & Coates, 2010; Hellstén & Reid, 2008; Hudzik, 2011; Scott, 2005;
Waisbord & Mellado, 2014; Weina, 2001). These terms have definitions relating to
higher education more broadly, but also specifically to communication studies (Curran
& Park, 2000), and further may even be extended to the media themselves (Thussu,
2008). Some studies examine the curricula of global schools, others look at the
intercultural aptitude of faculty, while others are more concerned with the effects of
cross-cultural education (Badley, 2006; Freeman, 2013; Geertz, 1988; MacLennan,
2002; Mizzi, 2017). Some papers look at the numbers (of students and schools, for
example) from an economic perspective, while others are decidedly more culturallyminded.
In recent years, the equation surrounding media and higher education has been
changing. As technology has become less expensive, and globalization spreads,
owners and operators (governments, but indeed individual ‘consumer-producers’ as
well) throughout the world have been joining in the creative creation of media
products. There are plenty of examples of media industries developing and increasing
their reach outside of the US and the UK -- two countries that are often referred to as
simply “the West” or part of the “Global North.” This has led to a corresponding
increase in the number of schools and programs in these locations outside of the
Global North, catering to a need for trained media workers, and also the fostering of
media thinkers and researchers.
Arguably the pace of the global higher education observations and the studies (and
books) that have been published have increased exponentially within the past decade,
just as technological and media developments (namely mobile smartphones and social
media) have also quickened. And yet, even though much as has been written and
learned, it is also clear that we still have a long way to go. For example, for one, we
have much competing terminology. We may need to get together more often and
discuss these concepts and constructs. We can examine the terms more closely and
see where there is overlap, what we can combine, and what we have left out. And
secondly, the pertinent takeaways, those items upon which progress has been made
and phenomena better understood -- have arguably not been adequately
communicated to the relevant high ed publics.
One area worth considering, and there are so many, is the topic of certification and
licensing. While in many jurisdictions individuals need a license to go fishing, we do
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
47
not have similar requirements for those who would teach abroad. In addition, schools
welcome visiting and exchange faculty and students seemingly without consideration
for the myriad of issues that we now know to exist. There are many indications that
the field of higher education is slowly coming to grasp some of the issues. Not to paint
with too broad of a brush, however, we also see universities, and programs moving
abroad to establish branch campuses long before having fully considered the
enormous potential ramifications of such moves (economic versus cultural, etc.). When
it comes to international higher education, one can say, there has been a lot of leaping
before looking.
Higher Education in the UAE
The city of Dubai, indeed the United Arab Emirates, is experiencing a kind of ‘Gold
Rush’ when it comes to institutions of higher learning and educational programs. The
number of ‘international’ schools entering the market has risen considerably in the past
several years, and the number and variety of programs being offered by domestic
institutions have also risen. Market surveys aside, to the layperson it might appear
both exciting and confusing that so many schools and programs are available. There
are educational exhibitions held each year which allow students and their parents to
learn more about the available schools and programs; institutes also conduct
advertising campaigns throughout the country. Some universities in other countries
also advertise in the local papers (e.g., the National University of Singapore – NUS,
advertises in the Gulf News); and several schools operate small offices for the express
purpose of recruitment. In this sense, some schools are coming to Dubai (and here
there is an added issue of how they may operate; Kerr, 1990), and in other cases,
they are recruiting students to leave the city. Although it is not in the purveyance of
this paper, one feels compelled to ask: Will the marketplace be able to support and
sustain so many schools and operations? In this case, time will likely tell.
In the general field of communications (and this is a massive field with many
variations acknowledged) there are several prominent players. The schools that are
best known include six that have been around the longest: United Arab Emirates
University (UAEU; offers the only PhD in the field), American University of Sharjah
(AUS), and American University in Dubai (AUD), Zayed University, University of
Sharjah, and the UK’s Middlesex University (MUD). If we consider graduate programs,
Australia’s University of Wollongong (UWD) offers a Master’s degree in communication.
Several more recent additions might also be mentioned, including, Abu Dhabi
University, Manipal University, British University of Dubai, Canadian University of
Dubai, Murdoch University, American University in the Emirates (AUE), Curtin
University, Amity University, Higher Colleges of Technology, Skyline University College,
Ajman University, American University of Ras Al Khaimah, and New York University
Abu Dhabi. There are numerous other schools as well if one widens the scope to
include other concentrations and degree programs. For example, the UK’s University of
Birmingham recently opened a Dubai branch campus.
The Case of the American University
The American University in Dubai (AUD), founded in 1995, is in a unique position
on several fronts. Specifically, it has a few pluses over other schools when it comes to
the program in communication (discussed in the next section). The campus is not very
48
On key terms and textbooks: Teaching Comm101 in Dubai
large, but it is a clearly defined campus, self-contained, modern, well-maintained, and
in the prime location of “Media City” Dubai, right on the metro and tram lines, next to
the Marina, the Palm, Knowledge Park, and Internet City. AUD is a private university as
opposed to a ‘state’ school. This means that the campus does not have gendersegregated classrooms, for one (though when women’s sporting events are held on
campus with other schools, men are often prohibited from attending). And, in general,
the university follows an American-style curriculum. At the same time, because it is
located in the Gulf, it is inevitably incumbent upon professors to take into
consideration aspects of certain local ‘realities’ when designing course materials. These
nuances and influencers might be referred to as part of the ‘hybridized’ or ‘glocalized’
process. From observation, the learning curve for professors will vary greatly
depending on where they are from, and the experiences that they have had prior to
the international posting. It has been said that it is not what happens to us, so much
as how we respond to what happens to us that matters; a saying that any professor
who travels and lectures abroad would do well to keep in mind.
In the current case, given that much of the text comes from the perspective of
personal observation, a bit of information about the author is warranted. The author of
this paper was born, raised, and educated in the United States, and following
exchange programs to Europe in high school and college, lectured for a few years at a
vocational institute in Pittsburgh, then returned to graduate school in central New
York. Following graduate course-work, the doctoral candidate taught at a small liberal
arts school for a few years (upstate New York), and then two years after attaining the
Ph.D., accepted a posting in Singapore, and a fellowship in Taiwan, before moving to
the Middle East to join the American University in Dubai. All of these previous
experiences proved to be beneficial for the Dubai posting in the sense that the author
had attended and taught at a few different kinds of schools (e.g., large and small,
foreign and domestic, socio-economically diverse and homogenous), and developed a
certain amount of flexibility as a ‘global academic’ of sorts. It may also be worth noting
that all of his graduate school roommates were from other countries (e.g., Norway,
India, S. Korea, Japan, and China). Of course, there are always new things to learn,
and the experience of teaching in new environments and interacting with a diverse
campus community provides constant opportunities to learn.
Communication Program at AUD
AUD’s communication program, Mohammed Bin Rashid School for Communication
(MBRSC) founded in 2008, is named after the ruler of Dubai. Sheikh Mohammed’s
foundation provides scholarships for qualified students; more than half of the incoming
students receive funding assistance. The school offers two majors “Digital Production
& Storytelling (DPST) and Journalism (JOUR). Both degree programs also provide the
chance for students to enroll in English or Arabic tracks. This gives the program a
slight distinction in that the programs at other schools tend to offer either one or the
other, but not both. Some faculty are able to teach in both tracks, however the
majority are teaching in English (this is true university-wide).
The task of preparing students for the inevitable day when they will work in the
media is always in the back of a teacher’s mind and for most of the MBRSC students
that will mean media in the Middle East, if not precisely Dubai and the United Arab
Emirates. Many of the students intern at local media companies. And the employment
rate upon graduation is respectable, with many of the students going to work at such
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
49
companies as MBC, Al Arabiya, CNN Arabic, Abu Dhabi Media, Al Khalijiyya Channel,
Al-Hayat newspaper, Alsayegh Media, Bell-Pottinger ME, Emaar Retail Group, and the
Gulf News newspaper, OSN, ITP Publishing, among others. Some students have gone
on to graduate programs. Indeed the MBRSC recently launched a Master’s level
program in Leadership and Innovation in Contemporary Media.
One of the first core courses that all incoming media students must take is
Comm101, a standard course in many communications programs. In the case of the
program at AUD-MBRSC, the course is entitled “Introduction to Global Media,” and it is
designed to provide students with a general overview of the media landscape.
Although there are many variations to the introductory courses that exist around the
world, media professors will recognize the touchstone elements to the course: history
of the various mass mediums, along with aspects of their current operations, and light
discussions of topical issues related to the course content often pulled from the news
media themselves (if not directly from examples in the textbook). Though the term
‘media’ is fairly well understood, the definition for the other word in the course title -‘global’ -- raises issues regarding the definition and scope of the term. For the current
case, and after a few years of deliberation, the scope tends to be indeed everything on
the planet, but with specific attention placed on the UAE, and also a neighboringregional expanse starting from Morocco to the west and over to India in the east.
The Global Media course is but one in a curriculum that was designed in
collaboration with the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of
Communication. Without going into detail (something that would be difficult to
accomplish in a paper not explicitly devoted to that undertaking) the school has
regular ‘check-ups’ to ensure that it is ‘on the right path.’ These visits come from a
handful of official and unofficial bodies and representatives, all of which provide
various forms of feedback to the school’s administration. In addition to the external
feedback, there are also plenty of sessions in which the course and program learning
outcomes are assessed. This helps to ensure that the subject matter of the courses is
‘on-target’ and appropriate for the program. This also assists the professor in
developing the right tools to reach the students and staying on track with the material.
At the same time, professors have some leeway to design the course as they see fit,
so long as the program and course learning outcomes are met. One of the first if not
the most important decisions that a professor likely makes is picking the textbook, if
there will be one, for the course.
Importance of the Textbook
As any instructor who has taught introductory courses in the fields of mass media
and communication will know, it is often difficult to find a ‘required’ textbook that
exactly ‘fits the bill.’ In part this is because, as with the field of communication studies,
introductory courses come in many shapes and sizes – and now, increasingly they are
being taught in many different locations around the world. The exact nature of the
course that ultimately develops is often defined in some measure by what the
programs’ needs are, how the curriculum has been designed and developed, and who
is teaching the course and what their background brings to the table. Though to a
large extent, there are probably more similarities than differences among the various
iterations of these types of introductory courses. The choice of which textbook to use
also plays a large role in the format and content of a class. To be sure, there are
50
On key terms and textbooks: Teaching Comm101 in Dubai
several excellent books available. And for the most part, instructors will pick the one
that most closely parallels the syllabus for the course and then simply try to make the
best of it, following a weekly schedule based on the book’s chapters looking at the
various media (even if the order or specific materials are not an exact fit). Over time,
there is a type of ‘lock-in’ that occurs as an instructor’s lectures and exams become
more closely associated with one text versus others. Switching textbooks, often
tempting if a newer edition is released, requires a significant time investment; time
that many instructors may judge to be better applied elsewhere. The concepts of
‘vendor lock-in’ and ‘switching costs’ are well known in the economic literature (see
Doyle, 2013, pp. 56-57) and are certainly at play here. Also, keeping the same book
from one semester to another is often economically favored by students who may be
selling their book back at the end of the course, or looking for a “slightly used” edition
themselves at the start of a new semester. It must also be acknowledged that the
propensity for students to use any physical book at all is decreasing (an issue for
another time).
All textbooks are not created (or greeted) equally in the global higher education
landscape. For those who are teaching in the United States and Britain, the textbooks
are chalk full of pertinent and timely examples, along with relevant stories that help
illustrate numerous points and key terms. There is no secret as to why the US and UK
textbooks dominate the field. These classes started out and have been taught for a
longer period of time than their counterparts in other regions of the world. In addition,
the field of mass communication has developed and matured to the point where these
textbooks, with new editions every other year, have primarily become ‘the norm,’ and
somewhat synonymous with the “COMM 101” experience. Because western media
products are well-known throughout the world, most students can follow the material
to a certain degree regardless of where they live and go to school. It is also not
uncommon for newer, freshly-minted instructors to be given the introductory courses
to teach as they begin their teaching career. In such cases, use of a known commodity
– the standard ‘mass comm’ textbook (with PowerPoints and test banks readily
provided by the publisher in the instructor’s edition) – is highly likely. To be fair, the
prevailing introductory textbooks in addition to being informative, are timely, suitable,
and colorful; to put it succinctly, they get the job done. The ‘proof is in the pudding’ as
the saying goes – and many of these ‘long-established’ texts proliferate for good
reason (e.g., Biagi, 2016; Straubhaar & La Rose, 2015; Turow, 2016).
Global Media and Higher Ed
That textbooks from the West/North proliferate, follows historical patterns in other
areas, of course, including the mass media. The traditional communications
technologies and media were essentially invented and came to the fore earlier and
thus had an eventual advantage in the global marketplace when the technology of
media ultimately spread (e.g., radio and television) and content was much desired and
increasingly required by foreign media owners and demanded by international
audiences. A combination of forces led to this reality (i.e., technology, culture,
industry). Increasingly, as any closer look at these forces indicates, the world is
changing. Media is being created everywhere, and more schools have added
communication and media programs to their offerings. This is certainly true in the Gulf
region; the body of water around which the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries
exist. As mentioned, the number of communication-oriented programs has increased
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
51
and is still growing. As the media industry too grows here, the majority of the westernbased introductory media books are noticeably becoming no longer wholly appropriate
for use in the introductory mass media classrooms. Even though students, of course,
have some degree of familiarity with the western celebrities and media products
(depending on their background and media habits), we must also acknowledge
additionally that they are also familiar with their own countries’ history, home-grown
celebrities, and unique media products. We are now seeing slight shifts in the global
flow of media, whereby smaller countries, some developing and many in the so-called
“Global South,” are now coming to have a greater say in the global conversation.
Regardless, the media of the world are of infinite interest and should be considered
and included in any classroom treatment of the subject. Introductory textbooks that
cater to the global student cohort need to keep pace. While some of the Western
textbooks have admirably managed to incorporate stories and examples from other
parts of the globe, and again many students are familiar with the western cases, the
fact is that these textbooks are inadequate and under-serving for scores of students
around the world. This is not a scathing critique so much as a simple recognition of a
certain reality that faces those of us who have taught outside the “Global North.” Thus
the need for a region-specific introductory textbook for the Middle East-Gulf Region
(with limitations in the nomenclature of this ‘region’ acknowledged) was evident.
At the same time, the handful of concepts and buzzwords mentioned at the
start of this paper have gained traction in the field of higher education (i.e.,
internationalization, globalization, and de-westernization) and should thus be taken
into consideration when teaching courses. These concepts (relating to large-scale
global realities and socio-cultural traffic) are not entirely new, but the intensity of the
interactions is definitely growing (thanks in part to increased trade, cheaper airfares,
and the Internet). The definitions and application of these concepts to both higher
education and media will have different meanings for consumers and students in
various parts of the world. Yet, they also signal a shift. No matter the specifics of an
introductory media and communications course, or where in the world it takes place,
these concepts are likely to be raised – and their myriad meanings and original
contexts discussed.
Conclusions
The worlds of higher education and mass media are rapidly ‘shifting gears’ to
capitalize on the changes that globalization has wrought. While the history of media
technologies (and indeed that which has been written on the subject) leans decidedly
Western, and much of the western-originated media programming has benefitted from
being first with world-wide exposure, use of media production-enabling technologies is
now more economical and widespread. For the Middle East region, and specifically the
UAE and Dubai, we see a growing emphasis on the creation of original media content
and more wide-spread distribution. The goal has been to target the local and then
regional audiences, with programming that speaks to the audiences, with perhaps a
hint at creation for the wider global market only now occurring. This shift requires an
increasing number of trained media workers to fulfil the roles in the expanding media
field.
At the same time, educational learning institutions have been launching mass
communications programs and continuously fine-tuning the curriculum in order to
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On key terms and textbooks: Teaching Comm101 in Dubai
locally train tomorrow’s media workers and thinkers. As a result, when we raise issues
about training and higher education, and the mass media, we should strive to do so on
a global basis, while at the same time recognizing the specific contributions that
various countries or regions have made and are now making (with greater strides) to
the global higher ed and media conversation. It is clearly a monumental task, and it is
on-going. Unlike the static nature of print and writing, the universities and media
themselves are continually moving and changing. At the same time, we need to
continue to build common international foundations in order to continue the
discussions - on the way to making the changes that will benefit media companies and
higher education institutions in ever more positive ways.
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
53
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Journal of Media Critiques [JMC]
doi: 10.17349/jmc118204
P-ISSN: 2056-9785
E-ISSN: 2056 9793
http://www.mediacritiques.net
jmc@mediacritiques.net
EDUCATION AS PUBLIC DIPLOMACY: HOW TO BUILD
AN INTERNATIONAL IMAGE IN EDUCATION
MARIA VAXEVANIDOU
ABSTRACT
The aim of this paper is to present effective and enduring models of public diplomacy applied
in education all over the world. International education as major contributor to soft power and
as an important area of public diplomacy can create a lot of advantages, such as to produce
commercial value, to promote a nation’s foreign policy priorities and interests and to contribute
to a country’s economic development and investment. Successful educational systems in
countries like the US, the UK, Canada and recently China, have proved the role and relevance of
their impact to national interest and international soft power goals. A soft power agenda applied
by a certain public policy can transform positive experiences from student mobility and
intellectual and social relationships at academic levels into influential values, culture and ideas
on the global stage in order to enforce a country’s image and its vital interests. The main
question of the study is to identify the main factors that can make a country to obtain a strong
reputation in education. Another question is to find out whether there are common factors
between different international education systems which are aligned to a certain public policy
applied by different countries. A third question will be arise around the methodology of public
diplomacy can be followed in order to become a reputational leader in education. The
methodological approach is based on bibliography, published case studies and personal
experience. The results of this study can provide a systematic roadmap of valuables and
processes which can be applied by countries aiming to build an international image in education.
Keywords: Public Diplomacy, International Education, International Image in Education.
INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, the number of countries which believe that education is the best way to
promote their national interests on the world stage has been increased enormously.
Except of big powers internationally like USA, UK, Canada, Australia, other countries
mainly from Asia started to pay special attention to and use the international
education as an effective instrument and source of soft power.
Press and Communication Counsellor, Public Diplomacy Ministry of Digital Policy, Telecommunications and
Information Secretariat General of Information and Communication Teaching at the Hellenic Open University
Greece, vaxevanidou@gmail.com
56
Education as Public Diplomacy: How to Build an International Image in Education
The present paper aims to determine the factors which can drive students’ decision
to study abroad, to make a comparison between major countries in attracting
international students, to make some remarks on trends in students’ choice and to
propose some basic steps for countries they want to focus on international students
and to apply a strategic public diplomacy.
Definitions and Background
Public diplomacy is widely associated with the notion of soft power (Melissen 2013&
Melissen 2005). Governments and education institutions recognize that international
education can be seen as a major contributor to soft power (House of Lords 2013;
Australian Senate 2007). The term “international students” refers to students who
have crossed borders specifically for the purpose of study. Student mobility is of
great interest to both governments and university leaders. According to
government’s perspective, higher student mobility provides increased access to an
international talent pool during the course of study and after graduation. From the
university’s point of view, higher student mobility provides increased funding in terms
of tuition fees, and international diversity contributes to the dynamism of an
educational programme which in turn fosters an attractive environment for talented
students and academic staff (OECD Handbook, 2017).
According to writers, there is a strong relationship between positive experiences
from student mobility abroad with the contemporary soft power agenda of a country,
as values, culture and ideas through the development of intellectual and social
relationships can play an important role in determining influence on the global stage
(Nye 2004).
Many high-experiences countries in international education, like the US, the UK,
Canada, and more recently China, have recognised the role and have improved the
relevance of education to their national interest and overall soft power goals (Byrne C.,
Hall R., 2016).
Therefore, soft power derived from education can be considered as a ‘side effect’ of
domestic successes. Nye (2004) mentions that education as an important source of
soft power several times.
The importance of education in Public Diplomacy
a. Why public diplomacy in education?
Many countries:
•
pay significant attention to “soft power” (Nye, 2008 & USC, 2018)
•
recognise that education, research, science, culture, language are all aspects
of Public Diplomacy (ieea, 2014)
•
invest heavily in Public Diplomacy to attract and retain students from all over
the world (Nye, 2005)
•
internationalise their universities as part of a ‘soft power’ policy to project
themselves internationally (Yang, 2010)
b. Why to pay attention to education as factor of public diplomacy?
It is underlined that the number of students studying abroad is tripled between 25
years (1990-2015). It is important to indicate that:
•
five million students are studying outside their home countries today
•
more than double in 2014 than in 2000
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
57
•
more than triple is the number of mobile students in 2014 than in 1990 (ICEF,
2017)
For many leading or aspiring destination countries, education is not only a major
export, but also an important pillar in trade policy, cross-cultural links, and diplomacy
(ICEF Monitor, 2017). According to the 2002 edition of the United States Code, study
in United States institutions by foreign students enhances trade and economic
relationships by providing strong English language skills and establishing professional
and business contacts (US Code, 2002).
At the same time, the education system can be used as an instrument of soft
power in the sphere of politics and geopolitics (Amirbek A., Ydyrys K., 2014). It is
referred in bibliography that any state is able to show considerable achievements in
the level of prosperity by the help of the viable mechanism of educational
system. Countries like Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and other East Asian countries
might serve as a striking example of this (Nye, 2005). Graduates studied in the foreign
countries become not only highly qualified personnel in their countries, but they also
may become a so-called “Trojan horse” (Tremblay, 2010).
c. Why to invest in Education?
Education is one of the United States’ top exports with international students
contributing more than $39 billion to the U.S. economy, according to the U.S.
Department of Commerce (IIE, 2017), with 72% of their funding coming from sources
outside of the United States.
For China, a recent player in the field, International education is business as usual.
A Peking University research project (2012) cited by the ADB estimated that direct
earnings, excluding accommodation, maintenance and transport a) from long-term
international students were between US$960 million and US$1.16 billion in 2011 and
b) a further US$90 million was earned from short-term students.
Also, it is worth to notice that Education has become the largest export service in
Australia and the education of international students is Australia’s third largest export,
behind only iron ore and coal. Education export earnings raised a record $21.8 billion
in 2016. The trade figures reveal that income from education grew by an impressive
17 per cent on 2015, recording the strongest annual growth since 2010 (Australia’s
Universities, 2017).
Main Questions and Methodology
The purpose of this study is to conduct analysis in identifying the factors that may
influence and attract students to enroll in other countries.
The main question of the study is to identify the main factors that can make a
country to obtain a strong reputation in education.
Another question is to find out whether there are common factors between
different international education systems which are aligned to a certain public policy
applied by different countries.
A third question will be arise around the methodology of public diplomacy can be
followed in order to become a reputational leader in education.
The methodological approach is based on literature review about the subject, case
studies, field research and professional experience gained over 23 years of service in
58
Education as Public Diplomacy: How to Build an International Image in Education
Public Diplomacy. The results of this study could be useful for governments,
universities and international students.
Results
Main factors to drive student decision and obtain strong reputation in education
According to bibliography and countries’ annual reports, the main factors that drive
student decision are:
a. The Language of instruction
The language of instruction remains a major factor in the prominence of Englishspeaking destinations. It is obvious that English-speaking countries attract the largest
share of international students. Similarly, countries that offer programs taught in
English attract more international students.
It is important to underline countries and universities in Asia offer a lot of Englishtaught courses. China offers 327 English-taught degrees, including 143 Bachelors and
184 Master’s programmes, Malaysia offers 239 English-taught degrees, including 142
Bachelors and 97 Master’s programmes, Taiwan offers 216 English-taught degrees,
including 51 Bachelors and 165 Master’s programmes, Hong Kong offers 196 Englishtaught degrees, including 108 Bachelors and 88 Master’s programmes and Japan
ranking 29 universities in top 1,000, offers 141 English-taught degrees, including 27
Bachelors and 114 Master’s programmes (Study portals, 2018).
b. The University Rankings
The Prestigious post-secondary institutions are the most demanded and students of
high academic achievements pay attention to university rankings and prefer highquality institutions.
c. The Quality of programmes
There is a strong correlation between study destination and perceptions of quality
of programmes (indicators of quality for individual institutions). Reputable rankings
such as Shanghai Jia Tong (ARWU), Times Higher Education and QS have ranked
British and American universities at the top of the world for decades (Colvin, 2018).
d. The Costs of study and living
The costs of study include travel costs, tuition fees and various administrative costs
and the cost of living.
The OECD notes cost as an important consideration but
observes as well that higher tuition fees do not necessarily discourage prospective
students so long as the quality of education. Full-time university students in America
pay the highest tuition fees among the 30 nations covered in the latest OECD report,
Education at a Glance 2017. The United States is by far the most expensive with
annual fees exceeding US$8,000 a year in public universities and more than
US$20,000 in private institutions.
e. Immigration policy
It is important for foreign students the time to get a visa, to have opportunities to
work during or after studies and to have prospects of immigration after graduation. In
Australia, the Howard Government, keen to take advantage of the significant economic
benefit provided by the international education sector, sought to attract overseas
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
59
students through immigration policy measures which provided a pathway to
permanent residency (Spinks, 2016).
Australia is placed by far the most attractive country within the four (US, UK,
Canada, Australia) when it comes to the prospective of gaining employment after
finishing studies. It offers two years working visa for a two years minimum study at a
bachelor or coursework master level. The scheme is unavailable in the UK, while
Canada has a scheme with much more restrictions in programs and course
requirements, and the USA offers a one-year visa for majors in STEM areas only
(Colvin, 2018).
f. Scholarship programs
According to the OECD’s report (Education at a Glance 2017), at least 75% of
students in high-cost countries have access to government-backed loans or
scholarships and grants. Also, the report underlines that some countries prefer to let
tertiary institutions charge higher tuition fees while providing financial support to
students in other ways, particularly through grants and public loans. These are often
available to students at better conditions than they could find on the private market,
typically with lower interest rates and conditions under which the loan is remitted or
forgiven.
There are several massive scholarship and grant programs all over the world, such
as the Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Scholarship Programme (KASP), Brazil’s Science
Without Borders, and, more recently, Mexico’s Proyecta 100,000, sharing culture and
strengthening ties between the USA and Mexico.
g. Develop partnerships
An easy way to develop partnerships with other countries is to launch a project,
especially with the US government sponsoring US students. In 2010, China launched a
project with the US government, sponsoring 100,000 US students going to China for
either short-term study or for a master’s programme by 2012. Also, a country can find
partnership through industrial groups and business world.
Common factors between different international Education systems in
attracting foreign students
The second question of the present paper is to find out whether there are common
factors between different international education systems in order to attract foreign
students. For the needs of the present paper, the countries that will be examined are
the countries which figure as the most attractive by international students. It is
remarkable that the rankings between countries have been changed last decades, with
the USA and the UK to be kept top ranked, after a lot of fluctuations they receive and
the strong competition they face last years.
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Education as Public Diplomacy: How to Build an International Image in Education
Table 1: Countries Hosting Most Foreign Students
2017
Rank
1
Country
% of Total
Mobile
Students
United States
24%
United
2
11%
Kingdom
3
China
10%
4
Australia
7%
4
Canada
7%
4
France
7%
5
Russia
6%
5
Germany
6%
6
Japan
4%
Source: (Project Atlas, UNESCO, 2017)
Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
2001
Country
United States
United Kingdom
Germany
France
Australia
Japan
Spain
Belgium
% of
Total
Mobile
Students
28%
11%
9%
7%
4%
3%
2%
2%
In terms of gaining market share, the big movers in the charts below are countries
like Australia, Canada, China, and Russia, as each of them has increased its proportion
of mobile students since 2001. Australia’s current national strategy for international
education sets an enrolment target of 720,000 international students by 2025,
standing on record enrolment of more than 550,000 students in 2016, and with
average annual growth of 6.5% over the past decade.
Canada, meanwhile, is aiming for 450,000 students by 2022, with 353,570 students
in 2015. China was not even on the chart in 2001, but has blazed an amazing trail in
building its international enrolment within the past decade. The country hosted more
than 440,000 foreign students in 2016, aiming to reach its target enrolment of 500,000
students by 2020.
In contrast, France’s market share has slipped in recent years. While it hosts more
than 310,000 foreign students today, its numbers are growing more slowly than is the
case in other major destinations (ICEF Minitor, 2017).
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
61
Top host destinations in 2001 & 2017
The United States, which is the primary provider of international higher education
and the destination of choice for 21% of international students, has some of the best
Universities in the world and offers educational diversity for students. Nevertheless, its
market share has declined over the last 15 years, while the global student numbers
have more than doubled over the same period, remains far and away the world’s
leading study destination and hosts more than one million students today.
The results of the 2002 edition of the United States Code were to increase funding
for the education sector, which enabled the enrollment of foreign students through
scholarships. Such funding came largely from the Federal government through its
numerous funding agencies. These funding opportunities encouraged academic
research as well as the enrollment of international students in ever increasing numbers
(Delphine N. Banjong, Myrna R. Olson, 2016).
62
Education as Public Diplomacy: How to Build an International Image in Education
Table 1: Comparison between country destinations of international students
COUNTRIES
Canada
Australia
26
37 top
universities
Australian
are featured
universities
among the
are included
world’s best.
among the
Four are in
world’s best
the global top in the 2018
100, while a
edition of the
further nine
QS World
Canadian
University
universities
Rankings2
are ranked in
the top 300.
Research
students can
institutions
work partprovide
time and
financial
access
packages to
scholarships
PhD students, and grants
$27,000/year,
for 4years
FACTORS
Famous
Universities /
Global
rankings
USA
246 Top
Ranked
Universities. It
hosts the top 50
on the global
rankings lists.
The U.S. is
home to some
of the most
prestigious
universities in
the world.1
UK
UK has the
second highest
number of
universities
ranked in the top
100.
Students seek
UK’s renowned
Universities.
Providing
scholarships
to
international
students
The national
interest for the
US
Government is
to provide a
stable source of
financial
support to
students in
developing
countries 3
The massive
investment in
higher
education
combined with
increasing
concerns in
promoting
positive
outcomes for
students, have
raised the issue
of quality to
one of
prominence
country.
International
Scholarship
Opportunities for
Non-Canadians.
The quality of
universities and
colleges is
assessed by the
Quality
Assurance
Agency (QAA).
Research
standards are
examined by the
four UK higher
education
funding bodies
Canada is a
premier
destination
for highquality
education
Australia has
a national
regulatory
and quality
agency for
higher
education –
the Tertiary
Education
Quality and
Standards
Agency
(TEQSA).
too high
High
Tuition fees
are a bit
demanding,
but lower
than those
Considerably
lower than in
the UK and
the US
Quality of
education
Tuition and
living costs
1
France
67 Top
Ranked
Universities
in France.
China
104 Top Ranked
Universities in
China
Scholarships
granted by the
MAEE to
foreign
students,
Eiffel
Program,
Major
Excellence
Scholarship
Program
It provides
students a
quality
learning
experience.
Issues such as
failing to help
students and
an archaic
university
system are
weighing
down the
quality of
education in
France.
A lot of Chinese
scholarships for
international
students
Low tuition
High tuition
for Grandes
Ecoles and
Private
The cost of living is
lower compared to
other countries and
tuition fees are
affordable and very
The 211 Project and
985 Project,
initiatives designed
to raise research
standards and
cultivate rencai
(people with talent)4
Study Portals, (2018), Top Universities in United States,
https://www.mastersportal.com/ranking-country/82/united-states.html
2
QS World University Rankings (2018), Top Universities in Australia 2018,
https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings-articles/world-university-rankings/top-universitiesaustralia-2018
3
The 2002 edition of the United States Code (i.e., 22 U.S.C. titled “Foreign Relations and Intercourse”)
states in its 57th chapter addressing a scholarship program for developing countries
4
China Power (2017), How does education in China compare with other countries?
https://chinapower.csis.org/education-in-china/
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
Englishspeaking
programs
Englishspeaking
country is one
key driving
force
Develop
partnerships
Establish and
maintain
successful
partnerships
with industry
and universities
of other
countries.
Procedures to
obtain visas
Stringent and
bureaucratic
procedures
Tight
immigration laws
in the UK
There is a
long step by
step
procedure of
getting
Canada
student visa
Opportunities
for work –
Recruiting
after
graduation
Students go
back to their
home countries
after
graduation.
Lack of
uniform
national
strategy for
recruiting
international
students
After graduation,
students are
given a fourmonth period to
look for jobs
Graduates of
certain
designated
learning
institutions
are eligible
for work
permit.
5
English-speaking
country
from
countries
such as the
UK the USA
or Australia.
University
fees may
vary yearly,
depending on
the city or
degree
programme.
Englishspeaking
country
Englishspeaking
country
Agreements
with foreign
governments
and agencies
A point
system is
used to
determine
whether
graduates are
eligible to
obtain a visa
Plenty of
options for
students who
want to work
in Australia
after
graduation.
63
Universities
Living cost
depends on
choices5
high at top-ranked
universities
Some 33
undergraduate
programmes
are entirely
Englishtaught and
more than
450 at either
undergraduate
or masters
level6
-With the
major French
industrial
groups
-With
governments
financing
their students
in France.7
a variety of
immigration
options
available
China offers 327
English-taught
degrees, including
143 Bachelors and
184 Master’s
programmes
Around 32%
of these
foreign
students stay
and work in
France
China launched a
project with the US
government,
sponsoring 100,000
US students going to
China
There is a step-bystep Guide to apply
for visa
An official notice
(12.1.2017) by
Ministry of Human
Resources and
Social Security has
made it easier for
foreign students to
work in China8
Tuition Fees and Living Costs in France, Study Portals Tuition
https://www.mastersportal.com/articles/355/tuition-fees-and-living-costs-in-france.html
6
Studying in France, The Complete University Guide
https://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/international/europe/france/
7
Receiving Foreign Students in France, French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (MAEE), 2010-2018
8
China Admissions (2018), New Policy Change: China Makes it Easier for Foreign Students to Work in China,
https://www.china-admissions.com/blog/new-policy-foreign-students-work-in-china/
64
Education as Public Diplomacy: How to Build an International Image in Education
Concerning the United Kingdom, International students seek high-quality education
from UK’s renowned Universities. A significant number of foreign students are from
China, followed by India and Nigeria. After graduation, students are given a fourmonth period to look for jobs after which they face deportation if they stay longer.
Many students go back to their home countries discouraged by tight immigration laws
in the UK. According to the QS World University Rankings in 2018, the most apparent
trend is the decline of the UK’s institutions. Of the 76 ranked, 51 have fallen down the
rankings and only one UK institution makes the top five – the University of Cambridge.
Of the 16 ranked Russell Group institutions, 11 have dropped. Nick Hillman, director of
the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI), said that the competitiveness of UK
universities has been affected by austerity. In particular, tuition fees have been frozen
for five years and research funding has not grown as fast as in some other countries.
So, the latest QS rankings should give policymakers pause for thought and to work
hard if UK universities are to regain their previous position.
In Australia, Education has become the largest export service. It has become a
frontier in technological innovations which attracts many foreign students. There are
plenty of options for students who want to work in Australia after graduation. A point
system is used to determine whether graduates are eligible to obtain a visa. The
method is straightforward and encourages many students to stay.
The costs of
studying in Australia are considerably lower than in the UK and the US, and students
can work part-time and access scholarships and grants. The top sending countries are
China, India, Malaysia and Vietnam. Foreign Students study Business Management
(44.7 %), and Engineering (11.8%).
France has attracted mobile students through several measures such as
simplification of application procedures, availability of subsidies and increasing the
number of institutions. Around 32% of these foreign students stay and work in France,
with a variety of immigration options available. The top sending countries of foreign
students to France are Morocco, China, and Algeria. Language and Humanities top the
most studied courses followed by Sports Sciences and Economics. Also, France
develops partnerships with the major French industrial groups (Thales-MAEE program)
and with governments, like India, Venezuela, Chile, Pakistan, Syria, Brazil, Gabon and
Indonesia, financing their students in France (MAAE, 2018)
China is the home of some of the best institutions and universities. Some 104 Top
Ranked Universities are in China and this world ranking can be correlated to the
ascendance of the country into the top ten most powerful economies in the world.
China as world leader in terms of economic development, it has made great
investments in education over the last years. China hosted about 330,000 students in
2012 and has a target to reach 500,000 students by 2020. Another important factor is
the existence of an International Students Plan, according to which every province in
China has a target of how many international students to attract to the province and,
according to that target, funds are distributed to each province and there are
discussions with the ministry of Education on how they can attract international
students.
Strategy of Public Diplomacy in order to become a reputational leader in
education
In order to be attractive to international students and get an important share in
international market of education mobility, it needs an International Students Plan
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
65
which can be applied by a Strategy of Public Diplomacy in Education, comprised of
some key measures, such as:
1. Set the goal and objectives of the Public Diplomacy strategy
Goals and objectives may be identical to the overall campaign will take place (e.g.
“to become leader in international education”, “to become a country with top
universities rankings”, “to obtain a share of 2% in the market of international
education” or “to reach 300,000 students by 2025”). In general, it is important to put a
target of how many international students to attract in total and to every university of
the country. More commonly, goals vary according to different target audiences. This
is the norm in campaigns as primary and secondary target audiences need to be
reached differently and will likely take different types of action.
2. Build the strategic process
The first key to success for a country which aims to apply an international strategy
is to act as a company with international activities. At this stage, it needs to decide to
what countries and geographic areas to concentrate the efforts, with which
stakeholders and partners, and for what types of activities. Before making the strategic
plan, it needs an analysis on the country’s strengths and weaknesses (SWOT analysis,
Pest Analysis, Competitor Analysis) in education and research, existing relationships,
and the means to achieve its objectives within a period of time frame. In order to build
and inspire the strategy, it is important to take in account the different rankings’
criteria (quality of education, providing scholarships, English speaking programmes,
tuition costs, opportunities for work etc) and to put a solid three-year international
development plan.
3. Involvement and commitment of stakeholders
Another important step in the strategic process is to involve representatives from
across the university community, faculty, staff, local and international students,
alumni, corporate partners, ministries, and mainly diplomats experienced in public
diplomacy.
Also, is particularly useful to ask for input from international student ambassadors,
who are ideal partners to contact with potential international students. They can
provide a free service to prospective and incoming international undergraduate and
graduate students by sharing their knowledge about living and studying overseas at
their respective universities. They can share their experience, answer specific
questions and provide practical tips. International students can connect with student
ambassadors through social media, university websites, Skype and other forms of
communication.
Another step is to create a networking program with alumni. It is important to
establish a networking program so that international students can contact alumni from
top degree programs for career advice.
4. Select key educational projects and introduction programs
At this stage, it is necessary to make a short list of the university’s core projects
and programmes that can be highlighted in order to establish new partnerships
worldwide. Some countries choose to start with short-term programs and to set up
summer schools, running one-month courses in July and August, in collaboration with
the world’s top institutions (i.e. China’s summer schools at Peking University in
collaboration with the London School of Economics, Oxford, Cambridge, Australian
66
Education as Public Diplomacy: How to Build an International Image in Education
National University, the University of California, Yale). This policy allows a country to
attract students from some of the world’s top institutions.
5. Find and determine strategic partnerships
Universities often boast hundreds of partnerships, but they are not all truly active
and do not offer new opportunities. It is better focus on a smaller number of key
institutional relationships for more intensive cooperation, often based on co-financed
collaborative research projects, faculty and student mobility, joint academic
programme design and delivery, innovation and entrepreneurship. Comparing strategic
research initiatives with a potential partner is always an effective way to start exploring
avenues for cooperation. It is necessary to determine the number of strategic partners
by evaluating the country’s university capacity to sustain the relationships.
Also, another important step is to find financial partnerships in order to allocate
adequate funding and to provide scholarships to international students. The
collaboration with major industrial groups (i.e France) or with other governments
financing their students is another effective strategy (i.e. In 2010, China launched a
project with the US government, sponsoring 100,000 US students going to China for
either short-term study or for a master’s programme by 2012).
In this point of view, it is also important to determine the strategic countries, a
maximum of five or six strategic countries, using input from stakeholders like reliable
analysis of universities’ existing academic and research collaborations, as well as
countries could of fund special programmes. They can also be countries where
domestic universities have or should have an impact. The criteria could be economic
growth, student quality, research output, and the number of major companies from
the country doing business there.
6. Establish a professional international team
It needs a pioneer team to conduct all international contacts. Such an international
team can be composed by academic staff, deans, representatives of the ministry of
education and mainly expertised diplomats in public diplomacy with aim to carry out
the communication strategy and promotion campaign. To this point of view, it is
important to allocate adequate funding in order to cover travel expenses, finance
partnership activities, and host international delegations.
7. Improve education environment
Another decisive factor for a strategy addressing to international students is to
improve the education environment of a country, which can be achieved by:
•
improving accessibility of entrance examinations and easing enrollment and
student visa processes;
•
developing more courses taught in English
•
creating universities as centers of excellence and internationalisation;
•
improving the environment for accepting international students, such as
providing assistance with accommodations, offering funding and scholarships,
and promoting international exchanges;
•
providing career services and extending the length of permitted stays.
•
developing distance learning education and offering cross-border delivery of
academic programs and offshore satellite campuses
8. Put in action a communication strategy
Any communication strategy should closely reflect the overall organisational plan, in
correlation to country’s overall vision and core aims and objectives. Such a strategy
should be composed by the following steps:
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
67
Develop key messages that effectively speak to target audiences: Messages should
be tailored to resonate with the target audience(s). Various versions of the message
may need to be prepared to reach different audiences. It is also important to consider
who will deliver the messages, i.e. the “messengers”.
Identify effective communication channels, techniques and tools: They can be
implemented interpersonal channels (one-on-one contact) and community-oriented
channels that use existing social networks, and media channels (including modern
mass media such as radio and TV, “new media” such as the internet, SMS, blog posts,
Google ads). It is important to use the techniques and tools that are most likely to
effectively reach the audience(s) through different channels.
Organise overseas trips, fairs, events and Student Orientation days: It needs to
verify that relevant information is visible and accessible to international students. It
can include developing Online Discussions to share best practice on recruiting overseas
students.
Make relevant information visible. It means to design a dedicated international
admission webpage that is mobile friendly. It can include links to scholarship and
financial aid information, sample application essays, instructions for visa applications
and contact information data for international admission counselors.
9. Evaluating success and feedback
The strategy should conclude with a section on evaluation. It is important to
evaluate how and when the goals and objectives of Public Diplomacy Strategy have
been met.
This process can include simple measures such as the number of new international
students, the number of submissions, the number of responses to questions, the likes
at Facebook page, the number of tweets etc. It can also include measures of media
coverage, not only in terms of volume, but in key messages have mentioned in target
audiences and a shift has been in international public attitude.
Conclusions
For many leading or aspiring destination countries, education is a major export, and
also an important pillar in trade policy, cross-cultural links, and diplomacy. The global
distribution of mobile students among study destinations has changed over time and it
depends on any country’s policy and its agenda setting concerning the “soft power”,
namely its Public Diplomacy.
Some countries invest a lot in Education in order to attract international students,
having recognized the dynamic in managing issues in the sphere of international
relations and diplomacy.
A complete Public Diplomacy in Education includes a combination of quality, value,
and access, which is described in present paper. In order to apply this strategy, there
are some prerequisites: universities must have real or perceived high academic
rankings, must obtain a strong academic reputation in certain areas, have affordable
tuition fees or offer scholarship opportunities, offer courses taught in English and
expand work opportunities for international students.
68
Education as Public Diplomacy: How to Build an International Image in Education
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Journal of Media Critiques [JMC]
doi: 10.17349/jmc118205
P-ISSN: 2056-9785
E-ISSN: 2056 9793
http://www.mediacritiques.net
jmc@mediacritiques.net
COMPETENCE MANAGEMENT Ν A SMART STRATEGYORIENTED APPROACH
ALEXANDER KARAPIDIS
ABSTRACT
Today, organizations are increasingly specialized in their activities and faced with turbulent
markets. It is therefore becoming more and more important for organizations to manage
competences internally, and a continuous competence development for employees and
managers emerges as a key factor for achieving and maintaining an excellent organizational
performance. Numerous approaches are already implemented in organizations worldwide. Since
using a standardized, adoptable and strategy-oriented competence management approach has
turned out to be the most efficient solution to support organizational objectives such as the
transformation to digitalized workplaces, the ΟFraunhofer Kompetenz-KompassΠ, which will be
illustrated in this paper, was developed in order to give orientation how to implement
competence management into an organization in a systematic and standardized way. The
approach is conceptualized as a modular kit, including necessary steps and approaches, which
then need to be customized to meet the specific requirements of different organizations.
Precisely spoken, the approach consists of the following six modules, which have to be
understood as sequent phases: (1) strategic context, (2) competence strategy, (3) competence
model, (4) competence measurement, (5) competence development and (6) competence
evaluation. Within this framework, necessary competences are derived from tasks, activities and
processes which support the strategic needs of an organization. Therefore, the competence
model can be easily adapted to new challenges and is able to actively flank organizational
change processes. The groups addressed with this paper are managers of organizations as well
as HR departments and applied research units.
Keywords:
performance.
Competence
management,
competence
framework,
competence
model,
INTRODUCTION
Considering the tremendous transformation of the working environment and its
consequences for employees, competence management has become an important
Research Associate, Competence Center Competence Management, Service and Human Resources
Management, Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering (IAO), Nobelstrasse 12, 70569 Stuttgart,
Germany, e-mail: alexander.karapidis@iao.fraunhofer.de
72
Competence Management – A Smart Strategy-Oriented Approach
issue for organizations in leveraging and sustaining their ability to compete (Erpenbeck
& Sauter, 2015; Nienaber, 2007; Reinhardt, 2017; Sauter & Staudt, 2016; Wimmer,
2014).
The modern working world is faced with change, uncertainty and intensive
competition fueled by advancing globalization of business activities and technological
progress (Lohmann-Haislah, 2012; Schäfer et al., 2013). Workload is often increasing,
demanded pace of work is accelerating, tasks are getting more complex and the
requirements with regard to abilities, skills and knowledge alter constantly (Ahlers,
2016; Lohmann-Haislah, 2012; Wohlers & Hombrecher, 2016).
More than ever, they need competent and motivated employees willing to pursue
lifelong learning (Kolb, 2010). Erpenbeck & von Rosenstiel (2005) even supposed that
the war of competition will increasingly become a war of competences. Sengupta et al.
(2013) came to the conclusion that competence management is seen as a strategic
approach for competitive advantage in future-oriented organizations. Thus, regarding
the contribution of competence management to master the challenges of a modern
working environment, it appears to be a promising concept for facing the need of
change (Erpenbeck & Sauter, 2015; Reinhardt, 2017; Stevens, 2012).
There are different opinions in research and practice about how a competence
management approach should be designed (e.g. Ennis, 2008; Bauer & Karapidis,
2013). The scope here ranges from more generic frameworks such as those derived
from DIN PAS 1093 (Stracke et al., 2009) to concrete and detailed competence
catalogues directly serving as a set of objectives for competence development
measures (Heyse & Erpenbeck, 2009). Despite the multiplicity of approaches, the
findings of the Fraunhofer study ΟCompetence management in German companies
2012/2013Π with a sample of 518 companies from different branches emphasize that
competence management is a key topic in organizations (Bauer & Karapidis, 2013).
Therefore, to spotlight on competence management and to show the benefits for
organizations to implement an appropriate solution systematically is the major aim of
the paper. Out of this perspective, the different notions and concepts of competence
management are illustrated as a first step. In a second step, major challenges to
implement competence management are put in concrete terms and a solution to them
is offered in the next step. In the end, conclusions will sum up the findings.
NOTIONS AND CONCEPTS OF COMPETENCE AND COMPETENCE
MANAGEMENT
Since the competence term is subject of numerous scientific disciplines such as
Psychology, Vocational Education and Business Administration, many different
perspectives have evolved over time and the scope of definitions is rather high (Arnold
& Schüssler, 2001; Zaugg, 2006). While Psychology focuses on cognitive and
motivational competence facets based on the groundworks of Chomsky (1965) and
White (1959), Vocational Education is engaged with aspects that enable persons to
meet their job requirements (Bernien, 1997; Grote et al., 2006).
The management of competences combines the individual with the organizational
level and the main goal is to steer the competence portfolio within an organization. It
goes beyond conventional education and training instruments by harmonizing the
individual development objectives of employees with the strategic targets of an
organization. Further, it aims to make individual and organizational competences
tangible and visible in order to employ existing competences efficiently and to develop
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
73
new competences needed for emerging challenges (North et al., 2013; Zaugg, 2006).
Hence, competence management strives to align the strategic and the operative level
(Sauter & Staudt, 2016) and does not only focus on maintaining the currently required
competence inventory but is also concerned with updating competences to master
future demands (Hamel & Prahalad, 1995).
To implement competence management in an organization successfully, a
systematic and standardized approach offers the chance to reduce complexity (Grote
et al., 2006). Therefore, Stracke et al. (2009) developed the ΟDIσ PAS 1093Π which
provides a generic framework for systemizing competence management. Within this
framework competence management activities need to be adapted to the respective
context of an organization.
Based on these findings the Fraunhofer approach aims to help organizations to
manage their competence inventory and detect competences on individual and
organizational level in order to employ and develop them systematically in a strategic
and goal-oriented manner to enhance competitiveness. Before starting to explain the
Fraunhofer approach in chapter 4, the next chapter is to depict the challenges which
need to be addressed when conceptualizing competence management.
CHALLENGES OF COMPETENCE MANAGEMENT
The objective of competence management is to increase the organizationΣs
performance by coping with new and changing conditions for organizations more
quickly (Karapidis, 2008). When competence and training activities are connected to
corporate strategies, an organization is better positioned to improve todayΣs
performance and meet tomorrowΣs challenges (εulder, 2012). According to the study
about competence management in the field of management practice, published by the
Fraunhofer IAO (Bauer & Karapidis, 2013), a high impact of competence management
on the overall success of an organization is significantly more likely to be made when
competence management is run systematically and applied to the entire organization.
By using a standardized competence management approach, the learning and training
efforts can be optimized (and often also reduced) by systematic processes in order to
reveal learning needs (Liebenow et al., 2014). However, inside an organization there
are often differences between strategical needs and operative demands (Reinhardt,
2007). For example, a strategical need to strengthen offshore activities can be a
contradiction to operative demands for Οevery-dayΠ and situational work processes and
work tasks (Getha-Taylor et al., 2016). To overcome these issues, strategical needs
and operative demands have to be synchronized within an organization (Lo et al.,
2015). But, there is a lack of approaches to align operative needs and strategic
demands systematically (Bauer & Karapidis, 2013), which leads to the first challenge.
Challenge 1: Strategical and operative objectives of an organization often collide at
least up to a certain extent. This circumstance decelerates the organizationΣs
performance and seems to be an antagonism. Unfortunately, there are only a few
competence management approaches being able to tackle this issue.
As stated before, another purpose of competence management is to make
competences tangible and visible within an organization pursuing the goal to employ
74
Competence Management – A Smart Strategy-Oriented Approach
existing competences appropriately and to develop further competences, if
requirements change (North et al., 2013; Zaugg, 2006).
Challenge 2: The management might not be fully aware of competences required
and competences available in order to run the business processes successfully. As a
consequence, performance slows down or even fails.
Moreover, a deficit in aligning training offers with business needs derived from
strategic decisions is a common reason for unsolved performance gaps. According to
the gap displayed in Figure 1, competence management enables an organization to
leverage employeesΣ performance measures through adequate training. The important
lesson to be learned from this gap, is that simply having all jobs occupied is not
enough (Wittorski, 2012). In addition, they have to be filled with employees who
exhibit the necessary competences. Unfortunately, current employees do not fully
meet all the competence requirements (Maran et al., 2016).
Figure 1: Training effect on performance-time-curve
Since economic competitiveness is closely linked to the value of human capital, the
quality of an organizationΣs workforce and its ability to adapt to changes can play an
important role in business improvement efforts, thus calling for a continuous
investment in human resource development (Balaguer et al., 2006). Aligning individual
training with business priorities emerges as a key challenge for modern organizations
(Sauter & Sauter, 2013).
Challenge 3: Gaps in performance often result from a non-integration of learning
and business needs. The supply in training and learning does not fit actual business
needs, and/or staff development measures are initialized too late.
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
75
Taking into account the challenges described in this chapter, the Fraunhofer IAO
has developed an overall competence management approach, which will be further
illustrated in the following section.
STRATEGY-ORIENTED COMPETENCE MANAGEMENT – FRAUNHOFER
APPROACH
Challenge 1: A strategy-oriented competence management approach
The ΟFraunhofer Kompetenz-KompassΠ (Figure 2) was developed in order to give
hints how to implement and operate competence management in an organization in a
systematic and standardized way. It is conceptualized as a modular kit, including
necessary steps, instruments and methods, which then needs to be customized to
meet the specific requirements of different organizations (Bauer, Dworschak & Zaiser,
2017).
Figure 2: Competence framework ΟFraunhofer Kompetenz-KompassΠ
The first phase „strategic contextΠ identifies the general conditions of an
organizationΣs context. The described procedure requires an analysis involving all
responsible stakeholders, including for instance the top management and department
leaders of divisions, departments or teams.
The main goal of this procedure is to expose future demands considering the
competences needed to meet the strategic targets (see also Jochmann, 2007; Lebrenz,
2017; Weissenberger-Eibl & Kölbl, 2006).
Within the second phase Οcompetence strategyΠ the competence management
activities to steer the competence portfolio have to be aligned with the demands
identified in the first phase under consideration of the specific organizational context
regarding corporate culture, existing structures and systems, etc. Prior to formulating
the competence strategy, it has to be determined to which strategic requirements the
competence management should contribute (see also Jochmann, 2007; North et al.,
2013; Sauter & Staudt, 2016; Weissenberger-Eibl & Kölbl, 2006). To define and
implement the competence strategy successfully, all steps selected from the
competence framework, as well as concrete instruments, methods and processes
elaborated in the following steps should be recorded in detail, leading to a competence
roadmap.
The third phase Οcompetence modelΠ forms the core of a strategy-oriented
competence management approach (see also Lebrenz, 2017; Sauter & Staudt, 2016).
τne solution can be seen in the Οone-size-fits-all-plusΠ method developed at
Fraunhofer IAO and already implemented in several organizations (see Figure 3). The
elements of the competence model are valid for the entire organization or parts of it
involved in competence management activities. To develop such a model cost- and
time-efficient, methodical, social and personal competences are formulated as generic
competences (Οone-size-fits-allΠ). In addition to that, the professional competences are
76
Competence Management – A Smart Strategy-Oriented Approach
formulated subject-specific and have to be adapted to the particular demands of
business units. Whereas the generic competences, also called key competences, are
most suitable for controlling and supporting strategical needs, the specific professional
competences display the demands on operative level (the ΟplusΠ component). So, both,
the demands of the operative level as well as the needs of the strategic level, are
considered.
Figure 3: Competence model Οone-size-fits-all-plusΠ
By using the Οone-size-fits-all-plusΠ method for the core architecture of a resilient
competence management approach to satisfy different needs and demands in an
organization, competence management also needs to have the ability to be adaptive to
future needs. Even if not all threats that may occur in future can be overseen,
competence management and a competence model should be chosen in a way that
•
supports actual and future strategic demands,
•
new competences can be added easily,
•
existing competences can be neglected or erased,
•
competence classes can be enlarged,
•
new relationships between competences and activities can be drawn,
•
upcoming processes and work task changes can be integrated in the model,
and that
•
the competence model has the feature to be adopted to other competence
management activities within an organization or between organizations in a
location, in distributed locations or even cross-border (at least to some extent).
Within the competence classes, specific competences have to be chosen which are
critical to meet the organizationΣs strategic demands. To describe them in detail, it is
recommended to work out corresponding observable and measurable acting behaviors
(Sauter & Staudt, 2016) which reflect different levels of maturity of the specific
competence, e.g. basic, advanced and expert level (e.g. North et al., 2013).
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
77
The fourth phase Οcompetence measurementΠ is engaged with measuring and
evaluating the existing competence portfolio in order to identify competence gaps and
development needs, but also to display the intellectual DNA of an organization. Since it
is not possible to measure competences directly, they have to be assessed in the
course of defined performed actions (compare Erpenbeck & von Rosenstiel, 2007;
North et al., 2013). To measure those behaviors, a variety of methods exists and often
several methods are combined (Sauter & Staudt, 2016). One such combination could
for example be measuring competences through self-assessments on the one hand,
and on the other hand through external assessments by managers, e.g. during
performance reviews, to secure a higher objectiveness (North et al., 2013).
Finally, the competence portfolio should be evaluated in respect of whether the
present competences are sufficient to accomplish the strategic objectives (see also
challenge 2). If not, activities which seem to be most expedient to synchronize the
operative and strategic level have to be compiled, since the synchronization can be
performed in various ways (Jochmann, 2007). Whereas the personnel development of
competences focuses on building up competences internally, the personnel selection
concentrates on acquiring competences externally. Another way is to employ the
existing competences adequately within the organization through efficient personnel
planning (Lebrenz, 2017; North et al., 2013; Sauter & Staudt, 2016).
The Οcompetence developmentΠ phase is concerned with building up, developing or
further enhancing the employeesΣ competences with regard to meet the strategic
targets by selecting and implementing appropriate development measures (see also
Frieling et al., 2009; Ledergerber & Meyer-Ferreira, 2010). Fraunhofer IAO has
designed a process, which will be further explained in the solution for challenge 3. But,
no matter which measures are applied, it needs to be considered that they have to be
chosen focusing on both, organizational and individual development objectives
(Kauffeld & Grote, 2011; Reinhardt, 2017; Sauter & Staudt, 2016).
Within the last phase Οcompetence evaluationΠ, all selected steps, activities,
instruments, methods and processes have to undergo an evaluation, and, if necessary,
adequate optimizing measures should be conducted to increase the efficiency of the
competence management (see also North et al., 2013) and/or to better achieve the
defined goals (see also Jochmann, 2007). Since the ΟFraunhofer Kompetenz-KompassΠ
framework is based on a cyclical logic, a continuous process of monitoring, controlling
and improvement needs to be implemented. Environmental conditions which mark the
starting point of the competence management process have to be reviewed
periodically. If the requirements alter, all phases of the competence management have
to be adapted.
To examine the competence management measures on the operative level, the
competence development activities should be assessed directly after being operated
regarding their impact on the organizational performance, e.g. using different
evaluation models derived from Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick (2006) and specific data
analysis methods (see also Behrend et al., 2017).
Challenge 2: Competence atlas
This section focuses on the question of how to tackle that the management often is
not fully aware about the competence portfolio available within the organization and
which solution competence management can provide. So, knowing the organizationΣs
78
Competence Management – A Smart Strategy-Oriented Approach
competence portfolio gives the management a better decision certainty and reliability
when decisions concerning human resources topics have to be made, for example:
•
Where are the competence gaps located?
•
Does the organization have the right competences to implement a new
business model? And, if not, is it able to build up competences with the
existing workforce or should new employees be hired (make or buy)?
A solution, how to collect, foster, and visualize competences within an organization,
is to build up a Οcompetence atlasΠ (see Figure 4), as it is provided in the Fraunhofer
competence management approach ΟFraunhofer Kompetenz-KompassΠ.
Figure 4: Competence atlas architecture
To get an appropriate overview of the competences within the organization, first,
competences have to be collected in a systematic way on the different hierarchical
levels of an organization, from the bottom to the top, respectively by the managers of
the superordinate hierarchical level. The data thus generated can be gathered with the
help of Excel-lists or other software tools, resulting in so called Οcompetence profilesΠ
on individual level and the Οcompetence mapΠ on the business unit level. To avoid
misuse of the data in the individual competence profiles, data protection directives
have to be established in advance, which determine the access permissions of the
different hierarchical levels. Therefore, the business unit management and the human
resource department only receive anonymized insight in the entire Οcompetence atlasΠ,
allowing them, to get an overview of the competence portfolio and competence
potentials in the entire organization. Hence, the competence atlas enables different
stakeholders to oversee competences and to analyze them for specific needs and
purposes, e.g.:
•
detect competences available in an organization
•
determine proficiency levels to identify the quality of competences to solve
specific work tasks or processes
•
operate data evaluation algorithms to identify similar-sounding competences as
hints for Οpartly-fittingΠ groups or teams as competence owners
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
79
Challenge 3: Aligning training to competence gaps
This section illustrates how to close the competence gaps (Figure 5). The
mechanism has already been successfully implemented in several organizations by
Fraunhofer IAτ and is a part of the competence management approach ΟFraunhofer
Kompetenz-KompassΠ referring to the phase Οcompetence developmentΠ. It is mainly
concerned with the following objectives:
•
Decision of closing a competence gap or not,
•
identification of feasible and adequate learning strategies/methods to close the
competence gap and
•
tailoring adequate training methods and learning strategies specified to bridge
competence gaps.
Figure 5: Process for aligning development measures to competence gaps
After revealing competence gaps within the phase of measuring competences, the
decision maker (e.g. the management) should decide if a competence gap will be
closed or not. To do so, the different competence gaps identified are reported and
weighted according to their importance. In this respect, criteria of the organization
and/or the decision maker, like time, cost and quality, take an important role in
deciding, whether a competence gap should be closed or not, even if the competence
gap is critical for success in coping with a specific work situation. In the phase of
deriving learning requirements from competence gaps, the competence gaps and how
to bridge them are in the major focus. Based on different working situations, different
types of competence gaps can occur. So, the identification opens a portfolio of how
and to which extent a learning strategy and appropriate learning methods can cover
the competence gap. Within the fitness check, the potential of the different learning
strategies, learning and training methods are evaluated to give answers on which
learning strategy and learning method fits most to cover specific competence gaps.
First, it needs to be checked if appropriate training measures are already available.
Second, based on criteria like time, cost, quality, adequateness and/or other measures,
the suggested learning strategies and training methods are being assessed, and finally,
80
Competence Management – A Smart Strategy-Oriented Approach
it must be decided which training measures will be executed until when and who will
and can be responsible for the whole process.
CONCLUSIONS
The aim to synchronize strategic and operative demands in organisations can be
solved by using and configuring the steps of the ΟFraunhofer Kompetenz-KompassΠ
framework, which can be described as a systematic, future-oriented and robust
competence management solution for successfully coping with a constantly changing
working environment. The value added resulting from the application of this approach
comprises the strategic level as well as the operative process level. On the strategic
level, the main advantages are generated by enhancing the relationship between high
performing employees and the organization they are working in, in order to avoid
shortage of skilled staff and by fastening implementation processes for new or
modified strategies. Competence management with its different phases, methods and
instruments seems to be an appropriate tool, since it provides a standardized approach
to reveal competence needs and interlinking them with appropriate training. It has the
potential to be adoptable for all training and learning needs Ν spanning a range
including relevant strategic issues, processes and work tasks.
Besides, the ΟFraunhofer-Kompetenz-KompassΠ follows a modular logic which offers
the possibility for organizations to select or emphasize the phases as needed,
depending on the different corporate context and can therefore be implemented to
whatever industry and regardless of organization size. Due to the flexibility of this
approach, it enables organizations to successfully cope with changing demands and to
flank change processes efficiently. Furthermore, through implementing competence
management as recommended in this paper, organizations will be able to gain a better
transparency over their specific competence portfolio, to identify critical competence
gaps and to steer the competence portfolio accurately.
Solution 2 therefore illustrated an approach to get an overview about competences
in an organization. By using the Οcompetence atlasΠ, subject-specific and generic
competences become transparent on all organizational levels, but constrained by the
architecture of access permissions and of rights on the usage, which can be differently
distinctive in different organizations.
The alignment of learning objects and competences still seems to be fuzzy in many
organizations. By using the solution provided for the challenge 3, competence gaps
can be aligned more appropriate to learning activities. So, competence development is
much more focused on the competence gaps instead of focusing on aggregated
learning objectives not aligned to the individual learnersΣ aims. Based on this approach,
aligned development measures tailored to competence needs can be provided.
Compared to conventional training activities, the chance to have well trained
employees for specific work tasks or work processes within an organization has proven
to be much higher using the described process. Furthermore, learning strategies and
learning methods can be executed in a shorter period of time.
Nevertheless, conceptualizing, piloting, rolling out and sustaining competence
management activities in organizations is not easy to perform. When configuring nonappropriate phases, methods and instruments or not establishing a common view of
what is understood by competence management and which goals competence
management should focus on, the entire process could collapse, even if a systematic
process has been chosen. Moreover, the solutions provided in this paper always need
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
81
to be adapted individually for an organization in order to meet the requirements of the
different organizational conditions. But, what applies to all organizations is, that
measures should be implemented within the competence management concept, which
proof the performance of competence management activities, allow for early and
timely detection of competences needed, ensure the commitment of all stakeholders
and help to support strategic demands and change processes.
82
Competence Management – A Smart Strategy-Oriented Approach
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Journal of Media Critiques [JMC]
doi: 10.17349/jmc118206
P-ISSN: 2056-9785
E-ISSN: 2056 9793
http://www.mediacritiques.net
jmc@mediacritiques.net
PROFILE OF THE SUBCONTRACTOR AND
PERFORMANCE OF THE EXCHANGE RELATIONSHIP IN
THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY IN MOROCCO
AHMED MAGHNI*
HAMZA AANAOU**
ABSTRACT
Morocco is now considered to be an important producer and exporter in the automotive sector,
with a share in the African market of 45% in 2016 compared to 6% in 2000. Subcontracting played
a major role in this dynamic of the sector. Our study aims to better understand the performance
of car subcontracting relations in Morocco. We are doing that by focusing more on the performance
of the exchange relationship between subcontractors. This study has both an academic and
practical aspect. For this manner, we conducted a qualitative study (sixteen interviews), with
competent stakeholders, including buyers and suppliers of subcontracting companies located at
different levels of the automotive value chain. The data analysis has highlighted performance
perceptions ranging from cost reduction for Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEMs), to the
search of institutional support for 3rd tier subcontractors, also learning the logic and research for
second-tier subcontractors.
Keywords: Profile of automotive subcontractors, Subcontracting Relationship Performance,
Morocco.
INTRODUCTION
The increased competition at the global level creates more pressure on the
contractors as they require more involvement from their subcontractors. Thus, the
traditional forms of subcontracting are gradually disappearing in favour of more efficient,
lasting and satisfactory partnerships. However, the performance of the subcontracting
relationship is related to the subcontractor’s position and profil in the value chain, as
well as its learning capacity, and many other factors. In this context, our research aims
to understand the relationship between performance of subcontracting and the
*
Professor, Research Laboratory: Strategy, Management and Governance, Department "Strategy and
Governance of Organizations", National school of management, My Rachid Avenue B.P 1255. 90000 Tangier,
Morocco, e-mail:maghn.med@gmail.com
**
PhD student, Research Laboratory: Strategy, Management and Governance, Department "Strategy and
Governance of Organizations", National school of management, My Rachid Avenue B.P 1255. 90000 Tangier,
Morocco, e-mail:hamza.aanaou@gmail.com
88
Profile of the Subcontractor and Performance of the Exchange Relationship in the Automotive
Industry in Morocco
relationship of subcontract of the automotive subcontractors in Morocco, by answering
the following questions: how do automotive subcontractors perceive the performance of
the subcontracting relationship? Is this perception related to the profile of the
subcontractor? Does it evolve in time? For what reasons?
For this purpose, we conducted sixteen interviews, respecting the principle of
theoretical saturation (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). These interviews were conducted mainly
with buyers and suppliers employed by subcontractors, which is one of the original
features of our work. After the coding of the corpus, and the grouping of the codes, we
carried out an analysis of the frequencies of the themes to understand their weights,
and an analysis of the co-occurrences, to understand the nature of the links between
the themes.
Here are the theoretical and conceptual benchmarks of the study, before presenting
the methodology adopted and the results obtained.
Theoretical and Conceptual Benchmarks
The notion of subcontracting
An examination of the definitions of subcontracting shows that, there are several
realities that are different from a country to another, behind the same concept.
Moreover, these conceptualizations are not aligned with the evolution of current
subcontracting practices. Thus, the concept of outsourcing is defined according to
several approaches and different institutions.
Indeed, in the current context marked by an evolution of the production processes,
which is more complex, the rules of the game between the client and the subcontractor
have evolved. As a result, the subcontractor is no longer simply a performer of the work
entrusted but can intervene throughout the production process: from conception to the
production of the finished product. Therefore, the product is co-determined between the
two parties concerned. To better understand the phenomenon of outsourcing, it is
necessary to highlight its different types.
The profiles of automotive subcontractors: the Vennin grid:
Vennin (1975) distinguishes three types of automotive subcontractor: large, medium
and small. The author based the grid on six criteria (the technical size, the technical
mastery, the time horizon, the level of the discussion with the client, the product, and
the strategy deployed). The grid is as follows:
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
89
Table 1 The Vennin Grid (translated by us)
Indicator of
Company
Size
Technical
size
Technical
mastery
Temporary
horizon
Level of discussion
with the client
Product
Strategy
Large
Factory
Design
A few years
General Manager
Function
Diversification
medium
Workshop
Expertise
A year
Head of Purchasing
Manager
auto part
Specialization
small
Machine
Execution
Month
Buyer
Hour
Survival
The big subcontractors (the equipment suppliers): The field of these subcontractors
is generally multi-sectoral; its policy is autonomous compared to the one of the
manufacturers. The manufacturer subcontracts to these subcontractors a function of the
vehicle, either through a technique (foundry of large parts, cold extrusion, electronics
...) or through a component (ball bearings ...) manufactured according to their
standards. We noticed that the grid of Vennin (1976) does not take into account the
case of the equipment manufacturers and be able to choose the manufacturer that they
want to profit from the technological advance, as it is the case of Bosch with Mercedes
for power supply. This technology is the subject of a subcontractor's own research and
development policy. For the manufacturer, the decision is whether to do it by yourself
or having one made for you. The response engages the medium and the long term.
Medium subcontractors (second-rate subcontractors): The subcontracting resources
of the automotive sector are aimed to car manufacturers or their major suppliers
(equipment manufacturers). These subcontractors supply the chains of manufacturers
of mass-produced parts are oriented towards a growing specialization and a greater
dependence on the principals of the automobile sector. The constraints are the core of
the negotiation with the client and the organization of production, in order to meet the
requirements: quality standards, deadlines and regularity, gain of productivity to control
the "price drift”. ” We outsource a part, a component and the discussion with the client
is at the level of know-how, it relates to the processes and ranges: on the manufacturing
process itself", says Vennin (1976, p: 295). It functions as an extension of the principal,
his workshop or his factory. It is "the typical subcontractor of the automotive sector", to
paraphrase the author.
Small subcontractors (third-rate subcontractors): For this type, it is necessary to
distinguish the manufacturers of tools and the others. The formers are part of a very
specific type of industrial organization, a kind of super-craftsmanship whose production
conditions are not very changeable, located in a type of production that is not very
progressive and cannot be generalized. Other small subcontractors work mainly for
builders, second-rate subcontractors or suppliers to car manufacturers.
The performance of subcontracting relationships
The performance management of an inter-firm relationship, especially in the context
of outsourcing, is crucially important. Most studies have pointed out to the multidimensionality of performance. Thus, two approaches of performance are to be
90
Profile of the Subcontractor and Performance of the Exchange Relationship in the Automotive
Industry in Morocco
distinguished. The first approach, described as objective, advocates so-called "objective"
performance indicators of financial profitability, duration and survival. The second
approach, described as subjective, combines performance with stakeholder’s satisfaction
and harmony of the relationship (Arino, 2003).
We look at the subjective approach, as our study aims to capture the perception of
the exchange relationship performance by subcontractors. We consider that these
perceptions depend, among others, on the expectations of each partner in the
relationship (Cheriet & Guillaumin, 2013)
Research methodology selected
Automotive subcontracting in Morocco
In the absence of primary data on the composition of the automotive industrial fabric,
we refer to secondary analyses (AMICA, 2003), (MICIEN, 2014), (Benabdejlil, 2016),
(Lung & Piveteau, 2016). These studies distinguish three profiles of subcontractors
operating in this sector:
The first group consists mainly of equipment manufacturers mostly for export
and are primarily foreign companies located in Morocco. Most of these
equipment suppliers, taking full advantage of the free trade agreement between
the European Union and Morocco, import almost all parts and components using
of their own global supply chain, assemble and export their products to car
manufacturers located in the Europe.
The second group consists of medium-sized, technically developed companies.
These companies are mainly aimed at the local market. Some of them deliver
first-class equipment manufacturers located in the European market.
Finally, the last group consists of small companies with a production tool
sometimes out-of-date. They often intervene at the 2nd and 3rd ranks. These
are companies that fail to break through and do not consistently meet
international standards in terms of competitiveness. Their relationship with the
upstream chains remains partial, if not very weak.
Data collection and analysis
Data gathering
At the beginning of our study, we went through a "desert crossing". For three
months, and despite serious attempts to make direct contact with professionals in the
automotive sector, none of the people contacted has agreed to confess to us! The
interviewees often asked three types of questions: why this research? Why this person
specially and not someone else? And what is the purpose of this study?
Every time, we had to specify that it is a free and open interview, about the
interviewee, his point of view, his professional situation which interests us, and that
there are no good or bad answers. We have indicated the axes and the duration of the
interview and in some cases, discuss the choice of the place (workplace, café, home,
etc.) which doesn’t affect the quality of the interviews. Some of our interviewees felt
uncomfortable at the time of the recording, and we explained to them that the interest
of the recording, and all the information gathered from the interviews are confidential.
By "knocking on doors" and mobilizing our social network, we were able to start 16
interviews with buyers and suppliers employed by automotive subcontractors. The size
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
91
of the sample remains very satisfactory considering the principle of theoretical saturation
(Glasser & Strauss, 1967). Indeed, the last two interviews did not bring new information
to enrich our research questions.
For each interviewee we made a fact sheet on the biography of the interviewee and
the rank of the subcontractor, the interview guide includes axes related to the nature of
the subcontractor, the evaluation of the relationship of outsourcing, the determinants of
trust, the determinants of control and the sustainability of the relationship. We left the
questions open, based on the technique of the life story telling, and this to leave freedom
to the respondents so that they can communicate to us a maximum of information.
Table 2: Characteristics of the sample
Number
Rank of
of
Interviewee Company's
subcontractor
interview
activity
Automotive
Metal
Equipment
1
Amine
stamping
Manufacturer
Automotive
Metal
2
Mohammed
Equipment
stamping
Manufacturer
Automotive
Plastic
3
Othman
Equipment
injection
Manufacturer
The
Automotive
automotive
Equipment
4
Ahmed
seat
Manufacturer
Automotive
injection
5
Gentit
Equipment
machine
Manufacturer
Automotive
electrical
6
Hicham
Equipment
wiring
Manufacturer
The
Automotive
7
Yassine
automotive
Equipment
seat
Manufacturer
The
Automotive
automotive
Equipment
8
Hamza
seat
Manufacturer
The
Automotive
Nasser9
automotive
Equipment
Eddine
seat
Manufacturer
Steering
Subcontractor
10
Hassan
wheel
Rank 2
electrical
Subcontractor
11
Youssef
wiring
Rank 2
electrical
Subcontractor
12
Oussama
wiring
Rank 2
electrical
Subcontractor
13
Hanane
wiring
Rank 2
injection
Subcontractor
14
Sara
connectors
Rank 3
plastic
Subcontractor
15
Driss
injection
Rank 3
replacement
Subcontractor
16
Ismail
part
Rank 3
Job title
purchasing
manager
Supply
manager
Supply
manager
purchasing
manager
Client Portfolio
Manager
Logistics
manager
Purchasing
Director
Logistics
manager
Logistics
manager
purchasing
manager
Supply
manager
Coordinator of
subcontracting
Supply
manager
Client Portfolio
Manager
Supply
manager
Client Portfolio
Manager
92
Profile of the Subcontractor and Performance of the Exchange Relationship in the Automotive
Industry in Morocco
Data analysis
We have a sample of 16 managers interviewed divided to three categories of
subcontractors: 9 equipment manufacturers, 3 second-tier subcontractors and 4 thirdtier subcontractors. We first compared the results obtained in the interviews of the
interviewees belonging to the same category of subcontractors (inter-case and intracategory analysis), then we merged it have an overall analysis of all three categories
that were the subject of the study (inter-case and inter-category analysis).
Intra-case analysis:
The content analysis of a corpus is characterized by a progressive approach. The first
steps are used to organize the collected data iteratively, by coding, grouping and
categorizing. In addition to manual coding, we used automated coding with NVivo Pro
11 software. The hierarchy of codes and themes in the nodes created in the software
allowed us to clearly visualize the passages coded in the source texts. The automated
encoding allows an estimation of the centrality, distinguishing the most encoded nodes
and the least encoded ones. Finally, we shared and refined our reflections in the context
of regular and intermediate meetings with members of our research laboratory. These
exchanges allowed us to regulate the evolution of codification until their stabilization.
Intra and inter-category analysis:
The creation and exploitation of matrices allows the scheduling of data for intracategory analyses, which facilitates categorization, cross-checking or grouping (Miles &
Huberman, 2003). In our case, we mobilized the thematic matrix, which made it possible
to group all the proposals related to a given theme. This facilitated comparisons vertically
(intra-category) and horizontally (inter-categories). Moreover, it is useful for the
construction of the empirical definitions of the themes because it allows to easily refer
to the comments of the actors interviewed.
In what follows, we present the analysis of occurrences and co-occurrences.
Occurrence Analysis:
By studying the occurrences, we are interested in the frequency of the themes
identified in the interviewees' speech, by profiles of subcontractors
This procedure allowed us to distinguish a total of 11 themes and 31 sub-themes.
We noticed that the ranking of central themes changes from subcontractor category to
another. Table N ° 3 show, in ascending order, the 11 most frequent themes in terms
of relative frequency with respect to each rank of subcontractor:
Table 3 Occurrence Frequencies of Themes by Subcontractor Category
Central themes
The performance of the relationship
Nature of subcontracting
Cooperation
Communication
Power
Staff profiles of outsourcing
Contractual incentive mechanisms
dependence
Support of suppliers
Culture
Opportunism
Frequency of
occurrences of
the equipment
supplier
39,02
38,22
35,06
26,68
20,9
20,5
20,39
16,65
15,88
13,18
13,13
Frequency of
occurrences of
subcontractors Rank 2
Frequency of
occurrences at
subcontractors Rank 3
14,1
13,12
12,07
9,8
10,92
7,08
7,4
4,78
11,4
5,07
0,28
7,3
9,73
5,69
6,56
5,3
5,83
8,34
2,55
8,96
4,73
4,04
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
93
Analysis of co-occurrences:
Co-occurrence refers to the number of relationships of the theme with other topics
within a category of interviewees. It can help to understand the strength of the theme
in the analysed corpora (Osgood, 1959). We proceeded first by manually identifying the
"co-occurrence" relationships that the themes have in relation with the theme of
performance of the relationship either directly or indirectly, and on each of the categories
of subcontractors.
We then conducted a further review by the NVivo Pro 11 software to better
understand the nature of the relationships. The use of the software has been very useful
for the selection of the verbatim to illustrate our results. The table N ° 4 presents the
most important themes based on the most significant weightings in relationship with the
central theme "The performance of the relationship", with an overall co-occurrence
weighting of 51.69.
Table 4 Weighting of the co-occurrences of the themes in relation with the
performance by category of subcontractor
themes
The performance of the
relationship
Contractual incentive
mechanisms
Cooperation
Communication
Support of suppliers
weighting of cooccurrences of
equipment
manufacturers
Weighting of cooccurrences of
subcontractors Rank
2
Weighting of cooccurrences of
subcontractors Rank
3
32,95
19,42
9,32
31,88
7,5
4,63
22,98
21,75
11,81
8,44
12
3,95
7,32
9
9,21
We took into consideration two criteria in order to capture the centrality of a theme:
(a) the number of co-occurrences between the theme in question and other themes, (b)
the number of respondents who addressed this theme.
The table of co-occurrences first shows the number of relationships (co-occurrences)
that every element develops within the speech, for every subcontractor profile.
For example, the performance theme of the relationship is the theme that has the
most relationship with other themes through its properties that are survival, longevity
(sustainability of the relationship), and satisfaction of partners.
Discussions
The performance perceptions of equipment suppliers, second-tiers subcontractors;
and finally, third-tiers subcontractors, will be discussed in this section.
Perceptions of performance by equipment suppliers
For buyers and suppliers of equipment manufacturers, the performance of the
exchange relationship with the donor (s) of orders refers mainly to the survival of the
latter (16.41), to its longevity (9.54), and finally to perceived satisfaction (7.96).
The survival of the relationship depends on the ability of some equipment
manufacturers of to pass the test of cost reduction imposed permanently by the client:
“To survive in our relationship with Renault, we have to make a lot of sacrifices. We
are forced to review parts costs down 5% a year to continue to deliver cars.” Interview
1
94
Profile of the Subcontractor and Performance of the Exchange Relationship in the Automotive
Industry in Morocco
For others, this requirement of cost optimization is initiated in advance, from the
designing of models. It is a proactive approach to analyse and improve the value of the
product, appealing to more of a creative potential of the equipment manufacturer than
to a logic of rationalization before:
“We are involved in the design of the model with the manufacturer; we develop our
products because we have a research and development center installed in Portugal, a
second one in Tunisia and a third one in the United States. So we do research and
development and then create our products, after they are validated at the manufacturer,
at PSA at Renault or Volkswagen. It is an approach in automobile, it is a sought-after
approach to reduce costs, it is the low-cost, and it allows us to survive as well as our
customers.” Interview 6
Moreover, in order to extend the exchange relationship with the customer, OEMs
mention in this aspect their ability to cooperate (22.98), accompany the customer from
the launch of the project until its effective realization:
“To succeed in a sustainable relationship with the manufacturer, it means looking for
excellence, a good product delivered on time with a very good price, so cost optimization
is very important, and as I said it is the follow-up during the realization of the project
and the anticipation of the needs of the customer at the launching of the project. We
are really the only ones that have gone very far in the cooperative approach; there are
no more relationships with barriers.” Interview 6
Finally, the interviewed equipment suppliers who have emphasized the perceived
satisfaction insist on the key role of the quality of interpersonal relations of the actors at
the interface (21.75), and in the management of the disagreements or the difficulties
that can arise on the side of the OEM as on the side of the client:
“The client has fluctuations, or his forecasts are unreliable. So, we can even reject
an order, but if there is good communication the client turns a blind eye and we try to
do the most to deliver the order. Communication is very important as well as the good
relationship, it is the key to success in a relationship between us and the manufacturer,
there is an understanding and we are satisfied with this relationship." Interview 9
Perceptions of performance by second-tier subcontractors:
For buyers and suppliers of second-tier subcontractors, the performance is related to
the degree of satisfaction perceived by the partners (7.21), to the longevity of the
relationship (6.57), and finally to its survival (3.96).
The degree of satisfaction perceived by second-rate subcontractors is associated with
a good level of communication with their client (12.00). Thus, the system-based
information exchange makes it possible to monitor in real time the production of the
subcontractor in relation to the needs of the client. In the event of discrepancies or
anomalies, the exchange by mail makes it possible to anticipate the problems. Finally,
the direct exchange between the actors at the interface makes it possible to analyse the
causes of the problems and to predict solutions:
“Thanks to the system communication, the objectives are monitored daily with our
client: was the plan realized or not? If it is not realized, we anticipate via an exchange
by email, and then we enter into a direct exchange with the customer, we search the
root cause, and we find solutions.” Interview 10
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
95
For other 2nd tier subcontractors, the performance of the trading relationship is
related to its longevity. This long-awaited durability requires the cooperation of the
subcontractor (8.44), especially in the case of subcontracting capacity:
“At my level, it is done in the same way; there is no difference between a customer
to whom you are imposed that or a normal customer. The nature of the subcontracting
of capacity that I do, states that the client to whom I am taxed today, may not be for
another project. If I win this client when I am forced on him (he sees how I cooperate,
how flexible I am), the day I will not be taxed, he will call Me.” Interview 12
For other specialty subcontractors imposed by the end customer due to the holding
of specific assets (patents for example), the durability of the relationship with the client
seems to have been achieved.
“We do not need to build good relationships to keep a lasting relationship with our
first rank customer, the end customer taxes us so we have our own patents, we do not
care.” Interview 13
Survival for second-tier subcontractors requires the respect of the quality standards
of the products delivered, deadlines and quantities, especially when the subcontractor
is very dependent on the client:
“We respect the clauses of the contract; we respect the terms of quality, quantity
and timeline. We must be very rigorous with these details, it's dangerous if we do not
deliver our customer on time, or if there is a defect on a part, we risk stopping the
production of our only customer, and it will directly impact the production chain of the
end customer, otherwise we risk losing our contract and the company may stop its
activity and close the plant.” Interview 10
Perceptions of performance by third-tier subcontractors
For third-tier subcontractors, the performance of the relationship with principals is
mainly related to its longevity (9.18), then to the satisfaction of the partners (5.99), and
finally to his survival (5.47).
Due to their vulnerability in the automobile production chain, these subcontractors
require institutional support, particularly in the framework of the approach deployed by
the Moroccan Association of the Automobile Industry (AMICA):
“There was support at the national level because it is in the framework of AMICA. It
is the Moroccan association of the automotive industry that aims to strengthen the
Moroccan industrial fabric. The goal is to achieve a local supplier integration rate of
around 60% or 70%. We have the opportunity to deliver the steel coils, the requirements
are not adapted to our capabilities, but thanks to this approach we continue to deliver
the car.” Interview 16
Some third-tier contractors put a lot of effort into their customer’s satisfaction. This
sustainable effort can be explained by the lack of approvals and their strong dependence
on their customers:
“We do not have approvals; it is the communication and the permanent contact,
which makes our client satisfied with the relation with us, because for the automobile
industry we are a subcontractor "wild".” Interview 14
The survival of third-tier subcontractors is essentially through the sharing of
information, which must be reliable, in order to avoid situations of information
asymmetry that can generate customer distrust:
“To survive in the market, we have to win the trust of the customer through
transparency, that is to say, if we give information to customers we must ensure that
96
Profile of the Subcontractor and Performance of the Exchange Relationship in the Automotive
Industry in Morocco
this information is safe, it is not necessary to give information that is not 100% sure,
even a 99% percentage is not valid, and therefore we must be very careful about the
communication of manufacturing processes and the nomenclature of our products.”
Interview 14
Conclusion
From our experimental study, we can conclude the performance perception of the
relationship differs according to the position of the subcontractor in the automobile
industry value chain.
OEMs see the performance in survival, driven by the ongoing downward price
adjustment by automakers and the need for innovation. In addition to extend the
relationship, OEMs deploy cooperative mechanisms by supporting the customer from
upstream to downstream of their supply chain.
Second-tier subcontractors perceive performance through the degree of satisfaction
of the partner. Communication is an effective tool for anticipating customer needs and
reducing the risk of litigation. In addition, for some second-tier subcontractors imposed
by the end customer, the relationship with the prime contractor is not as important as
they have approvals and patents. Other subcontractors, even if they are imposed, try to
develop a partnership relationship based on cooperation and trust, in order to extend
the relationship with the client. The survival for these subcontractors is linked to the
respect of the contractual standards, which are a prerequisite in order to continue to
deliver the automobile industry.
Third-party subcontractors perceive the performance of the relationship in its ad hoc
sustainability. As they remain the weak link in the automotive industry's production
chain, these subcontractors continue to demand institutional support from public
authorities and dedicated professional associations. In addition to using direct
communication channels to stay in touch with their customers, these subcontractors
agree to share as much information as possible with their customers in order to gain
their confidence and avoid asymmetric information situations.
Despite its comprehensive focus and theoretical scope, our study has some
limitations due to the nature of our study. Indeed, our results come from interviews
conducted with 16 actors at the interface, and these of course do not necessarily reflect
the general reality of automobile subcontracting in Morocco. For that, we expect to carry
out an extensive confirmatory research to test our empirical proposals on a larger scale.
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
97
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Arino, A. (2003), ‘Measures of Strategic A1lliance Performance: An Analysis of
Construct Validity’, Journal of International Business Studies, volume 34, 2003 66: 79
Benabdejlil N., Lung Y. & Piveteau A. (2016) ‘The emergence of an automotive
center in Tangiers (Morocco)’, Journal of GREThA, 2016 12: 14
Cheriet, F. & Guillaumin, P. (2013), ‘Determinants of the satisfaction of partners
engaged in inter-company cooperation: Case of fruits and vegetables in the
Mediterranean’, Management international, 2013 210: 224
Glaser, B.G. et Strauss, A.L. (1967). The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies
for Qualitative Research. Chicago: Aldine.
Miles, M. Huberman A. M. (2003). Analyse des données qualitatives, Brussels: de
Boeck.
Ministry of Industry, Trade, Investment and Digital Economy of Morocco
(MICIEM), (2014), ‘Study for Private Sector Development in the Kingdom of Morocco
(Information Collection and Analysis)’, Final Report, 2014 134: 137
Moroccan Association for the Automotive Industry (AMICA) (2003), ‘Vehicle
Equipment Industries: What Export Potentialς Which target marketsς ’, Report, 2003
13: 24
Osgood, C.E. (1957), The measurement of meaning, University of Illinois: Press
Vennin, B. (1975), ‘Practice and significance of outsourcing in the automotive
industry in France’, Economic Review, volume 26, n°2, 1975 280: 306
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC]
doi: 10.17349/jmc118207
P-ISSN: 2056-9785
E-ISSN: 2056 9793
http://www.mediacritiques.net
jmc@mediacritiques.net
RESEARCH AND ASSESSMENT OF RECREATIONAL
CAPACITY OF THE NIZHNY NOVGOROD REGION
ELENA KOCHKUROVA*
TATIANA ZYKOVA**
ABSTRACT
The development of domestic tourism has acquired a special significance for the Russian
Federation in the period of severe economic and financial crisis. The introduction of sanctions and
the sharp decline in the flows of outbound tourism resulted in the reorientation of the population
to the domestic tourism program. Domestic tourism program is the most important part of the
program of import substitution, the implementation of which is necessary to ensure the stability
and sustainability of economic development of Russian Federation. The article analyzes
approaches to the definition of "recreational potential", examines the differences between the
concepts of "tourism" and "recreational potential". Author's vision of definition "the recreational
potential" is offered. The structure of recreational potential is defined. The choice of a method for
assessment of recreational potential and a scale of an assessment of each component is explained.
The evaluation of each component of the recreational potential of the Nizhny Novgorod region
using the method of expert is provided. The identified risks of tourism development for each
component are shown. The formula for the assessment of recreational capacity taking into
consideration the value of each component is proposed and adjusted to the development of
tourism in this region. Calculation of quantitative value of recreational capacity of the Nizhny
Novgorod region in comparison with a standard is made.
Keywords: Recreational potential, tourism, Nizhny Novgorod region.
The development of domestic tourism has acquired special significance for the
Russian Federation during severe financial and economic crisis, introduction of sanctions
and drastic reduction of outbound tourist traffic, which resulted in population
reorientation towards domestic tourist programs. Development of domestic tourism is
an important part of import substitution program implementation which is required to
ensure stability and sustainability of the development of economy of the Russian
*
Associate Professor of the Department of Service and Tourism of the Institute of Economics and
Entrepreneurship of the National Research University of Nizhny Novgorod named after N.I. Lobachevsky,
philosophy doctor in economic science, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, elenakochkurova@mail.ru
**
Associate Professor of the Department of Service and Tourism of the Institute of Economics and
Entrepreneurship of the National Research University of Nizhny Novgorod named after N.I. Lobachevsky,
philosophy doctor in economic science, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, Tanya.5036@mail.ru
100
Research and Assessment of Recreational Capacity of the Nizhny Novgorod Region
Federation. The influence of the tourism industry on the economic potential of the state
has been covered in the works of many Russian scientists as well as the scientists from
other countries, among them one can distinguish: G. Brida (Brida, 2010), N. Voskolovich
(2010), N. Sukhanova (2014), S. J. Hughes (Hughes, 2002) and others. Individual
aspects of event tourism influence on the country’s economy development have been
covered in the works of: V. Kalney (2012), M. Layko (2012), V.Sholokhova (2012).
Based on the results of investigation carried out by information communications
center “Reyting” devoted to tourist attractiveness of the regions of Russian Federation,
its tourist potential and popularity among domestic and foreign tourists were revealed.
The rating of Russian regions based on the size and dynamics of growth of the tourism
potential presented in Table 1.
Table 1 Rating of Russian regions based on the size and dynamics of growth of tourist
potential
No
Name of the region
Total, in points
1
Moscow, city with federal status
80
2
Saint – Petersburg, city with federal status
79,7
3
Krasnoyarsk Kraj
77,3
4
Republic of Crimea
75,2
5
Moscow region
74,8
6
Nizhniy Novgorod region
73,1
7
Altai Kraj
70,6
8
Republic of Tatarstan
66,7
9
Kaliningrad region
65,7
10
Primorskiy Kraj
65
Nizhny Novgorod region is one of the leaders in the rating as per the results of
assessment, the dynamics of the tourism development in this region have recently
rapidly increased, which makes it necessary to assess the recreational potential of the
region and forecast its further development.
The purpose of this study is to assess the recreational potential of Nizhny Novgorod
region. The main tasks are to:
- study the definition of “recreational potential”;
- determine the structure of recreational potential;
- justify the rating scale of each component of recreational potential;
- evaluate the recreational potential of Nizhny Novgorod region.
There are a lot of approaches to the definition of term “recreation”. Quite a lot of
disputes arise among the researchers related to the split of definitions “recreational” and
“tourist”. There is also a complex term “tourist-recreational potential” which is
determined as a set of natural and man-made bodies and phenomena related to this
territory as well as conditions, possibilities and means suitable for generation of a tourist
product and implementation of the related tours, excursions and programs.
Safaryan (2015) distinguishes the terms “tourist” and “recreational” potential,
believing that “the term “recreation” assumes the sphere of rest and service of nearby
places in a certain context with reference to specific territories”, i.e. the orientation to
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
101
the needs of the local population is evident. While “tourist potential” assumes creation
of conditions for the attraction of tourists from the other countries.
Recreational potential is “a combination of natural, culture-and-historical and socialand-economic factors to arrange recreation activity at a certain territory”, as per the
opinion of Islamov (2016).
For the purposes of the study let us assume that the recreational potential is the
aggregate of the resources of the region and the ability to use at full extent for the
implementation of the set goals.
The recreational potential structure of the territory is a system consisting of two
leading blocks: resource component which is represented by recreational resources and
the social-economic component represented by material-and-technical resource basis.
However, along with the above components there are natural and social-economic
conditions of the region contributing or restraining recreations, limiting factors
(Sukhanova, 2014).
The following elements must be included in the recreational potential structure:
1. Nature-and-resource potential,
2. Cultural-and-historic potential,
3. Economic potential,
4. Infrastructural potential,
5. Marketing potential,
6. Innovation potential (adventure tourism),
7. Workforce capacity,
8. Ecological capacity.
To assess the recreational potential of Nizhny Novgorod region it is required to specify
the evaluation scale or select a standard which will be used as a reference for evaluation
of recreation resources of the assessed region. As a standard we suggested to select
Moscow, the city of federal importance, which got the first place in the National tourist
rating 2016. The assessment was done based on 100-point scale where 100 points
correspond to the component of the potential of Moscow.
1.
Nature-and-resource potential of Nizhny Novgorod region. Geographical
location of Nizhny Novgorod region is unique. It is located on the territory of three
natural zones: taiga, broad-leaved forests and steppe. 400 specially protected natural
territories in the region including 17 reserves, 1 conservation area, 1 natural park, more
than 8000 rivers (from small rivers to the largest transport arteries of Eastern Europe,
namely the Volga and the Oka rivers), 2700 lakes and ponds provide the conditions for
development of ecological, hunting-and-fishing and adventure tourism (Dekabrskaya,
2015). With regard to the territory the region is located in the center of East European
Plain; this reduces the risk of natural disasters almost to 0. The prevailing climate is
moderately continental; this ensures comfortable tourist rest for all. Compared to the
natural potential of Moscow it is also very high and ensures a lot of possibilities for
tourism development. Can be assessed to score 100 points.
2. Cultural and historical potential. Nizhny Novgorod region is rich with the objects
of cultural and historical heritage, represented with more than 3 thousand historical,
cultural and architectural landmarks, 396 of which are the landmarks of federal
importance. The ancient towns and cities like Nizhny Novgorod, Arzamas, Gorodets were
founded in the Middle age period, and a lot of architectural monuments were kept there.
The region is the center of pilgrimage from all over Russia to Zheltovodskyi monastery,
102
Research and Assessment of Recreational Capacity of the Nizhny Novgorod Region
Diveevskiy monastery. Different events attracting tourists (fairs, craftwork exhibitions,
master-classes, etc.) are held very often in the region. The cultural and historical
potential of Nizhny Novgorod region is by no aspects concedes to historical-and-cultural
development of Moscow and can also be evaluated as scoring 100 points.
3. Economic potential. Nizhny Novgorod region is the largest industrial center. The
main contribution into formation of gross regional product (GRP) is done by industrial
production which forms approximately 32% of regional product. Then come construction
and electric power generation. The key fields of the industry of the region are oil refining,
automobile manufacturing, steel industry and food industry. The industrial production
index (IPI) for the whole range of the enterprises and companies of Nizhny Novgorod
region made 102.4 % in 2015, while in Russia the IPI makes 96.6 %. As of today tourism
makes 1-1.5% of GRP. It is necessary to point out that there are risks related to tourist
field development, which can include power shortage in the region, low society living
level and high migration outflow of young people from Nizhny Novgorod region to the
other regions. Thus, the economic potential will make 80 points. Risks – 30%.
4. Infrastructure potential. The researchers point out to high level of infrastructure
development: good transport communication with Moscow via M7 highway, high
possibility of the roads, density of all roads of the region calculated per 1000 citizens is
about the same level as in Russia and calculated for 1000 sq. km of territory – even 5
times exceeds the value in Russia on the whole. However, it is noted that the roads are
of low quality, there is no service rendered along the roads, and some towns located
over the Volga river are very hard to access. Compared to Moscow the infrastructure
can be assessed as scoring 65 points. The risks will make 15%.
5. Marketing potential. Formation of touristic cluster was announced in the
Program of tourism development in Nizhny Novgorod region for 2012-2016, however
currently its functioning has not been covered in the press. The Ministry of Industry,
Trade and Entrepreneurship of Nizhny Novgorod region has planned to integrate the
region into interregional and international routes such as: ‘The Great Volga River Route”,
“The Great Tea Road”, “The Great Silk Road”, “Red Route”, “Ornaments of the towns
Plus”, “Russian Estates”, “Moscow round-the-world trip”, “People’s Unity Route”, etc.
The targets announced for year 2017 include development of event and children tourism,
entrance to Chinese tourist market, as well as preparation of tourist field for Football
Championship FIFA 2018 in Russia (Zykova and co-authors, 2017). World Football
Championship FIFA 2018 will be the largest international event in the history of Nizhny
Novgorod and will leave significant heritage. New stadium "Nizhny Novgorod" will
accommodate 45 000 football fans. Thanks to the World Championship 15th metro
station will be opened in Nizhny Novgorod. A number of state programs aimed at support
and development of tourism in the region and to the preparation for the Football World
Championship have been enforced recently. However, it is required to point out to low
information transparency of Nizhny Novgorod region, absence of formed brand of
recreational territory, low level of advertizing in the press even on the level of the
country, as well as on the international scale. In addition, it should be pointed out to the
level of the hotel service which is not very high and there is not enough accommodation
for tourists. Statistics shows the increase of the number of hotels and tourist
accommodation in Nizhny Novgorod region; however, the above figures have not yet
reached the target values stated in the Program for tourism development in Nizhny
Novgorod region for 2012-2016. The marketing potential compared to Moscow can be
evaluated by 50 points; the risks will make 10%.
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
103
6.
Innovation potential is characterized as an ability to implement the regional
opportunities in the innovation field or with the help of innovations. There are
organizational, marketing and product innovations. In Nizhny Novgorod region the first
group is represented by the intention to create tourist cluster “Citadel” based on the
project of Nikita Mikhalkov. It is expected that “Citadel” will be a recreational-and-health
and cultural center, which will include Cinema Academy, Entertainment center, Sport
Center, a hotel and a hostel for students.
Product innovation is innovative tourist suggestions. The media points out
development of extreme tourism in the region. For example, flights on fighter planes
"MiG" for VIP-guests, tracking and caving, screen planes flights to the Gorky sea,
extreme parks, etc.
Event tourism should be also pointed out. Events devoted to the artistic craftwork
(“Golden Khokhloma”, “City of Craftsmen”), holding fairs, historical events, related with
the region, ancient towns or manorial estates are frequently held in Nizhny Novgorod
region. That is, for example, Pushkin balls in Bolshoe Boldino (in the name of A.S.
Pushkin) are held on a yearly basis now.
Innovation potential of Nizhny Novgorod region was evaluated by the experts by
scoring 70 points.
7. Workforce potential. Despite the high dynamics of the increase of the number
of hotels and group accommodation facilities, the researchers point out the low
qualification level of the personnel and low hotel service level. The outflow of the
population from the region has been caused by low level of salary of the employees,
which is associated with high production costs in many fields of activity. This determines
the low level of life in the region. Such economic base cannot stimulate self-education
and the motivation for improvement of employees’ qualification and without any doubt
requires effective intelligent policy for attracting of the personnel and its strict selection
with regard to compliance to high standard requirements. The workforce potential was
assessed by 45 points.
8. Ecological potential of Nizhny Novgorod region is quite low. The industrial
production of the region influences in a certain way on the nature. Pollution of the
atmosphere in some towns of the region is 4 MAC (maximum allowable concentration).
Innovative development unfortunately does not touch creation of new technologies of
production reducing the polluting emissions to the atmosphere. As per the statistic digest
“Nizhny Novgorod region in figures of year 2016” the emissions to the atmosphere are
increasing year by year, generation of the wastes increases which requires direct
interference of the Government of the region and implementation of ecological policy in
the region. Main factors characterizing the influence of the commercial activity on the
environment and natural resources for Table 2.
Table 2 Main factors characterizing the influence of the commercial activity on the
environment and natural resources
104
Research and Assessment of Recreational Capacity of the Nizhny Novgorod Region
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
Contaminated waste water
discharge, mio m3
461
451
525
397
…
531
Emission of pollutants into the
atmosphere, thous. tons
Production and consumption
waste generation, thous. tons
142.3
145.9
125.9
125.6
132.7
141.3
2686.9
4098.5
2834.0
2895.3
3297.2
3687.0
The ecological situation in Nizhny Novgorod region is the most important risk of tourist
industry development. The ecological potential compared to Moscow was assessed by
60 points. Risk - 40%
Assessment of recreation potential of Nizhny Novgorod region was done as a sum of
points of all items updated in accordance with the risk level as per the below formula
1:
�
� = ∑ �� ∗
�=1
− ��
where �� is a value of the recreation potential component;
�� – risk of tourism development in the region;
�- number of components of recreation potential.
�=
∗ −
+
+
∗ . +
∗ . +
∗ . +
+
+
∗ .
=
.
Total recreation potential of Nizhny Novgorod region made 507. 25 points which
makes 63% of the reference, i.e. compared to the recreation potential of Moscow. The
result is quite good. Taking into account that potential is an ability of usage of the
available resources it is necessary to point out to exceptional wealth of the region with
natural-and-climatic as well as cultural-and-historic resources, however the risks in the
economic, human resource and ecological components do not give the opportunity to
show the existing potential in full. For successful tourism development in Nizhny
Novgorod region it is required to involve municipal and federal authorities, investors for
co-financing of development of tourist programs, provision of infrastructure (not only
the roads, but also houses, kinder gardens, living area) to increase the population
assimilation level. In this case Nizhny Novgorod region will become a popular tourist
point for internal and international tourism.
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Islamova F. (2016). Factors and conditions of development of the structure of touristrecreational potential of the territory. Scientific survey. Economic sciences No. pp. 7579; Available on website: http://economy.science-review.ru/ru/article/view?id=859
(reference date: 04.07.2017). (checked 01.10.2017).
Vlasov E., Polyakova L. (2011). Recreation resources, natural-and-recreation
potential of the territory: the essence and functions. News of UrGEU No 4(36), pp. 108114.
Dekabrskaya Ya. (2015). Assessment of tourist potential of Nizhny Novgorod region
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http://www.scienceforum.ru/2015/1296/15407 (checked on 04.12.2017).
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Journal of Media Critiques [JMC]
doi: 10.17349/jmc118208
P-ISSN: 2056-9785
E-ISSN: 2056 9793
http://www.mediacritiques.net
jmc@mediacritiques.net
DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNITY ENTERPRISE
MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR SMALL COMMUNITY
TOURISM
JITTAPON CHUMKATE*
THIRAWAT CHANTUK**
ABSTRACT
This research uses qualitative regulations with the purpose to study the condition and possibility
of the Community Enterprise Management System for Tourism and also study the guideline of
Community Enterprise Management System for sustainable tourism by focusing on the career
building in small community in an area of Cha-am district, Phetchaburi Province, which is located
in the west region of Thailand. The researcher uses document synthesis methodology on the
actual condition and background of this area and also uses observation technique both participated
and non-participated in the community and collects the data from related personnel such as
community leader, locals, village scholars, village director committee, and related professors
including analyzes overall benefits and occupation financial revenues for the supported data. The
result is found that the community can provide added value of the area and develop into the
tourist attractions that focus on representing the nature, agriculture, and historical value well and
also reveals that if the community members had restored these 2 occupations which are the
occupation that topped up from livestock farming and local knowledge along with the Community
Enterprise Management by locals, there are possibilities of valued income and the income
distribution within the community and also sustainably solved the poverty.
Keywords: Management, Community Enterprise, Small Community, Tourism.
INTRODUCTION
Thailand has various tourist attractions within local communities, each province has
their own outstanding identity tourist attractions which have tourism potential and a
plenty of cultural and natural resources (Wanwimol, 2015), so that Thailand has
competency and advantages in fundamental resources. From the variety of tourism
resources in every province, readiness to support tourists with many world-class tourist
attractions, the identity that is different from other regions, the industry that supports
*
Lecturer in Marketing, Ph.D., Faculty of Management Science, Silpakorn University, Thailand, e-mail:
jitchumkate@gmail.com
**
Lecturer in General Business Management, Asst. Prof., Ph.D., Faculty of Management Science, Silpakorn
University, Thailand, e-mail: thirawat.scb@gmail.com
108
Development of Community Enterprise Management System for Small Community Tourism
connection of each tourist attractions, and there are many tourist attractions which have
potential for development, these reasons that mentioned above cause the tourism to be
the service industry which has major role for national economy development because
tourism can provide chain-connected revenue, started from tourism business,
transportation business, hotel and accommodations business, restaurant business,
product and souvenir business, including employments and career building that provide
the local community revenue which is a way of income distribution to the region and
,currently, there are more tourist attraction appeared in the communities (World Tourism
Organization, 1998).
From the appearing of tourist attractions in community, it is very necessary for locals
participation by having co-vision, defining co-objective, and evaluating overall
possibilities before making decision to start the practical working process especially the
preparation before opening the tourism, post-activity evaluation, continuum learning,
lesson conclusion, and the community organization development by focusing on the
connectivity of tourism and community development with integrity (Pojana, 2003).
These processes must base on accurate principles and properly applied to achieve the
success but, nowadays, there are limits of Community Tourism Management knowledge
then most projects are still only in the initiation, experiment, knowledge collection, and
pilot project stage that should have studies of the knowledge development in this field
deeply, seriously, and constantly in order to be as the fundamental data, prototype, and
guideline for the initiation or improvement for people in community or Local
Administration that requires to operate their own local or community tourism later
(Prayot, 2015).
However, a struggle of Sustainable Community Tourism Management is the potential
of product or tourism product in community context including the difference of identity
and way of community life. The management that would lead to the practical sustainable
is the tourism management that is developed for each of community contexts that
prioritize on factors of economy, social, culture, and environment that base on the
potential of local community tourism resource, services, supported facilities, and specific
tourism management in each community. With these reasons, studying the community
which has strength in tourism management maybe the guideline to improve tourism
sustainably for other communities (Martin, Mowforth & Ian, Munt, 2003).
The tourism management that operates by the community and participates in the
community tourism movement in term of Community – Based Tourism is the widespread
accepted guideline that has been applied in Sustainable Tourism Management (A, Seba,
2012) by focusing on the balance between economies, social, including natural resource
and environment preservation in tourist attractions. This form currently becomes the
tool to strengthen community and also encourage the participation in environment
preservation, career building, community revenue distribution, and solving poverty. But
most of community tourism managements are not concern about potential differences
of the product, tourism including identity and the original way of life which is the root of
each community that are different and, previously, the investments and government
supports are the large-scale investments such as restoration, facility improvements, and
supporting private sector to invest in services such as hotels, shops, and entertainment
spots by expecting the revenue distribution and career building that the economy would
trickle down to the rural communities but there are still lack of clarity in policy and
operation in community tourism management which is the service product such as
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
109
improving competency of community management, creating community network; and
also topping up in marketing, public relations, and sales promotion (Pimlapas, 2014).
Community enterprise is the community economic activity which consists of
production, product sales, purchasing, and community consumption that reflects the
efforts to learn and push themselves with the self-relying production economy system
such as make a sufficient living and creating revenues for people in community or related
personnel. This is the enterprise that operates by community members that relate to the
production resource, trading, and financial by targeting the result on economy, creating
revenue and career building, and the social, creating intimacy in family and community
to think, work, and take responsibility together. Then the association for strengthen the
working potential in community and also creating community network for the
cooperation in the community, social, including both government and private
departments for constantly and sustainably development is needed (Narong, 2011).
Moreover, community enterprise is also the operation to manage the community
budget with integrity for self-relying which is not just about the money but also includes
resources, produces, local knowledge, and also cultural and social budget (Seri, 2005)
so the Modern Community Enterprise Management should concern about adding value
in processes, products, and knowledges for creative and sustainable productivity
(Jittapon, 2015).
Considering Thailand Community Tourism, the location has advantages in natural
resources, identities, and cultures that can add values especially small villages in Chaam district, Phetchaburi Province, which has varieties resources and knowledge. And this
is a significant tourist province in Thailand. With the community management potential
evaluation for agricultural tourist attraction development and connecting the community
potential to the improvement by developing community enterprise for tourism
management and study the possibility guideline of financial revenue through the
development of community enterprise for tourism by focusing on sustainably career
building for the community to self-manage the tourist attraction along with constantly
creating income.
OBJECTIVES
1. To study condition and possibility of the Community Enterprise Management for
small community tourism
2. To study the guideline of Community Enterprise Management for sustainable
tourism by emphasized the career building in small community
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Step 1 studies the community context and potential in Community Enterprise
Management for small community Tourism which consists of 2 processes as follows;
1.1 Study the community context and potential by using document synthesis with
deductive approach and deductive data by studying from major facts, minor facts, and
conclusion respectively.
1.2 Finding consensus of Community Enterprise Management for small community
tourism guideline by using focus-group discussion.
In the first step, researcher had defined 15 key informants as follows; 3 community
leaders, 5 locals, 3 village scholars, and 4 academics that related to the community
development and number of informants are according to the criteria that conformed to
110
Development of Community Enterprise Management System for Small Community Tourism
the concept of Thomas T. Macmillan (1971) proposed that if there was a group of experts
for 13-17 person, it was the level that the error decreasing ratio was at 0.54-0.50 and
became stable at 0.04.
The tools that used in this research were the semi-structured interview for the
flexibility of data collection included applying observation technique with both
participated and non-participated. When the data was acquired, it was examined by
using Triangulation technique as follows; data triangulation, theory triangulation, and
methodological triangulation.
The data analysis was the holistic analysis in term of finding relationship of study
results that led to the issues conclusion which is the key variable in finding consensus
of Community Enterprise Management for small community tourism guideline. The
acquired study result and provide Community Enterprise for tourism management
guideline would led to the operation planning and strategy development that conformed
to the real situation which would encouraged the sustainably economy and tourism
improvement.
Begin
Deductive approached document study and
synthesis
Field study, held meeting, group discussion
Major informants
3 Community
leaders
5 Community locals
3 Village scholars
4 Academics
Data
Analysis
Community Enterprise Management for
small community tourism guideline
Finish
Figure 1: Step 1 Procedure Flow Chart
Step 2 research methodology to study the possibility of the Community Enterprise
Management for small community Tourism which consists of 2 processes as follows;
2.1 Study the possibility of the Community Enterprise Management for small
community Tourism for financial analysis guideline and used the data to find the
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
111
possibility of revenue from the Community Enterprise Management that related to the
occupations in community.
2.2 Group discussion, meeting with the community director committees to find the
possibility consensus of the management system.
In this step, researcher defined 13 key informants as follows; 7 community director
committee representatives and 4 related academics by using the same tools and
techniques as the step 1 and also collecting feedbacks from the discussion about finding
the possibility consensus of the Community Enterprise Management System.
Begin
Study the possibilities of the Management
Held meeting and group discussion
Major Key
informants
7 Committee
representatives
4 Academics
Content
Analysis
Possibility of the Community Enterprise
Management for small community tourism
Finish
Figure 2: Step 2 Procedure Flow Chart
Step 3 research methodology to study the guideline to top-up development the
community enterprise for sustainable tourism by focusing on career building and using
Participation Action Research: PAR technique with the procedures as follows (James, E.
Alana, 2008);
3.1 cooperate with the community leader in selecting community representatives to
conduct the testing of Community Enterprise Management System for small community
tourism with the experiment of occupations that conformed to the identity and
community knowledge
112
Development of Community Enterprise Management System for Small Community Tourism
3.2 researcher and community leaders analyzed the problems together and begin the
experiment of occupations that conformed to the identity and community knowledge
3.3 evaluate the result of the experiment of occupations that conformed to the
identity and community knowledge by conducting the monthly report and conducting
SWOT analysis in order to provide the strategies of Community Enterprise Management
for Tourism in both active and passive dimensions.
RESULTS
Researcher conclude the result according to the research question in issues as
follows;
3.1 The condition and possibility study of the Community Enterprise Management
for small community tourism
From studying of general conditions of local community, it was found that there were
cultural and way of life’s identity among various religion believers including Muslims,
Christians, and Buddhists as a community that made agriculture and livestock farming
as major occupations by using plantation and livestock area as the living area by
breeding goats and cows with farming system as a completed agricultural community
which had fundamental facilities that well supported the agricultural tourism including
the significant art and culture learning center such as churches and mosques. For the
current situation of community, there were developed connecting roads in community
with paved road and local nature on plantation area. Besides, it was found that the
community leader was potent and progressive that took efforts to improve community
for better life and the government departments in related area had assisted about
facilities and irrigations.
Moreover, the community area also had historical value as the property of King Rama
IX with many reasons such as royal-merit-giving property for people in community to
live and work including royal-merit-giving his royal highness assets for building and
facilities as an experimental planting area and be announced as the village that follows
the philosophy of Sufficiency Economy.
So, the lectures that give knowledge and tell the community story would demonstrate
the local community identity of agricultural tourist attraction. The agricultural tourism
development guideline is the agricultural tourist attraction development in plantation
area which is developed to be the completed agricultural tourist attraction that has
agricultural yields produced and sold completely as the outstanding high-potential tourist
attraction for the tourists.
For the possibility study of Community Enterprise Management System, initially, there
are analysis and provide overall benefits plan of revenues from the occupation due to
the Community Enterprise Management System that the details are shown in table 1.
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
113
Table 1 Results of providing overall benefits plan of revenues from the occupation
due to the Community Enterprise Management System
Occupation
Overall benefits plan production analysis
Activity Estimate
Product /
/
d
Calculated
Occupation
selling
House
revenue
Original
community
from
(days
hold
in
Occupation
revenue from
Community
per
communi
occupation
Enterprise
ty per 1
month)
Management
activity
*
26
13
16
25
Dairy goat
breeding
Meat goat
breeding
Cattle
breeding
Hired labor
Goat milk
8
Goat cheese
8
Goat
banquet
Goatskin
products
Dried beef
1
8
8
1,000
THB
1,500
THB
30,000
THB
5,000
THB
2,000
THB
10,000
THB
8,000 THB
12,000 THB
30,000 THB
40,000 THB
16,000 THB
Selling lunch
2
and break
meals
20,000 THB
8
8,500
Community’s
THB
identity Batik
painting
products
68,000 THB
Handicraft
8
4,500
products
THB
36,000 THB
80
Increased community income from occupations due
230,000 THB
to the providing as an identity tourist village
Increasing averaged income per household classified by occupation group
55
Livestock breeding
1,927
THB/Household
25
Hired labor
4,960
THB/Household
Note: *There are 3 types of activities as follows;
1. Identity village tour activity, only on Saturday and Sunday for 8 times / month.
2. Two visiting activities per month for 50 people at 200 THB per person.
3. One goat banquet activity per month for 10 tables at 3,000 THB per table.
According to in-depth interview results that revealed the data of occupation
participation from Community Enterprise Management System, it was found that there
114
Development of Community Enterprise Management System for Small Community Tourism
were 2 types of identity occupation of this small community as follows; 1) Occupation
the topped up from livestock breeding such as goat milk, goat cheese, goat banquet,
goatskin product, and dried beef and 2) Occupation of making products that topped up
from local knowledge such as selling lunch and snacks, Community’s identity Batik
painting products, handicrafts. From the result of providing overall benefits in occupation
participation from Community Enterprise Management System and estimated potential
income in order to suggest the further poverty solution in small community area, it was
found that the income from occupation had increased for 230,000 THB per month. The
averaged income per household that increased classified by occupation group in
livestock breeding had increased by 1,927 THB per household per month and hired
labour group had increased by 4,960 THB per household per month.
From providing overall benefits plan, researchers had surveyed the actual expenses
of occupations from Community Enterprise Management System; it was found that
people in current community had topped up the products from livestock breeding
occupation as follows, banquet occupation with menus from goat meat, goatskin
products, and dairy goat yoghurts. From studying the possibility revenues of Community
Enterprise Management System, there was an example from studying the possibility of
revenue from goat banquet occupation including snacks service for community visiting
as follows;
Table 2 The studying financial possibility (income)
No.
Product / Service
Estimated sales volume year 1-5
year 1
year 2
year 3
year 4
P1
Income from goat
180,000 189,000 198,450 208,372
banquet activity
.00
.00
.00
.50
P2
Income from food
64,000.
67,200.
70,560.
74,088.
and snack service in
00
00
00
00
visiting
Net sales volume
244,000 256,200 269,010 282,460
.00
.00
.00
.50
Growth rate
5.00%
5.00%
5.00%
year 5
218,791
.13
77,792.
40
296,583
.53
5.00%
The income hypothesizes were:
P1: goat meat banquet, 3,000 THB/table, 8 times/year and 10 tables a time with
5% growth rate
P2: income per person from visiting, 40 visitors per visiting, 200 THB cost per visitor,
8 times visiting per year.
Any income after expenses deducted would be deposited in Community Enterprise’s
account for further management.
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
115
Table 3 The studying financial possibility (selling cost estimation)
Cost list
No.
Cost estimation year 1-5
year 1
year 2
year 3
year 4
year 5
1
Hiring rate for
1 chef
14,000.00 14,840.00 15,730.40 16,674.22 17,674.68
2
Hiring rate for
2 chef
14,000.00 14,840.00 15,730.40 16,674.22 17,674.68
assistants
3
Hiring rate for
2 waiters
8,400.00
8,904.00
9,438.24
10,004.53 10,604.81
5
Kitchen raw
material cost
73,200.00 73,200.00 73,200.00 73,200.00 73,200.00
6
Cost of
replaced
15,000.00 15,000.00 15,000.00 15,000.00 15,000.00
cooking
equipment
7
Cleaner hiring
cost
24,000.00 24,000.00 24,000.00 24,000.00 24,000.00
8
Lecturer
compensation 4,200.00
4,200.00
4,200.00
4,200.00
4,200.00
cost
Note: Hiring chef, assistants, waiters, and cleaners would be circulating hired from
local people and the cooking material were bought from the community while goat and
vegetables would cause circulated income in the community
Selling cost hypothesis was:
A chef would be hired for 1,000 THB, chef assistants would be hired for 500 THB, 2
waiters would be hired for 500 THB, and 5 cleaners would be hired for 300 THB.
Moreover, from the possibility study of financial revenue, it was found that there was
high possibility that the community business could paid back in second year and the
Internal Rate of Return: IRR in 5th year would be 130% and Net Present Value: NPV
would be 293,081.94 THB which was higher than zero so this should be worthy to invest
because the IRR value was higher than another investment revenues such as bank
deposits, bond investments, gold, and stock exchange investments, and NPV that was
higher than zero.
3.2 The study of Community Enterprise Management guideline for sustainable
tourism by focusing on career building in small community
From the overall community evaluation, it was found that the occupation from
Community Enterprise Management System for small community could be divided into
2 types as follows; 1) occupation that topped up from livestock breeding and 2)
occupation that topped up from local knowledge by driving the guideline to manage the
enterprise in order to support tourism well. For the management for supporting tourism,
116
Development of Community Enterprise Management System for Small Community Tourism
since this enterprise was established, people in community thought that this could solve
the problem in occupations such as livestock breeding. Establishing community
enterprise would increase the bargaining power with the middlemen. For the guideline
to achieve success and maintain the enterprise, people in community had concluded that
the community gathering and creating internal management network by locals was the
key to the success and sustainably solved the poverty.
Moreover, the goal of community was to establish a learning center that promote
careers in the community and provide tourists the activities, such as cycling or
purchasing local products. Also, tourists would learn the local people’s way of life and
activities in the community. However, for the career struggles that occurred in
community, the culinary occupation had not much problem due to the lecturer sent from
Compulsory Education Center and Department of Industrial Promotion sector 8 and
when the educational institute had cooperated, the housewives in community got more
part time jobs. For the livestock breeding, there was an learning center in Huai Sai
district for the basic knowledge for village and Department of Livestock Development in
the village to give an advice and training 2 times a year about dairy goat, meat goat,
and chicken breeding
To handle the problem, there were problems in sales and marketing. It could say
that if there was the occupation restoration and development but there was no
supported market, nothing could be going on. The result from consulting with village
director committees and local villagers revealed the guideline to variate the occupation
in each household such as breeding dairy goat for a group while another group breed
meat goat and another group breed chicken. For the crops planting, there was a
discussion with locals and there was an idea to grow circulated and different crops in
each household then the production and selling system would be more flow. If there
were any tourist or visitor visited, the produces would be sold as an income for the
community. When the community was known and advertised, tourist number would be
increased then the community would have more income and solved the poverty problem
sustainably.
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTTION
From the guideline study to develop occupation for improving community potential
based on philosophy of Sufficiency Economy, the meaning of Sufficiency Economy in
community area does not mean only to avoid materialism in community to create any
greed along with the improving life quality of people in community to have morality
including the household expense balancing with making household account. From this
issue, researchers was found that some household still are still recording household
account incorrectly so there should be providing academic training project about making
household account according to the Sufficiency Economy by aiming for the participating
people to be able to make basic household account and be as the prototype of making
household account for other households and communities including understand the
guideline of making household account for living according to the Sufficiency Economy
philosophy as a government policy.
For the community occupation development based on Sufficiency Economy, from
studying data documents from past to present, it was found that previous community
occupation development based on Sufficiency Economy of the people in community
started from Mono-cropping such as pineapple farming then they changed to mixed
cropping due to the learning of Huai Sai project from the Royal Initiative Project of King
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
117
Rama IX that accessed to the community and suggested the people in community for
mixed cropping then it was the issue of mixed cropping and connected to the using of
Sufficiency Economical Modern Agriculture as a tool to make an income more than an
expense by using 2 guideline as follows; make more income and lessen expenses that
mixed agriculture is the root of modern theory agriculture, the goal is the self-relying.
For this agriculture community, soil is their own food source and must be generous to
the people in community because the community would become strong with their
cooperation.
While considering the marketing and tourism, this small community in Cha-am
district, Phetchaburi province, can still create added value and develop to be the tourism
market that focus on good representing the nature and agriculture including the identity
of the community under the King Rama IX prestige that cause this area to become more
interesting and worthier to be visited.
Moreover, the community landscape is still quite nature and accessed by road that
suits for the cycling tourism advertisement that is popular for both Thai and foreign
tourists, now there are foreign tourists take a bicycle for visiting the village. Using social
media and website for public relations are the tools to invite people to visit, consume
the community products, and share photos in social media. This strategy is called
Outside-In.
However, before using mentioned Outside-In, there must be the area development
by standardized improving environment and facility to support visiting from both tourists
and visitors based on major tourism components as follows; 1. Travelling 2.
Accommodations 3. Food 4. Attractions 5. Souvenirs. These components must be fulfilled
by people in community with resource management or if there are any risks for the
community in economic or season’s struggles that lower the number of tourists and
visitors coming to the community, the community product may be sold in provincial
tourism festival or nearby tourist attractions such as Cha-am or Hua Hin district for
promoting the people to recognize the community identity and values.
118
Development of Community Enterprise Management System for Small Community Tourism
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Journal of Media Critiques [JMC]
doi: 10.17349/jmc118209
P-ISSN: 2056-9785
E-ISSN: 2056 9793
http://www.mediacritiques.net
jmc@mediacritiques.net
CONNECTING PERSONALITY TRAITS WITH DEVIANT
WORKPLACE BEHAVIOUR
ANA ALEKSIC*
MATEA VUKOVIC**
ABSTRACT
Deviant workplace behaviour presents an important research question in todays’
organizations as it can cause harmful effects on both the individual and organizational
level. Besides affecting individual work outcomes, it can also have different social and
psychological effects on them and consequently on the overall organization. As of this,
it is important to recognize possible determinants of workplace deviance. Personality
traits present an important element in defining individual behaviour and intentions. As
such, they can be considered as a strong predictor of various forms of deviant workplace
behaviour. To test the proposed connection, an empirical research was done on a sample
of 189 individuals. The work is based on the big five personality model, as a popular
method of assessing personality traits, and deviant workplace behaviour is analysed
from individual and organizational point of view. In general, results show higher level of
organizational than individual deviant behaviour, but also their mutual dependence.
Regarding personality traits, results indicate that the personality traits of agreeableness
and conscientiousness are statistically significantly negatively connected with both forms
of undesirable behaviour. Other traits including extraversion, emotional stability and
openness are not statistically significantly connected with either individual or
organizational workplace behaviour. Results are controlled for difference regarding age
and gender. Research implications are provided.
Keywords: Personality, Personality traits, Deviant workplace behaviour, Croatia.
INTRODUCTION
The reason why people behave in a certain matter can partly be attributed to their
personality traits, as they can be understood as the forces that affect how people think,
feel and behave (Norem, 2012). Personality is something that each individual carry
within himself over time, from one situation to the other. The definition of personality
*
Assistant professor, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, Trg J. F. Kennedy 6, Croatia.
aaleksic@efzg.hr
**
Student, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, Trg J. F. Kennedy 6, Croatia.
matea.bach@gmail.com
120
Connecting Personality Traits with Deviant Workplace Behaviour
emphasizes that personality sources are within individuals and that personality is
therefore stable over time and to some extent consistent in different situations (Larsen
& Buss, 2008). As such, personality traits are useful because they help predict future.
In other words, personality is useful for describing, explaining and predicting differences
among individuals (Hoyle, 2010). In this case, differences regarding deviant workplace
behaviour.
The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship among the personality traits
measured by the big five factor model (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness,
emotional stability and openness) with different forms of deviant workplace behaviour.
It is widely recognized that any form of inadequate treatment of employees at the
workplace can cause adverse effects on the health and safety of employees. Moreover,
research has shown that deviant behaviour in the workplace does not only result in poor
health and safety of individuals but leads to high costs for organizations.
Understanding different types of personality and characteristic way of different types'
approach to distinct forms of deviant behaviour can greatly help prevent distortion of
balance in interpersonal relations. This paper examines the relationship between deviant
workplace behaviour at interpersonal and organizational level, and big five personality
traits. Strong connection among personality traits and deviance has been recognized.
However, results regarding influence of different personality traits on deviant behaviour
are still inconsistent. Therefore, by this study we seek to provide additional insight into
these relationships. As O'Connor et al. (2017, p. 20) emphasize, this research is
necessary as we still have not “identified specific risk factors for sub-groups of
individuals”.
DEVIANT WORKPLACE BEHAVIOUR
Workplace deviance or deviant work place behaviour presents a “voluntary behaviour
that violates significant organizational norms and, in so doing, threatens the well-being
of the organization, and its members, or both” (Robinson & Bennett, 1995, p. 556). It is
recognized as intentional behaviour of certain members of organizations that are
opposed to legitimate organizational interests and goals (Sackett & DeVore, 2001). They
include behaviours such as physical and verbal violence and aggression, theft, abusive
supervision, incivility, withholding effort or information (Jensen & Patel, 2011). Yildiz and
Alpkan (2015) stress these behaviours are not mentioned in the formal job definitions;
they rise above existing role expectations and break organizational norms.
Past research indicates enormous economic and social costs connected with deviance
at work (Nurul et al., 2015) harming not just employees and organizations but also
customers (Raman et al., 2016). Almost all deviant workplace behaviours reduce
productivity and efficiency of employees. This primarily refers to people who are victims
of such behaviours. Negative effects of deviance on an individual level include:
psychological and other health problems, anxiety, lack of motivation for work, job
dissatisfaction and absenteeism, poorer quality of private life, increased consumption of
opiates such as alcohol or other narcotics due to disrupted interpersonal relationships at
work, and ultimately the possibility of suicide (Applebaum et al., 2007). Moreover, the
negative indirect effects of these behaviours may also affect individuals who are not
participants in such behaviours (nor are victims, nor actors). This is through a disturbed
working atmosphere and conditions and fear spreading climate. All this ultimately
negatively affects organizations through various aspects: financial, production,
reputation, competition aspect or aspects of employee turnover (Brkic & Aleksic, 2016).
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
121
As a result, organizations where deviance has been extensively present and encouraged
are described as toxic ones (Cheang & Appelbaum, 2015).
Many researchers provide classification of these behaviours (e.g. Hollinger & Clark
1982; Gruys & Sackett, 2003; Spector et al., 2006; Bowling & Gruys, 2010). However,
one of the most widely used classification measures is the one by Robinson and Bennet
(1995). By using multidimensional scaling techniques, they developed a typology of
deviant behaviour that includes two dimensions: (1) minor versus serious, referring to
the severity of the behaviour; and (2) interpersonal versus organizational, depending if
the behaviour is targeting organization or individuals.
Accordingly, deviant behaviours can be classified into four categories: (1) production
deviance (minor/organizational) - includes behaviours such as leaving early, intentionally
working slowly; (2) property deviance (serious, organizational) - includes sabotage,
stealing, taking bribes; (3) political deviance (minor/interpersonal) - includes showing
favouritism,
gossiping,
blaming
co-workers;
(4)
personal
aggression
(serious/interpersonal) - includes sexual harassment, verbal abuse, stealing from coworkers, and endangering co-workers (Robinson & Bennett, 1995, p. 565).
When it comes to sources of deviance some researchers stress the importance of
individual attitudes and perceptions (e.g. Bennett & Robbins, 2000), others stress more
the importance of context and situation (e.g. Applebaum et al., 2007). But,
acknowledging the findings from the field it is possible to conclude that deviance is “the
result of a complex interaction between the person and the environment in which the
individual’s reasoning about the environment and expected outcomes drive the
individual’s behaviour” (Martinko et al., 2002, p. 41). In the context of organization,
beside employee attitudes and personality, environmental factors include situational
factors, such as perception of justice, and organizational factors, such as organizational
structure or climate (Marasi et al., 2018).
PERSONALITY TRAITS AND DEVIANT WORKPLACE BEHAVIOUR
The term or concept of personality refers to the traits or features of an individual's
behaviour (action, motivation, response, beliefs, etc.). It refers to “stylistic consistencies
in social behaviour which are a reflection of an inner structure and process“(Furnham,
1992, p. 15).
The five-factor or big five personality model is a taxonomy of personality traits that
has had the greatest support of researchers for the last couple of decades. An impressive
number of researches confirm that the five basic dimensions make up the foundation of
all others and include the most important variations in the personality of people. The
five-factor model includes traits of extraversion referring to one's comfort in relationship,
agreeableness concerning individual inclination to defer to others, conscientiousness as
a measure of reliability, neuroticism or emotional stability referring to way individuals
copes with emotions and stress and openness to experience describing one’s range of
interests and attraction to new things (Robbins & Judge, 2009). Key characteristics of
five personality traits are presented in Table 1.
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Connecting Personality Traits with Deviant Workplace Behaviour
Table 1 Key adjectives for markers of the five personality traits
Personality traits
Characteristics
Extraversion
The degree to which a person is sociable, assertive,
active, ambitious; includes characteristics as:
energetic, enthusiastic, outgoing, talkative
Agreeableness
The degree to which a person is good-natured,
cooperative, and trusting; includes characteristics as:
appreciative, forgiving, generous, kind, trusting
Conscientiousness
The degree to which a person is responsible,
dependable, persistent, and organized; includes
characteristics as efficient, reliable, thorough
Emotional
The degree to which a person is calm, self-confident,
stability/Neuroticism
secure under stress (positive); includes characteristics
as relaxed, stable, self-confident
Openness
The degree to which a person is curious, imaginative,
artistic, and sensitive; includes characteristics as
artistic, imaginative, insightful, original, wide interests
Source: McCrae & John (1992), Robbins & Judge (2009)
Personality can affect individual deviant workplace behaviour through the process of
individual perception and attribution. More precisely personality can affect the way
people perceive stimuli from their environment, interpret them and make attributions to
them, their emotional and behavioural responses to them as well as their ability to inhibit
aggressive and deviant impulses (Nurul et al., 2013, citing Spector 2010).
Five-factor personality traits are recognized as powerful predictors of workplace
deviance (e.g. Salgado, 2002; Berry et al., 2007, Bolton et al., 2010; Jensen & Patel,
2011; Raman et al., 2016.) A meta-analysis by Berry et al. (2007) showed personality
traits to have the potential to influence an individual to engage in deviance at work. In
their meta study, agreeableness and conscientiousness were the strongest predictors of
workplace deviance score in general, with agreeableness relating more strongly to
interpersonal deviance and conscientiousness to organizational deviance. Bolton et al.
(2010) found similar results for agreeableness and conscientiousness, but also for
extraversion and openness to experience as a predictors of certain forms of workplace
deviance. Still, results are not consistent and some research shows contradictory results.
For instance, conscientiousness has been found to have no relationship with both forms
of deviant behaviour (e.g. Nurul et al., 2016, Lim et al., 2016), as well as agreeableness,
and openness to experience (Lim et al., 2016). Also, extraversion and neuroticism where
found to be valid predictors of interpersonal deviant behaviour (Abdullah & Marican,
2016; Lim et al., 2016). In addition, extraversion showed no relationship with
organizational deviant behaviour (Nurul et al., 2016).
METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH
PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE
For the purpose of this study, an empirical survey was designed together with an
online research instrument. Research was conducted on a convenient sample of students
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
123
of different departments of the University of Zagreb. Participants were recruited through
a snowball sampling technique via personal and professional contacts of the researchers.
In total, 189 responses were received. The sample was gender biased, as 76,2 %
respondents were female, with average age of 23.1 (SD=2,61), and 43.3% of students
had a job at the time the research was conducted.
Using students as a sample of research has been present in the literature, as number
of researchers analysing deviant workplace behaviour has used students as a sample
(e.g. Samnani et al., 2014).
Data collected where analysed using statistical software package SPSS 18.0.
MEASURES
Personality was measured using a 50-item scale developed by Goldberg (1992). The
statements used measured five main personality traits: extraversion, agreeableness,
conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness. Respondents were asked to read
the statements and by using a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (disagree strongly)
to 5 (agree strongly) to mark the level of agreement with the statement.
Deviant work place behaviour was measured with the 18-item scale developed
specifically for the student population by Tomsic et al., (2014). This measure is based
on well-established scale and classification developed by Robinson and Bennett (1995),
but adjusted for student population. The scale is consisted of two subscales, with one
measuring interpersonal behaviour (statement sample: “have you ever verbally abused
your student college?”) and other measuring organizational deviance (statement
sample: “Have you ever missed classes for no justified reason?”). Respondents were
asked to indicate how often they have behaved in a way described by the statement
using the scale from 1 to 5 where 1 = never, 2= once or twice in life, 3= once or twice
a year, 4= once or twice a month, 5= weekly.
Based on these two subscales it was possible to compute a general score of deviant
workplace behaviour.
The reliability coefficient for all variables is higher than 0.7 indicating internal
consistency of the scale’s items.
RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Means and standard deviations for the personality variables are presented in Table
2.
Table 2 The Big five personality traits
Personality traits
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Emotional stability/Neuroticism
Openness
OD
ID
DWB
Mean
3.22
3.9
3.57
3.09
3.78
1,67
1,11
1,39
Std. Deviation
0.78
0.65
0.69
0.86
0.58
0.24
0.10
0.20
N
189
189
189
189
189
189
189
189
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Connecting Personality Traits with Deviant Workplace Behaviour
Throughout this study, the correlation between the big five personality traits and
organizational and interpersonal deviant behaviour is observed.
Statistically significant correlations have been found between the tested variables
with the Pearson correlation being used to quantify the strength and direction of the
statistical links. The results of the aforementioned correlation analysing which
personality traits are more prone to organizational, interpersonal and overall deviant
behaviour are shown in Table 3.
Table 3 Correlation coefficients
Variable
Extraversio
n
Agreeablene
ss
Consc.
Emotion.
Stability
Openness
OD
ID
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Consc.
Emotion.
stability
Openness
,232**
,118
,278**
**
,224
,019
,268**
,312**
,086
,267**
**
**
,052
OD
,109
-,218
-,382
-,095
,089
ID
,076
-,395**
-,254**
-,119
,050
,599**
,104
**
**
-,119
,078
,903**
DWB
-,339
-,359
,884**
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed); OD - Organizational deviance,
ID - Interpersonal deviance, DWB - Deviant workplace behaviour (composite measure)
The results of correlation analysis indicate that agreeableness has a significant
negative correlation with interpersonal deviance (r = -395, p < 0.01), organizational
deviance (r = -218, p < 0.01) and overall deviant workplace behaviour (r= - 339, p <
0.01). Similar to results of previous studies (e.g. Bolton et al., 2010, Nurul et al., 2013,
Lim et al., 2016) these results indicate individuals with high agreeableness are more
likely to demonstrate lower interpersonal and organizational deviant behaviour. These
figures are not surprising given that an individual scoring high on the personality trait of
agreeableness is likely to withdraw from social conflicts and try to avoid situations that
they do not find harmonious. On the other side, individuals scoring low on this dimension
are more aggressive and more eager to enter a conflict, thus engaging more into deviant
behaviour.
Consciousness also has a significant negative correlation with interpersonal deviance
(r = -254, p < 0.01), organizational deviance (r = -382, p < 0.01) and overall deviant
workplace behaviour (r= - 359, p < 0.01). In other words, these results indicate that
individuals that are more conscious are less likely to engage into interpersonal or
organizational deviant work behaviour, as several studies also show (e.g. Salgado, 2002,
Bolton et al., 2010; Abdullah & Marican, 2016). Conscientiousness is defined by
diligence, organization, care and thoroughness, and is almost identical to the dimension
of agreeableness in the big five model (Babarovic & Sverko, 2013). Conscious individuals
are more organized, thorough, like to follow rules, and thus expected not to go against
and brake organizational norms i.e. engage into deviant behaviour.
Personality traits of extraversion, emotional stability and openness to experience
were not found to be statistically significantly correlated with any dimensions of deviant
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
125
workplace behaviour. This is in accordance with several previous studies that found no
connection between some form of deviant behaviour and extraversion (e.g. Nurul et al.,
2016) emotional stability or openness (e.g. Salgado, 2002).
Additional analysis of data showed no statistically significant difference between man
and woman, and across different age groups.
The correlation coefficients between deviant workplace behaviour dimensions were
positively statistically significant, ranging from ,599 to ,903 (p < 0.01). Organizational
and interpersonal deviance are correlated with each other to a high degree which is
consistent with general analyses that show different wider or narrower categories of
undesirable organizational behaviour are interrelated (e.g. Spector et al., 2006).
CONCLUSIONS
Individuals differ among themselves in a multitude of psychological variables:
interests, motives, needs, aspirations, perceptions, abilities and personality traits. All
these variables affect their social behaviour, as well as work ethic. Personality in its wider
sense represents all the psychological traits of an individual. Through the personality
range, it is possible to link the reactions and patterns of the behaviour of individuals.
The main purpose of this paper was to analyse and understand the relationship
between personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional
stability and openness) and organizational and interpersonal deviant workplace
behaviour. Deviant behaviour in the workplace can be described as a deliberate effort
to harm an organization or one’s co-workers. More precisely, it can be seen as deliberate
behaviour to violate institutionalized norms and thus endangers the welfare of the
organization.
Besides indicating organizational and interpersonal deviant behaviour to be closely
related, our empirical research showed only personality traits of agreeableness and
conscientiousness to be negatively related to both forms of deviant behaviour as well as
overall deviant behaviour. Other traits showed no statistical connection.
The research carried out in this paper has several limitations that need to be
acknowledged. The limitation of this research is primarily related to the number of
respondents. The sample is gender biased and relatively small (N = 189). While this
number may be suitable for predicting correlations within a student population, it is not
possible to generalize the results of the questionnaire to the general public. Also,
research questionnaire was quite complex (part on personality traits was a 50-item
scale) and is based on self-assessment. Therefore, the question of respondent’s
subjectivity is present. Especially, as the paper examined deviant forms of behaviours,
it is possible respondents were not completely honest in providing their answers or felt
pressure to provide socially acceptable, “better”, answers.
In our paper we used the big five model of personality, as it is one of the most widely
used and accepted models of personality. This model focuses on key personality
dimensions whose description, as well as differences are consistent and universally
applicable, and the flexibility of its application allows comparisons of research conducted
around the world. Still the big five model does not go in depth or explore the individual
specific of personality, and as some authors suggest, it is the interaction of traits that
increases the prediction over and above a single trait approach (Jensen & Patel, 2011).
Moreover, some authors (e.g. O’Neill & Hastings, 2011) suggest research needs to move
beyond these five traits, and include alternative personality variables, such as integrity,
126
Connecting Personality Traits with Deviant Workplace Behaviour
risk taking, and seductiveness, that can enhance the prediction of the occurrence of
deviant behaviour. So future research should encompass additional individual variables,
but also consider analysing interaction among them and different environmental or
situational factors.
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
127
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Journal of Media Critiques [JMC]
doi: 10.17349/jmc118210
P-ISSN: 2056-9785
E-ISSN: 2056 9793
http://www.mediacritiques.net
jmc@mediacritiques.net
A NEW WAY TO ENHANCE CHINA'S CULTURAL
CONFIDENCE THROUGH INTERNET CULTURAL
CONSUMPTION
KEJIN LIU
ABSTRACT
The vigorous development of China's Internet culture industry has profoundly changed the
internal structure of cultural industry and the habits of people's cultural consumption. With the
frequent international cultural exchanges, the collision and integration of different cultures often
have an impact on the cultural products and services of the country. How to stick to the core of
their own culture and realize the expansion and promotion of culture self-confidence in the wave
of Internet communication is an issue that every country needs to face and think about. This
paper aims at clarifying the necessity of developing Internet culture industry in China and
illustrating the new trend and characteristics of Internet culture consumption. This paper mainly
adopts cases from different industries to analysis in order to predict the direction of the industry
and put forward the proposals. Only deeply analyze the present situation of China's Internet
industry and accurate grasp of the characteristics of the Chinese Internet culture consumption,
we are able to cultivate, guide, promote and manage the endogenous power of economic and
social development, and finally make suggestions on the key points of government governance.
Keywords: China's Internet culture industry, cultural consumption, cultural self-confidence,
the development trend, policy suggestions.
INTRODUCTION
The development of China's cultural industry includes three levels. Firstly, cultural
tourism and cultural performance played an important role in the early stage of
cultural industry development; Secondly, after the reform of the cultural system, the
market-oriented development of public institutions represented by presses and
televisions; Thirdly, the changes brought by the new trend of high technology have
played a huge role in driving the traditional culture industry. Nowadays, the Internet is
profoundly changing the business state of traditional culture industry and breeding a
new cultural ecology. According to the data, the economic revenue of China's Internet
users reached 1.8 trillion yuan in 2017, that's up about 25% from the year before.
While the added value of the cultural information transmission service in 2017 reached
Communication University of China, United States. kejinliucuc@hotmail.com
132
A New Way to Enhance China's Cultural Confidence through Internet Cultural Consumption
800 billion yuan, an increase of 34.6% over the previous year. Therefore, the Internet
culture content industry has great potential and good prospects.
Cultural consumption is an endogenous driving force for social and
economic development
Consumption is the key link of social reproduction and the important area of
people's economic activities and social life.
First of all, the consumption has contributed to China's economic growth. We all
known that consumption, investment and export are the three drivers of economic
development. Among them, investment has contributed a lot to economic growth, but
the negative effects of excessive investment are also great. In recent years, the driving
force of investment on the economy is significantly decreased. Therefore, the central
government has been saying that investment should be reduced. Export has been
driving the development of Chinese economy, but we have seen that the upside space
boost by export will also be greatly compressed since the trade friction between China
and the United States. In fact, the most promising of the three factors is consumption,
and so it is. The contribution of consumption to China's economy increased from
35.4% in 2004 to 64.6% in 2017.
Secondly, the cultural consumption has become an important manifestation of
China's consumption upgrading. With the upgrading of cultural consumption, China's
cultural Internet industry has developed rapidly and become a powerful dynamic force
for the progress of China's cultural industry. In recent years, with the continuous
improvement of the income level of the residents and the change of the consumption
concept, the consumption structure has been continuously improved, especially the
amazing pace of cultural product renewal. The fast pace, high quality and peopleoriented form and content are deeply loved by the young people, and the cultural
consumption will continue to maintain a high growth momentum.
Promoting Internet cultural consumption is a new way to achieve cultural
confidence
Cultural confidence is not only related to the prosperity of our own culture, but also
determines the future and destiny of a country and a nation. In the 19th Communist
Party of China National Congress, general secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "strengthen
cultural confidence, so as to promote the prosperity of socialist culture" thought from a
strategically position. To be specific, the government needs to uphold the principle of
cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, adhere to the principle of
"self-reliance" and "inclusiveness", and promote the building of international
communication capacity. By telling a good Chinese cultural story and showing a real,
three-dimensional and comprehensive China, we can improve the country's cultural
soft power. The international communication of Chinese culture confidence is a bridge
and link for the establishment of cultural ecological system, which can bring traditional
culture to life and move from the elite level to the general public. Nowadays, simple
low-level cultural products cannot meet the needs of the people for a better life. Only
by continuously prospering cultural production can we enhance cultural confidence in
the creation and innovation of contemporary culture and promote the Chinese culture
"going-out" better. In this process, the cultivation of cultural consumption demand has
become the driving force to boost domestic demand and to expand overseas market,
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
133
so as to achieve the goal of international communication of Chinese culture and
continuous improvement of international image.
Hypothesis
1. The Internet culture industry is an important area for China's future
development;
2. Internet cultural consumption is the main driving force of economic and social
development;
3. The realization of cultural confidence requires the improvement of Internet
cultural consumption ability.
The current situation of China's Internet ecology
1. The Internet gathers consumers
China has a large population of Internet users and a large network of consumers.
At present, the number of Internet users is 750 million, and the number of mobile
Internet users is 724 million, which accounts for 1/3 of the total number of Internet
users in the world. At the same time, China has the largest Internet information
transmission platform. According to statistics, China has 4.82 million websites, 28
million WeChat public account and 18 million apps. Undoubtedly, these platforms are
also the most active cultural consumption platforms.
The Internet culture content industry is expanding in various industries. The users
of online news, video, games, literature, music have more than 300 million people and
the usage rate are over 45%. Online games have been growing rapidly from 2016 to
2017. In the first 11 months of 2017, the revenue of online game reached 134.1 billion
yuan, up 22.1 percent year on year; The market scale of online literature has been
expanding, and the market size of it has increased greatly from 2011 to 2017;
According to statistics, from January to September in 2017, five of the top 10 TV series
are adapted from online novels. Such as the popular TV series named Nirvana in Fire is
adapted from an online novel; Online video users are also growing rapidly. We have
seen that through the cultivation and promotion, online video is making a
comprehensive comparison and even exceeding the traditional film and television
products. The following figures confirm the above conclusions. The number of
traditional film is 970, and the number of online film reaches 1892; the number of TV
series released by channel is 186, while the number of network drama is 379; the
number of shows on the national satellite TV is 157, while the number of online is 131.
As shown in following figure.
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A New Way to Enhance China's Cultural Confidence through Internet Cultural Consumption
Table 1 Comparison of the Products Number of Traditional Media and Online Media
Comparison of the Products Number of
Traditional Media and Online Media
2000
1800
1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
Film
TV Series
Traditional
Show
Online
In the process of Chinese culture going-out, the online culture content industry has
become one of the most successful cultural categories. Currently, WeChat has 230
million overseas users, and its influence is gradually expanding. The online game King
of Glory earned $1.9 billion in 2017 which is ranking first in the world, and in many
countries the user scale is among the largest. Online literature has a lot of influence
overseas. For example, the Chinese fantasy novel platform Wuxia World has four
million active readers monthly and 400,000 visitors a day. Readers are distributed in
more than 100 countries and regions in the world, and a third of them are in North
America.
The Internet has spawned an industrial ecosystem
Internet giants, such as Tencent and Alibaba, have built a cross-culture industry
chain that traditional media cannot match, and they are nurtured a huge ecological
rainforest for interactive entertainment. This is a complex ecological chain with IP as
the core and different industries interwoven but mutually distinguishable.
It is worth mentioning that Witmart as the world's largest network crowdsourcing
service trading platform is unique in numerous network service enterprises. This is a
super creative platform aimed at combining people with creative design skills with
those who want to get creative design products and services, and then facilitating the
completion of transactions on the platform. At present, there are more than 600 kinds
of online service categories and more than 20,000 daily requests post on the Witmart.
The annual turnover of the company reaches 31 billion yuan, and the website is valued
at over 10 billion yuan. There are three outstanding characteristics of Witmart. Firstly,
the Internet as a platform for entrepreneurship and trading has solved the problem of
high rents for start-ups in big cities. Secondly, the voluntary combination transaction
has alleviated the pressure of cultivating talents. Thirdly, to provide a full range of
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
135
operation services for the creative company, in order to avoid enterprise registration,
trademark design, invoicing and other issues.
The Internet promotes the effectiveness of public cultural services
The problem of low efficiency of public cultural service projects has been criticized,
and the Internet has opened a new path for improving the efficiency of public cultural
services. With the help of the Internet platform for the public, the company called
Colorful Sports in Zhuzhou, Hunan created a platform to provide all aspects of the
public cultural information service in local. It has been effectively increasing the service
efficiency of the cultural service facilities, thus provides the convenience for citizens.
The Dunhuang Academy has built Digital Dunhuang to provide all-round digital
services to tourists, including the establishment of website, the provision of iPad,
online and offline interaction, etc. Additionally, some live platform, such as Tencent,
Sina, Douyu, Huajiao, Momo, KK, through broadcasting the skills of intangible cultural
heritages and the craftsmanship of the Chinese traditional culture have aroused the
attention of users and received a good result. For example, the "Inheritance and New Intangible Cultural Heritage Tour" was broadcasted on live with a total of 7 million hits
in June 2017.
Characteristics of cultural consumption
Firstly, the cultural consumption has the characteristic of "stickiness" which is
different from material demand. It is generally believed that material needs are rigid
while spiritual and cultural needs are elastic. However, once the cultural demand is
generated, it will form a continuous "sticky" habit effect, such as what people often
say about opera fans, Internet addiction, and fans. This shows that cultural
consumption demand, as a higher spiritual need of people, is closely related to
education and art edification. Therefore, it needs to be cultivated and guided.
Secondly, the cultural consumption has the characteristics of multi-level and
diversified "preference consumption". Due to differences in education degree,
economic and social conditions, family background and occupation, cultural
consumption varies from person to person. Elite culture, popular culture and
entertainment culture are not only interrelated but also different. Such as, Beijing
culture is straightforward, while the Shanghai culture is exquisite; Urban culture is
fashion, while rural culture is primitive simplicity. Cultural style and consumption
preference are obviously different, forming the respective characteristics of different
groups, different regions and different occupations. Therefore, to promote the policy
design of cultural consumption demand, government must take full account of these
differences and formulate targeted policy measures.
Thirdly, the cultural consumption is characterized by the principle of supply creates
demand. As the spiritual and cultural needs of people, cultural consumption is different
from the material demands which is immediacy and clarity. Otherwise it is often in a
status which is latent, fuzzy and unconscious. Therefore, it is necessary to stimulate
people's desire for new products and services through creative and production. Take
the Internet for example, before it emerges people just feel the traditional writing,
making phone calls as the communication methods are a little bit inconvenient, but
nobody clears what kind of cultural products can solve the problem. Until the invention
of new technology and the emergence of the Internet, they instantly activate the
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A New Way to Enhance China's Cultural Confidence through Internet Cultural Consumption
potential demand of the people in this area, and make the Internet become the
mainstream products which are leading the cultural consumption, and in a short span
of few years has created a huge market.
Finally, the cultural consumption has the function of experience, content
dissemination and value orientation, which makes it have obvious spillover effect and
external characteristics. Elegant cultural products and services can provide positive
energy for the society through the experience and communication of consumers, which
is a kind of low-carbon and green consumption. However, vulgar, kitsch and profitseeking cultural products and services often pollute the social and cultural environment
through consumer behaviors. This shows that neither cultural production nor cultural
consumption should be subject to the free regulation of the market, but the
appropriate intervention and guidance from the government and the society are
needed.
Three trends of Internet culture consumption in China
Currently, China Internet culture consumption presents the following three trends.
1. The era of knowledge payment is coming strongly
In 2016, it was called "China knowledge payment year", and social platforms
launched various online knowledge and entertainment payment products, which
attracted many users and became an important mode of profit. In 2017, the market
size of China's knowledge payment market is 4.91 billion yuan. With the formation of
knowledge paying habit, the number of people willing to pay for high-quality
knowledge service will grow continuously. It is estimated that the industry will reach
23.5 billion yuan by 2020.
From the industry map of China's online knowledge payment in 2018, it can be
seen that the online knowledge payment industry ecosystem is composed of content
maker, platform manager, intermediary agency, communication channel and user. The
core of knowledge payment is content acquisition and efficiency. By introducing
knowledge products on social, information or independent platforms, the content
maker intend to accumulate popularity and then make knowledge converted into cash.
The marketing of content is inseparable from the operation of the platform. The
knowledge payment platform continuously expands the income scale by charging
consumers. At the same time, the market forces have also promoted the iteration of its
production and service. The cooperation between the platform and the content maker
is the core of the online knowledge payment industry ecology. Part of the platform will
establish in-depth cooperation with the invited top content maker to provide full
process services from topic selection to distribution; There are also some platforms
provide different levels of services in different stages of development, such as user
diversion, platform subsidies and content guidance and investment incubation.
Platform can help content to make production more efficiently and strengthen the
chain and the relationship between maker and user. Therefore, with further
enhancement of correlation, maker and user will maintain the operation of the entire
ecosystem spontaneously.
2. Socialization of cultural consumption
As the "online generation" become the backbone of the Internet market, mobile
social networks, such as WeChat, which are dominated by acquaintances are turning
to content-centric media platforms to expand relationships and entertainment
spending. At the same time, mobile social networks have also become more
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
137
personalized, vertical and segmented, and have started developing towards strangers.
Mobile game, for example, has become a major segment of the mobile social market
for strangers in China. WeChat, Weibo, QQ and other social tools have a large user
base, but the entertainment and leisure functions are not strong. As a result, young
people are increasingly using social media, such as live streaming, video, games for
cultural consumption. Statistics show that about a third of post-95s prefer live
streaming and video social platforms, compared with 12% and 8% of post-90s and
post-80s generation respectively. At the same time, post-90s consumers pay more
attention to their own attributes and are willing to express themselves. Thus, they
often form content social circle with specific interests and contents.
In terms of content type social segmentation, there are generally fields of work,
sports, marriage, interest, learning, information, entertainment and leisure, etc.
Through text, pictures, audio, video, games, live broadcast and other information
carriers and channels, users can use the form of bullet screen, real-time chat and
instant comment to carry out cultural consumption. Relying on the platform and
channel, many mobile phone users will produce their own original content and is
willing to share more widely. This will in turn make the platform richer and take the
social interactions more significantly. The consulting data from iResearch showed that
nearly 90% of Internet users are willing to share personal creative content, 50.8% of
them chose to build their personal and public accounts to share information, 37.3% of
them are willing to share emotion through radio, broadcast, etc.
3. Communalization of cultural consumption
Fan communalization is an outstanding representation of Internet economy. Under
the influence of Internet and new media, fan economy and attention economy become
a new kind of cultural and economic model, and gradually develop its unique form -community economy. The community is often a subculture community centered on
people with special emotional and social relations. Community members share ideas,
fun, experience, opinions, and behaviors among themselves. Fans usually gathered by
the common interests or the highly viscous content. They establish emotional
connection, information communication and value identification through information
sharing, content production, content consumption and content dissemination in social
media. The huge commercial value and social influence hidden behind the fan
community has become a prominent feature of Internet culture consumption.
Three key points of sticking to the cultural confidence in the process of
Internet cultural consumption
No culture can be isolated from the rest of the world, and it needs to learn from
other cultures. The attitude towards foreign cultures tests a country's cultural selfconfidence. The more confident a country is, the more positive it will be in dealing with
foreign cultures, and the more it will be able to enrich through its interactions with
foreign cultures. It is an inevitable requirement for the prosperity of Chinese culture to
absorb and integrate all outstanding foreign cultural achievements.
1. Be open and inclusive
The world has diversified cultures and different strengths. Every country's culture
contributes to world civilization in its own way and is the common spiritual wealth of
mankind. Only by absorbing the essence of hundreds of countries and integrating the
advantages of various cultures can we promote the development of our own culture;
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A New Way to Enhance China's Cultural Confidence through Internet Cultural Consumption
On the contrary, if we close ourselves off and reject foreign countries, we will lose the
vitality of development and even die out. From the point of view of Chinese culture
itself, it is a kind of culture jointly created by multiple nationalities and regions and
integrated with pluralism. In the long history, openness and inclusiveness have always
been the mainstream of the spread of Chinese culture abroad. For example, the silk
road is a symbol of cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries. History
has proved that openness and inclusiveness will not weaken the outstanding core of
Chinese culture but will continue to enrich and expand it through learning from others.
In the context of the globalization of consumption and the continuous expansion of
China's external communication, we should treat foreign cultures with a broad vision
and mind. We should not only take an active part in world cultural dialogue and
exchanges, but also boldly absorb and draw on all the useful experiences and
outstanding achievements that are conducive to the transformation and upgrading of
Internet cultural consumption.
2. Maintaining a dialectical attitude of choice
Openness and inclusiveness are not blind worship of the outside world and learning
from others is not copying from others. Every culture of a country has its soil for
survival and conditions for its functioning. Without certain historical conditions and
social environment, the value and function of culture will inevitably change. At the
same time, foreign cultures are also diverse and mixed. This requires that we must
analyze, compare and identify the foreign cultural productions and services, then make
a dialectical choice and follow the rules. Nowadays, western culture, based on its
economic and technological strength, occupies a strong position in the world. Although
western ideology and culture have its reasonable factors, which have a positive effect
on human development and progress, there are also negative and corrupt contents.
Therefore, an attitude of "total rejection" or "total acceptance" of western culture is
undesirable.
3. Taking the capability of transformation and reconstruction
Absorbing and learning from foreign cultures should not be a simple "physical
grafting", but an organic "chemical reaction", with the purpose of transforming and
enriching our own culture products. One of the great characteristics of Chinese culture
is its strong ability to integrate foreign cultures. Many foreign cultures have realized
organic integration with Chinese culture after their introduction. To absorb foreign
culture, it is important to focus on ourselves and use it for our own benefits. Firstly, we
should combine the excellent foreign culture with Chinese traditional culture, integrate
the elements of Chinese culture, and brand Chinese culture; Secondly, we should be
combined with China's actual needs to solve China's practical problems and serve
people's production and living practices; Thirdly, we should combine foreign cultures
with the acceptance habits of the Chinese people and create expressions that suit the
way of thinking and aesthetic taste of the Chinese people.
Discussion: The ways government manage China’s Internet cultural
consumption
Vigorously promoting Internet culture content industry and Internet culture
consumption is an important part of the national development strategy of the 13th
Five-Year Plan. In December 2016, the state council issued the "13th FYP" National
Strategic Emerging Industry Plan. In the file, the digital creative industry with the core
of Internet is one of the five strategic emerging industries supported by the state. In
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
139
January 2017, the national development and reform commission (NDRC) released the
Catalogue of Key Products and Services for Strategic Emerging Industries (2016
edition), which has further clarified the specific category of digital creative industry. In
August 2017, the state council issued a document entitled Guidance on the Further
Expansion and Upgrading of the Potential for the Consumption of Domestic Demand
([2017] No. 40). In this file, the government take the digital creative content and
service in the field of cultural entertainment into the key areas of future development
of China's consumptions. At the same time, the government put forward three key
tasks, that is improving the information consumption supply level, expanding the
coverage of information consumption and optimizing the information development
environment. These show that Internet consumption is the next focus area to expand
consumption.
In my opinion, in order to promote the consumption of Internet culture and
stimulate the cultural self-confidence, we should grasp the three key points.
1. Promoting the consumption of Internet culture must deepen the supply-front
structural reform
This reform needs to focus on two major problems: first, we should have highquality online cultural products. Second, we should establish a dynamic mechanism to
support the production and consumption of online cultural products. If there has no
good online cultural products, it is difficult to support the consumption; and if there
has no good mechanism, it is difficult to produce good products either.
2. Taking an objective view of the subculture based on the Internet
Recently, the media has made a series of exposure to the unhealthy content, and
this behavior is necessary and also conducive to the healthy development of live. While
exposing the unhealthy content, we should also encourage and support the active and
healthy content and programs of emerging social media. Because the basic
characteristics of the subculture is vitality. In a sense, the new social media based on
the Internet is the most attractive new information transmission platform, and also
reflects new cultural consumption patterns.
To sum up, we should recognize the following three ideas. Firstly, historically,
cultures have always been diversified and subcultures exist objectively; Secondly,
subculture is different from mainstream culture, but it does not mean that it would
antagonize mainstream culture; In additional, we should abandon vulgar content in
subculture and guide the healthy development of subculture; In the end, we should
actively absorb the beneficial elements of subculture and enrich the mainstream
culture. All things are changeable, so mainstream culture is not static. Therefore, only
the mainstream culture constantly absorbing the beneficial part, the mainstream
culture can maintain vitality.
3. Implement the spirit of "release, management and service" and stimulate market
vitality
To expand the consumption of Internet culture, the core is to have high-quality
products. While, high-quality products mainly rely on Internet culture enterprises to
create. Therefore, it is a guarantee to create a good environment for Internet culture
enterprises to create high-quality cultural products. It is necessary to implement the
spirit of "release, management and service". That is, the government should
streamline functions and administrations, delegate powers and improve regulations.
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A New Way to Enhance China's Cultural Confidence through Internet Cultural Consumption
Concrete plans are the following four ways. Firstly, the departments should lower
the threshold of market entry, and attract as many online cultural enterprises as
possible to participate in the invention and creation of cultural products. Secondly,
government department should step up mid- and post-project regulation supervision
and reduce administrative approval. Thirdly, officer ought to set a benchmark, so that
they can support and encourage high-quality online cultural programs and products,
and then guide the production and consumption of them. Finally, managers make the
clear bottom line and create a healthy environment for Internet culture consumption.
4. Promoting Internet cultural consumption and making Chinese culture going-out
globally
Internet culture products going-out means to push foreign culture market system
construction, expand the international space of the Chinese culture, promote Chinese
and foreign cultural exchanges and cooperation, thereby giving impetus to the depth
of cultural trade. Especially in the framework of One Belt and One Road, to enhance
the exchange of cultural products and services with countries along the routes. To
promote the "going global" of Chinese culture, country should expand the demand of
Internet cultural consumption from an international perspective and expand the
outward space of the development of cultural industry. In turn, it nurtures and leads
the domestic market, expands the influence on the international market, and enhances
the soft power of Chinese culture.
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http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.10836101.2003.tb00216.x/full
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC]
doi: 10.17349/jmc118211
P-ISSN: 2056-9785
E-ISSN: 2056 9793
http://www.mediacritiques.net
jmc@mediacritiques.net
THE SPIRIT OF DEFIANCE IN MENTORSHIP
AMONGST BLACK MEN AND BOYS
KELLY N. FERGUSON
ABSTRACT
Black male students are disproportionately disciplined in schools, primarily for subjective acts
of defiance. This scholarship explores how defiance is an integral force in the lives of Black
males from boyhood to manhood and how schools can contribute to the development of this
unique expression of resilience. Defiance is a personal and collective set of resistance strategies
to counter the economic, racial and social constraints unique to Black life in American society
and schools. When defiance is channelled constructively, Black males use it to foster productive
academic, social and professional lives, and to counter negative stereotypes. Understanding the
spirit of defiance will aid teachers, schools and communities in minimizing cultural
misunderstandings that lead to punitive and exclusionary disciplinary referrals.
Keywords: Defiance, Discipline, Black Males, Mentorship, Disproportionality.
INTRODUCTION
The overrepresentation of children of color, particularly African Americans, in a
variety of school disciplinary outcomes has been documented for over past 25 years
(Skiba, Michael, Nardo, & Peterson, 2002). Skiba et al. (2011) reported, “Students of
color have been found to be suspended at rates two to three times that of other
students, and similarly overrepresented in office referrals, corporal punishment, and
school expulsion.” The federal Office for Civil Rights (2014) analysis revealed that
while Black students represent only 16% of the student population nationally, they are
32% of suspensions and 42% of students expelled from U.S. public schools. In
comparison, White students are 51% of US public school students, but are
underrepresented in suspensions (31%) and expulsions (40%) relative to their
proportion of the student population.
These disparities are magnified when
considering the intersections of race, gender and school disciplinary patterns.
Research confirms that boys of color are over 4 times as likely as girls to receive
school discipline (Monroe, 2006; Skiba et al., 2002; Skiba, Horner, Chung, Karega
Rausch, May, & Tobin, 2011). A national survey of schools concluded that among
males, Blacks were 3 times more likely than Whites to receive out-of-school
suspensions (Office for Civil Rights, 2014). Intersectionality research has further
Clinical Assistant Professor, Loyola University, Chicago, United States. kferguson@luc.edu
144
The Spirit of Defiance in Mentorship amongst Black Men and Boys
concluded that Black male students are most often disciplined for subjective infractions
such as “defiance,” “disrespect,” and “insubordination,” (Skiba et al., 2011; Fenning &
Rose, 2007; Gregory & Weinstein, 2008; Losen & Martinez, 2013).
Moreover, several theories have been offered in an attempt to explain why these
disparities persist.
Cultural mismatch theories are forwarded as one possible
explanation for Black males’ disproportionality in subjective areas of discipline.
Accordingly, cultural mismatch theories posit that conflict arises when teachers’
cultural backgrounds differ from their students (Milner, 2010). African American pupils
tend to have a distinct cultural orientation based on their African heritage (Monroe,
2006), which are often marginalized in Eurocentric classrooms. Without culturally
sensitivity and responsiveness among educators, too often Black male students’
attitudes, speech, behaviors, referents, and impassioned or emotive interactional
patterns are misconstrued as combative or argumentative (Monroe, 2006; Skiba et al.,
2011).
Another line of research takes a more sociological or systems approach to
understanding the persistent nature of Black male overrepresentation in school
discipline. Mincy (2006) and the National Urban League (2007) assert that a schoolto-prison pipeline is animated by the misapplication of “zero tolerance” policies, which
were designed to eradicate drugs and weapons from schools through harsh
punishments. This approach was designed to make schools safer, but was expanded
creating harsher penalties for all student misbehavior.
The result has been
disproportionate numbers of Black males being pushed out of schools into the prison
industrial complex and economic disenfranchisement (Mincy, 2006). This “school to
prison pipeline” is most concentrated in urban schools among low income, African
American male learners. These two competing lines of inquiry (cultural and structural)
converge in classrooms as teachers and Black male students interact.
Critical Race Theory
Guiding our orientation toward Black males’ educational, social, and professional
development is Critical Race Theory (CRT). CRT has five key tenets to guide research:
(1) the centrality of race and racism, (2) challenge given to the dominant perspective,
(3) commitment to social justice, (4) value placed on experiential knowledge, and (5)
the value of interdisciplinary knowledge and multiple perspectives (Kohli & Solorzano,
2012). Tenets 1 (centrality of race/racism) and 4 (experiential knowledge, voice or
courterstorytelling) are most germane to this research.
Asset-Based Frameworks for Black Male Development
Asset-based frameworks, counter deficit thinking and problem-centered research on
Black males can provide positive and practical insights to support Black male
development. Milner (2010) addressed cultural conflict as that which occurs when
teachers’ cultural background and expectations of classroom behavior differ from
students’ cultural orientations. Milner forwards the idea that many times teachers are
quick to discipline students for behaviors that they see as socially unacceptable before
ever teaching the child what the expectations are. Because behavior norms can differ
greatly from one culture to another, it is vital that teachers take this into account when
educating and disciplining students. Rather than trying to “fix” students and remediate
them to catch up with their “normal” peers through improving test scores, it is
important to recognize the cultural knowledge that students bring to the classroom
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
145
and build upon it through means that allow creativity and critical thinking to occur
(Milner, 2010).
Another asset-based framework to consider is Blackmaleness, which focuses on
how highly educated African American males develop amidst multiple forms of
oppression (James & Lewis, 2014). Despite the educational consequences of limited
social, political and economic opportunity, Black males can navigate systems of
oppression to obtain a measure of academic and career success (James & Lewis,
2014). Blackmaleness is a multidimensional, shifting, and oftentimes contradictory
reality of Black males that consists of two extremes and a void that must be traversed
through contemplation, choice and chance to solidify a truer Black male identity.
Blackmaleness is “theorized as a transgenerational collective force, organized to
contest, defy, resist, and persist despite the presence of social barriers particularly
constructed to make war with the potential of Black males in American society and
education” (James & Lewis, 2014, p. 7). Knowledge of this construct can help
teachers develop and embrace approaches informed by the lived experiences of
successful Black males (James & Lewis, 2014; Lewis, James, Hancock, & Hill-Jackson,
2008).
Blackmaleness conceptually provides a perspective that departs from
dysfunctional ideologies that tether Black male learners to expected mediocrity (James
& Lewis, 2014).
A Spirit of Defiance
I explore Black male students’ “misbehaving” or defiance as an early indicator of
leadership potential rather than a marker of social deviance. For the purposes of this
study, I assert that defiance is a personal and collective set of resistance strategies,
evolved to counter the economic, racial and social constraints unique to Black male life
in U.S. society and schools. The intentional focus on the lived experiences of
successful Black men yields a clearer understanding of the developmental pathways,
processes and educational supports needed to promote maturation among Black male
youth. Defiance for these men began as “misbehaving” in the classroom, but evolved
into a set of essential personal, social and cultural traits which they employ in their
personal and professional lives. In this light, defiance as a framework can inform new
approaches for teachers, schools and communities to support the development of
Black male youth through the cultivation of a spirit of defiance.
Defiance here is conceptualized as a set of resistance strategies, evolved to counter
economic, racial and social constraints unique to Black male life in American society
and schools. When defiance is channeled constructively, Black males use it to foster
productive academic, social and professional lives while countering negative
stereotypes. Defiance often begins as “misbehaving” in classrooms but evolves into a
set of essential personal, social and cultural leadership traits among college educated
Black males.
One guiding research question was addressed in the study: How do successful
Black men develop socially, academically and professionally? The analysis of eight
college educated Black males’ lived experiences provides important insights into why
teachers usually struggle to understand and relate to Black male students.
Intersectionality research as a mode of inquiry has encouraged researchers to
integrate the impact of interlocking systems of oppressions related to race, class and
gender (Simien, 2007).
Increasingly, educational researchers have turned to
146
The Spirit of Defiance in Mentorship amongst Black Men and Boys
intersectionality research to offer fresh perspectives on persistent and unresolved
issues of social justice in education (Davis, Brunn-Bevel & Olive, 2015). Here we
examine how the intersection of race and gender impacts educational and professional
development of African American males in concert with the goal of remediating their
overrepresentation in school disciplinary actions. This led to the development of an
inductive framework entitled a spirit of defiance.
Participants were selected using purposive sampling to ensure that participants had
experience with the phenomenon being studied. Accordingly, participants needed to be
Black males 25 or older who demonstrated success as defined by their (a) educational
attainment (a minimum of an associate’s degree or professional certification), (b)
employment (current working professionals), and (c) leadership-those who provide
service in the community as mentors to Black male youth for a minimum of three
years. The average participant was 34 years old, and all had earned either a
bachelor’s or advanced degree.
Acts of Academic Defiance
Data revealed acts of academic defiance as an emergent theme which described
how participants held a positive academic identity of themselves contrary to the
negative imaging of Black males. Acts of academic defiance allowed Black males
exposed to images of Black male intellectual inferiority to develop positive academic
identities, primarily through culturally responsive educational experiences. Participants
reported experiencing first-hand, through stories from other Black males and various
forms of social media, a daily assault of negative images and stories about Black men.
In their lives, this occurred throughout their schooling experiences to varying degrees
and included insults by everyone from teachers to peers. They recalled terms like
“incompetent,” “unintelligent,” “stupid,” and “lazy” being used about themselves and
other Black males. Despite these challenges, participants demonstrated positive
scholar identities and high intellectual capacity through their high grade point averages
in college, leadership roles within school organizations, their athletic achievements
connected to school-based sports, and their ability to balance all of these
responsibilities. While these acts of academic defiance were individually unique, they
evolved within the context of culturally responsive classrooms.
Participants in this study also identified elements of culturally responsive pedagogy
(CRP) in their interviews and discussed how these experiences were important
throughout their elementary through post-secondary schooling experiences. CRP is
teaching that uses the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and
performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more
relevant and effective for students (Gay, 2013). Participants articulated how they
valued their cultural backgrounds being affirmed through the use of textbooks that
addressed, “real issues,” “local problems” and “the Black Experience.”
Simply being exposed to relevant texts was not enough. Rather, how teachers used
curriculum materials during class-time proved critical for Black males. The participants
described how their teachers who they learned the most from seemed to focus more
on how abstract ideas could be used to solve real-world problems. This practical
application of knowledge heightened both their interest and engagement during
lessons. In turn, they were able to recall abstract facts because “the teachers used
examples that I could related to.” These higher levels of motivation allowed them to
persist when concepts were initially difficult to understand.
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
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Teacher discourse inside and outside of the classroom about relevant issues tied to
the curriculum promoted the development of academic defiance because they
modelled such defiance for their students in how they refused to teach in a manner
that disengaged students. Perhaps the key separator between the effective teachers
described by participants and those deemed less effective was the ability of the
teacher to tailor corrective guidance, content and instruction to the unique need of
Black males. This was only possible when a teacher had deeper insights to Black
males through their relations with the community, parents and students themselves.
While CRP was found to enrich the learning experiences of the Black male participants,
it was found to be an irregular occurrence throughout their schooling. Yet, these
teachers were pillars of defiance precisely because they were able to include relevant
learning experiences amidst years of absent voices and positive images.
Acts of Social Defiance
Acts of social defiance are individual and collective strategies designed to
productively respond to negative images and social experiences common among Black
males. One research subject, Joe, an educator noted that “I constantly reminded
myself that we (Black men) are more than what we see on TV or the news.” Joe
continued by recalling that
as a kid growing up in the city between the gangs, the drugs, the guns, the music,
the poverty and family issues, I had to decide what kind of man I wanted to be. And
that’s without really understanding what that meant, what questions to ask or a quality
example of manhood, until I was fourteen.
This dilemma was particularly pronounced for participants who did not have a
father figure during their elementary years. They reported often examining models of
manhood found in television and movies (e.g., “Cosby Show,” “A Different World,”
“Boys in the Hood”), music and “the streets” to find their ways.
For these men, mentorship found in their communities provided answers and
guidance as they tried to figure a path forward. Joe goes on to describe two pressing
matters that Black young men faced in his community:
…well you had to make some choices. Moms didn’t have a lot of money, so how
are you going to help out? How I am going to get the clothes and shoes I need to go
to school and not be made fun of? I had to hustle, but my mom didn’t want us
involved with drugs. So, me and older brother, we took peoples’ groceries to their
cars, cleaned yards, collected cans and bottles, then gave the money to our mother to
help out. My mom was so strong that she forced us on the right path, until high
school. I don’t think these young brothers are bad even now days, they just don’t
know which direction to go in, then they make a wrong choice.
A general theme among participants was access to a network of supports that
assisted them in successfully navigating the social uncertainty associated with coming
of age as a Black male. For some participants, it was the mentorship received from
trusted individuals, older Black males usually, who provided guidance about traversing
these local community obstacles and how to navigate well in a predominantly White
society. These mentors typically emerged during the middle school years, lived in the
community, worked outside of the school, and helped to clarify the type of character
that defied negative social images of Black males.
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The Spirit of Defiance in Mentorship amongst Black Men and Boys
Also, the role of Black fraternities for four of the participants were particularly
instrumental to their success beginning in college. Participants expressed a sense of
belonging through this brotherhood of men who shared experiences unique to Black
men. This group consisted of individuals who, as participant Byron described, were
like-minded…they are really spiritual, they’re in the church, they love God, like I
love God. They’re passionate about the community. They are successful, African
Americans who are trying to progress, maybe entrepreneurs, whether it’s through the
ranks of moving up through their jobs but they all are like-minded like me.
Organizations like Black fraternities promoted acts of social defiance that countered
negative social stigmas because the focus was on collegiate education, responsible
citizenship, and community service.
Another site of defiance as described by 5 participants was the African American
church. Joe described the impact of his mentor on his development:
When I turned fourteen I met my mentor; he lived in the community and owned a
small business. He was a Christian; I mean he lived it. He gave me a job, which I
worked after school and on the weekend. He introduced me to Godly wisdom. He
wanted to help me know how to treat other people, love other people, how to work
hard in school and on my job, how to treat women, and how to honor my mother. He
became what it meant to be a Godly Black man to me, and he changed my life.
Other participants articulated similar impacts about their involvement in local
churches, which provided them social skills, life lessons, character development, moral
character, opportunities to serve others, and a network of resources to resolve almost
any challenge. Overall, while acts of social defiance are individual, actions they were
born from a network of community support structures that enriched the lives of
successful Black males.
Acts of Professional Defiance
Acts of professional defiance manifested as deliberate practices that participants
engaged in to contest or defy the daily challenges associated with being a Black male
professional. Like in their academic and social spheres, participants described
continuously evolving professionally to meet the daily challenges associated with their
professional lives. Participants shared a plethora of epithets used throughout media
and on their jobs to describe Black men generally in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Unfortunately, these images were also projected upon these college educated
professionals. Joe lamented, “You have to overcome all these stereotypes starting day
one of your job if you hope to be successful; even still you can be great at your job
but it won’t stop the stereotyping.” A shared sentiment among participants as
expressed by Henry was that these images are “controlled by individuals or decision
makers that do not look like us and/or do not have the best intent [for us] even
though they may not vocalize it.” This sample of college educated men in fact believed
themselves to be “productive,” “hard working,” “civic-minded,” “intelligent,” “caring,”
“moral,” and “ambitious” men who added value to the companies they worked for.
But, due to direct patterns of interactions and micro aggressions in their workplaces,
they felt “unappreciated,” “unwanted,” “devalued,” and “overlooked.”
One aspect of participants’ success as professional Black men was attributed to an
awareness of the stereotypes concerning Black males. This awareness equipped
participants with an understanding of how they needed to present themselves to
others and how to respond to perceived mistreatment. Participants also employed
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
149
advice from mentors concerning challenges faced by Black male professionals as well
as suggestions for navigating these barriers. Although participants expressed a positive
professional concept of themselves, they felt the need to take additional steps to
ensure their success. Being positive even in the face of mistreatment, working early
and late, and putting in extra effort and energy were all perceived as necessary
strategies to demonstrate their intellectual and professional capacities to others and to
avoid being stereotyped.
Overall, defiance or determination to define ones own character and potential in
academics, social interactions and professionally was a central experience among
successful Black males. Participants articulated strong, positive conceptions of self and
their various capacities to weather difficult and unsupportive environments. Although
their experiences academically, socially, and professionally didn’t always reflect their
self-image and affirm their worth, participants’ internal drive to succeed and support
networks allowed them to defy society’s expectations of Black men. This success,
however, could not have been achieved without participants’ network of supports
found in their families, mentors, select culturally responsive classrooms, fraternities,
churches and the wider community.
A Developmental Continuum
As noted earlier, I began with this question: How do successful Black men develop
academically, social and professionally? I assert that defiance is a set of resistance
strategies developed to counter economic, racial and social constraints unique to Black
male life in American society and schools. Yet, how speaks to a process of
development.
Among the participants, defiance began as “misbehaving” in
classrooms. By incorporating strategies and insights from support structures, however,
defiance evolved into a set of essential personal, social and cultural leadership traits.
It is important to note that defiance is ever evolving to counter new obstacles, but it
generally manifests in three unique types of defiance at different iterations of
development: defiance of agitation, assimilation, and amelioration that successful Black
males utilized by throughout their lives.
Schools play a critical role in either cultivating or diminishing the spirit of defiance
in Black male youth. Among the participants in this study, few teachers impacted their
long-term development, but those who did where described as practicing what is
commonly termed culturally responsive teaching (Gay, 2013). Unfortunately, most P12 schools are informed by developmental theories that discourage cultivating defiance
in students, particularly among Black males (James & Lewis, 2014). Defiance is
criminalized and penalized leaving far too many students without an essential tool that
could promote their success. A spirit of defiance can become an essential leadership
trait among Black males and should be cultivated rather than penalized and
criminalized in schools.
So, what can schools and teachers do? First, realize that any form of suppressed
defiance can hinder the development of Black male students. Unchecked misbehaving
(agitation), passive conformity (assimilation), or disengagement and disinterest
(amelioration) all constitute a form of under-investment in these students by teachers
and schools, which will ultimately add to preexisting patterns of underdevelopment
and underperformance.
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The Spirit of Defiance in Mentorship amongst Black Men and Boys
In short, regardless of how they express defiance, Black males need structured
attention, awareness and advocacy. Structures within schools (teachers, staff,
administrators, policy, instruction and procedures) must become more attentive and
responsive to student needs. If several data points of school data collection all
converge negatively around attendance, suspensions, and test scores for the majority
of Black male students, systemic action is necessary. Noguera (2003), though,
reported on the unfortunate tendency of ignoring documented needs of Black male
learners. Attending to all of the developmental needs of any group of students is well
beyond the capacity of any teacher. Hence, school-wide systems are required that
provide classroom and community supports.
Yet, before action can be taken schools should seek greater understanding of the
“why” and “how” of defiance among Black male students. The following three
questions can guide teachers or a school to greater awareness of their Black male
students.
1. If agitated males disengage and resist unjust educational experiences and
environments, how might classroom climates, interactions with staff, and
common instructional approaches contribute to their agitation?
2. If assimilators passively confirm and are not deemed behavioral problems, how
could we learn about their unmet academic, social or emotional needs?
3. If “giftedness” is equally distributed across racial and gender groups, how can
we more accurately identify and serve “gifted” Black male students?
Lastly, advocacy is required by both teachers and administrators. This effort must
begin by understanding how success evolves among men of color. The mistake is to
study the problem and only then begin enacting solutions based on that problem. For
example, knowing that Black males are overrepresented in discipline outcomes is not
the starting point for solutions. Programmatic solutions must be informed by the lived
experiences of successful mature Black males (James & Lewis, 2014). Developmental
research (Bonner, 2014; James & Lewis, 2014) provides clear roadmaps for the types
of educational and community support structures that promote academic and
professional success among Black males. Teachers and schools can also start with
men in their schools and communities for a more contextualized plan, but regardless,
mature men of colour should be the center piece of any action plan.
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
151
REFERENCES
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Duncan, G.A. (2002). Beyond love: A critical race ethnography of the schooling of
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Fenning, P., & Rose, J. (2007). Overrepresentation of African American students in
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Gregory, A., & Weinstein, R. S. (2008). The discipline gap and African Americans:
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James, M.C., & Lewis, C. (2014). Kindling the spark of Black male genius through
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microaggressions and the K-12 classroom. Race Ethnicity and Education, 15(4), 441462.
Lewis, C., James, M., Hancock, S., & Hill-Jackson, V. (2008). Framing African
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Losen, D. J., & Martinez, T. E. (2013). Out of school and off track: The overuse of
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Monroe, C. R. (2006). African American boys and the discipline gap: Balancing
educators' uneven hand. Educational Horizons, 84(2) 102-111.
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Noguera, P. (2003). The trouble with Black boys: The role and influence of
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Journal of Media Critiques [JMC]
doi: 10.17349/jmc118212
P-ISSN: 2056-9785
E-ISSN: 2056 9793
http://www.mediacritiques.net
jmc@mediacritiques.net
COMMUNICATION AS ORGANISATION: AN
EXPLORATION OF THE CONSTITUTION CHAMAS IN
KENYA
BEATRICE WAIRIMU NJERU
ABSTRACT
Two out of three Kenyans organize themselves in popular social collectives known as
Chamas. Despite their prevalence, there is scanty literature discussing Chamas, especially from
an organizational communication perspective. Strong literature now explains organisations as
constituted through communication, especially through the meta-theory Communicative
Constitution of Organisation (CCO) and its three Schools of thought. This study presents findings
from four purposively selected Chamas, studied through one of CCOs schools, McPhee and
Zaug’s (2000) Four Flows. The purpose was to explore exactly how communication constitutes
the Chama. Four Flows provided a theoretical framework to analyse and discuss the data. The
study adopted a case study design. The findings are based on twelve Chama meetings observed
over seven months, four focus group discussions, and eight in depth interviews with Chama
leaders. The findings illustrate specific explications of the Four Flows, on exactly how
communication constitutes and strengthens the Chama, despite its non-formal nature.
Keywords: Four Flows, Communicative constitution, Organisation, Intangible social fabric.
INTRODUCTION
Social collectives exist all over Africa and go by various names, for example, Circles
in Uganda, Ikimina in Rwanda, Ikirimba in Burundi, and Tontines in most of
Francophone Africa. In Tanzania and Kenya, they are called Chama, or as they are
informally pluralized in Kenya, Chamas (Chama singular). The Kenya Association of
Investment Groups (KAIG, 2014) defines Chamas as investment groups which are “any
collection of individuals or legal persons in any form whatsoever…whose objective is
pooling together of capital or other resources, with the aim of using the collated
resources for investment purposes.” Tsuruta (2006), who discusses the Chama in the
Tanzanian context, defines it as a concept predating the colonial era, inspired by
existing communal values, which elastically refers to “association, guild, or club for
anything”. A more comprehensive definition presents Chamas as self-help associations
Doctoral Fellow, School of Humanities and Social Sciences Strathmore University, Nairobi- Kenya.
wnjeru@strathmore.edu
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Communication as Organisation: An Exploration of the Constitution Chamas in Kenya
which are non-professional "... formed by community members from the same socioeconomic background with a common problem or situation for the purpose of pooling
resources, gathering information and offering mutual support, services or care”
(Republic of Kenya, 2015).
The idea of a Chama is that people who have a certain social connection come
together and form a collective towards a certain end that benefits the members
socially and or financially. For example, a Chama can be formed for purposes of
members making monthly contributions in order to collectively invest; for visiting each
other’s homes and buying each other gifts on a rotational basis; or even for collective
investment or saving.
The uniqueness of a Chama lies in a number of significant realities. First,
membership can range from people who are related by blood to members who do not
necessarily know each other as they form the Chama. Some Chamas are closed and do
not allow new members, while others are open, and one can be seconded to an
existing Chama by a member of the Chama. In addition, Chama business is carried out
through periodic face to face meetings, and now increasingly, through messaging
applications like WhatsApp. Chamas are not employers of their members but can grow
to employ other people, because members usually have other fulltime engagements.
Kinyanjui (2012) attributes the growth of vyama (formal plural of Chama) to the
failure of the government, non-governmental institutions, and experts to provide
essential social and financial needs. The significant social-financial role of the Chama in
society, especially for the marginalised, is not in doubt (Kioko, Ng’ang’a, & Maina,
2015), but Chamas are now entities for both the rich and the poor in society. Over the
years, they have metamorphosed in sophistication of agenda, and are especially
sought after by financiers like banking institutions in order for them to take up
lucrative loan facilities for their activities.
Herbling (2014), suggests that there are over three hundred thousand registered
Chamas in Kenya, and the number is growing, though there could be many more that
are not formally registered with the government. Waitathu (2013) states that one in
three Kenyans belong to at least one Chama, which means that many Kenyans have
multiple Chama membership. Unfortunately, there are few credible statistics on
Chamas, but a common concern is how to protect the Chama from disintegrating,
given its non-formal nature.
Chamas are forms of organisations, and organisations are communication
constructions (Putnam & Mumby, 2014), yet this potency of communication has not
been explored in the context of Chamas. Secondly, Chamas are not only a societal
reality which can therefore help understand and explain a society more deeply, but
also they present an important lens to illustrate expanded views of organisation and
of communication. This discussion includes how the Chama comes into being and the
creation and recreation processes through communication, based on McPhee and
Zaug’s (2000) Four Flows perspective. This is an organisational communication study.
Literature Review
Organisational Communication (OC) concerns itself with the way “communication
brings organisational life into reality” (Carroll, 2015:34). OC’s pioneering research
largely came from and is still concentrated in North America (Ashcraft, Kuhn, &
Cooren, 2009). Its growth was fuelled by the Industrial Revolution’s communication
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
155
advances like the telegraph and the printing press (Wrench & Punyanunt-Carter,
2012), and the linguistic turn (Alvesson & Deetz, 2006).
For OC scholars, views on organisations are largely influenced by two ontological
assumptions: organisations as systems, and organisations as life world (Kirikova et al.,
2012). The former creates organisations as “…concrete facticities such as aggregations
of actors, physical artefacts (machinery, buildings, technology)…” and the latter views
organisations as created and recreated by individuals through and in social discourse
(p.103). It is this latter view that Organisational communication scholars increasingly
share, the idea of interdependent and multiple goals (Robichaud & Cooren, 2013) for
organising, which are created and realised through processes of communication.
A major shift in the field today therefore, is the role of communication not as that
which takes place in an organisation, but rather, that which creates the organisation.
This view is explained by a meta-theory, the Communicative Constitution of
Organisation (CCO).
There are three CCO schools of thought (Schoeneborn et al., 2014) which currently
drive the thinking on the constitutive power of communication: The Montreal School
(Schoeneborn, 2011), the Four-Flows Model- platformed on Giddens’s Structuration
Theory (McPhee & Zaug, 2000;Putnam & Nicotera, 2009), and Luhmann’s Theory of
Social Systems (Luhmann, 1995). Though each has its distinguishing thesis, these
schools, nonetheless, agree on one radical, fundamental, and increasingly popular
view: of organisation as communication (Koschmann, 2012).
This view means that one can understand complex presentations of organisation
through the lens of communication, by exploring the types of communication that
constitute the organisation. The communication as constitutive view now dominates
Organisational Communication literature (Cobley & Schulz, 2013; Putnam & Nicotera,
2009) and research, and exposes earlier views of the mutual exclusivity of organising
and communication as wanting.
Some of the fundamental arguments CCO scholars make include: the fact that
communication explains social realities, and organisation members negotiate what they
agree as real and certain; a transmission view of communication grossly constrains the
wealth of communication; and finally, that organisation and communication are
mutually constituted in an attributive relationship. In other words, communicative
processes inevitably shape and reshape social structures, which include the identity of
an organisation and the relationship between this identity and internal and external
power (Deetz, 2012; Sindic, Barreto, & Costa-Lopes, 2014).
CCO is increasingly exploring deeper, more dynamic, and complex topics (e.g.
Wright, 2016; Kuhn 2008; Ashcraft, Kuhn, & Cooren; 2009) which raise solid
arguments on the centrality of communication in any form of organising, and
progressively, on disorganising (Kuhn & Burk, 2014; Vásquez, Schoeneborn, & Sergi,
2015), which a focus on what constitutes as also capable of deconstituting.
OC scholarship has largely focused on big formal organisations, which are marked
by formal structures, and have the ‘bottom-line’ as their focus. However, Miller (2015)
discusses a notable shift to nonconventional organisations, which follows a late 19th
and early 20th century expanded definition of the term organisation, to include
“formally constituted medium-sized social systems” (Tsoukas & Knusden, 2005; Scott,
2013). More recently, CCO scholarship has inspired the studying and application of
CCO to and in non-traditional forms of organising or more inclusive organising. For
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Communication as Organisation: An Exploration of the Constitution Chamas in Kenya
example, the communicative constitution of clandestine organisations which include
terrorist groups or hidden organisations ( Stohl & Stohl, 2011;Bean & Buikema, 2015),
the identity of political parties (Chaput, Brummans, & Cooren, 2011), spiritual
organisations (Brummans, Hwang, & Cheong, 2013), homelessness (Novak, 2016),
and partially hidden organisations (Jensen & Meisenbach, 2015). Chamas find their
description as organisations in these accommodating views on organisation.
Four Flows
McPhee and Zaug’s (2000) Four Flows (FF) model has been termed as the most
inclusive approach which illustrates constitution of organisation through
communication (Haslett, 2012). It is influenced by Weick’s (1979) thoughts, explored
further by Gartner & Brush (2016), on focusing on the process of organising rather
than viewing an organisation as a static entity. This, they suggest, is through a
combination of sense making processes and actions. In this view, organization is seen
as activity and processual rather than a static entity. FF is based on Giddens' (1984)
structuration theory, which is synonymous with human actors.
McPhee and Zaug (2000) present organisation as constituted through: membership
negotiation; organisational self-structuring; activity coordination; and institutional
positioning in the social order; which are different yet interactive episodes of
circulating messages. The FF orientation acknowledges other forms of constituting
organisation for example through culture or through conversation (Cooren, 2014), but
argues that organisation occurs in a variety of ways owing to the varied
communicative forms which constitutes it.
FF contends that the flows link the
organisation to its members, itself, and its environment through interdependent
activity. Of the three schools of thought, FF is the stronger advocate of human agency
, and in fact admits that agency is impossible for machines (Schoeneborn et al., 2014).
Some of criticism of the Four Flows cite its lack of clarity on exactly how the Four
Flows work, and its failure to give attention to non-human actants, as well as to clarify
the constitution process (Girginova, 2013). Critics of CCO in general also cite a scarcity
of empirical research. These are important gaps, some which this study responds to,
especially in the Chama context. Nevertheless, Bean & Buikema (2015) insist that the
Flows are helpful in identifying phenomena that contribute to the existence of an
organization and which can deconstruct organisation.
Methods
As limited information exists on Chamas, a qualitative approach was deemed the
most appropriate. Chamas also tend to be private, and only relate with non-members
about Chama business as a necessity. By observing four purposively selectively
Chamas, I used the multiple case study design (Creswell, Hanson, Plano, and Morales,
2007) for purposes of drawing comparisons and enriching conclusions. Stake (2013)
adds that multiple case studies are not only interested in the case, but also in what
surrounds the case.
The Chamas were selected based mainly on gender traits and they had to have
existed for at least five years. This is because Chamas were previously thought of as
female entities, and there is an informal reputation of the difficulty of sustaining a
Chama in the formative years. For purposes of confidentiality, the Chamas will be
aliased in the discussion by initials developed from their real names. CH001 is an all-
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
157
male Chama, CH003 is a mixed gender Chama, CH004 is an all-female Chama, and
CH002 is a mixed gender Chama.
The data presented here is based on observations from twelve attended Chama
meetings, two in depth interviews (IDIs) with the leaders of each Chama, four focus
group discussions (FGDs) with select members, and documents in the form of minutes
of meetings and Chama constitutions from the three Chamas, as one Chama, CH001,
did not have a written constitution. The findings are also based on notes and
reflections recorded on a personal reflective blog, which are cited.
General information on the Chamas
The four Chamas hold monthly face to face meetings without fail for two and a half
to three hours. Meetings are held on one agreed day, unless there is an interruption,
for example, if the date falls on a Sunday or on a public holiday. Despite the once-amonth meetings, Chama business goes on away from the physical meetings because
each Chama has a WhatsApp group, and there are decisions and activities which
require members’ presence or representation, between meetings. CH004 and CH001
hold their monthly meetings in specific hotels where room is reserved for them, while
CH002 and CH003 hold their meetings in members’ homes on rotational basis.
Each of the Chamas has a unique story on its inception. CH004 is a group made up
of fourteen trained primary school teachers who once taught in the same school. The
school was struggling with academic performance and they were sent from the
ministry of Education on a clear mission to transform it. They decided to form the
Chama to avoid losing touch with each other, in case they left the school.
CH003 is a mixed gender Chama made up of 24 members, who all used to be
neighbors living in and around one of the capital city’s estates. They decided to start
the Chama that would make their friendship last beyond their being neighbors. They
all grew up in the same neighborhood, even though some of them had moved to
different parts of the city, mainly because of their work demands.
CH002 began from a funeral planning committee. Not all the members knew each
other, but they knew the deceased, whose funeral they were helping to plan, among
other friends and relatives. They then decided to form a Chama whose main concern
was welfare. Given that they all came from the same village and were now living in the
city, they decided to form a Chama where they would look out for each other and be
there for each other, away from home.
CH001 started off as a group of friends who used to meet regularly “just to catch
up.” They eventually decided to add a monetary contribution to each meeting and
discovered it would translate to more money for them if they did it regularly and if
they brought more friends on board. So, they each recruited 2 of their closest friends
and began the Chama.
Each of these Chamas began on a friendship basis and metamorphosed into a deep
adopted family orientation and organized investment. They all own investments of
various magnitudes but hold their initial vision of being friends and family close,
despite the financial successes they spoke to me about. This very objective points to a
very clear need to understand how communication puts together these Chamas.
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Results and discussion
As with any qualitative study, this study generated a lot of data, especially because
it was part of a larger study. The choice of reporting for this paper was therefore
through creating a narrative based on data and limiting direct quotations. Zhang and
Wildemuth's (2009) discussion on qualitative content analysis, guided this process. The
first process was to transcribe the interviews and the videos, and transfer notes and
reflections to editable Word documents. The data was then cleaned to ensure that the
transcriptions were accurate. The cleaning process also included removal of filler words
that were not deemed meaningful.
I then developed a categorisation matrix (Elo & Kyngäs, 2007) which involved
categorising the data for each case under the four flows or four themes in the matrix.
In addition to these major themes that were coming through during the study, I
developed further subthemes to explain exactly how the four flows constitute the
Chama.
Membership negotiation
McPhee (2015) describes membership negotiation as that which includes a wide
range of communications that let the members’ status in, or relation to, the
organization emerge. New members require information and get direction from formal
authorities, other members and ongoing negotiation occurs for all members, new or
old, low-level or top-level.
This implies that membership negotiation happens especially at member entry
level, during socialization of newcomers through various orientation or induction
processes like storytelling and instruction (Putnam & Mumby, 2014), or even through
efforts initiated by the member through various information seeking tactics (Miller &
Barbour, 2015).
This study established that membership negotiation is an ongoing process that not
only confirms members at entry, but also reconfirms organisational membership. Even
though literature emphasizes membership negotiation more at an entry level, Chamas
seemed to negotiate membership at a continuity ontology. Members did things every
day because of, and in prove of, their membership in the Chama. Membership
negotiation for Chamas is actionable commitment. It was not enough to be a
‘registered’ member of the Chama. The CH004 chair intimated:
“You see we are sisters. Even when are not meeting, there are still things that we
are doing because we are Chama members… We volunteer to do these things and
represent the rest.”
I found that Chamas negotiated their membership in three ways:
initial
stratification, communicative vulnerability, and through consequence consciousness.
Initial stratification refers to the beginnings of a Chama, and how these beginnings
work on Chama growth as part of membership negotiation. During the FGDs all the
Chamas’ members discussed an initial “coming together”. Often times, the reasons for
coming together were social circumstances, which bred a desire to formalize the
relationship of founder members, while keeping the social relationship intact. For
example, CH002 began from a funeral committee, as the secretary notes:
“The Chama began out of necessity. It is purely welfare. What was discovered [by
the founding members] was that members from community X–, had issues in the city
such as weddings, births, sicknesses, deaths etc. These issues needed finances to deal
with. It therefore made sense that the people, who had informally met as a funeral
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committee, could form this group and thus meet officially to discuss and forge ways
forward on the issues that affected them. The distinction came about when the
objectives and goals of the Chama were laid down to make clear of the formality
bringing in the idea of commitment, responsibility, and accountability. It then ceased
to be just a social, but now a meeting with a purpose. All the meetings became
structured and regular so that they did not happen only when there was a need.”
As with CH002, TA, CH003 and CH004 had a social or cultural trigger to their
beginning. The founder members described this trigger as having taken place during a
discussion or a random meeting at an event, and where the members decided that
there was need to “to pursue” or explore the trigger further. For CH001, it was a need
to bring into the childhood friendship financial muscle, in order for the friends to
succeed together. For CH003, it was the need to keep the friendship and the
neighbourliness going, for CH004 it was about keeping the reputation of being the
dream team and friendship going, and for CH002 it was about taking care of each
other’s welfare in the city, while they were away from their homes in the country side.
Each of these social economic triggers attracted a certain membership and was in itself
a way of stratifying who could join the Chama.
After this initial trigger, the FGDs revealed that there was a certain ‘fit’ required for
one to be a member. Pioneering members decided on this fit, and later, like-minded
members were seconded to join the original members. CH001’s pioneering members
for example, sought to include two of their closest friends each, while CH002 insisted
that one had to come from their village and speak their mother tongue. These
prequalification’s were so stringent that if a potential member failed to meet the set
minimum qualities that the pioneering members were looking for, their chances of
joining the Chama were reduced drastically, or altogether impossible.
This was further emphasised by the CH001 chair who stated:
“…You need people you can work with and understand each other with.”
The chair of CH002 also noted:
“...speaking the language and coming from the same village with us is not a
guarantee we will accept you. You have to ‘fit’ (gestures with arms and fingers
stretched out to demonstrate a fit)… You have to fit with the words and behavior
…you know…”
The FGDs revealed an informal orientation process for new members, which took
place mainly through listening to conversations and discussions during meetings,
asking questions, seeking clarifications, and reading the constitution and bylaws. None
of the Chamas had explicit specific measures they put in place to ensure that the latter
were read, but content was repetitively discussed and revised during meetings, as
Chama decisions are guided by the laws they set, whether written or spoken. CH004,
CH002, and CH003 had their membership eligibility criteria expressly stated in their
constitutions while CH001 worked with the verbal agreements which the pioneering
members made on membership.
Communicative vulnerability is defined here as the sum of meaningful conversations
and nonverbal behavior that exposes an individual to the Chama, and which would
render the person uncomfortable if the same, or certain aspects of the individual, were
to be exposed to people outside of the Chama. This vulnerability allowed members to
negotiate their membership on equal levels as noted from the CH004 FGD:
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Communication as Organisation: An Exploration of the Constitution Chamas in Kenya
“We are all equal, because we go through similar challenges which we feel safe to
talk about.” 1st respondent.
“I am free to say that I know these ladies. We visit each other and we discuss
anything together. We are sisters and there is no shame.” 2nd respondent.
Vulnerability allowed members to let their guard down. They openly discussed
personal challenges around their lives. In one CH002 meeting, I picked a discussion
where the members had contributed money to help a member’s child who had been
sent home because of school fees balances. The member had been having various
financial challenges because of wider extended family financial obligations, and owed
money to some members. Making a situation like that public, according to the CH002
secretary, made the member vulnerable but it was expected, as it constituted the
member revealing their status and the others would see how to help. In a CH003
meeting, I learnt of a couple member who had just been through a messy divorce.
During one of the meetings, the ex-wife was absent and the members sarcastically and
between laughter asked the ex-husband to account for her absence:
“…because you still have not forgotten her ways.”
He responded that these days he could not tell and that he had moved on.
In one of the reflections after this incidence visit, I noted:
Chamas are accounts. People make deposits and withdrawals. They make all sorts
of deposits [self-giving, financial, mental]. It cannot be about what they do. It’s
what/who they are. It’s who they are together… (Njeru, 2017)
For the four Chamas, vulnerability affirmed and reaffirmed membership, because in
addition to the fact that members felt they knew each other, their private lives
contributed to content of discussions, which deepened knowledge of each other and
enriched Chama discussions. CH002 had a particularly elaborate session during
meetings set aside for “welfare.” So serious were welfare sessions that each member’s
welfare was recorded in the minutes. During the IDI, the chairman defined as:
“A formal session and one of the most important parts of the meeting which entails
a member speaking about themselves...about their welfare. We ask each other, how is
your welfare, how is so and so’s welfare…that means you cannot just say fine. You
give details….tell us about your children, your spouse …details.”
From all Chamas’ FGDs, communicative vulnerability entailed not just making
oneself vulnerable, but also being the recipient of others’ vulnerability. The groups,
however, acknowledged that people have different levels of comfort in terms of what
they could discuss in public, but there was a minimum expectation required of
members. Communicative vulnerability, was a factor of time, trust, and a sense of
equity in the exchanges. The group had willingly grown to this level of membership
over time.
Consequence consciousness refers to communicative behavior that affirms the
membership of an individual because of an awareness of a certain consequence. The
consequence may be in the constitution, but it may also be verbal, psychological, or
agreed on as a meeting progresses.
Chamas, I noted, held together through their own membership cleansing
mechanisms, through both written and unwritten rules of behavior.
Even though there were internal ways of expunging clearly errant members as a
last resort, there were also constant negotiations and mechanisms to prevent this
eventuality. There were, for example, direct and indirect reminders for members to
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adhere to agreements. Pluralisation of address was a common affair in all four Chamas
during meetings:
“There are people here…” or “let us stop”
This appeared to address more than one person, whereas, in fact, an individual
triggered it. Occasionally, a specific member was mentioned for example as having
defaulted in a payment. There were also Chama public records, which the other
members had access to, and as one of the members in CH003 mentioned during the
focus group meeting:
“…it is not nice when people see all the time that you are the one defaulting …you
are the one not meeting deadlines…you are the one making the group lag behind.”
Another member interrupted…
“..true, it is not a good feeling…it embarrasses one also…in addition, if you are up
to date with all your payments, you are confident enough to support the treasurer and
chairman to demand that others comply.”
The members were conscious of negative consequences, in this case
embarrassment and a telling off from others, for letting the group down. However,
there was also reward: a deep sense of satisfaction and pride, as well as an
opportunity to show support for the cause of the group.
At the time of the first meeting with CH001, they were considering reinstating
monetary fines that members pay when late for meetings, and when they default on a
certain payment or when they abscond a meeting. CH003 and CH004 already had
these fines in place. The idea, according to the CH001 secretary, is a punitive fineKsh.1000-1500- but one that would make one think twice on meetings, because
attending meetings was part of what defined you as a member of the Chama:
“…and when you cannot prioritise this(Chama), even though you tell us that you
are with us in spirit, non-attendance of members is one way of breaking the Chama.
So people need to continually be reminded…we had them earlier and they used to
work.”
There was another aspect of consequence consciousness that went beyond
financial accountability. CH004, for example, did not allow members to discuss matters
that were discussed in a meeting with a member who was absent in the meeting. They
argued that this weeded out gossip and grapevine and attributed the strength of their
Chama to this formality of communication expected of members.
Reflexive Self Structuring
Reflexive self-restructuring in literature refers to managerial activities and to what
rules the organisation operates by, which are “interactions that steer the organization
in a particular direction” (Putnam & Nicotera, 2009:10) held by organisational role
holders. Chamas do this in three main ways: initial self-structuring, oral self-structuring
and self-structuring through leadership.
Initial Self-structuring provided order at the beginning. It ensured that Chamas did
what they were supposed to do and, in this way,, weaved the Chama from within,
through established means, to give them a certain identity and ensure that they
accomplished what they needed to.
Self-structuring in the Chamas worked for one major reason: because Chamas were
largely social and made up of growing friendships, it was necessary that these
formalities work to formalize the goings on of the Chama within the Chama itself, so
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Communication as Organisation: An Exploration of the Constitution Chamas in Kenya
that the tendency towards informality and desultory engagement was drastically
reduced.
To do this, all Chamas had initial rules of engagement, with clear objectives and
goals that they needed to set and work towards achieving. Another way was through
regularising the frequency of meetings and ensuring commitment to these meetings
and other Chama activities. CH002 and CH004 had asked members to learn what went
on in other Chamas and borrowed constitutions, which they then adapted to suit them.
CH003 developed their own constitution while CH001 decided to work without one.
Chamas amended borrowed constitutions with time or created sections or bylaws
to explain the constitution as the Chama matured, and established the need for
consistency in thought. They all also took the choice to record proceedings of
meetings. The CH001 secretary said that minutes were invaluable for Chama as they
acted as records:
“A written down document, as you know always helps one to see decisions that
were made and the trajectory of discussion, and we need that.”
Self-structuring was important, for example, when during meetings, as noted in all
four Chamas discussions took a different trajectory from the main business of the day.
But the fact that there were minutes to write, the secretaries would get back and ask
“what shall we minute…?” The presence of documentation like minutes gave the
meeting a formal narrative and structure.
Chamas also had established elected officials. In the beginning they had interim
officials before their constitutions set in, but the groups spoke of periodic elections.
The CH002 secretary during the IDI mentioned that “setting goals and objectives
brought commitment, responsibility, and accountability,” to their Chama, and did not
take away the friendship, but rather, “caused the friendship to facilitate a formal
engagement for the mutual benefit of the Chama members.”
The Four Chamas sought government registration motivated by the need to invest
collectively. The initial self-structuring therefore included giving the group a name,
discussing the meaning of the name, and laying down a very broad vision of what they
wanted to achieve. The CH004 treasurer during the IDI mentioned that at the very
beginning they were driven by “big dreams. Bigger than all of us…dreams to build a
school …just dreams and aiming very high.” These dreams guided their engagements
after the initial self-structuring.
Oral self-structuring means that Chamas still operate in a highly oral space, despite
the effort by all four Chamas to formalize the Chamas through various written
presentations. There is a covert understanding that organisations self-structure
through formal written communication. During Chama meetings, I heard oral
agreements and discussions which often took precedence over what was written. In
the CH003 meeting for example, during a discussion on monthly contributions, a
member reminded the Chair:
“Yes, the constitution says so, but remember we agreed that it depends on one’s
circumstances and we can discuss that.”
The oral reinforced the written through verbal explications. The oral ratified the
written. The ‘spirit’ of discussion rather than the letter of it, was often favored, all
within the prevailing context. The oral structured the Chama from within by way of
reminder, especially during meetings, of the mission or purpose of the Chama, and of
their collective identity. The oral advocated for leeway and grace, over and above the
statement of the constitution, when there was need.
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Another aspect of oral self-structuring stemmed from Chama members’ experiences
with other Chamas or with Chama members who had left. The leadership picked up
valuable guiding lessons which they verbally repeated or offered during Chama
engagements. These lessons were not written but rather verbally repeated, to remind
the members of the value of remaining united as a Chama.
Finally, all Chamas in the study had formalised their rules of engagement through
democratically elected office bearers. The common positions were the Chair, the
secretary, the treasurer and their vices. In bigger Chamas like CH003, there was a
chief whip, while CH001 had 2 co-opted members in the committee. This team bore
leadership responsibility of steering the Chama and they sacrificed the most, according
to the in-depth interviews, because they wanted the Chamas to succeed under their
leadership. Every Chama had a different term of office as stipulated in their
constitution or as agreed. Leaders could, however, withdraw from roles in writing,
under various circumstances, though this rarely happened. There was an interesting
trend of Chairpersons being re-elected beyond the stipulated terms, especially because
for the Chamas, the chairs had steered the teams successfully over the years. The
CH001 and CH004 chairs had held leadership since the inception of the Chamas.
Members revealed in the FGDs that given the Chamas had excelled in their leadership,
they saw no need to change them.
Activity Coordination
McPhee and Zaug’s (2000) third flow is activity coordination, which they describe as
focusing “…directly on connecting and shaping work processes.” Chamas present a
unique scenario because even though they did not meet physically every day to ensure
that they conducted activities, a tremendous amount of work went on between
scheduled physical meetings. Chamas hold collective projects which need coordination. The leaders during the IDI intimated the diverse nature of these projects
and how they coordinated their work.
“We have committees in the Chama and we give each other responsibilities. For
example, we run a small deposit taking SACCO. We have employees who run it
directly, but we also have two Chama members who are our link to the SACCO and
report to us what is going on in the SACCO and seek our advice on whatever decisions
they need to make.” CH001 Chair…”
“…We have a passion for girls in our community. One of our greatest challenges in
this community is early pregnancy and as teachers, we work on ways of running
guidance and counselling services for affected girls and preventing early pregnancies.”
CH004 Chair.
“…we love to farm. We are now getting into large scale chilli farming and have
appointed two people in the Chama WHO run with it…they scout for land, advice on
seeds, management of the farm, and then come and tell us to go and see what we
have achieved.” CH003 chief whip.
“…in a given week there may be many things to do or just a few. Last year we lost
the parent of a member and the mourning period took two weeks. Our ladies in the
Chama were the ones helping in the evenings. They cooked and cleaned and
welcomed people, as the men planned the funeral and organised a fundraising.”
CH002 chair.
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Communication as Organisation: An Exploration of the Constitution Chamas in Kenya
Activities in Chamas are coordinated in two main ways. To begin with was through
leadership interventions. All Chamas in the study had formalised their rules of
engagement through democratically elected office bearers. Each Chama had a
different term of office for leaders as stipulated in their constitution or as orally
agreed. Leaders played a crucial role in motivating members to voluntarily take on
tasks, take a certain direction key decision as well as take on some activities for the
Chama.
To complement the leaders, the members in the FGDs admitted that the Chama
activities were successful or not depending on the leaders.
“If you get a leader who is development minded, he will motivate you towards
thinking of development related projects.” CH001 member.
The Chamas relied heavily on the skills of leaders and their ability to keep the
Chama together. Part of the role that leaders played was motivating their members
through impromptu speeches on unity and collective success. A mantra that the
CH003 Chairman constantly used in the three meetings was “Chama ikigrow ni si wote
tunagrow’ (when the Chama prospers we all prosper). This is a philosophy that I heard
in all Chamas, albeit presented differently.
Chama activities failed or succeeded mainly because of members’ self-giving.
Chamas demanded time, money and commitment. CH001 no longer gives a monthly
monetary contribution because their investments generate enough money for the
group. The other Chamas, however, must keep up with monthly contributions for
various Chama activities. The treasurers are tasked with the responsibility of managing
this money and ensuring the books of the Chama are up to date.
For members not in leadership, Chama activities demanded for extended periods of
work over and above the professional and familial commitment of the members, and
only self-giving would ensure that activities were done.
Finally, activities were coordinated through brotherly accountability. This meant
that the members had grown to trust each other to faithfully use the resources of the
Chama effectively… As pointed out by two members in CH003 and CH001 during the
FGDs:
(CH003 member) “… Let me tell you, if you can see how your money is being used,
you believe the Chama is good. I was in a Chama where money was misappropriated.
The case is still with the police…so I would say that money is good but trust is
fundamental.”
(CH001) “We have built this relationship over time and we trust each other. We
especially see how the monies we put together are useful to us over time. We have a
very good treasurer who sends us each our individual updated accounts…”
Chamas control varying amounts of money, and given their structure, trust and
confidence in the Chama is especially fundamental, to keep the Chama together.
Chama activities also require investments in time and it is expected that the members
will equally offer to put in time for Chama activities.
Institutional Positioning
McPhee and Zaug (2009) describe institutional positioning as the flow that positions
organisations relative to others or to the environment. They argue that this flow
legitimizes the organisation. Positioning in literature is about visibility and proof of
existence with “suppliers, customers, competitors, government regulators, and
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partners” (p.11). It is about creating a public identity or a name for the organisation in
a wider social context. So how do Chamas do this?
Chamas are partially private organisations. They have a public identity but only in
so far as that public identity does not compromise, especially their financial and
internal personal affairs. Whilst literature largely looks at institutional positioning
relative to other organisations, I expanded the scope of positioning to society,
especially the immediate society that the Chama is located in.
The Chamas are cautious with external relations and relate with institutions only if
they are seen to be helpful, especially financially, where Chamas can access subsidized
loan facilities. With the exception of CH002, the Chamas under study were not looking
to invite more Chama members. They were not necessarily trying to appear attractive
to potential members, but rather to themselves, for their own internal confidence, and
for purposes of legitimation by bigger organisations, especially financial institutions,
again for their own development. Institutional positioning also entailed the Chama
seeking relationships that made meeting Chama objectives easier and achievable,
conveniently.
Sometimes Chamas were exposed to political figures directly or indirectly: direct
exposure for example was when the leadership or a member of the Chama had a
relationship with a certain politician, and the the Chama became a political ground for
campaign. CH004 and CH003 confessed to having political relationships because
“…you never know when these politicians could be of help to us”, as a CH003
member argued.
There were also ‘friends of the Chama’, courtesy of certain members who had
external relations, which would be of benefit to the Chamas. If the Chama needed
specific help in a certain venture and a member of the Chama had a relationship with
an institution that would offer this help, often times at no charge, this positioned the
Chama in a legitimate external relationship.
For CH004, the members were passionate about the education of Girls in their local
community. They, therefore, had an ongoing relationship with several schools and
offered talks in these schools. While many of them were teachers, the relationships
they had with senior education officials in the county facilitated their social
responsibility mission. Because of these relationships, CH004 had been asked to give a
talk to upcoming Chamas by their bank branch but were also looking to reap from this
personal relationship from their bank, by acquiring a loan at a highly negotiated
interest rate.
Conclusions
Viewing Chamas as communicatively constituted organisations legitimises their
reality and brings to the fore that despite their being non-formal organisations, they
have potent communication types that create and recreate them. The Four Flows as
applied in the Chamas indicate interesting deviations from what is widely discussed in
literature.
Chamas are formed largely because of a socioeconomic trigger. Membership
negotiation entails communication activities which members must engage in
throughout the life of the Chama in order to prove their membership. Self-structuring
is an internal communication process which comprises of weaving the Chama from
within, in order to run as a formal engagement structure, despite the non-formal
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relations of members. The unique aspect here is that this can be an oral process.
Activity coordination in Chamas works through communication that builds the trust and
confidence of Chama members in the Chama itself, through what they do. Finally,
Chamas, though closed to non-members, work to create relationships with only other
organisations that are deemed as directly beneficial to them or which stand to benefit
from the Chama.
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Journal of Media Critiques [JMC]
doi: 10.17349/jmc118213
P-ISSN: 2056-9785
E-ISSN: 2056 9793
http://www.mediacritiques.net
jmc@mediacritiques.net
THE IMAGE OF UNITED ARAB EMIRATES CULTURE
AMONG THE NON-ARAB EXPATRIATES IN THE UAE
KHALED GAWEESH*
ANFAL AL HAID**
ABSTRACT
The main goal of the research is to explore the image of UAE culture among the non-Arab
expatriates who live and work in UAE. A structured survey has been developed to measure the
variables and answer the research questions. A convenient sample of 121 non-Arab expatriates
has been interviewed. 18 Likert scale statements have been developed to measure the image of
UAE culture according to Hofstede’s dimensions. According to the responses of the participants,
we may conclude that UAE culture is perceived as high in the Power Distance Index PDI. The nonArab expatriates strongly perceive that the UAE culture is collective. “Masculinity” of UAE society
is a stereotype more than an image among non-Arab expatriates. The respondents perceive
Emiratis as they have a high preference for avoiding uncertainty; and that UAE has a long-term
orientation. The respondents tend to see the UAE society as allowing people to freely enjoy life
and have fun. The majority of the respondents agreed that adjusting to UAE culture is easy. The
information gained about UAE culture has been obtained from different sources as suggested by
Information Integration Theory. In general, age, education, nationality, Emirate of residence, and
“number of working years in UAE” have created some differences among varied groups of
respondents in all Hofstede’s dimensions. It seems that the most influential demographic is the
number of working years in UAE which makes sense as the variance of living experience in UAE
causes a variance in the answers of respondents. The only demographic characteristic that did not
have any correlations with any of the dimensions is the marital status. In conclusion, we confirm
that there is a significant correlation between the demographic variables (except marital status)
and the image non-Arab expatriate have about the UAE culture.
Keywords: Image, Culture, United Arab Emirates, Non-Arab, Expatriates.
INTRODUCTION
According to the UAE Federal Competitiveness & Statistics Authority, the UAE
population reached 9.121.167 by the end of 2016. According to the United Arab Emirates
Yearbook 2013, the UAE citizens represent 11.4% of the total population. If we assume
the persistence of this percentage, the number of UAE citizens would reach almost 1
*
Assistant Dean, College of Communication, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, UAE. kgaweesh@sharjah.ac.ae
Master Student, College of Communication, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, UAE. a-alhaid@hotmail.com
**
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The Image of United Arab Emirates Culture Among the Non-Arab Expatriates in the UAE
million. The expatriates in UAE account for 89.6%, with more than 119 nationalities from
all over the world. The Asian expatriates (from all Asian countries) represent 70.4% of
the total UAE population; the Indians alone represent 28.5% and Pakistanis 13% of the
total population. The Arab expatriates represent 17.4%, while all other nationalities
represent less than 1% of the total population. The Arab expatriates have been excluded
by the researchers as they have very similar culture to that of UAE. This research focused
only on the non-Arab expatriates as they are coming from different cultures.
The main goal of the research is to explore the image of UAE culture among the nonArab expatriates, Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory and information integration
theory guided the development of the research questions and the discussion of the
research results. Another concern is to explore the variables that may influence the
image built by non-Arab expatriates.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
This research used Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory (1980) and the Information
Integration Theory that was developed by Norman Anderson (1981) as a theoretical
framework.
Hofstede (1980) developed his original model as a result of using factor analysis to
examine the results of a worldwide survey of employee values by IBM in the 1960s and
1970s. The theory was one of the first that could be quantified and could be used to
explain observed differences between cultures. The original theory proposed four
dimensions along which cultural values could be analyzed; later on, an independent
research in Hong Kong led Hofstede to add a fifth dimension to cover aspects of values
not discussed in the original paradigm. In 2010, Hofstede added a sixth dimension.
These dimensions will be the guideline for the research questions that will be applied in
the questionnaire.
The first dimension is the Power Distance Index PDI. It describes how culture deals
with inequalities. Hofstede (1980, p.83 & 2001) defines power distance as “the extent
to which less powerful members of a society accept and expect that power is distributed
unequally.” The social hierarchy is obvious in large power distance cultures where
everyone has his/her assumed position along this hierarchy. It means, the more
hierarchical a society the larger the power distance. In contrast, small power distance
cultures tend to emphasize equality in rights and opportunity in society. People in those
cultures; prefer democratic processes and decentralized management structure, they
see superiors as being similar to them and accessible. The second dimension is
Individualism versus Collectivism IDV. It refers to how people define themselves and
their relationships with others. According to Hofstede (2001), individualism is defined as
a preference for a loosely knit social structure in which individuals take care of
themselves and their immediate families. In short, individualism is the societal
predilection for independence. Masculinity versus Femininity MAS is the third dimension.
It is defined as the distribution of emotional roles between genders, and deals with the
characteristics of one gender role are favored culturally, relative to the characteristics of
the other gender role. Masculine cultures' values are competitiveness, assertiveness,
materialism, ambition and power, whereas feminine cultures place more value on
relationships and quality of life. Uncertainty Avoidance Index UAI, which is the fourth
dimension, is defined as “society's tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity, and the
extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by uncertain or unknown
situations and try to avoid these situations.” Hofstede also indicated that in cultures with
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
173
strong uncertainty avoidance, people have a higher level of anxiety, stress and tension.
In contrast, low uncertainty avoidance cultures accept and feel comfortable in
unstructured situations or changeable environments and try to have as few rules as
possible.
The fifth dimension, which has been added later in 1991, is Long-term Orientation
versus Short Term Orientation LTO, initially called Confucian dynamism. It is defined as
the extent to which a society exhibits a pragmatic future-oriented perspective rather
than a conventional or short-term point of view. According to the Chinese Value Survey
(Hofstede & Bond, 1988), people with a higher score in long-term orientation cultures
tend to have more persistence, perseverance, thrift and a strong sense of shame as well
as ordered relationships. Conversely, people with a lower score tend to spend more to
keep up with social pressure, have fewer saving, and have a preference for quick results.
The sixth dimension, Indulgence vs. restraint IND: This dimension is essentially a
measure of happiness; whether or not simple joys are fulfilled. Indulgence is defined as
“a society that allows relatively free gratification of basic and natural human desires
related to enjoying life and having fun.” Its counterpart is defined as “a society that
controls gratification of needs and regulates it by means of strict social norms.” Indulgent
societies believe themselves to be in control of their own life and emotions; restrained
societies believe other factors dictate their life and emotions.
It is very important to note that Hofstede paradigm has not been used in this research
to observe the UAE culture itself but to guide the measurement of the perception of this
culture by the non-Arab expatriates.
On the other hand, the Information Integration Theory, which was developed by
Norman Anderson, explores how attitudes are formed and changed through the
integration (mixing, combining) of new information with existing cognitions or thoughts.
Information integration theory considers the ideas in a persuasive message to be pieces
of information, and each relevant piece of information has two qualities: value and
weight. The value of a bit of information is its evaluation (favorable or unfavorable) and
the weight is the information’s perceived importance.
Information Integration Theory states that when we obtain new information (often
from persuasive messages), those new pieces of information will affect our attitudes.
They won’t replace our existing attitudes but when we learn new positive information,
negative attitudes tend to become less negative and attitudes that are positive are likely
to become somewhat more positive. Therefore, new information is mixed, combined, or
integrated with existing information to create a new attitude.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Culture may be defined as “the shared knowledge and schemes created by a set of
people for perceiving, interpreting, expressing and responding to the social realities
around them” (Lederach, 1995).
Culture is most commonly known as “the set of attitudes, values, beliefs, and
behaviors shared by a group of people, but different for each individual, communicated
from one generation to the next” (Matsumoto, 1996). Hofstede states (1994) that
"culture is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of
one category of people from another". His cultural dimensions theory puts his definition
into a structured model that can be applied on every country to define its culture
compared to other cultures in this world.
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The Image of United Arab Emirates Culture Among the Non-Arab Expatriates in the UAE
The literature on culture and adaptation has mainly focused on cross-cultural
differences influenced by the work of Hofstede (1991/1994) and Schwartz (1999). Most
studies focus the attention on social behavior. For example, Fletcher and Fang (2006)
suggest that in order to study culture and social behavior, two basic approaches may be
used; etic approach (culture-general) and emic approach (culture-specific). The etic
approach is focused on identifying universal dimensions that bring about cultural
differences and is usually qualitative and uses large scale surveys. The emic approach
uses a series of case studies and tends to be qualitative and finds that “attitudes and
behaviors are expressed in a unique way in each culture” (Chan and Rossiter, 2003).
In a country such as UAE with diversity of people from different ethnics and cultures,
many people acquire several identities. According to Epps & Demangeot (2013), “there
is much mixed heritage, long-terms western “expats” with their own Gulf-state culture,
an intermingling of cultures.” Moreover, “multiculturalism in UAE is a shared, lived
experience where being different is the norm, rather than a politicized ideology.” In
literature, there are tendencies to make comparison between countries rather than
ethnic diversity within the same borders.
There are many theories that may be used to understand the concept of building an
image. Many research papers use destination image to understand how people choose
their travel destination. The same may be applied when expats try to learn about the
country’s culture ahead of time to decide if they would accept the job offer or not.
Destination branding is defined as “selecting a consistent element mix to identify and
distinguish it through positive image building” (Cai, 2002). Destination image is defined
as “a concept formed by the consumer’s reasoned and emotional interpretation as the
consequence of two closely interrelated components; perceptive/cognitive evaluations
referring to individual’s own knowledge and beliefs about the object and the effective
appraisals relating to the individual’s feelings towards the object” (Beerli and Martin,
2004).
The image formation is a process that is defined as a “construction of mental
representation of a destination on basis of information cues delivered by the image
formation agents and selected by a person” (Tasci and Gartner, 2007). According to
Gartner (1993), destination image is created using three components; cognitive,
affective, and conative. Moreover, the literature shows that the cognitive component is
an antecedent of the affective component and about the evaluation responses of the
consumers stemming from their knowledge of the objects (Holbrook, 1978; Russel &
Pratt 1980; Anand, Holbrook & dStephens, 1988; Stern & Krakover 1993). But the
absence of a universally accepted valid and reliable scale led to the proposition of
incorporating all possible aspects of a destination that are susceptible to use as an
instrument to measure the perceived image of a place.
UAE is a country which is rapidly advancing with inputs from all over the world. This
would seem to be placing pressure on the local customs and traditions, yet the local
people seem to be able to maintain these in the face of all this change pressure
(ALMazrouei, H. & Pech J. 2015). It is important to understand the image of UAE culture
according to Hofstede’s cultural dimensions to analyze and compare the non-Arab
expatriates’ image.
As for the Power Distance Index in UAE, the hierarchy in their culture is high and is
reflected as inherent inequalities, centralization, autocratic leadership style, and
subordinates’ expectation to be told what to do (Alteneiji, E. 2015). Also, UAE is a
collective society with strong ties. People from birth are integrated into strong, cohesive
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
175
in-groups, which throughout people’s lifetime continue to protect them in exchange for
unquestioning loyalty (Hofstede, 2011, p.92). On the other hand, UAE is considered to
be neither masculine nor feminine. It means that the society is propelled by concerns of
achievement, success, and competition; also, it equally relies on dominant values for
ensuring quality life coupled with caring for other people (Aljerjawi, K.2016).
Emiratis have a high preference for avoiding uncertainty. They have strong traditions
and rituals and tend toward formal, bureaucratic structures and rules (Alteneiji, E. 2015).
Such culture avoid uncertainty by harsh behavioral codes, laws, and rules, disapproval
of unusual opinion, and a belief in absolute truth (Hofstede, 2011). In addition, cultures
with low long-term orientation have high preferences for personal steadiness and
stability, high respect for culture and reciprocation of favors and gifts (Alteneiji, E. 2015).
Finally, restraint societies suppress or restrict indulgence of needs and regulate it by
means of social norms (Ourfali, E. 2015).
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. What is the image of UAE culture among non-Arab expatriates according to
Hofstede’s dimensions: (Power distance, Individualism versus collectivism,
Masculinity versus femininity, Uncertainty avoidance Long-term orientation,
Indulgence versus restraint)
2. What sources of information have the non-Arab expatriates used to build their
image of the UAE culture?
3. Is there a relation between the demographic variables and the image non-Arab
expatriate have about the UAE culture?
RESEARCH DESIGN
A structured survey has been developed to measure the variables and answer the
research questions. A convenient sample of 121 non-Arab expatriates has been
interviewed from October 1st till October 10th, 2017. 18 Likert scale statements have
been developed to measure the image of UAE culture according to Hofstede’s
dimensions. The statements measured the image of UAE among the non-Arab
expatriates; they do not measure the UAE culture per se. The statements have been
tested to see if they are well understood and clear, some statements have been deleted,
altered, or kept according to the pretesting results. One statement does not belong to
any of the dimensions has been added to measure the easiness of adapting to UAE
culture from the respondents perspective. The respondents had to assign their selection
according to 5 points scale that range from strongly agree to strongly disagree for each
statement. Answering the survey took an average of 12-15 minutes. The data collected
from Emirates of Dubai, Sharjah, and Ajman but the respondents who participated were
working and living in Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Ras Al Khaima, and Um Alqaiwain, no
respondents working or living in Abu Dhabi.
After collecting the data, the questionnaires have been reviewed to make sure that
they all questions have been answered, 4 questionnaires have been discarded because
there were some unanswered questions. For the reliability of the measurement, a retest
of 10 questionnaires has been done 15 days later and the reliability test showed a
correlation above 0.96.
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The Image of United Arab Emirates Culture Among the Non-Arab Expatriates in the UAE
THE RESEARCH RESULTS
The image of United Arab Emirates’ culture among non-Arab expatriates according
to Hofstede’s dimensions is as follows:
A. Power Distance Index (PDI): Results based on the answers of three statements:
#6:“there is an unequal distribution of power in the UAE society”, #13:“there is a big
difference in UAE society between people in terms of rights and opportunities, and I
notice that people accept the differences”, and #18:“I think that individual freedom in
UAE society is restricted”: (the statements numbers mentioned according to their order
in the questionnaire)
UAE culture is perceived as high in the Power Distance Index PDI. The majority of
respondents think that there is unequal distribution of power in the UAE society (48.8%)
versus 11.6% who disagree. 62.8% think that there is a big difference in UAE society
between people in terms of rights and opportunities and notice that people accept these
differences. These results coincide with those of Alteneiji (2015) who said that the
hierarchy in UAE culture is high and reflected as inherent inequalities, centralization,
autocratic leadership style, and subordinates’ expectation to be told what to do.
Meanwhile, the respondents split into two equal parts regarding “the restrictions on
individual freedom in UAE”, which may be explained through their understanding of the
meaning of individual freedom, some may understand the freedom from a social
perspective (you are free to go wherever you want, dress what you like...etc.) while
others may see it from a political perspective.
B. Individual versus Collectivism (IDV): Results based on the answers of three
statements: #1:“I find that people of UAE have strong social and family relationships
with each other”, # 7:“People of UAE appreciate the group’s rights more than the
individual’s rights” and # 14:“Individuals in UAE care about themselves more than their
families”:
It is clear that the non-Arab expatriates strongly perceive that the UAE culture is
collective. The majority of respondents believe that UAE people have strong social and
family relationships with each other (100%), appreciate the group’s right more than the
individual’s rights (51.2%), and care about their families more than themselves (53.7%).
All these behaviors- as perceived by the respondents- characterize the collectivism
versus individualism. This result has been supported by previous studies (Hofstede 2011,
Aljerjawi 2016) which found that UAE is a collective society with strong ties where people
from birth are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, which throughout people’s
lifetime continue to protect them.
C. Masculinity versus Femininity: Results based on the answers of four statements:
#2:“Both men and women compete equally for leadership and power in the UAE
society”, #8:“I think that UAE society is a masculine society (men are more superior)”,
#12:“Men & women in professions, in UAE society, work together equally”, and #17:“I
feel that the UAE culture treats both genders equally”:
Our main concern was to understand if this image tends to see the UAE culture as it
equals or differentiate between men and women. The image of non-Arab expatriates
about the UAE culture from this perspective is interesting and perhaps confusing. In
general, the expatriates tend to perceive the UAE society as a masculine society, this
may be due to the fact that UAE is an Arab Muslim country and this stereotype may be
built for all these countries. On the other hand, when the respondents were asked about
their opinion regarding the competition between men and women for leadership and
power, the majority agreed that this competition is equal (56.8% versus 11.6% only).
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
177
On the professional level, the vast majority think that both genders in UAE work together
equally (71.9% versus 6.6%) which is consistent with all UAE labor laws that does not
differentiate between men and women in terms of work rights and duties, on the
contrary, these laws give advantages for working women with regard to giving birth and
breast feeding (paid leave of absence and less working hours). It seems that numbers
are getting bigger when asking respondents about their image about the equal treatment
of both genders in UAE culture (87.6% versus 2.5%).
According to these results, we may suggest that “masculinity” of UAE society is a
stereotype more than an image among non-Arab expatriates, the proof is the answers
of the respondents to the other three statements (2,12,17) which are related to detailed
dimensions included in this image.
D. Uncertainty avoidance: Results based on the answers of four statements: #3:”I
believe that people of UAE feel threatened by unknown situations that may occur in the
future”, #10: “In my opinion, UAE nationals suffer from stress and tension because of
the fear from what might happen in the near future”, #15: “UAE society is intolerant of
new ideas and behavior as they lean toward traditions”, and #16: “UAE society highly
respects traditions, codes of behavior, and beliefs”:
In general, the respondents perceive Emiratis as they have a high preference for
avoiding uncertainty, 44.6% disagree with the statement “UAE suffer from stress and
tension because of the fear from what might happen in the near future” while 22.3%
agree with the statement. 38% of the respondents agreed that “UAE society lean toward
traditions” versus 30.6% disagreed. The vast majority of respondents 87.6% agreed
that “UAE society highly respects traditions, codes of behavior, and beliefs”. According
to Hofstede (2011), these are indicators of a culture with high preference for avoiding
uncertainty. The only difference was in the responses on statement #3, where 36.3%
of the respondents agreed that people of UAE feel threatened by unknown situations
that may occur in the future” while 25.6% disagreed. This may be explained by the
unstable political situation in the Gulf region at the time of doing this research which
may affect the perception of our respondents.
E. Long-term Orientation: Results based on the answers of statement #9: “I believe
that UAE has a good future insight”:
It is very clear that the respondents believe that UAE has a long-term orientation
(88.4% agreed on the statement). This may be interpreted by the future plans
announced to the public through different media outlets, and the new projects executed
across the country.
F. Indulgence versus restraint: Results based on the answers of statements #5: “I
find that the UAE society has strict social norms that limit people from enjoying life and
having fun” and #11: “UAE society allows people to freely enjoy life and have fun”:
It seems that the respondents tend to see the UAE society as allowing people to
freely enjoy life and have fun (71.9% agree versus 7.5% disagree) meanwhile, 48.7%
(versus 34.8%) found that UAE society has strict social norms that limit people from
enjoying life and having fun. One of the possibilities of this little contradiction is that
respondents have created a kind of distinction between the restrictions that UAE
nationals must abide by and the freedom of enjoying life and having fun by expatriates
because they are not bound by these restrictions that apply only to UAE nationals. Here,
we should understand how the expatriates differentiate between the social norms of the
UAE nationals and the fact that these norms do not affect the expatriates’ freedom in
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The Image of United Arab Emirates Culture Among the Non-Arab Expatriates in the UAE
enjoying life and having fun. This result reflects the multinationalism of the UAE
population and the freedom warranted for everyone to enjoy life according to his/her
social norms, and this was the reason for apparent contradiction.
G. Adjusting to UAE culture: we added the statement “adjusting to UAE culture is
easy” to Likert scale in order to know how easy it is for expatriates to get familiar and
adapt to the UAE culture: 73.5% of the respondents agreed that adjusting to UAE culture
is easy which emphasizes that UAE is a welcoming country to people with different
backgrounds
The sources of information use by the non-Arab expatriates to build their image of
the UAE culture:
Table 1 Sources of Learning about UAE Culture
Source
Personal contact with UAE Nationals
Family/friends
Social media
Public events
Web sites
Print media
TV/radio
Other
Total number of answers
Frequency
47
45
38
17
15
12
10
10
194
Percent
24.2
23.2
19.6
8.8
7.7
6.1
5.2
5.2
100
(two answers were allowed)
The most important sources of learning about UAE culture were ranked in the above
table. The “personal contacts with UAE nationals” is the first source which indicates the
importance of personal experiences in dealing with UAE nationals by the respondents
and reflects that many of our respondents built their image on real experiences with
people not through exposing to media. When it comes to learning about other cultures,
it seems that face to face communication with family and friends still represents an
important and trusted source of information. New technologies come third (27.3% for
both social media and internet) while traditional media ranked last with 11.3%. In
general, we conclude that interpersonal communication comes first followed by social
media and internet and traditional media came at the end.
It is evident that information gained about UAE culture has been obtained from
different sources as suggested by Information Integration Theory. More than 73
respondents (60%) have mentioned more than one source of information which support
the notion of the above mentioned theory that people add pieces of information together
and this information tend to affect their attitudes.
The relationship between the demographic variables and the image non-Arab
expatriates have about the UAE culture:
Seven demographics have been tested using ANOVA and Chi Square to check if there
is a significant relationship between any of them and the components of the image.
These demographics are: gender, age, marital status, educational level, country of
origin, place of residence in UAE, and the number of working years in UAE. Each of these
variables has been tested statistically to see if there is a significant correlation with any
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
179
of the Likert statements which reflect the expatriates’ image, when we get a significant
variance by ANOVA, we double check this variance to understand its details by using Chi
Square. Any significant variance not supported by significant Chi Square has been
avoided. In the following part, we will present only the significant relationships found.
Gender: There is no significant difference between men and women in their answers
on any of the statements included in Likert scales.
Age: there are two significant correlations between age (as an independent variable)
and statements # 5 “I find that the UAE society has strict social norms that limit people
from enjoying life and having fun” (sixth dimension: indulgence versus restraint), and
statement # 17: “I feel that the UAE culture treats both genders equally” (third
dimension: masculinity versus femininity).
Table 2 ANOVA Results of Age and Likert Statements
Statement
5
Statement
17
Between Groups
Within Groups
Total
Between Groups
Within Groups
Total
Sum of Squares
12.688
182.370
195.058
18.472
83.131
101.603
df
3
117
120
3
117
120
Mean Square
4.229
1.559
F
2.713
Sig.
.048
6.157
.711
8.666
.000
The age as an independent variable has a significant effect (P ≤ 0.05) on the answers
of different age groups in two statements as mentioned earlier. When testing the
correlation between the age and statement #5 we found that the younger respondents
(18-25 & 26-35) tend to agree that UAE society has strict social norms more than older
(36-45 & 46+) respondents (Chi-Square =18.203, P ≤ 0.05). It seems that young people
are more liberal than old people while older people are more conservative and do not
see UAE social norms as limiting enjoying of life and having fun. The age has a significant
effect on the answers of different age groups, the correlation between age and answers
of statement # 17 shows that older respondents (46+) tend to disagree that the UAE
culture treats both genders equally more than younger age groups (Chi-Square =28.159,
P ≤ 0.01).
Marital status: There is no significant difference between marital status and answers
on any of the statements included in Likert scales.
Educational Level: there are four significant correlations between educational level
(as an independent variable) and:
•
Statement # 2 “both men and women compete equally for leadership and power
in the UAE society”, statement # 17: “I feel that the UAE culture treats both
genders equally” (third dimension: masculinity versus femininity),
•
Statement # 5 “I find that the UAE society has strict social norms that limit
people from enjoying life and having fun” (sixth dimension: indulgence versus
restraint), and
•
Statement # 14 “individuals in UAE care about themselves more than their
families” (second dimension: individual versus collectivism).
180
The Image of United Arab Emirates Culture Among the Non-Arab Expatriates in the UAE
Table 3 ANOVA Results of Educational Level and Likert Statements
ANOVA
Statement Between Groups
2
Within Groups
Total
Statement Between Groups
17
Within Groups
Total
Statement Between Groups
5
Within Groups
Total
Statement Between Groups
14
Within Groups
Total
Sum of Squares
13.685
111.191
124.876
14.109
87.494
101.603
49.927
145.131
195.058
43.748
117.211
160.959
df
6
114
120
6
114
120
6
114
120
6
114
120
Mean Square
2.281
.975
F
2.338
Sig.
.036
2.351
.767
3.064
.008
8.321
1.273
6.536
.000
7.291
1.028
7.092
.000
The correlations (between education & each statement) show that the higher the
educational level the more the disagreement on gender equality (Chi-Square =38.757,
P ≤ 0.05) and the lower the educational level the more the agreement on the existence
of strict social norms that limit people from enjoying life and having fun (Chi-Square
=46.568, P ≤ 0.01). Also, the higher the educational level the more the disagreement
on statement # 14: individuals in UAE care more about themselves more than their
families (Chi-Square =58.237, P ≤ 0.01).
Country of Origin: there are three significant correlations between country of origin
(as an independent variable) and:
•
Statement # 5 “I find that the UAE society has strict social norms that limit
people from enjoying life and having fun” (sixth dimension: indulgence versus
restraint),
•
Statement # 14 “individuals in UAE care about themselves more than their
families” (second dimension: individual versus collectivism), and
•
Statement # 17 “I feel that the UAE culture treats both genders equally” (third
dimension: masculinity versus femininity).
Table 4 ANOVA Results of Nationality of Respondents and Likert Statements
ANOVA
Sum of Squares df
Statement Between Groups 42.782
5
Within Groups
152.276
Total
195.058
Statement Between Groups 24.824
14
Within Groups
136.135
Total
160.959
Statement Between Groups 12.601
17
Within Groups
89.002
Total
101.603
Mean Square
F
Sig.
7
6.112
4.535
.000
113
1.348
2.944
.007
2.286
.032
120
7
3.546
113
1.205
120
7
1.800
113
120
.788
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
181
The correlation between nationality and the answers on statement # 5 is significant
(Chi- Square = 49.412, P ≤ 0.01). The expatriates from Asian countries and Russia tend
to agree on statement # 5 (an average of 63%): “I find that the UAE society has strict
social norms that limit people from enjoying life and having fun” much more than
expatriates from North America, Western Europe, and Australia (the average of those
who agree 10.7%). It seems that the majority of those who are from Asian countries
have less education, lower class jobs, and less income. These factors may let them have
this attitude as they do not get the same treatment as “Western” Nationals who have
better education, jobs, and income. Another explanation could be the culture of those
who belong to Western nationalities as they used to enjoy their life no matter what
atmosphere is there in contrast to Asian people who may consider how others (UAE
nationals) look at them which make them act in a way they think will conform to the
UAE culture.
The expatriates from Western Europe, North America, and Australia who disagree on
statement # 14: “individuals in UAE care about themselves more than their families”
doubled the Asians who disagree with the same statement (85% for Western versus
44.2% for Asians). One of the possible explanations is the frame of reference of each
group; the people from Asia compare the Emirati behavior with their own in their home
countries where they may sacrifice and do more for their families. The Western nationals
came from an individualistic culture; according to their values they consider that UAE
people are perfect in terms of their collectivism, (Chi-Square = 48.685, P ≤ 0.01)
The Asian and Russian expatriates who think there is gender equality in UAE are
higher than those from North America and Western Europe (79.2% and 62.1%
respectively agreed on statement # 17 “I feel that the UAE culture treats both genders
equally), it seems that the respondents’ frame of reference has an influence on their
perception of gender equality, (Chi- Square = 33.888, P ≤ 0.05)
Emirate of Residency: there are three significant correlations between Emirate of
residency (as an independent variable) and:
•
Statement # 5 “I find that the UAE society has strict social norms that limit
people from enjoying life and having fun” (sixth dimension: indulgence versus
restraint), Chi-Square=28.363, P ≤ 0.05.
•
Statement # 14 “individuals in UAE care about themselves more than their
families” (second dimension: individual versus collectivism), Chi-Square =
32.534, P ≤ 0.01, and
•
Statement # 18 “I think that individual freedom in UAE society is restricted” (first
dimension: power distance dimension), Chi-Square= 29.979, P ≤ 0.05.
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The Image of United Arab Emirates Culture Among the Non-Arab Expatriates in the UAE
Table 5 ANOVA Results of Emirate of Residency and Likert Statements
ANOVA
Statement 5
Statement 14
Statement 18
Sum
of
Squares
Between Groups 26.724
Within Groups
168.334
Total
195.058
Between Groups 21.827
Within Groups
139.132
Total
160.959
Between Groups 15.938
Within Groups
176.062
Total
192.000
df
4
116
120
4
116
120
4
116
120
Mean Square F
6.681
4.604
1.451
Sig.
.002
5.457
1.199
4.550
.002
3.985
1.518
2.625
.038
The expatriates who live in Dubai are the least among all other expatriates living in
other Emirates who agree on statement # 5 that says: “I find that the UAE society has
strict social norms that limit people from enjoying life and having fun”, 30.3% (for Dubai
residents) versus the average of 82.2% (in other Emirates). This result reflects the Dubai
cosmopolitan atmosphere and the freedom expatriates who live in it have in terms of
their personal behavior. For example, Dubai has many public beaches where they can
wear whatever they want without any restrictions, Dubai gives also the freedom for
foreigners to eat and drink according to their culture in public restaurants, bars, and
other public places, and there are many places for fun and night life.
Those who live in both Dubai and Sharjah disagree on statement # 14: “Individuals
in UAE care about themselves more than their families” much more than expatriates
who live in Ajman (average of 60% versus 28.5%). We may conclude that there are
differences between UAE nationals who belong to Dubai & Sharjah on one side and to
those who belong to Ajman on the other side.
The expatriates who live in Sharjah are the highest among all to agree on statement
# 18:”I think that individual freedom in UAE is restricted”. It makes sense as Sharjah is
well known for being the most conservative Emirates in UAE. For example, it is the only
Emirate that bans “Shisha” in cafes or public places.
Number of Working Years in UAE: there are four significant correlations between
number of working years in UAE (as an independent variable) and:
•
Statement #11: “UAE society allows people to freely enjoy life and have fun”,
(sixth dimension: indulgence versus restraint), Chi-Square= 35.818, P ≤ 0.01
•
Statement #9:”I believe that UAE has a good future insight”, (fifth dimension:
long-term orientation), Chi-Square= 29.027, P ≤ 0.01.
•
statement # 16:””UAE society highly respects traditions, codes of behavior, and
beliefs”, (fourth dimension: uncertainty avoidance), Chi-Square= 18.258, P ≤
0.05
•
Statement # 18 “I think that individual freedom in UAE society is restricted” (first
dimension: power distance dimension), Chi-Square= 27.143, P ≤ 0.01.
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
183
Table 6 ANOVA Results of Number of working Years in UAE and Likert Statements
ANOVA
Sum
Squares
Statement Between Groups 6.521
9
Within Groups 55.265
Total
61.785
Statement Between Groups 10.869
11
Within Groups 88.272
Total
99.140
Statement Between Groups 6.454
16
Within Groups 59.083
Total
65.537
Statement Between Groups 24.545
18
Within Groups 167.455
Total
192.000
of
df
3
Mean Square
2.174
F
4.602
Sig.
.004
117
120
3
.472
4.802
.003
117
120
3
117
120
3
117
120
.754
2.151
.505
4.260
.007
8.182
1.431
5.717
.001
3.623
The least among all expatriates who agree on statement # 9: “I believe that UAE has
a good future insight” is those who stayed for one year or less (61.1% versus an average
of 91.4%) which makes sense because they stayed for a short time compared to others
and perhaps did not witness the execution of announced plans by UAE government.
The more the number of years respondents stayed in UAE the more their agreement
on the statement that says:” UAE society allows people to freely enjoy life and have
fun”, (84.9%, 72%, 64%, 44.5% respectively). It indicates that year after year, the
expatriate gets familiar with the UAE culture and finds that he/she is enjoying life and
having fun without restrictions.
Again, it is obvious that the short time spent in UAE may affect the judgment of the
respondents. Those who stayed for one year or less are the least to agree on statement
# 16: “UAE society highly respects traditions, codes of behavior, and beliefs” (77.8%
versus an average of 88.3%). In addition, those who were neutral among those who
resided for one year or less are the highest (22.2%) as they are not able to decide.
The respondents who stayed in UAE for one year or less are the highest in agreeing
that individual freedom in UAE society is restricted (72.2% versus an average of only
30% among other categories). There could be three explanations: the first is the short
time spent in a country that may not allow you to see the correct picture, the second is
that those who stayed for a longer time get accustomed to the culture of the UAE and
do not see any longer any restrictions, and the third is that those who stayed for a longer
time were more conservative in their answers. Generally, it is obvious that there is a
significant correlation between the number of years spent in UAE and the image built by
respondents.
Discussion
UAE culture is perceived as high in the Power Distance Index PDI, a result that
coincides with Alteneiji (2015) conclusions about UAE culture. Alteneiji said that the
hierarchy in UAE culture is high and reflected as inherent inequalities, centralization,
autocratic leadership style, and subordinates’ expectation to be told what to do.
184
The Image of United Arab Emirates Culture Among the Non-Arab Expatriates in the UAE
The UAE culture was described as a collective culture by Hofstede (2011) and
Aljerjawi (2016) where there are strong and continuous ties integrate people into groups
from birth to death. Our results confirm this finding as our respondents believe that UAE
people have strong social and family relationships with each other, appreciate the
group’s rights more than the individual’s rights, and care about their families more than
themselves.
As a stereotype of Arab and Muslim countries, the respondents see UAE as a
masculine society although they believe that the competition for leadership and power
is equal between the two genders. They also think that both genders work together
equally. Perhaps the respondents discerned between the “social status” and “women
rights as guaranteed by laws and opportunities”. Socially, the respondents still believe
that the UAE culture tends to be masculine while they believe that women in UAE have
equal opportunities in terms of work, leadership, power, and education as the laws
guarantees this equality, in addition to dozens of everyday cases and examples of
successful female leaders and professionals in UAE.
The respondents believe that UAE society highly respects traditions, codes of
behavior, and beliefs. Hofstede (2011) indicated that these are indicators of a culture
with high preference for avoiding uncertainty. As a result of UAE media coverage of new
plans and projects across different aspects of life, the respondents believe that UAE has
a long-term orientation. In fact, Dubai has won the bedding for hosting EXPO 2020 and
many new projects since then have been established and finished.
It seems that the respondents differentiate between UAE Nationals and expatriates
in the freedom of enjoying life and having fun. The respondents think that the social
norms may limit UAE Nationals from freely enjoying life and having fun as they (UAE
Nationals) have to abide to these norms and follow the customs and traditions especially
when they live in a collective culture where they have to conform to the group values
and beliefs. Meanwhile, our respondents think that these social norms have no influence
on expatriates as the environment inside UAE allows everyone to freely enjoy life and
have fun especially with the availability of all means of enjoyment and entertainment.
The UAE culture has been perceived by the respondents as an easy one to get
accustomed to.
One of the advantages of the image perceived by our respondents is that this image
has been built mainly by two sources both belong to interpersonal communication; the
first is the direct contact with UAE Nationals and the second is contacts with family and
friends. When the measured image has been built by direct communication and real life
experiences with the people involved, we believe it will be more precise and reflective
of what our respondents really think; it is not a “remote” built image. It also minimizes
the influence of traditional media that came at the end of the list mentioned by our
respondents as sources of learning about UAE culture.
When we tested the correlations between the independent variables (demographics)
and Hofstede’s six dimensions, we found correlations between the following pairs:
•
Age and third dimension Masculinity versus femininity (only statement 17: “I feel
that UAE culture treats both genders equally”) and sixth dimension Indulgence
versus restraint (only statement 5: “I find that UAE society has strict social norms
that limit people from enjoying life and having fun”).
•
Educational level and second dimension individualism versus collectivism (only
statement 14: “Individuals in UAE care about themselves more than their
families”), third dimension Masculinity versus femininity (statements 2: “both
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
185
men and women compete equally for leadership and power in UAE society” and
17:” I feel that UAE culture treats both genders equally”), and sixth dimension
Indulgence versus restraint (only statement 5: “I find that UAE society has strict
social norms that limit people from enjoying life and having fun”).
•
Nationality of respondents and second dimension individualism versus
collectivism (only statement 14: “Individuals in UAE care about themselves more
than their families”), third dimension Masculinity versus femininity (only
statement 17:” I feel that UAE culture treats both genders equally”), and sixth
dimension Indulgence versus restraint (only statement 5: “I find that UAE society
has strict social norms that limit people from enjoying life and having fun”).
•
Emirate of residency and first dimension power distance (only statement 18: “I
think that individual freedom in UAE is restricted”), second dimension
individualism versus collectivism (only statement 14: “Individuals in UAE care
about themselves more than their families”), and sixth dimension Indulgence
versus restraint (only statement 5: “I find that UAE society has strict social norms
that limit people from enjoying life and having fun”).
•
Number of working years in UAE and first dimension power distance (only
statement 18: “I think that individual freedom in UAE is restricted”), fourth
dimension uncertainty avoidance (only statement 16: “UAE society highly
respects traditions, codes of behaviors and beliefs”), fifth dimension long-term
orientation (only statement 9: “I believe that UAE has a good future insight”),
and sixth dimension Indulgence versus restraint (only statement 11: “UAE
society allows people to freely enjoy life and have fun”).
In general, we may say that age, education, nationality, Emirate of residence, and
“number of working years in UAE” have created some differences among varied groups
of our respondents in all dimensions. We have to declare it clearly that the variance has
occurred in some statements within dimensions. It is understood that other statements
have no significant correlations because every dimension has been measured through
different statements (except the fifth dimension: long term orientation). The sixth
dimension (indulgence versus restraint) appears to be the most influenced dimension as
it has correlations with all demographics (except marital status). It seems that the most
influential demographic is the number of working years in UAE which makes sense as
the variance of living experience in UAE causes a variance in the answers of our
respondents. The only demographic characteristic that did not have any correlations
with any of the dimensions is the marital status. In conclusion, we confirm that there is
a significant correlation between the demographic variables (except marital status) and
the image non-Arab expatriate have about the UAE culture.
Limitations & Future Research
This research has used the Hofstede’s dimensions to guide the measurement of the
image while there are other frameworks or dimensions that may be used to measure
the image. Our research was concerned with measuring the image of UAE culture among
non-Arab expatriates while future research may select to measure the image of another
country among other population. The sample selected in this research was nonprobability sample and expatriates who work and live in Emirate of Abu Dhabi were not
included which limits the representativeness of our sample and the generalization of the
results. Future research may select a probability sample and give a chance for all
186
The Image of United Arab Emirates Culture Among the Non-Arab Expatriates in the UAE
residents in all Emirates to be included. Inspired by Hofstede’s dimensions, future
research may answer questions related to the perception of Emirati culture by UAE
Nationals themselves.
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
187
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Journal of Media Critiques [JMC]
doi: 10.17349/jmc118214
P-ISSN: 2056-9785
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KNOCKING AT THE HOUSE WITH CLOSED DOORS:
EUROPEAN INTEGRATION IN THE UKRAINIAN
PUBLIC DISCOURSE
OLEKSII POLEGKYI*
CHRIST`L DE LANDTSHEER**
ABSTRACT
The idea of European integration plays an important role in Ukrainian political discourse. This
idea is crucial for a definition of Ukrainian foreign policy preferences and for the construction of
Ukrainian national identity. In the Ukrainian context, this idea was found to be primarily
constructed in regard to the question of the historical and geopolitical place of Ukraine. Public
opinion in general largely reflects the instability in Ukraine-EU relations, as well as the inconsistent
European integration policy of the Ukrainian government and the lack of a coherent policy from
the side of European Union. This paper focuses on a study of how the European integration was
conceptualized and metaphorically presented in the Ukrainian press in the period of 2005 – 2010.
Based on the Critical Metaphor Analysis and Conceptual Metaphors approach, we investigate in
this paper the main frames and metaphorical representations of Europe and the European
integration in Ukrainian media. It can be noticed that the European integration is described in
Ukraine with a tension between the two discourses – the discourses of closeness and of openness.
The European Neighborhood Policy was created for an opening of the door for Ukraine to Europe
and as a ‘road map’ for the Ukrainian way towards the EU. Despite that, for the majority of
Ukrainians the EU is still an unrealistic ‘dream’ where doors ‘rather closed’ then opened.
Keywords: European integration, Ukraine, discourse, media, metaphors.
INTRODUCTION
Periods of substantial social and political changes are always accompanied by
transformations in the public discourses and in political language. In the case of postcommunist countries, therefore, political communication and the language used by
symbolical elites may have direct practical and political significance. We examine in this
article the metaphors that are prominent in the Ukrainian press discourse about Europe
and European integration. First, we explain the theoretical background of the study,
which relies on conceptual metaphor analysis. Second, we detail the method and the
*
Dr., Member of Political Communication Research Unit, Antwerp University, Belgium. polegkyi@gmail.com
Prof.Dr., Head of Political Communication Research Unit, Antwerp University, Belgium.
christl.delandtsheer@uantwerpen.be
**
192
Knocking at the House with Closed Doors: European Integration in yhe Ukrainian Public Discourse
press sources that we used for the conceptual metaphor analysis in the empirical part.
Third, we give an overview of the metaphors that we choose to select, after which we
conclude the article with a discussion section.
How people interpreted the political events is highly dependent on how the media
present the information on these events. We therefore want to reconstruct the frames
and metaphors that are dominant in the Ukrainian public discourse. In order to do this,
it is necessary to analyze different discursive practices and their influence on public
perception.
The premise of contemporary framing theory is that every issue can be regarded in
different ways (Chong & Druckman, 2007). Highlighting one perspective in building a
story has important implications. In fact, framing experts fully expect that a particular
formulation of a problem affects our reasoning and even decision-making. Metaphors
are crucial framing devices in texts, in maintaining and shifting political ideas and
meanings. Lakoff and Johnson (1980, 5) see the essence of metaphor as the
understanding and experiencing of one kind of thing in terms of another. Metaphors play
a significant role in the discursive construction of political and social reality at the micro
level and help to introduce certain frames of events at the macro level.
In their cognitive view on metaphor, Lakoff and Johnson (1980) consider metaphor
as a conceptual phenomenon that is realized at the surface level of language. Metaphors
provide the cognitive framework of speakers’ world view. Cognitive metaphor analysis
claims to look behind explicit utterances to find conceptual structures that the users
themselves may not be aware of. Metaphors constitute the mechanisms of
conceptualization for understanding and expressing complex concepts or situations. This
conceptual view also implies that metaphors are pervasive in both everyday life and
political discourses. Lakoff & Johnson have argued that our conceptual system is
metaphorically structured: in their view, frequently used metaphorical expressions are
evidence of concepts underlying our everyday understanding of events and experience.
Metaphors are among the powerful tools for creating new meanings and for
influencing public discourse (Ricoeur 2003). In political discourse metaphors are not just
embellishments but policy tools (Chilton, 2004, 203). Every discourse topic is commonly
associated with a particular “stock” of metaphors (Huelsse, 2006, 403-404). The analysis
of political metaphor can account for how power is represented in language, how
language has power, and how the powerful is language (Beer and De Landtsheer 2004,
7).
The aim of metaphor use is to influence the audience, which is also the goal of
political actions. Metaphors have emotional power and as an emotional device introduce
a certain link towards a social phenomenon, with negative or positive evaluations.
Metaphors are a primary rhetorical tool for provoking emotions and have a manipulative
potential which help persuade audiences. Metaphors, accordingly, direct attention to
what seems to be important and meaningful for politicians (De Landtsheer and De Vrij,
2004, 163-189). We argue that the use of particular metaphors leads to raising the
affiliated meanings in discourses.
Metaphors are able to modify the public’s attitudes towards certain issues and could
eventually lead to a change in perceptions and behavior. Charteris-Black argues that
metaphors should not only be analyzed cognitively, but also pragmatically, because
metaphor selection is governed by the rhetorical aim of persuasion: “in many cases,
therefore, metaphor choice is motivated by ideology” (Charteris-Black 2004, 247). Thus,
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metaphors can influence political and social opinion as well as develop new ideologies
by shaping new ways of communicating.
Analytical part of this study was based mainly on the Critical Metaphor Analysis (CMA)
approach developed by Charteris-Black (2004). Metaphor analysis, according to him,
consists of three stages: identification, interpretation and explanation of metaphors.
Metaphor identification deals with determining which metaphors are present in a text,
and “whether they show semantic tension between a literal source domain and a
metaphorical target domain”. Metaphor interpretation is concerned with interpersonal
meaning – aims “to determine the type of social relations that are constructed through
the metaphors identified”. Metaphor explanation is concerned with a textual meaning with the way metaphors interact within the context in which they occur. (Charteris-Black
2004, 35)
Charteris-Black considers the identification stage of metaphors as a checking whether
they present in a text, and whether they demonstrate a tension between a literal source
domain and a metaphoric target domain. The identification stage can be divided into:
preliminary identification of metaphors in a text, which “requires a close reading of a
sample of texts with the aim of identifying candidate metaphors.” (Charteris-Black 2004,
35) The second step is a further qualitative phase to examine the corpus to determine
whether each use of key-words is metaphoric of literal. The key-words we consider here
as words or group of words that is supposed to be the metaphor. The interpretation
stage in this research is based on cognitive linguistic theory and it relies on interpreting
the identified metaphors by finding the conceptual metaphors or keys that underlie
them. “The interpretation involves establishing a relationship between metaphors and
their cognitive and pragmatic factors” (Charteris-Black 2004, 37). The last stage consists
of explaining the findings. According to Charteris-Black the cognitive semantic approach
needs to be complemented with a study of the social context of text producing and an
analysis of the overall context of metaphor. “Explanation of metaphors involves
identifying the social agency that is involved in their production and their social role in
persuasion.” (Charteris-Black 2004, 39) The purpose here is to determine the
relationship between the findings and the contexts in an attempt to uncover the
ideological motivations behind the choice of the given metaphors.
The main sources for conceptual metaphor analysis in the present study consist of
press materials from three Ukrainian newspapers: Zerkalo nedeli, Segodnia and Fakty i
Kommentarii (in short – Fakty). The Zerkalo nedeli, was selected as an example of the
quality press. This weekly employ high journalistic standards and offers political and
social analysis, exclusive interviews and different opinions and could be characterized as
a qualitative one. Fakty and Segodnia were selected as the biggest popular daily
newspapers in Ukraine (according to Telekritika 2012). They represent the popular press
and were widely circulating among different groups of Ukrainian society.
For the search, the internet version of each newspaper was used. At the beginning,
we took all of the articles from 2005 and 2010 from all three newspapers, which include
any kind of relation to the word combinations: Europe and European Union or EU and
European integration or Eurointegration, or Ukraine-EU, Ukraine- European integration.
We started with reading through all of the automatically retrieved data, selected articles
based on their relevance to the research topic, and then manually analyzed the texts for
the analysis of metaphors. This search strategy resulted in 270 articles which were
subjected to detailed analysis.
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The time-frame for the selection of the press materials for an analysis was limited to
the period from 2005 till 2010. This period was chosen because it provides the full range
of the discussion on the topic of European integration and Ukrainian relations to it, and
during that time the main positions and discourses were formed and presented by the
different social and political groups.
SELECTION OF METAPHORS
By describing metaphorical representations of Europe and the European integration,
we’ll try to show pair metaphors, representing both positive and negative characteristics.
Accordingly, for example, if the metaphor of Europe as a house represents positive
connotations related with the image of Europe, then the metaphor of a fortress or closed
club will come out as its opposition.
Musolff (2004) has identified several source domains, the following four being the
main ones to conceptualize the European integration: path-movement-journey, lovemarriage-family, body-life-health and building-housing source domains.
One of the popular metaphors in the European integration discourse is the house
metaphor. For instance, Chilton and Ilyin (1993, 7-31) studied the metaphor of the
‘common European house’ brought into the European public discourse by M. Gorbachev
at the end of the Cold War.
Huelsse (2006) analyzed the 1990’s discourse on EU Eastern enlargement in Germany
to decide whether European identity is constructed according to the national model or
in a post-national way. According to him, there are a few metaphors which seem to
dominate political thinking about European integration and the Enlargement process. He
distinguished Enlargement as a family reunion, as a homecoming (returning to home),
as growing together, as a path and as an entry into a house.
European integration as entry into a house/home or a fortress
One of the key metaphors in the Ukrainian discourses concerning European
integration is the metaphor of the home or house. The house metaphor constructs a
civic European identity as Huelsse (2006, 406) reminds us. The EU nations are united
by the common perception of building the common European house. The states in the
EU live in the same house. They follow certain rules and over time develop common
social practices and habits. This metaphor places a clear difference between ‘us’ and
‘them’ — ‘we’ are inside, but ‘they’ are outside the house. The house’s external walls
mark the boundary that keeps the self and others apart, leaving no ambivalence. Houses
have doors and it is exactly the purpose of doors to enable entry and exit. By stepping
through the door, candidates enter the house and at this moment become part of the
self.
According to Ringmar (2007, 132), modern politics began when naturalistic
metaphors were replaced by constructivist ones. As he pointed out: “instead of seeing
society as a natural organism – a body, family or garden – or as an impersonal
mechanical device, it came to be regarded as something man-made, something
constructed, most commonly as some kind of a building”. The idea that if society is
created by people, we should be able to fully understand it, including the most obscure
of its technical elements - comes along. The construction plans are drawn up by people,
not by a God, so people can create any kinds of projects. And the better we understand
society, the better we will be at reconstructing it in accordance to our plans and visions
(Ringmar 2007, 132).
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It is necessary to divide the metaphor of the house into two groups: the ‘building’
and ‘construction’. If the first group refers to a certain state of affairs, where there are
already existing structures of relations (structure of the home – has a permanent
character), then the second group refers to the process. Construction involves active
participation; the ability to influence on the process and its outcomes. In the Ukrainian
political discourse, a frame of the house as a ‘structure of the building’ is widely used.
This indicates that Ukrainians do not perceive themselves as participants in the
construction of a ‘common European home’.
“Where is the key to the European Union? Ukraine will not stand and whine near the
door of the EU” (Zerkalo nedeli, 15.04.2005)
In the domain of Europe as house, the words: door, key, windows and other
constructive parts of a building are very commonly used. The house is very often used
as a metaphor for the state system. From the mid of 90’s, the EU’s enlargement to the
East was seen as a settlement of the "European home" by new residents. The
metaphorical presentation of the country as a house, itself implies an existence of hosts
and guests.
For a pro-European discourse in Ukraine, the EU appears as a house where Ukraine
only tries to enter. Those who are inside the house have to decide that they wish or do
not want to open the door. But for Ukrainian public discourse typical perception is that
the door of this house is not open and there is no readiness to accept Ukrainians.
“Meanwhile, the European Union, perfectly hearing "the knocking at the door" from
the Ukrainian side, had not responded to the external stimuli.” (Fakty, 17.06.2005)
“EU: for Ukraine the entrance is closed” (Segodnia, №127 (2069) 08.06.2005)
“Before knocking to the door of the EU, it is necessary to know what is waiting you
there.
[Rybachuk] promised to break down the door of EU`s, if Brussels would not open it.”
(Zerkalo nedeli, 17.06.2005)
Doors may separate, but also may connect. Basically, any entrance or doors suggest
the transitions, changes, or at least possibilities for a change. In this context the
metaphor of doors - widely used in different frames - also has the potential to be positive
(if opened) and negative (if closed). Some entrances represent boundaries, or limits, to
be overcome, so in this sense the door metaphor can be a challenge for Ukraine to
overcome its imperfections.
The images of doors being closed and safeguarded evoked an interpretation of the
European house in terms of a fortress. In the dominant Ukrainian perception – European
doors are rarely closed to admit newcomers, thus requiring them to constantly knock at
the door while standing outside. In sum, the metaphor of closed door shows that Ukraine
is located outside of the European Union.
Similar to the family metaphor, the house metaphor emotionalizes the EU. “No longer
is it just a political organization, but as a home (or family), it is something people have
strong feelings about.” (Huelsse 2006, 406) The house metaphor (and especially, the
metaphor of home) indicates a clear difference and border between those who are
originally part of Europe and those who are not inhabitants of the house.
Europe is very often represented as a synonym of success and harmony in the proEuropean Ukrainian discourse. But also as an unreachable ideal, to which Ukrainians
were aspiring for centuries. For many in Ukraine, the European Union is still a dream. It
means that EU occupies the symbolic point of reference and attracts Ukrainians, but
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there is no clear vision of how to reach it. Such a vision of Europe, as of a dream, is
typical for the romantic Ukrainian discourse. Using metaphors of European integration
as a returning home characterizes this frame. Herewith, it is supposed that Ukraine
belonged from the very beginning to the European civilization, and only historical
unfairness tore it off from the European community.
“European idea or, if you wish, a dream turned to be that forbidden fruit, after having
tried which, a Ukrainians won’t be able to dream about anything less.” (Zerkalo nedeli,
21.05.2010)
Europe is very often represented as a synonym of success and harmony in the proEuropean Ukrainian discourse. But also as an unreachable ideal, to which Ukrainians
were aspiring for centuries. Such a vision of Europe, as of a dream, is typical for the
romantic Ukrainian discourse. Using metaphors of European integration as a returning
home characterizes this frame. Herewith, it is supposed that Ukraine belonged from the
very beginning to the European civilization, and only historical unfairness tore it off from
the European community.
Images of the home are typically connected with images of a warm and welcoming
space. In the romantic versions of the Ukrainian imaginary about Europe (often
described as naïve by the opponents of the European choice of Ukraine) integration of
the country into the EU is presented as a return to the European family. But mostly
Ukrainians do not feel themselves as members of a family who are returning home. In
this case, Europe frequently appears as a fortress or closed club.
The European Union is often represented in the Ukrainian public discourse as a kind
of closed elite’s club, consisting of a few countries and closed for others who are not
members of the EU. The image of the EU as an entity closed to outsiders, inwardoriented, and separated from the outside world by the Schengen wall was reinforced by
the frequent description of EU as a rich closed club of ‘privileged countries’. It connected
with an image of Europe as a paradise, dreamland etc. So, EU appears as an attractive
entity, but only for those who are inside.
While the notion of family represents the unconditional acceptance of all members,
the metaphor of a club represents an alliance of people based on selective membership
and common interests. Exclusivity means separating and suggests an existence of
privileges for the members of this club with firmly guarded doors.
By declaring the European Neighborhood Countries as ‘friends’ and ‘neighbors’, the
EU made quite clear that it did not consider them as “members of the club” that is, after
all, based on the very values, norms and principles enshrined in the ENP. This somewhat
hypocritical approach undermines the legitimacy of the EU’s demands for domestic
change. (Börzel 2010, 20)
As we mentioned above, the typical negative metaphor in the domain house is a
metaphor of Europe as a fortress. Important metaphors closely connected to this
metaphor are the bastion, or closed door. In the dominant public perception the doors
of Europe are closed for Ukrainians. Such metaphor separates Europe into ‘insiders’ and
‘outsiders’. Ukrainians are, according to these metaphorical representations, no doubt,
outside of the house. The dominance of the above mentioned metaphors reflects the
perception in Ukraine that the EU does not see Ukraine as a part of ‘Europe’ or even as
a potential future member.
The image of the fortress Europe is in sharp contrast with the principles underlying
the creation and development of the Union itself. For EU citizens, the free movement in
the Schengen zone becomes one of the most valued benefits of the European
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integration. The experience of the EU neighbors is entirely different. The EU enlargement
united many countries in Europe, but “it also built a visa wall higher than at any time in
European history” (Popescu and Wilson 2009, 33). In this sense, the visa restrictions
and complications for Ukrainians are perceived by them as an instrument to keep the
door of Europe closed.
European integration as a family reunion
The family is an obvious metaphor widely used in descriptions of social life (Lakoff
1996). The nation as a family – this type of metaphor belonged to the domain of
metaphors regarding kin. Conceptualizing Europe through family metaphors is also quite
common. Families are characterized by the fact that membership is given by birth and
ends only with death. As Huelsse (2006, 406) claims, “families, as natural entities, have
clear boundaries”, indeed we can easily distinguish the ‘different’ family, but we should
disagree with Huelsse in this point that families are not so much natural, but rather
social entities. The source of identification here can be not only the shared and natural
origin, but also it is possible to become a member of the family by marriage or joining.
As it was argued by Lakoff and Johnson (1980), anthropocentric metaphors are
common in most languages, because they allow us to express the new experience in
terms of human relations, motives and actions. Personifying metaphors can be used to
give meaning to the phenomena of the world in a human, anthropomorphic form.
Relations between Ukraine and Europe are often interpreted in terms of human relations.
In the family metaphor domain, very often the ruler is a pater and the state is
depicted as a family, which should follow the order established by pater. Consequently
the people are children, so the relations between state and people are necessarily
paternalistic. “In the paternalistic state, just as in the family, care is inseparable from
control.” (Ringmar 2007, 124)
For many people in Ukraine who claim the European roots of country – Ukraine is an
inseparable part of the European family. Viktor Yushchenko: “Europe without Ukraine is
defective. We are not neighbors of Europe, we are part of Europe” (Fakty, 10.03.2005).
“Ukraine – is a member of the European family of nations.” (Zerkalo nedeli, №9,
06.03.2010)
These kinds of metaphors are built on the feeling of belonging and they are directly
connected with distinctions of ‘we’ and ‘they’. As stressed by van Dijk, the principles of
their use follow the overall goals of the positive self-presentation and negative otherpresentation we have found in the ideological square, “we, our people and our actions
and properties will tend to be described in metaphorical meanings that derive from
conceptual fields with positive associations, whereas the opposite is true for the
description of our political opponents or enemies.” (Van Dijk 1997, 36)
Teacher – student relations
In the Ukrainian political discourse, relations between Ukraine and Europe are also
represented in the model: teacher – student (or pupil). “Ukrainian state is on the long
and thorny path of hard work and study.” (Zerkalo nedeli, 05.10.2005)
Very often access to the EU or even signing the Association’s agreement is depicted
as entrance exams. “EU-Ukraine Summit: what grade will Yanukovych get?” (Fakty,
21.11.2010) [The EU] “for us is not ready to open the road to membership today,
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offering a variety of alternatives - from the Eastern Partnership to honorary status of the
best pupil in the classroom for losers.” (Zerkalo nedeli, №8, 27.02.2010)
European integration as a path
Path, journey and movement metaphors are very common in the discourses of the
European integration. The metaphor of a path occupies one of the key places in
describing the European integration of Ukraine. Accordingly, the European integration is
perceived as a path, journey, and travel. The typical expression is: “Ukraine is going the
way of European integration.” (Segodnia, 31.01.2013)
What are the specific characteristics of this metaphor? There are direction and quality
of the path, the presence of the subject of moving, which uses certain means and ways
of transport, the presence (or absence) of the aim of movement, and different path
attributes. First of all, this is a movement in the space. It means that for the European
integration Ukraine has to move from one place or condition to another one.
The concept of the path is related with a number of surrounding circumstances which
are following this movement – so called metaphoric consequences. Generally speaking,
moving the road, it is impossible to calculate the time necessary for its overcoming.
Viktor Yanukovych: “We’ll choose by our own temps and methods of the Euro-integration
according to the national interests”. (Fakty, 08.10.2010)
According to observations of Yavorska (2006, 66-71), the concept of the path is
related with a number of surrounding circumstances; in particular, it’s impossible to
calculate precisely how much time for its overcoming is needed. The path should surely
be long and difficult, while only the road can be easy.
The word road foresees the participation of a person in its creation, so it contains not
only distance between points, but also the need for active participation in the process of
travelling, and of joining efforts for achievement of the goal. Diverse types of roads point
to different types of development and their perception by political activists. For example,
the main road means the main line of society and the economy’s development. There
are dangers on the road. Dangerous or unpopular decisions are presented as a
dangerous road. Metaphoric names of points and parts of the road are often used in the
modern Ukrainian political discourse. Traversing the path, you can unavoidably find
yourself on the crossroad, that is to say, before the choice. The path, in contrast to the
road, is surely long. You can lose the way; that’s why you can find indicators there. It’s
better to walk on the path with friends.
If the journey can be pleasant, joyful, and interesting, then the path is difficult. It is
hard work, with many obstacles. Very often images of heaviness, the difficulty of such
a travel, barriers, and obstacles emerging on the way, are connected to the metaphor
of path. So, in such case, the path of Ukraine to Europe – is undertaken not because of
wish, but because of needs.
“We are devoted to the matter of building a strong, independent Ukraine in the
structure of prosperous Europe. This path is not easy, but we’ve chosen it and we are
following it” – Viktor Yanukovych. (Fakty, 03.04.2010)
On the path you have to be careful; it isn’t worthwhile being in a hurry here, in
contrast to the sport distance. You should consider every step. It constantly refers to
the inadmissibility of rash decisions, fear of moving too fast and so on. “Ukraine stands
on the crossroad, it can go forward or come back.” (Fakty, 29.03.2005) Completed
political process is represented as a traversed path. Following a certain direction means
the presence of guiding lines and key tasks, which influence political decisions.
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The success of the journey (reaching a posed goal) supposes the presence of
favorable conditions. “Ukraine is so obviously “unlucky” on the European path. There is
a number of measures, which Ukraine has to undertake in order to make the journey as
safe as possible.” (Segodnia, 27.02.2012)
“Will it gain success following the way beaten by the Eastern-European countries, or
will it choose its own mean of transport, due to which it will finally get to the united
Europe in spite of the unfavorable geopolitical current situation?” (Zerkalo nedeli, №23,
19.06.2010)
‘Eurointegration’ – as means of transport
An accent here is made on the instrumental role of the European integration for
Ukraine to achieve its goals. Words from the domain traveling and transport are used
very often (train to Europe, ticket, suitcase, railway station, train, ship, sharp turn, etc.)
Transport metaphors are very important characteristics for the political reality in the
Ukrainian media discourse. Vehicular metaphors, resulting from personal experience of
driving or being in vehicles moving along the road, are a complement to this kind of
spatial imagery. As any other metaphors, they contain additional information about the
subject of the speech’s attitude to political events. In particular, they give a certain
meaning to political processes by means of characteristics such as dynamic of traffic,
means of transport, overcoming of distances and obstacles for the realization of political
programs, etc.
But vehicular metaphors also bring mechanical elements in depictions of Europe as
it means impersonal authority without a name – “Eurocrats from Brussels”. If the state
is a machine, then the various parts of society become the elements from which the
machine is constructed, suggest Ringmar (2007). Machines have to operate according
to some definite and quite impersonal rules. “This means that the ruler becomes a
clockmaker or an engineer whose main job it is to oversee the operations of the machine,
as the machine comes to work quite independently of the ruler’s personal will and
whims” (Ringmar 2007, 125). The state-as-machine seems to have more repressive
implications than the state-as a body or organism.
Very often Ukraine is represented as a ship which follows the course. Wherein,
Ukraine can follow the course on Europe as well as distance, drift, find itself outboard
etc., depending on the situation and the goals of the subjects of speech.
Thus, for example, by means of transport metaphors describe difficulties emerging
on the way to Europe for Yanukovych’s team. “Quick changes of geopolitical landscape,
hard pressure with the aim to make us drift to any direction, not necessarily to one,
favorable for us, - these are elements of external policy surrounding while V. Yanukovych
stands at the helm of the foreign policy.” (Zerkalo nedeli, №8, 27.02.2010)
To drift here means to move according to the will of external circumstances, not to
own interests and preferences. The parts of the means of transport often become
synonyms for metaphoric names of political processes. For example, an often used word
like “wheel” has a meaning of “power” in the political context.
Ukraine is compared with a broken car: “A car, which Yanukovych has to drive, is not
just broken and disordered, spit and written over by swear-words. Its motor is stolen,
its wheels are punched. It almost ran out of fuel. Will President Yanukovych be able to
make such a car move forward and if so, how far will he get?” (Zerkalo nedeli, №8,
27.02.2010)
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Thus, a metaphor of the path to Europe reflects a certain image of the
Eurointegrational process and, at the same time, is somehow programming further
actions in this direction. A certain vision of the world and a corresponding scenario of
actions are standing behind it. Those politicians, who use this scenario, are rarely able
to overstep its limits.
From another side, the path metaphor reconstitutes the dependent relations, i.e. it
implies the possibilities of EU’s control over the process of integration and the relations
with its neighbors. “It allows the EU to set the conditions the applicants have to fulfill if
they want to continue on the path towards the EU”. (Huelsse 2006, 412)
Ukraine as a bridge and Ukraine as a buffer
Perception and conceptualization of the European integration is tied directly with the
positioning of Ukraine towards Europe. There are typical metaphors of Ukraine here as
a bridge and Ukraine as a buffer. Both complexes of metaphors are used in the frame
of the geopolitical opposition of the West and Russia. The representation of Ukraine as
a bridge between Europe and Asia (Russia) is typical (Yavorskaya and Bogomolov 2010).
Ukraine – is a crossroad between the East and the West. “Ukraine is situated on the
border between Europe and Asia. Ukraine has to maneuver between its relations with
the West and Russia.” (Fakty 29.09.2010)
“Ukraine is ready to come out as a certain bridge in this question for rapprochement
of the EU and Belarus”- Yanukovych said (Segodnia, 09.06.2010).
In the post-colonial discourse, Ukraine is represented not even as a buffer, but as an
East-European outpost, or bastion. In this case Ukraine is a defender of the European
civilization from despotic, wild, barbaric Asia, which is associated, first of all, with Russia.
It is often criticized by many pro-Ukrainian politicians that Ukraine as a neutral buffer
between east and west will sacrifice in the name of European security.
Ukraine – as a buffer is a neutralizer between two worlds; a mediator, it used to have
and will have a stabilizing role in this “in-between”. For example, “Ukraine is ready to
become a bridge between the EU and other former Soviet republics” (Segodnia,
09.07.2010).
“Hungary – is a way to Europe for Ukraine. Ukraine – is a way to Russia and other
post-soviet countries for Hungary.” (Zerkalo nedeli, 11.02.2005)
Stable Ukraine is often presented as a condition of Europe’s security in this context.
The bridge fulfills a connecting function, drawing together cultures, nations and
countries. Politicians are “raising bridges”, helping to consolidate economic and political
ties between countries.
Followers of strengthening ties with Russia are using this frame as well (using
metaphor - Ukraine as a bridge between Europe and Russia), explaining that Europe
itself is interested in the partnership of Ukraine and Russia. This thesis has become
especially popular after Yanukovych’s return to power in 2010. Moreover, the
Yanukovych team often places Ukraine’s success in European affairs as a dependent of
good relations with Russia.
“The normalization of our relations with the RF not only doesn’t prevent Eurointegrational processes, but even helps them. United Europe needs an economically
strong, democratic Ukraine, which, together with Russia, contributes to the consolidation
of stability”, - President Yanukovych claimed (Segodnia, 24.08.2010).
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CONCLUSIONS
Europe is a powerful point of reference in Ukrainian public discussions. Ukrainian
media reflect the diversity of opinions and visions of the future direction of developing
country. The Ukrainian media also reflect a range of changes and ongoing conflicts on
the topic of European future of Ukraine. Ukraine is uncertain about its future in Europe.
Visions of Europe in the Ukrainian political discourse are heterogeneous and ambivalent.
The Ukrainian media widely employed a limited number of underlying conceptual
metaphors formed by previous experience, history and specifics of post-Soviet culture.
We distinguished a few typical ways of metaphorical representation of the European
integration in Ukrainian public discourse.
Firstly, the main role was played by metaphors of movement, where Eurointegration
is mostly depicted as a path (with different organic and mechanical attributes).
So, we can conclude that in Ukrainian public discourse spatial metaphors play a
dominant role, among which an important place is occupied by the metaphor of
European integration as a path and Ukraine as a bridge. Ukraine often appears as a
bridge between Russia and the rest of Europe, or as a bridge between Europe and Asia.
For the post-colonial discourse, it’s typical to present Ukraine not as a bridge, but as a
buffer, or even outpost. In this case Ukraine became a defender of the European
civilization from despotic, wild, barbaric Asia, which is associated, first of all, with Russia.
Secondly, the metaphor of Europe/European Union as a house/structure plays an
important role. Here the EU was often presented as an exclusive space to enter – closed
rich club or even fortress. Europe as an organism is not very typical for Ukrainian media
discourse. The more widespread vision of the EU is as a construction (building), which
was created with some purpose. The European Union is regularly depicted in Ukrainian
public discourse as a heavily guarded fortress looking for any opportunities to ‘limit’ or
‘deny’ access to other countries who do not already belong to the union. The EU was
also presented in the Ukrainian imagery by using the conceptual metaphor of the closed
elite’s club.
Thirdly, metaphors of personification represent the relations with the EU and the
Eurointegration process as persons involved in different kind of relations and have
emotions, human characteristics, etc. To this group we can probably also relate the
metaphor – European integration as a study process. The relations of EU-Ukraine are
presented here in the frame of teacher-student. In this frame Europe is clearly in the
dominant position, where the EU occupies the role of a teacher who has the right to
demand, evaluate and even dictate. These kinds of relations are widely criticized by the
opponents of European integration. Such asymmetrical relations have the following
consequence: the responsibility on the results and outcomes of European aspirations of
Ukraine lies on the side of the teachers, the European Union. Thus, this frame allows
some kind of passivity and mistakes for the Ukrainian side.
Perhaps the most visible tendency observed when we analyzed the metaphorical
representations of relations of Ukraine with European Union was that within each
identified frame, for every positive consideration there was a negative counterpart.
One of the characteristics of the Ukrainian public sphere and the way of presenting
politics in the media is a very high level of ‘personalization’ and ‘psychologization’ of
events and the actions of political actors. The personalized perception of political events
turned Ukrainian politics into an endless "soap serial" of personal relationships between
"actors". Personal-psychological interpretation of what is happening in Ukrainian politics
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triumphed in public discussion. It is also related to the representation of European affairs
by Ukrainian media.
Very often the Ukrainian media do not reflect the institutional and procedural issues
of decision-making and the implementation of public and foreign policies. The
personification of understanding the events in the public sphere has the effect of the
denial of the critical and rational discussion of the contents of public policy in favor of
emotive relationship to the events. A consequence of it is a total ‘psychologization’ and
‘personalization’ of political discourse in general, and foreign policy issues and relations
between Ukraine and the EU in particular.
The EU’s positive image, which is largely based upon stereotypes of the high living
standards and welfare in European countries, is the dominant factor in the Ukrainian
public opinion. “Sometimes the ‘European choice’ has tried to fill up the targeted vacuum
that had been created after the USSR’s collapse…” (Sushko and Parkhomenko 2003, 7)
The mythological or even a romantic image of Europe prevails in the public discourse
among the pro-European parts of the society. Ukrainians know so little about
contemporary Europe, that they are ready to accept any of the myths and stereotypes
depending on circumstances and dominant narratives.
Compared with 2005, in 2010 there was a visible and significant reduction in the
frequency of using the metaphor path to Europe in official discourse. We can agree with
Yavorska (2002), that the idea of Ukraine's path to Europe reflects a lack of awareness
of European identity for Ukrainians. In comparison - the relationship with Russia in that
period of time was conceptualized quite differently: to build a relationship with Russia,
it is necessary to just "do not turn your back on Russia"; there is no need for a path to
Russia because both countries are already close enough. Relations with Russia were
often conceptualized by using metaphors of the family or family relations (even if there
are stressed negative moments in relations). Konstantin Hryshchenko: “What is Europe
for us if Russia is our family? You know, we're all in the European family, just different
children, parents are the same.” (Segodnia, 22.03.2010) Although the opponents of
rapprochement with Russia often characterized the relationship between Russia and
Ukraine only as a relationship of neighbors. “Russia is our neighbor. Such geography is our destiny” - said Grigoriy Nemyria (Fakty, 21.01.2010).
Despite the rhetoric that remains similar, the change from the presidency of
Yushchenko to the presidency of Yanukovych shifted the vectors of Ukrainian foreign
policy. ‘European choice’ of Ukraine, together with the rhetoric of national revival, was
crucial during the period of Yushchenko presidency. And as the pragmatic framing of
the European integration was dominating the Ukrainian foreign policy narratives of the
Yanukovych government, it also affected the decisions and actions taken by the
Ukrainian government after 2010. President Yanukovych did not mention any more that
Ukraine is an ‘undivided part of Europe’, as Yushchenko claimed, but declared that
Ukraine would be a partner of Europe and act as a bridge ‘between the West and Russia’.
At the same time, European integration has remained a key object of political discourse.
After the return of Viktor Yanukovych to power, an economical frame in the European
integration issue was actualized. Ukraine's relations with the EU were described mainly
in official discourses as a ‘business partnership’. This is quite a logical consequence of
the declared ‘pragmatic’ approach to foreign policy proclaimed by the team of President
Yanukovych.
European integration is described in Ukraine with a tension between the two
discourses – the discourse of closeness and of openness. The European Neighborhood
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
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Policy was created for an opening of the door for Ukraine to Europe and as a ‘road map’
for the Ukrainian way towards the EU. Despite that, for the majority of Ukrainians it is
still unrealistic ‘dream’ where doors ‘rather closed’ then opened. The metaphor of closed
door shows that Ukraine is located outside of the European Union.
The images of doors being closed and safeguarded evoked an interpretation of the
European house in terms of a fortress. In this context the metaphor of doors - widely
used in different frames - also has the potential to be positive (if opened) and negative
(if closed). In the dominant Ukrainian perception – European doors are rarely opened to
admit newcomers, thus requiring them to constantly knock at the door while standing
outside.
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Knocking at the House with Closed Doors: European Integration in yhe Ukrainian Public Discourse
REFERENCES
Beer, F. A., De Landtsheer, C. (2004). Metaphorical world politics. Michigan State
University Press.
Börzel, T. (2010). The Transformative Power of Europe Reloaded. The Limits of
External Europeanization, KFG Working Paper Series, No. 11, February.
Charteris-Black, J. (2004). Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Chilton, P., Ilyin, M. (1993). “Metaphor in Political Discourse: the Case of the
‘Common European House’”, Discourse and Society, 4 (1):7-31.
Chilton, P. (2004). Analysing political discourse: theory and practice. Routledge.
Chong, D. & Druckman, J. (2007). Framing Public Opinion in Competitive
Democracies American Political Science Review 101 (November): 637-656.
De Landtsheer, C., De Vrij, I. (2004). “Talking about Srebrenica. Dutch Elites and
Dutchbat. How Metaphors Change during Crisis.” In Beer, F., De Landtsheer, C. (eds.)
Metaphorical World Politics. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, pp. 163189.
De Landtsheer, C. (1995). “Political Communication.” In Politics, Groups and The
Individual, V 2, Special issue on “How to make a politician”, (ed.) C. De Landtsheer.
Norderstedt, Germany: APP Verlag, pp. 1-20.
Huelsse, R. (2006). Imagine the EU: the metaphorical construction of a supranationalist identity, Journal of International Relations and Development, Nr 9: 396–421.
Lakoff, G. (1996). Moral Politics: What Conservatives Know that Liberals Don’t.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lakoff, G., Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.
Musolff, A. (2004). Metaphor and Political Discourse: Analogical Reasoning in
Debates about Europe, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Musolff, A. (2000). Political Imagery of Europe: A House Without Exit Doors?
Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, (21):216–29.
Popescu, N., Wilson, A. (2009). The Limits of Enlargement-lite: European and
Russian Power in the Troubled Neighbourhood. European Council on Foreign Relations
(ECFR).
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Radzievska T.V. (1997). Concept of the path in the Ukrainian language: combining
of ideas of space and movement. Movoznavstvo, № 4 – 5.
Ricoeur, P. (2003). The Rule of Metaphor: Multi-Disciplinary Studies in the Creation
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Ringmar, E. (2007). The Power of Metaphor: Consent, Dissent and Revolution. In
Mole, Richard C.M. (Ed.) Discursive Constructions of Identity in European Politics,
Palgrave Macmillan.
Sushko, O., Parkhomenko N. (eds.) (2003). European Integration of Ukraine: As
Viewed by Top Ukrainian Politicians, Businessmen and Society Leaders, Stefan Batory
Foundation, Warsaw.
Van Dijk, T. (1997). “What is Political Discourse Analysisς” In Blommaert, J.,
Bulcaen, C. (eds.) Political Linguistics, VI.
Yavorska G. (2002). Political rhetoric and reality of European integration [Politychna
rytoryka ta realii yevropeys`koii integratsii]. Viche, № 7:66 - 71.
Yavorskaya G., Bogomolov O. (2010). Nepevnyi ob'iekt bazhannia: Evropa v
ukrains'komu politychnomu dyskursi. [Vague Object of Desire: Europe in Ukrainian
Political Discourse] Kyiv.
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC]
doi: 10.17349/jmc118215
P-ISSN: 2056-9785
E-ISSN: 2056 9793
http://www.mediacritiques.net
jmc@mediacritiques.net
CONVERSION OF THE EXISTING MONITORING
INFRASTRUCTURE FOR MANUALLY BALLOT
COUNTING IN ALBANIA TO THE ELECTRONIC
COUNTING SYSTEM
ROMEO TENEQEXHI*
LORETA KUNESHKA**
ABSTRACT
Albania has been under communist regime for nearly half a century. In 1991 Albania entered
the path of democratic pluralism. Since then, almost a quarter of a century has passed and the
counting of votes after every electoral process has been fairly contested by the opposition.
Manipulations in the manual numbering process are evidenced in all the reports of the international
organizations responsible for monitoring of the elections in Albania. To minimize manipulation in
manual ballot papers counting, some centres are set up, equipped with computers, HD cameras
and big screens for monitoring purposes only. Every counting table (about 400 in total), according
to the law, engages 4-5 commissioners of main parties. The infrastructure mention above gives
the other parties the possibility just to observe the counting process. In 2013 parliamentary
elections had 72 political parties and imagine 72 people around a single counting table! Ballots
are passed manually one by one in front of the camera. During this process, the ballot papers are
grouped according to subjects and, in the end of each voting box, the manual counting starts. A
long period of time is needed to produce the final results of the elections. We propose and have
all the abilities to turn existing infrastructure into an electronic counting system. This monitoring
system (computers - cameras - big screens), through a software and some hardware adaptations
can be converted into an electronic counting system. Only one person is needed for each counting
table and the ballot counting time is drastically reduced. Every ballot gets photographed, archived
in digital format, its information goes to the Data Base and the results are reported in real time to
the Central Election Commission. No ballot papers can be left uncounted and no sheets can be
counted more than once.
Keywords: Ballots counting system, monitoring parliamentary election.
*
Director of Distance Education Centre, Polytechnic University of Tirana, Sheshi Nënë Tereza, Nr.4, Albania,
rteneqexhi@yahoo.com
**
Lector of Statistical, Medical University of Tirana, Albania, l_kuneshka@yahoo.com
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Conversion of the Existing Monitoring Infrastructure for Manually Ballot Counting in Albania to the
Electronic Counting System
INTRODUCTION
Albania has been in communist regime for many years after the Second World War.
In that regime counting the votes was not a problem at all. Only one political party was
present in the voting paper and the result have been always in the range of 99.99 %. It
sound strange but it is true. In 1991 Albania entered to the path of democracy but it
was not so easy as far as the election processes is concerned. During the period 19912008 numbering of the votes was caring out in the room of voting process. After the
closing of voting process, counting was done by the commissioners of 4-5 main political
parties. They often had manipulated the voting result. Small parties who did not have
their commissioners in the counting table have always claimed that their votes were
stolen by main parties. In 2008 Albanian parliament made some changes in the election
law. According to the changes only 3 commissioners from main parties would be
responsible in vote counting table, two of them from main parties and the third from the
third or the fourth party. Because of this the third party (LSI) entered in a hunger strike
inside the Albanian parliament (Figure 1) contesting this amendment. In 2011 we have
had another hunger strike, this time in front of Prime Minister’s Building, on the main
road of the city blocking traffic for many days. The opposition (PS) contested the result
of parliamentary election pretending that their votes had been stolen. They wanted to
reopen vote boxes and recount the votes. But this was impossible by the law.
Figure 1: Hunger strike inside the Albanian Parlament (banner: VOTES IS
SACRED)
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
209
Figure 2: Hunger strike in front of Albanian Prime Minister's building
After these two very sad events the Albanian government decided to organize
counting of votes in big places with some technical possibility for monitoring the counting
process. All the boxes come from different regions of Albania to some big places in main
cities to be counted, but in the same way. In the table there are four members belonging
to the main parties count the votes and the other parties has again to trust the result.
But this time they have the possibility, at list in principle, to monitor the process. In
photo 3 you see the infrastructure set up especially for monitoring the counting process.
The process is like this: every single voting paper passes manually in front of HD camera
and everybody in front of big monitor can see it. During this process a digital video is
recorded for future proposes and the commissioners gather the papers accordingly to
the parties the votes belong to. But imagine 72 subjects in the list of voting paper. It is
very important to underline that during this process there is no counting from the
commissioners, just grouping the papers. But the observers (the other parties) in front
of big monitors must count their votes, if they can. One must be very concentrated to
count the votes of his party from the monitor. It is a very tedious work. After all the
papers of the box have passed in front of the camera, counting process starts but, again,
there are possibilities to “make mistakes” and what is more important a long time for
outcome is needed. In 2013 Albanian government, under the pressure of opposition,
decided to use techniques in counting the votes. Implementing of techniques at once in
all the Albanian would be very risky and the time proved it. A Spanish company (INDRA)
had a contract with Albanian government for a pilot project to count the votes by
scanning the papers in the region of Fier and they started preparing and training people
for this process. But this project failed because of some technical reasons. Counting of
votes in this process is something like this: All the papers of a box first have to be
unfolded manually, make them strait and put carefully in a stack with head up,
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Electronic Counting System
mandatory. This stack of papers enters to the scanner and the software generates
alphanumeric information sufficient enough to produce the result. But this type of
scanner had the restriction of the maximum numbers of subject in a page to 42. Albanian
case was a strange one. In this election we had 72 parties registered in the Central
Commission of Election. This is way this project failed.
CONVERSION OF EXISTING INFRASTRUCTURE.
Figure 3: Existing monitoring infrastructure
In the picture 3 is showed existing monitoring infrastructure. In each table there is a
HD camera, a big monitor and a computer. It is possible to reconstruct and reassemble
all the elements of existing infrastructure in our system. In our device (figure 4) HD
camera is inside the reading device. This camera is connected to the computer. The
dimensions of this device are accordingly to the dimensions of the voting paper.
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
211
Figure 4: Optical vote counting device.
Every time you put a voting paper on the glass, you make it straight by a flexible
cover (not showed in the figure) and generate a click which says to the computer “take
a picture”. The software we have developed analyses this photo and find where the
check signs of the vote are. It does not matter if you put the head of the paper up or
upside-down, the software recognizes the voting paper and makes the necessary
decisions. The observers can see through the big monitor what happens with their
subject in every single paper. Software animates the corresponding logo making it bigger
easy to see even from far away. The table of results stays on the screen and is updated
after each voting paper. One of the most important things is that our system does not
count a paper twice even if you put it on the glass more than once. Every single voting
paper has a unique graphic element on it understandable only by the software. On the
other hand if a paper for any reason is not recognized with the first try, a red message
and a voice signal announces the operator not to go further but retry to read this paper.
The counting post needs only one operator. During counting process for every single
paper is also generated and saved a digital image. In the end of each box counting a
report is generated and printed. The results go also in real time to the Central
Commission of Election. You can see our device working in a video demonstration on
this link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uEe1YeiJhM&feature=youtu.be
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Electronic Counting System
BRIEF TECHNICAL OVERWIEW
READING
ON PRINCIPLE OF OPTICAL
Figure 5 shows the essence of optical reading. If a particular point P1 of an image
has coordinates x1, y1 in the display coordinative system, after printing and scanning it
has changed the location to the point P2. So during the scanning process, for many
reasons, each point P is shifted from the previous coordinates. Using 8 checkpoints
(small black circles) on the edges of voting paper, software we have developed by
VISUAL BASIC 6, understands where each point has gone. After this it is easy to control
if there is or there is not a spot (X or V sign) inside the check boxes. This technique are
used successfully by the authors in assessment of exams and competitions (*2)
Figure 5: Transformation of coordinates through print & scanning process.
Figure 6: Voting paper and picture taken by the reading device during testing
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
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IMPROVEMENT OF MONITORING
Monitoring or observation in the existing infrastructure is just a possibility but
practically it is impossible to attend numbering of each voting box. It is a very tedious
work, you must be focused on the screen in every single moment during the process
and you must have observers in each table. In our system observation is very easy, if
you want to observe the process. In fact observation is not necessary. Nobody can steal
your votes. Computer has no party. In figure 5 you can see haw the result is updated
after each picture taken by the device. Used logos are meaningless just for
demonstration. X in the last session of the voting paper means invalid vote. So you can
monitor the process even from faraway of the monitor.
Figure 5: Software Interface before and after taking the picture of voting paper.
CONCLUSIONS
Democracy streams from fair elections!
Stop vote counting by human in Albania!
Implement this simple device and go a little bit closer to the real democracy.
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Electronic Counting System
REFERENCES
Romeo Teneqexhi (2009) “Optical reader of encoded tables”, doctoral dissertation
PhD, Polytechnic University of Tirana, Albania
Romeo Teneqexhi (2017) “Scanner based assessment in exams organized with
personalized thesis randomly generated via Microsoft Word”, 11th E-Learning
International Conference MCCSIS 2017, Lisbon, Portugal.
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC]
doi: 10.17349/jmc118216
P-ISSN: 2056-9785
E-ISSN: 2056 9793
http://www.mediacritiques.net
jmc@mediacritiques.net
POPULISM: TOWARDS A STRATEGIC
COMMUNICATION FRAMEWORK
ARGYRO KEFALA
ABSTRACT
Populism has been extensively researched in the last few years due to the resurgence of the
phenomenon both in Europe and the USA. Most scholars have followed dualistic approaches
focusing on an either/or model of populism as an ideology, a discursive frame, or a political
strategy, and very little attention has been paid to the communicative aspects of populism. This
paper argues for the need to work towards an integrated model of interpretation that takes into
consideration the social, ideological, and political conditions that make populism possible or
thriving together with the communicative elements of populist phenomena, as they are
expressed in variant forms and duration in specific historical and social contexts. Evidence from
existing empirical and analytical work is applied in the framework of a Strategic Communication
model in an effort to enhance our understanding through a multidisciplinary perspective. It is
shown that contemporary populism as a multifaceted power strategy cannot be sufficiently
understood as a “communication style” or reduced to a “discourse analysis”, but it would rather
require a full examination and critical evaluation of political party strategies and media tactics,
marketing communications, public relations and advertising campaigns designed to influence
large audiences, utilizing multiple media platforms.
Keywords: Populism, Strategic communication, Political communication, Campaigns, Framing.
INTRODUCTION
In a comprehensive work that brings together insights from populist political
communication in Europe, it was clearly underlined that “it is more important now than
ever to map, dissect, and explicate the phenomenon of populist political
communication. As populism increases over time and space, we need to understand
how communication may be related to populism’s growth.” (Aalberg et al., 2016, p.1)
This need is highly substantiated by the fact that populist actors have gained impact
and/or office in several European countries, such as the case of Greece in 2014 and
2015 elections, the Italian national elections of 2018, the gains of the National Front in
France, the Brexit campaign led by the UKIP in the UK, and the resurgence of rightwing populism in several European countries.
Associate Professor, Deree-The American College of Greece. argykefala@acg.edu
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Populism: Towards a Strategic Communication Framework
The election of Donald Trump in the USA has stimulated a new interest in
researching populist phenomena. Given the fact that populist actors previously
marginalized or being completely outside the political system have increased their
electoral successes in many countries, it is important to explore to what extent the
emergence of populism is associated with or facilitated by their communication
strategies.
The first systematic comparative view brought together by Aalberg et al. (2016) has
largely enriched our understanding of populist communication by structuring the key
questions of research around the three major components of political communication,
which are: the political parties and candidates, the media and the citizens. The country
specific accounts included in this work have revealed the areas that have been
adequately researched but they have also pointed to a number of research areas that
have not been covered.
Although there have been several empirical studies examining populist discursive
frames (Aslanidis, 2015) focusing on qualitative discourse analysis and quantitative
content analysis of populist rhetoric, it seems there is a gap regarding the analysis and
understanding of the overall communication strategy of populist actors. Examining
populism at the speech level or as a “communication style” (Jagers & Walgrave, 2007)
is certainly important but a communication strategy is not limited to that; it is rather
built on the basis of many contextual macro societal and situational parameters and it
includes specific strategic and tactical components that need to be examined. This
paper addresses this gap by proposing a strategic communication approach, as a
unifying framework that will allow us to shed light to aspects of the populist
phenomenon from a communication perspective that has not been studied so far by
academic research.
A literature review on populism studies clearly shows that populism has been a
contested term which has led to different conceptual definitions and research paths.
Bonikowski and Gidron (2013) have provided a systematic review of research in the
field discussing three major approaches: the first focuses on “populism as an ideology”
(Mudde 2004, 2007; Kaltwasser & Mudde, 2012), the second considers populism as a
“discursive style” (Laclau, 2005; Panizza, 2005), and the third proposes an
understanding of populism as a mode of “political strategy” (Roberts, 2006; Wayland,
2001; Jansen, 2011). There are many other important works which belong in one of
the above categories and several sub-themes under each approach that make the
study of populism quite challenging. Since research on populism has been primarily
conducted by political scientists and sociologists, much attention has been given to
establishing relationships about why and how populist phenomena emerge (Albertazzi
& McDonnell, 2008) and setting the key criteria for populism, while the communication
dimension of populism has been limited to the study of “discursive frames”. Discursive
frames, important as they are, constitute aspects of a broader communication strategy
that needs to be examined.
The thesis of this paper is the following: first, a strategic communication approach,
in addition to the message strategy manifested in discursive frames, will allow us to
examine in detail all aspects of populist communication and, second it will provide a
theoretical framework for a dialogue between the “ideological” and the “discursive”
approach enhancing our understanding of populism as “political strategy” implemented
through a robust communication strategy. A strategic communication framework will
provide a synthesis of concepts and tools to examine communicative parameters not
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
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previously studied but it will also bridge and bring together research from the
dominant three academic perspectives in an effort to better understand populist
strategies.
TOWARDS A STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION FRAMEWORK FOR THE STUDY
OF POPULISM
As Hallahan et al., (2007, p.1) stated, the concept of “strategic communication” can
provide an integrating framework for the study of deliberate and purposeful
communications: “Six relevant disciplines are involved in the development,
implementation and assessment of communications by organizations: management,
marketing, public relations, technical communication, political communication and
information/social marketing campaigns. … at the beginning of the 21st century, these
disciplines function in a postmodern environment that stresses more holistic
approaches to examining organizational phenomena, while having to deal with
increasingly fragmented audiences and delivery platforms.”
As “strategic communication” has been an emergent field, Holtzhausen and Zerfass
(2013) have formulated a more holistic definition of the term to include the public
sphere because every purposive communication is enacted in the public sphere on
behalf of a communication agent. Therefore, strategic communication is a multifaceted
process not limited to internal stakeholders or organizational communication alone, but
it rather encompasses the overall presence and interaction of a communication agent
within the micro organizational and the macro societal level of what has been called
the “public sphere” as a constantly evolving and dynamic area, influenced by a number
of social and technological changes.
While there have been integrating frameworks in the past at the level of
campaigning, such as the Integrated Marketing Communication approach, the strategic
communication framework allows for further integration and synthesis, first at the level
of communication disciplines and second at the level of communication practice. At a
time when operational, technological and media convergence and the blurring of
disciplinary boundaries is the dominant tendency in communication practice (Jenkins,
2006; Sriramesh & Verčič , 2009 ) , a strategic communication analysis can offer the
much needed multidisciplinary perspective, an integrated approach which has been
already practiced by communication professionals. This is not an easy endeavour as
there are many methodological and case specific considerations. However, an attempt
to offer a preliminary framework for further research will allow us to examine new
questions on the overall strategy and effectiveness of communication actors. “As an
emergent field of study, strategic communication is unique in that it requires
integration of concepts, theories, and methods from diverse disciplinary domains”
(Werder, 2015, p.79)
The strategic communication framework proposed here includes the examination of
key strategic and tactical aspects through a synthesis of concepts from all
communication fields, highlighting the complexity of the analysis together with the
challenges of mapping the phenomenon. Because there are many variants of populism
that make generalizations difficult, the proposed framework will use examples primarily
from Greece during the current financial crisis. Greece has been a fertile ground for
many populist actors for a long period of time (Pappas, 2015) and since 2015 it has
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Populism: Towards a Strategic Communication Framework
been governed by a coalition of two populist parties, the Coalition of Radical Left
(SYRIZA) and the right-wing Independent Greeks (ANEL).
A comprehensive literature review of academic research on populism in Greece
(Papathanassopoulos et. al, 2016) has pointed to the gaps in research areas
concerning populist actors as communicators as well as the need for further research
on the relationship between Greek media and populism. This paper proposes a
framework which aims to contribute to the study of populist actors as communicators
through a strategic communication framework. Communication practitioners know that
for a strategic communication strategy to be effective all historical, contextual,
situational organizational and competition factors, as well as message strategies and
media tactics have to be taken into consideration and carefully designed and
implemented. Therefore, a strategic communication approach that is both theory and
practice driven may enhance our understanding of populist communication proposing a
multi-variable approach for further research. This framework of analysis will also allow
for the account of aspects which have been described as “neglected mechanisms” in
the study of populism, such as symbolic framing, charismatic leadership, polarization
(Pappas, 2016). In fact, these are mostly elements of the overall communication
strategy of a populist actor.
APPLYING THE STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION FRAMEWORK TO
POPULISM IN GREECE: A RESEARCH AGENDA
Historical-Contextual factors
Cas Mudde, a leading authority in the study of populism, in his analysis of populist
radical parties in Europe has identified and analyzed a number of “demand-side”,
“external-supply” and “internal-supply” parameters contributing to a positive
environment or a “breeding ground” (Mudde, 2007) for the emergence of populist
parties. In the case of Greece, there is evidence that several of these conditions have
been present for the last forty years, fertilizing the ground for the emergence of
populist actors. (Pappas & Aslanidis, 2015; Papathanassopulos et al., 2016)
Many authors have identified key political, social and economic parameters that
encourage populist strategies from both right and left of the political spectrum
providing thus evidence for the existence of variant forms of populism in the same
country. Also, the variation through time of the tone, intensity, and themes of populist
rhetoric by the same political parties such as the case of the Panhellenic Socialist
Movement (PASOK), and SYRIZA while in opposition and later in office (Pappas &
Aslanidis 2015) supports the evidence drawn from empirical research in the US that
points to the “dynamic and ideologically variable” nature of populism (Bonikowski,
2017).
Researchers have taken different approaches to studying populism in Greece,
reflecting the three key schools of thought previously described, in other words placing
emphasis either on ideational, discursive or strategy factors. Regarding the
examination of contextual parameters, a large part of the discussion draws from the
“cultural dualism” thesis which focuses on the problems and failures of reform and
modernization placing “people” in the position of the “underdog” versus “the elite”
(Diamandouros, 1994; Kalpadakis & Sotiropoulos, 2007). There is also a strong
presence of a nationalist rhetoric combined with an anti-modernization discourse which
has been largely influenced by the Greek Orthodox Church (Doxiadis and Matsaganis
2012). The failure of institutional and economic “modernization” as an issue requires
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
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further study as this has been central to the debate regarding the prolonged Greek
crisis, in the context of a larger discussion on the Europeanization issue (Featherstone
2007; 2014).
The question of Europeanization and the successful articulation of resentment by
populist forces against the European elite, the TROIKA and the European institutions
has been a dominant characteristic of populist rhetoric in Greece during the Greek
financial crisis. Academic research testing empirically the impact of Euroscepticism on
populism in Ireland and Poland has found “that the Europeanization of party
competition is just part of the explanation for the emergence of populism and may not
necessarily be linked to it. Political culture and the perception of a crisis possibly
represent stronger factors, while both studies show that populist rhetoric is not just
confined to the fringes but can also become a feature of the mainstream in party
politics.” (FitzGibbon & Guerra 2010, p.289). In Greece the crisis and the austerity
measures promoted the rhetoric of blame (Vasilopoulou et al., 2014)
While the “crisis” as a parameter has been considered in the analysis of populist
parties in Europe (Kriesi, 2014; Kriesi & Pappas, 2015), in the case of Greece the
“crises” has largely defined the social and political context for the emergence of new
political parties and political coalitions (Pappas, 2014). As Kriesi and Pappas (2015,
p.2) explained, “Everywhere, the crisis contributed to the erosion of existing party
systems...it caused tectonic changes in the established party system architecture (as,
for instance, in Italy and Ireland) and even party system collapse (most obviously in
the case of Greece)”. Pappas and Aslanidis have shown (2015, p.195) that political
populism has been present in Greece before the crisis but the crisis “facilitated the
reconstruction of new categories of the ‘people’ and their ‘foes’.
Furthermore, relevant to this issue is the discussion on globalization “… in
particular, the lack of responsiveness of established parties to the plight of the
‘globalization losers’ provided a chance for their mobilization by the new populist
right…” (Kriesi & Pappas, 2015, p.3). As a result, new cleavages were created that
gave rise to populist parties along the axis of globalization “winners” and “losers”. In
the case of Greece anti-globalization was manifested through an anti-European and
“anti-bailout front” uniting populists under a nationalist rhetoric. (Tsatsanis, 2011;
Pappas, 2014)
Situation Analysis
While macro level parameters are important in shaping favourable structural,
ideological, and cultural conditions for the emergence of populism in a specific country,
the particular situation defined by the national political context in relationship to the
larger international context has to be taken into consideration. This level addresses the
meso level and “external-supply side” parameters focusing on the political constraints
and opportunities present in the political institutional context.
If one studies populism as a “strategic power game aiming to transform potential
majorities into real ones by creating novel social cleavages “(Pappas, 2012, p.2) a
situation analysis will allow us to identify the opportunities that will offer the potential
advantage to the organization as well as the obstacles that need to be overcome. Even
crisis situations and obstacles can be turned into opportunities (Smith, 2013) when an
organization takes advantage of the specific situation and handles issue management
and risk management in a strategic way. A situation analysis based on strategic
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communication planning has also to consider questions of mobilization and how
grievances are articulated by the populist parties or movements. A key part of the
situation analysis will refer to specific research questions regarding the state of political
competition as well as mapping the media environment during the specific historical
conjuncture. Therefore, political communication research is vital at this point. Together
with the study of how populists successfully mobilize and communicate resentment
one has to study how political competitors respond or fail to respond to populists.
Muis and Imerzeel (2017) have summarized key relevant literature on “external
supply” and “internal supply side” research regarding populist radical right parties in
Europe. While there is a substantial body of research on right wing populism, there is
still research to be done on left wing populist parties and their mobilization strategies.
The case of Greece offers a unique, in many respects, example of a left-wing and a
right-wing governing populist coalition in Europe where party ideology differences have
not posed any obstacles or major internal conflicts, creating thus an example of a
harmonious collaboration between two seemingly different political actors, as shown
by the consensus formed during their first three years in office. This successful
coalition has questioned in practice the role played by “thick ideologies” and dominant
“discursive frames” and poses many interesting questions for further research on the
criteria of convergence among populist parties.
The organization
In the context of strategic planning in political marketing, the SWOT model allows
us to examine both the internal Strengths and Weaknesses and external Threats and
Opportunities for a populist organization. Majorities are organized by either new or
established organizations; therefore a SWOT analysis will help us understand the
organizational aspects of populist actors, such as their capacity to mobilize and the
leadership characteristics of “the charismatic leader” often cited as a major criterion of
populist strategies (Weyland, 2001; Pappas, 2012).
The question of organizational strength has been researched and most findings
conclude that this is not a crucial factor. Instead, they stress the fact that the luck of
funding, the minimal structure or lack of organizational strength forces populists to rely
on the media to increase their visibility and their calls of mobilization (Mazzoleni, 2003,
2008, 2014). This suggests that communication strategy plays a more critical role for
the emergence of populist actors compared to traditional or established political
parties. Leveraging the power of social media then could be another parameter to
investigate in terms of its organizational and mobilization capacity, balancing the
power or lack thereof strong organizational structures. Testing questions raised by
“internal political marketing” on resourcing, volunteering and other internal activities
will help us to define the organizational strengths and weakness of a populist
organization.
Another point that has been stressed by Mazzoleni (2008, pp. 49, 90) is that
“personal charisma and media savvy” play a part in the construction of populist
movements arguing that in situations of social and political malaise “both political and
media factors form a unique alliance”. In the case of Greece one has to examine how
the particular media system characterized by clientelism and special relationships with
the government (Papathanassopoulos, 2004) has responded to populism and how
“media populism” (Krämer, 2014) correlates to political populism.
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
221
Political Branding
Political branding is a key area of political marketing research which can extend our
understanding of what makes established political brands effective or ineffective and
how populist contenders build successful political party or political leader brands to
increase their influence. (Needham, 2006; Consgrove, 2012; Needham & Smith, 2015;
Scammell, 2015). As Needham (2006, p. 179) notes “In politics and the marketplace,
voters and consumers must negotiate the conflicts between loyalty to trusted brands
and the novelty of the new, while making sense of complex and conflicting product
information”. Based on the same analysis, which underlines the significance of
exploring the relationship between political parties as brands and political loyalty,
Needham stresses that this approach will help us to explain voter decision making in
“an environment where products (policies) are fairly fluid… (and secondly) in an
environment of informational complexity” (Needham 2006, p. 180).
The application of this approach cannot be limited to the study of incumbent
strategies or within the context of election campaigning alone. Brand building is a
continuous process affecting the entire procedure of relationship marketing, image and
reputation management throughout the electoral cycle. For example, drawing from
research on the branding of political leaders we can further examine the leadership
communication of successful populist leaders, since leadership characteristics feature
prominently in a large part of academic research on populism. (Busby, 2009)
It has been shown that effective political branding of well-established mainstream
parties can explain their long-term appeal and longevity in power. A study based on
cultural branding (Smith and Speed, 2011) has successfully linked cultural brands to
political marketing showing the importance of studying political parties or political
leaders as examples of successful cultural branding in a specific political market. In the
case of Greece, one may argue that the political branding and positioning of SYRIZA as
a novel “anti-establishment” political party drawing from and breaking at the same
time apart from the political and cultural legacy of PASOK was an attempt to both
reposition itself and benefit from themes and messages well established in the Greek
political market by the political hegemony of PASOK in the country since it was first
elected in 1981.
Publics and Audiences
Understanding the nature of contemporary publics, stakeholders and campaign
audiences is a very important aspect of strategic planning. Political marketing
practitioners employ political market research methods that include segmentation
techniques, polling, voter profiling, experimental research and big data as well as
several qualitative methods in the effort to understand public opinion and political
behaviour. It is important to note however that political communication research has
identified the challenges of “audience fragmentation” which takes place together with
“channel multiplication” (Gurevitch et al., 2009).
In studying populism, one has to examine how different audiences are addressed
and who are defined as the “people” among the constituents as opposed to the “elite”.
This is important not only from a message point of view, but it is also crucial from a
policy perspective when populist parties are in office. As Cas Mudde (2015) observes
“Populism’s black and white views and uncompromising stand leads to a polarised
society – for which, of course, both sides share responsibility – and its majoritarian
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extremism denies legitimacy to opponents’ views and weakens the rights of minorities.
While left-wing populism is often less exclusionary than right-wing populism, the main
difference between them is not whether they exclude, but whom they exclude, which
is largely determined by their accompanying ideology (e.g. nationalism or socialism)”.
Technological advances and big data analysis have been embraced by
communication practitioners and researchers. The Internet and social media were
heralded as providing a holistic communication framework to the benefit of strategic
communication addressing all stakeholders. However, academic studies have also
pointed to the possible dangers of “datafication” (Holtzhausen and Zerfass, 2015) and
the threats to individual privacy. The current case under investigation regarding the
breach of data by Facebook, involving third parties and election campaigns, as
revealed through congressional hearings, sheds a dark light on the possible misuses of
data mining and profiling on behalf of political parties and organizations. This issue
raises serious questions on micro-targeting employing public opinion manipulation
techniques but very little is known about which of the mainstream or populist political
parties have benefited from such methods. As Holtzhausen and Zerfass (2015) have
pointed out, this method of communication is “private” lacking transparency,
threatening at the same time the very notion of the public sphere. Moreover, it is a
secret form of communication which may take the form of dark propaganda, fake
news, psychological manipulation and misinformation that cannot be publicly debated.
Action and Response Strategies
Effective strategic communication involves a number of proactive and reactive
strategies (Smith, 2013). While there are many differences between corporate and
political public relations (Strömbäck & Kiousis, 2013) one can find many successful
applications of public relations strategies in political parties and organizations. For
example, we need to investigate how populist parties are engaged in activism and
symbolic action. Proactive strategies may be commonly used by all political parties,
but there are specific strategies such as the use of offensive action, attack and
embarrassment against the incumbents, the moral enemies and the “elite” that need
to be investigated in the context of populist strategies. Additionally, as it was noted in
the case of the SYRIZA rhetoric regarding their negotiation strategy with the
“institutions” for the bailout program in 2015, a key question worth investigating is
how and to what extent they adopted “strategic ambiguity” as a key strategy in their
first year in office.
Message Strategy
Following the well-established research tradition of the discursive approach, there
are several studies engaging in discourse analysis of both left wing and right-wing
rhetoric (Stavrakakis, 2002; Stavrakakis & Katsambekis, 2014) that have identified the
major message themes and ideological variations of Greek populist actors. Populist
discursive frames constitute a major component of analysis revealing the content,
ideological influence and moral dichotomies of populism; however, discourse analysis
can explain only a part of the overall message strategy of a populist actor.
Drawing from communication theory and public relations research, Hallahan (1999,
p.224) rightly emphasizes that “In developing programs, public relations professionals
fundamentally operate as frame strategists, who strive to determine how situations,
attributes, choices, actions, issues, and responsibility should be posed to achieve
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
223
favourable outcomes for clients. Framing decisions are perhaps the most important
strategic choices made in a public relations effort”. Research on populism will benefit
from a broader analysis of framing strategies and how these have been used in
populist communication.
For example, the analysis of populist frames can be enhanced when examined in
the context of “issue framing” and in connection to “agenda building” processes with
the media, which are part of the overall political strategic process. In addition to using
populist moralizing frames along the line of “us” versus the “others” and the good
“people” versus the bad “elite”, populist language very often uses doublespeak,
defamation and propaganda techniques, such as slanting and name calling that need
further empirical examination. Using ethical language is a core recommendation in the
practice of strategic public relations. As Smith (2013, p. 211) points out “doublespeak
is outright dishonest language meant to obscure the real meaning behind the words”.
Also, defamatory language in the form of libel and slander should be avoided based on
both ethical considerations and effective communication principles. It appears that
name calling against the enemies using negative labels such as “traitors”, “terrorists”,
“Nazis”, the use of defamation techniques against the opponents and doublespeak in
association with adopting strategic ambiguity have been important aspects of populist
communication that require further investigation.
Regarding non-verbal and visual communication, the use of symbols, such as
displaying the national flag by right wing populist parties and the dress code adopted
by party officials based either on nationalist military themes or on popular “plain folks”
symbolism (for example refusal to wear a tie signifying an anti-elite stand) together
with kinesics and vocalics or paralanguage are elements of the nonverbal message
strategy which adds to our understanding of populist manifestations.
In a broader context, if modern populism is a form of “democratic illiberalism”
(Pappas, 2016) one can legitimately raise normative questions regarding the
communication strategies used by populist actors as they connect to specific
outcomes. For example, in a context of liberal democracy the “persuasion model” and
the “dialogue” model of communication are both acceptable against the propaganda
model which is “associated with half-truths and hidden agendas” (Smith, 2013, p.173).
In other words, the empirical research of populist frames may present certain
methodological advantages without carrying a normative load as Aslanidis has argued
(2015) but the entire communication discipline from Aristotle to date has incorporated
normative considerations in communication practice, especially since this practice leads
to specific outcomes. This is certainly a long discussion that cannot be addressed
within the limits of this paper.
Communication tactics
Populist organizations use interpersonal, organizational, traditional, digital and
social media in their communication programs that need to be studied. A recent crossnational study (Engesser et al., 2017) on four European countries (Austria, Italy,
Switzerland, and the UK) exploring the relationship between populism and social media
has found that populist actors use a “hybrid communication strategy”; they manifest
themselves in social media in a “fragmented form; the social media logic allows for the
use of strong language and facilitates the application of “personal action frames”.
Another interesting study (Krzyżanowski & Ledin 2017) on right wing populist
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Populism: Towards a Strategic Communication Framework
discourse in Austria and Sweden focuses on what they call an online “uncivil society”
being the “essence of populism” and promoting views that undermine the core values
of liberal democracy. Zeri (2014) has examined how crisis discourse was framed in the
Greek political blogosphere among extreme groups but there is a lot more to be
investigated in that area. This is certainly a field of research that requires more
attention with the current expansion of online strategies at a time when social media
are criticized for allowing or engaging in “post-truth” practices.
CONCLUSIONS
The key aim of this paper was to address a gap in academic research regarding the
communication strategies of populist actors. The study of populist phenomena has
followed so far, an either/or logic focusing on ideational, discursive or political strategy
parameters and has paid little attention to their communication aspects. The argument
presented here is that a theory and practice driven strategic communication framework
for the study of populism will enhance our understanding of populist phenomena
bringing together concepts and insights from all relevant communication fields and
advancing an interdisciplinary dialogue in academic research. Strategic communication
is an indispensable strategy of populist actors and requires further investigation. The
conceptual and theoretical framework this paper proposed and applied to Greek
populism provides a solid outline of a new research agenda on interrelated themes and
communication variables that can be empirically tested with specific populist actors
and in a country specific social and political environment. Because it draws from many
disciplines it can utilize the appropriate research and evaluation methods used in all
relevant fields and contribute to a better understanding of populist strategies.
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
225
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DIGITAL FORENSIC COMPARISON OF FINGERPRINTS
LYN HABER
ABSTRACT
Technology has changed how forensic evidence is processed. Prior to the 1980’s, fingerprints
were compared by humans. Today they are routinely compared digitally, although an examiner
often makes the final judgment. In more than 50% of fingerprint cases in the U.S., Automated
Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS) search large databases in cases where police have no
suspect. This entirely novel procedure has much potential for error: (1) Search systems are
proprietary, it is unknown how accurately these systems locate the correct target when it is in
the database; (2) As databases increase in size, the probability of erroneous matches increases;
(3) AFIS ranks and scores candidate prints according to their similarity to the inputted print,
biasing examiners; (4) Because AFIS technicians must pre-process the print in order to submit it,
they make decisions about ambiguous features that can lead to errors; (5) Examiners “see” and
encode different features, so that the same print, submitted by different examiners, results in
different candidates; (6) When no high scoring candidates appear, examiners may re-submit the
print using different features -- a high AFIS score is based on less likely features. I conclude that
technology has run far ahead of solid research documenting the accuracy with which humans
can employ it.
Keywords: digital fingerprint comparison, AFIS, comparison biases, erroneous identifications,
AFIS research.
INTRODUCTION
A home has been burglarized. The only clue is a single fingerprint, which is taken
to a fingerprint examiner. The police have no suspect.
Prior to the 1980’s, the fingerprint examiner’s task was to look through files of
fingerprints from known criminals, in order to find one that matched this fingerprint
clue. Forensic fingerprints were categorized and compared by humans. Today, it is
estimated that in over 50% of the fingerprint criminal cases in the U.S., the police rely
on computer searches to produce likely perpetrators. This is an entirely novel
procedure.
As cities grew in size and so did databases of known prints, these time-consuming
searches became ineffectual and unrealistic. Today gigantic digitized fingerprint
PhD., Partner, Human Factors Consultants. 313 Ridgeview Drive, Swall Meadows, CA 93514 USA
lhaber@humanfactorsconsultants.com
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Digital Forensic Comparison of Fingerprints
databases of known criminals, terrorists and deportees are searched and compared by
computer in a matter of minutes. The computer systems that make these searches are
generically called Automated Fingerprint Identification systems (AFIS).
Digital
comparisons have spread to other forensic pattern disciplines, such as tool marks and
DNA.
This paper identifies problems with computer driven digital forensic comparisons,
using fingerprints as an example, and describes the all too scanty research that shows
these problems can lead to erroneous identifications.
TWO KINDS OF SEARCH PROCEDURES
A major component of an AFIS database is the carefully taken record of all ten of a
known criminal’s fingers. If the police have a suspect in hand, they can take an
impression of all ten of his fingers and compare them to criminals’ prints already in the
database. This procedure is useful if the suspect has previously committed a crime, or
is using an alias, or has been previously deported. Increasingly in use in these cases
is a procedure called “lights out,” in which the comparison and conclusion are made
digitally, with no human oversight. Because both the stored image and the inputted
prints are typically of excellent quality, these search results are believed to be as high
as 99% accurate (Moses, 2014).
If the police have no suspect, the crime scene print from an unknown person is
compared to every known fingerprint in the database. Crime scene prints (latent
prints) are often of very poor quality. The examiner pre-processes the target latent,
usually by marking features for the AFIS to use. Laboratory protocol or a human
examiner determines how many “candidates” she wants the AFIS to display, and the
examiner compares each of the candidates produced.
AFIS outputs include a similarity score -- how similar, according to the algorithm of
that AFIS, the inputted latent is to the exemplar in the system; and a position ranking,
such that the highest scoring candidate appears first.
FINGERPRINT BASICS
The corrugated skin on human fingertips and the undersides of fingers (and
undersides of toes and feet) is called friction ridge skin. This consists of ridges and
grooves arranged in patterns that develop largely randomly in the fetus. When a
suspect is fingerprinted by the police, all ten fingers are carefully printed or scanned.
This is called a tenprint (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: A Tenprint
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An accidental fingerprint from an unknown source is called a latent or a mark; a
carefully made impression from a known source is called an exemplar (see Figure 2).
Figure 2: A Latent (Left) and An Exemplar (Right), Both Enlarged
Historically, several general patterns of ridge flow were observed. Descriptions of
these very general patterns differ. These basic ridge flow patterns cannot be used to
identify someone because there are only a few different ones, but they are very useful
for quickly excluding a suspect. Figure 3 shows the most common pattern, called a
whorl.
Figure 3: A Whorl. The Pattern is Schematized in the Righthand Image. Both Are
Enlarged
The flow of ridges is described in relation to the core and the delta of the
fingerprint. Core refers to the “approximate center of the finger impression” (Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI), 1988); delta is much more rigorously defined as “the
area on the friction ridges where three ridge systems meet” (Ashbaugh, 1999). In a
whorl, the ridges make a circle around the core (the small circle in the exemplar to the
right in Figure 3). Two deltas occur, below and to either side of the core. In other
general patterns, such as left and right loops, the locations of the delta and core are
also predictable.
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Digital Forensic Comparison of Fingerprints
The most common components of a fingerprint used for identifications are called
features or minutiae or points (three words for the same characteristics, see Figure 4).
Figure 4: Examples of Minutiae in a Greatly Enlarged Exemplar. A Ridge Ending
(circled bottom center) and Two Bifurcations (circled upper center)
There are a number of different feature descriptions. Figure 4 shows the two must
commonly in use. There are at least twenty other minutiae in Figure 4 that have not
been circled.
THERE ARE NO CONSISTENT, RIGOROUS DESCRIPTIONS OF PATTERNS
Olsen (1978) identifies eight general pattern types; Champod et al. (2004)
distinguish only four. The authors observe: “We have to recognize that any
partitioning scheme is a simplification of the continuum of papillary flow patterns that
fingerprints may possess” (p. 17), italics added.
THERE ARE NO CONSISTENT, RIGOROUS DEFINITIONS OF FEATURES
Ulery et al. (2014) asked 170 skilled examiners to examine 22 pairs of latent and
exemplar prints. The examiners annotated the features in the latent and the
corresponding features in the exemplar and judged whether the prints matched. The
authors found extensive variability in both annotations and conclusions. They attribute
this variability in part to the absence of consistent definitions of what a feature is, and
that there are no rigorous definitions of what features look like.
CHARACTERISTICS OF AFIS’s
The name AFIS is unfortunate, because these systems were intended to search, not
to identify. In the early 1980’s, a number of different algorithms were in use; prints
were encoded in varying ways; and different search systems were incompatible. In
the late 1990’s, the FBI developed an Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification
System (IAFIS) to insure compatibility among search systems. Today, although
different systems have different search algorithms, a given print can be submitted to a
wide number of databases. These databases are steadily increasing in size. The FBI
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
235
database is the largest in the U.S.: it contains images of more than 60 million people’s
tenprints (Dror, I.E., & Mnookin, J.L., 2010).
AFIS ALGORITHMS ARE PROPRIETARY, THEIR ACCURACY IS UNKNOWN
A number of companies offer AFIS programs (e.g., ImageWare Systems, AFIX
Technologies, and NEC Corporation of America). These companies provide self-serving
data about the accuracy of their search algorithms. One experiment, performed by a
group of researchers with no stake in the outcome (Cole et al., 2008) used a U.S.
database from the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST). The
authors selected a subset of 6,750 mated exemplar prints. One exemplar was inputted,
then the AFIS searched for its mate, which was a different exemplar of the same
finger from the same person. Ten candidates, each assigned a score indicating its
similarity to the target print, were produced for each search. Cole et al. (2008) found
that when an exemplar from a “suspect” was compared with a different exemplar from
that suspect, the computer found the correct exemplar and ranked it the most similar
75% of the time. The computer ranked the correct exemplar among the remaining 9
candidates 4% of the time. The remaining 21% of the time, the true match was not
included among the top ten candidates. These results show that this AFIS erroneously
gave a significant number of non-matching exemplars top or high scores, even when
the correct match was in the database.
Cole et al. (2008) also tested whether the AFIS could correctly match a latent to
the correct exemplar in the database.) When a latent was submitted, the computer
ranked the correct exemplar highest 70% of the time and ranked it among the
remaining top 9 candidates 12% of the time. For the remaining 18% of the searches,
the AFIS failed to find the correct exemplar. This finding is consistent with Moses’s
(2014) estimate of 70-80% accuracy for AFIS’s, based on latent print acceptance test
requirements commonly found in AFIS proposals and contracts.
The results have not been tested for when the true source of the target exemplar
or latent is not in the database. In every one of these cases, every candidate produced
by the AFIS is from a person innocent of this crime. Some candidates may be
sufficiently similar to the latent that the examiner will make a mistaken identification.
AS DATABASES INCREASE IN SIZE, THE PROBABILITY OF ERRONEOUS
MATCHES INCREASES
As databases increase in size, a larger number of very similar exemplars are found
by the computer algorithm. The chances of a lookalike print that came from some one
else but is very similar to the latent, are much higher (Dror et al., 2005; Cole, 2005;
Mnookin, 2004.) Further, a partial, distorted latent is more likely to “match” more than
one exemplar in the database. For these two reasons, very large databases increase
the probability of erroneous matches. The legal system and the forensic professions
have yet to address this problem.
EXAMINERS PRE-PROCESS THE LATENT BEFORE SUBMITTING IT TO
AFIS, RESOLVE AMBIGUOUS FEATURES, INTRODUCING POSSIBILITIES OF
ERROR
AFIS’s are not designed to extract features automatically from unclear prints such
as typical latents. The examiner identifies minutiae information by marking up the
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Digital Forensic Comparison of Fingerprints
latent. The AFIS algorithm depends on those features. If an examiner selects an
ambiguous feature, he makes a firm choice when he defines it. If the choice is wrong
– he inputted a ridge ending instead of a bifurcation – the AFIS produces only
candidates with a ridge ending in that location. Every one of those candidates is
incorrect, but some may look as if they match the guilty latent. Figure 5 illustrates this
problem.
Latent
Wrong (Ridge Ending)
Correct (Bifurcation)
Figure 5: An Ambiguous Feature (far left). Does the Examiner Input this as a Ridge
Ending (middle) or a Bifurcation (right)?
EXAMINERS PRE-PROCESS THE LATENT BEFORE SUBMITTING IT TO
AFIS, MAKING SUBJECTIVE DECISIONS ABOUT WHICH FEATURES TO USE
An examiner marking up a print to submit it to AFIS does not mark every feature.
Instead, she selects features in an area where the print is relatively clear, preferably
around a feature-rich area such a delta (see the “triangle” in the lower left of Figure
4). The features she selects determine which candidates the AFIS will produce. This
means that different examiners, selecting different features, will be shown a different
set of candidates. There are rich possibilities for error.
WHEN NO HIGH SCORES OCCUR, EXAMINERS MAY RE-SUBMIT THE
LATENT USING DIFFERENT, LESS LIKELY FEATURES
Moses (2014) comments that “success” – finding the correct match – ‘commonly
occurs only on multiple attempts to submit a given latent’. This is accomplished by
varying the features submitted or searching other databases that may have different
copies of the subject’s prints. The OIG (2006) observed that examiners develop
knowledge about how to re-encode minutiae to generate a different set of candidates.
Each time an examiner re-submits a latent, having changed the features selected, he
is using less and less likely features. The candidate who finally receives a high score
and appears to be a match, is less and less likely to be the true source.
POTENTIAL BIAS INTRODUCED BY AFIS SCORES AND RANKING THAT
COULD RESULT IN ERRONEOUS MATCHES
HIGH AFIS SCORES MAY BIAS EXAMINERS
The fingerprint examiner’s marking up the latent is not the only source of error in
AFIS searches. Dror & Mnookin (2010) suggested that AFIS scores might bias
examiners toward identifying the highest scoring candidate.
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
237
HIGH AND LOW AFIS RANKINGS BIAS EXAMINERS
Psychological and cognitive research have shown a bias towards choices in first
position (e.g., Mantoakis et al., 2009). Dror & Mnookin (2010) expressed concern
that exposure to AFIS ranking might bias examiners. In practice, examiners are
supposed to compare the unknown target print with all of the candidates produced by
the AFIS. However, examiners who find a match rarely continue to compare the
remaining candidates. An identification is an absolute.
Dror & Wertheim (2011) tested 23 experienced, skilled latent print examiners using
160 latents and their matching exemplars. Like Cole et al. (2008), they used a NIST
data set: this one contained over 3,000 known tenprint files. The authors inserted the
correct matching print into some of the AFIS lists, varying its placement at or near the
top (candidate number 1, or 2 or 3); or at or near the bottom. The examiners were
required to make comparisons for every candidate. The results showed that erroneous
identifications were significantly more likely when the candidate was at the top of the
list; and examiners spent less time on lower ranked candidates (and failed to find
those identifications). AFIS rank biased these examiners.
SCIENTIFIC ISSUES INCREASE ERRONEOUS AFIS MATCHES
TWO FINGERPRINTS FROM DIFFERENT SOURCES ARE CONFUSABLE
Fingerprint texts allege that no two fingers have the identical pattern of ridges and
grooves – fingers are unique (Ashbaugh, 1999; Champod et al., 2004). However, the
friction ridge skin on your finger is flexible, squishy, and three-dimensional. When you
make a fingerprint, you press that flexible skin, distorting the pattern on it. You also
transform a three-dimensional pattern into two dimensions, a further distortion. As a
result, no two impressions from the same finger are alike. This is why the computer
was inaccurate in the Cole et al. (2008) study. Fingerprint examiners, like AFIS
systems, are judging the amount of similarity between two prints, not identity. When
the unknown print is a latent, left inadvertently, it is typically smudged, smeared,
partial, on a dirty surface, on an uneven surface, and distorted further by whatever the
perpetrator was doing at the time, such as twisting a doorknob, or raising a window.
The examiner’s task is then very difficult. Fingerprints can be confusable because
exemplars from two different people are very similar, as in the Mayfield case
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Mayfield; Office of the Inspector General
(OIG), 2006; Stacy, 2004); or because multiple distortions in the latents create
similarity, as when photographs of two different people are blurry, with low contrast,
and lead you think they look like the same person.
EXAMINERS “SEE” DIFFERENT FEATURES
Several research studies have shown that experienced examiners disagree about
which features are present in a given print (Evett & Williams, 1996; Langenburg, 2004;
Langenburg et al., 2009). Again, different examiners, inputting different features, will
cause AFIS to produce different candidates, some of which may be very similar to the
marked up latent. The correct match may or may not appear. Erroneous identifications
become likely.
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Digital Forensic Comparison of Fingerprints
CONCLUSIONS
Because AFIS algorithms are strictly proprietary, the accuracy of each system is
unknown. Cole et al. (2008) and Moses (2014) suggest a range of 70-80% accuracy
when a latent is submitted to AFIS and the correct exemplar is in the database. This
range does not seem to be acceptable for use in court, yet AFIS results are heavily
relied on in courts in the U.S. today, as well as in Europe and Japan. Accuracy when
the correct exemplar is not in the database is unknown.
Dror & Mnookin (2010) discussed potential cognitive problems with AFIS’s,
including multiple exposures to bias. A few of the research studies described above
documented that these exist. No effort has been made to control exposing examiners
to bias from AFIS information.
Other problems with the use of AFIS stem from inadequacies in fingerprint science,
such as the absence of a rigorous feature description.
Little has been written and less tested about the kind of training needed by AFIS
technicians.
Absent also is what constitutes an adequate level of proficiency.
Courts and pattern comparison disciplines increasingly rely on automated search
system results, results for which under many conditions the accuracy is unknown.
Dependence on AFIS has introduced a number of possibilities for erroneous matches,
which are not being carefully researched and controlled.
The availability of digitally represented complex forensic patterns, such as
fingerprints, that can be searched and compared by computer technology, has been a
boon to the criminal justice system. However, the technology has been put into
widespread use before its accuracy has been demonstrated, and it is open to many
sources of error that could result in putting innocent people in prison. The error rate
for latent to exemplar searches alone appears to have a range of 20% to 30%, apart
from further potential for error introduced by human bias and imprecise science. Yet
more than 50% of criminal fingerprint cases in the U.S. rely on these searches.
The Technology Tail is wagging the Forensic Dog.
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
239
REFERENCES
Ashbaugh, D.R. (1999). Quantitative-Qualitative friction ridge analysis: An
introduction to basic and advanced ridgeology. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Champod, C., Lennard, C., Margot, P. & Stoilovic, M. (2004). Fingerprints and
other ridge skin impressions. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Cole, S.A. (2005). More than zero: accounting for error in latent fingerprint
identification. Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, 95, pp. 985-1078.
Cole, S.A., Welling, M., Dioso-Villa, R., & Carpenter, R. (2008). Beyond the
individuality of fingerprints: a measure of simulated computer latent print source
attribution accuracy. Law, Probability and Risk . 7, pp.165-189.
Dror, I.E., Peron, A., Hind, S. & Charlton, D. (2005). When emotions get the better
of us: the effect of contextual top-down processing on matching fingerprints. Applied
Cognitive Psychology, 19(6), pp. 799-809.
Dror I.E., Mnookin J.L. (2010). The use of technology in human expert domains:
challenges and risks arising from the use of automated fingerprint identification
systems in forensic science. Law Probability and Risk, 9, pp. 47–67.
Dror, I.E., & Wertheim, K. (2011). Quantified assessment of AFIS contextual
information on accuracy and reliability of subsequent examiner conclusions. Final
Draft Technical Report, DoJ/NIJ grant #2009-DN-BX-K224.
Evett, Z.W., & Williams, R.L. (1996). Review of the 16 point fingerprint standard
in England and Wales. Journal of Forensic Identification, 46, pp. 49-73.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (1988). The science of fingerprints: classification
and uses. Revised Edition. Washington D.C.: United States Department of Justice.
Langenburg, G. (2004). Pilot study: a statistical analysis of the ACE-V method –
analysis stage. Journal of Forensic Identification, 54, pp. 64-74.
Langenburg, G., Champod, C., & Wertheim, P. (2009). Testing for potential
contextual bias effects during the verification stage of the ACE-V methodology when
conducting fingerprint comparisons. Journal of Forensic Sciences, 54(3), pp. 571-582.
Mantoakis, A., Rodero, P., Lesschaeve, I., & Hastie, R. (2009). Order in choice:
Effects of serial position on preferences. Psychological Science, 20, pp. 1309-1312.
Mnookin, J.L. (2004). The Achilles’ heel of fingerprints. Washington Post, p.A27.
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Moses, K. (2014). Automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS). The
Fingerprint Sourcebook. WA DC, National Institute of Justice, pp. 1-33.
Office of the Inspector General (2006). Oversight and Review Division, U.S.
Department of Justice. ‘A Review of the FBI’s Handling of the Brandon Mayfield
case’.
Olsen, R.O. (1978). Scott’s Fingerprint Mechanics. Springfield, IL: Charles C
Thomas Publisher.
Stacy, R.B. (2004). Report on the erroneous fingerprint individualization bombing
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Ulery, B.T., Hicklin, A.R., Roberts, M.A., & Buscaglia, J. (2014). Measuring what
latent fingerprint examiners consider sufficient information for individualization
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PLoS
One,
9(11).
Available
at:
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0110179
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC]
doi: 10.17349/jmc118218
P-ISSN: 2056-9785
E-ISSN: 2056 9793
http://www.mediacritiques.net
jmc@mediacritiques.net
DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY AS A SOURCE OF CREATIVE
ORGANIZATIONAL RESOURCE AND SERVICE
DELIVERY: BUILDING A CLIMATE FOR
ORGANIZATIONAL CREATIVITY WITH DELIBERATIVE
DEMOCRACY
TOMI NIEMI
ABSTRACT
Article suggests that deliberative democracy enables creative climate for organizational
development connecting organizational creativity and digitalization together. Deliberative
democracy processes deliver a solution for organizations to benefit digital transformation in
creative ways. Three factors of digitalization, organizational creativity and deliberative
democracy have different roles in the equation but when connected they create a functional
opportunity for the use of digital possibilities. Developing digital era provides endless
opportunities and advantages for people and organizations but along changing times comes also
challenges and unexpected consequences. Rapidly developing digital technology is leading the
way in connectivity, interaction and opening novel ways to offer services and design products.
Along digitalization people’s needs and demands are following the path of developing digital
solutions. In these changing times, organizations are confronting a new era where technology is
showing the way of new organization culture with the characters of transparency, participation
and immediate responsiveness. Success requires the need for keeping up with the pace of digital
development and foreseeing future possibilities and anticipating coming consequences.
Creativity functions as a partner with digital technology enabling new discoveries from digital
sources. Organizational creativity applies divergent and diverse approaches for the development
of unique, novel and useful solutions for the greater performance of organizational operations.
This article identifies deliberative democracy as potential option for creative development
processes. Article concludes by recognizing the interconnectedness between considered
concepts.
Keywords: Digital technology, Digital transformation, Organizational creativity, Organization
development, Deliberative Democracy.
Doctoral Student, Social and Health Management, School of Management, University of Vaasa, PL 700,
65101 Vaasa, Finland. tomi.niemi@univaasa.fi
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Digital Technology as a Source of Creative Organizational Resource and Service Delivery:
Building a Climate for Organizational Creativity with Deliberative Democracy
INTRODUCTION
Digitalization has brought a technological change to individuals and societies that is
affecting nearly everyone, nearly everywhere. The development of computer and
internet technology has created a digital transformation that is affecting
comprehensively our way of operating and interacting. (Reddy & Reinartz, 2017.)
Digital transformation reaches us everywhere, it influences our way of living, working
and even our relation to others. Among its reachability, technological infiltration brings
drastic changes which require energy for adaptation and the resilience to conquer the
fear of change. (Bajer, 2017.) The diffusion of digital technology and the internet is
breaking boundaries in work and life where barriers use to exist. The
interconnectedness of everything through digital technology is a feature of shaping
more complex reality, where everything is affecting everything. (Lanzolla & Anderson,
2008.) In a changing world public sector and business actors cannot rely on traditions
that have once proven successful when technological development is changing the
demand and supply all the time. During digital change people’s relationship with their
mobile devices and online networks has grown stronger, as they are handling social
interactions with friends and family, professional relations to work and to different
institutions through digital means. Behavioral changes and growing expectations for
digital interaction raises demand for service providers to adapt and adopt to the digital
era. (McNutt, 2014.)
Due to its intrusive nature, digital transformation is offering benefits to a wide
sector of users, from organizations to customers, individuals to societies. Digitalization
is shaping organization’s operating culture and moving organization boundaries
between sectors. Changing work culture promises greater efficiency and effectiveness
through the integration of new technologies. (Reddy & Reinartz, 2017.) Many times,
technological solutions act as the driver for change and for the nature of constant
development and newness they can also be seen as a major source of innovation as
they enable the easy creation and testing of new solutions. (Bekkers, 2012.) Creativity
allows us to change the shape of the future, by looking at events from multiple
perspectives we are able to recognize possible consequences and forecast future
scenarios (Robinson, 2011). Creating new knowledge or doing something for the first
time may provide this critical understanding and advantage over the surrounding
challenges that is needed for future sustainability. (Woodman et al., 1993)
In this article deliberative democracy is proposed to offer a creative climate for the
development of organizational operations and services. Digitalization provides
rewarding content for creative development with its endless possibilities and constantly
developing features. Creativity within organization is about people, but also about the
whole environment, so in creative development it is needed to consider holistically the
whole operation environment with all of its actors and dimensions (Amabile, 1988).
Deliberative democracy aims for the informed decisions and creation of solutions that
are the production of justified and well considered reflection and debate between
relevant parties. This way deliberative processes provide a pleasing climate for the
exchange of ideas and opinions, therefore creating a development-friendly
surrounding. (Habermas, 2006.) Digital technology with its constantly developing
characteristics functions as perfect platform for creativity, offering unexpected
solutions and opportunities for organization’s benefit. Deliberative democracy delivers
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
243
a solution for organizations to benefit digitalization in creative ways. In deliberative
processes people are able to share knowledge, build ideas and come to commonly
accepted conclusions. This paper suggests that deliberative democracy enables a
required climate for creative organizational development connecting organizational
creativity and digitalization together. The following chapters will provide an
understanding about the ongoing digital transformation with its demands and
opportunities. An explanation of creativity, the meaning of the concept and the
features included are described in Chapter 3. Article is concluded with the description
of deliberative democracy and to the suggestion of deliberative democracy building a
favorable climate for creative work. The theoretical approach enables the reader to
reflect the relation between introduced concepts and the functionality of the
deliberative process for the creative development.
Digitalization as endless source of imagination
To be able to understand the vast variety of digital possibilities, it is needed to have
a holistic apprehension of this multidimensional concept. Digital transformation, or
digitalization holds multiple explanations without one true definition. Digitalization can
be understood as aims for the organizational effectiveness by reforming existing
operations with exploiting the benefits of digital technology. Also characteristic of the
concept is that digitalization integrates the use of digital technology to multiple levels
in society and businesses offering multidimensional opportunities for use. Digital
transformation can also be explained as a use of digital tools and applications, to the
transformation of products and services into their digital equivalents. One explanation
describes the concept as a widespread use of digital technology in organizations,
countries and societies. Among the use of digital solutions, the concept also consists of
multidimensional effects associated with the utilization of digital technology in many
levels of society and organizations. (Parviainen et al., 2017.) With the use of online
tools and social media applications digitalization holds enormous possibilities for the
public sector for example in the engagement of citizens to the governmental decisionmaking and service designing. (McNutt, 2014.)
Along the development of digital technology, possibilities in organization’s
information communication technologies (ICT) have developed from the broadcast
paradigm to communicative paradigm and all the way towards the ubiquitous
engagement of digital technology. (McNutt, 2014.) The ubiquitous engagement of
digital interconnectivity is reaching people and building networks based on people’s
interests. Through the digital connectivity, technology is enabling and facilitating new
type of content creation. These Web 2.0 technologies offer new reachability and
accessibility to people and services. (Lanzolla & Anderson, 2008.) For the customer
digitalization is seen as greater transparency of administrative decisions and processes.
Easily available information lowers the knowledge asymmetry the between expert and
customer, same time bringing stronger participation to the customers leading to the
benefit of better and more convenient services. (Reddy & Reinartz, 2017.) The
creation of new or reinventing existing operating models requires new approaches on
thinking and doing. Reinvented models need to be designed from the technology
perspective for the full utilizing of digital possibilities. Ability to change existing mindset
and learning to be creative is a crucial and challenging demand for the successful
adaptation of change. (Reddy & Reinartz, 2017.)
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Digital Technology as a Source of Creative Organizational Resource and Service Delivery:
Building a Climate for Organizational Creativity with Deliberative Democracy
Digital change is happening fast and staying ahead of changes demands fast
responses and immediate recognition of opportunities. Forecasting and reacting to
change demands flexibility and ability to withstand risk taking. (Reddy & Reinartz,
2017.) The successful adaptation of digital transformation in organizations is about
fundamental changes to the organization’s operative, cultural and administrative
operations. Among technical actions digitalization contains the demand and willingness
to learn away from familiar along with readiness to welcome new practices. (McNutt,
2014.) Through the holistic use of technological advantages digital transformation
promises value for society. With greater participation, information sharing,
experimenting and effective re-arranging of work methods digitalization offers
possibilities for current and future public administration challenges. (Redddy &
Reinartz, 2017.) Value for organization can be competitive edge over others or the
capability to withstand abrupt changes and crises (Rochet et al., 2008). Among
possibilities comes also the presence of challenges, with digitalization three critical
issues are information management, privacy and security. Challenges are true,
however, issues mentioned are still simply a new manifestation of known problems
that reveal themselves in a digital form. Still, it is needed to state that digital
transformation contains many aspects that are needed to overcome before the total
inclusion of digital technology. Digital divide presents a new type of exclusion that is
shaped by the required skills and interests associated with digital technology and the
accessibility to digital services and connections. The digital divide has a worrying
feature that sets parts of society in the matter of people and places away from its
services when the whole ethos of digitalization is about the opposite. (McNutt, 2014.)
Digital change serves us the opportunity to design our work, services, products in a
way that exploits our true potential as humans and empowers to use our unique
abilities and skills. Technology’s ability to take charge of certain tasks and procedures
free humans of these often dull and repetitive actions. Partnering with technology
allows people to free their mind for more creative use, as complex problem solving and
social interaction that machines are not able to master. (Bajer, 2017.)
The importance of creativity in organization setting
Look around and you will see objects that are results from creative processes. We
see products from technology, fashion to constructions, all being results of creative
achievements. Creativity is all around us, there is no question about it. (Runco, 2015.)
Defining creativity though presents multiple challenges due to its complex, dynamic,
multifaceted and pluridetermined nature (Soriano de Alencar, 2012). For its complex
nature creativity can often be found with numerous definitions (Amabile, 1988;
Mumford & Gustafson, 1988; Runco & Jaeger, 2012; Kozáková, 2013). With its
multiple aspects, creativity can be stated as a complex phenomenon, without a clear
singular definition. Single conceptualizing even possesses the danger of narrowing the
divergent and diversity respecting nature of creativity and therefore affecting its
potential. (Runco, 2008). After an analysis of 90 creativity related peer-reviewed
articles Plucker, Beghetto and Dow (2004) came to a conclusion to propose a following
definition for creativity:
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
245
“Creativity is the interaction among aptitude, process and environment by which an
individual or group produces a perceptible product that is both novel and useful as
defined within a social context.”
Understanding the appearance of creativity and the emergence of innovations has
become a necessity for organizations in the current age of globalization and constant
change (Agars et al. 2008). Creativity pursues to increase human capacity to take
greater benefit from the surrounding opportunities and strengthens resilience toward
change and unexpected situations. (Soriano de Alencar, 2012.) In organizational
creativity, individual and organization are two interdependent actors. Individual
creativity being the most crucial element but in itself insufficient for organizational
achievements. Whereas organization features can act as the most crucial determinants
of an individual creativity. (Amabile, 1988.) Adaptation to change is the necessary
requirement for the successfulness of organizations and companies that can be
powered by the urge of creativity and imagination to accomplish something new and
original. (Soriano de Alencar, 2012; Cummings & Oldham, 1997.) Public sector benefits
creativity as an option to change working methods and service delivery by improving
processes, streamlining services and providing better customer satisfaction. All in all,
public administration is surrounded with increasingly complex societal challenges
where legal, political and economic issues together with bureaucratic procedures are
all in an intertwined relation. (Kozáková, 2013.)
Global competition and technological development are few factors raising the need
for rethinking of services and procedures. (Cummings & Oldham, 1997.) Creativity has
been acknowledged as an important social resource within the rapidly developing
social and technological challenges (Mumford & Gustafson, 1988). Digital technologies
hold the potential to innovations by enhancing creativity in workplace (Oldham & Da
Silva, 2015). Focus of the workplace creativity being in the production of new and
useful ideas usually within organizational products, services, processes and procedures
(Egan, 2005). Characterized for the technological innovation is that the creation of
novel ideas doesn’t happen in isolation but in a common interaction and willingness to
co-operate, link, share and test ideas. The involved learning process contains the
sharing of knowledge, experience and information between relevant parties. (Bekkers,
2012.) Understanding about the surrounding phenomena opens new possibilities for
creative use from the point of different knowledge, skills and abilities. (Mumford &
Gustafson, 1988.) With the development towards more participative, open and
collective solutions (McNutt, 2014) digital technology provides direct access to
information, enables the engagement between related people and has qualities to
enhance better support and feedback. In the quest of original and useful products,
practices and procedures digital technology holds strong potential for organizational
creativity through its unique features of endless possibilities (Oldham & Da Silva,
2015).
Making creative group interaction
The highest level of creative performance is achieved with creative personalities but
only with an environment that allows them to accomplish their full potential. Three key
features rise from the organization environment that nurtures creative behavior.
Features of job complexity, supportive and non-controlling supervision and stimulating
co-workers facilitate work context to reach the emergence of creativity and creative
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Digital Technology as a Source of Creative Organizational Resource and Service Delivery:
Building a Climate for Organizational Creativity with Deliberative Democracy
development. (Cummings & Oldham, 1997.) Knowledge creation characterizes the
mission for any organization or community working for their existence and
development of performance. Actions behind every function and service or product
development within an organization includes the important aspect of content related
knowledge and information but also the knowledge about the included structures,
processes and the whole organizational culture. (von Krogh & Geilinger, 2014.) The
potential of group creativity has been identified as an important resource for
organization effectiveness, but successful group creativity and innovation
implementation requires sufficient understanding about the complex interaction
between multiple actors within group. (Nijstad & De Dreu, 2002.)
Nature of knowledge is divided into tacit and explicit knowledge, some of it being
related directly to expertise and professional skills and some coming through
experience and experiments. Through the sharing of knowledge this intangible asset
that people possess can be transferred to others and as a whole build the
organizations knowledge base for the effective creation of future products, solutions
and processes. Organizational information and expertise lies in the processes and
structures as internal knowledge but also as in external sources as social networks and
in written documents. The use of diverse knowledge sources enables gathering of new
perspectives and combining information into new knowledge. (Carmeli et al., 2013.)
Setting goals for creative outcomes has been noted to result in more creative results
and divergent thinking than actions without specific suggestions for creativity.
Promoting creativity as meaningful and important factor therefore influences positively
to creative outcomes. (Egan, 2005.) With challenging and complex tasks employees
are able to exploit their full talent and are obligated to seek divergent approaches at
the request of the best solution (Cummings & Oldham, 1997). Divergent views and
different skills are proposed to bring multiple perspectives and the potential of
constructive conflicts to the group’s creative process. A holistic view can be achieved
by exploiting multiple approaches from different professional backgrounds, knowledge,
skills and abilities all promoting the creativity of the group. Task characteristics dictate
the required magnitude of diverse knowledge and skills that are applied to the group.
Broad discussions of a variety of topics link diverse ideas and thinking models, adding
new dimensions to the discussion that favor creative thinking. (West, 2002.)
The challenge of diversity is to maintain safe and integrated work climate between
group members. So that group possess sufficient amount of diversity for potential
creativity but without threatening members trust on sharing views and opinions and
the ability to communicate and work effectively as a group. (West, 2002.) Stimulating
work culture towards a creative climate encourages a change for adaptive and
effective organization that confronts change as continuing possibility rather than an
inevitable crisis. Building creative climate means affecting the beliefs, values, norms
and strategies that influence inside the organization culture. (Brophy, 1998.)
Supportive leadership enables necessary work conditions for employees and shows
concern for wellbeing, shares feedback from achievements and promotes participative
decision making and open work culture. Interaction between co-workers contains the
possibility of raising awareness about dealt issues within group but also functioning as
positive competitiveness between group members. (Cummings & Oldham, 1997.)
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
247
Building a climate for organizational creativity with deliberative
democracy
Previous chapters provided a general understanding about the possibilities and
dimensions related to the digital transformation and the use of technology in
organizational setting. The full utilization of digitalization comes with certain
requirements, but it also provides multiple opportunities for organizational
development. Creativity pursues to seek and exploit those rising opportunities that
digital change serves. Organizational environment has a strong influence on work
creativity and along with people the whole surrounding forms a climate where positive
outcomes can be expected (Amabile, 1988). In order to support creative thinking and
doing article proposes a suggestion from deliberative democracy, for the building of
creative climate for organizational development.
Deliberative democracy aims for the production of sustainable and objective
decisions and idea development. Outcomes are achieved by viewing information from
multiple perspectives in processes where decision are made in a respectful and mutual
understanding. (see Dryzek, 2001; Gutmann & Thompson, 2004; Vartiainen, 2009;
Nabatchi 2010.) Open reflection and debate between the presented opinions and
arguments form the general acceptability and reasonability of the outcomes (Dryzek,
2001; Habermas, 2006). Deliberative processes pursue toward the creation of holistic
view from the discussed issues. The aim is achieved by applying all the necessary
information and experiences related to the matter combined with an adequate
evaluation from multiple perspectives. Outcomes of the decision processes represent
optimal solutions possible with a given time and available information. (Munno &
Nabatchi, 2014.) Principles of deliberative democracy form the acceptability of the
outcomes and therefore the legitimacy of the process. Final opinions are formed in a
mutual understanding between participants where the use of all the available
information, opinions and experiences constructs the base of decision making. The
principles of transparency, openness and equal participating enables the sharing of
knowledge and opinions without constrains and the fear of judgement. (Sprain &
Gastil, 2013). Collective reflection of issues, environment and work processes is a key
feature for developmental work, where open and safe interaction is one of the first
requirements for successful dialogue (Lantz & Brav, 2007).
Quality decisions and solutions are dependent on members willingness and
motivation for an engagement. The requirement in a deliberative process is that well
informed participants share knowledge in a mutual respect without holding back any
critical information. Knowledge sharing forces to evaluate one’s opinions and changes
in opinions are common during the process when information is evaluated from
multiple perspectives. (Ackerman & Fishkin, 2002.) During the process individuals gain
new knowledge in the dialogue between participants when information is flowing from
different perspectives and from multiple issues. (Munno & Nabatchi, 2014.) All the
presented arguments should be well justified in order to provide an understanding for
other members for the reasons behind opinions. Increased knowledge and open
discussion produces a broad understanding where collective outcomes can be
produced. (Habermas, 2006.) Deliberative processes contain learning, changes of
opinions, unanimous and most importantly differing opinions, where participants are
challenged to produce collective solutions (Carson, 2011). Exchange of perspectives
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Digital Technology as a Source of Creative Organizational Resource and Service Delivery:
Building a Climate for Organizational Creativity with Deliberative Democracy
and respect of differing opinions in an open dialogue enables a climate for the critical
reciprocal change of thoughts (Nabatchi, 2010).
Conclusion
Article has provided an overview of three concepts. Digital transformation and
organizational creativity hold such multiple dimensions, one explanation being their
complex nature, that short definition of the concepts is not eligible to explain all the
strengths and weaknesses that these concepts withhold. As told, digital technology
opens up numerous possibilities for organizational and service development with its
constantly developing qualities. It is a character that reinforces the need for creative
designing of services and operations but also raises the demand for creative
counteractions toward the side effects that digital change brings along. Opening
possibilities in productivity and knowledge production to citizens and employees, along
with affects following the use of ubiquitous mobile technology digital technology
enables the rise of unpredictable experiments and solutions. Successful solutions as
Netflix and Uber are an example of creative insight behind the development of digital
technology that has met the demand of work life or society (Parviainen et al., 2017).
Along with developing service operations and with the growing requirements for
technological skills, knowledge, devices and connectivity comes also new learning
demands for citizens and employees. Appearing needs should be foreseen in order to
maintain fluent service delivery and for the avoidance of unnecessary malfunctioning
and risks in performance. The infiltration of digital technology is an inevitable change
which organizations need to conquer for successful operation. Creative thinking and
the support for inventive interaction support that successful organizational change
(Egan, 2005).
Many of the features in current organizational changes revolve around
developments in information technology and alterations in information systems
(Dunleavy et al., 2005). Taking hold on change requires not only the imagination to
think in new ways but also the skills to adopt the outcomes of creative action.
Understanding and exploiting a holistic approach in development enables that need for
thinking differently but also acting differently. (Robinson, 2011.) Broad perception
from multiple knowledge sources enables the outcome of new knowledge and insights,
which leans on the wisdom of many. The basic idea of working collectively relies
usually on the belief that many are smarter and more capable than few. Aiming for
high-quality decisions in group collaboration contains multiple perspectives and
arguments for and against resulting in a unanimous conclusion. Group decision-making
gathers members cognitive diversity on knowledge and expertise into an intelligence
that is also referred as collective wisdom. (Landemore 2012.) This is where
deliberative democracy comes to enable creative climate for future developments and
decision-making. Through collective reflection comes learning that builds new ideas
and creation of novel methods and processes for organizational use (Kira & Frieling,
2007). Ability to comprehend complex characteristics of the surrounding environment
enables the opportunity to create something new. Thinking creatively and combining
existing knowledge gives rise to unique ideas. Supportive environment for creativity is
achieved by allowing experimenting and supporting participative knowledge sharing
climate. (Mitleton-Kelly, 2011.) Characters of transparency, openness and equality in
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
249
deliberative processes build reciprocal appreciation to the group along with the sense
of safety to express one’s opinions and respect of others. Neutral facilitators guide
group discussions, keeping topics within predetermined topics and assure pleasant
climate for group’s interaction and equal exchange of opinions (Felicetti et al., 2012).
With its principles, deliberative democracy contains numerous confluences with the
features supporting organizational creativity and especially with characters described
among creative group interaction. Deliberative democracy is focused towards collective
and unanimous decision-making where the diverse group of people form choices based
on existing knowledge in a process of learning from each other from an exchange of
versatile knowledge and opinions (Carson, 2011). Setting the target towards creative
outcomes participants are able to direct their collaborative effort for the creation of
new and unique. For creative development, the process needs to be guided with a
precision that supporting characteristics can be fulfilled. Article provided an
introduction to a theory focused approach for creative organizational development by
the use of deliberative democracy principles as a basis for group creativity. Future
research should be focused on the execution of creative development by deliberative
processes so that the suitability of deliberative democracy for the creation of creativity
promoting climate could be empirically proven.
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Journal of Media Critiques [JMC]
doi: 10.17349/jmc118219
P-ISSN: 2056-9785
E-ISSN: 2056 9793
http://www.mediacritiques.net
jmc@mediacritiques.net
THE ROLE OF REGIONAL TELEVISION IN THE LIFE
OF A MEGACITY
DARIA SELINA
ABSTRACT
67% of Russians watch TV every day. The number of those who want to know about local
events is permanently increasing. Therefore, the target audience of regional TV channels is
growing. For TKT-TV it’s about 250 thousand spectators per day. Thanks to local TV, the
residents have the opportunity to be heard. On TKT-TV, spectators offer topics for reportages
and analytical stories by calling the editorial office and reporting about holes on roads or
unauthorized advertisements. Secondly, this is a real outlet for those who are tired of
sensations. TKT-TV doesn’t show crime and news from celebrities. They talk about athletes,
musicians, philanthropists living next to us. Finally, the news of the district channel concerns
everyone. The results of the research can be applied to the work of mass media of any city. In
the future, they can become the basis for creating a regional television channel in any city,
because this practice is quite new.
Keywords: Mass media, Regional TV, Broadcasting, Local television.
INTRODUCTION
The importance of broadcasting in people’s lives is difficult to overestimate.
Although today some people prefer to get news from the Internet, TV still exists in
every family. News is watched in the mornings, discussed over dinners, and affect our
daily lives.
Many people want to know about what is directly related to them. For example,
when their local area will be included in the city program for improvement, where and
how they can get social benefits from the government, who is responsible for repairing
their houses, what concerts and competitions will be held in the district. Here the
regional television plays an important role and can help them a lot.
The purpose of the research is to reveal the technologies of the district
broadcasting in a megacity.
In accordance with this purpose, I solved the following tasks:
- To reveal specific features of the interaction of a regional TV channel with a
spectator;
Former reporter, TV-channel «TKT-TV», St. Petersburg, Russia. minsport-daria@mail.ru
256
The Role of Regional Television in the Life of a Megacity
-
To show the formation of the image of the regional television channel in a
megacity.
The object of the study is the practice of broadcasting a regional television channel.
The subject of the study is the specific work of correspondents of TV channel TKTTV in St. Petersburg.
I will investigate the topic on the example of broadcasting the TV channel "TKT-TV"
for the period from 2013 to 2016. I chose this time interval because I used to work
there during this period.
The channel called itself as «the closest TV to you», and this is not a coincidence.
Spectators do not find here reportages about what is happening in the country;
instead, the channel talks about the events in their districts and even in their homes.
ACTUALITY OF THE RESEARCH
According to the Public Opinion Foundation, most Russians watch TV and 67% do it
every day. At the same time, the number of those who would like to know about local
events is predominantly increasing. It means, people do care not only about politics
and international relations, but also about social problems such as healthcare,
education, etc. – in other words, that is what most concerns them directly. Therefore,
the target audience of local and regional TV channels is constantly growing. For TKTTV, this share is more than 1.4 million apartments in all districts of the city and about
250 thousand spectators per day.
The object for reflection for all TV channels is our reality. However, different media
reflect different aspects of it, and in this case, a local channel takes precedence over a
federal one. People are interested to see their streets and houses, to ask government
officials of their district administrations, to participate in solving their own backyard
problems. Therefore, district channels will become successful anyway.
Each district of the megacity needs its own TV channel. First, thanks to local TV,
the residents have the opportunity to be heard. On TKT-TV, spectators offer topics for
reportages and analytical stories by calling the editorial office and reporting about
potholes on roads or unauthorized advertisements. Sometimes this even becomes a
basis for a special reportage. For example, in the summer of 2015, my story about the
rats in Primorsky region and the inaction of officials who just nodded one on another
came out. It started from the call of a resident of the region who called us and
complained about rats (The text of this reportage is presented in Attachment 1).
Secondly, this is a real outlet for people who are tired of sensationalism. TKT-TV
deliberately does not show crime and news from celebrities. Instead, they talk about
"celebrities" among the local residents such as athletes, musicians, philanthropists
living next door to us. Even more stories are devoted to people of "humane"
professions such as doctors, teachers, and social workers. In a global sense, TKT-TV
adheres to the British principle of journalism – to educate a spectator instead of simply
informing them about the events.
Finally, the news of the district channel concerns everyone. The conflict in Syria,
for example, will not affect a mother with a small child directly. But the impossibility to
go with the stroller to the metro station or the hospital, because there is no sidewalk,
has much more effect on her daily life. For example, in the winter of 2015, my
reportage from the 5th Predportovaya Street in St. Petersburg, where this problem
existed, came out (the text is presented in Attachment 2)
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
257
PROPOSED SOLUTIONS
TKT-TV did not come immediately to this form of broadcasting. In fact, firstly there
was a simple news coverage; the program was called «A week in your city». It used to
be just a copy of other TV channels of St. Petersburg. Moreover, the news came out
not every day, but on Tuesdays and Fridays. That is why to compete with other
channels was impossible – we were always late in reporting news, and the target
audience was about to go away. The system had been like this until 2014 and the
rating of the channel was less than 1.5% of the city's residents.
In 2015, the channel approved a new style of broadcasting. The program changed
its name and time interval. 20-minutes of «A week in your city» disappeared, and the
new 1-hour program called «Regions. Quarters» came out. There was much less urban
news, but more attention was dedicated to local events and social problems. More
special reports and journalistic investigations started coming out. Instead of simply
reporting, correspondents came to analytical stories. Also, the broadcasting time
changed - news began to appear as a separate block in prime time, whereas before
they were broadcasted after federal and city news.
The style of the program also changed. Now there is a full-hour program with
sparkling humor of anchors and experts’ opinions. The program began to follow the
talk show format (with two anchors and an expert sitting on the sofa) but with news
releases included into it. As a result, the rating of the TV channel increased by 20%.
The average number of views of a reportage on YouTube channel increased to 1000.
The system of journalists' work has also changed. Before a correspondent was able
to work only at one studio in a certain area and create stories only there. Now
«everyone works everywhere» and the journalist can be send to an event in any part
of the city. On one hand, it lowered the level of general awareness of a journalist
about the events in this area. Therefore, making connections and creating the
journalist’s own contact database became more difficult. On the other hand, the
editors remained on the certain studios, and they are engaged in finding the right
person for a comment. In addition, the new system enabled journalists to learn
lessons from each other. As about more experienced correspondents, they are not
limited to one district anymore.
Even the subjects of news releases changed a lot. Before, the stories were mostly
made with the guidance of local administrations. They were the source of the
channel's budget, they were also its main informants (the correspondents used to
receive information about what happened or happen in the district mostly from the
press officers of the administrations). At that time, 90% of the news was about the
meetings of officials or some celebrations for local residents, organized by them.
After the program "Regions. Quarters» came out, contact with the press services
has not gone away. They still help to get comments of the officials and invite us to
the meeting, where important issues are discussed. However, the priorities of the
channel have changed. Previously, despite the fact that it contradicts the principles of
journalism, the meeting itself could have been an information guide. That is why this
story could be interesting only to these officials. Now the correspondents began to use
such meetings as an excuse for several full-fledged stories involving local residents,
activists, experts in the field. As an example, my special reportage about the
construction of the Western High-Speed Diameter on Vasilievsky Island. The idea to
develop this topic was born after the meeting in the district administration, where
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The Role of Regional Television in the Life of a Megacity
people found out that the construction was delayed. In the reportage, we talk not only
about the progress of construction, but also about the problems for local residents who
will hear the noise of cars 24 hours a day, about the system of payment for drivers,
and whether or not using this road will be convenient and will help to avoid traffic
jams (the text of this reportage is presented in Attachment № 3).
When editors choose the topics for reportages, they now refer more and more to
city activists (for example, the organizers of the "Beautiful Petersburg" movement who
are fighting for the purity and beauty of the city), museums (which help us a lot in
receiving information about exhibitions or city tours for local residents) and even social
networks. My story about homeless cats can be a good example of this tendency.
Information for the occasion was found coincidentally – one day the owner of four cats
wrote a message to my account on vk.com. The woman inherited those cats from her
deceased mother, and she asked if I have a phone number of an animal shelter.
Instead, we shot a full-fledged special reportage, where we helped this woman to find
new homes for the cats and at the same time, talked about the problem of homeless
animals in our city (the full text is presented in Attachment 4).
Since 2015, TKT-TV has had accounts in social networks such as VK, Facebook,
Instagram and YouTube, where all the news releases are posted. This helped to
increase the target audience of the TV channel and attract young people who almost
do not watch TV but prefer to get news from the Internet and social networks. Now
YouTube channel has almost 2000 subscribers, and the VK group - more than 3000. It
allows you to stay closer to spectators and get feedbacks from them.
In my research, I only consider the practice of megacities. However, this part is
important for small towns as well, because the city's news releases often talk about
the actions of government officials and one or two city events. A "TV closest to you"
will help to unite people. For example, in spring 2015 my reportage about an attempt
to build a beer restaurant in the courtyard of the apartment house came out. What
surprised me is that local residents showed the same position and they did not want to
compromise. Everyone was against the demolition of the children’ playground and
cutting of the trees in this park, as well as the noise the bar's guests would create at
nights. Thanks to our reportage, the story attracted officials’ attention (the text is
presented in Attachment 5).
This is the kind of TV channel that will solve many problems for local residents (for
example, after a reportage about a management company of a condominium fraud
receipts for utilities, other condominium wanted to change the company. To avoid
bankruptcy, communal companies will have to change their way of working).
NEEDS
TV channel needs to establish cooperation with advertisers. Now there is no
advertising on the channel at all, and all needs are fully covered from the city budget.
This approach, on one hand, has the right to exist. On the other hand, the budget of
the channel is very limited, that is why there are no available funds for additional PR
and expansion of the target audience.
In addition, a good solution would be to combine the news releases of several
districts. This is because some of them, mostly industrial areas, do not have many
events. There is almost nothing happening, and the news release mainly consists of
reports from the corridors of government buildings. That is why the rating of the
program is lower than it could be.
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
259
Another problem of TKT-TV is the lack of professional equipment. Local camera
operators use outdated models of television cameras. There are only a couple of wideangle lenses and the same quantity of drones. The reason is only due in the lack of
money for the modern technology, and not due to low professional quality of camera
operators, as people might think. Almost all of them have a degree and more than 5
years of experience on various TV channels.
RESUME
Regional television has firmly taken its niche in the St. Petersburg media market.
However, the results of the research can be applied to the work of mass media of any
city. Journalists of federal and city media can also use the methods described here if
they want to remain close and interesting to spectators.
The quality of the regional television is growing, and therefore the audience's
interest in it does not fall. Now many local channels present not only a news release,
but also special reports, analytical reviews and even authoring programs. However,
this channel also has problems such as the lack of advertisers, and therefore, the lack
of funding, lack of technical equipment, dependence on local authorities. All above
affects the image of the TV channel because spectators always compare a regional
channel and federal channel.
In the future, it can become the base for creating a regional television channel, and
in the long term, the results of the research can form the base for the establishment of
a regional television channel in any city, since this practice is still quite new (in Russia,
for example, only Moscow and St. Petersburg have their own channels).
260
The Role of Regional Television in the Life of a Megacity
REFERENCES
Boretsky, R. (2008) «Be careful: television! ». M., Ikar.
Muratov S. (2016) «TV as the evolution of intolerance». M., Logos.
σovikov A. (1996) ‘TV revolution in regions’, Journalist: №1
Omelchenko L. (2011) ‘How the regional TV should be. The textbook for students’,
Profession: Journalist №5.
Topaz M. (2010) ‘σews are seeing differently in Moscow and other regions’,
Profession: Journalist: №11.
Tsvik V (2000) «A journalist with microphone. The textbook». M., MσEPU.
Zvereva, σ. (2014) «School of regional TV journalism». M., Aspect-Press.
The website of «TKT-TV» channel: www.tkt-tv.tv
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC]
doi: 10.17349/jmc118220
P-ISSN: 2056-9785
E-ISSN: 2056 9793
http://www.mediacritiques.net
jmc@mediacritiques.net
ANALYSING NEW MEDIA: THE LAYOUT STRATEGIES
τF GREEK τσδIσE PRESS AσD THE AUDIEσCEΣS
READING PRACTICES
ELPIDA SKLIKA
ABSTRACT
This paper examines the layout and infographics of a digital article and the possible reading
practices of the audience of online press. Our data consist of 114 texts from Greek online
newspapers, magazines and pure players from three journalistic genres: news articles, opinion
articles and interviews, and five semantic fields: art/fashion, environment/ecology, health/sports,
science/technology and politics/finance. Our purpose is to examine the structure of these texts
and discuss the strategies of reading online articles often containing hyperlinks that reflect other
texts in an explicit or tacit way (Fairclough, 2006). Our method requires a double analysis at the
microstructure level with a combination of the frameworks of the Οcommunication on the mediaΠ
of Charaudeau (2011) and the Οmedia discourse analysisΠ of Fairclough (1992), and at the
macrostructure level with the model of the reading strategies of online press (pro-intensive, proinventive and pro-extensive models) of Saemmer (2015). According to our results the format of
a digital article is fluid varying from long texts to short texts that hold the reader's attention, yet
all our data include audiovisual support. As for the reading practices, news articles follow the
pro-extensive model, opinion articles the pro-inventive model with readers eager to participate,
and the interviews the pro-extensive model but still using the format of their printed parentgenre as a base. Finally, only 22 hyperlinks were found, something that shows that inserting
hyperlinks is a strategy slightly explored in the Greek online press.
Keywords: Greek online press, media layout, reading practices, hyperlinks.
INTRODUCTION
In recent years since the invention of the first computers and the new era of the
World-Wide Net revolution, communication has changed a lot. Personal computers,
smartphones, tablets and other everyday connected devices give us the possibility to
access, modify and transmit knowledge, news and communication instantly and
PhD Candidate, Doctoral Faculty of Humanities (ED 520), Group of Oriental, Slavic and Modern Greek
Studies (GEO-EA 1340), Department of Modern Greek Studies, University of Strasbourg (France), Building
IV, Floor 3, Room 13 (4313), 22 rue René Descartes Ν BP Ν 80010 Ν 67084 Strasbourg CEDEX, France.
elpidasklika@yahoo.gr
262
Analysing New Media: The Layout Strategies of Greek Online Press and the Audience’s Reading
Practices
throughout the world. Journalism and sharing new information did not escape of this
evolution, and so via the World Wide Web our society is transformed to a digital world
and the traditional media into Οnew mediaΠ (εanovich, 2001). σew media or digital
media have a wide-ranging impact on society. As the internet becomes more and more
prevalent, more news agencies begin to distribute news content through Internet as
the only means and this strategy comes together with the shrinking of the audience of
the traditional printed press.
In this study, we discuss the structure and the infographics, i.e. the audio-visual
support of an article in the Greek online press in order to present the new information
tempting to capture the future audienceΣs attention. We will try to argue on the
influence of Internet on the layout techniques and give some examples of the most
frequent article structures of the Greek online press. We examine, in fact, the
discourse strategies that lead to a general format used by each journalistic genre. At a
second level, we examine the Οreading practicesΠ of digital articles often containing
hyperlinks that reflect other texts in an explicit or tacit way and the possible patterns
applied by the Greek journalists that may at their turn influence the format of each
different journalistic genre and the practices of the reading of the future audience
(Fairclough, 2006).
DATA AND METHODOLOGY
This study examines the original written data from the Greek press on the Internet.
These data consist of 114 texts from Greek online newspapers, magazines and pure
players from three journalistic genres: news articles, opinion articles and interviews,
and five semantic fields: art/fashion, environment/ecology, health/sports,
science/technology and politics/finance. In the following paragraph we present our
data and explain the methods used to examine them. The sample of this study is
conventional, though a more systematic research of several journalistic genres and
semantic fields, as well as more media means of support would possibly lead to
broader findings on the layout techniques and patterns of reading practices by the
Greek audience.
DATA AND SOURCES
We have built a written corpus from the Greek online press with two basic criteria:
the genre of the text and the subject analyzed, i.e. the semantic field or category that
the text is placed into. We have built an analysis based initially on three different
journalistic genres, but further research has shown that the limits and the
characteristics of press genres as different types of discourse are often artificial.
Therefore, it is necessary to be careful and objective in order to characterize certain
kinds as hybrids (Branca-Rosoff, 1999).
Following this reasoning, a journalistic genre is the periodic mass communication
class of units which brings together different forms and types of discourse, as well as
their respective transmission to media, potentially eligible to achieve a vast audience
(Maingueneau, 2014). The journalistic genres consist of taxonomy and structure, that
under the pressure of a specific journalistic deontology that must be respected, they
can change according to the consumersΣ expectations of information and
entertainment (Mouriquand, 1997). Finally, there are two basic characteristics that
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
263
define a genre: its ability to gather different formats with common characters, yet
different from each other, and their social function (Swales 1990).
Our data consist of 114 texts from Greek 16 online newspapers, 8 online magazines
-newspapers and magazines that have both a paper and an online version-, and 3 pure
players, i.e. online newspapers, magazines or news websites without a printed version.
The texts cover the period from 2011 to 2015; they are collected randomly and listed
manually with the help of Microsoft Office Word and Excel. The three media genres of
our data are: the news articles, the opinion articles and the interviews. The first genre
relates to the informative category of genres, the second in the opinionative genres
and the last one is more of a hybrid type containing mostly informational data, but
quite often commentary traces and longer narrative parts (Bell, 1991).
The data of the first genre include two sub-genres: the brief articles or notices and
the extended articles or news. A notice is a short text usually of a maximum of ten
lines giving concise information and necessarily answering the 5W questions: who,
what, when, where and why (Grosse, 2001). As for extended articles, they are longer
news articles where the journalist can report facts and give the new information with
lots of further additions and comments (Ioannidou et al., 2005). Secondly, the opinion
articles in our data are divided into the analyses and the comments. Analyses are
extended opinion articles, well written in a formal language register with lots of
scientific support of examples and statistics (Ringoot, 2014). Comments are shorter
articles with a strong journalistic involvement and imply a structure that takes an
information already processed, but often juxtaposed with the present comment in a
way of constructing a hyper-structure (Durrer, 2001). Finally, interviews are a
transitory genre, but the most standardized and the closest to the media contract of
communication (Ioannidou et al., 2005). An interview is Οthe marriage of a dialogical
situation with a relationship of intimacyΠ and it is based on the schema of questionanswer assuming an interviewer and an interviewee who in the case of the press are
always read by an absent reader (Charaudeau, 2011: 180-181, our translation).
Moreover, our data are retrieved from five semantic fields, also known as columns
in the press. We regrouped them into semantic categories according to the range of
the subjects that are the most frequently encountered in the Greek digital press in
order to present a more illustrating sample of the Greek pressΣs image today. Thus, the
semantic categories for this study are: art and fashion, environment and ecology,
health and sports, science and technology, and politics and finance. Finally, it is
important to underline the actual sources of our data. More precisely, we extracted
texts from the following daily or weekly Greek newspapers: 1.
Κα
(i
Kathimerini), 2.
α (to Vima), 3.
υ
υπ α (i Eleftherotypia), 4. α α (ta
σea), 5.
φ
α (i Efimerida), 6. δifo, 7. Η
α (i Imerisia), 8. thens Voice,
9.
Έ
(to Ethnos), 10.
Θ α (to Proto Thema), 11.
αυ π
(i
σaftemboriki), 12.
π
(o Rizospastis), 13. Γα
(Gavros), 14.
(i Prasini), 15. α Χα
α
α (ta Chaniotika σea) and 16. αχυ
(Tachydromos), from weekly and monthly general or specialized magazines: 1. Vita, 2.
Elle, 3. εenΣs Health, 4. Referee, 5. Forma, 6. εarie Claire, 7. E Illustrated and 8.
Womenonly, and from three pure players: 1. in.gr, 2. fthis.gr and 3. gazetta.gr.
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Analysing New Media: The Layout Strategies of Greek Online Press and the Audience’s Reading
Practices
METHODOLOGY
Concerning our method, we opted for a two-step analysis of this corpus, in the
microstructure and in the macrostructure level. By microstructure we mean an analysis
of the main structure and characteristics of the texts chosen in terms of text structure.
We applied for this reason a combination of the Οmedia discourse analysis frameworkΠ
of Fairclough (1992) and the Οcontract of communication on the mediaΠ of Charaudeau
(2011). By using the discourse framework of Fairclough, we try to follow the threedimension model of analyzing a text by examining: discourse-as-text (the linguistic
features and the organization), discourse-as-discursive-practice (the cohesion and the
coherence of a text) and discourse-as-social-practice (the ideological effects in which
discourse is a feature), yet only the second aspect is examined in this present study to
describe the structure of a text.
At the macrostructure level we examine the page layout and the infographics (the
audio-visual support), which will lead us to the analysis of the format of these genres
and the reading practices that they invoke either proposed/imposed by the journalist
or adopted deliberately by the reader. To designate and identify the reading practices
of these texts we apply a new theoretical model of the rhetorical structure of a digital
text and the patterns (described as figures) of the reading strategies, the triple-model
of the reading strategies of electronic press of Saemmer (2015).
BASIC NOTIONS AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
In this section we try to figure out some primary notions of our study and unfold
the basic theoretical background to reach out to our results. We divide this section in
two parts: the first one defining difficult notions and terms, and the second one with a
summary of the theoretical models used to process our data.
Basic Notions
It is essential to define today's digital press. Digital press, also called online press,
has arisen from the evolution of the print press and the traditional journalism with the
use of digital media and new ways of broadcasting information into the public through
the Internet. ΟDigital press is a powerful medium that is characterized by the
relationship between the writer and the reader and it is the conceptualization of these
two instances to represent the worldΠ (Charaudeau, 2011: 92-93). In other words, it is
an attentive presentation consisting of ΟhuntingΠ, ΟbrowsingΠ (leafing through a
newspaper) and ΟgrazingΠ (reading to kill time) an information (Kaimaki, 1997).
Furthermore, media discourse is Οa regime of cohabitation of discourse based on
the imperative of publicity and it functions as an inter-discourse interacting with other
social discoursesΠ, something obvious by examples such as the "column constructionΠ
or Οquoting other sourcesΠ within the articles (Ringoot, 2014: 39). However, it takes
the form of hypertexts with tags and active hyperlinks. It uses audiovisual methods
such as inserting video and audio clips to attract a wide audience and seeks arduous
or tricky terms to create direct nods of reflection, unlike the print edition where there
is always a beginning and an end (Charon et al., 2011).
Finally, we are interested in the intertextuality of online Greek press found within
the paratextuality of each text (Sarfati, 2005). Intertextuality means the shaping of a
text's meaning by another text and is usually seeing as the interconnection between
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
265
similar or related works that reflect and influence an audience's interpretation of the
text (Fairclough, 1992). Yet, these traces of other texts are often manifested by
"hyperlinks" scattered throughout the texts showing a different interpretation of a
digital text.
Theoretical Framework
The first theoretical framework that must be clarified is the three-dimensional
model of analyzing a text by Fairclough (1992). As already mentioned, Fairclough
suggests examining data as discourse (seeing discourse-as-text), then discourse as a
discursive practice and discourse as a social practice (ibid.). That means first
examining the linguistic features and the internal organization of each text with the
lexico-grammatical features, whereas the second process implies a closer investigation
of the external structure of a text and respectively the cohesion and the coherence of
a text (Fowler, 1991). The last process examines the discourse of press texts as a
social practice and for that matter seeks the ideological effects of discourse and their
impact on the reading and comprehension strategies of the audience (Van Dijk, 1988).
Nevertheless, we do not apply these three steps one by one, but to merge the first
two to describe the format of each digital genre and combine the social factor with
CharaudeauΣs framework (2011). CharaudeauΣs model of digitalized media is based on
the interface of the axis of the treatment of an event of the journalist, meaning how to
Οreport an event, to comment on an event and to provoke an eventΠ, and of the axis
of the external construction of a text, engaged or not, to illustrate specific genres
(2011: 253-254).
The crossing boundaries of these two frameworks create our proper method to
examine the structure of the Greek online press in terms of the Οnew informationΠ
seen as a discourse structure element seen as the mechanism of construction of the
meanings in the press followed by the double process of the transformation of a text
and of transaction that leads to its interpretation.
For the interpretation of the reading practices and the intertextuality of our data we
adopted the typology of analyzing a digital text suggested by Saemmer (2015).
Saemmer's rhetoric of a digital text recommends the reception of a digital text with
some specific Οreading figures or strategiesΠ or some Οfigures of anticipation of
readingΠ taking always into consideration the expectations of the reader (ibid.).
According to this typology there are three types of model-forms of the front page of a
digital text that consecutively prompt certain strategies of reading: the pro-intensive
model-forms which hold rather concentrated and slow reading practices with an overall
structure of such articles recalling a paper version of press, the pro-interventive modelforms assuming a reader who wishes overtly to leave his traces on the text and
demonstrating a text structure promising a virtual debate between the journalist and
the audience, and the pro-extensive model-forms dealing with an impatient reader
who wants quickly to explore the text and therefore a practical and synthetic structure
with an explicit marking of the layout and the possible hyperlinks that complete its
interpretation (Saemmer, 2015: 129). In the forthcoming sections we will discuss each
model separately with illustrating examples of each type of reading practices.
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Analysing New Media: The Layout Strategies of Greek Online Press and the Audience’s Reading
Practices
FINDINGS
According to our results the texts of our data are encountered in terms of the
number of lines of each text and add up to a total rate that represents each genreΣs
rate within our corpus. We examined a primary corpus of 105 texts, 35 texts per genre
and 7 texts from each semantic field, nevertheless, our initial corpus is broadened by
the analysis of the hyperlinks found within these texts; a total of 9 hyperlinks were
added and, respectively, 5 hyperlinks that belong to the genre of news articles and 4
to the opinion articles. In sum, we have a total of 114 texts and a 22.96% rate of
news articles, a 31.03% of the opinion articles and the highest result of a 46% of the
interviews that are the longest texts of our corpus.
Figure 1: The percentage rate of each genre in the corpus
THE FORMAT OF A DIGITAL ARTICLE AND THE PAGING TECHNIQUES
By the term ΟformatΠ of an article we imply the shape of the information
transmitted by the media, the information about to get published that fulfills social
functions legitimized by historical juncture in each national society (Zouari, 2007). The
final shape of each text should always be Οin agreement with the regulations that
establish structural parameters for each form, which includes textual aspects,
procedures and circumstances related to the function of each unitΠ (Charon et al.,
2011). On the other hand, paging or page creation of a digital article is the actual act
of creating pages. This process shows the act of the deciding on the format of the
press page items that will help design it efficiently, saving the readerΣs valuable time
and become the most attractive and user-friendly as possible (Richardson, 2007).
Concerning the basic layout of a digital text in our data, we found that an online
article needs a label tag to refer to a certain column, a media support or a website.
Then it includes the title of the page and of the newspaper or magazine, additional
press pages and a navigation bar on top of its principle headline which represents all
the columns -with active links easily accessed with a mouse click that open the new
pages of each category- of the medium that published the article, media contact, press
releases, media coverage photos, active social media links, comment spaces and in the
middle of the page the actual text by the journalist (usually in white background and
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
267
black font without unnecessary serifs and footing, yet this is not always the case).
Here is an example of a usual layout of an online article in Greek press:
Images 1, 2: The layout of an article in Greek online press
To dig further on the proper articleΣs structure, we claim that it always
contains a headline and sometimes an introductory short paragraph, although is often
replaced by a sub-headline or a photo with a describing caption (Politis & Kakavoulia,
2006). The headline and the initial content of an article is important not just for the
information of the reader, but it can multitask for search visibility of the whole article
(Ifantidou, 2009). Thereby, we found that almost all our texts have headlines, apart
from five texts that have only a tag label that suggests the category label tag given
from the editor of the support they belong to. We came across four texts of the genre
of interviews that hold only the column tagging, and one hyperlink-text which is a
short news article that also uses the tagging label as a kind of categorization headline.
The actual texts without headline are:
υ
υ π υ γ
α
Χ
(= The
1. T811: υ
interview of the Minister of Finance on Tachydromos newspaper)
2. T99: Η υ
υ
Κ υ
α
υφ
α
SOUL #73 (= The
interview of Kelly Araouzou hosted by SOUL #73)
3. T104: υ
υ
υ α
Γ
Κ πα
(= The interview of the
arbitrator Giannis Kambaxis)
υ
2014: Η υ
υ
ω Κα
, α
(Mundial 2014:
4. T105:
The interview of Karnezis, Maniatis)
5. H32.
(= First Aid)
Furthermore, the audiovisual support and the infographics of online articles seem
important, yet we did find only 5 videos and 1 audio content in our corpus: in the
news articles: T26, T30 and T34, in opinion articles: T50 and T63 and in interviews:
The ΟTΠ in front of each example symbolizes the word text and the number that follows is the actual
number in our list of the texts of our corpus. The Ο( )Π after each example contains the translation of the
textΣs segment from Greek into English.
1
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Analysing New Media: The Layout Strategies of Greek Online Press and the Audience’s Reading
Practices
T83: audio support. Photos or logos of associations that boost the newspapersΣ or the
magazineΣs credibility are a frequent solution to seduce the audience as they attract
the readerΣs eye and help create a warm and friendly environment so to spend more
time in the actual medium and explore it (Reah, 1998). For example, we can see below
visual infographics of our data:
Image 3: Visual support in articles online: a news article
Image 4: Visual support in articles online: an interview
Visual support is also essential because it boosts the journalistΣs discourse veracity
by using figures and statistic tables or scientific images of examples to give a more
explicit image of the information. Therefore, the credibility of the text is assured, and
the reader is convinced to continue reading. For example, in T47:
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
269
Image 5: A statistic figure
Yet, content is not just text, but logos, the publishing support or even the photo of
the journalist. We found that all our data include all possible logos and active links of
social media so to be further shared on the Internet. However, the visual support of
images, sketches and caricatures is more of a major characteristic, observed in 108
texts from a total of 114, which means a rate of 94,7%. Most of the infographics are
photos/images of the actual event described in the article or quite often of the main
characters that participate, the place of the event, the results or the change of the
situation, the factors of the cause or main terms or scientific procedures difficult to
understand described in the text. We observed mostly photos and logos in our corpus
and not a lot of visualized statistic results. Here is an example of a photo of the
articleΣs journalist and the links of the social media in T44:
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Analysing New Media: The Layout Strategies of Greek Online Press and the Audience’s Reading
Practices
The active links of social media
JournalistΣs photo
Image 6: A journalistΣs photo
To finish with the paging techniques in our data, we need to underline two major
elements: the existence of hyperlinks and the comment space in the end of most of
the articles. A hyperlink is a digital text that contains tagged words or phrases, and
with a click on the tagged segment it offers new information by opening new windows,
tabs or even email addresses to communicate (Fogel & Patino, 2005). A hyperlink
offers Οnew promisesΠ to the reader before being activated, and so the character of a
digital text becomes ΟinnovativeΠ conforming it to a ΟmanipulatingΠ or even Οanimated
textΠ (ibid.). However, this innovation is still quite marginalized in Greek online press,
as only 22 hyperlinks were found: 9 in the news articles, 8 in opinion articles and 5 in
interviews, something that shows that inserting hyperlinks is a strategy still slightly
explored in Greek online press. Those 22 hyperlinks contain advertising sites or even
online stores to buy the product/service tagged, web pages that refer to dictionaries or
to Wikipedia, or websites that are written directly in English. From all these hyperlinks,
only 9 are articles in Greek and suitable to meet our research questions, as far as we
examine only Greek discourse and not advertisement discourse or websitesΣ structures
in general. We found then 4 hyperlinks in the news articles and 5 in the opinion
articles; interviews do not have Greek hyperlink-texts at all. We found, though, other
hyperlinks in those 9 hyperlinks too and more precisely: 2 in the news articles and 2 in
opinion articles. E.g. T33:
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
271
Active links
Image 7: Active hyperlinks in news articles
Online texts have also a dedicated space for the readerΣs comments so to create a
debate between the writer (journalist) and the reader (the possible audience) or even
between readers responding to the article. We found comment spaces under the main
article in 16 news articles, 11 opinion articles and 12 interviews. E.g.: T20:
Image 8: News article with comment space
To summarize our results, we created a table figuring the % rate and the actual
number of the main characteristics of the format or the structure of an article in the
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Analysing New Media: The Layout Strategies of Greek Online Press and the Audience’s Reading
Practices
Greek online press. Each column represents a characteristic and its occurrences on the
total of 114 texts and the percentage rate.
Table 1: Occurrences of the main characteristics in our corpus
Characteristics
Texts
Headlines
Audio-visual
support
Hyperlinks
40
39
39
39
98%
100%
34
35
85%
90%
11
10
28%
26%
16
11
40%
28%
35
114
30
108
86%
95%
34
103
97%
90%
5
26
14%
23%
12
39
34%
34%
Genres
News articles
Opinion
articles
Interviews
Total
Comment
space
THE MODELS OF READING PRACTICES
Concerning the models of the reading practices of online press we apply the
framework of Saemmer like described previously (2015). For Saemmer (2015), online
articlesΣ structure is mainly based on the front-page screen or the ΟscreenshotΠ of each
article and Οhyperlink-textΠ and the layout is stereotyped with a fixed structure (ibid.)."
She proposes an analysis based on the reception of a digital text by analyzing the
figurative style found in each text that can influence the reading process of the future
audience (2015). This theoretical frame proposes three types of model-forms of figures
that assist or anticipate the reading of a digital text: the pro-intensive model-forms of
reading characterized by rather concentrated and slow practices of the reading
process, the pro-interventive model-forms with a reader who wishes to access in the
back-office of the article and create an inter-discourse or a dialogue with the journalist,
and the pro-extensive model-forms with an impatient reader who wants to quickly
finish reading the text or just capture the main ideas and continue skim reading the
medium that supports the article (ibid.: 129).
According to the first model, the pro-intensive, we found 17 texts that could
correspond. These texts are very long with a difficult structure of paragraphs, almost
without using tabularization, which makes them hard to process quickly and
demanding to the reader that must extract the new information and interpret the new
events. The font is mostly difficult with weird serifs and footnotes, the space for
comments is hardly nowhere, the audiovisual support moderate and the whole
language register is often formal. Consequently, these articles resemble to the printed
version of the medium that usually publishes them and they are usually of the genre of
interviews found in newspapers. In fact, some Greek newspapers that have printed
and online versions tend to make their online version the same with their printed one,
which unfortunately shows not an actual online press but the digital photocopy (with a
copy-paste process) of the paper one. These models, thus, are strenuous to the
average reader and they are not preferred as reading models. The reading strategies
that they invoke implicitly do not seem to have a strong impact neither on the Greek
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
273
online press nor the audience. To illustrate such techniques, we give some examples
below, T105 of interviews and T57 of opinion articles:
Difficult font, no adjustment to the side border & no tabularization | no sub-headlines,
no comments
Images 9, 10: Texts conforming to the pro-intensive model-form
Secondly, we find the pro-interventive model-forms that are characterized of the
interaction and the relation created between the reader and the producer of the of
news information, i.e. the journalist. These articles are easier to process, less long and
with clear-cut boundaries, structures and tabularization. They often have sub-headlines
and inter-titles to separate different sections and make the text easier to capture by
every possible reader. The font is user-friendly, and they almost always contain a
dedicated space in the end of the text for the comments of the readers. These forms
of texts show great flexibility comparing to the other types of forms and sometimes
remind of a general layout of other digital texts in websites that authorize the readers
to modify them and to transfer them to other web pages or addresses. These modelforms create a strong bond with their readership and their audience is often subscribed
to each different medium that supports such styles and structures. In our data these
models are the most common, as far as we found 61 texts following this style and
more precisely 18 news articles, 20 opinion articles and 23 interviews. E.g. 56:
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Practices
Headline and sub-headline, visual support
inter-titles and clear tabularization
space for comments
Images 10, 11: Opinion article conforming to the pro-interventive model-form
The most intriguing fact, though, is that the genre of interviews has the highest
rate in this type of model, something weird regarding the whole style and structure of
this genre. The interviews are mainly a genre based on the schema of question-answer
and their structure is usually loose (Politis & Kakavoulia 2006). The length also of the
interviews in our corpus is way demanding to the average reader who wants to ΟkillΠ
his time or to entertain. However, we think that the explanation lies on the reading
strategies that the journalists wish to impose on their text. The journalist of an
interview tries to make his work friendlier to the reader by using a vivid rhythm of
discourse progress and direct speech and lots of audiovisual support to capture the
attention (Chatzisavvidis, 2000). The journalist also places comment boxes at the end
of the text and all possible ways to communicate with his future audience, like social
media links and email contact so that the reader gets the impression that he can come
closer not only to the interviewer, but to the interviewee too, who often appears to be
his ΟidolΠ. In other words, we suggest that the pro-interventive models are the most
frequent in the Greek online press because they represent a stability and a reassuring
familiarity for the public and that they help to create an interconnection of the
journalist and the medium for which he writes with the audience who can influence
then in positive or negative ways even the whole society in its turn. Here is an
example of a pro-interventive form of an online interview:
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
Headline and sub-headline
275
visual support
social media links and RSS news feeds
tabularization
comment space
Images 12, 13: Interview conforming to the pro-interventive model-form
To finish with the reading strategies proposed as models, we find the pro-extensive
model-forms that represent models which encourage a fast way of reading and do not
become obstacles or anticipate the reading of a digital text or a hyperlink-text. These
models influence the whole structure of a text and turn it to a hyper-text which is well
structured with a clear headline that summarizes the articleΣs content and helps to
proceed to the comprehension of the whole text (Saemmer, 2015). The pro-extensive
models require a text structure easily accessed by the average reader and a hightabularized format with simple sans-serif font that could highlight only the basic
information. These texts include usually active hyperlinks that offer parallel readings
with just a simple mouse click. Finally, pro-extensive models encourage a vivid and
quick navigation to the main and current information and they offer the strategy of
skim reading all important news and proposed knowledge to grasp from all the
different windows and sites in just some seconds. Their method is easy, they prefer
keeping information short and broken down into pieces to hold the reader's attention
and, finally, reach their goal to convince their audience of the veracity of their news
and to ΟsellΠ more views or more real printed versions of the means of support that
they defend. We propose an example that indicates this type of reading techniques
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Analysing New Media: The Layout Strategies of Greek Online Press and the Audience’s Reading
Practices
proposed by the journalist and the reading practices that get to be influenced of such
structures.
many active hyperlinks
audiovisual support
with bullets
clear tabularization
Images 14, 15: News article conforming to the pro-extensive model-form
Finally, we have summarized our results presenting the reading model-forms in the
following table that shows the exact number of the occurrences of each model per
journalistic genre, as well as the percentage of each reading model per genre and on
all our data.
Table 2: The reading models and the occurrences of our data
Reading models
Pro-intensive
Pro-interventive
Pro-extensive
40 News articles
6
15%
18
45%
16
40%
39 Opinion articles
6
17%
23
66%
6
17%
35 Interviews
4
10%
20
51%
15
38%
114 Total
16
14%
61
54%
37
32%
Genres
CONCLUSIONS
This study examined a corpus of texts from three journalistic genres of the Greek
online press using a combined methodology of a discourse and structure-orientated
framework with a three-dimensional model of the reading strategies. According to our
results, the layout of a digital text suggests keeping information short and broken
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
277
down into more pieces to hold the reader's attention. News articles, opinion articles
and interviews are examined and prove that they all include audiovisual support, have
a precise structure with clear content-summarizing headlines, as well external active
hyperlinks and dedicated spaces for the readerΣs comments. They also acquire all
possible active links of social media and other means of contact so that they get to be
shared further on the Internet. Concerning the reading practices of such digital texts,
we found that news articles follow quite often the pro-extensive model and the opinion
articles the pro-interventive model, yet we pointed out that the interviews, which
follow the layout of their printed parent-genre, were still identified the pro-interventive
model of reading strategies too.
To conclude with this research, we noticed that the Greek online press is still far
from fully digitalized, because the number of hyperlinks found is very low and the
strategies imposed by the journalists still imply methods and techniques from the
traditional printed press.
We sum up with a suggestion to expand this study in a more profound analysis of
more genres and texts so to have a better image of the Greek press on the Internet.
In brief, we hope that this study will be welcome for the scientific achievement from
processing this data and will stimulate further studies in the future.
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Practices
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Journal of Media Critiques [JMC]
doi: 10.17349/jmc118221
P-ISSN: 2056-9785
E-ISSN: 2056 9793
http://www.mediacritiques.net
jmc@mediacritiques.net
SEMANTIC TOOLS FOR PARTICIPATORY JOURNALISM
THEODORA SARIDOU*
KOSMAS PANAGIOTIDIS**
NIKOLAOS TSIPAS***
ANDREAS VEGLIS****
ABSTRACT
The proliferation of User-Generated Content (UGC) has led to catalytic changes both
in the news production process and in the journalist-audience relationship. Media
organizations redesign their strategies, by adopting tools of participatory journalism
through which amateurs’ comment on stories, submit material for publication or share
articles. Furthermore, a large amount of content becomes constantly available on social
media platforms, enhancing the need of continuous monitoring and effective
management. However, the coexistence of professional and amateur content raises
significant issues, forcing media organizations to spend resources in order to ensure
quality. Except for traditional methods, modern collection, management and validation
methods are often based on semantic web services. The paper aims to offer an in-depth
description of the already available semantic analysis tools in the context of participatory
journalism, seeking to identify the existing use of semantic technology for UGC
exploitation and to propose a model for semantic annotation of UGC.
Keywords
Participatory Journalism, User-Generated Content, Semantic Web, Semantic Tools,
model
INTRODUCTION
Although audience members have had some opportunities to participate in the news
production process even since 17th century (Boczkowski, 2005), it was the spread of
the Internet first and the predominance of World Wide Web (Web) and Web 2.0
afterwards that catalytically changed the journalist-audience relationship. “Armed with
easy-to-use web publishing tools, always-on connections and increasingly powerful
mobile devices, the online audience has the means to become an active participant in
the creation and dissemination of news and information” (Bowman & Willis, 2003: 7).
*
Phd student, Media Informatics Lab, School of Journalism & MC, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Phd student, Media Informatics Lab, School of Journalism & MC, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
***
Phd student, Laboratory of Electroacoustics and TV Systems, Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
****
Prof. Dr., Media Informatics Lab, School of Journalism & MC, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Open
Knowledge Foundation
**
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Semantic Tools for Participatory Journalism
Publicly shared, user-generated content (UGC) mostly appears in the form of text,
photos, video and graphics (Anderson, 2007).
Furthermore, on a variety of social media platforms any citizen with a smartphone
and something engaging to share can be a potential mass communicator (Moore &
Hatcher, 2018: 2). Newman (2009: 2) states that social media and UGC have
fundamentally changed the nature of breaking news by contributing to the compression
of the "news cycle", putting more pressure on editors over what and when to report and
creating an important extra layer of information and diverse opinion. Journalists use
social networks in their daily work routines (Ekman & Widholm, 2015) to check on the
competitive organizations, look for breaking news events, find ideas for stories, keep in
touch with their audience and gather information (Weaver & Willnat, 2016).
In order to incorporate UGC in their everyday work, media organizations redesign
their strategies, surrounding amateur content by professional control (Deuze, 2006).
News broadcasters place more emphasis on news-related UGC and the newsgathering
benefits of being closer to their audiences, while newspapers tend to be more interested
in engaging audiences over a wider range of non-UGC material in a way that can drive
revenue (Noor, 2017: 60). Participatory journalism is thus actualized, as professional
journalists and media users co-produce news within a mainstream news platform
(Aitamurto, 2013: 230). Tilley and Cokley (2008) identify at least three groups of
participants in the news media, namely professional journalists, news publishers and
citizen audience groups, who read, watch, listen to and create news content.
The problem is that identifying UGC that can be utilized by journalists is not easy.
UGC is part of the Web and the Web in its present form (Web 2.0) is unstructured. This
problem is expected to be alleviated with the adoption of the semantic Web (Web 3.0).
Some tools that can be utilized by journalists in dealing with UGC have already started
to appear. This paper studies the available semantic analysis tools in the context of
participatory journalism. It comprehensively examines the available tools and platforms
adopted by global media organizations and identifies the existing use of semantic
technology for the purpose of UGC exploitation. The paper introduces a model for
semantic annotation of UGC and it is organized as follows: Section 2 discusses the use
of UGC in participatory journalism. The semantic Web and its introduction in journalism
are examined in section 3. A categorization of semantic tools employed in media
organizations around the world is presented in section 4. A model for semantic
annotation of UGC for journalists is proposed in section 5. Concluding remarks and future
extensions of this work can be found in the last section.
PARTICIPATORY JOURNALISM AND USER-GENERATED CONTENT
A large body of research has explored the adoption of participatory tools by the
media; nevertheless, a single typology has not been achieved. In their research, Suau
and Masip (2014) designed a typology that would allow the creation of different models
of media participation. As a starting point they chose the concept of interactivity, which
is divided into different types that are used to group the interactive features. Firstly,
they define a group of features and services, labelled “selective interactivity” (Rost,
2006, as quoted by Suau & Masip, 2014: 672), through which users interact with the
system in order to adapt the content according to their preferences. Such examples are
RSS feeds, email alerts or registration. A second group of tools is included under the
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term “participative interactivity”, enabling users to interact with journalists and other
users via evaluation and sharing tools or comments on news items. Lastly, under the
label “productive interaction”, a third group of interactive features takes place in the
context of a user-user or user-professional relationship and allows users to contribute
original content. Such tools are sending stories, still images, footage, audio, questions
for interviews and blogs. In their review of participatory tools, Franquet et al. (2011)
distinguish four groups: The first consists of elements that encourage debate, including
forums, chat services, citizen's blogs, comments on news and special sections, the
second includes elements for socializing and sharing content through social networks
and social bookmarking sites, while the third consists of tools with which users can send
images, texts and audio and the fourth consists of techniques for evaluating information,
such as polls and ratings.
However, the incorporation of UGC in the journalistic process is not an easy task
(Veglis, 2013), as the coexistence of professional and amateur content raises significant
ethical, legal and responsibility issues (Saridou & Veglis, 2016: 88). Many professional
concerns, for example, relate to the unknown provenance or the abusive content of
users’ inputs (Singer et al., 2011). Journalists try to maintain high quality of spelling and
grammar, to choose material suitable for publication and to ensure the balance and
decency of the website (Thurman, 2008). At the same time, personality insults -like
defamation or vilification- and hate speech can lead to legally dangerous conditions
(Singer et al., 2011). In the field of intellectual property, Deliyanni (2012: 324) classifies
possible problems in three broader categories: Issues concerning the protection of blogs,
profiles in social networking sites, websites and the original content posted on them,
issues stemming from the violation of intellectual rights when creators’ work is offered
for free although made for commercial exploitation and issues of consolidation and
reconstitution of intellectual works intended for commercial exploitation. Moreover, the
complexity of such conditions is magnified as responsibility issues arise in the
participatory applications, where the line between production and consumption is not
clear. Especially when users produce content on a professional website, the debate on
liability concerns not only them, but the owner of the website and the Internet service
provider as well.
Media organizations are thus forced to use methods of control on users’ activity in
order to avoid problems. Pre-moderation, where journalists try to assess every piece of
UGC before published, follows the logic of traditional participatory spaces, while
moderation after publishing is a more open approach (Singer et al., 2011). When
distributed moderation is chosen, users are involved in the control process, often earning
some kind of privileges (Lampe & Resnick, 2004). At the same time, several media
organizations use automated moderation, which is a purely technical method and UGC
is accepted or rejected under predefined rules and filters that detect and replace banned
words, phrases, IP addresses or whole paragraphs (Veglis, 2014). It is noticed that postmoderation techniques are nearly always accompanied by mandatory prior registration
and users have to submit personal information in order to be accredited as commenters
(Singer et al., 2011: 109), whilst the practice of Completely Automated Public Turing
test to tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA) is employed in the websites more
rarely (Saridou & Veglis, 2016), aiming to block computer-derived mass entries.
However, it appears that each strategy, whether autonomously or in combination with
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others, has an impact on how UGC is treated, not without financial and editorial stakes
concerning cost, staff, time, quality and legality. Although strict practices offer higher
level of security, they also demand higher financial, human and time resources (Singer
et al., 2011), whereas open practices seem to draw back in terms of content quality
assurance.
SEMANTIC WEB IN JOURNALISM
The enthusiasm originally caused by the million capabilities of the Internet after
almost thirty years turned into frustration. The Web evolution was built on structures
which proved weak and unable to deal with the burden of managing huge amounts of
information that are constantly increasing in an unstructured way (Panagiotidis & Veglis,
2015).
The current Web is a network of unstructured interconnected forms of information
like documents, images and text, accessible via Internet. Through the implementation
of hyperlinks, a browser can only navigate from one’s website content to another’s.
Operational machines are limited to serve the user simply as a vehicle in the Internet,
delivering only human readable information. This status raises two issues regarding the
format in which content currently appears and the way in which it is consumed and
interpreted (Kück, 2004). As most of today’s Web content is structured only for human
consumption (Shadbolt, Hall & Berners-Lee, 2006), many of the machines’ beneficial
properties remain unexploited. What if we could make the Web richer for machines, so
that it would be full of machine readable and machine understandable data? (Antoniou
et al., 2012). Despite its advantages in interaction, participation, collaboration and
information sharing between Web users, the second era of the Web seems to lack in
terms of usability.
Moving from the second (Web 2.0) to the third era (Web 3.0), many issues are
expected to be resolved. The vision of Semantic Web was articulated by Tim BernersLee at the very first World Wide Web Conference in 1994. In the years that followed,
the concept evolved and was introduced again by Tim Berners-Lee, James Hendler and
Ora Lassila in an article for Scientific American Magazine, in May 2001. They stressed
that most of the Web's content today is designed for humans to read, not for computer
programs to manipulate. Semantic Web is an extension of the current Web, in which
information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to
work in cooperation. One of the most targeted interpretations came from Daniel
Dardailler, member of the World Wide Web Consortium, who noted that the term
Semantic Web is used to identify a Web where the information structure transmits its
meaning (Pomonis, 2010). It is designed in a way that allows data exchange, definition
and reuse of lexical terms by any person or community of users. This makes it more
efficient to find, share and combine knowledge with others easily (Pomonis, 2010). While
Web 2.0 facilitates interaction between Web users and sites, Web 3.0 focuses on the
automation of service to service and machine to machine interaction. In a Web 3.0
environment all current isolated data “islands” will transform into one gigantic, personal
information storage, manipulation and retrieval database (Kück, 2004). Since Web
content connects in a homogenized way and the meaning of every piece of information
is clearly defined, computers will be able to interpret information like humans and
intelligently generate and distribute useful content tailored to users’ needs. The overall
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
285
purpose of next generation Web is to enable Web be understood by software in the
same way as by humans.
Technological advancement that comes from the Web evolution will have a significant
impact on user’s experience. In the future, all information will be accompanied by its
meaning as a result of the Semantic Web establishment. However, it should be
mentioned that low level semantic Web technologies are already being used today,
although it may not be clearly perceived. Such example is semantic search, a Google
initiative which aims at the greatest possible transformation of unstructured data into
structured within its index. This makes the search process easier and changes the
current status where a user either amateur or professional struggles to find specific
information. Instead of the well-known "ten blue links", that have been graded as the
statistical probability of being the answer to a search query, semantic search gives as a
result a complete answer or elements leading to one (Amerland, 2013). Such a
development will definitely change the way information is consumed, not only on a
personal level but also on a collective one. In particular, given that -at its core- semantic
Web transforms document-oriented to data-oriented Web, it offers numerous benefits
for vast amount of data intensive industries that are bound to the Web and its related
applications (Perera et al., 2017). Journalism is one of these industries and the search
process is one of the areas that journalism and semantic Web intersect. Semantic Web
technologies can help the evolution of journalism due to their aggregation features,
regarding the advanced ability of collecting information (Heravi, Boran & Breslin, 2012).
Since nowadays the practice of journalism is closely related to the use of Web, the
arrival of semantic Web will change it. Through the utilization of new tools and methods,
journalists will be able to search, find and process any piece of information more quickly
and more easily, thanks to the exploitation of structured data. For example, applications
which are able to perform automated collection and combination of related information,
rich in terms of content, from different sources (Gray, Bounegru & Chambers, 2012)
indicate how current journalistic practices can be affected. In other words, the evolution
and consolidation of the semantic Web in equal level with the current Web can help
journalists extract useful conclusions from related data that were previously difficult or
impossible to emerge. Technologies responsible for upgrading the usability of current
Web data are at the same time responsible for upgrading journalism and its research
products.
Within the concept of semantic Web, journalistic profession is led to higher functional
level in which a journalist can efficiently cooperate with machines on discovering,
integrating and reusing pieces of information from various sources. Theory along with
the technological framework moves a step further by providing more modern services
and applications. As Antoniou et al. (2012) point out, sematic Web is an Internet service
with advanced technological features, whose presentation and analysis aims at
disseminating the project of the semantic Web.
SEMANTIC TOOLS IN MEDIA ORGANIZATIONS
During the last decade media organizations put significant effort into redesigning
their workflows in order to embrace and exploit UGC. Through a flexible and iterative
process, leading media organizations evaluated different approaches in terms of tools
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Semantic Tools for Participatory Journalism
and procedures. Those attempts were not relying on a particular tool or methodology,
but instead focused on building heterogeneous platforms providing the means to collect,
report, analyse and disseminate UGC-driven news and information.
The introduction of CNN iReport (Hellmueller & Li, 2015) was one of the pioneering
attempts in the field, providing a complete environment for UGC-driven news submission
and publication. Content on CNN iReport is published unaudited as long as it is
considered news and satisfies a set of basic criteria in terms of taste and decency. The
UGC Hub (Harrison, 2010) was BBC’s attempt to incorporate UGC in the news production
workflow of the organisation, following a different approach where professional
journalists edit the user-generated content before publication. Attempts from other
leading media organizations include Reuters UGC Newsgathering platform (WilksHarper, 2018), Associated Press UGC Video Hub (Shanley, 2017), Guardian Witness
(Geary, 2013), Huffington Post Firsthand (Sheffield, 2012) and others.
The aforementioned examples of UGC platforms used in production workflows of
media organizations rely in most cases on the integration with services provided by third
parties and professional journalists are still involved in many stages of the process. A
coarse classification of the tools and services used by media organizations in UGC-driven
platforms can be applied to derive the categories presented in Figure 1.
Figure 1: A reference UGC-driven media organisation platform with tools and services
partitioned by function.
The “content discovery and monitoring in social media” category includes tools similar
to Crowdtange (Silverman & Garmur, 2015) which leverages patented technology to
identify and categorise trending content on social media websites while the “distributed
multimedia content capturing” category consists of services similar to Seenit (Lott-
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287
Lavigna, 2017) and Periscope (Rugg & Burroughs, 2016) which transform citizens to an
all over the world distributed film crew.
Services like Spectee (Hawkes, 2017) and Trint (Gershgorn, 2017) are included in
the “semantic analysis of multimedia content” category. Spectee automates the
extraction of semantic information from video content in order to reduce the time taken
to analyse and sort news content, while Trint generates transcriptions from audio in
order to enhance audio-visual content search and classification mechanisms. The
accuracy of services in this category is constantly improving as more advanced
algorithms (Simonyan & Zisserman, 2014) or additional steps (Tsipas et al., 2017) are
introduced in the analysis pipelines. The “audience involvement in news making”
category includes services similar to Hearken (Ciobanu, 2017) which allows audience to
shape stories by asking questions at the pitching stage and incorporating their feedback
throughout the reporting process.
The “UGC verification” category consists of a collection of tools providing journalists
with the means for semi-automated verification of content uploaded by citizens. Services
like Google Street View (Anguelov et al., 2010) are used to correlate content with
geolocation data, while tools like Twitteraudit can be employed to verify the authenticity
of a social media account. Finally, the “UGC sharing” category contains tools and services
that media organizations can use to securely accept documents from and communicate
with anonymous sources. Examples of services in this category are Securedrop (Ball,
2014) and Globaleaks (Greenberg, 2011). In some occasions, anonymous network
infrastructure like Tor (Chaabane et al., 2010) is used at the same time in order to
conceal user identities.
As already mentioned, media organizations experiment by incorporating tools and
services from the above categories into their workflows as part of the evolution of their
platforms. It is very common for organizations to experiment using multiple tools at the
same time (Lott-Lavigna, 2017; Ciobanu, 2017). Furthermore, the boundaries between
applications in different categories are in many cases not well defined, since particular
applications tend to provide a wide range of features expanding over multiple functions
(Lott-Lavigna, 2017).
A MODEL FOR SEMANTIC ANNOTATION OF UGC FOR JOURNALISTS
Based on the previous discussion, it is quite obvious that today there are available
semantic technologies that can assist journalists to cope with the problem of UGC.
However, although significant technical solutions have been developed (Schmunk et al,
2013; Erétéo et al., 2008), there are still many problems related to the fragmented
confrontation of the various cases and problems related to the maturation of the
semantic technology. We have thus witnessed significant development steps in the
research area, but in the case of the actual implementation in the real world -in our case
the media organization- the results are very limited, since such semantic techniques
have not been widely adopted by media organizations (Brandtzaeg et al., 2016).
Moreover, there is a lack of initiatives that aim at educating journalists on the use of
semantic technologies or even at the participation of professional journalists in the
design and evaluation of semantic journalistic tools and services.
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Semantic Tools for Participatory Journalism
One of the main challenges posed by participatory journalism to media organizations
is the requirement to be able to ingest vast amounts of unstructured data, coming from
multiple sources including citizen journalists, content discovery and monitoring services
and others. As it has been already demonstrated in other fields of research (Lew et al.,
2006), the application of automated, semi-automated and manual content annotation
processes can significantly improve the management and retrieval of content at scale by
enabling advanced categorization and search mechanisms. As part of this work, a
reference model for the implementation of UGC semantic annotation workflows in media
organizations is introduced and analyzed. The aim of the proposed model is to be
adopted by media organizations in order to simplify their news making workflows
exploiting UGC from heterogeneous sources at big data scale.
Figure 2: The proposed reference model for UGC semantic annotation workflows
The main subsystems and processes of the proposed model are illustrated in Figure
2. Two main UGC data sources can be identified on the diagram; the first one is based
on the direct submission of UGC by citizen journalists or journalists, while the second is
based on UGC automatically retrieved from social media using content discovery and
monitoring services. In both cases, ingested UGC is stored most of the time in semistructured or unstructured form into a data store able to handle unstructured data. This
particular type of data store for unstructured data is often referred to as a data lake (Hai
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
289
et al., 2016) in big data terminology. In order to make data stored in the data lake
available for consumption additional post processing steps are required involving data
standardisation, enrichment and annotation processes.
Examples of UGC standardisation include text correction and translation or abusive
language moderation, while an example of UGC enrichment can be the extraction of
geolocation information from multimedia content (e.g. exit information from images).
The next step, the annotation of UGC using semantic analysis tools, has probably the
biggest potential for improving UGC management and retrieval at scale. Various
techniques for content-based semantic analysis can find application in this space ranging
from deep learning image recognition approaches for landmark detection (Weyand et
al., 2016) to natural language analysis methods for entities extraction (Ritter et al,
2011). The standardised, enriched and annotated UGC can be afterwards archived in
the data store in a structured form available for further curation by journalists before
publication or even direct publication. In addition to the automated annotation of
content, the audience can also collaboratively annotate (Tsipas et al., 2013) published
content, information that can be used either as is by other users or in a feedback loop
to generate training datasets for supervised semantic analysis algorithms to further
improve their performance.
CONCLUSIONS
This paper has studied the issue of semantic tools for participatory journalism. The
aim of the study is to outline the existing tools employed by media organizations
specifically for UGC exploitation. The study concluded that although semantic
technologies that can deal with the problem of UGC are already available, they have not
been widely adopted by media organizations. One of the main reasons that were
identified is the immature semantic technology and the lack of a unified platform in
which journalists can concentrate in the utilization of UGC. Thus, a model for semantic
annotation of UGC was proposed and discussed.
Future extensions of this work should include a more detailed development of the
proposed model with emphasis in the integration of crowdsourcing characteristics not
only in the collection but also in the exploitation of UGC in the context of participatory
journalism.
Acknowledgement: This research has been co-financed by the Operational Program
"Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learning" and is cofinanced by the European Union (European Social Fund) and Greek national funds.
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Semantic Tools for Participatory Journalism
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Journal of Media Critiques [JMC]
doi: 10.17349/jmc118222
P-ISSN: 2056-9785
E-ISSN: 2056 9793
http://www.mediacritiques.net
jmc@mediacritiques.net
A MULTIMODAL SEMANTIC MODEL FOR EVENT
IDENTIFICATION ON SPORTS MEDIA CONTENT
PANAGIOTIS-MARIOS FILIPPIDIS*
CHARALAMPOS DIMOULAS**
CHARALAMPOS BRATSAS***
ANDREAS VEGLIS****
ABSTRACT
This paper presents a multimodal semantic event identification model of occurring events in
sports games. Sport broadcasting programs and TV shows form a demanding media case, as
journalists, experts and analysts tend to examine in detail their gameplay aspects and elements,
trying to offer thorough analysis and deep insights to their large audience. Basketball serves as
an exemplary case for developing an event identification model in sports media content, since it
is full of small or bigger activities that take place throughout the game. In this work, a basketball
event is defined as a series of player actions during a team possession in the game. The proposed
method leverages and combines the information of various game sources as play-by-play and text
reports. Given the current state of research, the current paper proposes multilevel event
classification taxonomies that could be used in multimodal semantic processing and
conceptualization approaches.
Keywords: event identification, sports media analysis, linked data, data journalism, data
mining.
INTRODUCTION
State of the art in the topic and event identification research field focuses mainly on
news topics, or historical events and, in general, on happenings that seem to have an
impact on a large group of people.
In the general context of news, the detection of the subject can be seen as the
identification of an event that groups stories and each such group represents a particular
subject (Chen et al., 2007). Such activities have specific properties such as duration
(beginning, peak, and end), participating entities (individuals, organizations), a location
where it is occurring, and a subject to which it relates (Vavliakis et al., 2013).
*
School of Journalism & Mass Communications, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Assistant Professor, School of Journalism & Mass Communications, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
***
Dr., School of Mathematics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
****
Prof. Dr., School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
**
296
A Multimodal Semantic Model for Event Identification on Sports Media Content
In sports, beside this kind of events, e.g. the final game of a competition, there are
also other types of activities that could be defined and identified, occurring not in the
competition season lifetime, but during a single game.
This more detailed viewpoint of the event concept may stand for actions or series of
actions of players and teams during a game and could help identify key aspects of their
plays and tactics, as well. Thus, this model does not take into account how many people
in social media or articles in a text corpus are talking about them in a specific time
period. Instead, leverages resources such as statistics and game reports to identify the
actions that form the gameplay events in sports, applying similar techniques to
approaches of different context.
A major task in event identification procedure is the detection of key terms within the
content and the evaluation of the importance of each term and the relations between
them. This task applies Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques in a variety of
contexts, such as spot words removal, or stemming (taking just the root of the word) of
the terms, based on the Porter (Porter, 2008), or KSTEM algorithms (Krovetz, 1993).
Besides the traditional uses of stop words and stemming removal (Sayadi et al., 2009),
the NLP task can be appropriately configured, depending on the research needs. For
example, there are cases where only the English terms are examined (Papadopoulos et
al., 2014), or the non-English terms having no less than four letters (Weng et al., 2011).
In addition, even short sentences with fewer than three words, or low frequency words
can be also excluded (Yin et al., 2013). As for the export of entities, this can be done
using, either dictionary (gazetteers) and regular expressions, or hand-crafted rules
(Vavliakis et al., 2013).
A gameplay event in sports could be defined in a broader or narrower level. In
basketball, for example, it could be even a single player action (e.g. a scoring shot), or
a game interval with specific characteristics (e.g. a scoring streak by a team). Previous
works considers single actions as game events. The current model considers basketball
Possession Events (PE), containing a series of actions that occur from the moment a
team gains the ball possession, to the moment that, even instantly, they lose it. For
instance, if a player of team missed a shot, took the offensive rebound and made the
next shot, the model identifies two events, as the player team regained the ball
possession.
A basketball PE, as a normal event, has a start, a peak and an end, where
•
the start refers to the action that gives the ball possession to the team
•
the end refers to the action that takes off the ball possession from the team and
•
the peak refers to the action with which the team offense is running and ends,
provoking also the change or the claiming of the ball possession.
It is evident that a basketball game can be sliced into a series of consecutive PEs,
where the end of one event indicates the start of its subsequent.
STATE OF RESEARCH
Event detection methods have been used in sports recently, considering an event as
any activity that takes places during the game. They are based mainly on the videos of
the sports games, as they aim to exploit their low-level, mid-level or high-level attributes
(Nepal et al., 2001; Xu et al., 2004; Huang et al., 2006; Liu et al., 2011). These methods
are able to identify some of the important actions during the game, but it seems that
they cannot go into more detail only with image and video processing algorithms, at
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
297
least at basketball, where a lot of instant activities may take place simultaneously by ten
players in a small area.
Newer works exploit the webcast text of games that include the actions that occur in
the and try to align it with the video, in order to provide more identified events and in
greater accuracy. The mixture of resources increases the detection potential. However,
in most cases, webcast text operates just complementary to the main video detection
methods limiting the possibilities of identifying events based on a more granular level.
Xu and Chan (2004) combine many sources and external sources, as webcast text to
identify important actions in soccer videos and define their boundaries. Xu et al. (2006)
analyse both well-structured and "freestyle" text of soccer webcast text to detect some
major events and align them with the video.
In Xu et al (2008), a probabilistic latent semantic analysis (pLSA) is used in
descriptions of webcast text, in order to cluster them into categories and the identified
events occur from a single keyword of each category. This approach, however, while it
is generic for both basketball and soccer, it is limited to a few only events.
Α more recent work (Chen and Chen, 2014), makes a deeper analysis on webcast
text of basketball and soccer, with unsupervised learning on the included descriptions.
The method recognizes the useful terms (keywords and names) from the descriptions,
constructs terms trees to detect a lot more events than previous methods, 44, and
clusters them into groups of similar meaning, based on experts' opinion. There is a term
hierarchy, which leads to events, but that is not an hierarchy which classifies the sports
events from broader to narrower.
Current work aims to take some steps further, considering a different meaning of a
basketball event, as a team possession with one or more actions, rather than single
activities that occur during the game. While previous methods on webcast text apply
unsupervised learning algorithms, the proposed model incorporates basic sport
knowledge for the identification process, as basketball has a finite number of actions,
while extracting the keywords from the webcast text. It also extends the respective
keyword list, developing a semantic vocabulary of actions terms that are used in different
basketball competitions. The semantic vocabulary contains synonyms of the same action
which are classified on an event hierarchy. In this way, the model learns to detect events
not only in webcast text, but also in game reports, identifying the key entities that might
also be included in the vocabulary as well.
METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH
Multiple Data Resources Retrieval
Basketball is one of the most popular sports in the world and there is a plethora of
resources about games information, statistics, reports and others on the Web, which are
easily accessible. The model aims at leveraging as many sources as possible, such as
the official statistics of the games, their basic information (i.e. schedules, results, rounds,
datetimes) and their webcasts, namely play-by-plays (PBP), which are log-like files
containing all the stat-measurable actions during the game (a small segment is shown
in Figure 1), reports with game analysis and recap, quotes of the players and the
coaches, as well as videos, social media photos, tags, interactions and others. The PBP
and the reports articles, however, are the ones that form, the backbone of the model,
while the additional sources could also contribute significantly to the event identification
procedure.
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A Multimodal Semantic Model for Event Identification on Sports Media Content
Figure 1. A PBP segment
Using multiple resources, the model should be able to retrieve efficiently and in an
automated way their data. The most valuable start point web source is the official
website of a competition (e.g. Euroleague5 in basketball) which usually contains all the
relevant information, that is, the PBP, statistics, results, reports and quotes. There are
many web scraping tools for basic operations, nevertheless, operating this task in
multidimensional statistical data might be too complicated.
The model uses scripts written in the Python6 programming language, exploiting
libraries like Beautiful Soup7 for searching, extracting and retrieving data from various
sources such as competition and media websites. A different, customizable script has
been created for each resource, to retrieve all the useful information from statistics,
PBPs, reports and others.
During and after this task, the retrieved data are cleaned and modified properly in
order to include just the information needed from the model, in an appropriate format.
For example, different paragraphs of the same game report are joined together in a
single text, or play-by-play actions are splitted into pieces, containing separately the
player, the statistic and the action itself.
Then, the distinct actions of all PBPs (fouls, turnovers, free throws etc.) form the
initial version of the basketball actions vocabulary (BAV), which contains the terms used
in the PBP to describe the actions. The BAV will be enriched in many ways and will serve
as a key device for the model to identify events in articles, in later stages.
Finally, all the data are stored into corresponding tables in a MySQL8 database, along
with their game metadata, such as the game id and the round (week) of the competition
in which they refer to, or they took place. In this way, each element in the database
could be used as standalone data or grouped together with data with a similar metadata
dimension value, facilitating the tasks under the event identification process.
Event Identification and Components Extraction from Play-by-Plays
Event identification in the PBP of a basketball game is not a trivial or easy task,
although the PEs have been defined based on actions contained in the PBP. It requires
domain-expert knowledge in order to group together the actions that fit only to some of
the events components (start, peak, end). Based on the previous definitions of these
components, the event identification algorithm in PBP clusters actions of the BAV that
operate or are more frequent as a specific component and then examine the next or
previous actions to identify completely the event.
The peak actions group consists of
•
the field goals; these are the two-points and three-points shots of a player,
either made or missed, where the following end actions should be a rebound, in
case of a missed shot, or a change of the game score, in case of a made shot.
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
299
•
the turnovers, where the ball possession automatically changes from the one
team to the other
•
the free throws, a special case where the following end action depends on the
PBP context (e.g. a made free throw can lead to a change of possession or a
new free throw)
•
the fouls, which can also lead to a new possession, or free throws
The algorithm (Figure. 2) detects first the peak actions in the game PBP, as well as
the respective player that made the action and the moment (minute and second in the
quarter) that the action occurred, data already included in the PBP, and later in the
database. Then, the algorithm examines the next or even the previous actions, if
needed, in order to detect one of the possible ends of the occurring event. As an end of
an event indicates the start of the next, it is more effective to search only for the ending
actions, because there are specific game actions patterns, as already mentioned. On the
contrary, there is no specific rule for the start of an event, as it could be defined just as
a new or change of possession.
Figure 2. PBP Event Identification Flow
Thus, there is a common group of starting/ending actions that the algorithm searches
for and these are mainly the offensive and defensive rebounds of a missed shot. No
detection is needed in case of a made shot, as a score change is assumed as the ending
action and a new possession of the opposite team starts the next event, while the change
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of ball possession ends a turnover peak action. The algorithm detects the respective
moment (minute and second) and player of the action as well, while it assumes the
"home team", or "visitor team" in case where there is not a corresponding player
associated with that ending action.
Beside these main groups of actions, there are additional groups of actions that
enlighten the identification process. These "extra" actions include
• the assist, which may have led to a basket,
• the steal, which leads to a turnover,
• the block, which leads to a missed shot
and others. These actions are complementary to the peak actions, as they may or
may not have been occurred along with them. Finally, the "intermediate actions" refer
to timeouts and substitutions. These might be valuable for a greater level of analysis,
but they are not used for the PE identification in terms of detecting an action, but only
as a starting point (minute and second) of a new offense. An example of a possession
event and its components is shown in figure 3.
Applying the algorithm to a PBP of a 40-minute Euroleague game detects about 130
events during the game, that consist of their starts, peaks, ends, "extras", their
respective players and moments and a basic topic attribute, such as a successful offense.
The domain specific notion of the algorithm does not exclude its adjustment to other
sports as well, as it defines a procedure that leverages key terms of the sport. An
equivalent algorithm that uses the corresponding terms of a different sport, clusters
them and tries to find patterns as series of actions (terms) that might form an event
could be exploited to other sports as well.
Figure 3. Event components in a PBP
Semantic Representation and Alignment of Vocabulary Terms
The event identification process in text such as games reports, includes, beside NLP
tasks, the mapping of the identified key terms to the terms of the PBP, that is the actions
included in the BAV. Thus, a crucial point to this end is to enrich the BAV with additional
terms, either new, or synonyms to the already included terms. This will facilitate the
detection and extraction of the interesting concepts in text and, in turn, the event
identification in game reports.
Thus, while BAV has been developed by terms of a specific competition PBP (i.e.
Euroleague Basketball), it can also include similar terms from other competitions
terminology as well. While Euroleague PBPs ended up with 33 distinct actions, there are
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
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competitions with richer terminology, such as the FIBA competitions with 53 terms, the
Spanish League (ACB) with 71 terms, the Greek League (BasketLeague) with 80 terms
and the National Basketball Association of USA (NBA) with 345! These vocabularies
include hierarchies of terms, describing in detail the action that takes place (e.g. the way
of shooting; lay-up, dunk, tip in and others for a two-point shot). Combining all these
vocabularies extends the BAV vocabulary to 367 distinct terms, that is eleven times more
from its initial version.
Besides that, the BAV is then transformed and represented also semantically in RDF9,
using SKOS10, the most appropriate RDF Vocabulary for describing hierarchical
classifications and taxonomies. The semantic representation of basketball data has been
proposed for better data handling and analysis possibilities (Filippidis et al., 2015). Using
properties such as skos:prefLabel, skos:broader, skos:narrower, among others, the
initial semantic BAV is created with the 367 terms as a hierarchical code list. Each of the
above competitions vocabulary is transformed into RDF as well, in a similar way.
Then, using the Alignment11 tool (Karampatakis et al., 2017), mappings between BAV
and the leagues vocabularies are created, in order to connect the synonyms of the
vocabularies with each other. Alignment is able to achieve this semi-automatically,
enriching the semantic representation with properties as skos:exactMatch, pointing out
to the semantic entity of the similar basketball concept of another semantic vocabulary.
In this way, semantic BAV includes all the knowledge from the above vocabularies, the
concepts, the terms used, the hierarchies and all the synonyms from each competition.
It may contain also synonyms in different languages, as, for example, the ACB
vocabulary include terms in Spanish, thus, facilitating the event identification even in
texts of a different language. An example with a common term is shown in figure 4.
Figure 4. Synonyms of a BAV term from various leagues taxonomies
EVENT IDENTIFICATION IN TEXT
Event Identification through Entities Matching and Vocabulary Enrichment
After the creation and enrichment of the semantic vocabulary basketball actions
terms, the event identification task in game reports could become easier and more
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efficient. This kind of articles usually contain the recap of the game, the leading players
and a text timeline of the most important moments during the game. The latter is the
most valuable part for the model, as it contains key moments of the game.
The model applies main NLP tasks as sentence breaking, word segmentation,
stemming and part-of-speech tagging to the retrieved game reports to detect terms that
could form an event. The main task, however, is Named Entity Recognition (NER) for
key entities within the text, that could match with terms already found in the game PBP.
These terms include
• players
• scores
• actions
• minute of action
where the whole process is supported by the identified events in the PBP and the
semantic BAV as well. Thus, a new algorithm aims to find similarities between the report
entities and the semantic BAV and PBP events terms, as seen in Figure 5.
Figure 5. Similarities between game report entities and PBP and BAV terms
As scoring remains the most important, or popular part in sports and basketball
contains many scoring actions, it is expected that game reports will include mainly this
kind of events. Detecting a score could potentially lead directly to a single identification,
as it points out the ending action of an already identified PBP event (where the peak
action is a made shot). Then, the algorithm tries to match additional terms, as players,
or actions, while a temporal reference could indicate a time interval where it should
search in PBP events.
While exploiting scores is a crucial start point for the identification process in game
reports, the task is a lot more difficult to be accomplished when a scoring entity is
missing from a sentence, using only the PBP events that have been previously identified.
The semantic BAV however, allows for the identification even in these cases, as it
contains synonyms for many actions that could be referred within the text. Then, the
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
303
start point for the identification task is not a score, but the action that took place, while
participating players matching also contribute, as well as any temporal reference
indicating a group of PBP events that occurred in it. If there is not any time indication
within the respective sentence, then timestamps from previous or next events could also
point out a time interval within PBP. This alternative path to the identification process
indicates the importance of developing a semantic vocabulary with terms used in the
sport and its utility becomes even greater in later steps, as it potentially grows when
examining more articles.
The further enrichment of the vocabulary is accomplished mainly by the event
identification task in game reports, when a scoring entity (game score) occurs in text.
As mentioned, the scoring detection is the first main step of the algorithm and can easily
lead to many identifications. As the algorithm recognizes that a specific sentence
corresponds to an event, then the sport action which goes with it might be or might be
not included in the current version of the BAV. In the second scenario, the word or words
that indicate the player action are imported as a new term in the vocabulary, as a
synonym to a broad term that matches with it (i.e. a dunk could match with a two-point
shot).
Thus, performing the event identification task in a corpus of game reports
strengthens the algorithm, which is trained to identify more terms and entities, based
on the vocabulary enrichment. As the algorithm is applied in each text separately,
iterations of the procedure allow for the re-examining of game reports with the newlyadded terms, facilitating the action-based identification task as well. Additional tasks of
verifying the new terms and placing them to the appropriate hierarchy level in the
vocabulary are needed in order to integrate completely the new findings into the BAV.
Event Identification in unknown sports articles
After the vocabulary enrichment from specific, known sources, the model becomes
more capable of identifying basketball events even in unknown sources, such in sports
news media articles from various authors and publishers. This requires, first, another
kind of identification, that is the matching of a sports article to the respective game.
Additional NLP techniques are evolving to this end, leveraging the same principles and
key entities as above, along with the publishing date within the prospective articles. This
task takes place in a new, larger text corpus of web articles from various sports websites,
which might have additional useful attributes such as tags, keywords, feed categories
and others, whilst their title and short description might have a big impact as well.
Having identified the matching articles, if any, the model applies the event
identification algorithm in them, as described above, while potentially enriching further
the vocabulary used. Through this circular process, combining iterations on both known
and unknown text resources, the model is becoming more effective to identify events in
any text report. Moreover, the combination of various articles for the same game builds
a bigger mosaic of the respective game important or less important activities. Finally,
the model should be able to detect all included events in any of the aforementioned
sources, as well as be flexible enough to combine even more sources, such as social
media, or video. Then, it will be able to build upon them methods for clustering of events,
as many PEs may form a generic interval event with a specific topic (e.g. a scoring streak
by a team), widening the game analysis possibilities as well.
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RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
The current event identification model on sports media content can benefit sports
journalists in multiple ways, as they become able to obtain additional knowledge on what
is happening during sports games, based on the identified events from various
resources. The model focuses on basketball, a sport full of activities that take place
through its playing, so it is far than difficult for any expert, journalist or analyst to recall
all the key moments and details of action. As a basketball game is partially, or fully sliced
into a series of events, sport journalists acquire the possibility of searching any kind of
events, their sequences, the star players of them and further insights about what has
happened during the game, improving spectacularly their analysis possibilities, in a
narrow or a broader level.
Thus, they become able to enrich their common analysis, highlight the key points
and build data journalism stories on a game, team, player, or season level. Similar
possibilities could be also exploited by any other sport stakeholder, such as coaches,
experts, or even fans, widening the model scope. This could be evident, as knowledge
that comes off the model can be used either as is, or be the source for deeper tasks,
such as machine learning for most valuable players highlighting, identification of interval
events within the game and events forecasting.
The integration of additional sources such as social media content, or video content
at a later stage will increase remarkably the event identification possibilities of the model,
while the mixture of all these resources could also benefit other sports-related analysis
tasks.
The basketball specialization of the model does not exclude its adjustment to other
sports as well, as it develops and uses methods and algorithms that could be customized
in different terminology and key concepts. As the key device to the model operations is
the semantic vocabulary of basketball actions, a similar process could be also developed
for other sports, based on their own key concepts. Thus, apart for developing a
basketball-oriented event identification model, the current work proposes a generic
approach for event identification on any sports media content, based on classification
taxonomies that can be built upon the concepts of the sport.
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
305
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Journal of Media Critiques [JMC]
doi: 10.17349/jmc118223
P-ISSN: 2056-9785
E-ISSN: 2056 9793
http://www.mediacritiques.net
jmc@mediacritiques.net
AUGMENTED AND VIRTUAL REALITY TECHNOLOGIES
IN CULTURAL SECTOR: EXPLORING THEIR
USEFULNESS AND THE PERCEIVED EASE OF USE
GEORGE LOUMOS*
ANTONIOS KARGAS**
DIMITRIOS VAROUTAS***
ABSTRACT
Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) Technologies offer new challenges and
opportunities for mediated communication and aspire to reshape business environment and
everyday life in terms of user’s experience, enrich content, access and user-friendly capabilities).
In this work, we focus on cultural sector and aim to discuss and present sector challenges and
opportunities for AR/VR implementation. Cultural sector is already facing the need to implement
such technologies aiming to: (a) to reuse its exclusive digital content, (b) to exploit its content for
mass markets in global level such as gaming and (c) to further enrich users experience. Even
though, the introduction and implementation of such technologies are important for cultural
industries, little research has been done in cultural sector for aspects such as: a) how users will
get benefit from rich content available anywhere, anytime and at the lower possible price
(usefulness) and b) how cultural content providers could benefit from AR and VR introduction
(ease of use). The present study aims to conceptualize these aspects by using existing case studies
and success stories and by exploiting academic research. A methodological framework for AR/VR
project selection and appraisal based of this information along with authors’ experience in
implementing AR/VR technologies will also be introduced and discussed. Specific results regarding
AR/VR perspectives for cultural industries (with a special discussion for Greek cultural industry),
technology appraisal criteria as well as the perceived ease of use from both content – providers
and end – users will also be presented. Concluding remarks and discussions will summarized the
study which aims to contribute to AR/VR development in this sector
Keywords: Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Cultural Sector.
*
PhD Candidate on Cultural Technologies, Cultural Technology Laboratory Department of Informatics and
Telecommunications, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece / Chief Operating Officer
Content Management in Culture P.C., Athens, Greece, e-mail: gloumos@comic.com.gr
**
Academic Fellow on Cultural Economics, Hellenic Open University, Greece / Managing Director, Content
Management in Culture P.C., Athens, Greece, e-mail: kargas.antonios@ac.eap.gr
***
Associate Professor and Director, Cultural Technology Laboratory Department of Informatics and
Telecommunications, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece, e-mail:
D.Varoutas@di.uoa.gr
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Augmented and Virtual Reality Technologies in Cultural Sector: Exploring their usefulness and the
perceived ease of use
INTRODUCTION
It has not been a long time ago since Museums and archaeological places influenced
by New Museology’s trends. In the mid-80s the importance of the cultural item itself
begun to be considered equal to the cultural artefact’s context (Pearce, 1986; Washburn,
1984; McDonald & Alsford, 1991). The first source of innovativeness came from World
Wide Web and the development of Web Pages (and social media in a second stage)
capable to deliver content and context to the wide public, leading to increased
accessibility and attractiveness. What was initially introduced by Marlaux (1947) as an
“imaginary museum” has started to be developed to a “virtual museum” described as:
“(. . .) a logically related collection of digital objects composed in a variety of media,
and, because of its capacity to provide connectedness and various points of access, it
lends itself to transcending traditional methods of communicating and interacting with
the visitors being flexible toward their needs and interests; it has no real place or space,
its objects and the related information can be disseminated all over the world”
(Schweibenz, 1998).
The first digital steps have been done via Web to personal computers as a mean of
(a) low-cost, (b) fast and (c) effective (user-friendly) communication tool (Sylaiou et al.,
2009). This communication was mainly focus on static context including texts and
photos. Mobile devices created an even more dynamic environment while technological
advances in eras of crucial interest permitted the development of approaches closer to
reality. Mobile phones and tablets enabled a series of dynamic and interactive
applications (Hin et al., 2003), while “educated” users in using them in various everyday
aspects (including cultural and educational activities). Especially the smartphones are
nowadays incorporate hardware features and software capabilities, wide enough to
support VR & AR platforms and applications (Kim et al., 2014).
The overall technological development made it feasible to re-examine digital
technologies’ s usages and potentialities. The last 5 years, already existing technologies,
such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR), emerged as beyond the state
of art sophisticated tools to design virtual museums, to exhibit cultural content and
context and to enrich users experience. VR and AR market is expected to grow the next
years as quickly as tablets and smartphones, while their entrepreneurial perspectives is
increasing alongside with improvements in location services and image recognition
technologies (Cognizant, 2018).
Digital technology evolvement enabled cultural organizations and businesses to
continually reinvent themselves. Technological innovation led to the so-called “digital
convergence” which brought “older” cultural industries to mass market global economies
and facilitated the born of new cultural and creative sectors (e.g. computer games, web
design). Significant changes occurred in terms of “what” Cultural Sector includes. Only
recently European Union (European Parliament, 2003) made the first attempt to identify
a list of accepted activities, while a new approach soon arose in order to expand cultural
industries’ definition and to include a list of their characteristics and contribution to
economic and social development (European Parliament, 2008). Nowadays the term
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
309
“cultural and creative industries” is used to describe a wide variety of organizations and
private companies enabling in an even wider list of activities:
•
Advertising and marketing
•
Architecture
•
Crafts
•
Design: product, graphic and fashion design
•
Film, TV, video, radio and photography
•
IT, software and computer services
•
Publishing
•
Museums, galleries and libraries
•
Music, performing and visual arts.
Cultural sector (incorporating all the above-mentioned activities) is already facing the
need to implement such technologies aiming to:
1.
to reuse its exclusive digital content,
2.
to exploit its content for mass markets in global level such as gaming and
3.
to further enrich users experience.
Even though, the introduction and implementation of such technologies are
important, little research has been done in cultural sector for aspects such as: a) how
users will get benefit from rich content available anywhere, anytime and at the lower
possible price (usefulness) and b) how cultural content providers could benefit from AR
and VR introduction (ease of use). The present study aims to conceptualize these aspects
by using existing case studies and success stories and by exploiting academic research.
A methodological framework for AR/VR project selection and appraisal based of this
information along with authors’ experience in implementing AR/VR technologies will also
be introduced and discussed.
In the following sections the related work on VR & AR in cultural sector will be
presented, while their definitions and characteristics will be presented in Section 3.
Moreover, aspects of implementing such technologies in the cultural sector and an
existing case study will be presented in the same Section. Finally, at the last section a
brief discussion of the results coming from the case study will be conducted.
RELATED WORK
Existing research on VR & AR technologies in Cultural Sector can be divided in two
categories: (a) theoretical and methodological research (mainly before 2010) and (b)
case studies analyses about developed applications in the field. Both, theoretical and
practical research is mainly focused on traditional approaches consisting of one-room or
one exhibit approaches, as a result (Ciolfi & McLoufhlin, 2010). For example, Sparacino
et al. (2000) and Grinter et al. (2002) studied interactive technologies in museums, while
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Augmented and Virtual Reality Technologies in Cultural Sector: Exploring their usefulness and the
perceived ease of use
Brown et al. (2003) and Bowers et al. (2007) explored interactive exhibits using
ubiquitous displays with augmented reality.
Sylaiou et al. (2009) compared various forms of emerging technologies, such as VR,
AR and Web3D (back in 2009), used to develop virtual museums / exhibitions, both in
physical and Web environment. Their results revealed how these technologies can
become an engaging medium and how they enrich the museum experience through the
interaction with the virtual artefacts. As main target – groups recognized to be tourists,
students and specialists, with different needs to be fulfilled. A rather interesting topic is
about the relationship between real and virtual museums, with the latter being
characterized as “digital reflections” that do not exist per se (Sylaiou et al., 2009).
VR’s main advantage is the possibility to re-construct and make accessible to visitors,
sites that no longer exist or sites that are inaccessible. Accessibility obstacles can
physical, geographical, legal or even matters of choice (e.g. cultural items belonging to
private collections). Examples of VR applications used to overcome such obstacles can
been found (among others) in the work of Valtolina et. al. (2005) about the
reconstruction of an ancient theatre, in the work of Fineschi & Pozzebon (2015)
developing a 3D virtual museum tour of the Santa Maria Della Scala, as well as in Ferrari
& Medici (2017) about the creating a virtual experience of the no more existing Geguti
Palace.
One of the first AR implementations has been ARCHEOGUIDE (Augmented Realitybased Cultural Heritage On-site GUIDE) system (Vlahakis, et al., 2001) which provided
a series of uses such as AR reconstructions of ancient ruins, based on user's position
and orientation in the cultural site, and real-time image rendering. Miyashita et al. (2008)
developed an AR guide for navigation to exhibition and to support basic information
about the cultural items. Mohammed-Ammin et al. (2012) presented Arbela Layers
Uncovered (ALU), a mobile AR tour guide for visitors of the archaeological site of Arbela,
Iraq. They used a two-dimensional map interface to present user’s location and geotagged content (such as 3D models), while one of the most challenging aspects was the
navigation through mobile interface when a large amount of content is required.
Angelopoulou et al. (2011) presented an iOS, AR application used on the archaeological
site of Sutton Hoo (UK) created for educational purposes. Gamification techniques have
been used, while the tour to the archaeological place was given with a team-oriented
puzzle game. Gutierrez et al. (2015) developed an AR application supporting historical
information for the Temple of Debod. Finally, Galatis et al. (2016) presented a guide for
the archaeological site of Knossos in Greece (called KnossosAR), addressing to various
challenges such as the occlusion problem and revealing the (dis)advantages of AR vs.
map-based mobile interfaces.
A different topic is explored by a series of researchers that are more interested in
intangible aspects of digital technology’s usage, such as evaluation of the VR or AR
experience in cultural sites. Higget et al. (2016) after implementing AR and VR
applications, for Visualising and Interpreting Roman Leicester 210AD (Ratae
Corieltavorum), have proceed with gathering evaluation from museum visitors. Their
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
311
result revealed problems, such as immersion, inconvenience and a reduced visitor
experience reflecting GPS inaccuracies. Apart from technological problems, the
applications found to be engaging and exciting for children in terms of heritage
interpretation, while the high levels of interaction provided by the application enriched
their experience. Another paper, from Izzo (2017) investigates customer experience
using as case study BOSCH exhibition (“Four Visions Afterlife”), VR immersive
experience, implemented by Palazzo Ducale in Venice. Author aimed that using virtual
reality, enriched by a series of original visual and sound experiences, may provide a
valuable experience with customers as well as cultural heritage’s management in terms
of: marketing, culture, knowledge, entertainment, personalization, satisfaction.
AR & VR IN CULTURAL SECTOR
There are many descriptions and definitions about what AR & VR are. Most of them
are taking into consideration aspects that are in first priority in the field of the researcher
– author. Even if small or large similarities / differences occur, it is wide accepted that
both AR & VR can be placed on a virtuality continuum (described in Figure 1) ranging
from real to virtual environment.
From the one side lies the real world as we face it, while to other one lies a total
virtual environment. Augmented Reality brings (with the use of special glasses or
cameras – mobile devices) to the real environment, additional structures (e.g. 3D
models) and rich content. A step nearer to virtual environment is the Augmented
Virtuality. In this case, the user is in a virtual environment which is enriched with digital
content from the real world. The difference between these two cases, lies on the
“environment” which is enriched. In both cases, Augmented Reality and Virtuality, the
user has always conscious about the existence of both real or virtual world
(representatively) and the borders between real and virtual are clear in terms of
environment and content.
Virtual Reality or Virtual Environment is a pure artificially created environment
without any elements or content from the real world (e.g. the various worlds created for
gaming purposes). In this case, the environment is created to move user in a new world,
totally different from the known and the used graphics lead him to deepen his experience
in the borders of forgetting the real world.
VR Video or Video 360 (degrees) supports the experience of selecting the direction
to look when watching a video. Even though there is no other interaction (e.g. moving
around) than watching around as video plays, its importance is that supports VR on real
environment. Such an aspect leads to understand Mixed Reality as a spectrum that
encompasses all the above forms of “reality and virtuality”.
For the purpose of the present paper our analysis is mainly concentrated on AR and
VR. The following definition is used to interpret AR and its practical usage in the real
environment’s era:
Augmented Reality (AR) is the technology that integrates digital information with the
real world in a way that enhances graphics, sounds and 3D objects over the natural
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Augmented and Virtual Reality Technologies in Cultural Sector: Exploring their usefulness and the
perceived ease of use
objects. AR technology focuses on the enriched experiences of the users, presenting
visual information complementary of the natural environment through users’ devices.
The digital augmented content interacts with the user actions as most of the time the
AR content is touchable and quite responsive on user’s input.
As far as VR is concerned the following definition describes the new form of
technology and
Virtual Reality (VR) is the technology that creates 3D scenes, places and worlds where
users, through headset devices are connected and participating in. These environments
are computer generated, capable to interact with users’ actions and allow them to
discover fantastic worlds by using most of their senses as living in the real world. VR
experiences depends on system’s capabilities, as the visual quality is directly related with
the graphics rendering hardware and the simulation software.
Figure 1 Defining VR (Source: Muikku & Kalli, 2017)
VIRTUAL REALITY AND AUGMENTED REALITY CHARACTERISTICS
The VR and AR technologies were not so familiar to end users mainly due to the cost
of the required end user hardware device. This cost has been dramatically reduced and
nowadays it is quite easy to buy and use these devices. Leaders such as Google,
Facebook and HTC have invested huge amount of money on the above cutting-edge
technologies by creating software and hardware and developers are implementing
relevant applications in all sectors. AR and VR are expected to reach mass adoption and
change the everyday life and reshape the business environment, in the same way
computers and mobile phones did the previous decades.
The strongest characteristics of these two immersive technologies are:
-
User’s Experience: The user is facing something extremely new and fancy but at
the same time lively and interactive. A ‘first time’ user, initially, is feeling a bit
strange as he could not believe the progress of the technology in terms of visual
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
313
quality and integration of human senses into the digital virtual world of the
application.
-
Content: The digital content on VR and AR technologies is quite impressive as it
is design in great detail and rendered through powerful graphics hardware and
software systems. The content should be differentiated per device in order to
provide the most appropriate solution based on device requirements. Mobile
devices are expected to manage low poly 3D models in VR technology, unlike
computed connected VR headsets which are capable to high rendered 3D models
with extremely detailed level of design.
-
Access: The access of the VR and AR content is possible through the applications
that are published in several popular stores, either in mobile platforms or in
specific platforms for these technologies. As the mobile devices are part of our
daily life, applications with emerging technologies will grow rapidly and help users
to work, consume and entertain in a more interactive way. Most of the times, high
speed Internet connection is required due to the size of the 3D models and the
need for real time rendering process on the virtual or augmented environment.
IMPEMETING VR & AR TO CUTLURAL SECTOR
Cultural Sector (CS) is consisting of different categories of professionals, from artists
to nonprofit organizations up to large institutions and museums. Each one has different
needs and technology should provide tools and services to fulfil them and give them
access to communicate their audience through their masterpieces. Information
technology (IT) companies are working on this direction by implementing specific
solutions focused on user friendliness and lack of administrative support processes. The
Technological Readiness Level (TRL) of the specific sector is not considered as high as
possible, and the IT specialists should consider this as a fact and as a challenge too.
Cultural sector professionals are usually open minded and high creative so to have
the skills, with the appropriate aid and consultancy, to turn this disadvantage into
advantage and pre-competitive in the next decades. Most common IT processes that
take place in the CS is the digitization of the cultural assets, the installation and
parameterization of digital repositories and the implementation of web solutions to
promote the exhibits (e.g. digital viewers, timelines, maps, exhibitions). All these
systems were mainly implemented for the web, but they are currently updated with
responsive design or with new native mobile applications, as smartphones are the main
communication channel in the recent years.
Additionally, technology is used to organize and optimize business processes in the
institutions and the museum, where the workload is significantly bigger, and the failure
is critical in specific cases (e.g. preservation, restoration, loans).
Challenges and Opportunities for AR & VR in the Cultural Sector: The most important
challenge for the incorporation of the AR & VR technology into cultural sector, is to
convince the key persons for the potentialities and the prospects of such
implementations. The fear of the unknown aspects and characteristics should be
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Augmented and Virtual Reality Technologies in Cultural Sector: Exploring their usefulness and the
perceived ease of use
overwhelmed by enhancing the innovative characteristics and the ‘wow’ factor of an AR
and VR experience. Only, these technologies can ‘travel’ the end user to imaginary
worlds and reveal hidden meanings and thoughts of the creator. This opportunity is what
the modern artists are looking for and are not afraid to experiment on these pioneer
tech solutions by using and learning new platforms and tools.
Although, learning curve of these technologies is not extremely short, the final result
will justify their efforts by allowing them to show up their inspiration and present
impressive creations. IT companies and experts should also prepare several pilot cases
to help artists understand the way for developing new ways of interacting with their
audience. These pilot cases should cover all areas of cultural asset life cycle and the
needs of an artist and, if possible, should be designed in co-operation with them.
CASE STUDY
The implementation of VR and AR projects in the cultural sector are growing fast and
several solutions are developed as pilot cases initially and some of them are expected
to be launched commercially on the following years. The fact that Software as a Service
(SaaS) is, nowdays, the strongest trend in the digital products’ distribution, is expected
to help the growth of these solutions as more and more professionals from the cultural
sector will be interested in looking at and eventually using them.
The focused case that is currently examined and presented is named VAReal (Virtual
and Augmented Reality) platform and is a combined attempt from the R&D department
of COMIC and a few team members of the Cultech Laboratory. VAReal is designed for
museums and galleries in order to provide them a solution to present their exhibits,
mainly painting, to their audience through the VR and AR technologies. It consists of a
Web platform and of two end user applications (one VR and one AR).
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
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VAreal Web Platform: The VAreal Web Platform acts like a digital repository for the
curators and the artists where they will insert the selected digital masterpieces that they
want the visitor to get in touch with. The start by creating the gallery profile and then
they move on with the digital cultural assets by uploading a high-quality image file and
documenting the cultural asset with few important information (title, creator, a small
description, creation date and dimensions). All this information is displayed through the
mobile applications to the visitors, either by virtual or physical visits.
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perceived ease of use
Finally, they choose if they want to include the asset to the Augmented Reality (AR)
or/and the Virtual Reality guide application. When this process is finished, the image file
is stored both to VAreal file system and to Vuforia Cloud and a text to speech process is
taking place in order to produce an audio file by the text to speech external subsystem.
Furthermore, the curator can either select a different language for documentation or
select the translation service which is provided by an external localization subsystem.
AR Guide App: The Augmented Reality guide is a mobile application for the visitors
of the Gallery’s exhibition. The visitors will find the application to the Android and IOS
stores, they will install it and then they will either create a user profile or they will sign
in as a guest. In both cases, the application will ask them to use their GPS location in
order to show them in a digital map, the galleries that are around and the application
will provide information for some of their exhibits. The user is able to review the provided
exhibits through the app, to find information regarding the gallery and select his
preferred language from the available ones regarding the exhibits’ information. When
the visitor is in front of an exhibit may scan it and get useful information regarding the
exhibit or the exhibit’s creator. The scan process is extremely short and the information
is instantly displayed on a subsequent screen. The user may also choose to hear the
provided audio file regarding the exhibit or the creator.
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
317
VR Exhibit App: The Virtual Reality exhibition application is a mobile application for
VR visitors on a fantastic world of gallery or museums exhibitions with their paintings or
other masterpieces. Each gallery or museum is able to create his own exhibition by
setting up and placing the selected paintings on the spots and rooms that is most
suitable. The curator’s freedom of movement and choice is quite remarkable and at the
end the exhibition is finalized, saved and published. Then the exhibition is available to
end users to select and visit any published exhibition and specific filters have been
designed to support this selection. All the metadata (information, images, sound) are
online transmitted from the back end web platform via web services. The end user
selects the preferred exhibition and visiting language and then is free to move over the
painting and guided as if it were present in a physical gallery space.
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DISCUSSION
VAReal as a typical example of a VR & AR application, has been used to investigate
aspects of Cultural Sector’s, such as reuse of content and end-user’s experience
enrichment. During its trial implementation and pilot-cases phase, a series of challenges
and opportunities arise. The first challenge had to with the difficulties to convince the
key persons, in museums and galleries, for the potentialities and the prospects of such
solutions. Usually coming from non-ICT sector these persons are sceptical about
implementing such technologies, having second thoughts about: (a) the internal
capability to maintain, economically and technologically, long-term use of such
applications and (b) the need to change the existing organizational culture and
operational character. As a consequence, the second recognized challenge is to persuade
the curators and the personnel for the ease of use and the impressive result. The
application’s design permits an effective usage from personnel with basic IT skills. The
existence of pre-defined rules ensures that curators can select artefacts with few
possibilities of making mistakes when design their virtual spaces. Moreover, from an
artistic point of view, the personnel should understand that VR technologies cannot
replace physical places, but aim to approach new target audience, expanding existing
capabilities a step forward.
Moreover, it is clearer than ever that at this point the whole VR industry is in a
transitional phase where: (a) existing technologies and tools are rapidly evolving,
permitting more and more features to be added and (b) cost acquisition of special access
equipment is constantly being reduced, leading to forecasts that soon enough headsets
will cost as much as regular pain of glasses. Taking into account the forthcoming events
to cost and technologies’ combination, seems rational to invest “today” to VR
technologies in order to be pioneer in a new era, the VR era. Supporting this idea, giant
enterprises, such as Google, Apple and Facebook, have invested and continue to invest
huge by creating capital powerful frameworks for developing VR & AR apps.
When the above-mentioned challenges are achieved, the results are more than
encouraging. Using the experience from case studies where VAReal was implemented in
cultural organizations, the results for VR technologies’ implementation indicate:
•
Increased capabilities on re-using existing content and link it with specific
cultural items (e.g. older videos of extravagations with specific items).
•
Mobile devices and VR-AR application can support cultural context of various
forms (e.g. text, images, video, audio) leading to user’s experience enrichment.
•
Getting closer on the idea of virtual exhibitions consisting of items not-existing
(destroyed or lost) or even with cultural items for which there is not enough
physical space to exhibit.
•
Implementing digital technologies lead to a general re-thinking and reshaping
organizational structures, operational strategy, marketing orientation e.t.c.
•
Increased capabilities to segment their visitors according to their own interests
and to support them with customized / personalized information – context.
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
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•
Supporting activities related with giving access to their cultural content before –
during – after visiting their exhibition.
•
Supporting education and learning activities through digital technologies.
From the other side, as far as end-users’ concerns, the results for for VR technologies’
implementation in cultural organizations indicate:
•
Increased interest on cultural items and improved learning capabilities.
•
More interested to get extra information and supplementary (multimedia if
available) content.
•
Greater involvement in learning procedures (getting learning context in an
amusing way).
•
More autonomy in the way additional information is reached (as a result of using
mobile devices and especially mobile phones).
•
Greater flexibility in aspects such as “where to go”, “what to see”, “what to pay
attention on”.
•
Reaching an accepted lever of integration between Culture – Technology –
Amusement when visiting a cultural organization.
Finally, even though there is a growing interest from AR/VR technologies’ developers
for cultural sector, there are still many aspects to be investigated. Solving issues such
as users’ isolation and lack of mutual interaction, keeping the interest on cultural items
rather than on digital artefacts, expanding educational character of digital technologies,
creating sustainable business models that could financially support the further expansion
of digital technologies, are some of them.
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perceived ease of use
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Journal of Media Critiques [JMC]
doi: 10.17349/jmc118224
P-ISSN: 2056-9785
E-ISSN: 2056 9793
http://www.mediacritiques.net
jmc@mediacritiques.net
TOURIST GO HOME: COMMUNICATION AND
PROPAGANDA ON YOUTUBE
MINOS-ATHANASIOS KARYOTAKIS*
NIKOS ANTONOPOULOS**
ANDREAS VEGLIS***
MATINA KIOUREXIDOU****
ABSTRACT
The Social media are considered to be important for the development of the tourist industry as
they provide travellers with brand-new practices for choosing their destination. In addition, the
travel websites contribute to this notion by offering the possibility of evaluating and discussing the
advantages and disadvantages of various destinations. Nowadays, YouTube is the most visited
video-sharing platform on the Internet. It is used for entertainment, political discussion, and
recently for marketing purposes in the field of tourism. Via its services, users have the capability
of uploading their content (UGC) online to various platforms. Thus, YouTube has become one of
the leading tools for promoting users’ specific perspectives. It is even used for propaganda. This
research focuses on the incidents that occurred in Barcelona, because of the “tourists go home”
movement. For the analysis of the results, this paper used elements of descriptive statistics from
YouTube and methods of quantitative content analysis. The conducted research included UGC and
content from news organizations (e.g. Euronews and Bloomberg). The analysis of YouTube video
characteristics such as comments, views, likes, dislikes, channel subscribers etc. revealed that
they might be used for influencing the public opinion. Moreover, it was proved that the “tourists
go home” movement has challenged the current image of Barcelona as world-class tourism
destination.
Keywords: digital media, digital marketing, propaganda, youtube, tourist go home.
*
Postgraduate student, School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki,
Greece. minosathkar@yahoo.gr
**
Assistant Professor, Department of Digital Media and Communications, Technological Educational Institute
of Ionian Islands, Argostoli, Greece. nikos@antonopoulos.info
***
Professor, Media Informatics Lab, School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Aristotle University of
Thessaloniki, Greece. veglis@jour.auth.gr
****
Postdoctoral researcher, Medical School, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. info@kiourexidou.gr
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Tourist Go Home: Communication and Propaganda on YouTube
INTRODUCTION
The new network platforms such as Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook, which emerged
during the beginning of the 21st century, changed the way people communicate and the
facilitation of stakeholder engagement. Social media provide free of charge
communication and a new way of sharing information. Some organizations use them as
a tool in order to provoke discussions, to attract people’s interest and to form a new
connection with the audience by overcoming traditional media. Thus, a great number of
studies examine their use (Guo & Saxton, 2014). The recent technological breakthroughs
brought the expansion of the limits of communication networks, the flow of information,
and the boundaries of society, mainly through the services that websites provide to their
users. As a result, the notion of network society emerged. According to Castells (2004,
p. 3), “A network society is a society whose social structure is made of networks powered
by microelectronics-based information and communication technologies”. The alteration
of the flow of information can be evidenced by the fact that citizens have new ways of
communicating with each other and can even contribute to the user-generated content.
In some cases, they presented their coverage as an answer to the problem of the
declining reliability of reporting (Carr, Barnidge, Lee & Tsang, 2014). The produced
footage or content is being rapidly spread via social media. Social media provide tools
that can reveal important topics, share videos, photos, and supply new up-to-date
information. Through the discussion of each topic, users can contribute different angles
or concerns (Westerman, Spence & van der Heide, 2014). Journalists tend to believe
that social media represent the public opinion (Anstead & O’Loughlin, 2014). In addition,
news organizations tried to adapt to these changes. Some of them invested large sums
of money into their online presence and became multimedia news organizations.
Moreover, the Internet revealed new web tools that can analyze the content of the
articles and reveal even ‘hate speech’ or the frames of a news story (Karyotakis,
Panagiotou, Antonopoulos & Kiourexidou, 2017).
Social media are also important in the development of tourism as they provide new
ways of choosing a destination. Furthermore, websites offer more options to the user
and give him the possibility of discussing the pros and cons of each place. The users can
actively take part in evaluating the provided services due to the plethora of monitoring
website platforms (Kiráľová & Pavlíčeka, 2015). Another crucial utility of social media for
tourism is searching for travel information. Prominent websites like TripAdvisor are
growing rapidly and it is believed that they will be the main sources of information for
tourism in the near future (Xiang & Gretzel, 2010). The technological developments are
also connected with funding. Over the years, many public organisations have reduced
their budget for advertising tourism. This is the reason why they are seeking for new
solutions in order to promote their travel products in a cheaper way (Kiráľová &
Pavlíčeka, 2015). The Internet and its digital tools can create advertising campaigns that
cost less, target a global audience, and give the users the desired interaction for
exploring their travel choices on their own (Kiráľová & Pavlíčeka, 2015). Lastly, the
power of social media is revealed in the case of Ōkunoshima Island in Hiroshima, Japan.
Since 2014, international tourists in this region have increased due to the spread of
relevant videos through the social media (Usui, Wei & Funck, 2017).
Apart from the Internet, globalization has equally contributed in transforming
tourism. New places and countries that used to be inaccessible invest large sums of
money in improving their touristic facilities. In several countries, tourism is becoming a
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
325
sector, which brings considerable revenues. However, this leads to the dependence of
the Third World countries upon the First World. Without the prosperity of the second, it
is not possible to have the desirable income from the tourist services (Mowforth & Munt,
2016). The creation of social movements is connected to the different values of each
group and the conflict that emerges between them in order to promote their interests.
They are important for society as they tend to question the social order. A social
movement is developed when displeasure is being spread over society and the
institutions cannot cope with this situation (Porta & Diani, 2006).
In this study, it is proven that the “tourists go home” tactics represent a global
movement, which is against the current practices or image of international tourism. Due
to the fact that the “tourists go home” movement in Barcelona achieved attracting the
interest of global media organizations such as BBC, Euronews, The Independent,
Reuters, and The Guardian, media and users upload videos on YouTube inducing the
public’s fear regarding this matter. In this paper, the characteristics of YouTube videos
are being analysed since the beginning of the movement in Barcelona because social
media play a crucial role in the current tourism industry (Zeng, 2013).
LITERATURE REVIEW
YouTube was founded in 2005 as a website that gives the user the capabilities of
uploading, viewing, evaluating, and sharing their videos. In 2006, Google bought it and
made it the most popular video sharing service of the Internet, as “it accounts for 2035% of the Internet traffic with 35 hours of videos uploaded every minute and more
than 700 billion playbacks in 2010” (Finamore et al., 2011, p. 1). In today’s world,
YouTube is the most visited video-sharing platform (Figueiredo, Almeida, Gonçalves &
Benevenuto, 2014). It is not only used for entertaining purposes, but also for promoting
political discussions (Halpern & Gibbs, 2013). The growth of the aforementioned videosharing platform led to its expansion to the field of tourism. It is becoming a leading tool
of promoting travel destinations. It gives tourists the opportunity of regulating the
content that will be uploaded online. Additionally, it plays the role of search machine
providing reviews, advice, and other familiar activities to the users. Based on their will,
they can actively decide what they will do. The travellers do not want any more to be
passive during their holidays. These behaviors and the existence of social media have
transformed tourism industry. The agents of travelling need to adapt to these changes
by exploiting the potentials of new media platforms. For instance, a suggestion is to
create content that is focused on the characteristics of YouTube (Reino & Hay, 2011).
Researchers have shown that social media can influence public opinion (Shapiro &
Park, 2014) and change the communication strategy of the tourism agencies in order to
become more effective (Shim, 2014). It is proven that the views, the comments, and
the likes or dislikes can affect the user’s opinion (Antonopoulos, Veglis, Gardikiotis,
Kotsakis & Kalliris, 2015). “Social media metrics should be taken seriously into
consideration when designing a website due to the fact that they have an effect on
users’ opinion and satisfaction concerning aspects such as the degree of credibility and
trustfulness of a news website” (Antonopoulos, Giomelakis, Veglis, Gardikiotis, &
Dimoulas, 2016, p. 713). In addition, according to Spartz, Su, Griffin, Brossard and
Dunwoody (2017) even the number of views in YouTube can trigger a positive feeling
towards the videos that have more views. YouTube is shaping users’ image, as its
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Tourist Go Home: Communication and Propaganda on YouTube
structure seems to be like the dating websites of the 1990s. It merges into one service
file-sharing practices, chats, and forums (Pauwels & Hellriegel, 2009).
The transmission of news, the better connection with the flow of information, the
improvement of the interaction amongst the readers, and the encouragement of
investigative journalism practices are some of the remarkable changes. In addition, the
digital reforms challenged the profession and made citizens take part in producing news
stories (Chan, 2014). This phenomenon is called ‘citizen journalism’. This kind of
coverage can be found mostly in social movements, uprisings, revolutions etc. (Fuchs,
2010). Arab news organizations were pioneers in using amateurs’ footage on the
coverage of a conflict. During the combat of Gaza War (2008–09), it was too dangerous
for media correspondents to function in the area and both sides utilized social media
(e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube) as propaganda tools (Hamdy, 2010).
Today, technology has become the main element of marketing. The term digital
marketing was developed as a means to better understand the way users try to engage
and use digital tools (Antonopoulos, Veglis, & Emmanouloudis, 2017). Digitization is
reshaping the way citizens visualize the world. Thus, traditional methods of promotion
do not seem to be the case for expanding the revenues in the field of marketing (Ryan
& Jones, 2009). The discussions, the videos, and the reviews that are provided by social
networks will make them choose their travel destination. Marketing organizations cannot
fully understand the phenomenon despite the fact that they are trying to adapt them
and offer more choices to the consumers (Hays, Page & Buhalis, 2012).
Barcelona is today one of the most popular tourism destinations around the world. It
combines a number of activities for the travellers, as it is a financial, cultural, and sports
centre. Additionally, its port remains one of the most important crossroads of Europe for
transportations until today. Barcelona’s airport has over 34 million passengers per year.
In 2010, Barcelona’s international visitors were 5,160,037 (World Tourism Organization,
2012). Six years afterwards, the total number of tourists in different types of
accommodation was 9,861,671 (Turisme de Barcelona, 2016). Another key-point for the
success of Barcelona’s tourism industry is the Turisme de Barcelona, which was founded
in 1993 by Barcelona Municipal Council, the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, Industry
and Shipping and the Barcelona Promoció Foundation. Via this organization, the local
government and Barcelona’s stakeholders are running activities in order to promote the
city as a tourist destination. Turisme de Barcelona implements yearly about 400
promotional activities (World Tourism Organization, 2012).
The millions of the people that visit Barcelona each year is the main reason why
protests against tourists erupted. Graffiti with the moto “Tourist go home” are one of
the forms of protesting by the local residents. This phenomenon began about three years
ago in 2014. Barcelona’s citizens tend to believe that tourism is one of the most crucial
problems of the city. In addition, the local population tends to be against Airbnb because
it has helped in attracting large number of tourists (López Díaz, 2017) and there is “a
positive correlation between presence of Airbnb apartments and return on equity”
(Aznar, Sayeras, Rocafort & Galiana, 2017, p. 147). However, the recent events that
attracted the interest of international new media organizations started from Mallorca, in
which the slogan “Tourist go home” appeared as graffiti (Pemberton, 2017).
Subsequently the movement spread to Barcelona and a large number of people
organized an anti-tourism march on the 17th of August 2017, in San Sebastian. The
young generation of Catalonia and the Basque Country are supposed to be the main
organizers of the anti-tourist campaign. The most thrilling event took place in Barcelona,
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
327
where a disguised small group of individuals stopped a bus near Barcelona’s football
stadium. The “Arran Jovent” group is linked to Popular Unity Candidacy (pro-Catalan
independence political party) and it was the one that took the blame for the attack.
Lastly, the hashtag #touristgohome emerged on Twitter and provoked a hot debate
about the anti-tourist campaign (Peter, 2017).
METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH
In this study, a sample of the YouTube videos was collected via the search engine of
YouTube, as nowadays YouTube is the most visited video-sharing platform (Figueiredo,
Almeida, Gonçalves & Benevenuto, 2014). Moreover, quantitative content analysis was
used because through this method, data are “usually analyzed to describe the typical
patterns or characteristics or to identify important relationships among the content
qualities examined. If the categories and rules are conceptually and theoretically
sound and are reliably applied, the researcher increases the chance that the study
results will be valid” (Riffe, Lacy, & Fico, 2005, p. 3). The research was conducted by
the means of anonymous web browsing via “google chrome” in one day (30 October
2017). The language of the research was US English and the region was the United
States of America. In addition, there was no login by the user and no use of cookies
(Antonopoulos, Veglis, & Emmanouloudis, 2016). The key words for the collection of the
sample were “tourists go home”. Subsequently, the search engine provided the
following words: “tourists go home”, “tourists go home rt”, “tourists go home refugees
welcome Barcelona”, “tourists go home spain”, “tourists go home”, and “tourists go
home barcelona”. The filter was “by relevance” and there were 3,000,000 results. Lastly,
the results that were taken into consideration were the ones uploaded until 17th of
August 2017.
Hence, the following questions were asked:
RQ1: Is there propaganda in the YouTube videos?
RQ2: Which content do the users prefer?
RQ3: Does the “tourists go home” movement negatively challenges the current image
of Barcelona as world-class tourism destination?
RESULTS
There were 45 videos included in the sample. Users uploaded the majority of them
(27 out of 45). Only 18 belonged to news outlets: Ruptly TV (4 videos), Euronews (6
videos, 3 in English, 1 in Italian, 1 No Comment, and 1 in Spanish), AP Archive (1 video),
CGTN America (1 video), Vocativ (1 video), IBTimes UK (1 video), Bloomberg (1 video),
ODN (1 video), cambio16 (1 video), and Oh! My LOL (1 video).
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Tourist Go Home: Communication and Propaganda on YouTube
Table 1. The videos of the study
TITLE
LINK
USER NAME
Barcelona Mayor to
Tourists: Go Away
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=pYhbBr91pHc
Bloomberg
Barcelona residents
protest against tourists
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=rojcBi7uVH4
ODN
Tourists go home' say
Spanish locals in
backlash to holiday
boom
Record-breaking tourist
season expected in
Spain
Anti-tourist demos
spread from Barcelona
to Mallorca
Busting the boom: why
Barcelona wants to curb
mass tourism - reporter
Spain: 'Go home, drunk
tourists!' demand
thousands of Barcelona
locals
Spain: Anti-‘binge
tourism’ demo swarms
streets of Barcelona
Spain: ‘Barcelona is not
for sale’ – Too many
tourists say protesters
Spain: Ibiza locals
protest mass tourism
through traditional
means
Tourist go home:
campaña contra el
turismo masivo en Pais
Vasco y Cataluña
Barcelona beach protest
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=Cn5JuhH-SJI
euronews (in
English)
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=Q5FIz6g4-RM
AP Archive
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=ZAyhpbgsKAs
euronews (in
English)
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=HGK0RY1ej6Y
euronews (in
English)
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=bdfaGDnYTDo
Ruptly TV
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=AJ7cy4z4AlE
Ruptly TV
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=ciZRHDq82Qg
Ruptly TV
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=aLNTEzJDk5M
Ruptly TV
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=PYvxTpyRGuQ
euronews (en
espaniol)
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=TAk1NcYSabM
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=_oW0LXNEtr0
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=Wj7dqt1ceAE
No Comment TV
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=5NHgiTKd70g
euronews (in
italiano)
Cities Around Europe
Rebel Against Tourism
La Vida Moderna
4x01...es gritar
"Tourists go home"
cuando viene la familia
de visita al pueblo
"Tourists go home". A
Majorca monta la
polemica contro i
Vocativ
Oh! My LOL
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
vacanzieri
Barcelona is looking to
limit tourists coming in
Anarchists protest
against tourist 'invasion'
in Spain
Tourist go home - Vlog
en Barcelona #2
"Tourist go home,
tourist welcome"
Overcrowding at
Europe's tourist
hotspots prompts
backlash
Backlash against
holidaymakers in Spain
with 67m visitors
outnumbering 47m
population
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=6jcqBFMr-p8
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=v5TIAOfXwcU
CGTN America
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=Qu9YfVuqGmM
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=9bZBEAi3ahM
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=Gb53tSYZXuE
Max Minguella
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=YvWlB0jeDNI
PAPARAZZI NEWS
Living in Spain - Tourist
phobia hits Spain
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=U4HcQlOaN3w
spainspeaks
A safe space for
freethinking |Barcelona,
Tourism and refugees
||Between the go home
and welcome
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=T1DHSQw94sM
Hashim Almadani
Anti tourism protests
spread across Europe
CARTE POSTALE /
IMMIGRANTS WELCOME
- TOURISTS GO HOME
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=2L2NXSF9TV4
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=O3ohWyHGFgw
gemini48
MAJORCA BACKLASH:
British holiday influx is
'more than ANGUISH'
moan islanders
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=c8jUZ_zmdJM
news usa
Spain: Tourism
secretary sympathises
with anti-tourism
protesters
MIGRANTS WELCOME TOURISTS GO HOME
GO HOME FUCKING
TOURISTS -Rémi
Gaillard
Spain’s anti tourism riots
step up as violent clans
MERGE
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=6kpnIMwtudA
gemini48
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=Wkse-smwKSY
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=jiqQYnnr7GM
Antifa Live
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=pgmdda5tixE
Real Thing TV
Go Home Fking
Tourists!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=ChuSJ3f8QHE
iTrending
IBTimes UK
cambio16
ReutersHD
Antifa Live
Nuh kill me
329
330
Tourist Go Home: Communication and Propaganda on YouTube
Europas Sehnsuchtsorte
In Gefahr
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=5O4GuZfoQ6k
Grenz Wert
Barcelona struggles with
rising tide of 27 million
tourists
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=oyrQ42H75Xk
Necronomicon
Tourists go home':
Holidaymakers face
backlash from Spanish
locals angered by rising
visitor number
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=uW8pVcJpN6g
Fahad Nabeel
«tourist go home!»: las
protestas llegan a la
prensa internacional
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=PuyJQDdKPYY
Molly Cuming
Tourist Go Home!
Europas Sehnsuchtsorte
In Gefahr 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=fo1e1m365MI
MutterDoku
Tourists, go home |
Coses Que Passen 1
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=XYqreIOvW-4
Tamayo Stuff
"tourist go home!"
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=bSnUsxot3VA
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=17XTCBFWhhA
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=xcj7l6Ro4rM
Chad
Amsterdam tourist
backlash reaches:
British hotspots blocked
to save city
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=H9NMS4NvXH4
NEW WORLD 360
BBC News – “Tourists
go home”: Leftists resist
Spain's influx - Hot
News
Spain holidays: Brits
urged to LEAVE country
forever after summer
antics
Go Home Tourist Plane
Banner
UK tourists in Spain
should be CAPPED:
Majority of Majorcans
want to LIMIT
holidaymakers
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=TC4yLhM2qjQ
Hot News
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=0cjjJxE7Fl8
Top News 24h
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=fmMM_OyX46U
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=e3tCyafNs1o
Unique Clips &
GIFS
News U.S Today
News Update “Tourists
go home”: 05/08/17
Go home fucking
tourists �RG
World News
barakauto34
BARAK
The total duration of the videos of the news organizations were 78:07. On the
contrary, the user-generated videos were 178:01 minutes. The overall views of the
videos of the news outlets were 420,982, far more than the views of the user-generated
videos, 19,623. “Oh! My LOL” had the most views, 36,2677. The most popular user video
belonged to “Antifa Live” with 5,005 views. The overall number of likes and dislikes were
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
331
5,540 likes (5,229 likes were from the news outlets’ content and 311 likes were from
users’ content) and 467 dislikes (401 dislikes stemmed from mass media organizations
and 66 dislikes originated from users). The total number of comments was 1,720 (1,634
comments on the videos of mass media organizations and 86 comments on user
generated content). “Oh! My LOL” also has the greatest number of comments (1,108)
from the news outlets. The video “Living in Spain - Tourist phobia hits Spain” that was
uploaded by “spainspeaks” had the most comments (32) from the UGC. Two videos that
were provided by the user “Antifa Live” had deactivated the comments of the videos.
The total number of the news outlets’ subscribers was 4,279,288. On the other hand,
31,813 subscribers were following UGC. Bloomberg had the highest number of
subscribers 723,000. The most popular user regarding the subscribers was “PAPARAZZI
NEWS” with 10,000 people subscribing. Lastly, the majority of the videos (30 out of 45)
concerns Barcelona’s “tourist go home” incidents.
UGC VS NEWS OUTLETS
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Comments
Dislikes
Likes
UGC
Subscribers Total minutes
Views
News Outlets
Figure 1. The differences of the UGC’s videos from the news outlets’ videos.
Regarding the characteristics of the examined videos, the one that was uploaded by
Bloomberg seems to misinform the viewer as its content differs from its title “Barcelona
Mayor to Tourists: Go Away”. There is no mention of the “tourist go home” movement
and it seems to be a campaign for promoting Barcelona as a tourism destination.
Furthermore, the user “gemini48” uploaded a video named “Spain: Tourism secretary
sympathises with anti-tourism protesters”, which includes only a brief statement (1:06
minutes) of the Secretary General of World Tourism Organization who seems to be in
favour of the movement. However, one cannot have a clear view of the Secretary
General’s opinion. In addition, the video “Barcelona struggles with rising tide of 27 million
tourists” uploaded by “Necronomicon” is peculiar, as there exists only an image as a
cover photo and the content is consisted of a text that is being read by a robot. This
practice seems to happen also in other cases such as the videos that were provided by
“Hot News”, “NEW WORLD 360” and “World News”. These profiles alongside with the
one named “ReutersHD” were trying to portray themselves as news outlets.
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Tourist Go Home: Communication and Propaganda on YouTube
DISCUSSION
Regarding RQ1 it seems that videos such as “MIGRANTS WELCOME - TOURISTS GO
HOME”, “Spain: Tourism secretary sympathises with anti-tourism protesters” etc. have
content that is related to propaganda as, according to Jowett and O′Donnell (2012, p.
1), “Propaganda is a form of communication that attempts to achieve a response that
furthers the desired intent of the propagandist”. However, the majority of the users tend
not to take seriously into account the content that is provided by individuals as the total
number of views of news outlets’ videos is 421,138 and the views of the user-generated
videos are only 19,467. At this point it should be mentioned that the “Antifa Live” does
not leave the users to express their opinions on the video because the comments are
deactivated. As a result, only one narrative can be communicated. Moreover, it seems
that users such as “ReutersHD” try to mislead the audience by creating a channel that
mimics a prominent international news organization. Perhaps, this is happening because
the user wants to disseminate its message via a more newsworthy channel.
Furthermore, the users tend to interact more with the content of the news
organizations (RQ2). Almost all of the likes and the dislikes were in the news media’s
content (5,229 out of 5,540 likes and 401 out of 467 dislikes). The same also applies for
the comments on the videos as 1,634 out of 1,720 comments were on the news outlets’
content. In addition, the number of the subscribers of the news organizations (4,279,312
out of 4,311,101 subscribers) can reveal the preference of the users. However, it is
peculiar that amongst the several videos of the study, the most popular of them is the
one that is not provided by a prominent news organization, but by “Oh! My LOL” (comedy
show from Monday to Friday).
Although researchers have shown that social media can influence the audience
(Shapiro & Park, 2014; Antonopoulos, Veglis, Gardikiotis, Kotsakis & Kalliris, 2015) and
the fact that almost all of the videos (30 out of 45) concern Barcelona’s “tourist go home”
events, it is not clear if “tourists go home” movement negatively challenges the current
image of Barcelona as world-class tourism destination. However, it is known, according
to Hays, Page and Buhalis (2012), that through the social media, a global audience can
be reached and can affect the users’ opinions regarding their travel destinations (RQ3).
CONCLUSIONS
The new findings of this study revealed that the “tourist go home” movement
provoked a large number of videos concerning its events. The analysis of YouTube video
characteristics such as comments, views, likes, dislikes, channel subscribers etc. proved
that they might be used for influencing the public opinion. Moreover, the “tourists go
home” movement has challenged the current image of Barcelona as world-class tourism
destination. In addition, the users tend to follow the well-known news organizations in
order to be informed about the specific incidents. Barcelona is the city that is being
mentioned in almost all of the examined videos. Thus, digital marketing campaign on
YouTube would have cost a large sum of money in order to fight back the
aforementioned movement. Moreover, tourists by using digital platforms such as Airbnb
rent houses that would inhabit residents, provoking the local community and creating
arguments in favour of the “tourist go home” movement.
The impact that this movement has is not clear in relation to Barcelona’s touristic
image. Nevertheless, it is proven that YouTube videos can be used in some cases as a
propaganda tool, and, indeed, this is happening also in the case of “tourist go home”
movement. Furthermore, numerous additional studies could be conducted to increase
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
333
the body of research on the “tourist go home” movement. While this study focused
exclusively on the characteristics of YouTube videos, a qualitative analysis would give a
more complete and detailed description of the content of the examined sample.
Furthermore, a research that includes more media and cities would provide a better
feedback in order to identify the communication techniques of the aforementioned
movement.
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Tourist Go Home: Communication and Propaganda on YouTube
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SUCCESS
ELENI-REVEKKA STAIOU*
ANDREAS GIANNAKOULOPOULOS**
ABSTRACT
In the era of social media, the concept of viral is a hub. But then, from the field of advertising
and marketing, it is the turn of journalism to be affected by it. In recent years, websites such as
buzzfeed and boredpanda have grown steadily and have reached a state in which -, according to
statistics, they gather millions of users daily. The main characteristic of these websites is the fact
that they are largely based on the viral journalism phenomenon, that is, they include small and
light stories that have all the features of a viral content. The aim of these stories is to be shared
by the users as much as possible on social networks and the web at large. Also, a second important
feature of these websites is that they invite their readers to "upload" their own interesting content,
thus giving them the opportunity to become journalists in some way and their content to become
viral as well, exploding at the same time the user generated content (UGC) phenomenon. The aim
of this article is to study the phenomenon of viral journalism in Greece, centered on the
Mikropragmata (http://mikropragmata.lifo.gr), a column of the free press Lifo that has become so
large that it has acquired its own micro-site and corresponding channels in social media. By
studying the content of the website, we will try to understand what kinds of articles are posted
and which appear to be more successful to the public. How do readers react? Are there any similar
examples in Greece? In order to answer these questions, an online survey will be carried out.
Quantitative and qualitative data will be gathered on the website under study and other relevant
examples from Greece and abroad, as well.
Keywords: viral journalism, crowd journalism, social media, user generated content.
INTRODUCTION
The concept of virality emerged from the beginning of the Internet and expanded
rapidly in the era of social media. The ability, thanks to technology, to directly share the
*
Post-Doctoral Researcher, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, Department of
Communication and Media Studies, erstaiou@media.uoa.gr
**
Assistant Professor, Ionian University, Department of Audio and Visual Arts, agiannak@ionio.gr
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A Case Study on Viral Journalism in Greece: The Figures, the Trends and the Factors of Success
content to many people at the same time and in a way the audience wants to, changed
the circumstances in the field of public relations, advertising and marketing.
We use the internet and social media mainly for communication. Everything that has
to do with communication has been affected by those two, and journalism was
influenced as well.
Journalism, which according to many suffers a credibility crisis, has been confronted
with the phenomenon of citizen journalism. Citizens, with their mobile phones and an
internet connection, had the advantage of being at the point of the events while they
were taking place, so they were operating much faster than professional journalists.
As technology and social networks continued to grow, a shift of attention began to
the content of journalism and how it could spread rapidly. Websites such as Buzzfeed,
and later Boredpanda, have been slowly, yet continually, emerging relying on just this
function: simple and easy-to-read content that can be read and shared quickly by their
audience.
The idea that the public is the one who evaluates the news and the content in general
is not new. Well known is the example of Reddit, a social news platform where users
up-vote or down-vote news and content depending on whether they like it or not. The
content is actually posted by the users themselves while the discussion is very intense
and active. Reddit, particularly popular in America, is the inspiration but also often the
source for news websites and not only.
In this article we will talk about the site Mikropragmata, a column of the Greek free
press Lifo, which in the course of the years grew so much that it acquired its own small
website, a microsite inside the central one. This column is based on the corresponding
Buzzfeed platform, something that, for the first time, brings to Greece the concept of
viral journalism.
What are the similarities and differences of the Greek website with the corresponding
US? What content does it contain? What effects does this new kind of content appear to
have on journalism and ultimately on citizens' journalism? Finally, what is the role of
technology throughout this transition?
CITIZENS’ JOURNALISM
The basis of all this discussion, about the change in the way the media produce and
circulate their content, lies in the so-called citizens' journalism.
According to King (2017), the first time the term citizen’s journalism was heard was
after the 2004 tsunami and referred to those who were there at the time of the disaster
and were able to capture videos or photographs or even describe their experience
immediately after. It is generally used to characterize those who are in the right place,
at the wrong time, with their mobile in their hands and the corresponding temper, to
capture what they see or, even worse, what they are experiencing. Veglis and Bratsas
(2017) refer to citizen journalism in association with social media journalism in the
broader context of data journalism, thus signifying the importance of interrelation among
the various axes of contemporary news production conditions.
Numerous terms have been used for citizen’s journalism, each of which is based on
a different or distinct feature. For example, many use the term “user-generated content”,
as mentioned above, which focuses on the content producer. In the academic field, this
term is used to state the user of the social media who produces the shared content. A
similar term is also the “audience material”. There is also the term “citizen witnessing”,
which refers more to the advantage of citizen journalists being in the right place when
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
341
it is needed. Finally, there are terms such as “networked journalism”, “process
journalism”, “journalistic journalism”, “alternative journalism”, “liquid journalism” and
“ambient journalism” that have more focus on journalism and how it is influenced by
this development (Luce et al, 2016).
One element to be highlighted is the role of technology in the emergence of the
phenomenon. None of this would have been possible if there was no technological factor,
either in terms of devices (mobile phones) or in terms of internet connectivity (3G-4G)
or the concept of the Internet itself and social media (Bulkley, 2012). Technology has
changed both the way we produce and the way we distribute the content of journalism,
so we get to talk about viral journalism by borrowing the term used for social media.
Now the journalistic content, in vast majority, is made to be shared by the users. If this
does not happen, it is considered to be unsuccessful (Bebić and Volarević, 2016).
This role of technology is analogous to the one played in the general development of
social media, which in fact transformed users from passive consumers to active
producers. This idea is what eventually led to the evolution of this role in citizens'
journalism (Bruns and Highfield, 2012).
The majority of experts believe that this is a phenomenon that will not disappear in
the coming years. It may change shape and features, but it seems to cover a gap left
by traditional journalism and at the same time offers the opportunity to hear other
opinions that perhaps in traditional media cannot be heard or even recorded (King,
2017).
How do the big and established media organizations react to this phenomenon? At
first, with difficulty and doubt, but over time they found that they need to adapt if they
wanted to survive (King, 2017). Now it is not just the production of news, but also how
they circulate them, how they are "advertised". Citizens' journalism, as well as the
concept of viral journalism, targets not only the production of content but also how it is
circulated and can attract public interest. The rational of this idea goes like that: if the
content attracts interest, the user will share it and perhaps comment, and only then it
can count as a success (Bebić and Volarević, 2016).
The fact that corporate media organizations are trying to adapt to the new reality
does not mean that this is done without losing or stumbling. Many times, there is no
happy ending, as shown by the example of Huffington Post, one of the first organizations
to "use" the citizens and which in the process ended up withdrawing this model of
operation with the justification of its inability to protect its readers from the tsunami of
fake news (Smillie, 2018).
Another topic of discussion is also the relationship between the amateur citizen
journalists and the professional ones. There are few who believe that prosumers,
producers and consumers at the same time (like amateur journalists) are the ones who
will overwhelm the profession in the coming years, opinion which is intensified by the
crisis in the field and seems clear if one considers the mass redundancies in the media
organizations in many countries. The media, from amateur journalists, draw cheap or
even completely free material that they would otherwise have to pay, and much
expensive, to be done by a professional (Καϊτατζ -Γου τ ο , 2010, p. 530).
Overall, however, it seems that the participation (in the form of light involvement) of
citizens in journalism will remain exactly that: participation. The role of journalists is
complicated and such involvement of citizens could only be complementary to the
profession or involve very specific and specialized issues (Καϊτατζ -Γου τ ο , 2010, p.
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A Case Study on Viral Journalism in Greece: The Figures, the Trends and the Factors of Success
530). This relationship, even if it is complementary, is quite significant. Citizens, when
producing content and publishing it, are essentially giving material to traditional media,
highlighting issues that might not have entered the radar of other media (Wall, 2017).
Nevertheless, the involvement of the citizens in the production and the promotion of
their content gives the feeling -which may sometimes be true- that they shape the news
agenda and that they are reading topics of interest to them, since they have chosen
them (Bebić and Volarević, 2016). At the same time, professional journalists, if they
combine their own reportage with their counterparts on the same subject, they will be
able to present a more integrated and holistic view of the subject, which can only add
value to the produced content in terms of updated and integrated coverage (Bulkley,
2012).
It is important to take ethical issues under consideration as well. Despite the great
dependence that we see from the content of journalists, traditional journalists have been
"trained" in ethics and rules, something that has not happened to the citizens with
respect to the values of traditional journalism. That is why we see many of the subjects
of citizen journalism touching the edges, with many negative reactions when they
emerge. Privacy, respect for the rights of others and protection of personality are
elements that often escape from the ordinary citizen trying to "catch" the news story
(Wall, 2017).
Of course, there are still objections to whether we should consider websites like
Buzzfeed and Mikropragmata journalistic, but nobody can deny that there is a change in
how we see the production and distribution of news. Nowadays, there is no reporting
but communication of news, and the conceptual differences of these two words are
perhaps the essence of the whole debate about viral journalism. This, combined with
the concepts of user-generated content and user-circulated content, give an overall
picture of the new reality we see in the field of journalism (Bebić and Volarević, 2016).
From the study of the cases we have seen, the key to success seems to be how you
write the articles, how you create the content. If the user feels that the content he is
sharing is written like he would write it/send it to his friend, then he will support it even
more (Lafrance, 2012). Besides, it should not be forgotten that the sharing of news and
content in general is the trend of the decade, taking the lead from the searching for
news that was dominant in the past decade (Kümpel et al, 2015). The involvement of
users in the circulation of news, in their creation and/or sharing, is enough to create a
community and "tie" them to the whole process, as they will feel it like their own content
and promote it as such (Beckett, 2010).
THE CASE OF BUZZFEED
Buzzfeed was founded in 2006 and at first it was nothing more than a funny video
aggregator (Tandoc Jr and Jenkins, 2015). Few people thought it would become one of
the most powerful players in the online content market, with an impressive number of
visitors 12 years later. For example, in 2017 Buzzfeed had more than 65 billion video
views, which translates into equally stunning amounts of advertising (Spangler, 2018).
Its content, to a large extent, consists of material produced by the users themselves
and either discovered by the authors of the website or submitted directly by the users
to the platform. Its features are beautiful titles, usually with questions to draw attention,
lists of everything anyone can imagine, a collection of funny pictures and videos (Bebić
and Volarević, 2016). The size of its articles varies, from very short to really long ones
(especially now that includes purely journalistic texts), but this does not exclude the
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
343
presence of articles that are essentially repeating the same images, for example at
different zoom levels.
Using hashtags on all social media is a valuable tool for a Buzzfeed editor as they are
the "data" that lead them to the content they want, after they do their research. Of
course, much of its overall strength is drawn from social media themselves, and more
specifically from Facebook, since more than 70% of its traffic comes from it (Tandoc Jr
and Jenkins, 2015).
Its impact on content and journalism is so great that we have now reached the point
of talking about the Buzzfeedication of journalism; so powerful are the features it has
managed to impose on the field. Even large media organizations seem to adopt its playful
style, with little quizzes, funny pictures and videos or even special viral sections in their
main menu (Tandoc Jr and Jenkins, 2015). Apart from the style of content, we are
talking about shorter articles and in some cases more humorous, something that is
greatly suggested by the major journalist organizations to their journalists (Calderone,
2013).
Buzzfeed, as we have seen, has, besides lists and quizzes, also hired professional
journalists who carry out "regular" informational topics (Rowan, 2014). But it also
preserves the type of articles that made it famous, small loose articles that do not require
any reflection (Tandoc Jr, 2017). Interestingly, there was quite a reaction among the
journalists when Buzzfeed started to present more "serious" issues, such as when it
started to have correspondents in the White House, which aroused the question of how
this combination of content could become reality (Lafrance, 2012).
This raises two questions: First, we have to ask ourselves if these "light" topics do
not in fact require thinking. Many people claim that Buzzfeed, through funny lists or
tests, informs its audience about important topics without the readers understanding it
, so there is no shame or remorse when they read about them (Gilley, 2015). Sometimes
even we get surprised by the fact that the various humorous quizzes we take in our free
time are proven to be so true. Are they eventually not so random and light and could
have some psychological basis (Butler and Dewy, 2014)? On the other hand, it is
interesting to study why the Buzzffed felt it necessary to turn to classic journalism once
it had such a successful model. Perhaps traditional journalism as we know it still stands?
THE CASE OF MIKROPRAGMATA
Mikropragmata is the continuation of the corresponding column that could be found
in the Greek free press Lifo. The column, which was present in both the print and the
electronic version of Lifo, has as its editor the journalist Aris Dimokidis who has the
general supervision but writes many of the articles as well, as opposed to other chief
editors from traditional media.
This column was so successful that they decided to create a separate site (along with
separate social media accounts) to host it separately and to grow it even further. This
transition has become more and more successful, its statistics are extremely impressive
if we consider that it has an independent presence for only about a year (as of the
writing of this paper). Its website, mikropragmata.lifo.gr, reaches 2 million visitors each
month (http://www.statshow.com), its profile on Facebook has 29K likes and on
Instagram has 1.5K followers. Also, its content is still accessible on the main site of Lifo
(with a link to the microsite) and these statistics are even more impressive with over 3
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A Case Study on Viral Journalism in Greece: The Figures, the Trends and the Factors of Success
million visitors each month, 718K likes on Facebook, 233K followers on Twitter, and
68,3K followers on Instagram.
By looking at the structure of the site, one can see at first glance that there are many
similarities to the corresponding Buzzfeed website. There is the same mark for articles
that are trending while there are categories "lol", "wtf", and quizzes.
By studying the content more carefully, we can see that it has been influenced by
Buzzfeed. Of course, there is not yet the variety we encounter on the American site, but
there are very frequent updates of content, active presence in social media and active
commentary, with answers even from its author, who writes and comments with his real
name, which seems to have gained approval and public trust.
The themes of the website include articles from the news, often with a humorous
look but often with the seriousness that suits them. Besides, issues such as human rights
and animal rights issues, police reports, health issues, social issues, etc. are also being
tackled. It also includes several quizzes that can be totally for fun, but they can also give
some form of knowledge, such as geography or language tests. There is also a section
with various lists of interesting things.
A large part of the website takes up the content coming from its audience or from
the internet and social media in general. There is a special category called social and
includes mainly topical issues but focused on how the public sees them. In the social
category the editors of the site gather the public's reactions and its comments from the
social media posts and create corresponding articles. There are also issues of Greek
news, which are the majority, but also foreign themes, not only about famous people or
celebrities but also about everyday people who the Greek reader could put himself in
their place.
There is a community category that includes guest posts from well-known –but also
from unknown- columnists who simply had their text sent for posting and it was
uploaded to the website. Finally, there is a column with strange news.
Its content could generally be said to occupy the entire spectrum, from serious issues
to extremes which could be considered a risk for the Greek audience. However, these
issues go up, people are asked to comment and discuss, but there is always the urge to
be civilized and respectful.
The readers' participation is so great that in some topical issues the comments are
so many that the editors gather them and write a special article with the readers'
reactions. Interestingly, too extreme views can be included as part of the reactions,
which shows that censorship is tried to be avoided.
In general, we see that the content of this website relies heavily on public
participation in two directions: in the most important topics of the news, the audience is
urged to be involved with discussion and comments, while, on the other hand, they are
invited to produce their own content, either by a guest post, or by reposting the posts
from their personal social media. These posts, if they are public, can easily be gathered
and "organized" to create articles, lists or trigger more serious articles.
Traffic statistics, which are steadily rising and the positive ratings it receives in social
media, show that this success will continue and increase. This way of dealing with reality,
with humor and "real" articles without wooden language seems to fit into the Greek
readership, which is anyway known that treats even the most difficult situations with
humor. It is also the great memes collections that even saddle the most serious issues
and solve even the most difficult disputes. A website that gives the impression that it
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has been created to a point by its users is more easily earning the positive vote and love
of the audience.
DISCUSSION
Starting with citizens' journalism and examples of social networks like Reddit, we see
that the internet has blurred the boundaries for journalism, information and
communication in general. What is becoming clearer, however, is that the reading
audience requires that it is no longer treated as a passive consumer for anything they
feed it but rather wants to be given the opportunity to define what it wants to read and
how it wants to read it. Besides, the audience asks for the opportunity to hear its own
voice, whether in simple, everyday matters or even more serious and complicated, as it
feels that traditional journalism does not represent it as it should.
Citizens' journalism, always with the ally of technology, gives the audience the
opportunity it wants. The breadth of the phenomenon is so great that the journalistic
scene is changing, with traditional journalists worrying that they will no longer be
necessary, with new websites being created that are modeled to function in participatory
terms, just like this (see Buzzfeed) and with the major journalistic organizations to try
to stay in the journalistic and commercial race.
The focus is transferred from the simple information and opinion to the person: the
person shares his experiences, the person creates the agenda of the news, the person
creates the content and finally the person interacts with it, he evaluates it and rewards
it by resharing it.
The example of Buzzfeed shows us that the battle for journalism has finally become
a battle of content. The more intellectually appealing, visually attractive and easily
shareable the content, the more successful (Bebić and Volarević, 2016). That is why we
have come to mention the term viral journalism as a term that will prevail increasingly
in the future.
But this does not mean that this content is not of high quality. We mentioned topics
that were covered and are particularly serious, just the way they were described was
not what we would expect. This fact seems to have a positive effect on the audience
that is being informed, but it does it with more fun, without the feeling of seriousness
or even shame.
Trends show that viral journalism, and citizens’ journalism in general, will never be
able to replace traditional journalism. There will always be a need for professional
journalists as they have the training to take into account issues such as ethics and news
junction.
Professional journalists try to adapt to the new facts, changing their way of writing,
trying to make themselves more accessible to the general public, to approach people
and to convince them that they are there for them and that they work for them.
On the other hand, citizens' journalism, as a broader concept, is not stagnant. Since
it is so much dependent on the technological factor, as technology and its means change
(internet, social media), it also has to adapt to new data. Consequently, nowadays there
are three, perhaps more, forms of citizen journalism:
The first and original form is the simple recording of events as they happen before
even the traditional journalists reach the site. The production of this content is voluntary
by the citizen, as he records it to share it later in his network.
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A Case Study on Viral Journalism in Greece: The Figures, the Trends and the Factors of Success
The second form that can be noticed recently is the emergence of the news. As
mentioned above, citizens through social media and content sharing on their network
highlight news, events and stories that might otherwise not have been known. In this
second form, the citizens become uninformed producers of traditional media. The
concept of viral journalism, which claims that what is widely shared, is worth mentioning,
even if the issue does not concern the news or the current situation, is central here.
More lately, we see a third form, and that of inadvertent production, which is now
on the rise. It is the production of the content of viral journalism by the users themselves.
How? Through the content that they themselves raise to social media, content that has
not been produced with the logic of the first, original form we mentioned above. It is
more personal content, but it is primary material for articles. Also, basic material for this
form of citizen journalism is the reactions of users during their internet and social media
experience; their comments, their photos, their experiences become raw material for
content based solely on it.
Certainly, as technology advances, other forms of journalism will emerge, which will
affect even more the traditional journalism. Technology will inevitably play its own
important role as it provides the means to make it all happen. Questions that can be
raised about copyright, user privacy, and digital labor, because of the works of users
that are given free to websites and news agencies, are open issues to explore.
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Κα α ζ -Γου ο , Σ. (2010), Μο φ
University Studio Press
α
Μ α Πο
Επ ο νων α .
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC]
doi: 10.17349/jmc118226
P-ISSN: 2056-9785
E-ISSN: 2056 9793
http://www.mediacritiques.net
jmc@mediacritiques.net
A MOBILE CLOUD COMPUTING COLLABORATIVE
MODEL FOR THE SUPPORT OF ON-SITE CONTENT
CAPTURING AND PUBLISHING
NIKOLAOS VRYZAS*
EFSTATHIOS SIDIROPOULOS**
LAZAROS VRYSIS***
EVANGELIA AVRAAM****
CHARALAMPOS DIMOULAS*****
ABSTRACT
The current paper investigates the design of a collaborative Mobile Cloud Computing model to
support the workflow of collecting, editing and publishing news reporting material, aiming at better
managing technology and human resources. While semantic services and tools have made
tremendous progress in both academic and applied level, journalists don’t seem to make the most
of contemporary technological possibilities. With the proposed framework, journalists, reporters,
technical experts and editors can cooperate remotely and simultaneously on the cloud,
collaboratively producing and publish timely, authentic and high-quality content, with proper
documentation. Context- and location-aware semantic metadata, provided by mobile devices,
guide the field reporter, while also serving annotation and authentication purposes. State-of-theart mobile publishing tools are used for capturing and processing multimodal assets, which are
then uploaded to the cloud. Augmented interaction tools (speech-to-text, voice commands, etc.)
can boost usability to overcome the functional constraints of mobile devices, thus facilitating
reporting services and improving the overall media experience. Technologists /expertcollaborators monitor the process to meet the quality standards posed by the news reporting team
or organization. The adopted human-centred design aims at serving the needs of modern
journalists, concerning functionality and effectiveness, promoting their professional development
through in-service training. This is succeeded with the implementation of rapid /pilot prototyping
and evaluation cycles, in which the project is progressed, leading to the suggestion and the
adoption of best practices, within the scope of further automating news reporting procedures.
*
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
***
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
****
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
*****
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
**
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A Mobile Cloud Computing Collaborative Model for the Support of On-Site Content Capturing and
Publishing
Keywords: Mobile media, news-reporting, cloud computing, content management, media
semantics.
INTRODUCTION
The Internet has influenced the Journalism profession in two aspects (Deuze 2004):
the conception of a journalistic profile for all media types and the creation of unique
working practices. Deuze (2003) focused on the Online Journalism, defining it as the
fourth type of Journalism, while Pavlik (2001) claimed that Internet established a new
journalistic style, namely ‘Contextualized Journalism’. Moreover, the terms “multimedia”,
“interactivity” and “connectivity” were introduced by the development of digital
communication technologies, introducing new functions into working places and dayliving.
New opportunities and structures have been developed in the media industry,
benefited primarily by the evolution of Information and Communication Technologies
(ICTs). Within the news landscape, journalists face a cluster of innovations, including
the increased use of digital communications and social networks. As news organizations
experiment with new ways of doing business, relationships between journalists and their
communities are continually reformulated, reconfiguring the professional culture (García
Avilés et al., 2004; Lewis, 2012; Ryfe, 2012; Singer, 2004b, Ekdale et al., 2015). The
media convergence “phenomenon” had many consequences on the newsroom, affecting
both content production processes and journalists’ profiles (Dailey et al., 2005;
Salaverría et al., 2012). Journalism 2.0 has surfaced because of the media convergence
and participatory culture (Jenkins, 2008), concerning the production, distribution and
sharing of news with the use of social media, while improving the interaction between
information producers /publishers and their audiences (Briggs, 2007; Ureta, 2017).
Online journalists are expected to have extra skills and be more adept at cross-media
reporting than their counterparts in print and broadcast media, as well as to demonstrate
a special capacity for cooperative effort and teamwork.
Nowadays, people have many opportunities to instantly access news and other
generic-purpose information, but also to produce and share their own content. The
exponential growth of the smartphone market and the number of “mobile users”, along
with the contemporary mobile media capabilities and the rapidly evolved Mobile Cloud
Computing (MCC) paradigm, have led to large-scale development and deployment of
related news applications (Dimoulas, Veglis & Kalliris, 2014; Dey, 2012; Sidiropoulos &
Veglis, 2017). Users became active participants in the communication process, being
able to act as content contributors as well. The boundaries of the different forms of
media, such as radio, television and newspapers, have been blurred, the same way that
the (different) roles of journalists and readers/audience are not very discernible. These
new technological affordances (Ottovordemgentschenfelde, 2016; Rettberg, 2008) and
their associated structural changes (Lowrey, 2006) formulate a new landscape, with the
personalized participatory forms of journalism fuelling the traditional ‘paradigm of
objectivity’ (Hackett, 2009; Reese, 1990; Chong, 2017). Researchers started to examine
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351
the changing nature of newsgathering and reporting amid data abundance, in which,
computational exploitation and algorithmic automation capabilities have growing
significance for the media industry and Journalism, as practice and profession” (Lewis,
2015; Jung et al., 2017).
On the other hand, Carlson (2015) expressed his concerns about the future of
journalistic labour, compositional news forms and the foundation of editorial authority,
characterizing the Automated Journalism “disruptive”. Media professionals have had to
tackle professional (cultural and regulatory) and organizational challenges when dealing
with convergence processes. With regards to the latter, fear of deterioration in working
conditions and the establishment of the role of the multi-skilled journalist have been the
pervasive features of most of the convergence initiatives analysed (Micó et al., 2013;
Wallace 2013). Some arguments of the “Traditional Journalism” defenders are: a) the
reconstruction of the newsroom is perceived as cost-cutting measures (Quinn 2005), b)
the production of content tailored is more time-consuming, and c) the implementation
of a computational model impacts negatively on news quality (Cottle & Ashton 1999).
Cloud services support data sharing and offloading of computations into a networkcentric perspective (Mei at al., 2008; Sultan, 2011; Rittinghouse & Ransome, 2010;
Hoefer & Karagiannis, 2010). Such a model could be ideal to support journalists’ actual
needs and practices around their work and information flow, subjected to a careful
assessment of a dedicated technological solution. The workflow defines the specification
and the execution of a set of coordinated activities, representing a business process
within a company or agency (Borghoff & Schlichter, 2000). A local/traditional media
corporation typically consists of a group of people working in connected tasks, aiming
at facing the arisen editorial demands. Efficient cooperation is the key to successful
journalistic work that requires developing and managing co-creative processes, asking
team members to comply with the calls for awareness and collaboration. Similar
complementary competencies and skills are required in the “digital news environment”
and, particularly, in the Online Journalism context (Malmelin & Villi, 2015). This necessity
is further intensified by the “any-time” and “from anywhere” aspects that newsgathering
should feature, allowing reporters to act remotely from the corresponding news-scenes,
i.e. the locations that events take place (Dimoulas et al., 2014). The use of web-based
Collaboration Work Environments (CWEs) could support such demanding workflows,
using ICTs and distributed /distant co-working as basic components (Avraam et al.,
2004). The current paper focuses on the development of a collaborative MCC model,
aiming at enlightening and answering the various questions of contemporary news
collecting, managing and publishing with the help of mobile terminals.
TECHNOLOGICAL BACKGROUND AND CURRENT STATE OF RESEARCH
The transformation of the technological landscape concerning news production in the
past decade has raised entirely new needs, reshaping the traditional workflows of a
typical newsroom. Social Networking Sites (SNSs), User Generated Content (UGC),
Citizen Journalism (CJ), Internet facts gathering-checking and web publishing have
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rendered the newsroom responsibilities ever-changing field. New professional skills are
required, while media experts’ teams are formed in many news organizations to handle
the novel needs (Umair, 2016). In 2011, CNN, Associated Press, Al Jazeera, NBC and
Sky News already provided their audience with mobile applications, to interconnect them
with their newsroom and support direct sharing of the citizens’ content and stories
/articles (Mills et al., 2012). It has been stated that mobile newsgathering platforms
should account metadata concerning the participants’ characteristics (Väätäjä et al.,
2013), while semantic analysis of the crowdsourced material can lead to the
development of information recognition /classification automations and related groundtruth databases (Dimoulas et al., 2014; Vrysis, Tsipas, Dimoulas & Papanikolaou,
2015;2016).
Mobile Journalism (MoJo) inherits some of the qualities of UGC, in the sense that
professional journalists cover news-events using commonly available equipment, without
the need of mobile news broadcasting workstations. Especially in the usual cases of live
reporting or breaking news, MoJo practices can allow the simultaneous action of multiple
mobile terminals, which is more affordable, offering even quicker coverage and
broadcasting (Guribye & Nyre, 2017). Obviously, centralized newsgathering/reporting
infrastructures are needed, interconnecting multimedia capturing and managing facilities
with the newsroom (Mills et al., 2012). Along with production, news consumption has
been equally affected by recent technology developments and trends (Westlund, 2015).
More people daily choose mobile phones, news-sites and SNSs for getting informed
instead of traditional media. Hence, effective news-production should fulfil the needs of
a diverse audience, whose news-reading preferences differ according to demographic
characteristics and personal preferences. Recommendation systems have been proved
useful to fill the gap between production and consumption ends, so that the published
stories can reach the final consumers (Lu et al., 2015). Machine Learning (ML)
approaches are applied to cluster the audience and distribute news (Jordan & Mitchell,
2015). Smart systems collect information concerning users’ activity, preferences and
interconnections between individuals, thus exploiting them to train models that predict
which stories are appealing to different groups. Geographical data is easily available,
especially for mobile users, facilitating locative news services (Goggin et al., 2015).
Therefore, stories and overall media assets should be semantically annotated and
categorized during production/post-production, offering location-aware reporting
services.
Smartphones have evolved into portable workstations for audiovisual capturing and
context-aware collecting sensors. Their multisensory design provides a whole array of
data/digital sequences for interacting with the physical environment and capturing
information. Built-in cameras and microphones for audiovisual recording, Global
Positioning Sensors (GPS) for geographical localization, accelerometers and gyroscopes
to monitor the movement and direction of the device are available and constantly
accessible to more and more professional and non-professional users (Al-Turjman, 2016;
Dimoulas et al., 2014; Vrysis et al., 2016). These capabilities come along with
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
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communication interfaces and almost ubiquitous broadband internet connectivity. From
an Internet of Things (IoT) perspective, smartphones integrate many crucial news
reporting tools (text, images, audio-video streams, etc.) interconnected in a network.
While the quality of built-in audiovisual sensors is mostly oriented towards a minimumrequirements non-professional audience, the rapid growth of MoJo has led to the
development of a new market of professional-level smartphone equipment. Externally
attached lenses make the captured footage comparable to professional handheld
cameras, therefore suitable for news reporting. The choice of different lenses provides
versatility in the characteristics of optical zoom, focal length etc., allowing to select the
most appropriate items for every shot. External microphones are available and can be
used for better sound quality, through closer placement or distant audio recordings (i.e.
shotgun microphones). Power banks and external memories help surpass the battery
and capacity restrictions (Burum & Quinn 2015).
Mobile news-reporting takes advantage of the many applications for audio-video
editing and broadcasting available for Android and iOS. Reporters can adjust camera
settings through dedicated applications and record videos, either for live-broadcasting/streaming or post-production purposes. Trimming, editing, and assembling videos,
applying filters, manipulating multi-track sound, adding voiceovers, subtitles and
graphics are possible in smartphones through various applications. MoJo applications
like Vimojo offer comprehensive environments to perform all the above operations and
export the final media product. Many of these apps provide geolocation metadata for
the original captured material using GPS (Burum & Quinn 2015; Dimoulas et al., 2014;
Sidiropoulos, Konstantinidis, Kotsakis & Veglis, 2015). While the individual tools are
available and mature, there are still missing dedicated newsgathering applications,
interconnecting mobile terminals with the remaining parts of the reporting/editorialprocessing chain into integrated models /environments. Apparently, these solutions
should be adapted to the journalistic principles and the publishing policies of the different
media organizations, so that geographical and cultural divergences are expected. For
instance, in the Greek media practice, additional difficulties arise concerning the
characteristics of the cellular networks (i.e. coverage, bandwidth, etc.), weakness
related to language processing automations (i.e. text recognition, speech-to-text tools,
etc.), or even the technological know-how of the involved users. Given this demanding
case of Greece, the current work is part of a long-term project, aiming at supporting
modular, customizable and integrated MCC services that can be adapted to various
mobile news-reporting scenarios.
THE PROPOSED FRAMEWORK
Methodological Approach
In the current paper, a framework for intelligent mobile news reporting is
investigated. The approach adopts the concepts of anthropocentric design and rapid
prototyping. Continually evolving prototypes will be initially implemented, following the
standard iterative software engineering procedures of analysis, design, development and
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evaluation. Great emphasis is given on the participation of the targeted users in the
entire implementation process, including their training on the proposed services in real
use scenarios, through targeted assessment sessions and empirical studies. According
to the LUCID methodology (Logical User-Centered Interactive Design), the design of
these services will not only consider the requested functions (what the product should
do) but will also focus on the requirements from the user's point of view, ensuring
Effectiveness, Efficiency, Quality of Service, Error Tollerance, Simple Recovery, Ease of
Learning (Dimoulas, 2015; Kreitzberg, 2008). The stages of the adopted LUCID model
are depicted in Figure 1.
An analysis for quantifying the familiarity of the reporters on the use of modern MCC
technologies will take place in the form of public inquiry, supported by questionnaires
and experimental assessment sessions (i.e. lab exercises). This investigation has been
designed based on our valuable experience acquired from successfully finished similar
projects and will be conducted with the help of well-known partners of the M3C research
group (Multidisciplinary Media & Mediated Communication, m3c.web.auth.gr). The
participation of students and professional journalists from various organizations (CNNGreece, eklogika.gr, amna.gr, tvxs. gr, ert3.gr, esiemth.gr, etc.) and the contribution of
dedicated trainees ensure a substantially solid sample to test the upcoming technological
possibilities and preferences for the next generation journalists. A broad set of
parameters is considered (use of technologies, level of study, professional specialization,
etc.), including the inquiry of the participants and the submission of open-type feedback.
Significant attention is needed for applying the appropriate weighting to avoid bias in
the results. For example, people who are not sufficiently adapted to contemporary
technologies may be driven to trivial or overwhelmingly advanced workflows, considering
the technological level of the planned services.
Figure 1 The LUCID model is organized into six stages
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Bibliographic review and research on the target group's needs lay the foundation for
revising and fine-tuning the original idea. Additional surveys will finalize the technical
specifications of the proposed solutions, by prototyping graphical user interfaces (GUIs),
workflows, wireframes and developing demo applications. The conclusions of this phase
will unveil the degree of technological maturity (particularly in Greece), providing useful
data to be taken into consideration for the design and development phases. The
products of these procedures will be tested and evaluated at each stage of development
process, as the principles of user-centred design define. At this point, more specific tasks
are included, such as: exploring technical specifications and environmental parameters,
reviewing similar software implementations, analysing users and tasks, defining
standard use-case scenarios, designing flowcharts of actions, defining usability issues,
deriving technical constraints and managing troubleshooting. The analysis is completed
by all the findings and the conclusions to be used in the design phase.
Project scheduling and development of the envisioned model
As already implied, the current research is part of a longer-term project, aiming at
implementing prototype MCC applications for integrating “smart” news-reporting
services. The envisioned news-reporting model and the adopted MCC architecture are
presented in Figures 2, 3, while the adaptation of the LUCID methodology to the
scheduled workflow is depicted in Figure 4. It can be noticed that most of the wanted
utilities, discussed in the previous sections, can be served within the proposed modelling.
Specifically, reporters can use their mobile terminals while they are navigating in the
areas where news-events are taking place, receiving valuable guidance concerning the
approach/locations of the news-scenes and the associated context behind the
investigated stories (Dimoulas et al., 2014). They can also exploit the offered audiovisual
recording tools and the inherent networking capabilities to capture and upload newscontent on the cloud, for online sharing and/or further processing, before its final push
to multiple publishing channels. The submitted material is semantically enhanced with
location- and context-aware metadata that mobile sensors and services induct, thus
supporting proper documentation on the cloud repository. Software modalities and
automation algorithms propel active collaboration between specialists of various
domains (journalists, media producers, ICT-experts, etc.), supplemented with
continuous training and support actions, while facilitating efficient media assets
management (for both mobile and desktop users, i.e. field-reporters and desk-working
journalists/editors). In addition, computationally heavy tasks (i.e. content/semantics
processing, algorithmic automations, etc.) are offloaded to the cloud, so that they can
be operated even from resource-limited mobile terminals. Most of all, reporters and
citizen-journalists can interact in multimedia terms/data, taking full advantage of the
offered audiovisual mediated communication mechanisms, thus overcoming possible
interfacing limitations.
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Figure 1 The proposed news-reporting collaborative model
Figure 2 The adopted MCC architecture
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Regarding project execution, starting with the main idea, the initial specifications and
the results of the subsequent analysis will later evolve into design products. The activities
of this stage focus on the designing thoughts (mockups and sketches), specifying
usability objectives according to functional preferences, developing typical usescenarios, defining central navigation nodes/routes and interfaces, creating design
guides and interaction mechanisms, adopting thematic categories of basic screens, etc.
Thereafter, fast prototyping and interactive development can be deployed, while
usability assessment and feedback of targeted users/groups are constantly received, as
indicated in Figure 4., ensuring succesful implementation that meets users’ needs.
Figure 3 An overview of the proposed workflow
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Interactive Prototyping Design
According to the primary goals of the current project, the tools under design will
focus on meeting needs in the following three axes:
•
Modelling of data structures covering the needs of journalists and the functions
of the computational model.
•
Designing software that will capture multimedia (text, photo, audio, video),
providing tools for quick editing (cropping, resizing, etc.), annotating and
storing.
•
Engineering of a central computational environment that will facilitate data
management integration, offering information-exchange, searching and retrieval
with semantic analysis capabilities and indexing automations.
The above axes are fundamental principles for the development of an integrated
toolset, which will support the coverage of needs in the management of journalistic
information. The main architecture of the overall system is based on assumptions and
technological data, considered up to now. Thus, initial assessments have been made to
the necessary data and metadata structures that should support the evidence of
journalistic reporting as shown in Figure 5.
User's Data
Tagging
Recording
Title
Date
Type
Description
Location
Source File
Comments
Geolocation
Semantics
Tags
Photograph
Annotations
Figure 4 Supported data and metadata structures for news reporting
Semantical and spatiotemporal tagging has a unique role, without the need for
manual input of data by the user (Vrysis et al., 2015;2016). Due to the cloud
implementation, all features will be available simultaneously to many users who can
collaborate remotely (Vrysis et al., 2015). The data view and processing capabilities will
be adapted to the needs and capacities of each terminal, implementing a responsive
design (Hay, 2013). Initial mockups for the mobile/client interface are presented in
Figure 6. Design proposals will take a specific form during the deployment phase.
Synthesis and interconnection of technologies concern a wide range of existing
applications. The implementations will be based on software development tools that
primarily favour research, rapid prototyping and usability testing (Python, Java, Balsamiq
Mockups, InVision, Axure RP) (Bank, 2014). The development phase includes the serverside tasks of database implementation for content storing and retrieval (data and
metadata), the design of the semantic analysis algorithms, the adoption of specific
classification taxonomies/hierarchies and the materialization of the multimodal event
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
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detection and segmentation components. The list is completed with the client-side
mobile capturing, documentation and publishing of the news-material, along with the
integrated computing interface for all services, which can be accessed through both
desktop and mobile terminals. Given the importance of the training and support
procedures, the proposed workflows will be optimized while testing, launching, at the
same time, the necessary user-manuals and training sessions.
Σχήμα 6 – Σ
ίαση
ού
« ι ηώ » ι
αφώ
α η ής αι
η ής ισ ό η ας
Figure 6 Prototypes of the mobile app interfaces
An essential aspect of the successful completion of the project is the exhaustive
evaluation during all phases (Demetriades et al., 2004; Dimoulas, 2015). Formative
assessment is performed from the initial design stages, both internally, by the
workgroup, and externally, by a sample of experts/targeted users. Summative evaluation
will also be conducted at project completion. Heuristic investigation and performance
metrics will be deployed to assess the usability of the designed prototypes and services
(Albert & Tullis, 2013; Avouris, 2000). Representative users/groups, formed by
participants from various media and trainees, will test the implementation of the
proposed tools in real-world use-scenarios. Cumulative analysis of the results will form
the ending conclusions, guiding the final process of reviewing.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
The current framework models Computer-Supported Cooperative Work dedicated to
news production and publishing. The use of a novel smartphone application is in the
core of the design, taking into consideration all the workflows, i.e. multimedia asset
production and management, communication with the newsroom, broadcasting and
cross-/trans-media publishing, etc. To address the problem globally, a collaborative MCC
model is introduced, providing an environment that brings together the professionals
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involved in the news-reporting chain (reporters, journalists, editors, technicians, etc.).
Hence, all these actors can remotely, though efficiently, cooperate on the cloud.
Reporters are equipped with smartphones having all the needed hardware /tools for
recording, saving and editing multimedia assets within the same software environment.
Journalists require for special training on multimedia production, but they don’t have to
be specialized at expert level. The produced material is uploaded to the cloud, where it
is accessible by the newsroom and audiovisual engineers who can edit or make
corrections to the multimodal assets. Getting everyday feedback from collaborating with
the experts provides practitioner training to reporters.
Semantic technologies are integrated to facilitate interaction between the journalist
and the application, while also annotating the produced content. Speech-to-text, voice
commanding and intelligent editing tools support the reporters' tough job of on-the-fly
multimedia production. Audiovisual event detection and classification, descriptive
annotation of stories and geolocation information provide metadata for immediate
tagging of the produced news-content, to feed documentation and management
automation modules in the newsroom. Recommendation systems are not only oriented
to news publishing, but also for suggesting associated stories-covering (i.e. reporting
articles and UGC with similar content, category, geolocation, etc.), thus facilitating
storytelling enrichment while also making factchecking easier. For the case of the mobile
journalist, monitoring his/her location can recommend an efficient way of distributing
event coverage to the media organization human resources, taking into consideration
proximity of breaking-news locations.
Long-term usage of the integrated news reporting framework will gradually augment
the cloud repositories with audiovisual semantic metadata and log-files, monitoring the
collaborative actions. The enrichment of ground-truth knowledge-bases will be used for
retraining the automations of workflows to more intelligent and robust versions. Overall,
the experience gained by using the new tools will significantly facilitate the
newsgathering and publishing tasks, thus leading to the adoption of well-tested bestpractices.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This research has been supported by the Operational Program "Human Resources
Development, Education and Lifelong Learning" and is co-financed by the European
Union (European Social Fund) and Greek national funds.
Journal of Media Critiques [JMC] – Vol.4 No.14 2018
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Vo l . 4 N o . 1 4 2 0 1 8
COMinG Special Issue 4
P-ISSN: 2056 9785
E-ISSN: 2056 9793
doi: 10.17349/jmc118200