scholarly journals Nation Branding in Romania After 1989: A Cultural Semiotic Perspective

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Bianca Florentina Cheregi
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Nation Branding ◽  
Semiotic Analysis ◽  
Cultural Symbols ◽  
Neoliberal Ideology ◽  
Semiotic Perspective ◽  
Communist Past

This paper discusses four nation branding post-communist campaigns initiated by the Romanian Government, from a cultural semiotic perspective, as developed by the Tartu-Moscow-Semiotic School. In so doing, it focuses on analyzing advertising and national identity discourses inside the semiospheres. Moreover, the paper investigates how elements of neoliberal ideology are addressed in the governmental campaigns, considering the “marketization of public discourse” (Fairclough, 1993). Nation branding in post-communist Romania is a distinctive phenomena, compared to other countries, especially from Western Europe. In transition countries, nation branding is often mentioned because of the constant need to reconfigure national identity by dissociating from the communist past (Kaneva, 2012). In Romania, nation branding is also a public issue discussed in the media, connected to the ways in which the international press portrays the country or to the migrants’ actions. In this context, Romania’s nation brand represents a cultural space and the campaigns mobilize cultural symbols as systems of signs necessary for the existence and functioning of advertising discourses. Using a semiotic analysis linked to the field of cultural semiotics (Lotman, 2005/1984), this article analyzes four nation branding campaigns initiated by the Romanian Government (Romania Simply Surprising – 2004, Romania Land of Choice – 2009, Explore the Carpathian Garden – 2010, and Discover the Place Where You Feel Reborn – 2014), considering elements such as semiotic borders, dual coding and symbols. The results show that the campaigns are part of four different semiospheres, integrating discursive practices both from advertising and public diplomacy when communicating the national image to the internal (citizens) or external (international) audiences.

scholarly journals Nation Branding in Two Major Serbian Music Festivals, Exit and Guča

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-120
Author(s):  
Jelena Gligorijević
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Nation Branding ◽  
Departure Point ◽  
Music Festivals ◽  
National Brands ◽  
Brass Band ◽  
Local Perception ◽  
Normative Value ◽  
Value Dissonance

This article looks into the nation branding phenomenon surrounding two major Serbian music festivals, Exit and Guča, in the post-Milošević era. The departure point of analysis is the once-dominant national identity narrative of Two Serbias, by which Exit (as a purveyor of Western-style popular music) and Guča (as the self-proclaimed guardian of the Serbian brass-band tradition) were pitted against one another as representatives of Two Serbias, one looking towards the West, and the other towards the East. Moving away from this obsolete model of interpretation, this article examines the effects that the inception of nation branding in Serbian public discourse has produced on the local perception of each festival as well as on Serbian national identity within the broader contexts of post-socialist transition, the EU integration, and globalization. It also analyzes the ways in which the principles of market economy and branding practice are being “bastardized” in both festivals, resulting in what Mladen Lazić (2003) calls normative-value dissonance. Nation branding has forged a more unified view of Exit and Guča as national brands that ostensibly improve the international image of the country but which in reality deplete both festivals of their initial cultural and political potency. Ultimately, however, the proof of normative-value dissonance in Exit and Guča supports the argument that nation branding in these two festivals feeds back into earlier Balkanist discourse on Serbia’s indeterminate position between West and East; and it does so in a way that provides little hope for alternative visions of the nation’s future.

Development of Slovak Public Diplomacy in the Post-Independence Period

2019 ◽  
pp. 78-97
Author(s):  
Alexander Marchukov
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
Nation Branding ◽  
European Identity ◽  
Second Stage ◽  
International Broadcasting ◽  
History Of ◽  
Two Stages ◽  
Digital Diplomacy ◽  
The Eu

The chapter is devoted to the history of public diplomacy development in Slovakia after independence. The process is seen non-linear and can be divided into two stages. The first stage covers a period since joining Slovakia the EU, and public diplomacy is characterized by using traditional methods of cultural diplomacy, advocacy, international broadcasting. At this stage, public diplomacy practices were a reflection of national debates over the European identity. The second stage lasts from 2001 to the present day and focuses on new approaches to the country promotion (e.g., nation branding). Public diplomacy activities were influenced mainly by efforts of the Slovak government to reinvent the national identity during this period. As it is discussed, Slovakia should invest more in cultural and digital diplomacy nowadays, so it could help the Slovaks not only improve relations with neighbors, but also contribute to the development of their national identity.

Nation Branding:

MedienJournal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Gisela K. Cánepa
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
The State ◽  
Nation Branding ◽  
Great Opportunity ◽  
National Community ◽  
Neoliberal Governmentality ◽  
Entrepreneurial Spirit

Nation branding plays a central role within neoliberal governmentality, operating as a technology of power in the configuration of emerging cultural and political formations such as national identity, citizenship and the state. The discussion of the advertising spot Perú, Nebraska  released as part of the Nation Branding campaign Marca Perú  in May of 2011, constitutes a great opportunity to: (i) argue about the way in which audiovisual advertisement products, designed as performative devises, operate as technologies of power; and (ii) problematize the terms in which it founds a new social contract for the Peruvian multicultural national community. This analysis will allow me to approach neoliberalism as a cultural regime in order to discuss the ideological nature of the uncontested celebratory discourse that has emerged in Perú and which explains the economic growth of the last decades as the outcome of a national entrepreneurial spirit that would be distinctive of Peruvian cultural identity.

scholarly journals Conocimiento cultural como base para la construcción de identidad nacional. Un análisis del discurso de la prensa sobre el default de 2014 en Argentina

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-103
Author(s):  
Simone Mwangi
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Identidad Nacional ◽  
Linguistic Resources ◽  
Major Threat ◽  
Crisis Events

AbstractEconomic and political crisis situations are interpreted differently in different societies and cultures. What is perceived as a major threat in one society can be experienced as an everyday occurrence in other societies. This shows that crises are not issues that exist independently of people, but that they are to a large extent the result of social interpretations. An example of how a community interprets events as a surmountable challenge, rather than a crisis, is Argentina’s public discourse on the 2014 default. Instead of a discourse that concentrates on economic, political and social problems, the event provoked a political discourse on national identity. The present paper uses the methods of descriptive discourse analysis to study this solution-driven way of handling crisis events. The investigation focuses on the cultural knowledge and discourse traditions used in Argentina to interpret the country’s situation in the summer of 2014. The study analyzes how these cultural and linguistic resources contribute to coping with the situation of default while strengthening national identity.

Maximising Soft Power: the Role of Digital Diplomacy in Building Trust with Nation-Branding

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Jess Gosling
Keyword(s):  
Crucial Role ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
Essential Role ◽  
Nation Branding ◽  
Building Trust ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Digital Diplomacy

Perceptions of attractiveness and trustworthiness impact the prosperity and influence of countries. A country's soft power is not guaranteed. Countries have their brands, an image shaped by the behaviour of governments, by what they do and say, whom they associate with, and how they conduct themselves on the global stage. Increasingly, digital diplomacy plays a crucial role in the creation and application of soft power. This paper argues that digital diplomacy is increasingly vital in the articulation of soft power. Digital diplomacy is a new way of conducting public diplomacy, offering new and unparalleled ways of building trust with previously disengaged audiences. Soft power is now the driving force behind reputation and influence on the global stage, where increasingly digital diplomacy plays an essential role.

Russian Public Diplomacy and Nation Branding

2019 ◽  
pp. 45-59
Author(s):  
Semed A. Semedov ◽  
Anastasiya G. Kurbatova
Keyword(s):  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
Nation Branding

scholarly journals Rock Beats the Wall? On Commemorative Practices in Post-Soviet Russia

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-91
Author(s):  
Nina Cingerová ◽  
Irina Dulebová
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Complex Analysis ◽  
100Th Anniversary ◽  
Traumatic Experience ◽  
Semiotic Analysis ◽  
Coup D'etat ◽  
Communist State ◽  
The Social ◽  
Soviet Russia

AbstractThis paper focuses on the case analysis of the memorial to the victims of state terror – the Wall of Grief (Stena skorbi) – which was unveiled on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the November 7, 1917, coup d’état. Using this example, we have attempted to elaborate a structure for a more complex analysis of the memory of past regimes’ manifestation and to create a methodological base for their comparison. We have based our research on the discourse theory by the so-called Essex School, the social semiotics by Kress, and the procedures of the critical discourse analysis. The procedure that we have considered relevant consists of the following: (a) description of the social context in which the memorial was manifested as a piece of evidence; (b) semiotic analysis of the memorial artifact; (c) analysis of verbal practices, as well as written and spoken texts that “explained” the memorial; and (d) analysis of nonverbal practices, namely, rituals. On the basis of our case study, we have come to the conclusion that when carrying out a semiotic analysis and the analysis of verbal and nonverbal practices in the case of the Russian public discourse, it is especially relevant to pay attention not only to widening vs. narrowing of the chronological framework, generalization vs. concretization, and specification of the traumatic experience but also to the question of framing of the memorial. In regard to the semiotic analysis, the extent of indexicality is considered to be very important in the sense of the bodily connection with an element of the commemorated event that bestows “truthfulness” and authenticity on the memorial. We assume that particularly present-day Russia, where explicit attempts to reinterpret the history of the authoritarian communist state and attempts to instrumentalize the totalitarian period according to the vector of the current political direction may be seen, is a relevant object of this kind of research.

scholarly journals Sports Diplomacy of Norway

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michał Marcin Kobierecki
Keyword(s):  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
Nation Branding ◽  
Main Hypothesis ◽  
Sports Diplomacy ◽  
International Identity

Norway is perceived as a country with a clear international identity. The aim of the article is to investigate the sports diplomacy of Norway and to examine its influence on the international brand of this country. The author will define the term “sports diplomacy” and attempt to outline the strategy of Norway’s public diplomacy; an analysis of the methods used in Norwegian sports diplomacy will follow. The main hypothesis of this paper is that sports diplomacy only plays a subsidiary role in Norwegian nation branding.

scholarly journals Branding the Chinese Dream: Reception of China’s Public Diplomacy in Britain’s “Cultural China”

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 15-35
Author(s):  
Yan Wu ◽  
Sian Rees ◽  
Richard Thomas ◽  
Yakun Yu
Keyword(s):  
Political Ideology ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
Nation Branding ◽  
Perceived Threat ◽  
Chinese Dream ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Group Data ◽  
Brand Values ◽  
Focus Group Data ◽  
The Chinese Dream

Over four decades, China’s transformed propaganda system has embraced public diplomacy to dispel its perceived “threat.” The most recent strategy has been the branding of the Chinese Dream narrative. Although there has been some academic focus on China’s nation branding, little has been written about its reception by overseas audiences. Accordingly, this article draws on focus-group data and employs Tu Wei-ming’s “cultural China” framework in exploring how the Chinese Dream is received and interpreted in the United Kingdom. This article contributes to understandings of nation branding by recognising how Chinese diaspora communities and British intellectual and professional elites engage with and promote brand values. It argues that the socio-cultural aspect of branding is important for China’s identity and that using the Chinese Dream as a branding narrative is successful when it focuses on cultural and economic messaging but divides opinion when political ideology is used. Image © Yan Wu

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