{"title":"Twitter’s Role in Digital Democracy, Post-Truth, and Political Polarization","authors":"Ceren Yegen, Bunyamin Ayhan, Yavuz Demir","doi":"10.21018/rjcpr.2022.2.343","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21018/rjcpr.2022.2.343","url":null,"abstract":"Although the presidential election in the United States of America (USA) in November 2020 took place under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become one of the important points in terms of digitalization and the agenda. Donald Trump, who lost the election to Joe Biden, challenged the results, and even refused to concede for some time. Joe Biden, who based his election campaign on democracy and diversity, took the oath of office as the 46th President of the United States on January 20, 2021. His inauguration ceremony was marked by a call for “unity”. The ceremony became the agenda of social media as well as traditional media, and users simultaneously shared posts reflecting their views and attitudes on social media platforms. Most of these posts (on Twitter) were made using the hashtags #DonaldTrump and #inaugurationday. The discussion and political polarization that started during the election process continued after the election through social networks. In the study, the role of Twitter in digital democracy as well as its potential to serve as a public space were examined through the network and its features, interactions, and factions that were formed within the framework of the related hashtags on the inauguration day (January 20, 2021). Methodologically, social network analysis was utilized. The results indicate that the political agenda-setters on Twitter are dominating and resonate with users in terms of interaction.","PeriodicalId":40874,"journal":{"name":"Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations","volume":"46 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81414485","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An Exploratory Study of Communication Freelancers and Online Communities. A Mixed Methods Approach","authors":"R. Moise, Anca Anton","doi":"10.21018/rjcpr.2022.2.342","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21018/rjcpr.2022.2.342","url":null,"abstract":"The present study explores the nature and dynamics of online communities populated by communication freelancers. Drawing from limited scholarship focusing on freelance work practices in communication industries and a reduced number of studies in communication literature regarding online communities, this research applies a complex analytical framework, with mixed methodology: content analysis, social network analysis and thematic analysis. Our main findings reveal the key features of the discursive environment of two Facebook groups, the communication functions employed by group administrators, the engagement practices of group members particularly regarding knowledge production and consumption and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on group practices and dynamic. We conclude by highlighting the supportive and participative culture developed within the two groups.","PeriodicalId":40874,"journal":{"name":"Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91039763","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Strategic Transfer of Intangible Assets via Twitter by Spanish Listed Companies in Times of Crisis","authors":"Celia Rangel-Pérez, Susana Miquel-Segarra, Daniela Musico-Nombella","doi":"10.21018/rjcpr.2022.2.341","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21018/rjcpr.2022.2.341","url":null,"abstract":"In times of crisis such as the one we have experienced due to COVID-19, listed companies have enhanced the communication of their intangible assets. Thus, the aim of this research is to study how listed companies in Spain have used one of the most popular social channels, such as Twitter, to transfer their intangible assets to their stakeholders. To this end, the communication of IBEX35 companies in Spain with a verified corporate profile on Twitter has been studied during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the main results, it should be noted that the transfer of intangible assets has been based on a strategy where providing added value was the connecting axis of the communication actions implemented and the content provided on Twitter. Hence, this work demonstrates that companies can provide added value in social networks to generate trust, build long-term relationships and strengthen their competitive advantage.","PeriodicalId":40874,"journal":{"name":"Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations","volume":"67 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85787580","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"War of the Words. The Online Conversation about NATO in Romania: Communicators, Content, Communities","authors":"Dan Sultănescu","doi":"10.21018/rjcpr.2022.1.338","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21018/rjcpr.2022.1.338","url":null,"abstract":"The Covid-19 infodemic has brought forth an intensification of disinformation and conspiracy narratives, especially in the online environment. Beside the public health implications, the geopolitical aspect is also relevant, since Romania, a member of the EU and NATO, has constantly been under pressure from a multitude of propaganda attempts meant to undermine people’s trust in the West. The main goal of this paper is to explore the type of online information that the Romanian public is exposed to regarding NATO, an institutional actor representative for the Western model, specifically to assess the main communicators, content, and patterns of information dissemination. A dataset of Facebook mentions was created and filtered (n=9705) and visual network analysis was employed to build a NATO issue network. The main clusters of this network were analyzed to reveal that the two largest communities are structured according to a political cleavage, while an anti-Western media actor, Sputnik, controls a separate cluster, but its content infiltrates several others. Qualitative content analysis on a relevance sample of the most frequently distributed content was employed to evaluate both attitudes toward NATO (negative stances were identified in several analyzed documents) and the occurrence of conspiracy narratives (also a significant presence).","PeriodicalId":40874,"journal":{"name":"Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations","volume":"61 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88339518","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book review of 'The Psychology of Fake News. Accepting, Sharing, and Correcting Misinformation'","authors":"Gabriela Guiu","doi":"10.21018/rjcpr.2022.1.340","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21018/rjcpr.2022.1.340","url":null,"abstract":"At a time when the line between facts and fake news has become increasingly difficult to identify, there is a need for a proper conceptualization of both the phenomenon and its implications so that policy makers can articulate effective strategies to reduce the effects of misinformation. In this unstable and turbulent context, the collective volume The Psychology of Fake News. Accepting, Sharing, and Correcting Misinformation, coordinated by Rainer Greifeneder, Mariela E. Jaffé, Eryn J. Newman and Norbert Schwarz, and published last year by the prestigious Routledge Taylor & Francis Group publisher, makes a valuable contribution to a better understanding of this social phenomenon and its functional mechanisms.","PeriodicalId":40874,"journal":{"name":"Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations","volume":"94 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91197128","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mande Ande Mande, Lambe Kayode Mustapha, Bahiyah Omar, M. Mustapha, Ismail Sheikh Yusuf Ahmed
{"title":"Social Media Content Preferences and Political Participation among Nigerian Youths","authors":"Mande Ande Mande, Lambe Kayode Mustapha, Bahiyah Omar, M. Mustapha, Ismail Sheikh Yusuf Ahmed","doi":"10.21018/rjcpr.2022.1.335","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21018/rjcpr.2022.1.335","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines the influence of social media content preferences on political participation in Nigeria’s relatively nascent democracy. Due to mixed conclusions on the influence of news and entertainment preferences on political participation, we sampled 434 youths aged 18-35 in a Nigerian northern state, to investigate the differential influence of diverse social media content consumption on political participation. Incorporating the moderating and mediating influences of political efficacy and incidental news exposure, findings confirm that news and entertainment preferences are positive, significant predictors of political participation among respondents. While political efficacy moderated the influence of news preference on political participation, incidental news exposure did not mediate the influence of entertainment preference on political participation. We recommend further investigation into the influence of content preferences on political participation among Nigerian youths who constitute considerable members of the nation’s electorate.","PeriodicalId":40874,"journal":{"name":"Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89741568","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Elena NEGREA-BUSUIOC, Oana Ștefăniță, Gabriela Guiu
{"title":"Science Meets Metaphor: Teaching and Communicating about Abstract Concepts in Romanian Science Textbooks","authors":"Elena NEGREA-BUSUIOC, Oana Ștefăniță, Gabriela Guiu","doi":"10.21018/rjcpr.2022.1.339","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21018/rjcpr.2022.1.339","url":null,"abstract":"Metaphors and analogies are efficient and attractive tools used in science teaching to explain abstract ideas in simpler, familiar terms. Science textbook authors and teachers rely on metaphors and analogies to explain abstract scientific concepts and convey them to young learners. In this paper, we discuss a corpus of metaphorical expressions found in Romanian physics and chemistry textbooks for secondary education (grades 6-8), and classified based on target domains (i.e., the core scientific concepts presented in the unit lessons of the analyzed textbooks) and source domains (i.e., the more concrete, more familiar concepts used to explain scientific concepts from the analyzed textbooks). Furthermore, we explore the way in which the identified and annotated metaphors may provide the basis for understanding core concepts from physics (e.g., electricity in terms of ‘water flowing’) and chemistry (e.g., electron shells as ‘field track lanes’). This study is part of a larger research project which aims is to examine how metaphors and analogies used in Romanian science textbooks are understood and misunderstood by young learners and what (mis-) understanding complex scientific ideas might mean for pupils’ preparedness to make sense of the world we live in and, ultimately, for their future engagement with and interest in science.","PeriodicalId":40874,"journal":{"name":"Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73274404","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Influence of Self-Efficacy in Ethical Consideration and Decision-Making Processes","authors":"N. Eyo, N. Hasan","doi":"10.21018/rjcpr.2021.3.332","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21018/rjcpr.2021.3.332","url":null,"abstract":"The study explores factors influencing PR practitioners’ ethical consideration in decision-making process. In line with the theoretical approach of self-efficacy, practitioner’s performances emanate from individual self-efficacy aligned with organization culture and objectives. Thus, self-efficacy inspires individual behavior based upon their belief and capacity to execute or perform actions essential to produce expected results. Based on 20 semi-structured interviews with Malaysian PR practitioners, questions were based on a set of collected and collated reviews of the literature as well as guided by responsible advocacy theory and self-efficacy theory to facilitate the interview process. Data from the interviews were transcribed, coded, and thematically analyzed. Findings of the study indicate that organizational interest, goals, and business focus, corporate politics, boss-influenced clients or stakeholder pressure and practitioners’ personal values were influential factors affecting practitioner’s ethical and decision-making dispositions. Further findings showed that the level of discretions practitioners processed in decision-making process is based on a combination of internal factors like organization business focus and external factors like client needs and pressure. Given that practitioners are bounded by organization laws as employees; it is recommended that independent bodies be put in place other than national public relations associations to serve as a regulator over unethical practices and protection of practitioners against corporate powers.","PeriodicalId":40874,"journal":{"name":"Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations","volume":"51 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75952473","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Effects of Fake News on Consumers’ Brand Trust","authors":"Gheorghe-Ilie Fârte, D. Obadă","doi":"10.21018/rjcpr.2021.3.333","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21018/rjcpr.2021.3.333","url":null,"abstract":"The aim of this study is to explore the effects of fake news on consumers’ brand trust in the food security context. The starting point of our research is the finding that issues related to food security cannot be addressed without the contribution of multinational food corporations. The efficiency of their intervention depends on their capacity to build and preserve their brand trust despite the multifarious fake news stories that contaminate the information flow. Is brand trust sensitive to fake news? In some cases, the spread of fake news in mass media and social media negatively affects food companies. In other cases, consumers’ trust remains relatively unchanged. These ambivalent reactions give us good reason to assess whether consumers’ exposure to negative fake news influences their trust in international food brands. Using a one-group pretest–posttest research design, we found that the effects of fake news on consumers’ brand trust are predominantly negative, but in a few cases, these effects can be neutral or positive. These results could be useful for PR and marketing researchers and professionals interested in fake news phenomena and brand trust because they shed light on the real threat fake news represents for multinational food companies.","PeriodicalId":40874,"journal":{"name":"Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80186789","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Using Frame Analysis to Operationalize Discourse Theory for Critical News Media Research","authors":"Rizwan Sarwar Sulehry, D. Wallace","doi":"10.21018/rjcpr.2021.3.331","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21018/rjcpr.2021.3.331","url":null,"abstract":"A main tenet of discourse theory, as derived from the original scholarship of Laclau and Mouffe, is that any social order is the contingent outcome of a political project. Such project is itself a consequence of material discursive practice, the pervasiveness of which is measurable in part by the extent to which its verbal articulations get disseminated with the help of news media. Thus, investigating news media agents which initiate, further, counter and discontinue the discursive process can be effective in mapping the political constitution of the social. But the question is: how to operationalize discourse theory for in-depth analysis of news media artifacts? Glynos and Howarth’s (2007) logics approach is a major step forward, but their account is too generalized to pass as an instructive account of their method. Others who have attempted to operationalize this approach have also left data analysis underspecified, particularly regarding the method of identifying the self-interpretations of social actors, on which the uncovering of logics initially depends. This article offers a more comprehensive methodological account. Through a sample analysis of one news report, we demonstrate that discourse theory’s analytical resources can be bolstered by subjecting the textual data to an approach derived from the literature on frame analysis. In the course of this illustration, we additionally hope to contribute to framing theory’s analytical repertoire.","PeriodicalId":40874,"journal":{"name":"Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78634145","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}