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Thursday, November 10
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COH03 ConstructingMemory and Identity
PP 155
Social Memory and Commemoration of the Third Latvian National Awakening (1988–2016) in Media
L. Ardava
1
1
University of Latvia, Department of Communication Studies, Riga, Latvia
On the anniversaries of the Third Latvian National Awakening, the media become determinant formative agents and/or reagents of the social memo‑
ry. The research analyses the commemoration and performance of the media ritual with a particular focus on the “us” and “them” discourse structures.
The theoretical basis of the thesis is formed by the social memory, national identity, ritual communication, commemoration, and media event theoretical
approaches. In order to develop the empirical research, the quantitative content analysis was used to collect and systematically study the content of more
than 1,100 press publications and 350 dedications in the content of Latvian television and Latvian radio from the 1988–2016 period. Data was analysed
using the discourse-historical method, on the basis of which a specifically tailored discourse analysis procedure was developed. The results of the study
reveal the controversial role of the Third Awakening in Latvia's social memory and identity, the active role of media in sustaining the social memory con‑
flict, orientation towards major anniversaries, as well as an example of a large-scale remembrance or hyper-commemoration. The Awakening discourse in
the media is also characterized by layering of current social, political, and economic situation on the perception of the past or mnemocontextualization,
the narrative of ‘paradise lost’and minor emphasis on rational and institutional benefits of the independence period.
PP 156
Imagined Community in It's Making: Finnish Wartime Photograph Archive as an Example of Constructing National Identity in a Time
of Crisis
A. Männistö
1
1
University of Tampere, School of Communication- Media and Theatre, Tampere, Finland
This paper demonstrates how photographs and particular governmental guidelines were used to construct an ideal Finnish "imagined community" during
the SecondWorldWar. FinnishWartime Photograph Archive (FWPA) provides a unique opportunity to explore how the ideal of a nation was carefully built.
FWPA consist of 160 000 photos taken by Information Companies (IC) in Finnish Wars 1939–1945. That material was analysed for this study with the help
of modern data-analytic tools. For many decades access to FWPA photos was limited and they were seen only sporadically in books and research reports.
Since April 2013 all the photos have been downloadable by anyone from the SA-kuva.fi. The term "imagined community" is here used in a traditional
sense first introduced by Benedict Anderson in the 1980'ies. In the centre of Anderson's theorizing is the importance of newspapers as agents of imaging
the community. The wartime conditions provides a clear example of the power of determined image building: "The nation is always conceived as a deep,
horizontal comradeship. Ultimately it is this fraternity that makes it possible, over the past two centuries, for so many millions of people, not so much to
kill, as willingly to die for such limited imaginings." (Anderson 1991, 7.) FWPA collection can be compared in its largeness to the famous FSA-project in
U.S. in the 1930'ies. But unlike FSA photos, FWPA photos are provided with detailed amount of contextual and metadata information. Metadata consists
of: (1) individual descriptions of photos (photographer, date, place, caption, etc.) and (2) contextual information, such as 103 official special commands
(in Finnish "ohjekäskyt") given by General Headquarters' Photography Division and various supporting reports between authorities documenting how
the orders were carried out. In special commands the authorities told which were valuable targets and themes for photographing and what was the aim
of a particular theme. Photos may have served e.g. countering the war fatigue. By exploring the dynamics of governmental guidelines and themes in photos
and their texts, we are able to see how the ideal picture of Finnishness was constructed under the harsh conditions of the war. Through the whole period
certain qualities were constantly attributed to Finnish soldiers, such as: braveness, awareness, cleanness and wittiness. In the same manner photographs
produced idealizations of women and their roles in society. Likewise, Germans with whom the Finns fought against Soviet Union in 1941–1944 were
treated with comradeship and righteousness where as the enemy soldiers were considered - at least until 1943 - as brutal, weak and incompetent. These
kinds of attributes were fostered in the pages of the media. Analysing the FWPA strengthens earlier notions of how the ideal types of Finns and Finnishness
were constructed during the wartime. It also opens new perspectives to the past. It does this by showing for the general public some photographic themes
that were censored and hidden for decades. Among these themes belong photos depicting the horrors, despair and negative feelings of the soldiers. These
pictures would have ruined carefully constructed Finnish wartime imagined community.
PP 157
Reframing the Past : Stereotypification of Social Memory by French Advertising
E. FANTIN
1
1
University La Sorbonne - GRIPIC, Communication, Neuilly sur seine, France
The past has been increasingly used as a source of inspiration by brands over the past few years. Dated objects, mimics of vintage design or uses of histor‑
ical figures have become standard resources of marketing and therefore, a pervasive trend of advertising. Consumers have become accustomed to these
commercial exploitations of various shared memories, and are now familiar with viewing advertising as a triggering factor of vivid narratives of the past.
The aim of this communication is to question the specific uses of the past in French advertising through both theoretical and empirical studies, grounded
within the field of memories studies. The commercial exploitation of the past is a manifold phenomenon, from the nostalgic aesthetics pastiche built to
convey a wistful feeling of yearning for a blurred pastness, to the accurate designations of historical figures or time periods of social memory. These het‑
erogeneous mediations of memory rest on the core process of stereotypification that stands as the main mnemonic structure of advertising. This reframing
of the past will be discussed through three scales, and will be empirically based on semiotical analysis of a selection of recent advertisings. First, we’ll focus
on the framing of memories by stereotype. The past in advertising is composed by simplified visual norms, rhetorical structures and cultural conventions
that lead to a codified and pre-established interpretation. But if the semiotical condensation produced by stereotypification allows to unfold mnemonic