ECREA16-Abstract_book

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PS 084 Negative (Auto) Stereotypes in Contemporary Bulgarian Press
Z. Sokolova1
1 Sofia University "Kliment Ohridski", Department "History and Theory of Journalism"- Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication, Sofia, Bulgaria
The theme emerged in search of the answer to why in spite of the freedom of expression that exists today – unlike the party censorship during the previous
political regime, the press in Bulgaria abounds again with repetitive clichés, myths, inaccurate notions. For the purpose of the study the term "stereotype"
was accepted because it incorporates other possible definitions and best illustrates the phenomena studied. Scientists emphasize that stereotypes are
not something universally given. People get acquainted with them through communicating with the other people and the institutions. Such important
social institutions are the media. They have a huge role in shaping the perceptions of the people for the world and impose themselves as institutions which
exercise a serious psychological impact on society. The economic difficulties, the topics taboo and the relationship between media and politicians are one
side of the matter. The other is how to write about the problems, what frames are they placed in, how to use the language, the importance of every word.
In this complicated situation, the media are not always able to fulfill their public role in the best way and to help people overcome the lack of continuity
between the generations, the differences in the estimation of the past, the present and the future. Often the media only reinforce the fears of the people
without offering alternatives and fail to impose a more objective tone when considering the most important social problems. The methodology includes
an analysis of existing studies on the genesis and nature of stereotypes in the context of social psychology, media and their role in the light of communica‑
tion theory, and a sociolinguistic analysis of media language. The empirical study includes five Bulgarian daily newspapers in the period from June 2014 to
January 2016 (the study continues until June 2016). The study covers the front pages, as well as the sections for comments and analyzes. The thesis is that
the media, by using the existing stereotypes or by forming and spreading new ones, undermine the Bulgarian identity and facilitate the division of society
ethnically, politically, historically. Researchers point out the existence of a highly negative ethnocentrism – for the Bulgarians is typical not to respect their
own State.The empirical study shows that the media reinforces this characteristic – the negative autostereotypes are among the most persistent constructs
and that they inspire a sense of inferiority. The interpretation of the economic problems is limited only to ascertainments – the headlines emphasize that
we are the poorest, the most miserable, the sickest in Europe, that we do not live, but just survive – "The Bulgarians may be world champions in enduring
adversitiеs. " A special attention in the study is paid to the negative autostereotype about the young people. The youngsters are often advised to go abroad
because "the best of them”are leaving the country with a one-way ticket. One can imagine how it might affect those who remain.
PS 085 European Journalism Research News: Creating a Special Online News Service
T. Uskali1, V. Manninen1, P. Ikonen1, H. Hirvinen1
1 University of Jyväskylä, Department of Communication, Jyväskylän yliopisto, Finland
In this paper we will present the results of a research project that was conducted in the University of Jyväskylä in 2014–2015, to improve the quality
of scholarly communication about ongoing European journalism research. An essential part of the research project was to create an online news service:
Journalism Research News (JRN) The paper uses the case study as a strategy for in-depth exploration (Thomas 2016).
The main question here is how the JRN has contributed to the European scholarly community by focusing on publishing news about journalism research.
First, we will summarize the main strategies and steps for creating a journalism news service. The starting point for the JRN project was the recognition
that journalism research has been too slow in reacting to changes in journalism practices. Therefore the gap between academic research and changes
in newsrooms has constantly widened. In addition, information on new journalism research projects starting in Europe was not immediately available.
Therefore, many opportunities for cooperation among researchers were missed, and many valuable and timely findings lost or inflated during long queuing
times for prominent academic conferences and publications. The ECREA 2014 conference in Lisbon was the first real-time test for the news service, which
was still only available for the project’s participants. Also, 11 journalism researchers were interviewed during ECREA 2014 about their needs for a journalism
research news service, and some of them also volunteered as beta-testers. These anonymized interviews will be referred to in the paper. Also data analytics
of the JRN will be critically and self-reflexively examined in the paper. The data is based on the use of Google Analytics. JRN was opened to public access in
February 2015. During its first year, the JRN has published more than 400 news items, and has had more than 5000 visitors from around the world. The JRN
gathers information from hundreds of European websites focused on journalism research and publishes the most relevant items as news. The news stream
also contains Calls for Papers and information about upcoming events. The third publishing category is ‘trends’. This section focuses on new themes and
topics related to journalism research, and research practices in general. Finally, in this paper, we will conclude that the JRN project can make a contribution
to the European journalism research community in, at least, three distinct ways. First, it offers a fast communication channel for the European researchers
to market their research in Europe and to global audiences. Second, it can be used as a benchmark for other similar kinds of research news ventures. Third,
it offers plenty of opportunities for future development, for example, in terms of new content like video interviews, discussions or live webcasts. (448/500)