484 / 658
482
Thursday, November 10
1 6 : 3 0 – 1 8 : 0 0
PP 233
Advancing the Concept of Country Promotion in the Context of Migration: Linking Country Images, National Identity and Critical
Discourse Analysis
A. Dolea
1
, D. Ingenhoff
2
, C. Beciu
3
1
University of Bucharest, Communication Sciences, Bucharest, Romania
2
University of Fribourg, Department of Communication & Media Research DCM, Fribourg, Switzerland
3
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences, Bucharest, Romania
This paper focuses on the shaping of country images and identities within the macro-context of a globalized culture and promotional practices adopted
by countries worldwide and the specific context of increased movement of people - migrants and refugees - within Europe (concomitant with the rise
of nationalist right wing parties and anti-immigration discourse). The refugees crisis has stirred heated debates within countries about its consequences
and the future of EU: while controversial political decisions impacted the country images, people have started to question whom they are as nation and
how the new comers will affect their national identity. Building on Critical Theory School, this paper aims to innovatively open a new line of research,
linking recent advancements in the literatures on country promotion (a), national identity (b) with migration and critical discourse analysis (c) which have
followed parallel ways so far. The practices of country promotion started to be systematically investigated towards the end of the 20
th
century in political
sciences and international relations (Cull, 2008), economic sciences and business studies (Olins 1999; Anholt, 2002), communication sciences and public
relations (L’Etang, 1996). However, research has been dominated by functionalist approaches aiming to improve the practices and maximize states’power.
Recently there is a “socio-critical turn” in public relations (L’Etang, 2005) and public diplomacy (Dutta-Bergman, 2006), while scholars from sociology,
media and cultural studies have articulated critiques to public diplomacy (Entman, 2008; Castells, 2008) and nation branding (Aronczyk, 2008; Kaneva,
2011). Developing on these new critical approaches, Dolea (2015) proposed a social constructivist and interdisciplinary approach that conceives country
promotion as social construction and product of society, focusing on the previously neglected internal dimension. Although there is a consistent body of lit‑
erature on nationalism, national identity and nations as ‘imagined communities’(Anderson, 1983; Smith, 1991), these concepts have been addressed only
recently in country promotion literature. Buhmann and Ingenhoff (2014, 2015) have integrated national identity theory, attitude theory, and reputation
management and developed a ‘Four-dimensional Model of the Country Image’(functional, normative, aesthetic, and emotional), distinguishing between
the perception of a country among its foreign publics (the country image) and the domestic self-perception among domestic publics (the country identity).
In the literature on migration, trans-border mobility, diaspora and national identity, Beciu and Lazar (2014) identified a distinct area of research within
the framework of critical discourse studies (Wodak & Meyer, 2001; van Dijk, 2001) that look at national identity and social effects of power imbalance and
inequalities. However, these studies do not discuss also the instrumentalization of country images as part of the marketization process of identities. Thus,
critical discourse analysis, as part of a critical approach, could be useful in analysing country images and identities, especially in contexts such as migration
which bring to the fore power relationships and struggles for repositoning in relation to “the others”. Integrating these perspectives, this paper proposes
a theoretical framework to critically reflect on the intertwined phenomena of country image promotion, national identity articulation and the role of dis‑
course in the context of migration.
PP 234
Against the Secular Immanent Frame: How PR Enables Religious Tolerance and Acceptance in a Religious Diaspora
M. Wiesenberg
1
1
University of Leipzig, Institute of Communication and Media Studies, Leipzig, Germany
In 1848, the German March-revolution gave birth to a democratic movement in all areas of the society. Accordingly, the German catholic laity stepped up
and arranged a meeting called‘Katholikentag’. From this year onwards, this meeting became an area for debating societal problems and call for democratic
principles as well as protesting against religious repression. In 2016, the 100
th
anniversary of the catholic conference take place in Leipzig, a city in the east‑
ern part of the Germany – one of the most secularized parts of the world (Pickel, 2012). When the organization committee first announced the decision
to celebrate one of the biggest religious events in the catholic diaspora 2014, it discomfited politicians as well as the undenominational public in Leipzig
(ca. 70 per cent). The public debate became more furious after the city parliament was asked by the committee to fund the event. Counter-activists started
a campaign against the governmental support. Hence, the organization committee was confronted with a new level of local unacceptance. Public accep‑
tance and legitimacy are mayor goals of Public Relations (PR) and strategic communication within public discourse. That is especially true from a new
institutionalist’ point of view (e.g., Frandsen & Johansen, 2013). Hence, legitimacy and acceptance (two sides of the same coin) are the ground for any
corporative entity and their communicative activities. While most PR research focuses mainly on organizations, this paper focuses on a religious event and
their local PR strategy with the goal for local (religious) acceptance and tolerance. In democratic societies, religious freedom and religious declarations are
one of the fundamental rights. However, from the 1970s onwards, Europe became much more secularized (Pollack, 2013). CharlesTaylor (2007) emphasized
the 'immanent [secular] frame”that tries to disregard all kinds of religion in the public sphere. Religious public events in this secularized environment are
an enormous confrontation for this secular frame. Hence, this paper focuses on the local acceptance before the event started and discusses how PR might
serve to enable religious tolerance and acceptance in this secular space (Tilson, 2014). The analysis of the local acceptance before the event based on three
independent methods. First, a content analysis of national and local newspapers was conducted between July 2014 and October 2015 (n = 134 articles). In
November and December 2015, the general local public was interviewed with a partly standardized questionnaire (n = 122). Moreover, 14 elite interviews
have been conducted in the same time. The results from the content analysis clearly demonstrate a much more negative media tenor in the local media
compared to the national media (x² = 34.6, p < .001). Moreover, two groups of the so-called 'New Atheism” (Giordano-Bruno foundation, International
League of Non-Religious and Atheists) have been identified as activistic stakeholders. The stakeholder analysis from both the public and the elites clearly
indicate unacceptance of the public funding for a religious event in a secular space, lack of interest in religion, detriment of traffic and public life as well as
criticism of religion and 'the church”.