2/2021 – Communication Today

Silent Absolutions

Jozef Sedlák — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 20:57:00 +0000

ABSTRACT:
The study is a theoretical-visual essay that addresses the contexts of interconnection of documentary photography in wider societal relationships – cultural, social, religious, philosophical, and pedagogical. The sources of the study are the opinions of key philosophers related to the sphere of human being and the participation of a person in human society, service to others, egoism, altruism, existence, borderline situations, and problematisation of happiness. The core of the study comprises an analysis and interpretation of approaches (within the photographic project entitled Damnatio memoriae – Condemnation of Memory) and is divided into several parts: The Stories in Images, Images of Awakening and Self-Discovery, The Inner Memory and Cultural Information, Almost Home and Podolínec or About Loneliness within Ourselves. Institutionally, instrumentally, and biblically, the study is a reflection on an image of stories of the religious congregation of Redemptorists, childhood dreams, historical and cultural continuity, difficult messages on the meaning of suffering, political persecution, and finding new identities and spiritual perspectives. It is a story of human wandering that implies a journey from the individual to the whole, a journey of breaking boundaries and stereotypes, a journey from the profane to the sacral. Through the medium of photography and their theoretical attitudes, the authors build a narrative of personal experience that has become a story of rises and falls, but also a dramatic turnaround, where a human being becomes a different person.

KEY WORDS:
altruism, documentary photography, faith, humanism, iconography, mystagogy, narrative, orphanage, postmodernism, solitude, stereotype, transcendence, visuality

13. SEDLAK – CEPKOVA – CT 2-2021 Download

Regaining Control over Nature or Learning to Live in Harmony with It: Media Framing of Environmental Issues Amidst the Coronavirus Pandemic

Olena Morozova — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 20:50:00 +0000

ABSTRACT:
At the time of the global crisis caused by COVID-19, when people become more open to changing their lifestyle and mindset, the Ukrainian online news media adjust the way they present environmental issues by relying more on messages that speak to people’s attitudes and values. This study considers linguistic (evaluative and figurative expressions, facticity and evidentiality markers) and non-linguistic means (visuals) which Ukrainian newsmakers use in directing readers’ attention and offering them a particular perspective on environmental issues. At the time of the coronavirus pandemic, the main ‘sustainable’ frames supported by the Ukrainian online media are those of resilience and pragmatism of individuals, their collaboration and mutual support, collective efficacy in bringing positive environmental changes, strength of the Ukrainian government initiating the changes and ensuring their implementation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ukrainian news outlets show themselves sensitive to the shifting perceptions of public and planetary health, attempting to enrich the national idea by ecological thinking, which presupposes a new ecological culture of co-existence.

KEY WORDS:
COVID-19 pandemic, environment, framing, online news media, Ukraine

12. MOROZOVA – PANKEVYCH – CT 2-2021 Download

Political Communication in the Post-Truth Era: Mind Mapping Values of Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky

Yulia Liubchenko — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 20:47:00 +0000

ABSTRACT:
The study is focused upon the public figure of Volodymyr Zelensky, a former comedian and media person, who burst into politics in 2019 to win the Presidential Election and to become the sixth President of Ukraine. In this article, intent analysis of Volodymyr Zelensky’s key public speeches allows looking through the speech patterns, action words, metaphors, and other stylistic and rhetorical devices to recognise the speaker’s communicative intentions. To visualise the correlation between the intentions and the values communicated by the President of Ukraine on various occasions, a mind map of his cognitive, emotional, and behavioural intentions was constructed. To assess the adequacy of social reactions to Zelensky’s communicative intentions, a discourse analysis comprising global journalists, analysts and media critique commentaries upon his public speeches was performed. The results of the study shows that although media mostly criticise and assess Zelensky’s political messages as populist, the values he transmits though his official communication to the public tend to reflect the European vector set by Ukraine as a dominant after the 2014 Revolution of Dignity.

KEY WORDS:
discourse analysis, intention, intent-analysis, mind map, political communication, president, Ukraine, values, Volodymyr Zelensky

11. LIUBCHENKO et al. – CT 2-2021 Download

Building the Prestige of a University as a Tool to Achieve Competitiveness

Martina Juříková — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 20:41:00 +0000

ABSTRACT:
The study addresses the importance of a higher education institution’s marketing management and brand and prestige building in relation to its applicants. The research employs a wide range of secondary data sources from around the world while mainly consisting of a case study conducted in the form of a survey. The objective is to determine homogenous groups of applicants based on how they perceive the reputation of a selected university/faculty and what their preferences are when choosing a study program. The results of the research are then used to verify whether the brand values defined by the faculty in question correspond with actual perception of its brand. Groups of applicants were determined using a K-means cluster analysis and subsequently tested for the applicants’ preferences when choosing a university and their perceived associations to the selected faculty using an ANOVA. The results show 3 basic clusters of applicants and provide an overview of a possible approach to brand building in the context of universities. They can therefore serve as a model example fit for implementation in universities in Europe and even beyond, provided cultural dimensions and the specific environment are accounted for.

KEY WORDS:
applicants, brand, case study, Czech Republic, marketing approach of universities, prestige, university reputation

10. JURIKOVA et al. – CT 2-2021 Download

Examining Effects of Photography in Social Media and the Mediation Role of Perceived Authenticity

Diana Dávila-Ruiz — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 20:37:00 +0000

ABSTRACT:
Social media have gained traction in advertising campaigns for luxury and fashion clothes using influencers, who shape trends of photography. To remain competitive, however, influencers depend on how they convey authenticity, which largely relies on the key visual elements of the photographs they post in social media. The purpose of this study is to explore the visual elements of photography used by social media influencers and to compare the main photography trends in digital media. Specifically, it aims to shed light on how new photography trends such as urban background style and fashion models with large body sizes produce effects on consumers. To accomplish this objective, an online experimental setting was prepared to compare the effect of an urban versus a solid background and a fashion model with a large versus a thin body size on perceived authenticity and purchase intent. The research finds that urban background and large body size of model significantly increase digital engagement. These results are in line with the research hypotheses that allude to the perception of authenticity as the key construct behind the effects on digital engagement. The inquiry also evaluates the interaction effect of the urban background and large body size of the model on perceived authenticity. In doing so, the present research examines the mediation role of perceived authenticity on the intention to buy. The results contribute to update theory about the influencers’ role on digital engagement and photography trends in social media. It also shows that perceived authenticity exerts a mediating role between visual elements on purchase intentions.

KEY WORDS:
advertising campaigns, authenticity, digital marketing, influencers, social media

09. DAVILA-RUIZ – VAZQUEZ – CT 2-2021 Download

Factors Influencing B2B Businesses’ Communication on Social Media

Michaela Jánská — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 20:33:00 +0000

ABSTRACT:
The study focuses on the problem of firms communicating via social networks in the B2B environment and also examines how companies behave on social networks. The goal of the study is to discuss the ways used by selected B2B businesses to make their customers use social networks. The inquiry is based on a case study of a B2B business active in the Czech Republic. To fulfil the goal, the authors researched personal characteristics of B2B customers, their psychological aspects and the corporate culture. This was made with help from the determination of five hypotheses. The study processed data from a survey focused on the company’s customers sent to top managers in an electronic way. The data was assessed with help of non-parametric and correlation tests. The research showed that there was still big space for the improvement of the perception of social networks as a useful tool in B2B business. The majority of factors influencing the use of social networks in B2B were showing a low dependence due to a weak correlation. A strong dependence was shown only by the relation between the use of social networks in private and in a company.

KEY WORDS:
B2B, business-to-business marketing, customer behaviour, online marketing, social media

08. JANSKA – ZAMBOCHOVA – CT 2-2021 Download

Perception of Data from the Ecological Activities of Companies Using Innovative Communication Tools

Michal Kubovics — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 20:30:00 +0000

ABSTRACT:
By increasing the diversity of data from the evolving rebirth of societies to become greener, a need to simplify perception has been created, especially in the area of interactive data visualisation, which helps the user with data interpretation. Therefore, it is important to clarify the main factors of perception and predisposition to effective and clear perception of data. The interconnection of data visualisation, environmental activities and communication tools reinforces the fact that the groundswell is a leading innovative element that needs to be taken into account for the complexity of research. The authors analyse the research of domestic and foreign experts so far, summarise the findings as an ideal basis for their subsequent research and supplementation of expertise across the spectrum in the field of data perception, environmental activities of companies and largely innovative communication tools. They also deal with previous research in the field of effective data perception, environmental activities of companies and the resulting data packages. The study uses balanced methods of qualitative and quantitative research. Qualitative methods are in the form of analysis of the content of previously collected texts and documents, which is unstructured and has an emergent relationship between theory and research. It is also a well-established semantic analysis of conceptual expressions. Within the quantitative methods, representation is in the form of evaluation of the authors’ own survey carried out in Slovak business entities. The dependence between the variables is tested using Cramer’s V. The main goal of the study is to present a proposal for a methodology for displaying data from the environmental activities of businesses using innovative communication tools. Extensive research in the field of data visualisation and findings are formulated into conclusions in order to achieve a professional discussion on the issue. The added value of a scientific study is mainly in the clarification of specific and measurable data resulting in an effective display within the visualisation.

KEY WORDS:
business environment, data, data visualisation, ecological activities, innovative communication tools

07. KUBOVICS et al. – CT 2-2021 Download

Is Covid-19 an “Ordinary Flu” That Benefits Politicians? Perception of Pandemic Disinformation in Latvia

Anda Rožukalne — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 20:24:00 +0000

ABSTRACT:
This study examines society’s susceptibility to COVID-19-related disinformation in Latvia, linking it to self-evaluation of the perceived COVID-19 health risks. The main research questions are: “How do Latvians experience disinformation about COVID-19?”; “How does this experience relate to different degrees of perceived disease risks?”. A nationally representative survey was conducted in September 2020, reaching 1,013 of Latvia’s residents aged 18 to 75. More than half of the respondents (54%) have encountered misleading or false information; 30% thought that “the COVID-19-related chaos is beneficial to politicians”, while 17% believed that “COVID-19 is like flu”. Respondents with a higher level of education and more active media usage habits are more likely to recognise disinformation about COVID-19. Moreover, this skill is linked to a higher degree of perceived threat of the disease. Yet, those who rate their risk of disease as very high, alongside those who rate their risk of disease as low and unreal, are ‘infodemically’ vulnerable – more susceptible to disinformation, false news, and conspiracy theories. Recommendations to communicators about curbing the diffusion of disinformation and diminishing its impact are provided.

KEY WORDS:
conspiracy theories, COVID-19, disinformation, infodemic, Latvia, perceived disease risk

06. ROZUKALNE et al. – CT 2-2021 Download

Mediatised Home: Using Semiotic Repertoires in Online Workplace Communications

Evgeny Kozhemyakin — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 20:21:00 +0000

ABSTRACT:
Since 2020, people have faced the challenge of constructing new visual modes of online workplace meetings, because we had to use our home for working communications purposes and as a new medium. Mediatisation of home involves redefining semiotic resources and communicational norms concerning the appearance of participants, the background, the use of camera and microphone. The results of the poll demonstrate that this redefining has two aspects: 1) the use of semiotic repertoire to transmit meaningful information about the self and own positions, attitudes, and roles in the communication; and 2) normalisation of own and others’ actions during online meetings from home. The results of the survey contribute to awareness of how the issue of private and working/corporate places is being debated. The author claims that technical aspects of online meetings are at the beginning of their ethical reconstruction, which would provide online workplace communications with new traditions and rules of use of camera and microphone as meaningful parts of the semiotic repertoire.

KEY WORDS:
COVID-19, mediatisation, online communication, semiotic repertoires, work from home, workplace communication

05. KOZHEMYAKIN – CT 2-2021 Download

Daydreaming of Internet Users about Someone Else’s Love Relationship as a Virtual vs Real Hybrid

Tatyana Leontyeva — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 20:15:00 +0000

ABSTRACT:
The purpose of the study is to characterise shipping as a new communicative reality in youth virtual culture based on the analysis of linguistic facts – neologisms. Lexical innovations are considered as evidence of the emergence and spread of new communicative realities. The text analyses the conceptual content of borrowed words which function in the Russian language while forming one thematic group: the verb shipperit (‘to ship’), as well as the lexemes associated with it (derivatives, analogues). The group of borrowed words, which was absent in the Russian 20 years ago, signifies the fact that the Internet users create a phantom reality in accordance with their own experiences. Namely, they fantasise about the romantic relationships of famous bloggers, public figures or characters in comics, films, and books. It is emphasised that the analysed words belong to the vocabulary of the new ‘digital’ communication and characterise the behaviour of Generation Z (Zoomers). The relationship between mental action (‘fantasise’) and speech act (‘write about my fantasy on social media’) seems to be inseparable. The actions of adolescents become a link in the chain of online communication, as bloggers embody these ideas and maintain the game to retain and expand their audience. Users with the same fantasies find each other and unite in groups (fandoms). Quasi-reality creates new communication links.

KEY WORDS:
fantasy in communication, mental construction of reality, pairing, psychological phantom, relationship, romantic relationships of media characters, virtual communication

04. LEONTYEVA – CT 2-2021 Download