1,721,055 research outputs found
From New York to Bergen Belsen : William Congdon’s Pacifist Mission between ethics and politics
No full textPromoting the city image and involving the community: Milan and the 2017 European Best Destination Competition
No full textTourism development relies increasingly on the destination image and reputation. Technological advancement – including social media - and increased international competition affect the way in which tourism destinations and their features are promoted to large number of potential visitors.
Interestingly, public institutions are becoming more involved in competing with other destinations and committed to promoting their territories with the result that competition among destinations is fierce. Like nations and regions, cities have become aware of the importance of enhancing their reputation and compete, as companies do, with their products and services in attracting demand, key resources and strategic economic activities (Baggio, Mottironi, Antonioli Corigliano 2011; Porter, 1990, 2000). Public authorities play their institutional role promoting the image of a territory since it represents a value for its community and, as such, it is a public good which should be cherished and at the same time protected.
The municipality of Milan has put a considerable effort in promoting the city on the national and international tourism market, redesigning and implementing its website as well as increasing its presence online using social network.
Given the importance of an efficient and effective use of online media to promote a destination, this paper aims to evaluate the online presence of Milan as a tourist destination engaged in the 2017 European Best Destination Competition, possibly with the goal to outperform their rivals. The competition is organized by an independent European organization based in Brussels that aims to promote culture and tourism in Europe. Twenty destinations were in the competition and on-line voting on European Best Destinations website took place from 20th January to 10th February 2017. Datasets consist of texts, in Italian and English, provided by Milan City Marketing Division and Tourism Department published on Turismo Milano, the official city portal, and posted on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) used by the City of Milan, before, during, and after the competition.
Using the methodological frameworks of Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough 1995, 2001, 2003; Fairclough / Wodak 1997), I will focus on the communicative strategies and salient linguistic features used to (re)assemble, (re)position and reformulate the tourism product offering (Govers 2005). In particular, investigating how evaluative language is used in the selected texts provide significant indications of the underlying ideology and the construction of shared values (cf. Thompson and Hunston 2000) that contribute to fostering solidarity and community building.
An examination of the data shows how words and images are combined, and how texts combine words and images, making use of description and narration, information and persuasion, etc. The analysis illustrates how meaning and representation of Milan as a tourism space is shifting. Indeed, the research context of Milan illustrates the need to reconstruct the traditional perception of the city as an attractive global business hub. The vision of a Milan that seems to emerge from the analysis of the dataset is somewhat different as texts reflect the contrast between modern Milan and the respect for tradition, local culture and heritage, while at the same time trying to create awareness for the rich cultural identity of the city
Funny, tasty and healthy : how organizations communicate eating tips for children on their websites
No full textThe importance of a healthy diet has
been widely promoted in recent decades,
and institutions as well as corporations
have shown concern for nutrition-related
communication. In this presentation, I
will analyze tips addressed to children
on websites of different kinds of
organizations focusing on the interplay
between social and corporate issues, and
roles and relationship
Ethical Issues in Public Administration Press Releases : the WHO Healthy Cities Programme
No full textEthical issues in Public Administration press releases: the WHO Healthy Cities Programme
In 1986, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the Healthy Cities Programme at global and local (‘glocal’) level to foster health-promoting initiatives based on inter-sector cooperation, extensive community participation, and the design and implementation of action-based plans. Over 1,000 cities and towns from more than 30 countries only in the WHO European region have been awarded the status of ‘healthy city’.
The study analyses the communicative approach adopted by three British municipalities to inform the public about their ‘healthy cities policies’, through the use of press releases. As will be shown, press releases, in spite of being informative, factual and neutral do qualify as persuasive, promotional, and emotive communication pieces.
I take the view that language – as it clearly emerges in media studies – is a highly constructive mediator as it conveys ‘ideas’, not simply ‘facts’ (Fowler 1991). Ethical issues are thus socially constructed to be consonant with the ideas of a controlling group, specifically an institution. In this context, ‘power’ and ‘solidarity’ act as the main ideological constructs which give meaning to and shape the concept of ethics. Hence, some ideas and behaviours are to be condemned and, conversely, some values and beliefs are generally agreed upon.
The analysis will examine a number of press releases – and their key features taking into consideration the different social and institutional settings given. Particular emphasis will be placed on the way the features of the texts convey a message whose main objective is to increase visibility, generate interest and, more interestingly, search for support to policies and consequently, to power-holders(Jacobs, 1999). Ethics is embodied and patterned by the structure of the text so that representation of facts, information and concepts are strongly characterized by different choices of words and grammatical phrasing. Investigation will concentrate on the discourse strategies – and ‘strategic discourse’(Fairclough 1989) – displayed, with specific focus on vocabulary, grammar and cohesion.
References
Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and Power. London-New York: Longman
Fowler, R. (1991). Language in the News. New York: Routledge.
Jacobs, G. (1999). Preformulating the News. Analysis of Metapragmatics of Press Release. Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamin
Live well, live longer : communicating healthy eating tips for elders
No full textThis study presents a preliminary analysis of a selection of websites providing old age dietary and nutrition-related communication (Fairclough 1995; Hunston/Thompson 2001;Bhatia 2002). The websites under examination are maintained by different kinds of organisations, from corporations to government agencies, from academic institutions to health organizations (Bozeman 1987). The main purpose is to identify and analyze salient linguistic and pragmatic features, including the use of personal pronouns, specialized lexis and evaluation. More specifically, as a part of an ongoing research project on the representation of different age groups in health and dietary communication (Bait forthcoming), this study explores how seniors are constructed through language, giving attention to the interplay between social and corporate issues, and roles and relationship
Healthy food and happy consumers? Nutrition-related communication on corporate and institutional Websites
No full textThe representation of mission on institutional and corporate websites : a case of migration of discursive practices
No full textIn most Western countries, citizens’ trust and confidence in Public Administration (PA) as a professional agent of the government suffered a significant decline during the 1970s and 1980s. By the end of the 20th century the crisis in public organizations were viewed both as a policy and managerial failure.
As a consequence, public service underwent reform, and was reconfigured according to new criteria of good management and effective leadership. To meet public needs and expectations, public administrators were required to formulate strategies, articulate their mission and strengthen marketing and customer-orientation, championing a vision of the ‘New Public Management’ or ‘Neo-Managerialism’.
This rapid change has penetrated the UK public sector, but it can also be seen as a part of a more wider process of socio-cultural change affecting the business sector as well. Just as public organizations are increasingly adopting business-like approaches and logics, so are companies giving greater attention to social responsibility. Thus, this perspective suggests that ‘sector blurring’ is indeed a reality: no longer can organizations be easily classified by conventional labels and new concepts of publicness and privateness are evolving.
This paper presents preliminary observations and findings from an exploratory analysis conducted on a set of city council websites, based in the UK, and a similar set of websites for businesses based in the UK. Focus is given to the presence or absence of common features connected to a standalone or incorporated mission which provide insights into the processes of change in institutional and corporate discursive practices and about the functions and values of the organizations. On this view, the analysis draws on work grounded in the awareness that language use is a form of social practice that shapes society
Conversations on Utopia : Cultural and Communication Practices
No full textThis book offers an interdisciplinary conversation on utopia clustered around cultural and communication practises in terms of political and ethical projects. The contributions shed light on cultural and discursive aspects characterising the polysemous concept of utopia conceived as an ongoing process that is put into practice in the present. Against this backdrop, the book raises questions for intellectual work, seeks out an enlightening breach in academic field boundaries, invites a revision of the forms of knowledge production, and encourages pedagogical actions for the development of critical thinking
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