Nation Branding, Public Relations and Soft Power

Surowiec, Paweł

doi:10.4324/9781315744995

Cited by 13 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…When nation-states in the early twenty-first century get drawn into commercial branding campaigns, these are also the media forms focused on by nation branding researchers (e.g. Aronczyk 2013;Kaneva 2012;Surowiec 2016;Valaskivi 2016;Volcic and Andrejevic 2015). This is somewhat strange, since new nationalism research has indeed noted the changes in media technologies and analysed internet-based nationalisms.…”

Section: Nationalism From Print To Digital Capitalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

The PowerPoint Nation: Branding an Imagined Commodity

Bolin¹,

Ståhlberg²

2020

European Review

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In the formation of the modern nation state and the social imaginary of nationalism in the nineteenth century, the media and representational practices have, among most scholars, been ascribed a prominent position. The question is, however, how have changes in media technologies, from mass media to digital and interactive personal media, impacted on the national imaginaries over the past few decades? This article discusses what happens with the social imaginaries when national(ist) symbols are reproduced through the medium of PowerPoint, as one of the main tools for constructing images of the nation in nation-branding campaigns, i.e. promotional campaigns initiated by governments in conjunction with corporate actors with the aim of producing an attractive image of a country for foreign investors and tourists. It is concluded that the representational technology of PowerPoint produces a nation as an imagined commodity rather than an imagined community.European Review, page 1 of 12

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Section: Nationalism From Print To Digital Capitalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

The PowerPoint Nation: Branding an Imagined Commodity

Bolin¹,

Ståhlberg²

2020

European Review

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“…The emergence of corporate-styled nation branding has, however, triggered transactional dynamics and furthered the requirement to examine non-state actors in the field, which are not only dominated by the state but which, in addition, tend to operate in silos. 13 although corporate public relations models, particularly those shaped by the logic of relationship building 14 and networks, 15 echo in the existing analysis of Poland's soft power statecraft, 16 data-laden research is needed to unpack how newer practices such as nation branding intermesh with statecraft and, in turn, transform the field. While studies of nation branding in Poland tend to focus on "the nation," 17 by asking and answering the following questions, this article shifts the analytical focus to "the state" and "statecraft" in particular:…”

Section: Towards Corporatisation Of Diplomacy and Statecraftmentioning

confidence: 99%

Between Europeanisation and Corporatisation: Poland’s Nation Branding and Soft Power for Public Consumption

Surowiec

2020

East European Politics and Societies: and Cultures

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Focusing on the “state” rather than the “nation,” this article explores the interplay between nation branding and Poland’s soft power statecraft. Contextualised by Poland’s European orientation in foreign affairs, this Bourdieusian study focuses on the field of diplomacy and statecraft, particularly its communicative practices for the articulation of soft power. Aided by policy documents and campaign artefacts, this analysis of interviews (n=45) with state actors and newcomers to the field, nation branders, traces their actions, and unfolds the effects of their practices on soft power statecraft. The central argument emerging from the analysis of findings rests on the cultural conditions and ideological effects of nation branding on the field. On the one hand, I find, these effects advance the process of “corporatisation” of Poland’s soft power statecraft. On the other hand, the embeddedness of nation branding in Poland marks a cultural shift in soft power statecraft towards technocratic and transactional promotional culture.

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“…In the theory of soft power and public diplomacy, then, information management aims at impacting external audiences, aiming to attract them to the world-views of the state that orchestrate the communications operations (cf. Surowiec, 2016). This is exactly what nation branding campaigns aim to do.…”

Section: Nation Branding the Media And The Information Management Bymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A few initial cases of critical nation branding research (e.g. Aronczyk, 2008; Bolin, 2002; Jansen, 2008; Marat, 2009; Volcic, 2008) were followed by growing scholarship in monograph form (Aronczyk, 2013; Jordan, 2014b; Saunders, 2017; Surowiec, 2016; Valaskivi, 2016), in edited collections (Kaneva, 2012; Volcic and Andrejevic, 2015) and in numerous journal articles and book chapters (e.g. Graan, 2013; Jordan, 2014a; Kaneva and Popescu, 2011; Miazhevich, 2012; Panagiotopoulou, 2012; Varga, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The soft power of commercialised nationalist symbols: Using media analysis to understand nation branding campaigns

Bolin

Miazhevich

2018

European Journal of Cultural Studies

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Since the late 1990s, nation branding has attracted a lot of attention from academics, professional consultants and government actors. The ideas and practices of nation branding are frequently presented by branding advocates as necessary and even inevitable in the light of changing dynamics of political power and influence in a globalised and media-saturated world. In this context, some have argued that nation branding is a way to reduce international conflict and supplant ethno-nationalism with a new form of market-based, national image management. However, a growing body of critical studies has documented that branding campaigns tend to produce ahistorical and exclusionary representations of the nation and advance a form of ‘commercial nationalism’ that is problematic. Importantly, the critical scholarship on nation branding has relied primarily on sociological and anthropological theories of nationhood, identities and markets. By contrast, the role of the media – as institutions, systems and societal storytellers – has been undertheorised in relation to nation branding. The majority of the existing literature tends to treat the media as ‘neutral’ vehicles for the delivery of branding messages to various audiences. This is the guest editors’ introduction to the Special Issue ‘Theorizing Media in Nation Branding’, which seeks to problematise this overly simplistic view of ‘the media’ and aims to articulate the various ways in which specific media are an integral part of nation branding. It adopts an interdisciplinary approach and problematises both the enabling and the inhibiting potentialities of different types of media as they perpetuate nation branding ideas, images, ideologies, discourses and practices.

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Nation Branding, Public Relations and Soft Power

Cited by 13 publications

References 0 publications

The PowerPoint Nation: Branding an Imagined Commodity

The PowerPoint Nation: Branding an Imagined Commodity

Between Europeanisation and Corporatisation: Poland’s Nation Branding and Soft Power for Public Consumption

The soft power of commercialised nationalist symbols: Using media analysis to understand nation branding campaigns

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