The vertical and horizontal dimensions in the social construction of leadership: A case study on the social media followers of the Croatian politicians Zoran Milanović and Miro Bulj
Silvija Vuković
& Nico Carpentier
Abstract
This research examines the social construction of political leadership by social media followers of two Croatian politicians, president Zoran Milanović, and the mayor of Sinj, Miro Bulj, within the context of celebrity politics and populism. Through the interaction between theory and analysis, we integrate elements that construct leadership into what we distinguish as vertical (extraordinary) and horizontal (ordinary) dimensions, adding populism as an element of both dimensions. This analysis is grounded in the qualitative content analysis of 20 interviews with the two politicians’ Facebook followers, empirically showing that neither one of the elements is dominating the construction of leadership, putting the focus on the importance of the balance between the dimensions of verticality and horizontality, with modesty allowing for the mediation between the extraordinary and the ordinary. Equally important is the followers position that a perfect balance between verticality and horizontality (and a perfect leader) cannot be achieved. In short, leadership is shown to be paradoxical but not contradictory, as it is an always imperfect reconciliation of the horizontal and vertical dimensions.
Keywords
leadership, social constructionism, celebrity politics, populism, social media followers
Vuković, S., & Carpentier, N. (2023). The vertical and horizontal dimensions in the social construction of leadership: A case study on the social media followers of the Croatian politicians Zoran Milanović and Miro Bulj. Leadership, 19(6), 530-548. https://doi.org/10.1177/17427150231202557
Beyond the state as the ‘cold monster’: The importance of Russian alternative media in reconfiguring the hegemonic state discourse
Kirill Filimonov
& Nico Carpentier
Abstract
The article brings Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory into the empirical context of contemporary Russia to analyse the complex relationships between the state and alternative media. In contrast to the mainstream narrative that paints the picture of a strong authoritarian state with a grip over democratic liberties and civil society, we suggest a more nuanced perspective on the subject that focuses on the struggle over the articulation of the identity of the state. Through an ethnography (combined with interviews and textual analysis) of three Russian alternative media outlets – Avtonom, Discours and DOXA – this article demonstrates how they critique the hegemonic state discourse, how they evade it through their practices, and how they perform counter-hegemonic alternatives. Even if their resistance is severely countered by the state, their practices are seen to de-naturalise the nodal points of centrality and unity which constitute the hegemonic state discourse. As these practices contain alternative articulations of the state discourse, the importance of alternative media for rethinking the state (and resisting it) should not be underestimated.
Keywords
Alternative media; participation; discourse theory; state; Russia
Filimonov, K., & Carpentier, N. (2021). Beyond the state as the ‘cold monster’: the importance of Russian alternative media in reconfiguring the hegemonic state discourse. Critical Discourse Studies, 20(2), 166–182. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2021.1999283
Mediating Change, Changing Media: Dimensions and Perspectives
Vaia Doudaki
, Nico Carpentier
, & Michał Głowacki
Abstract
Societies (have to) deal with change permanently. They struggle over the nature of change and its desirability, and they strive for, and resist, change. But analyzing change is far from easy, given its complex nature, especially when looking at all communication and media changes related to the aftermath of the ‘Fourth Industrial’ (Floridi, 2014) and the ‘Data-Driven’ revolutions (Manovich, 2013; 2019). In this introduction – and through the Special Issue of the “Central European Journal of Communication” (CEJC) – we propose a broad definition of change, approaching it as an alteration of a condition, situation, state or phenomenon, that constitutes a difference over time (Kopřivová et al., 2021). Change is dealt with in configurations of the present and societies’ future visions, entailing struggles of the presents and pasts with the ongoing re-constructions of cultural path dependencies. Moreover, we can look at change via the lenses of persistence, adaptation, or transformation. Change can be embedded in continuity or mani-fested as a rupture with existing or past conditions (Herrfahrdt-Pähle & Pahl-Wostl, 2012). Our apprehension of the features and dimensions of change drives specific political, economic and cultural responses at the highly interwoven individual, organizational and collective (societal) realms. Furthermore, change is perceived as a positive or negative outcome or prospect, as an opportunity or a threat, driving the social actors’ struggles for maintenance or reconfigura-tion of power positions (Freedman, 2014), technology (Brynjolfsson & McAfee, 2014) and the values of communication (Lowe, 2016).
Keywords
media, change, change management, adaptation, media research
Doudaki, V., Carpentier, N., & Głowacki, M. (2022). Mediating Change, Changing Media: Dimensions and Perspectives. Central European Journal of Communication, 15(1(30), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.51480/1899-5101.15.1(30).0
When the Margins Enter the Centre
The Documentary Along the Borders of Turkey and Its YouTube Comments as Conflicting Constructions of Europeanity
Nico Carpentier
& Vaia Doudaki
Abstract
This chapter uses a discourse-theoretical analysis to study two episodes of the documentary series Along the Borders of Turkey, produced and broadcast by the Dutch public broadcaster VPRO. In 2017, the VPRO web team uploaded these episodes on YouTube, which allowed viewers to comment on these episodes. Supported by a theoretical reflection on the Europeanity discourse and its contingencies, and on the hegemonic or semi-hegemonic articulations of this discourse (with a central role allocated to European benevolence), this chapter shows the discursive consequences of the material dislocations caused by different migration flows in Cyprus and in Greece. The chapter analyses how the episodes represent the contradictions between European benevolence on the one hand, and popular intolerance and the workings of the border apparatus on the other. The analysis of these episodes thus shows how Europe is discursively constructed through the ceaseless interactions and unresolved tensions between the centre and the margins, articulating a Europe of both benevolence and intolerance.
Carpentier, N., & Doudaki, V. (2023). When the margins enter the centre: The documentary along the borders of Turkey and its YouTube comments as conflicting constructions of Europeanity. In K. Loftsdóttir, B. Hipfl, & S. Ponzanesi (Eds.), Creating Europe from the margins: Mobilities and racism in postcolonial Europe (1st ed., pp. 174–192). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003269748