Engaging Media
Case Study and Use of Network Technology for Teaching Branding
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Edmundo Brandão Dantas
In Brazil, the case study method is quite common in specialization courses, usually linked to the management area. In undergraduate courses, however, this method is still little used and, when it is, it is restricted especially to courses in administration and management, generally covered superficially in the marketing disciplines. Add to this the fact that the disciplines adopting the case study are still delivered on the basis of the traditional standard, with evidence, written work, and the like. In the subjects of the communication course, whether they refer to undergraduate or postgraduate education, the case study is practically not adopted. Most of the discussions are about theoretical points of view, usually based on the ideas of more traditional philosophers or the opinions of experts in the field. This historical position, in spite of some efficiency, prepares the communication professionals much more like thinkers or generators of news than properly managers of the communication. The teaching of journalism tends to prevail over communication courses, with this attitude. The other variations of the communication, such as advertising communication, resent a more practical methodology, where one can study situations based on real facts lived by professionals of companies of the branch and that can generate some learning for this area of communication. Allied to this, the almost total absence of systematization of national cases, with strategic information and data sheets, contributes to the fact that communication schools do not use the case study as a methodological option. For some time, very little or almost nothing was studied in the field of advertising communication about the construction, positioning, image, and identity of brands, or, more synthetically, about branding. Except for the Higher School of Advertising and Marketing (ESPM), one of the most important institutions of private higher education in advertising and marketing in Brazil (and which, incidentally, is one of the few that develops and adopts the methodology of case studies in Advertising, undergraduate courses), and the School of Communication and Arts (ECA) of the University of São Paulo (USP), the most accredited Brazilian higher education institution, did not study branding in communication courses. The subject was restricted to courses of Administration (under the market perspective) and Design (from the point of view of visual communication). Because it is understood that advertising communication is an area of extreme importance and relevance for the construction, positioning, identitym and image of brands, some professors from the University of Brasília decided to extend the study of branding also to the undergraduate course in Advertising and Propaganda, as the two schools mentioned earlier, but in a more vibrant way, did, to some extent, lead to effective participation in and outside the classroom (via the Internet and some of its by-products, as Social networks, for example), students who are often obsessed - almost "enslaved" - by the new information and communication technologies (ICTs) and their powerful gadgets, but who could engage in discipline and take an interest in the subject. In Brazil, and it is believed that across the globe, this obsession for ICTs and the mobile world, seems to have become almost a disease, an addiction. All are connected, through their gadgets, to one or more social networks, access the Internet, do research, and talk with their friends. At the Academy, this obsession is strongly reflected in the classroom, where most students tend to be dispersive, more concerned that they are "playing" with their miraculous devices. The effect of this is that the rate of retention of knowledge has become very small, in contrast to the attention deficit, which has increased significantly. In the face of such findings, and because we understand that without communication no brand is built, differentiated, and positioned, we needed to create a branding discipline that, to the extent possible, could neutralize, in one way or another, the students’ dispersion of attention, which undoubtedly undermines the retention of knowledge.
Understanding the Changing Dynamics of Arts Marketing Under the Influence of Social Media in Turkey
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Hanzade Uralman
The increase in opportunities created by web 2.0 technologies that enable individuals to share and discuss online affected arts market in many ways. The actors who use social media in the contemporary art field such as galleries, museums, art magazines, art critics, new art platforms, collectors, and art consumers created new ways of seeing, buying, promotion, exhibiting, and criticizing practices being in interaction with each other. In this context, this study explores these changing practices which point out the attitudes and behaviours in online interactive environments. The study focuses on the role of social media in rapid growing art environment in Turkey. A qualitative study approach will be employed for this study. The most dynamic actors in Turkey’s contemporary arts market including art collectors, art critics, and the directors of art platforms, art galleries, and art magazines will be selected and analyzed through in‐depth interviews, documentation, official web sites, and social networking sites.
Cultural Journalism and Art Criticism in Portugal: A Change of Mentalities and Markets with a Focus on the Lack of Art Publications and Criticism
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Helena Afonso de Azevedo Osório
On the threshold of the twenty-first century, several periodicals have closed in Portugal. The space given to culture in the written press is renounced. Art and art criticism have less visibility. The explosion of the Internet, as a tool of production and consumption of media, poses new challenges to a press that fights against one of the lowest reading rates in Europe. In 2018, the light was rekindled with a return to trends of the past; however, this does not include the spread of artistic production. The space given to culture in the written press has depleted and art and critics have become less visible. Culture gains a secondary plan, neglecting the journalistic tendencies of the 1980s and 1990s (and even before with nineteenth-century literacy efforts), which promoted mass education (not the other way around, as we have seen in the media). The concern stems from the dynamization of online subscriptions, thus reducing costs. The year 2005 had the worst record in the last fifteen years with the loss of twenty-six thousand readers, mainly affecting the general paper newspapers. In 2017, trends tend to rethink these bad policies. Where does cultural journalism remain? Who is dedicated today to criticism in the written press?
Communications Network Structure and the Role of Actors in the Spread of Information Technology
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Aswad Muhammad Hajarul Aswad A
This study reviews the structure of networks and the role of actors in the use of IT in Seko, an IT consulting company. This exploratory research reveals the actors who have an essential role in the dissemination of IT in Seko. The network structure is identified through network density, centrality, distance and diameter, betweenness centrality, and closeness centrality. Then, a complete network analysis giving particular attention to actor-level analysis in which several actors were suspected of playing a role in the dissemination of IT is presented. Furthermore, collected data are processed and interpreted using Microsoft NodeXL Version 1.0.1.113. From this, it is found that the structure of communication networks in Seko is spread by a level of connectedness between low actors. Only little-centralized location, the existing communication network, has a positive and strong relationship with the dissemination of IT.
