When the East set off to join the West in a common Europe, its economic and political oddities became increasingly visible in the rapprochement. So what does the West make of the East? How does ex-communist Europe come across through the lens of the Western media? This book presents research conducted on all material concerning Bulgaria on the BBC website over a period of five years: starting with the early years of EU accession in 2007, up to the hysteria regarding a wave of Bulgarian immigrants to the UK in 2012. Three types of methodologies are applied: namely, content analysis, critical discourse analysis, and corpora techniques. Several coding categories are employed for the content analysis, including what type of stories are published about Bulgaria in comparison with countries of a similar size and standing; which stories were not covered by the BBC; and what areas are of specific interest in the coverage of former communist countries. A new taxonomy is established for thematic threads and continuous coverage, which sets off significant value-laden aspects of news reporting. Critical discourse analysis reveals that Bulgarians are construed via a different set of referential terms – while English people living abroad are called “ex-patriots”, Bulgarians are “immigrants”. In its plentiful criticism of Bulgaria, “Euro Speak” is reproduced where nominalisations such as “we cannot delay their integration” reveal a mental frame of rejection, not integration. The BBC uses EU jargon between inverted commas – the effects of Bulgaria’s integration into the Schengen zone are “grave” – instead of a factual, taxonomic adjective naming the actual consequences. Thus, the language used reveals hidden attitudes. Corpora techniques include establishing words whose frequency in the articles about Bulgaria is higher than in a balanced corpus of English. Such nouns in the five-year corpus include CORRUPTION, POOR and POOREST. Maybe the BBC reporters believed they were covering events as they happened but the results evoke a grim picture, prompting unfavourable attitudes to Bulgarians. That is why the images spawned by news coverage need to be monitored and moderated – for which this book offers an array of methodologies.

This is the first-ever book about product and country images. It discusses the nature and role and influence of product-country images in international marketing strategy and consumer behavior. Thousands of companies use country identifiers as part of their international marketing strategy, and hundreds of researchers have studied the ways in which these identifiers influence behavior. As markets become more international, the more prominently the origin of products will figure in sellers' and buyers' decisions. The time is ripe for practitioners and academicians to delve into the insights offered in this seminal volume so as to better prepare for meeting the competitive challenges of the global marketplace. Product-Country Images is a wide-ranging and state-of-the-art book offering specific information and case studies to further understanding of the various aspects of this complex topic.

The triumph of image over reality and reason is the theme of this book. New communication technologies have made possible the transportation of images and words in real time to hundreds of millions of people around the world. We thought we witnessed the Gulf War as we sat, mesmerized by the imagery. But the studies from the many countries assembled for this book suggest that it was not the war in the Persian Gulf that we witnessed but rather imagery orchestrated to convey a sense of triumph and thus to achieve results that reality and reason could never have achieved.The book offers contributions from thirty-four authors in eighteen countries, including short samplings from the media of several regions. The authors explore the social, economic, and political context of media coverage in their countries, the domination of one image in most of them, and the struggle for alternative perspectives. The authors probe the dynamics of image-making and pose some challenges for the future as well as provide us with a unique glimpse of how the world outside of the United States (as well as many Americans) viewed the war in the Persian Gulf and how the dynamics of image-making and information control operate.Triumph of the Image will be useful to scholars and students in communications and mass media, international relations, political science, cultural studies, propaganda, censorship, and contemporary history as well as to the general public.

News media plays an integral role in the formation of public opinion regarding any country on the global scale. Global credentials, such as influence and power also determine the media coverage. This becomes especially important in the case of African countries, most of which are not very influential compared to the Western developed countries. Most Western media outlets rely heavily on western sources while portraying Africa. Such sources influence the manner in which issues and events are presented, as well as the public perception of a country or community in the world. This book provides comprehensive insights on Africa's media image and the role of international news organizations. The readers would gain knowledge that would broaden their perspective about this area of study. Those in search of information to further their knowledge will be greatly assisted by this book.

This volume addresses the importance of images of nations in international relations. One fundamental assumption is that the behavior of states is not the same as that of individuals. States are social systems whose behavior as a rule directly corresponds neither to the motives of their respective leaders nor to those of their populations. However, it is also self-evident that international activities always depend on personal relationships. The studies presented relate to more or less deliberate attempts to induce change in images. Given the interdisciplinary nature of the subject matter, findings made in public relations, advertising research, prejudice research and other fields are also taken into account. Very often it is impossible to distinguish between the image of the nation-state and the images of big enterprises such as Krupp, Ford, or Coca Cola. For this reason, the country of origin effect is also discussed.

Country image and related constructs, such as country reputation, brand, and identity, have been subjects of debate in fields such as marketing, psychology, sociology, communication, and political science. This volume provides an overview of current scholarship, places related research interests across disciplines in a common context, and illustrates connections among the constructs. Discussing how different scholarly perspectives can be applied to answer a broad range of related research questions, this volume aims to contribute to the emergence of a more theoretical, open, and interdisciplinary study of country image, reputation, brand, and identity.