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Semi-fiction in media

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 Blurring the distinction
between reality and fiction in the entertainment media
Andre Krauss - United States of America

It must be true; I saw it on the History Channel

College student in Arad, Romania
…So, what is history? Who the fuck knows?
Oliver Stone, Esquire in November 1991

Research in evolutionary psychology shows that the earliest form of entertainment

purportedly dates back to the Stone Age when people, once their survival needs were met and
they had idle time, would gather around the campfire and tell stories.
All activities of entertainment, starting with Pleistocene campfires, ancient partying,
ancient Greek theatre, and so on, served the same function. They help individuals spend their
leisure time. (Ohler and Nieding in Bryant and Vorderer, 2006: 423)
Defining entertainment as an all-encompassing communicative activity in which rituals,
narratives and legends are included to recount and glorify the feats of heroes, Zillman and Bryant
also see this form of socialization as the result of leisure time after the immediate and elementary
needs for human survival are satisfied:
Entertainment is a ubiquitous phenomenon. No culture of which we have an adequate
accounting has been entirely without it. As soon as the struggle for survival left human groups
with sufficient time for relaxation, some form of communicative activity in which dangers and
threats and their mastery and elimination were represented seems to have come into being.
(Zillman and Bryant 1994: 437-438)
Since those pre-historic times, entertainment has evolved and has taken on a myriad of
forms and mediums from the fine arts to live performances on various stages, to radio, to the
printed word, to the cinema, to television, to music and music videos and to digital interactive
games.
Audience behavior has also evolved from historic times throughout today’s digital
revolution and is concomitant with an imperative that seems to dictate the content of the
entertainment media’s message, and that is, its profitability. From what was once an isolated
campfire story has since become well over a trillion dollar global industry where profitability
seems to govern both content of the entertainment media and how it is distributed.
Although each medium, over time, seems to have attracted a disparate and differentiated
audience, it now would appear that today’s audiences actually participate in a number of
mediums on a regular basis and in some cases, even simultaneously.
Bryant makes the observation that, in spite of our age having become the “entertainment
age”, even to the point where the entertainment industry has become one of the major driving
forces in the world economy, the scholars are relative newcomers to the serious investigation of
entertainment and its audience.
There is research in the field of psychology and communication that studies the audience
reaction to the narrative stimulus and the degree of its absorption by the narrative and the
audience’s emotional involvement with the fictional protagonists of the narrative. Such studies
have resulted in, among others, the transportation theory, and the identification of phenomena
such as parasocial relationships and parasocial interactions. Inquiries into problems such as the
paradox of fiction have resulted in investigations in audience identification.
My focus in the present paper is, rather, more on media content than on its receivers.
It is my intention to present the special effects and editorial techniques that are
consistently and purposely used especially within the visual media as deliberately causing the
audience to confuse reality and fiction.

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 This confusion between reality and fiction effectively blurs their distinction and thus,
invests what the audience sees with more credibility than it deserves, including the not always
innocuous message of the narrative. Said otherwise, do the media “cheat” in the basic
understanding it has with its audience, by representing their subject as the “truth”? This form of
“cheating” has been especially present since the invention of the photograph and later, the
moving picture.
The new medium of photography was heralded, since its invention, as an apparatus and a
method that can render a representation of its subject as faithfully as hitherto impossible to the
painter, so much as a trustworthy testimony that, in fact, it can even be used as evidence in a
court of law.
The public’s expectations of photography were such that this new medium was invested
with their trust without question. This kind of blind trust invited and continues to invite abuse.
“Doctored” images (i.e. retouched, air- brushed and now digitally altered photographs) have
been used in propaganda and, at times, even used to falsify history as well as for the magic of
entertainment.
While the popular saying urges us to accept that ‘the camera does not lie’, we now have
to deal with seeing the image of a deceased Richard Nixon seamlessly interact with Tom Hanks
on film, Steve McQueen coming back from the dead to advertise cars, and digital image-
processing extending the image-making possibilities of photography beyond the recording of an
event to its very construction. (Lister 2003:99)
Of course, entertainment has always been the underlying and predominant theme of all
visual representation but we have now reached a point where even the telling of the news has
become entertainment. In my opinion, this can negatively affect the perception and evaluation of
the message. This is especially true of young audiences who perhaps have, I believe, due to the
general neglect of humanities in modern day education curricula, less of a critical ability to take
in and evaluate a narrative.
For the purpose of this paper, when describing the communication process that brings the
entertainment message to the audience, I will rely on the elementary communication model,
which is: “transmitter → message → channel → receiver” and when appropriate → feedback.
We should keep in mind that until the digital revolution, mass media was addressing its
communication largely to a passive audience, thus the communication was uni-directional. Only
in political or commercial campaigns was the receiver expected to produce qualified feedback to
the transmitter’s message in the form of a voter’s choice and the purchase of a product,
respectively.
Without detracting from the artistry and educational elements which are often present in
the entertainment media, for the purpose of this paper I will proceed with the assumption that the
main motivation of the entertainment media producers, i.e. the transmitter, is material gain
and/or the pursuit of prestige and influence.
Albeit outside of the scope of this paper, the study of advertising reveals perhaps the
most overt and obvious expression of the profit motive as witnessed in commercial advertising
whose stated purpose is to sell services or products and to increase profits. Suffice it to mention
that advertising, especially television advertising, is presented to its audience in a manner in
which the elements of entertainment are blended, often to the point of blurring, with the sales
pitch.
Beyond the subject of advertising, in this paper, I specifically intend to discuss the many
ways in which the entertainment media, in other forms of communications, blurs the distinction
between reality and fiction as well as discuss the effect this blurring may have on its audience.
Also for the purpose of this paper, blurring is defined as the element in a visual
communication that, directly or indirectly, leads the audience to confuse fiction and reality.
It is my contention that blurring, in and of itself, can create a state of confusion which
most likely will dissipate shortly after the audience’s exposure to the media stimulus is over.

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 Agreeing with Ballard, Dery highlights the negative effect of blurring reality and fiction
in addition to the constant bombardment of the senses by the media:
We live in a world ruled by fictions of every kind - mass merchandising, advertising,
politics conducted as a branch of advertising,...the increasing blurring and intermingling of
identities within the realm of consumer goods, the preempting of any free or original imaginative
response to experience by the television screen. (Dery 1999:36)
Referring specifically to American or Americanized culture, he goes on to say that it is
not only the chaotic sensory bombardment that will blur the distinction between what is real and
what is not, but also the disorderly informational overload which no longer distinguishes what is
important and what is not, between what is indecent or merely trivial, all equally competing for
our attention.
The media landscape we inhabit is a postmodern Coney Island where the real and the
unreal, the sublime and the obscene, the horrific and the hilarious commingle freely… (Dery
1999: 36)
However, as a technique of visual and narrative manipulation, the blurring of “violent
“content, in my opinion, can aggravate the effect on the audience’s emotional state and even on
its behavior. In fact, the confusion on a perceptive level between a fictional depiction of
violence and real violence has been cited on numerous occasions as a contributing factor to or
the cause of resultant violent behavior.
It would not be farfetched to say that as the human child development progresses toward
the point of what psychologists refer to as the fantasy-reality distinction ability, the
entertainment media, from its early childhood of trick photography goes through its own
development as it progresses to its contemporary sophisticated high-tech rendition of reality, but
with the collateral effect of postponing the maturation of the child’s perception of reality.
Therefore, the important issue – as far as child development is concerned is
discrimination. Successful development requires an awareness of which bits are real and which
bits are fantasies. (Giles, 2003:133)
It would seem as if technology in this field is interfering with the natural development of
the child.
In the course of the paper we shall see that this is not the only way that entertainment
technology and content interfere with evolutionary progression.
It is important to note that there is an on-going debate among scientists, educators,
psychologists and entertainment media producers as to the actual effects of violence in
entertainment media among its audience. It is primarily the scientists, educators and
psychologists who are advocating that violence in the media begets violent behavior in society.
It is primarily the entertainment media producers who are suggesting that violence has existed in
entertainment throughout the millennia and advocate that it does not influence audience
behavior.
Therefore, before proceeding to discuss in detail the examples of media blurring, in this
paper, I will briefly review the on-going debate regarding the possible effects of violent content
in the entertainment media on audiences, especially the young.
Further, as it relates to the on-going debate of violent media effects on behavior, I will
briefly review some of the more important problems that present day social science and media
research are exploring in their studies of media effects and audience reactions.
In addition, in order to see the problem in its historical dimension and because the
occasional blurring of reality and fiction is, by definition, present in almost all mimetic arts, I
thought it useful to have a brief reference to painting, architecture, theatre and popular
entertainment in older times.
This brief review will also give us the opportunity to visit some of the core problems in
aesthetics and allow us to see how philosophers proposed to deal with the effects of blurring
reality and fiction and its effect on the communication between the artist and his public.

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 I shall then show examples of blurring reality and fiction in different media but especially
in the movies. The list of my examples is not exhaustive and not always chronological, but,
mentioned rather to illustrate a point or to make an argument.
For the purpose of showing how widespread the instances of blurring reality and fiction
are, I will mention some examples of deliberate presentations of altered information and
doctored photos during the course of news reporting from the field, when journalists and
photojournalists are meant to be objectively documenting history.
This leads to the discussion of Reality TV as a discrete media communication that is
increasing in popularity and driving a pronounced evolution of content.
My concluding paragraphs are directed to emphasize the importance of education and
visual and media literacy so that the audience will become more conversant with the media and
less vulnerable to its negative effects. This could be especially important given America’s
cultural dominance and exportation of entertainment media worldwide.
Finally, I will plead for the reemphasis of the study of the humanities in the educational
system because it is my contention that an informed and educated audience may not only be
better prepared to resist negative media effects but that it might also derive more pleasure from
its interaction with entertainment.
For if we were to look at blurring as a form of audience manipulation, not unlike an
illusionist’s act that is meant to trick the audience to believe real that which is not real, this
illusion would cease to work when the audience becomes aware of the magician’s trick. In the
same manner, media effects would possibly be less effective on an educated audience schooled
in visual and media literacy. Or, to use a different metaphor:
In effect, visual literacy precludes the “Emperor’s clothes” syndrome and makes of
judgment a higher action than acceptance (or rejection) of a visual statement based on intuition
alone. Visual literacy means increased visual intelligence. (Dondis, 1973: 185)

The Debate About Media Effects

Blurring the distinction between reality and fiction can become a problem when it
enhances the effects of violent media and facilitates aggressive behavior from the audience,
especially the young. When special effects make the action in a film so life-like, it becomes even
more excitable for the audience and, perceptually, violence becomes a socially acceptable
solution to any conflict. This, I believe, can add to the problem of media effects.
Before continuing the discussion about blurring as a contributing factor to violent effects
we should briefly look at the ongoing debate about the effects theory.
Basically the critics of the effects theory claim that the media is not a hypodermic needle
and that the audience is not a passive victim of media messages.
In response to Karl Hovland’s studies conducted in the 1940’s and concluding that all
forms of communication were a process by which an individual transmits stimuli to modify the
behavior of other individuals Ruddock says:
The ‘hypodermic needle’ model suggests a very simplistic view of the mass –
communication process. Initial fears about media power reflected this simplicity. This was
because much of this research concentrated on the concept of propaganda. (Ruddock
2001/2004:41)
On the other hand, increased juvenile violence had led to the suspicion that the new
medium of television was having an undesired effect on its viewers, especially the young.
Legislators, civic leaders, and parents were especially worried by the rapid growth of the
medium and later became concerned about its content as well.
The first aspect of the problem which alarmed media critics was the media proliferation
and it was later that they, as violence became a pronounced social problem, also focused on the
issue of content and programming. Although early critics of television viewed the sheer quantity
of media consumption and its effects on family life, such as children’s sleep patterns and their
academic performance as the main problem. However, it has since been demonstrated that the

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real problem was and continues to be the violent content to which young audiences are exposed
through television.
The growth of media availability naturally has led to the growth of media consumption
for both adult and young audiences. In fact, by the late 1990’s:
…the proportion of households with television would slightly outpace the population
growth (Comstock and Scharrer, 1999:11).
In 2005, Roberts et al. report in a survey for the Kaiser Family Foundation that American
families owned at least one television set, with 75% owning three sets; 80% of the families
surveyed reported having a video game console and 75% had access to the world wide web. Two
thirds of children between the ages of 8 and 18 reported having a TV in their bedroom and 50%
of the youth surveyed reported having a video console in their bedroom. (Kirsh, 2006)
Gerbner, the originator of the Cultivation Theory, and other media critics have also drawn
attention to the fact that the concentration of many media outlets in the hands of a few
international conglomerates leads to a homogenization of programming content and fewer
creative choices.
Bagdikian, who has written about the monopolization of the media by large
conglomerates and the danger this represents to media diversity and public interest programs and
even information, voices the same concern with regard to media globalization.
The inevitable conclusion is that children are more likely to experience the world
vicariously through the media than through direct contact with the real world. In fact, surveys
have shown that children spent a lot more time consuming some type of electronic media than
playing outdoors. Studies have furthered shown that children start watching television from the
age of one and by the age of six spend two hours watching television or videotapes each day
whereas, by the age of eight they consume nearly eight hours of media on an average day.
As a result, kids now spend so much time watching the television that it and by
consequence, its content have practically become “the other parent” ultimately shaping reality,
setting expectations, guiding behavior, defining self-image, dictating interests and values.
A child today is born into a home in which television is on an average of over seven
hours a day. For the first time in human history, most of the stories about people, life, and values
are told not by parents, schools, churches, or others in the community who have something to tell
but by distant corporations who have something to sell. (Gerbner, 1996:29).
Aggravating the problem created by the fact that the media, in certain cases, become not
only the electronic babysitter that Bettelheim warned us about, but they even become the
substitute teacher. In fact, certain studies have demonstrated that people can learn false
information and take it to be true when the information is embedded in the narrative of fiction.
(Marsh, 2003).
Nevertheless, there is still a school of thought that absolutely denies what is known as the
effects theory, that being the idea that the media can have an effect on the emotions or behavior
of its viewers.
This denial is in spite of more than fifty years of scientific research, laboratory and field
experiments, longitudinal studies and meta-analyses that have proven that a heavy diet of violent
media does have a negative behavioral and emotional effect on audiences.
Research on violent television and films, video games and music reveals unequivocal
evidence that media violence increases the likelihood of aggressive behavior in both immediate
and long-term contexts (Anderson, 2003:81)
Media professor James Potter observes that in spite of many decades of on-going debates
regarding the violence portrayed in the entertainment media and its effects on the audience, there
has been no movement towards a solution to the problem. He identifies four groups or
stakeholders that participate in the debate. First and foremost are the producers of the media who
are responsible for its content. Second, and equally as important, is the viewing public which
consumes the media. As the debate escalates into an issue of policy, the third and fourth groups
of stakeholders are comprised of policymakers and researchers, respectively.

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 According to Potter, who refers to these four groups as four different cultures, the debate
is often conducted in an adversarial manner and each group seems to be motivated by different
agendas and more concerned in proving their point of view than collaborating with each other
towards finding a solution to the problem. (Potter 2003).
In 1969, Senator John Pastore requested the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare
to appoint a committee to investigate and, hopefully, scientifically establish if television
programming which contains portrayals of crime and violence has any effect on viewers,
especially on children.
The Pastore hearings for instance, were just such an example of mutual suspicion and a
lack of cooperation. The broadcast industry was fearful that it would be made a scapegoat for all
society’s problems. The social scientists recruited for the project were suspicious of the
broadcast industry’s power to veto the appointment of scientists to the project. For example,
renowned psychologist Al Bandura, whose pioneering experiments had already shown that
children learn aggressive behavior by observation, was prevented by the broadcast industry from
participating in the study.
However, the Pastore hearings were neither the first nor the last of federal lawmakers’
hearings with regard to the issue of violent media effects. Potter lists a great number of hearings,
investigations, pronouncements, proposed and acted regulations with a view to reduce the
amount of media violence, especially on television, and to give more parental control over the
kind of programming their children could access. Unfortunately, none was able to agree on the
most basic of premises.
There are many challenges in analyzing media content for violence. By far the most
significant of those challenges is the conceptual one of defining ‘violence’. The way this concept
is defined makes a huge difference in terms of how many acts of it will be found when various
programs are analyzed. (Potter, 2003:258)
Potter recommends a broad definition that should include almost all possible portrayals
of media presented violence.
Landmark hearings such as the Kefauver hearings in 1955, that were meant to determine
the long- term influence of television on youth in the context of juvenile delinquency and the
Dodd hearings which, also in the 1950’s, investigated the relationship between televised violence
and anti-social behavior of the young, led to the appointment of the National Commission on the
Causes and Prevention of Violence by President Johnson. All of this followed the political
assassinations and national unrest of the late 1960’s.
The investigation, which resulted from the Pastore hearings, which lasted almost three
years and cost almost two million dollars, resulted in a report known as Television and Growing
Up: The Impact of Televised Violence.
Writing two years after the initial Pastore hearings, Cater and Strickland concluded:
Violence on the television screen, according to analysts, has continued at a high level.
Violent incidents on prime time and Saturday morning programs maintain a rate of more than
twice the British rate which itself is padded with American imports. It is now estimated that the
HEW’s ‘profile of violence’ will be at least two more years in the making. The FCC has not yet
dealt with the issue of violence in children’s programming. (Cater, Strickland,1974)
Even though the extensive Congressional hearings that lead to the Surgeon General’s
report did not lead to any significant legislation regarding the media, it nevertheless generated a
good number of both laboratory and field experiments, including longitudinal studies, that laid
the foundations of much of the social science research of this topic for decades to come.
Based upon numerous field and laboratory experiments, social scientists have developed
a number of theories that sought to explain the concrete behavioral and emotional effects that
violent media content has on young viewers.
One of the earliest and best known theories that explain the effects of violent media
content on children’s behavior is Bandura’s observational or social learning theory. The theory
essentially established that children observe and imitate role models in their social environment.

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Experiments showed that children are more likely to imitate behavior, even aggressive behavior,
that is either rewarded or that is unpunished.
Bandura had later revised his theory to include cognitive processing variables in
observational learning, thus stating that children will not only behaviorally imitate but can also
learn aggressive attitudes and normative beliefs from observing a role model. (Bushman &
Huesmann, 2001). This is known as the social cognitive theory.
Huesmann’s theory of cognitive scripting proposes that violent media content provides
young viewers with scripts that encourage violent behavior. This too is a learned behavior
whereby the young television viewer has encoded in memory violent behavior learned from
violent programs that he later retrieves when a real situation similar to the fictional situation he
viewed encourages him to behave aggressively.
Zillman’s excitation transfer theory is based on the presumption that TV violence has an
impact because it is arousing and because this arousal dissipates slowly. It can enhance already
existing negative emotions such as aggression. According to Zillman the excitement generated
by a stimulating TV show can aggravate the emotions of viewers who then transfer this arousal
to another event and misattribute the source of anger.
Berkowitz’ cognitive-neo-association theory explains the way violent media can prompt
aggressive behavior. According to this theory, negative thoughts or memories prime aggressive
thoughts in a viewer, which, under the appropriate circumstances or environmental cue, can give
justification for aggressive behavior in the same way as classical conditioning.
Anderson and Bushman (2002) have developed the general aggression model that
integrates these theories into a unifying framework.
Two important effects of media violence researched by scientists are: habituation, a
decreased level of responsiveness to “media violence” as a result of repeated viewing of violent
media images; and desensitization – a decreased level of responsiveness to “real world violence”
as a result of repeated viewing of violent media images.
An effects theory that does not stem from general behavior theories which have been
applied to media violence, but which was specifically developed to examine exposure to media
violence, is the cultivation theory developed by Gerbner and his colleagues. In spite of
statements from media advocates that media merely reflects real life violence, Gerbner has
disproven these assertions.
After monitoring prime time television programs, Gerbner proved that these shows
reflect ten times more crime than what occurs in real life in similar circumstances. Because the
content developers tend to exaggerate events for dramatic effect, which can be overwhelming
unto themselves, long- term exposure to such programs can cause the viewer to overestimate the
danger of the real world and experience feelings of fear and anxiety. This is called the mean
world syndrome. (Shanahan, Morgan, 1999)
Donnerstein and his colleagues have identified the following four effects of exposure to
media violence:
The Aggressor Effect. This means that the viewer becomes more aggressive and even
violent toward others;
The Victim Effect. This means that the viewer becomes more fearful and suspicious of the
environment than the reality warrants. Essentially this is the same as what Gerbner called the
mean world syndrome;
The Bystander Effect. This means that the viewer becomes so desensitized due to a heavy
violent media diet that he/she becomes indifferent and unsympathetic even toward victims of real
violence;

The Appetite Effect. This means that the more violent media the viewer consumes, the
more of this type of entertainment and more spectacular violent scenes he/she seeks.

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 The research on media effects concluded quite clearly that violent media is an important
contributor to aggressive behavior.

Media violence is a contributor to aggressive behavior in the short run and, for children,
at least, to aggressive behavior in the long run and even into adulthood. It is not the only factor
accounting for individual differences in aggressiveness, nor even the most important factor. But
as the mix of laboratory experiments, field experiments, cross-sectional survey studies,
longitudinal survey studies, and meta-analyses show, it is a significant factor. (Huesmann 2003:
130)
This conclusion is refuted by both media executives as well as by most entertainment
industry representatives.
In addition to those media advocates who are, in fact, members of the entertainment
media themselves, the critique against the scientific aspects of the literature about media effects
is based on the papers of psychologist Jonathan Freedman of the University of Toronto in
Canada who mainly claims that the experiments have not demonstrated in any statistically
significant way that violent media has an effect on the audience. He also claims that the
controlled laboratory environment is artificial and does not properly recreate the natural
environment in which audiences usually view entertainment media.
For the last two decades, media effects literature (Huesmann 2003; Anderson and
Bushman 2002) has debated with Freedman and has responded to most of his objections pointing
out that although media violence is not the only element that causes aggressive behavior, it is
certainly one of the largest contributors:

Source: Adapted, MD: Government from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2001). Youth
violence: A report of the Surgeon General. Rockville Printing Office. Permission, Brad Bushman.

Even though, in epidemiological terms, the ratio of risk that violent media effects
contribute to youth violence is very serious, the social scientists are very sober in their assertions.
No reputable researcher of media violence has ever suggested that media violence is the
only cause or even the most important cause of aggression. Serious aggressive behavior only

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occurs when there is a convergence of multiple predisposing and precipitating
factors.(Huesmann 2003:114.)

Usually the public and the mass media show great interest and concern about media
effects in the aftermath of when atrocities such as school shootings or rampage shootings are
committed. This interest is however short -lived and the consumer media, over time, is rarely
following with seriousness the results of the media effects research.
Anderson and Bushman also refute criticism by Ferguson and Bloom and state that
journalists, when writing about the harmful effects of violent media on audiences, do not
seriously study the evidence presented in the scientific literature:
Although we do not know what is driving news reports on media violence effects, we can
say with confidence and disappointment that it is not primarily the scientific literature.
(Anderson and Bushman, 2002).
Furthermore, whenever media- inspired crime is publicized, the headlines highlight an
obvious cause and effect relationship. This cause and effect link also usually makes a good
attempt to provide rationale for legal defense. However, as social scientists have pointed out,
media effects are usually not this obvious but are rather indirect, subtle and cumulative.
Bushman and Anderson have compared this cumulative aspect of violent media effects to the
way cigarette smoking undermines a smoker’s health, over time.
Social scientists also prefer not to base their demonstrations on such obviously
spectacular events. The rationale is partly because it is the most extreme with relation to youth
violence, partly because it distracts from the larger issue of violent media effects, and partly
because it lends itself to easy rebuttal by those who point to hundreds of thousands of normal
audience members who watch the same films and don’t come out of the theater with homicidal
urges.
Most people believe that even though they watch violent media neither they nor most of
the people they know, act out or commit acts of violence. And, in fact, violent media effects
rarely do result in real life atrocities such as school shootings. But Gentile, quoting from United
States Secret Service data, shows that school shootings are merely the tip of the iceberg in youth
violence and that much less “severe” acts of violence are actually more prevalent; for every
occurrence of a school killing there are over 7,000 serious injuries 28,000 thefts, 44,000 physical
fights and 500,000 cases of bullying. (Gentile, 2003).
Furthermore, that everyone is not affected in the same way does not mean that everyone
is not affected. (Gentile, 2003: 23).
The television media have also come under attack from another quarter. James Hamilton,
professor of economics at Duke University, compares the violent content in television with
industrial pollution, in the sense that it causes a problem, in this case, a social problem, the cost
of which is borne by those other than the ones who profit from this production.
Economics determines the supply and demand of violent images in American television
programming. The portrayal of violence is used as a competitive tool in both entertainment and
news shows to attract particular viewing audiences. (Hamilton, 1998:3)
Media executives are not always coy about their stated interests:
As CBS’s vice president for television research once told me: ‘I’m not interested in
culture. I’m not interested in pro-social values. I have only one interest. That’s whether people
watch the program. That’s my definition of good, that’s my definition of bad. (Gitlin, 2002: 204).
With a circular logic, whose merit lies mostly in its attempt at juvenile humor, ABC
asked in one of its season’s advertising campaign slogans: If television is bad for you, why do
they have it in hospital rooms? (Gitlin, 2002).
The most common arguments invoked by the media advocates, people from the
entertainment industry, some mass media journalists and some media experts, revolve around the
notions that:
 The media merely mirrors the violence that exists in society.

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  The media is showing the kind of shows that the public demands.
 The media is the scapegoat for other societal problems that cause violence.
 Violent media is beneficial because it has a cathartic effect on the viewers.

Taking his cue from Marshall McLuhan’s statement that every new invention in media
technology is met with hostility by the establishment and is feared to be corrupting, Steven
Starker reviews all forms of technological inventions in the service of mass media to show that at
the beginning of their appearance, they inevitably always incited strong criticism and provoked
controversies.
Ignoring the subtle distinction Potter makes between violence and conflict, Shanahan
reiterates that violence has always been the essential ingredient for the narrative to captivate its
audience.
From Homer to Hitchcock, from Shakespeare to the Shadow, from Tolstoy to Tarantino,
authors have used violence as a plot device to grab the audience and keep it attentive and
fascinated. (Shanahan, 1999:43)
The debate regarding media effects gets lively and less restrained when it leaves the
polite conventions of the academic polemics and when it involves members of the entertainment
industry.
Film directors such as Carpenter, whose greatest successes are horror films, believes the
bloodier the better as he petulantly responded to criticism by declaring that in the future he will
produce even more gore.
One of the pioneers of the ultra-violent cinema, Sam Peckinpah, who claimed that his
slow motion depiction of shootouts in The Wild Bunch was meant to confront movie audiences
of the 1970’s with the horror of the war in Vietnam, reportedly became sick by reports that
Nigerian soldiers viewed his film to psyche themselves up before going into battle. (Prince,
2000)
Likewise, Oliver Stone, the director of Natural Born Killers, seemed surprised that his
intended ironic representation of serial killers Mickey and Mallory, and the mass media
adulation surrounding them, was so badly misunderstood by audiences and his critics. In fact,
Natural Born Killers had the greatest number of copycat crimes associated with a movie.i
Michael Cimino was also surprised to learn that the Russian roulette scene from the film
he directed, The Deer Hunter was the inspiration of a number of copycats with fatal
consequences.
Huesmann concludes that artists, especially successful ones, are averse to criticism that
they perceive as attempts at control. One could add that artists often perceive themselves as
members of the social avant-garde and are therefore justified in resisting control.
Citing the work of Abelson and others, Huesmann proposes that individuals such as film
director Oliver Stone, who produce violent movies, do not agree that their work could be
damaging to audiences because that would be cognitively inconsistent with their behavior.

“Cognitive consistency is a remarkably powerful force that affects behaviors and

beliefs.” (Huesmann, 2003:112)

In his statement before the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of
Violence, MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) president Jack Valenti spoke of a
“gray line” “extraordinarily difficult to measure”, the line which separates the amount of
violence which is enough to show in a movie and the amount of violence which is too much to
show. Valenti goes on to recognize that while a creative artist, the filmmaker, has a
responsibility to be honest in his work, he also has a responsibility towards society.
It seems though that Valenti’s “gray line” is not so much difficult to measure but that it is
a fairly flexible standard.

14
 Peckinpah’s Wild Bunch, a movie that broke ground in terms of its portrayal of violence,
was not just an inspired shot in the dark. In fact, while on location in Mexico, Warner Brothers
sent Peckinpah a print of Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde to screen and to study. And, his
producer, Phil Feldman urged him to view Sergio Leone’s recent movies for comparison to
gauge what the public will tolerate.
I think it might be good for you to have a comparative basis before you finally decide just
how far other people have gone in the field of blood and gore and what the public is comparing
us to. (Prince, 2000:13)
Valenti dismisses the results of expert scientific research, pointing out that there are still
disagreements not only between the scientists and the layman’s point of view on the issue of the
effects of media violence but also among members of the scientific community. This argument is
often used during the debate when trying to discredit the findings of social psychologists.
So where does one draw Jack Valenti’s “gray line”? In order to best appreciate how
much Hollywood has departed from its own earlier set of standards, one should read the Uniform
Production Code and compare it to some of the movies produced in today’s day and age.
Clearly, not all directors either recognize or lament the real life copycat violence that
their fiction begets.
At the presentation of their film Sin City at the 2005 Film Festival at Cannes, France,
directors Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller defied the scientific research that proved the causal
effect of violent movies and aggressive behavior.
Miller, who co-directed the film with Robert Rodriguez, deflected criticism that violent
films might contribute to a more violent society. He said that the bloodshed and brutality in the
film noir, which is based on his graphic novels, are very "stylized".
Sin City, which is almost entirely in black and white, was one of 21 films in contention
for the prestigious Palme d'Or prize. Miller told a press conference: Violence is a real catchy
buzzword these days.
Miller then invoked Homer’s epic legend The Iliad by mentioning the fact that violence
has been a part of storytelling since then:
Considering most drama since the Iliad and before is extremely violent - because that's
how people work problems out - it's a bit ridiculous.
Totally dismissing the results that research by social scientists had unequivocally
demonstrated, about the negative effects of violence portrayed in the media, Miller went on to
say:
I don't believe in the "monkey see, monkey do" theory of entertainment, the Japanese
have the most violent fiction and movies in the world and they have amongst the lowest crime
rate. (Caroline Briggs for BBC News, May 19, 2005)
Taking the confrontational attitude toward his critics a step further, Quentin Tarantino in
a recent interview proclaimed that violence is the best way for a filmmaker to control his
audience’s emotions, so the headline of The London Telegraph proclaimed:
Extreme violence in film is the best way to control the emotions of audiences, Quentin
Tarantino claimed. ‘I feel like a conductor and the audience's feelings are my instruments. I will
be like, 'Laugh, laugh, now be horrified'. When someone does that to me I've had a good time at
the movies,’ he said. ‘If a guy gets shot in the stomach and he's bleeding like a stuck pig then
that's what I want to see — not a man with a stomach ache and a little red dot on his belly.’ The
director said that violence was the best form of cinema entertainment. ‘In general cinema, that's
the biggest attraction. I'm a big fan of action and violence in cinema,” he said. ‘That's why
Thomas Edison created the motion picture camera — because violence is so good. It affects
audiences in a big way. You know you're watching a movie.’ (London Telegraph 2010).
Tarantino may have been referring to the 1895 short film directed by Alfred Clark, where
the decapitation of Mary Queen of Scots is depicted in one of the first shots using trick
photography.

15
 Tarantino declared that violence belongs in action movies just as slapstick belongs in
comedy, and that the only bad movie violence is the kind that is badly done. (Gitlin, 2002).
The movies are at times using their medium as an inside joke vehicle to discredit the
proponents of the violent media effects argument. For instance, Rockstar Games, the makers of
the video game Grand Theft Auto IV named one of their cars Karen Dilletante after Karen Dill,
who for years, along with Craig Anderson and colleagues, have researched the negative effects
of video games. (Dill 2009:61-62.).
There is a scene in the movie Lord of War (2005) directed by Andrew Niccol, where the
character played by Nicholas Cage is about to close an arms deal with a warlord in an central
African country when he suddenly, in cold blood, shoots one of his body guards for catching him
flirt with a servant girl. To the astonished Cage he says:

You know? There is no discipline with the youth today. I tried to set an example, but it is
difficult, huh? Personally, I blame MTV.

John Carpenter makes light of the science fiction horror genre in his 1982 movie The
Thing. During one of the most frightening scenes in the film which was a special effect
breakthrough at the time, was when the main character morphs into a spider-like creature with a
human head and another character in the movie speaks out, as if playing directly to the audience,
and says: You gotta be fucking kidding.

The Historical Dimension of the debate

The assertion that violence has been the main stay of entertainment throughout the ages is
the argument most often invoked by those who claim that violent media have no negative impact
on their audience.
We have craved violent spectacle whether it was carved on cave walls, and engraved on
Persian tablets enacted in Roman coliseums, or imagined in pixels on illuminated screens.
(Fowles, 1999:18).
Martin Scorsese, in an interview to Newsweek magazine about violence in our culture,
declared that perhaps we need the cathartic effects of blood-letting as the ancient Romans needed
it as long as it’s not real. (Bok,1992).
Social scientists seem to have mostly abandoned the historical argument to their critics,
either due to lack of interest or for having tired from having this argument constantly thrown at
them.
In my opinion, reclaiming the historical aspect of the problem of violent entertainment
and its effects on spectators is important because the writings of the ancient philosophers, as well
as modern scholars studying the ancient world, reflect in many ways the ethical problems
inherent in the debate on the effects theory confronting social scientists today.
Swedish classicist, Magnus Wistrand poses the questions that contemporary social
scientists ask as well:
Did the public at the arena become more violent after watching gladiatorial combats or
other massacres in the arena? And, How come no one seems to have opposed these brutalities as
surely they would have been opposed by some today? (Wistrand, 1992)
In his study of the writers and philosophers of the first century A.D. in Rome, Magnus
Wistrand explains their attitude to entertainment in general with special emphasis on the violent
entertainment of the arena. Wistrand concentrates on writers of the first century A.D. and
investigates the works of Juvenal, Martial, Petronius, Pliny the Younger, Seneca, Suetonius,
Tacitus, Valerius Maximus and Valerius Paterculus. (Wistrand, 1992)
Using philological methodology, Wistrand attempts to answer problems posed by modern
social psychology regarding the effects of watching violent entertainment, studying the problem
in its most controversial context, that being the watching first -hand violence live in the arena.

16
 Wistrand sees the Roman arena as the precursor to mass entertainment and a carrier of
information and propaganda that the ruling class wanted to communicate to the people and
thereby exercising social control:
And in a society without mass media public entertainment gave its organizers a unique
chance of informing Romans of all ranks and classes about what the organizers themselves
thought of as important. It appears that especially the bloody arena shows with their hunts,
historical and mythological enactments, executions and gladiatorial fights were much
appreciated for their educational, or propaganda value. (Wistrand, 1992)
Wistrand concludes that the question is anachronistic; first, because of the way the
Roman public was conditioned to react and knew what to expect from the shows at the arena, in
other words the Roman values of virtue, endurance and courage; and, second, because the writers
whose testimony we study about the public’s reaction to the games were themselves of the ruling
class and had been thought to appreciate this type of entertainment, especially since they
exhibited the same civic and martial virtues that Roman education ingrained in them.
Simon Goldhill saw the bloodlust of the Roman arena as just the early manifestation of
the same enjoyment of violence exhibited by people who later- on participated in public torture
and executions and, by extension, the vicarious pleasure of modern viewers of more or less
realistic horror shows.
The question raised by the spectacle of gladiators is a question that the modern world
also needs to face, and all too rarely does: what does it say about us that we like to watch such
things in the name of entertainment? (Goldhill, 2004:248)
Seneca, the stoic philosopher, expressed a general dislike of all entertainment, which he
associated with voluptates as opposed and detrimental to the morally superior virtus. He is
among the few who did specifically condemn the bloodshed in the arena, and condemned those
who admired the spectacle of killing. He did write that violent entertainment rendered the
spectator cruel and inhumane.
Particularly interesting in the context of the mythological and historical reenactments is
the interpretation of the ‘special effects’ and the blur of the show with its symbolic content.
It is clear that every effort was made to imbue the imaginary with the power that would
make it one with reality in the minds of the spectators. (Auguet 1972:103)
But as Auguet goes on saying, in a process that is the reverse of what goes on in
contemporary fiction, on stage or on screen, the audience aware of the trickery of the set and the
props is confronted with the reality of the story by the actual and anticipated death of the actor.
They all see the ropes which help the actor reenact the flight of Deadalus across the arena but his
actual fall and death in the arena is what is supposed to make the audience believe that they have
witnessed the mythical event.
This is what makes Martial exclaim that they have seen what so far has only been heard.
After a particular allegorical reenactment of the myth of Orpheus in which the actor is devoured
by a bear, after having played music to tame lions and tigers, Martial reports comparing what he
had seen with how he had imagined the myth to be
Nevertheless all this is as real as what has been said of Orpheus… (Auguet 1972:102-3).
Whereas in a reference about the myth of Pasiphae who gave birth to the Minotaur after
mating with a bull, Martial says that he had seen what hitherto was only believed, and he gives
Caesar thanks for making it all possible in the arena. (Wistrand, 1992)
Wistrand sees here another manifestation that reinforces the idea of universal power over
life and death attributed to the emperor.
The fatal charades, i.e. the enactments of historical and mythological episodes, also
demonstrated the power of the emperor in a manifest way: what until then had only been
something people read or talked about, a res ficta (fiction), they could now see with their eyes as
a res facta (fact). (Wistrand 1992:69)

17
 Juvenal is critical to gladiator shows and everything that surrounds them. His satires state
that revenge is stupid and that even excessive punishment from the fathers will only teach the
sons to be cruel in turn.
Petronius also caricaturizes both the gladiator shows and their audiences in his satire
Satyricon. He makes the observation that when a criminal is executed it is helpful if the public is
acquainted with his story so that their emotions are engaged pro and contra. This is an idea that
reoccurs in contemporary psychological research of audience reactions to violent shows.
(Zillman, 2006)
Not without humor, in his Ars Amatoria, Ovid gives the young Romans the ageless
advice to take their sweethearts to the arena to see the gladiatorial fights. When the scenes of
cruelty will make the young maidens close their eyes and put their heads on the young man’s
shoulder he can so much easier make his amorous advances on her.
Seneca, always critical of the spectators’ insatiable appetite for cruelty, comments on the
fact that by their constant scorn and insults thrown at the weaker combatants in the arena, they
became in a way participants in the fight:
…from spectators became adversaries. (Auguet ,1972)
Seneca, in keeping with his Stoic philosophy, writes admiringly about the slave who,
when transported to the arena to be killed, takes his destiny in his own hands and takes his own
life, thus preferring to bravely liberate himself from the indignities of slaughter in the arena.
Suetonius in his historical biographies Vitae Caesarum described the customs of each
emperor regarding entertainment. He commented negatively when some emperors manifested
excessive cruelty and wrote with contempt about people in good social standing who performed
in the arenas.
Tacitus also scorned the different shows of the arena and did not think them dignified to
be commented by serious historians. He did however criticize the exaggerated interest of the
public in the shows which took away time from interest in serious pursuits.
The texts studied by Wistrand and other scholars describe the reactions of the audience
and the point of view of the intellectuals. There is also the testimony of many surviving mosaics
and graffiti inscriptions which briefly record the events from the participants’ point of view
mostly referring to the gladiator’s star status among his peers and the audience.
Wistrand believes that only a change of regime, which means a change of ideology, could
have brought about the cession of the bloody gladiatorial fights and public executions in the
arena. That change was brought about by Christianity. However the games continued until the
sixth century A.D. in spite of moral outrage by the early church fathers and according to other
historians they stopped mainly because of lack of funds. (Goldhill 2004:235)
It will indeed, take three hundred years, but no one describes more eloquently than
Augustine who described in his Confessions the spiritual damage, the “wounding of the soul” a
righteous man will suffer at the gladiator fights:
When they arrived at the arena, the place was seething with the lust for cruelty. They
found seats as best they could and Alypius shut his eyes tightly, determined to have nothing to do
with these atrocities. If only he could have closed his ears as well! For an incident in the fight
drew a great roar from the crowd, and this thrilled him so deeply that he could not contain his
curiosity….So he opened his eyes, and his soul was stabbed with the wound more deadly than
any which the gladiator, whom he was so anxious to see, has received in his body. (Bok,
1998:30)
Bishop Tertullian, while also warning in virulent language and much zeal of the spiritual
damage that all public spectacles caused to the faithful, theater as well as the violent gladiator
fights, nevertheless promised, somewhat paradoxically, a reward of equally horror- filled
spectacles for the devout Christians who abstained from such entertainment while on earth, as
they will be watching for all eternity the suffering of the damned on Judgment Day. (Bok, 1998)

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 Blurring of Reality and Fiction
We find the earliest example of the artist trying to capture reality in such a perfect way
that his two- dimensional representation is mistaken for the three- dimensional reality both by
humans and by animals described by Pliny. He speaks of the competition by the painters Zeuxis
and Parrhasius in which the challenge is the creation of complete illusion of reality and the
virtuosity of the artist is measured by the degree to which he managed to fool his audience. The
anecdote describes how sparrows came to pick at the grapes painted by Zeuxis.ii
Generally, however, philosophers and critics of art disdained such illusionistic effects
both in the ancient world and later on. Gombrich quotes Goethe’s On Truth and Verisimilitude in
Works of Art where Goethe refers to art that aims at deceiving the eye as “sparrow aesthetics”.
It is also in ancient Greece that we find the first warning not to fall prey to this kind of
illusionistic art. In book seven of Plato’s Republic, in his famous parable of the cave, Plato
describes a group of people who live in a cave and are chained in a way so that they can only
face the wall opposite them. This acts as a screen upon which the reflection of their shadows, and
the shadows of other figures and objects in the background, are reflected by a source of light
which is a fire positioned behind them. In answer to Socrates’ description, Glaucon responds:
‘To them,’ I said, ‘the truth would be literally nothing but the shadow of images.’ (Plato,
1942)
Some philosophers interpret Plato’s aversion to artists interested in the impressionistic
appearance of things instead of their essential truth as criticism targeted against painters such as
Zeuxis, Parrhasius and Apollodorus who were actually called “shadow painters”. (Gilbert, 1939).
Their art was referred to as skiagraphia and when applied in theatrical stage design, it was called
skenographia. (Tatarkiewitcz 1970).
Greek aesthetic practices were not always involved with creating visual illusions, but
often with correcting them, thus compensating for conditions of faulty perception in the physical
construction of their art. Empirically, they found out that often it is not the artist that needs to
fool the observer’s eye, but that the eye often fools the observer’s brain.
This intuitive compensation for optical distortions were observed mostly in ancient Greek
architecture and analyzed by 19th Century scholars. For example the inner columns of the Greek
temples, being in the shade, had smaller diameters so as to appear equal to the outer ones. To
compensate for their smaller diameter they had a greater number of grooves in them. They also
tilted the outer columns toward the center so as to counter-balance optical deformations.
(Tatarkiewicz,1970).
And in fact, where the movies are concerned, our physiology collaborates in the creation
of the illusion.
A “moving picture” or “motion picture” is just a series of still pictures which, when
projected at a certain speed or frames per second (FPS), create the illusion of continuity because
the visual cortex retains each image for a fraction of a second, while the other image is projected,
thus the illusion of movement.
It would take the convincing power and enormous reach of mass media to fool not one
person or a few sparrows but to create mass hysteria among millions of inhabitants of the most
technologically advanced country in the world, the United States.
The invention of the photograph and the moving pictures, the radio and other means of
mass communication, along with the social structure of the modern industrialized world, have
given the possibility for the transmitter to manipulate their message in a way that could also
cause the blurring of reality with fiction at the receivers’ end.

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 War of the Worlds, 1938 CBS Radio play

On the 30th of October, 1938 Orson Welles directed and narrated a broadcast of a science
fiction radio play based on H.G. Wells’s 1898 novel War of the Worlds. The CBS radio program
caused great anxiety among its listeners in New Jersey, where the aliens were supposed to have
landed, and beyond, including the American northwest where people were reported to have fled
their homes in panic. How did a radio play broadcast on the eve of Halloween manage to trick
people into believing that their country was being invaded by aliens? All of this, in spite of the
disclaimers at the end of the program, in spite of the narrator’s announcement at the beginning of
the show that the events were taking place in the future, a year later, in 1939, and in spite of the
fact that the events were based on a well -read and popular novel. Remarkably, later interviews
revealed that some of the more sophisticated listeners were not so naïve as to think that America
was invaded by Martians, but rather, they were convinced that it was really a German or
Japanese invasion with the foreign soldiers disguised as Martians. In fact, reportedly, millions of
people were frightened and thought that the broadcast was reporting actual events.
Subsequent to this event a study was conducted by Hadley Cantril called The Invasion
from Mars: a Study in the Psychology of Panic (1940) which used both standardized quantitative
surveys and also a number of qualitative open-ended interviews that explored the listeners’
reactions to the broadcast. All of the respondents indicated that listening to the broadcast
produced fear because they thought that it was broadcasting a true event, a true invasion. The
interviews with listeners who were affected by the broadcast showed that the most important
factor that contributed to their perception that the show was real was the fact that it was
broadcast without commercial interruptions and the fact that it was transmitted in the form of an
on-site journalistic report.
In fact, the producers of the radio play did indeed use a news -reporting style to format
the information in order to mimic a real life newscast and thus credibly enhancing the show’s
sense of reality. Likewise, the public was taken in by the radio play’s interviews with experts,
men of supposed authority in the field of astronomy and defense as well as such authority figures
and opinion leaders as police chiefs, high ranking military and politicians, all of whom ended up
being actors and not real professionals. These so-called experts’ professional position and social
status inspired confidence and lent credibility to the message. In addition, middle class college
graduates also stated that they were confident that government authorities would not deceive

20
them and that they would not use the medium of radio to broadcast news unless they were
factual.
Cantril checked the records of the American Telephone Company (ATC) that showed the
massive numbers of calls to police and radio stations during the broadcast.
Radio station managers also reported that they got a lot of correspondence regarding the
broadcast. According to a poll by The American Institute of Public Opinion it was estimated that
6 million people had listened to Wells’ broadcast of which 1.2 million had admitted to being
scared.
All of this leads to the conclusion that the broadcast of the radio play War of the Worlds
had significant impact on its audience. This event in fact generated one of the earliest studies
that concluded that the media does indeed have an effect on the audience.
Similar factual presentation, press reporting and suspension of commercial breaks were
used in the 1983 ABC’s television film The Day After with astonishingly similar results. Many
viewers had to receive counseling after seeing the film and surveys completed by parents showed
that young viewers showed symptoms of unease during the viewing of the film and were
disturbed in their sleep.
The ensuing research also showed that teenage viewers were more frightened than
younger children:
The researchers explained this as reflecting the fact that only older children were able to
differentiate between this and other horror/science fiction programs in recognizing the
plausibility of the scenario. (Ruddock 2001/2004: 67)
Actually, one of the consequences of the public panic caused by the radio play War of the
Worlds and in recognition of the power of the broadcast media, reporters had to undertake self -
restraint and to promise to exercise good judgment during the war in order to be allowed to
report from the field. In a way, War of the Worlds became the standard both for the army brass
who wanted to avoid discouraging the home front and for the reporting journalists. For example,
when Ed Morrow reported from the rooftops of London during the bombing and compared what
he saw with War of the Worlds. (Bianculli 1992).
It seems that realistic depictions of post -apocalyptic nuclear catastrophes resonate
strongly with audiences, especially when they are using the reportage documentary style and
when the mediation of the journalist makes the action more credible.iii
British filmmaker Peter Watkins’ documentary style drama War Game, describing the
aftermath of a nuclear attack on England, was forbidden to be shown on television with the BBC
management explaining their decision to withdraw the film claiming fear of distressing the
audience.
However, blurring reality with fiction by editorial means in the entertainment media does
not only result in mass panic. It can also affect the public’s level of expectation and sometimes
even their perception of reality. This was the case in the much -publicized 2011 trial in Florida of
Casey Anthony who was acquitted of murdering her infant daughter due to lack of proof.
Apparently, the jury’s expectations of proof beyond a reasonable doubt were not satisfied
because their expectations had been conditioned by television shows such as CSI. According to
legal experts and commentators, the prosecution’s case should not have been held to such
standards. This is now called the CSI effect.
A different instance of blurring between reality and fiction in media entertainment is the
depiction of torture. Torture is realistically portrayed in such graphic realism in TV shows such
as 24, when government agents like Jack Bower, played by Keifer Sutherland, have to use any
means at their disposal to diffuse the so-called “ticking bomb”, including methods of torture.
Reportedly, Pentagon officials had to go to the producers of the show 24 and ask them to
tone- down the realism in the torture scenes because many of the solders and operatives in the
field took their cue from the show reasoning that if Jack Bower does it, then it is okay to torture.
In reviewing this situation more closely, it would appear that the rationale for depicting
torture in the TV series was that the hero, Jack Bauer gets results with his methods because not

21
only do they work but because they are also expedient. This was the opinion of Supreme Court
Justice of the United States, Anthony Scalia, when, during an interview, he declared that no jury
in an American court of law would convict Jack Bauer for his patriotic actions. Not only was
this a clear and intentional blurring between reality and fiction, but, in a number of instances
where the justification of physical torture was discussed by other eminent and high profile US
government officials such as former President Bill Clinton, when he responded to a journalist’s
question regarding the proverbial ticking bomb dilemma, he too deferred to Jack Bauer as if he
were a person existing in real life. One could view this as a potentially convenient way to
personify the problem with a fictional character rather than discussing the problem in real terms
and involving real protagonists from existing US Security agencies.iv
It must be said, however, that not all blurring of reality and fiction is the result of pre-
conceived manipulation and, in some cases its results can be quite comical or slightly
embarrassing.
The blurring of reality and fiction may in some cases be the result of information
overload, so typical of the digital age. In early 2012, at an international shooting competition in
Kuwait, the gold medalist from Kazakhstan, Maria Dimitrienko took the podium to receive her
prize. As she watched the flag of Kazakhstan being raised on the pole, she and her country’s
delegates were shocked and dismayed when instead of hearing the real national anthem, the
music that was played was the satirical off-color version of the Kazakhstan anthem from Sasha
Baron-Cohen’s film Borat. The event arrangers explained that the music was downloaded from
You-tube when they searched for the national anthem of Kazakhstan.
Blurring reality and fiction can sometimes even confuse actors who are clearly used to
playing different roles and characters and who are certainly familiar with cinematic special
effects.
The actor-producer-former rock star Mark Wahlberg, for instance, who had been
scheduled to be a passenger on the doomed flight United 93 that crashed in Shanksville, Pa. on
9/11 was quoted as saying to a Men’s Journal that had he been on the hijacked airplane United
93, on 9/11, he would have ended up killing all of the hijackers and saving the plane and the
passengers:

If I was on that plane with my kids, it wouldn't have went down like it did. There would
have been a lot of blood in that first-class cabin and then me saying, 'OK, we're going to land
somewhere safely, don't worry.v

Suzanne Collins, author of the bestselling books Hunger Games and producer of the
block-buster movie of the same name, refers to “an uneasy state of blurring” as the cause of her
inspiration. She describes a situation where she was flicking TV channels between a station
showing documentary pictures from the war in Iraq and another station showing a TV game. She
was thus inspired to write her books of fiction depicting a futuristic dystopia in which teenage
contestants, some volunteers, from poorer regions of a confederation, participate in gladiatorial
fights sine misione, to the death, telecast for the amusement of decadent spectators from the
richer districts of the confederation. Not unlike other films with similar storylines, such as Peter
Watkins’ 1969 Gladiators, and Norman Jewison’s Rollerball, (1975) this form of channeling
violence and vicarious pleasure from watching it is thought to substitute for international armed
conflicts and ensure peace among nations. Needless to say, this kind of mass catharsis does not
work in the movies and, according to social scientists, it certainly does not work in real life.
An example where the blurring of reality and fiction was clearly the intention and
primary purpose of the film was The Blair Witch Project, (1999). The directors of the film used
hand-held cameras and other cinema verité techniques to increase the perceived authenticity of
the story. However, during the film, there is no significant action and at the end of the film, no
climactic or scary ending is revealed.

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 By replicating the aesthetic style of cinema-verité which is a common mode of
documentary films, the Blair Witch Project blurred the line between fact and fiction (Yates,
2012)
The novelty that accounted for the financial success of this low budget film was mostly
its guerilla- style multi-media viral marketing strategy, which was revolutionary at the time. The
marketing communications had intentionally amplified the blurring in order to increase the
audience’s curiosity. Directors Myrick and Sanchez had established an official website for The
Blair Witch Project a year before its release and posted updates, diary excerpts, family
statements, witness interviews and official-looking documentation of “missing persons” to create
this false myth. The directors’ usage of the internet as a “rumor mill” accounts for much of the
film’s success. In fact, the film’s website had millions of hits before the film was released and
chat sites picked up the story further adding to the ambiguity. Not surprisingly, after the
successful run of their film, the directors, rather than continue in the film industry, set up a
marketing firm called “Campfire” where they continued to successfully exploit their story telling
technique for commercial clients.
However, blurring the demarcation between reality and fiction can also be viewed as a
convention of storytelling and, to some extent, can reflect the success of the narrative.
Woody Allen in movies such as The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) deliberately uses the
blurring of reality and fiction to show the magic of the movies and the multi levels of reality to
which they allows its spectators to escape. In this case, we witness the escape of a diner waitress
from harsh everyday life during the depression era into the glitter and glamour of tinsel town,
Hollywood, with its fairy tale allure of care free luxury and opulence, and of course, prince
charming. In Allen’s world, this “Cinderella” does not even need to dress for the ball, all she
needs is a ticket to the cinema.
It is clear that Woody Allen, in his way of blurring reality and fiction for his audience,
enlists not only the imagination of his protagonists, like in The Purple Rose of Cairo and later in
Midnight in Paris, but also the imagination of the cinema audience as well.
Mel Brooks, used blurring reality and fiction in a very different way, producing a very
different perception. In so many of his films, Brooks allowed reality to break- in on the narrative
like a practical joke or prank, bursting the bubble on the illusion of the movie. His scene in
Blazing Saddles ((1974) where the entire Count Basie orchestra is playing in the middle of a
desert, tux and all, while the sheriff rides in on his horse, is an example of just such a ploy.
In his film Wings of Desire (1987), Wim Wenders, in his endeavor to insert a “real
world” witness to his story, intentionally cast the actor Peter Falk because of his international
fame and instant recognizability as Columbo. The film’s story line tells the story of two angels
who come to earth, one of whom wants to renounce his angel status and desires, rather, to
become a human being, a mortal able to experience emotions, even pain and sadness, and to be
able to fall in love.
The angel, Damiel, encounters Peter Falk, playing himself, as the actor Falk, cast in a
movie being filmed in Berlin, and tells him about his metamorphosis. In the ensuing dialog,
Peter Falk alludes to the fact that he too had been an angel in the past that had chosen life on
earth as a human being. This surreal assertion is made known to the angel Damiel and to the
public in the most pedestrian exchange between the two when they discuss how much money
each had received from an antique dealer for their angel wings. Angels among humans, Wim
Wenders alluding to this ambiguity, leaving the question without a concrete answer but by
portraying Peter Falk in the role of the former “old angel” lends a suggestion of credibility to the
story.
In his analysis of the film, Richard Raskin, the documentary -style introduction of the
real Peter Falk in the fiction narrative fulfills its intended function because:
…he (Falk) enjoys our confidence because we know him as Columbo and as the actor,
Peter Falk (Raskin 1995)

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 Raskin further suggests that the miraculous feeling implied by Falk’s revelation extends
the illusion to the audience viewing the film:
This revelation - which comes progressively as the lines are exchanged, and Damiel's
growing perplexity finally gives way to his (and our) catching on - not only explains why Peter
Falk could sense Damiel's presence in the earlier Imbiss scene; it also confirms that we and
Damiel were right to trust Falk's judgment, and that Damiel will never regret becoming a
mortal, since Falk - thirty years after his own transformation - radiates fulfillment and well-
being. Furthermore, Falk's "there's lots of us" helps to generalize Damiel's choice to such a
degree that the viewer can play at imagining not only that Falk really is a former angel but also
that the "us" might include people sitting in the movie theater, even oneself. (Raskin, 1995)
Wings of Desire belongs to the genre called magical realism which perhaps implies that a
certain blurring of reality and fiction is to be expected but, in the confines of the narrative, is
innocuous and pleasant, with the enchanting qualities of a fairy tale.
Such ingenious reference to a real “witness” that lends credibility to the fictional
narrative will deliberately enhance the blurring effect for the audience.
There has been speculation about Alfred Hitchcock’s propensity for making short silent
cameo appearances in almost all of his films. These particular appearances can be interpreted as
no more than Hitchcock’s signature on his creations, like any great artist would sign his work.
What I would suggest is that by appearing in each of his films, Hitchcock thus establishes
himself as the ultimate eye-witness to the action, lending credibility to his narrative thereby
blurring the distinction between reality and fiction. So, while the audience recognizes Hitchcock
as a real person in his films, his presence, in turn, seems to say to the audience “believe me, I
know, I was there”.
In tracing the blurring of reality and fiction in film, one should also consider the total
marketing communications package promoting the film, such as the advertising, publicity
junkets and public relations. These communications, which often times capitalize on credible
authoritative and also anecdotal evidence, can individually, or combined, help to reinforce the
transmitters’ message to the receiver. For example, such is the case of Oliver Stone’s film
Platoon, about the war in Vietnam. The fact that director Oliver Stone had himself served active
duty in the war in Vietnam, had been repeatedly invoked in the marketing communications as a
testimony to the veracity of the film, to the extent that the film was critically praised for its
realism.
Oliver Stone’s JFK (1991) was heavily criticized because of its casual approach to
history and in some ways for mixing documented reality with speculation.
Stone was criticized by journalists, historians, politicians, and political pundits for his
treatment of the events surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In part, this
was a result of the ‘content’ of his film. He was accused, among other things, of fostering
paranoia by suggesting that President Kennedy’s assassination was a result of a conspiracy
involving highly placed persons in the United States government. But also – and for some critics
even more seriously – Stone’s film seemed to blur the distinction between fact and fiction by
treating a historical event as if there were no limits to what could legitimately be said about it,
thereby bringing under question the very principal of objectivity as the basis for which one might
discriminate between truth on the one side and myth, ideology, illusion, and lie on the other.
(Hayden in Sobchack 1996:19)
Some critics found this irresponsible especially since Stone has declared that he made
this film with thoughts for America’s youth and their relation to such crucial events in the history
of their country by dedicating this film to them.
Film critic David Armstrong says: I am troubled by Stone’s mix’ n’ match of recreated
scenes and archival footage…’ because ‘young viewers to whom (Stone) dedicates this film
could take his far – reaching conjectures as literal truths.
Post-modernist historian Hayden goes on to explain Armstrong’ comments as follows:

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 Armstrong suggests, in a word, that Stone’s editing techniques might destroy the capacity
of ‘young viewers to distinguish between a real and a merely imaginary event. All of the events
depicted in the film – whether attested by historical evidence, based on conjuncture or simply
made up in order to help the plot a long or to lend credence to Stone’s paranoid fantasies – are
presented as if they were equally ‘historical’, which is to say, equally real, or as if they had
‘really happened’ ”. (Hayden inSobchack1996:20)
The above substantiates my concern for young audiences who lack, especially due to the
general neglect of the subject of humanities, the critical ability to take in a narrative and evaluate
its historical veracity, it’s moral and philosophical standing and verified against older
knowledge. Even considering the post-modernist insistence on subjectivity of interpretation, I
am not talking about an audience that has to consider different points of view but about
audiences who have neither a point of view nor points of reference. This is the public that is ripe
for manipulation and ripe for being taken in by any conspiracy theory. This is the public for
whom the history presented by Hollywood and the video game producers is the new history, the
new mythologies. There would be nothing wrong with a student saying “I saw this on the history
channel and I wonder if it is true? But there is everything wrong with my former student in Arad
who told me “This must be true because I saw it on the History channel”. Education is a
powerful tool but so is lack of education, because it can allow for easy indoctrination.
There are movies whose story line and message seem to actually warn us about the power
of the entertainment media to manipulate reality and audience perceptions to the point of being
damaging and even at times risk being the breeding ground for conspiracy theories.
Capricorn One (1978) speaks of a planned space mission to Mars, which for some
reason is never launched, but the government agency in charge does not want to acknowledge its
responsibility and arrange for the space mission to be staged in a film studio and presented to
the world as real events.
Wag the Dog (1997) is yet another example of a film that deals with a government hoax
perpetrated on the people. Today we may not even need to stretch our imagination to believe that
a casus belli and the ensuing war can be custom made in television studios, and believed by all,
just for a president whose popularity needs a boost.

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 Two films that best illustrate our relationship with the television medium and its possible impact on are
Sidney Lumet’s (1976) Network and Hal Ashby’s Being There (1979).

Two movies that best illustrate the public’s relationship with the television media are Hal
Ashby’s 1979 Being There, and Sidney Lumet’s Network (1976).
Being There, which was based on a novel by Jerzy Kosinsky, is a satire which suggests
that in the information age society so totally dependent on mass media, that even a
simpleton,whose entire universe of knowledge stems from television, can be taken for a sage.
The platitudes he utters can be interpreted as wise metaphors and loaded with importance. So
what if at the end of the movie he walks on water?
Network is one of the films that most strongly condemned television and its power over
the audience. Written by Paddy Chayefsky, it was inspired by a true event. In 1974, Christine
Chubbuck, a reporter at a Florida- based television station had actually shot herself in front of
TV cameras after her program had been cancelled and taken off the air because, apparently, it
did not contain enough violent content. Chayefsky took this extraordinary event and made it the
central theme of his script about a veteran broadcaster, Howard Beale, who threatens to kill
himself during a live broadcast because he is about to be fired.
Both Chayefsky and Lumet, in Network voice some scathing criticism against the
mercenary way television manipulates its audience:

Howard Beale, the veteran broadcaster:

Because you people, and sixty-two million other Americans, are listening to me right
now. Because less than three percent of you people read books! Because less than fifteen percent
of you read newspapers! Because the only truth you know is what you get over this tube. Right
now, there is a whole, an entire generation that never knew anything that didn't come out of this
tube! This tube is the Gospel, the ultimate revelation. This tube can make or break presidents,
popes, prime ministers...
Diana Christensen, the heartless TV executive in the movie in a lucid analysis describes
the vicarious role television plays in channeling the fury of the TV audience and their helpless
frustration with every day realities of life:
The American people are turning sullen. They've been clobbered on all sides by Vietnam,
Watergate, the inflation, the depression; they've turned off, shot up, and they've fucked
themselves limp, and nothing helps.

Blurring in Journalism
Even in realistic representations of his surrounding world, the artist had always had a
choice to imitate what he sees, to idealize and try to improve on reality or to caricaturize and
highlight the defects of the world. The audience of the artist had a choice of accepting the artist’s
vision or to reject it.
Once the photograph was invented the public’s expectations of this new technology were
that representations captured by a photograph will always be true to its subject and popular
sayings reflect the core of this trust: “I believe it when I see it”; “a photo does not lie”; and, “a
picture is worth a thousand words”. Investing a method, an instrument, a concept with so much
confidence and trust inevitably invites deception. The practitioners relied on their ingenuity as
well as the public’s trust to alter the expected truth.
Haskel Wexler’s movie Medium Cool (1969) which is a blend of cinema verite,
documentary and fiction, looks at the moral dilemma of the reporter. When reporting a disaster
or human catastrophe what is the duty of the reporter to report or to help the victims or people
involved in the emergency?
Perhaps the best time to examine the performance and the moral dilemmas facing
reporters and photojournalists is in time of national crisis. In many situations the reporter is
caught between conflicting interests and conflicting feelings i.e. his loyalty to his country, which,
sometimes, conflicts with his professional duty to inform the public.
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 In some of the earliest war reporting, Irish journalist William Howard Russell, while
reporting from the Crimean War, had found himself on the wrong side of the military brass when
he sent his reports about the incompetence of the campaign leadership and the unnecessary
suffering that it caused to the common soldier in the field whose basic needs were unmet due to
shortages in supplies.

One of the best known images of WWII is in fact a dramatic restaging of the event after the original
photograph was taken.

From the beginning of war reporting, the competition between reporters was great and
the public was not very discerning regarding the truthfulness of the reports.
British war correspondent Frederick Villiers had captured battlefield action for the first
time on motion picture film in the Greco-Turkish war 1887. Battle of Volo in Thessaly, Greece
could not sell what he thought was a photo journalistic coup because a film studio in Paris had
already shown dramatized reconstructions of the battle. So the public was not particular in the
truthfulness of the films they were seeing.
Newspapers during the American Civil War were so eager to publish fresh news that they
were not very fussy about the veracity of the stories their reporters sent.
’…telegraph fully all news you can get’ one Chicago Times editor wired a war
correspondent and when there is no news send rumors’ (Rohdes, 2006 :205)
Mexican general Pancho Villa, in 1914, signed a contract with the Mutual Film
Corporation giving the rights to all battle coverage, even promising to fight during the day so
that cameras could capture the action. At the attack on the city of Ojinaga, Villa waited for the
cameramen to arrive.
American Civil War photographers took poetic license and the armies collaborated in
rearranging and restaging for dramatic pictures. This kind of restaging for the camera was later
repeated when the Soviet Army published photos of its soldiers raising the red flag on top of the
Reichstag in vanquished Berlin; just as American marines restaged the iconic picture of the
raising of their flag atop mountain Suribachi in Iwo Jima. Euphoric embers of the Egyptian army
restaged their crossing of the Suez Canal for the world press to record their first victory in battle
against Israel.

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 During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), where all political ideologists from the
extreme left to the extreme right clashed, representatives of the international news media were
usually writing stories that were conform with their own individual ideologies.
However, in both World Wars, journalists were generally in lock-step with the
government interests.
During World War I, in an effort to dehumanize the enemy and fuel the soldiers’ hatred
against him, the media became complicit with the government propaganda and disinformation
efforts by publishing rumors of inhuman atrocities committed by the Germans including
desecration of churches, rape, infanticide and even cannibalism.vi A mere two decades later, it
was the turn of the German state propaganda machine to spread similar falsehoods about
behavior of the allied armies. The inherent danger in this type of propaganda which deliberately
blurs fact and fiction is clarified by the art historian Sir Ernst Gombrich who during the war was
monitoring German state media for British intelligence:
For this, in a way, is the final horror of the myth. It becomes self-confirming. Once you
are entrapped in this illusionary universe it will become reality, for if you fight everybody,
everybody will fight you, and the less mercy you show, the more you commit your side to a fight
to the finish. (Gombrich 1979: 108-109).
In World War II, the allied press corps manifested its loyalty to the just wars their
governments were waging, mostly by closing ranks with the military and respecting their needs
for secrecy, reporting only what was deemed not damaging to the allied forces and thereby
avoided giving crucial information to the enemy. Unlike during World War I however, they did
not report any false information or indulge in propaganda.
The Vietnam conflict, however, was a different kind of war, especially in its later years
when a great part of the U.S. civilian population no longer supported the war when news of
atrocities committed by U.S. troops reached the homeland.
For the young war reporters, their eagerness to be on the frontline, in addition to the
professional principal that the public has “the right to know” , was also fueled by their personal
curiosity and spirit of adventure. Many young journalists flocked to Vietnam to make their fame
and fortune and also to satisfy their youthful craving to prove their machismo:
The fascination for violence and death, along with the struggle the more sensitive
correspondents had in trying to reconcile their hatred of war with their very real enjoyment of it,
puzzled and annoyed some observers. “It is impossible to realize how much of Ernest
Hemingway still lives in the hearts of men until you spend time with the professional war
correspondents,” wrote Nora Ephron in New York Magazine. “Most of the Americans are stuck
in the Hemingway gab and they tend to romanticize war, just as he did. Which is not surprising:
unlike fighting in the war itself, unlike big-game hunting, working as a war correspondent is
almost the only classic male endeavor left that provides physical danger and personal risk
without public disapproval and the awful truth is that for correspondents, war is not hell. It is
fun.” ( Knightley, 1975)
Hollywood’s depictions of Americans fighting in World War II and in Korea were the
only points of reference for the young soldiers fighting in Vietnam and as such, they tended to
relate their experiences to war as it had been depicted in Hollywood fiction.
Michael Herr describes the increased activity and shouting of the troops while they were
filmed by a television crew:
They were actually making war movies in their heads, doing little guts and glory
Leatherneck tap dances under fire getting their pimples shot off for the networks.” (Knightley,
1975).
Journalists report that many of the American GI’s were shooting down Vietnamese, often
civilians, thinking that they were acting like in the movies:
Holy Jesus! You see that? Just like the movies. The guy sagged, then just kinda slowly
slid down holding on to the doorway”, wrote Ian Adams in Maclean’s Magazine in February,
1968. (Knightly, 1975)

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 It seems that for these soldiers, the movies were more real than the reality they were
actually experiencing.
The public uproar in America, fueled by the media, about the supposition that suspected
terrorists after 9/11 were being tortured; especially using the method of “water boarding” seems
strange in view of the fact that the public was informed of incidents of water torture in the
Vietnam War which were already published in the U.S. in Newsweek magazine in 1967.
Peter Arnett, who worked as a correspondent for the Associated Press during the Vietnam
War era had said that even if he had witnessed a war crime, he would not write about it
describing it as a war crime because of the reporter’s credo that his duty was to “report” and not
to “judge”.
To a large extent, the military and the government blamed the media for turning public
opinion in America against the war in Vietnam, yet the media, in addition to reporting, claimed
that realistic representations of combat were what the public wanted.
This was not a new phenomenon. The media’s conviction that the public demands
violence is reflected in the coined expression “if it bleeds, it leads”.
Herb Greer, of NBC television, recounts that during the war in Algeria, he was specially
paid to film detailed and gory battle scenes.
Knightley quotes American psychologist Frederick Wertham saying that television was
conditioning its audience to accept the horrors of war.
The only way we can possibly tolerate it (war) is by turning off part of ourselves instead
of the television set. (Knightley, 1975)
Inquiries conducted by the press at the time showed that the American public was
developing a tolerance for horror.

Reality TV
Given America’s perceived role of leadership in the world and given its domination by
sheer quantity of the entertainment media, TV, cinema, videogames, music and even
commercials, America becomes for many, especially among the young audiences, the
uncontested opinion leader in matters of culture, fashion, and social standards.
These opinions and images are further reinforced by fashion and entertainment
magazines and popularized portrayals of the lifestyle of entertainment celebrities, especially
since America has also managed to export its national awe and fascination with star celebrities.
It is for this reason that the prominence and dominance of Reality TV, as it is known,
where fiction has morphed into a new reality that we find one of the most interesting
manifestations of blurring of reality and fiction.
How else could one describe the transition from the televised live courtroom proceedings
of the O.J. Simpson murder trial in the early 1990’s, which Kubiack describes as a media circus,
in which even members of the jury became celebrities, to the airing of today’s supposed “real-
life” dramas? During those tense days the public were all riveted to the television as they
witnessed Simpson’s elite team of lawyers, including Robert Kardashian successfully defend
their client to achieve a not-guilty verdict. Today the public is now all riveted to the television as
they witness the unprecedented success of Robert Kardashian’s off-spring, in particular the
vivacious, curvaceous and newly proclaimed global sex symbol Kim Kardashian during the now
internationally televised at- home “real-life” drama of Keeping Up With The Kardashians.
In fact, reality TV which originally consisted of game shows during daytime has now
become a discrete media communication in primetime that is increasing in popularity around the
globe and driving a significant trend towards an increase in cost efficient programming and one
that has demonstrated a pronounced evolution of content.
So omnipresent is the influence of American Reality TV that some shows, even though
conceptually originated in other countries (like Survivor which originated in Sweden as
Expedition Robinson or Who Wants to Be a Millionaire or The Weakest Link which originated in

29
England or Big Brother which was a creation of Holland), only gained worldwide popularity
when they were launched from the United States.
And, it would appear that the popularity and credibility of Reality TV is forever
cemented in entertainment by having become institutionalized as a part of real life in films such
as Slum Dog Millionaire where the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire was a featured
thread throughout the entire film, where, Richard Dawson, the TV show host from Family Feud
lends credibility and authenticity as a game show host in the film Running Man and where The
Hunger Games was ultimately constructed as a live competitive game show for the viewing
pleasure of the elite in a futuristic society.
The advent of upgraded and enhanced daytime reality show concepts started in 1988
during a screenwriters strike. At the time, executives and producers were looking for material
and content to backfill the shows that were on strike. They were so successful and so economical
to produce, that the format was adapted for prime time and replaced many of the show formats
that had preceded them.

Reality-based television has been remarkably successful in audience ratings and in

syndication…Industry personal considers these programs to have emerged from documentary
practice and to have taken off during the six – months writers’ strike in 1988 when the networks
turned to them in order to fill airtime. (Steiger in Sobchack 1996:43)
Further, it is said that Reality TV shows make sense from an economic perspective
because they carry a moderate price tag compared to drama and even news and current affairs,
because the actors are initially paid so little. Some claim that the real origin of Reality TV is in
the accounting department who plans to minimize cost and maximize the audience….it’s all to
do with the cost of producing and obtaining the highest ratings possible.
Even though they are presented as real time spontaneous and realistic free flowing
broadcasts, it is a fact that almost all Reality TV shows are scripted and carefully edited before
airing so as to fascinate and to have maximum appeal to its intended audience. This is perhaps
the explanation for the fact that in addition to soap operas, Reality TV generates most of the
parasocial interaction and parasocial relationships on the part of the audience.
According to Bob Boden, Sr. VP Programming for the Game Show Network (GSN),….
Reality TV is like a game of chess…it’s very strategic where everything is scripted and
manipulated…and where there are redos if the reactions of the participants (actors) are not
what the producers want. …
In fact, for a 44- minute show, producers are filming approximately 900 hours of action.
Reality TV uses real people as “actors” who typically reflect the desirable 18-49
demographic age group to deliver the message. Reality TV is highly effective in accelerating the
blurring between fiction and reality because the audiences who can readily identify and
empathize with the “actors” think that all of their action is real when, in fact, most of it is
scripted and choreographed.
And, like in the original soap operas, the audience who has a fixation with gossip and
watching private and intimate moments of others is hooked from day one…they want to know
what’s going to happen in the next episode…they ultimately empathize with the participants and
envision themselves as being among the characters (i.e. this could happen to me), and,
inevitably, viewers compare themselves to the participants.
Reality Shows now come in as many genres and cover as many diverse subjects as other
forms of entertainment media with such topics as talent competitions (i.e. Dancing with the
Stars, America’s Got Talent, American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, The Voice, Duets);
food demonstrations and competitions (i.e. The Next Food Network Show, Master Chef,
Restaurant Wars, The Iron Chef); A day in the life of celebrities and celebrity wannabes (i.e.
Keeping up with the Kardashians, Julianna and Bill, the Osbornes, Jersey Shore ); social values
(i.e. Teen Mom, Bachelor and Bachelorette, Bristol Palin’s Life’s a Tripp); survival (i.e.
Survivor, The Longest Race ) and; daring bouts with nature (i.e. The Deadliest Catch) .

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 Audiences can witness “everyday” people who ultimately become like true celebrity role
models and authoritative key opinion leaders who are often times used to deliver a message,
lending immediate credibility, these “actors” actually become perceived star celebrities whereby
audiences even aspire to become like them by mimicking their behavior and by imagining that
they too can, one day, star in their own Reality TV show.
Many popular and growing Reality TV shows are based upon a competition among the
actors. Americans learn to be competitive from their earliest childhood where although the
group has to work together, inevitably there has to be a winner (i.e. Spelling Bees, Chili Cook-
offs, etc.). But, according to Bob Boden, Reality TV takes competition to a higher level.
In fact, currently trending among the Reality TV shows is the highly interactive
participation of the audience that can actually determine the fate of the “actors”. In addition to
talent shows where the audience can select the winner by voting for their favorite participants
leading them to ultimate victory (American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, Duets, The
Voice, Dancing With the Stars, etc.), now the audience can actually dictate the action for future
episodes (Glass House).
However, this phenomenon can become problematic when a vulnerable audience begins
to emulate the actions of the Reality TV stars when the themes and content of the Reality TV
shows become adversarial and hostile to the “actors, ultimately culminating in what can
constitute verbal or physical abuse.
Verbal abuse is used in television, movies, music lyrics, and in many cases at home much to the
detriment of children who learn that “bullying” is a way of life. Today’s Reality TV shows ridicule and
humiliate the losers. Where traditionally (in the 1950’s and 1960’s) both the public and the game show
host rooted for the contestant, they now are ganging up and often times verbally and sometimes
physically abusing him.
Certain Reality TV shows stress the notion of surveillance and being watched all while being
built around the idea that “conflict sells” as they virtually pit the participants one against the other, often
creating mock fights in the studio. In fact, as many as 30 thousand people from various and diverse
backgrounds and ethnicities can be interviewed to be cast as potential “actors” because producers realize
that often times diversity brings conflict.
As the titles of the shows indicate they have as their objective to weed out and stomp out the
weak (The Weakest Link, Dog Eat Dog, American Idol, The Apprentice, Survivor, The Cut, The Bachelor,
etc.). This format is mimicked in other countries: for example, in Romania, TV shows such as the ones
hosted by Dan Negru have been criticized for being excessively mean and cruel for stereotyping minority
groups and women.
One could even conclude that Reality TV actors are behaving in a more aggressive,
judgmental, lascivious and meaner way during the filming of their television shows. One could
also observe that in these instances when the studio audience who is interacting and participating
more overtly with the actors is watching this more aggressive, judgmental, lascivious and meaner
action, such as in The Jerry Springer Show, the studio audience, as a consequence , ends up
rooting for more outrageous and more injurious behavior.
This phenomenon begs us to ask where and how are the parameters set today in Reality
TV shows? Who is to say the studio audience is not the show? And, finally, where is Diderot’s
“fourth wall”?
In a similar and perhaps more disturbing vein the dystopic vision of the future of Reality
TV portends for both actors and by consequence the audience to take on greater and greater risk,
danger and humiliation for the sake of profit, power and fame.
Finally, perhaps an unintended consequence of Reality TV is the interference with
evolutionary mate selection. This goes for all shows that portray glamour, sex and mating but it
is most concrete and tangible in shows like Bachelor, Bachelorette, Millionaire Matchmaker and
even Dancing with the Stars.

The Americanization of Culture

The momentum of the American media “cultural” machine which started in the early 20th
Century has continued for almost one hundred years but because of the advent of global
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communications and the internet, the cultural machine seems to be going faster and stronger on a
daily basis. Today, we are witness to shear domination of American media influence on the
world and on today’s youth.
According to Gitlin, in the second half of the 1980’s, of the total revenue for television
and film in Hollywood, export sales increased from 30% to 40% of the total. This is a direct
result of the deregulation of export sales and the true expansion and exploitation of American
media around the world. (Gitlin, 2002)
So what has globalization done to the vision of Marshall and McLuhan’s Global Village?
If there is a village, it speaks American. it wears jeans, drinks Coke, eats at the golden
arches, walks on swooshed shoes, plays electric guitar, recognizes Mickey Mouse, James Dean,
E.T., Bart Simpson, R2-D2, and Pamela Anderson. (Gitlin, 2002:176)
American culture, as portrayed by the entertainment media, is so overwhelming,
especially in smaller countries where America is still ingrained in people’s perception as a
country they, for generations, dreamt of as an ideal, that youth risk to abandon their traditional
culture and traditional values as being provincial and insignificant.
Popular culture ‘means’ what its users think and feel it means. For minority populations
everywhere American movies and music can be taken up as cultural counterweights against the
local powers. French teenagers of North African origin listen to American music and adopt
American slang. I’ve seen the world Bronx spray-painted on a wall in Amsterdam, were no doubt
it affirms the down-home ‘badness’ of young people who have never been anywhere near the
terrestrial Bronx but have taken to heart some images from movies or videos (Gitlin, 2002, pp.
203-204)
This type of cultural dominance can also backfire and have unexpected manifestations.
On April 16, 2006, CNN reported and showed video footage of a German gunnery sergeant who
was instructing his soldier before going into battle:
You are in the Bronx. A black van is stopping in front of you. Three African- Americans
are getting out and they are insulting your mother in the worst ways, now act.
The soldier then fires his machine gun several times and yells ”mother fucker” several
times in English. The instructor then tells the soldier to curse even louder.
This scene has obviously more to do with the entertainment media that both these
soldiers consume and their translation into the particular reality they live than with any effective
and useful infantry training that the German army needs.
Another interesting social problem that American cultural domination can raise is in the
area of evolutionary competition. Dill quotes from evolutionary psychology that…
… while men are attracted to youthful women because they are more likely to conceive
and give birth to healthy children, women are primarily attracted to men who have the resources
and the social status to provide and protect the family and the children. While humans are
hardwired for this kind of competition in natural circumstances where they interact with real live
people like themselves, media has entered new, different and artificial criteria…(Dill,2009)
Based on the research of evolutionary psychologists about human priorities and mate
selection, Dill explains that in the past, nature provided the competition that individuals were
facing in looking for mates. Whereas now, it is the media that exposes people en mass to the
“desirable others” posing impossible standards.
Now, it would seem, that people compare their desirability and market value with icons
such as Angelina Jolie or Bill Gates who Dill is right to call unfair competition.
Dill goes on saying:
How can we compete with the best in the world? What does this do to our sense of self-
worth and desirability. (Dill, 2009:18-19)
In fact, we may see in the course of one hour of screen time, competition at a level our
ancestors were not likely to see even in the course of one lifetime (Dill 2009:18)
Imagine how this problem is compounded and exacerbated and how it affects the
viewer’s self- esteem when the media consumer is the recipient of exported American

32
entertainment media emphasizing this idealized imagery and is potentially even more vulnerable
because he is even further removed, culturally, linguistically and economically from this world
of glamour and wealth. How much deeper is the sentiment of self worth eroded?

The Importance of Visual and Media Literacy and the Case for the Humanities in
Education

Potter advocates media literacy as the best way to counter-act negative media effects.
If we don’t know how to read, we cannot get much out of the print media. If we have
trouble understanding visual and narrative conventions, we cannot get much out of television or
film. (Potter, 2001, p.4)
Potter compares accumulated personal knowledge to building high towers that allow us a
broad perspective of the area we are looking at.
Media professor Paul Messaris finds visual literacy to be of paramount importance:
…visual education might make a viewer more resistant to the manipulations attempted
by TV commercials, magazine advertising, political campaigns, and so on. In other words, even
if learning about the visual devices used in picture – based media does not have any effect on a
viewer’s comprehension of pictures or on one’s other cognitive abilities, it might still make the
viewer more aware of how meaning is created visually – and therefore less likely to be taken in
by abuses of this process. (Messaris,1994:3)
Messaris goes on to futher say that visual literacy may enhance the aesthetic experience:
…awareness of the ways in which visual media give rise to meaning and elicit viewers’
responses can also be seen as providing a basis for informed aesthetic appreciation. Knowing
how visual effects are achieved may lessen the vicarious thrills we might otherwise derive from
visual media, but such knowledge is self – evidently a prerequisite for the evaluation of artistic
skill. (Messaris 1994:3)
Education and the ability to critically view mass media are even more critical at a time
when the border between fiction and reality is intentionally blurred by the media industry.
It is my belief that the on-going de-emphasis and ultimately the neglect of the study of
the humanities in high school education, which in the USA can be traced back to the 1950’s and
1960’s, is partly to be blamed for today’s youth’s lack of critical ability to relate to a narrative
presented both visually or in writing.
As expressed by Thomas Munro, the pioneer of empirical aesthetics in America,
Even the ‘progressive wing of recent educators, consciously revolting from the classical,
aristocratic education of yesterday, has tended toward a heavy emphasis on social and economic
realism, often at the expense of imaginative art. The latter it sometimes condemns as ‘escape
from reality,’ and many of its leaders would restrict the study of art to realistic portrayals of the
contemporary social scene. Thus, where as the old classical education at least paid some
attention to the Bible and to Greek and Latin literature, with the rich content of myth, fantasy
and folklore, the modern education gives the child comparatively little of these cultural
traditions, indispensible for appreciation of past art. (Munro, 1956:40)

The distancing in education from cultural heritage both in art, literature and music has
left today’s youth cut- off from tradition and the frame of reference offered by history. In
addition, today’s youth is as a consequence often unable to discern between fact and fiction and
therefore to accept uncritically the new mythologies presented to him by movies or interactive
video games. How audiences are emotionally affected by narrative depends to a large degree not
only on the accumulated individual experience but also on the vicarious collective experience
that, in most cultures, have traditionally been handed down from one generation to the next.
For the first time in the history of man it is apparent that the world, the technology, and
the values of a parent will not be the same as his child’s world, technology, and values. It has
never been true that values and the cultural organization were absolutes. It has, though, been an

33
effective assumption that, because the rate of change was slow enough, a culture could survive
the truths of one generation being passed on to the next. (Toch, 1969)
But even if the new generation were to give up on the knowledge of traditional stories,
classical education, mythology, religion, folklore and history, they have not given up on
spirituality, curiosity or fantasy. The danger is that the lack of education in the humanities
creates a vacuum which will be filled by the “new mythologies” created by the mass
entertainment media and fall upon brains unequipped to critically scrutinize and sort through it.
These undiscriminating hungry minds will also be ripe to absorb all kinds of conspiracy theories.
The reason why people in our civilization should always have the possibility of studying
the classics is, quite simply, that people in our past have cultivated the classics. For in the
classical heritage we have an area of metaphor, a common market of symbols and ideas that
transcends the boundaries of both nations and periods in a way national literature never can.
(Gombrich,1999 :14)
My intention in this paper has not been to review all that was said or written on the
subject but rather to create a platform for a discussion. I have brought pertinent arguments from
different aspects of the debate regarding media effects and sought out different examples, but, do
not claim them to have been exhaustive. My interest was rather in reviewing different examples
to show the different facets of the problem.
I have tried to show different aspects of the problematic relationship of the audience and
entertainment media as it appears from different points of view, just as one would see different
planes and surfaces when circumnavigating a complex abstract work of sculpture.
My intention was not necessarily to offer a solution to an age old, persisting and yet
constantly changing problem, but rather to explore its complexity and its different
ramifications, historical, philosophical, psychological, social, and aesthetic. Perhaps it can serve
as a starting point for a discussion as it advocates the necessity of inter -disciplinary
collaboration on this subject.

Notes
1
In this context it is worth noting that one of the first films that portrayed a school
shooting, Lindsay Anderson’s If…. (1968), has never inspired any copycat killing. I believe this
is because, in spite of the detailed planning of the armed revolt by the three boarding school
protagonists in If…., and the subsequent ambush and shooting of students, teachers, and
representatives of the establishment in the courtyard of the school, the act is so political and so
imbued with the ideology of the youth at that time, that it could not inspire an individual or a
gang of copycats with criminal intent as it could, for example for Basketball Diaries or Natural
Born Killers.
2
This style of painting was subsequently called trompe l’oeil, literally meaning to
deceive or to fool the eye and flourished for a while in both the Baroque period, especially in
mural paintings, and in the 20th Century photo- realism.
3
I can add from my personal experience that when I started watching this film, after it had
started, without knowing anything about it, and having turned the TV on during a scene where a
journalist is reporting from the deck of an aircraft carrier about movements of the Soviet army in
the Persian Gulf, I was for a long moment convinced that WWIII had started.
4
Clinton on Bauer. http://www.humanrightsfirst.org; Justice Scalia defends Bauer. The
Wall Street Journal, June 20, 2007; Hollywood get’s it wrong on torture and interrogation. The
Jack Bauer Story http://wwwprimetimetorture.org
5
Read more:http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2012/01/19/mark-wahlberg-insults-
11-families-who-is-most-insensitive-celebrity
6
August, 1914 The Times of London, disseminated by the Bureau de la Presse and
published in September 1915 La Rive Gauche.

34
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 Fictional femininities
Images of girls’ independence and success
in the Bulgarian TV series “Home of glass”
Valentina Gueorguieva - St.Kliment Ohridski”
University, Sofia, Bulgaria

Why has feminism become so serious and stiff that young girls do not take it to be their
own cause? What is wrong in wanting to be independent, strong, and successful? And why are
feminist teachers and academics in universities so boringly serious about young girls wanting the
wrong things, such as prince charming, marriage and the whole paraphernalia of weddings? One
of the answers to these questions might be that media and popular culture has created an image
of feminism that makes it unattractive to young women. Or that somehow provides a substitute
for the feminist fight.
In what follows, I will offer a close reading of the TV series “Home of glass”, outlining
two main female characters – Alex and Siana – who are taken as examples of the images of girls’
independence and success created by the media. My reading is inspired by the theoretical model
developed by Angela McRobbie, in her analyses of film and popular culture, where she sketches
the four figures of contemporary womanhood. Following McRobbie, I will adopt the more
pessimistic post-feminism stance of critical cultural studies, as opposed to the more assertive
readings of TV series on behalf of the researchers in the third wave of feminism (Johnson 2007).

Post-feminist Femininity
In her recent book, The Aftermath of Feminism (2009) Angela McRobbie examines how
feminism is instrumentalised, that is how elements of feminism are incorporated in political and
institutional life, but most of all in media and popular culture, in order to propagate ideas and
models about young women as a kind of substitute for feminism. This strategy of replacing the
feminist movement with a sort of mediatized or popular feminism, according to her, has to
“ensure that a new women’s movement will not re-emerge” (McRobbie, 2009, 1). The moment
is rightly chosen since after the decline of the second wave feminism, the aggressiveness and
stiffness of the older generation of activists has made feminism “quite unpalatable to younger
women”. The reasons for the backlash are examined in the first two chapters.
But there is more to it than the seeming fact that the goals of the second wave of
feminism have been achieved. Young women are fed with the promise of freedom and
independence, of equality by participating in the economic market, in education and
employment, but most of all in consumer culture and civil society. These are all promises that
come to substitute the invention and expression of their own agency and politics. The
individualist values of contemporary society contribute to this displacement of authentic interest.
In actuality the idea of feminist content disappeared and was replaced by aggressive
individualism, by a hedonistic female phallicism in the field of sexuality, and by obsession with
consumer culture which in this current book I see as playing a vital role in the undoing of
feminism. (McRobbie, 2009, 5)
In the post-feminist phase, media and popular culture has produced the codes for female
individualisation, as exemplified by characters like Bridget Jones, Ally McBeal or the girls from
Sex and the City. These are definitely not anti-feminist movies, on the contrary, “they have taken
feminism into account and implicitly or explicitly ask the question, ’what now’?”(McRobbie
2009, 21). These movies and TV serials present young, beautiful, successful, strong and
independent women who somehow are still unsatisfied and want to reclaim their femininity –
their “inherent quality” of being silly, sometimes clumsy, and emotional, obsessed with
shopping, or cherishing fantasies of romance and marriage. “Feminism, it seems, robbed women
of their most treasured pleasure, i.e. romance, gossip and obsessive concerns about how to catch

39
a husband (…).” (McRobbie 2009, 21) The implicit suggestion in these characters is that
somehow the loudly proclaimed feminism, by force of educating young women into wanting the
right thing, i.e. being independent and successful, has supressed or replaced their own simple and
innocent desires – being girlish and playing dumb, even though self-mocking and self-
disparaging (like Bridget Jones, but also like Jane Austin’s Elizabeth Bennett), longing for
romantic moments or seeking enjoyment. And after all showing oneself as vulnerable, which is
so appealing to men.
In chapter three McRobbie examines four concepts of post-feminist femininity, created
by the popular culture and serving as ‘technologies’ (in the sense of Michel Foucault, 1975)
which offer to young women possibilities of freedom and change. These are the ‘post-feminist
masquerade’, the ‘working girl’, the ‘phallic girl’, and the ‘global girl’.
The post-feminist masquerade, as a figurative media representation of femininity, has
emerged from the fashion-beauty complex. It plays on the physical appearance to the extent that
no part of the female body is left unattended by practices of self-maintenance and clothing, thus
embodying a ‘complete perfection’. It enacts a spectacular, excessive hyper femininity.
Moreover, traditional feminine practices of self-maintenance are reinstated as norms, but this is
not directed at men’s approval, rather this is a declaration of free choice. It is also a nervous
gesture – women participating in the world of work, competing with men, and employed in
power settings like corporative institutions, are afraid of losing their femininity. According to
this version of media-constructed femininity, young women fear that their recognition as equals
and appropriation of power potentially makes them not desirable to their male counterparts.
But the theatricality of the masquerade, the silly hat, the too short skirt, the too high
heels, are once again means of emphasising, as they did in classic Hollywood comedies, female
vulnerability, fragility, uncertainty and deep anxiety, indeed panic, about the possible forfeiting
of male desire through coming forward as a woman. (McRobbie, 2009, 67)
The vision of the young woman as fashion and beauty victim intersects with another
figure – the well-educated working girl. Women’s participation in the labour market, their
success and economic independence which grants them access to consumer culture and the world
of fashion, is the result of their inclusion in the educational system, where they now gain the
upper hand over young men who seem to be discriminated in this domain. What this system
encourages is “willingness, motivation and aptitude on the part of young women”, but also
“talent, determination and desire to win” (McRobbie, 2009, 75). These qualities, encouraged in
the educational system are sustained and further developed in the work place. But somehow
girls’ success and young men’s failure in school is not transmitted in the labour market, where
young women lose the bid for the pay check or are covered by a glass ceiling. And there is more,
as shown on the example of the film Working Girl, analysed by McRobbie. Successful women in
the world of work lose the battle when it comes to men and sexuality. Thus Katherine, the main
character, who has excellent qualifications and a successful career, is beaten in love by her
subordinate Tess, who is “nervous, unsure of herself, and eager to please”(p.79) and manages to
steal Katherine’s boyfriend and position in the same time. In the world of work, young women
have to resort to the post-feminist masquerade to regain their femininity and also withhold their
career positions.
The third figure exemplifying freedom and independence is the phallic girl. She
appropriates the freedoms, associated with masculine sexual behaviour, taking sex to be a “light-
hearted pleasure, recreational activity, hedonism, sport, reward and status”. She adopts the
traditionally masculine habits of
heavy drinking, swearing, smoking, getting into fights, having casual sex, flashing her
breasts in public, getting arrested by the police, consumption of pornography, enjoyment of lap-
dancing clubs and so on, but without relinquishing her own desirability to men, indeed for whom
such seeming masculinity enhances her desirability since she shows herself to have a similar
sexual appetite to her male counterparts. (McRobbie, 2009, 83-4).

40
 This hedonistic style of sexuality is no doubt encouraged by the consumer culture,
offering everything a girl would need to overturn male domination. Thus it is a form of “licensed
transgression”. In a way, it is a better, more assertive alternative than the masquerade version of
vulnerable femininity, created by the world of fashion. But this is also “a tightrope to walk”,
since it asks from girls to perform masculinity which somehow manages to be femininely
appealing. In media interpretations, this version of femininity can be read as a provocation to
feminism. The behaviour of the phallic girl provokes sexist insults on behalf of men, these girls
are reprimanded for their uncontrolled transgression in the language of misogyny. In the figure
of the phallic girl, as propagated by media and consumer culture, patriarchy strikes back.
Finally, in the figure of the global girl the production of commercial femininities is
propagated in the developing world and in countries undergoing transformation. The young girl
is seen here as the bearer of social change, but also of the values of individualism and consumer
culture. Popularized by the advertising campaigns of Benetton, but also by international female
magazines like Elle, Vogue, Grazia, it expresses a kind of global femininity, where young girls
from different races and cultures are invited to participate in the pleasures of the fashion
industry, by earning their economic independence through higher qualifications (and western
diplomas), rejecting racial and sexual hierarchies by the aggression of the phallic girl. These girls
travel a lot for their education, but also participate in the international labour market. They
exemplify freedom and success on the local level and thus become the bearers of western
femininity.
In the next section, I will try to illustrate the thesis about the mediatized version of
feminism on the examples of two female characters in a popular Bulgarian TV series, using
McRobbie’s four ideal-typical constructions of the images of young womanhood.

Young girls’ freedom, success and desire in a home made of glass

“Home of glass” (in Bulgarian “Staklen dom”), is produced and aired by the commercial
channel bTV. Its first season was broadcasted in the summer of 2010 and by the fall of 2011 four
seasons were offered to the TV audience. It is a family drama, relating the story of the owners of
the first commercial centre (or mall) in Sofia, hence the title of the series. The four seasons aired
so far, narrate the conflicts between families, their backstage games, betrayals, fights, wins and
losses, vengeance and reconcilement. None of the families survives the vicissitudes: marriages
are broken and reconstituted, relationships within couples and between parents and children are
disturbed and then again strengthened. The metaphor of the home made of glass conveys also the
idea of the fragility of human relationships and of the instability of the family as institution in a
world of individualization and consumerism.
Alex and Siana are the two younger female characters in the series. Daughters of the
owners of the mall, young, clever and beautiful, they are best friends from the start to the latest
episodes of the series, though their friendship also endures some torments. Alex’s character is
best characterized as “papa’s princess”. She is the 17-years old daughter of Atanassovi (the
majoritarian shareholders of the mall) and spends her time almost exclusively in the mall,
shopping or hanging out with her friends, frequently missing from school. She is in a relationship
with Danny, the son of the other main shareholders family – Kassabovi, who is also her
classmate. In the pilot episode, she misses her French lesson to go to her boyfriend’s house and
have sex with him. She often fights with her mother and takes advantage of her father’s fondness
for her. She doesn’t have a pronounced interest in anything but shopping and parties. She often
misbehaves, acting as a spoiled kind who gets everything she wants.
Her first lesson in life is when she discovers that Danny was unfaithful to her, leaves him
and falls in love with Harry, the son of the chief of security and the hairdresser in the mall. Harry
serves as driver to Atanassovi and is secretly in love with Alex. Alex’s parents disapprove of
their relationship and they have to keep it secret, which makes it even more romantic and
amusing for Alex. Her mother Elena – a selfish and arrogant corporate PR, social climber and
material girl, who cheats on her husband and seeks every opportunity to make the big financial

41
hit to independence – points out that Harry is way under Alex’s class. But since Alex does not
seem to care, Elena sets up a trial for Harry making him quit Alex, forced by Elena’s tread that
she will fire his parents. It is in the scene when Harry is confronting her mother when the essence
of Alex’s education is formulated: “Now does it feel good to see her suffering? Or is this a part
of your education in becoming a monster like her mother? (…) You should try and learn to love
sometimes, it’s not bad.”(Season 1, Episode 8) The young couple withstands the test, and Alex’s
relationship with Harry, but also with her father Hristo, grows stronger. It is Alex’s best friend
Siana who helps her make the first step to reconciliation with Harry.
Siana is the daughter of Nikolai Zhekov, the executive manager and also stockholder in
the mall. Her character is the one who undergoes the most serious transformations in the series –
in the first two seasons she is 20, confused, emotionally unstable and lonely; three years later, in
seasons 3 and 4, she is confident and independent, mother of a two-year old boy.
In the pilot episode, Siana is introduced to the audience sitting alone and confused in her
home, holding a positive pregnancy test. Soon it becomes clear that she is having a secret
relationship with her best friend’s boyfriend, Danny. As soon as he learns that she is pregnant, he
is frightened and pushes her away. Throughout the season his attitude is ambiguous, at times
frankly rude, at times faking a considerate and loving relationship, trying to convince her to get
rid of the baby. Siana is tormented by his changes of mood, and never truly believes in his love
for her. She hesitates about the baby, and reschedules her abortion three times. Whenever Danny
is next to her she agrees about the abortion, whenever he leaves or she learns about his lies (he
promises to quit Alex but never does so) she decides to keep the baby. The hardest part is that
she cannot speak to anybody about her trouble. Her father is alienated, constantly missing or
busy at work. When she tries to approach him, he is either leaving, or anxious, or loses his
nerves. He is compensating his impotence at being a parent by giving her money. Her mother is
abroad (in fact, her mother never appears in the series). Her only close friend is Alex, who learns
accidentally about their affair and about the baby and quarrels with both of them. Siana feels
guilty and isolated. The next episodes show her alone with her diary, facing her father’s lack of
concern, her friends’ disapproval and Danny’s lies. It is the barman (and confidant for everybody
in the company) who spells out for her the reason for her being isolated and hated by everyone:
“It is not right what you are doing, it is not right that you are trying to blackmail Danny with this
baby.”(Season 1, Episode 8) In the final episode of the season, she finally takes the decision to
make an abortion. But it is too late, and she has to accept an illegal abortion. There are
complications and she almost loses her life. All of a sudden, trying to prevent her from the illegal
abortion and trying to save her life, Danny discovers that he has feelings for her. At the end of
the season he asks her to forgive him, and promises to stay with her and have family. She reveals
to him that according to the doctors she will no longer be able to have kids.
In season two, Siana’s father is imprisoned for his frauds, but leaves a substantial sum to
Siana. She lives alone in her father’s apartment and learns to be independent. Danny is by her
side cherishing the dream of creating a happy family with her. But it seems that she has not
learned the lesson she received in the previous episode of her life. She is still confused, and
traumatised. Her friends are tired by her depressions. She is obsessive with Danny, embarrasses
him with continuous reproaches, and one night resorts to self-injury (cuts her hand) to prevent
him from going to a party without her. Insisting repetitively that she is unable to have children
and hence is an invalid, she adopts the behaviour of a victim and makes him feel guilty.
Eventually he cheats on her and they split up on these grounds.
Happily for her, this is the way to her awakening and eventual recovery. She has a one-
night stand with the new barman, and soon after she falls for the ex-convict Charly, the “bad
boy” character in the series who is much older than her. Though their meetings are irregular and
their relationship is kept secret, they develop feelings for each other. In the final episode of the
season she learns that he has planned a bomb attack on the mall and denounces him. By a twist
of chance, she is the only victim of the attack, but has no serious injuries. In the hospital, she
discovers thаt she is pregnant.

42
 In seasons one and two, Siana is longing to have the real loving family she has never had
with her father, and strives to create a lasting relationship with Danny. She embraces the
traditional image of femininity as motherhood in a happy marriage, and suffers deeply when she
is deprived of this possibility. The promise of a long-term engagement with Danny is not helping
her get over the trauma of impossible motherhood. Consciously or not, she rejects this model
after Danny’s betrayal. In a conversation with Alex, she discovers that being a woman is more
than being a mother, and that she can be attractive to men even without the promise of family
life. “Are you crazy, do you know how many guys do not think about babies and family, they
will be fighting for you!”, Alex says trying to raise her spirits after the separation with Danny
(season 2, Episode 13). Siana discovers casual sex and embraces a different version of femininity
– being desirable for her equal sexual appetite. Curiously, it is in her episode as a phallic girl that
she regains the promise of being a mother.
During the whole season two, Alex is split between two sets of moral values: the high-
standard consumerist values of her own family, and the rebelling anti-consumerist values of her
boyfriend Harry. The conflict with her parents is aggravating: they retrieve her credit card first,
then her mobile phone, and then they hire a new driver to spy on her and follow her everywhere
she goes. In a desperate attempt to put her back in track, her parents threaten to send her to study
in Besancon, a small town in France she has never heard of. “We decided with your father that
since who have no purpose and ideas in your life, somebody has to set up your goals”, Elena said
when the Besancon prospect is announced (Season 2, Episode 5).
Alex and Harry have a parallel dream – to escape on a sunny surfers’ island away from
civilization, where they will live in a tent on the beach and won’t have to buy anything. Alex
leaves home and starts working as a bar tender to gather money for their escape. Despite his
ideological resistance, Harry enters the ranks of security guards under his father’s management.
They both move in Siana’s huge apartment, to live with her and Danny. Everything seems
perfect, if it were not for Siana’s crises and Alex’s one irresistible weakness – shopping. She
spends all their savings on a crazy shopping tour one day. They have to restart with savings and
the departure is postponed, for the first time. The next time it is in order to have more money to
buy a more “luxury tent”, as Alex suggests. Then it is for a camper, and so on. Actually Alex has
doubts about the departure; she feels that it is not exactly her dream. “Well, I think I can get
Harry’s idea about the island, but you, what will you do without a shower, a beautician and
without credit card, what will you do?”, Danny says to Alex when she grumbles about the cheap
beer and junk food dinner. She has discovered the world of poor people and is not sure that she
wants to live in it. By the end of the season, she surprisingly receives an offer to join the team of
her favourite musical TV presenter. She has to give an answer immediately and jumps in without
discussing it with Harry. Later she tells him that this is her dream, her island in a way. He
understands and encourages her to live her dream. The same night he leaves her a note and hits
the road to the island with the camper he has bought for their dream.
Alex is having troubles with the well-educated, working girl formula of femininity.
Motivation and aptitude are definitely not her best qualities. At the same time, she is raised in
high consumer standards and will sooner or later face the question of economic independence.
And she wants to be famous. So far, she has not dealt with the issue of being an adult – she
strives for freedom, but is still dependent on her parents.
In seasons three and four Alex’s issues with independence and luxury are aggravating. In
the beginning of season three (the plot pictures the familiar characters three years later), Alex is a
media star – she is the famous young female presenter of the musical TV show where she had
started. She is in an open-ends relationship with her colleague Edi, the one who once upon a time
invited her to join the show. She spends her time between parties, giving autographs to fans, and
light-hearted work in the studio, where she is the charming sexy presenter. She is being rude to
her (now separated) parents and ignores her former friends who are now “way out of her league”.
We see her in an episode of transgression when she is arrested by the police for parking
violation, drunk driving, insulting a policeman and trying to bribe him. It all happens in front of

43
a bar when she tries to get in her car to move to another party, but the police are there with a
ticket for unauthorised parking. And since she is a star, the scene is surrounded by paparazzi
with video cameras. She shouts, swears, tries to escape, and hits the policemen. The video is
shown in the morning TV emissions. She strikes back with a video comment on her own video,
which is left without comment. But when she shoots a second comment video, in a provocative
swimsuit, with aggressive language and arrogant attacks against the presidency campaign of her
step father, she is fired by the TV producers for her scandalous behaviour (“You are a complete
downfall”, her boss says when firing her, Season 3, Episode 4). She sinks into depression and
indulges in drinking, cocaine and sex with strangers. Her father’s attempt to bring her back to
reason has no effect, since he himself is not a good example (he is having a bad period after the
separation with Elena). It is her old boyfriend Harry (miraculously back from his island) who
saves her from attempted rape one of her crazy nights, and helps her get rid of the drug
addiction.
But Harry belongs to another world. When he tries to live with her at her parents’ house
(they invite him to stay, because they cannot cope with her addition), the conflict between the
family’s standards and Harry’s rebel against consumerism is deepened. Alex is also tormented
by her parents’ control and Harry’s lack of trust. Because she is an addict, they never leave her
on her own and constantly suspect her. She feels “imprisoned” and runs away from home in a
romantic flight for freedom. It is Charlie – Siana’s “bad boy” lover – who spell is out for her:
“You do not really have a problem. (…) You had nothing to do, you had the money, and you
started with cocaine. (…) You just do not know what to do with your freedom, kid!” (Season 4,
episode 5) At the end of season four, Alex settles up with Harry in his parents’ house. She tries
to get back to school and finish her journalism degree.
At first sight, it seems that Alex’s rebel is against her own world, the world of fame and
beauty. It is exactly this same world that encouraged in her the excessive taste for enjoyment,
unconstrained youthful “freedom” from all norms of conduct, success, and spectacular (media-
star) femininity. Her issue with parental values (the world of consumption) intersects with a
deeper problem – her way of conceiving “freedom” leads her to nothing. “You were right, I
really have no purpose in life”, she admits to her mother in a moment of intimacy (Season 3,
Episode 5). She still has to discover her way of being an independent woman.
For Siana, the issue of independence is miraculously solved during the three years gap
between the final events in season two and the opening episode of season three. In her first
appearance, we see her holding a baby cup in one of her hands and a spoon in the other, a little
blue jacket under one arm and a telephone between her year and shoulder. She wears business
shirt and pants, and complains that the baby sitter is late again, trying to solve some urgent
working problems on the phone. Siana is a single parent and has a successful career as the new
mall’s PR. In season three, she is the ideal working girl. Picturing her in the moment of juggling
with the baby cup and the telephone, in a perfect business dress, is re-inserting her image in the
post-feminist masquerade. She barely handles the two roles (of the mother and the working girl),
she needs help. She is fragile. Even now when she is strong and independent, she is vulnerable.
When Danny is back from New York on the occasion of his mother’s second marriage, he
decides to abandon his studies abroad for her. Prince charming is back and fulfils the dream of a
happy family.
Siana’s major fear in season three is that she doesn’t want to know who the biological
father of her child is. Her life was so turbulent at the time of conception, that she really does not
know who the father is. She is happy with Danny, and wants to have him by her side. Danny
loves her son and wants to raise him as his own kid. He completes the necessary legal action.
They are officially accepted as a couple with kid by the older families of Kassabovi and
Atanassovi. The only thing that might ruin their magic is an eventual discovery of the biological
father. And he shows up – Charlie is performing a secret DNA test and proves that he is the
father. At first, Siana pushes him away and insists to hide this embarrassing truth. Charlie and
Danny agree, but Danny suggests that living in a lie is not a good thing for the kid, and for

44
everybody. Eventually, Siana allows Charlie to spend time with his son, and Danny announces
the truth to their parents. Though it is peculiar, it is a happy and stable marriage-without-
marriage.
Everything seems to be perfect and in order. But Siana has to fight with her daemons
from the past. In season four her father is released from prison and tries to regain her confidence.
She has not yet forgiven him. Besides, he has committed a crime against Danny, and if she wants
to keep Danny she has to reject her father. Though she is happily in love with Danny, she fears
that she might fall again for Charlie, and plays a risky game living with Danny and frequently
meeting Charlie to let him spend more time with his son. In a momentary impulse, she has sex
with Charlie. She has prince charming by her side, but is fatally attracted to a bad boy. At the
end of season four, we see her again guilty and confused.

Conclusion
The series employs three different models of femininity: the post-feminist masquerade,
the working girl and the phallic girl.
Both Alex and Siana participate in the post-feminist masquerade, dressing up and
performing the role of a complete beauty, but somehow always fragile and in need of help. In her
teenage years, Alex is a fashion victim under papa’s protection. Then she is a media star, but in a
moment of brisk and spectacular failure (for which she is the only one to blame) she falls from
the stars. And is saved by her boyfriend.
In the third season, Siana is economically independent. We see her in the figure of the
working girl. She is bold, successful, and beautiful. But this image is inseparable from the image
of the single parent. It is the fact of being a mother that makes her vulnerable, according to the
plot. And her old daemons too.
At a certain point, both girls pass through the phase of female phallicism. In the case of
Siana, it is a transgression from the family values and the dream of motherhood that she is
deprived of. In the case of Alex, it is an expression of her impossibility to define “freedom”, and
her way to independence from parents. It can also be read as a transgression of the values of
consumer culture.
But Siana is never “healed” of her dream of happy family with prince charming, never
recovers from her fatal attraction to “bad bays” as a legacy of her phallicism. She is not
comfortable with either of these two roles. On the example of Siana the spectator sees that being
independent is also being caught in between different orders of values: of economic
independence, of motherhood, of sexual enjoyment. Her drama is that she cannot find a way out
of this dilemma.
On the example of Alex we see that spectacular female success is risky. Even when a girl
fulfils her dream of fame, it turns out that it was empty. And maybe “freedom and
independence” was not a good promise for young girls. Playing with these models of femininity,
the TV series addresses a critical question to feminism: “Isn’t that what you, feminists, wanted?
Now see what you’ve got.”

Bibliography
Foucault, Michel (1975) Surveiller et punir. Naissance de la prison. Paris, Gallimard.
Johnson, Merri Lisa, ed. (2007) Third Wave Feminism and Television: Jane Puts It in a Box. London,
I.B.Tauris & Co.
McRobbie, Angela (2009) The Aftermath of Feminism: Gender, Culture, and Social Life. London, Sage
Publications.

45
 The Uncomfortable Hero: J.R.R. Tolkien’s
and Peter Jackson’s Aragorn in Dialogue with Éowyn and Arwen
Janka Kascakova, Catholic University in Ruzomberok, Slovakia

May I not now spend my life as I will?

(Éowyn, The Return of the King, 767)

For all her wisdom and lineage

she could not forbear to plead with him to stay yet for a while.
(App. A, v, 1037)

As has already been stated several times, the Aragorn of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and
that of Peter Jackson’s film adaptations of the novel are not exactly the same character. 1 While
the former was mostly drawn from the traditions and culture of (early) Middle Ages (Ford and
Reid, 2009) and is firmly attached to the logic and environment of Tolkien’s mythical world, the
latter is designed to please the contemporary public and is accordingly modified and modernized.
There are many controversies about these and other alterations which are not likely to end soon,
often disregarding the fact that books and films are two different kinds of art and that, as James
G. Davis put it, “relying as they do on visual images, films can add a great deal to the discussion
and understanding of books” (2008, 55).
Although this paper also engages in a discussion about both the novel and the films, its
aim is not to enumerate the differences between them or criticize Jackson for his choices. Its
ambition is to analyze whether this “downsizing” of Aragorn applies and how it is reflected on
the two special occasions in which even the original Aragorn is out of his familiar and firm
ground: these are Aragorn’s interactions with Éowyn in Medusel and his wife Arwen on his
deathbed.
Tolkien’s Aragorn is a man that had been working tirelessly and for many years against
Sauron and towards his own kingship. Although he is not completely devoid of doubts and
sometimes questions his choices, his general aims and intentions are fixed and he pursues them
with great wisdom, experience and perseverance. He does not seem to speak much or needlessly
and his words are taken seriously by those who know him.2 He is experienced in the ways of his
world and, as such, is a very valuable companion and guide.
Yet, considering his environment and the hardships of his extraordinary life, which take
him into the worst battles and deepest troubles, it is no surprise there is one domain in which he
is rather clumsy, if not inexperienced – and that is in the world of women. The scarcity of
women in The Lord of the Rings, which has often been commented on3, seems to be, at least to
some extent, also a quality of that fictional world (although there must be more of them than the
book itself presents) and is definitely the reality of Aragorn’s life. It is of no surprise then that
the only times when his speech is doubted and seriously challenged are connected to women –
Éowyn and Arwen. In their presence, Aragorn’s words, although he himself keeps the outward

1
See for example Wiggins (2004), Morgan (2007)
2
Even his enemies recognize the strength that is hidden behind his shabby appearance, shrinking from the power of
his speech (the wild men in league with Orcs at Helm’s Deep, The Two Towers, 528) or of his mere gaze (as the evil
mouth of Sauron in front of the Black Gate, The Return of the King, 870)
3
The discussions about the role of women in The Lord of the Rings range from absolute condemnation of Tolkien
(and his work) as misogynistic to favourable critiques highlighting the admirable appearances of Galadriel and
Éowyn in The Lord of the Rings and many other active and interesting women in other works: as for example
Lúthien Tinúviel in The Silmarillion. Most of these discussions are outside the scope of this paper.

46
signs of composure and his usual determination, lose some of their potency and persuasive
power.
The meeting with Éowyn at Medusel proves very hard for Aragorn indeed. She is
obviously a kind of woman he has not met before in his life. What is more, she falls in love with
him and thus makes the whole situation even more difficult. Éowyn is an exceptional and brave
woman. She is unhappy and discontent, tied to her fate and unable to escape, bound in the cage
of traditions and restraints. In the novel, Aragorn and Éowyn meet only twice in Rohan (before
and after the battle at Helm’s Deep) and the second one of the two is arguably one of the most
intriguing parts of the novel.
Éowyn begs Aragorn to take her with him claiming she is “weary of skulking in the hills”
and wishing “to face peril and battle” (The Return of the King, 767). Aragorn appeals to the (for
him absolutely sacred) sense of duty and receives the most unexpected retort:
“Too often have I heard of duty,” she cried. “But am I not of the House of Eorl, a
shieldmaiden and not a dry-nurse? I have waited on faltering feet long enough. Since they falter
no longer, it seems, may I not now spend my life as I will?” (The Return of the King, 767)
Éowyn’s words spring from her heart and it is obvious that Tolkien sympathizes with her
rather than with Aragorn’s cautious answers. Every new argument he gives is rejected with more
and more spirit and Éowyn claims for herself the right to choose her path in life and her destiny.
As Marjorie Burns put it, her words “are written with a conviction that indicates how deeply
Tolkien sympathized with Éowyn and with her chaffing role” (2008, 143-144). And it is not only
Tolkien who sympathizes with her; Aragorn is obviously uneasy too, losing his firm ground.
Although his answers are reasonable and logical, and he is thoroughly within his role, it is her,
not him, with the stronger arguments. It seems as if in that moment some of the set rules and
persuasions of Aragorn’s world are shaken and he is well aware of the emptiness and inadequacy
of his words. Rather than actually persuading her about her place and duties, he is merely
calming her down and trying to dissuade her from her intentions. Because Aragorn, just like
Tolkien, may sympathize with her plea, yet he does not want her to follow him. He knows she is
in love with him and that it is for a wrong reason; not loving him, but the aura of independence
and great strength surrounding him: “in me she loves only a shadow and a thought: a hope of
glory and great deeds, and lands far from the fields of Rohan” (The Return of the King, 849).
But her blindness in love does not make her blind to the inefficiency of his words – she
clearly sees through him and her words fall very hard indeed.
All your words are but to say: you are a woman, and your part is in the house. But when
the men have died in battle and honour, you have leave to be burned in the house, for the men
will need it no more. But I am of the House of Eorl and not a serving-woman. I can ride and
wield blade, and I do not fear either pain or death. (The Return of the King, 767)
This discussion ended, Aragorn’s leaving of Éowyn is deeply troubled although “only
those who knew him well and were near to him saw the pain that he bore” (The Return of the
King, 768). It seems symbolical that immediately after this conversation Aragorn sets out on the
dreadful journey to the Paths of the Dead, where he is paradoxically much more persuasive and
in control than with Éowyn. Clearly, he is not afraid of challenge and hardships of any sort, once
they fall within the scope of his predestined path and training. On the Paths of the Dead Aragorn
is himself again, bearing a great burden and even supporting others, no matter how hard it is for
him. This is where he belongs, this is the journey that has lain in front of him for ages and he
knows what to do. But a discussion with a woman he is unable to help, and what is more, one
whose situation he unintentionally makes even worse, might prove a more challenging thing than
an army of dead he knew he would have to face one day.
The interaction between Aragorn and Éowyn in the film trilogy is much longer and
serves a rather different purpose. The key lines from the book dialogues were kept, but their
ordering and placement in the context of the film create a whole new meaning due to a different
purpose of the director and writers. The discussion concerning Éowyn’s fear of a cage does not
happen after the victory at Helm’s deep but before, and Éowyn does not only say that she can

47
wield a blade, Aragorn sees her use it and they cross swords. The ensuing dialogue could, at least
for a spectator unfamiliar with the book, seem a bit startling and unexpected and Éowyn’s words
are pronounced a bit matter-of-factly, losing some of their potency and the weight of Tolkien’s
Éowyn’s grief.

Aragorn: “You have some skill with a blade”.

Éowyn: “Women of this country learned long ago: those without swords can still die
upon them. I fear neither death nor pain.
Aragorn: “What do you fear, my lady?”
Éowyn: “A cage. To stay behind bars until use and old age accept them. And all chance
of valor has gone beyond recall or desire.”
Aragorn: “You are a daughter of kings, a shieldmaiden of Rohan. I do not think that
would ne your fate. (The Two Towers, scene 26)
Interestingly, it is not Éowyn herself here, but Aragorn, who calls her a ‘shieldmaiden of
Rohan’,4 in fact giving her encouragement she does not get from Tolkien’s Aragorn. But just as
in the book, here too his words sound more shallow than they usually do and his encouragement
is rather empty.
The film interaction between Aragorn and Éowyn in The Two Towers has a completely
new purpose to that in the novel. While in the latter there is never a shadow of doubt that Éowyn
will ever be successful in her love for Aragorn, the film counts on the audience being unfamiliar
with the book and suggests a love triangle between Aragorn, Arwen and Éowyn, keeping the
spectators in suspense as to which of the two will be his chosen one. The suspense is further
enhanced by an added scene of Arwen’s departure for the Grey Havens, inserted among the
scenes of Aragorn with Éowyn in Rohan, and by the fact that Arwen’s change of mind and return
to Rivendell does not occur until the last film, The Return of the King (scene 9).
Aragorn’s discussions with Éowyn in the film are less ceremonial and more frequent than
in the book. Éowyn’s love has more ground for flourishing, they get to talk about some ordinary
things and, an ingredient necessary for both the modern spectators and the growth of love, they
laugh together, which is in stark contrast with the stern and formal dialogues of the novel. It is
Aragorn who catches Éowyn in his arms when Gandalf is healing Théoden (The Two Towers,
scene 20) and it his he who comes and tucks her in while she sleeps, most unaccountably, not in
her room, but on some sofa in the house (The Return of the King, scene 7) – all this, arguably, to
enhance the love potential of an otherwise love-conflict-free story.
Further on, there is a scene in which Éowyn serves Aragorn a soup that looks (and
judging from Aragorn’s face also is) disgusting; it is quite funny but a rather gender-biased
addition (The Two Towers, scene 32). It corroborates the usual cliché that women in professions,
especially in typically male professions, lose their femininity (and cooking skills).
Most of these scenes, whether added or modified, help support the claim that Aragorn is
indeed “smaller in scope and lesser in nature” (Wiggins, 2004, 121); he is less supernatural and
stately and more of a modern man. He has human warmth in him that Tolkien’s Aragorn only
rarely betrays.
Some of Aragorn’s helplessness in the face of a woman remains in the film version too,
but his pain and suffering for Éowyn is less pronounced. This certainly results from the fact that
Éowyn’s situation and her fear of a cage are also comparatively less obvious. While Tolkien’s
Éowyn is a highly tragic character – distant, reserved, utterly alone and mostly characterized by
words like “cold”, “stern” and “white”, Jackson’s is “just” a very unhappy woman but still able
to laugh and take an intense interest in the well-being of others. However, her later attachment to
Faramir, within the development of her character in the film, is arguably more natural in contrast
to the book which seemed to have indicated she would die heroically and tragically and her love
for Faramir came as a surprise.
4
For an interesting discussion on the possible implications of the word “shieldmaiden” and of gendered warriors in
Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings see Buttsworth (2006)

48
 The case of Aragorn’s long desired Arwen is even more complicated. It is often claimed
that Arwen mostly fulfills the role of a prize or, as Merry puts it much less prosaically referring
to himself of a “baggage to be called for when all is over” (The Return of the King, 756). It is
only understandable that Jackson opted for a more active and visible Arwen to make the film
more modern-spectator-friendly. But Jackson is far from going against the grain of Tolkien’s
text, he in fact develops an aspect of the story that Tolkien could not for reasons of space and
structure.
I regard the tale of Arwen and Aragorn as the most important of the Appendices; it is a
part of the essential story, and is only placed so, because it could not be worked into the main
narrative without destroying its structure: which is planned to be “hobbito-centric”, that is,
primarily a study of the ennoblement (or sanctification) of the humble. (Letters, 2006, 237)
Thus, most of the story of Arwen and Aragorn is placed in the Appendices. Yet its
importance and also its possible hope for future separate treatment is clearly visible on its
narrative technique. While most of the Appendices are chronicles of history, deeds and names of
different nations and races of Middle-earth and are predominantly in the 3rd person narration
(with only occasional direct speeches), this story actually records many of the dialogues between
the lovers, out of which the one on the death bed is arguably the most important.
In the main text of the novel, Arwen – the Evenstar of her people, daughter of Elrond,
and the one “in whom it was said that the likeness of Lúthien had come on earth again” (The
Fellowship of the Ring, 221), - appears only at the feast in Rivendel and towards the end, when
she gets married to Aragorn. The first time she is presented through the eyes of Frodo who
strongly admires her beauty: “such loveliness in living thing Frodo had never seen before nor
imagined in his mind” (The Fellowship of the Ring, 221).
Frodo is just a simple and still relatively inexperienced Hobbit, but the reaction of
Aragorn the Heir of the Kings on his first seeing her is not any different – he mistakes her for
Lúthien, because she is so beautiful. Only later he noticed “the elven light in her eyes and the
wisdom of many days; yet from that hour he loved Arwen Undómiel daughter of Elrond”
(Appendix A, v, 1033). He does not fall in love because of her wisdom but, from this quote, it
seems rather in spite of it, in spite of the fact that she is much older and, as this quotation
implies, subsequently wiser than him.
Aragorn, as a Númenorean and an heir of the Kings, is given the privilege to die when he
chooses. Arwen evidently guesses beforehand what he is about to do, but he does not tell her
openly, she seems to be left in suspense when it is going to happen.
Arwen knew well what he intended, and long had foreseen it; nonetheless she was
overborne by her grief. “Would you then, lord, before your time leave your people that live by
your word?” she said,
“Not before my time,” he answered. “For if I will not go now, then I must soon go
perforce. And Eldarion our son is a man full-ripe for kingship.”
And for all her wisdom and lineage she could not forbear to plead with him to stay yet for
a while. She was not yet weary of her days and thus she tasted the bitterness of the mortality that
she had taken upon her. ( Appendix A, v, emphasis mine)
Although the reader is informed that “she tasted the bitterness of the mortality”, she does
not seem to be unhappy so much for the fact that Aragorn is going to die (which she had known
literally for ages), but more because she thinks it’s “before his time.” This can be interpreted in
two ways, either she does not think him sufficiently old and weak, or, - and this one is even more
probable – because she was not given time to properly say goodbye, to get used to the idea, and
that everything happened in spite of her. The dialogue betrays that after the “6-score years” they
spent together, Aragorn still decides everything alone, and she is expected to “forbear to plead
with him to stay yet for a while.” Whether one or the other, Aragorn does not behave like a man
deeply in love which does not mean he was not in love. As Burns put it very aptly “[Tolkien’s]
males tend to keep firm control of their emotions, so much so that they often appear impervious
to romance or only passively involved” (2008, 141-142). This can indeed explain Aragorn’s

49
seemingly impersonal and detached reference to the sorrow connected to his parting with Arwen:
“I speak no comfort to you, for there is no comfort for such pain within the circles of the world”
(Appendix A, v, 1037). The way he says it makes it seem as if it was only Arwen feeling the
grief, yet it is obviously his way of keeping distance from his own feelings, always struggling to
behave according to the expectations connected to his position and sex. Just like in his discussion
with Éowyn, Aragorn is uncomfortable entering a female world and, in crucial moments, hides
his uneasiness and real feelings behind big words and rules that serve him so well in his dealings
with other people.
In this last dialogue with his wife, Aragorn sounds rather sententious and says some truly
strange things. Maybe the most intriguing is his proposition to Arwen to “repent”, go to Valinor
and bear the memory of their love there, even though he knows very well that the last ship left
many years ago and that by choosing mortality, Arwen excluded herself forever from Valinor.5
In this discussion, there are two striking observations; not only that it should have
happened far earlier, not on his deathbed, where Aragorn simply ends the argument and dies (we
could almost say he ended the argument by dying), but also that Aragorn, for all his wise words,
does not seem to get his message through to Arwen.
Although he speaks of hope and suggests life after death, he does not seem to be
persuasive enough to console Arwen. Many scholars understand Aragorn’s last sentence as an
expression of optimism and hope.
“In sorrow we must go, but not in despair. Behold! We are not bound forever to the
circles of the world, and beyond them is more than memory. Farewell!” (App. A, v, 1038)
But the context of the whole discussion, and other circumstances surrounding the story of
Arwen and Aragorn, make the situation much less straightforward.
For one, the constant comparisons between Arwen and Lúthien create expectations
towards Arwen’s behaviour as well as similarities between their married lives. But apart from the
fact that Arwen loses her immortality for a mortal man and her appearance, there is nothing to
suggest similarities between the two. Even if one disregards her passivity, contrasting so much
with Lúthien’s activity (sometimes explained as the proof of the decay of Elves), there is the
question of the ending of these two stories.
According to the myth, nobody knows where Beren and Lúthien died and where they are
buried (Silmarillion, Of Beren and Lúthien, 187), but it is more or less obvious that they are
somewhere together as they had always been in life. Contrary to that, Aragorn and Arwen are
buried apart - Aragorn in the House of the Kings in the Silent Street in Minas Tirith and Arwen
in Lórien, on the hill of Cerin Amroth. There is only one slight hint at a possible meeting of the
two after death, and that is made long before they even got married – when the Fellowship
passes through Lórien: “And taking Frodo’s hand in his, [Aragorn] left the hill of Cerin Amroth
and came there never again as living man.” (The Fellowship of the Ring, 343)
If he didn’t come there as a living man, it might supposed he came there as a dead man.
Although this hint is really very small and it can be argued that it is just a manner of speaking,
the very nature of Tolkien’s writing and his linguistic background suggest that he would not take
this way of talking about Aragorn without at least being aware of its possible meaning. What is
more there is another similar situation, when Frodo and the Fellowship are leaving Lórien. And
here the author only says: “To that fair land Frodo never came again” (The Fellowship of the
Ring, 368) without any reference to living or dead.

5
The question of the “Last Ship“ is an intriguing one. Although the Last Ship is officially that which carried Elrond,
Galadriel, Gandalf, Bilbo and Frodo to Valinor (Silmarillion, Of the Rings of Power, 315), the appendices betray the
fact that there has been quite a traffic even after that – by all means there were at least two more ships leaving – the
one with Sam after the death of Rosie and another with Legolas and Gimli. The Last Ship marks the end of Eldar in
Middle-earth, so its name seems rather symbolical than literal and – and that is clear from both Silmarillion and The
Lord of the Rings, sailing to Valinor is not a matter of having a ship but having a permission to go which Arwen lost
when she decided to become mortal.

50
 So this hint could be considered as at least some support for Aragorn’s hopeful words
given as consolation to Arwen were it not for Arwen’s reactions, which seem to make his effort
futile. This end is tragic not because of the death, but because it seems to distance Arwen from
Aragorn in a way that death never distanced Lúthien from Beren.
This last dialogue between Aragorn and Arwen makes it obvious as to why Jackson
chose to rewrite this scene and their mutual relationship completely, even more than his
relationship to Éowyn. The modern audience, untrained in the ways of medieval literature, would
certainly reject them as too cold and ceremonious. No part of the deathbed dialogue has been
used; instead, there is a completely new one between Elrond and Arwen all made up by the script
writers. Elrond, as a loving father, is trying to persuade Arwen to leave and share the fate of
other Elves, waiting for him in the safety of Valinor. In this scene, any modern parent can easily
identify with Elrond and his situation. Supernatural powers or not, he acts like any loving father,
trying to dissuade his child from what he sees as her future grief and desperation. Part of it is
also selfish, not willing to part with his daughter for eternity, by him obviously painting the
future in much darker colours than he sees it.
Elrond: “Arwen. It is time. The ships are leaving for Valinor. Go now before it is too
late.”
Arwen: “I have made my choice.”
E: “He is not coming back. Why do you linger when there is no hope?”
A: “There is still hope. (The Two Towers, scene 38)
Arwen’s insistence on hope echoes her cries at Aragorn’s deathbed in the book version –
when Aragorn lies down and dies, she cries “Estel, Estel” which in fact means “hope”. What is
more, this name, according to the book, was given to Aragorn by Elrond so that he remain
hidden from the sight of the enemy, but also so that his true lineage and future burden is not
revealed to him until the proper time comes. At the same time, it correctly identifies what he is
for the Elves and People of Middle-earth: their hope against the Enemy. In this context, then,
Elrond’s insistence in the film on there being no hope for Arwen would be illogical, yet, there is
no reference to the name Estel and its meaning there, so the film remains perfectly within its
internal logic and created universe.
In the film, Aragorn’s death and his departure from Arwen is not presented directly but
using the voiceover of Elrond, painting Arwen’s future as black.
Elrond: “If Aragorn survives this war, you will be parted. If Sauron is defeated and
Aragorn made king and all that you hope for comes true, you will still have to taste the bitterness
of mortality. Whether by sword or the slow decay of time Aragorn will die. (voice over) And
there will be no comfort for you, no comfort to ease the pain of his passing. He will come to
death, an image of the splendor of the kings of Men in glory undimmed before the breaking of
the world. But you, my daughter, you will linger on in darkness and in doubt as nightfall in
winter that comes without a star. Here you will dwell bound to your grief under the fading trees
until all the world is changed and the long years of your life are utterly spent. Arwen. There is
nothing for you here. Only death. Do I not also have your love?” (The Two Towers, scene 38)
The most interesting shift appears in the persons presented in the scenes. While the
appendix features the two of them alone – after all the others had left them - and pictures the real
situation, the film version gives Arwen’s father Elrond the role of one who narrates the story of
Aragorn’s death, and that only as a prophecy. This shift is very interesting, it gave Jackson more
space for maneuvering. The prophesied fate is not the real fate and Elrond acts as killjoy who, as
it is implied, does not necessarily have to be right.
There is also a seemingly minor change in the manner of his death, which is in fact quite
significant for the different outcome of the whole story. Elrond says that Aragorn will die “by
sword or the slow decay of time”, completely avoiding the extraordinary gift of him choosing his
time of dying. This modification is one of the means of making the original story much less cold
and surprising and Aragorn, at least in the eyes of modern spectators, much less responsible for
Arwen’s grief.

51
 Another element that makes this adaptation completely contrary to the written text is the
question of children. In the film Arwen is persuaded by her father that it is not worth waiting for
Aragorn because he will either fail or, if not, their life together will be short and she will have to
face the desperation and death alone. Arwen is already on her way to the Grey Havens when she
herself has a prophetic vision and sees her future son, Eldarion (The Return of the King, scene 9).
So it is in fact not Aragorn himself but the possibility of their child that make her come back and
claim that there is not only death but life too. For the film Arwen, Eldarion is the hope rather
than Aragorn.
However, there is no doubt that for the book Arwen, the only hope is the one who bears
that name and that is Estel – Aragorn. While one of Aragorn’s arguments in support of his
departure is the ripeness of Eldarion for the throne, she does not heed him, she does not even
refer to him in her answers. What is more, the text further states that they did not only have a son
but also (an unspecified number of) daughters but none of them made her want to live on or
reconcile with Aragorn’s death. She leaves the grave of her husband and her living children and
goes to roam the empty Lórien where she dies and is buried.6
Jackson’s story of Aragorn and Arwen is thus a complete reversal of the book’s story,
certainly in a vein much closer to the tastes of a modern audience and their opinions on father-
child (Elrond and Arwen) and mother-child (Arwen and Eldarion) relationships. Jackson’s
Arwen does roam Lórien too, but since the forest is neither identified nor identifiable as that of
Lórien, the spectators unfamiliar with Tolkien’s text might well suppose this is just any forest
close to Minas Tirith and will thus miss the fact she went away and died miles from Aragorn.
For all the hope in Tolkien’s Aragorn’s words, the end of the story of Arwen and Aragorn
is very sad. Arwen seems untouched by the hope he is talking about and she is surrounded by an
aura of utter desperation and grief. The lovers are apart and whether they meet or not is only very
vaguely hinted at. The overall tone of desperation is further enhanced by the fact that it is not
only Aragorn but also Tolkien who abandons Arwen. While there is a clear note of sympathy for
Éowyn from him, it seems as if in the case of Arwen he was on the side of Aragorn; that is, on
the side of duty and propriety.
Jackson’s major changes to their story smoothed the coldness of the final farewell and
made it a question of a distant and only potential future. While the spectator is not expected to
doubt that the end of Aragorn will be close to Elrond’s vision, Arwen’s vision of her child is
calculated to raise the expectation that Arwen would not leave and roam the world alone but that
she would find consolation in her child or children.
Analyzing Aragorn’s dealings with Éowyn and Arwen one thus comes to a surprising
conclusion. While all the interactions with Éowyn and some with Arwen in the film are proof of
the claim that Aragorn is indeed “downsized” and less heroic than his book version, the portrayal
of his death in the film is the opposite. Although it certainly is extraordinary to have the
possibility to die and truly heroic to muster the courage to die in the right moment, yet the way
Aragorn speaks to Arwen in their last moments together slightly spoils the impression. On the
contrary, Jackson chose not to let him speak on his deathbed or did not mention that he died of
his own accord, and that paradoxically presented him in a better light, granting him a departure
more heroic than he originally received from Tolkien.

Bibliography
Buttsworth, S. (January 2006). Shield (or Shielded) Maiden of Rohan? Representations of the gendered
Warrior in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings. Journal of Interdisciplinary Gender Studies, 10, 1.
Burns, M. (2008). Perilous Realms: Celtic and Norse in Tolkien’s Middle-earth. Toronto: University of
Toronto Press.
Davis, J.G. (2008). Showing Saruman as Faber: Tolkien and Peter Jackson. Tolkien Studies, 5.

6
Actually, there is no way of knowing who or whether anybody at all buried Arwen. Lórien was deserted by the
time she went there in her grief and Tolkien only states that “she laid herself to rest upon Cerin Amroth; and there is
her green grave, until the world is changed” (App. A, v, 1038).

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Ford, J.A., & Reid, R.A. (2009). Councils and Kings: Aragorn’s Journey Towards Kingship in J.R.R.
Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien Studies,6.
Jackson, P. (2001, 2002, 2003, 2004) The Two Towers, The Return of the King
The Lord of the Rings. Theatrical and Extended Editions. Dir. Peter Jackson. New Line.
Morgan, G. A. (2007). I Don’t Think We’re in Kansas Anymore: Peter Jackson’s Film Interpretation of
Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. In Fantasy Fiction Into Film: Essays. ed. Leslie Stratyner and James
R. Keller. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 21-34.
Tolkien, J.R.R. (2006). The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, eds. Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien.
London: Harper Collins Publishers.
(1995). The Lord of the Rings. London: HarperCollins Publishers.
(2004). The Silmarillion. London: HarperCollins Publishers.
Wiggins, K. M. (2004). The Art of the Story-Teller and the Person of the Hero. In Croft, J., ed. Tolkien on
Film: Essays on Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings. Altadena, CA: The Mythopoeic Press,
103-122.

53
 Identity and narrativity - Circe and Proteus

Daniela Rovenţa-Frumuşani, Adriana Ştefănel –

University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

Abstract
Paradoxical entity, source of conflicts and illusions, real or imagined, time reconstructed
in time through memory or marked by projects and utopias, the identity is the dynamic system of
representations through which the social actor (individual or group) orients his behavior and
organizes his/her projects.
During the existential trajectory, the individual integrates new identity marks (adult,
parental figure, teacher, member of a party, etc.) and loses ancient marks (child, Romanian in the
case of emigrants, etc.). A heavily metaphorical label for the identity has been that of a ‘toolbox’
(Devreux, 1972), instruments used by the subject in conformity with the interactional context.
Emblem of modernity, the individualization process appears as a personal construction
and appropriation of different social roles. Through the identity construction a person searches
for the significance of his existence and answers to the question ‘Who am I? Through the
different roles a person shows in his action he/she conforms to the roles expectancies’
(Vlăsceanu, 2007, p.131).
Using Paul Ricoeur’s narrative identity as well as the identity ambivalence (defined by P
Charaudeau, 2002:300): external (psycho/social identity) and internal (discursive) we will
analyze the way through which (mainly storytelling) we construct/deconstruct the floating
identity.
The new nomadic, polymorphic identity is inscribed at the frontiers of one and multiple,
of roots and migrations.
In order to define this complex phenomenon of articulation, the specialists have proposed
the process of ‘inter-structuring of the subject and the institutions’; that is why we will try to see
how media contribute in the structuring/restructuring of identities through the Circe and Proteus
myth.
In this theoretical framework, we will deconstruct the stories told by and regarding Elena
Udrea who has been without a doubt, in the recent years, the most notorious/ most hated/ most
disputed/ most contested and most appreciated woman politician in Romania.
We will analyze the story told by Elena Udrea and also by others (media, supporters,
opponents). We take into consideration the fact that everybody has his/her own perspective on
Elena Udrea (the only feeling she has not inflicted upon people until today is indifference). We
are aware that the versions of the stories are varied, like the light reflection in the mirror;
however, we consider that there are some main-stories easy to dissociate.

Identity, identitary construction, identitary revolution

One of the key concepts of modernity, identity is of interest for the whole body of
humane and social studies and can be approached from within various perspectives: sociological,
psychological, philosophical, discursive, etc. Real or fictive, hidden or disclosed, identity is
determined by two antagonist dimensions,
i) Stability, permanence, wholeness,
ii) Fluidity, metamorphosis, becoming.
‘All identities are constituted within a system of social relations and require the
reciprocal recognition of others. Identity… is not to be considered a ‘thing’ but rather a ‘system
of relations and representations’… the maintenance of an agent’s identity is a continual process
of re-composition rather than a given one, in which the two constitutive dimensions of self-
identification and affirmation of difference are continually locked… identity is seen as a
dynamic emergent aspect of collective action’. (P. Schlesinger, 1987:236-237)

54
 Identity is at the same time the expression of the coherence of the individual and the
becoming of self facing the social events, as well as own individual events’ (cf. L. Vlăsceanu,
2007:151). ‘Once with the individual identity crisis, a real identitary revolution in transition is
being triggered.’ (L.Vlăsceanu, 2007:151). And, although the collective identities multiply
(youth subcultures, sexual minorities subcultures or religious groups subcultures), the individual
identity is dominated both by Circe and Proteus (the perpetual metamorphosis and the
multiplicity of faces and masks).
‘The individual is released increasingly from various structures; he becomes more and
more autonomous and personalized; one’s individual responsibility is increasingly used. His/her
personal identity and social roles are less and less coherent. Briefly, each person builds
subjectively his/her own identity… The mechanisms of the identity construction are emotional
and action-related, compensatory and promontory’ (L. Vlăsceanu, 2007:162).
The ‘staged’ identity, recreated, reinvented appears (may appear) as a substitute of, a
prolongation or a rupture within one’s personal or social real identity. Precisely as in the famous
Goffman phrase, ‘people and moments’, the various identity staging are subsumed to various
circumstances; ‘playing a role’ (Mrs. Udrea mopping the floors, knitting or sharing cabbage
rolls, cf. infra) means to expose another identity filling in the ‘empty spots’ of the first one. It’s
the identity projected according to the lived circumstances or to the situations provoked by the
social actor. Representations and identitary projections should be planned correlative with
norms, values, through some openness to negotiations and objections. In this identity
construction, the role of the Other (interlocutor, witness, lecturer, viewer, etc.) is crucial.

Stars and people press

Media studies today are focused on the hybridizing of genres, on tabloidization of media
(either print or electronic), on stardom and Celebrity Politics. In this context, it’s legitimate to
emphasize the decisive contribution of Edgar Morin, in his fundamental writings, Les Stars and
L’esprit du temps, to the founding of a research domain – people information or the popularizing
of politics (see the thematic issues of Hermès 42 /2005, Le Temps des Médias 10 /2008,
Communication 27/2009, etc.).
La notion de peopolisation politique s’est en effet forgée au cours des années 2000 par
un empilement de significations successives. A l’approche de l’élection présidentielle française
de 2002 elle commence par désigner l’investissement des médias people par les responsables
politiques et leur entourage. A partir de 2003 elle exprime aussi l’alignement de l’ensemble des
médias sur les formes et les contenus de la presse people. Enfin, à compter de l’année 2005 le
terme englobe non seulement les rapprochements bilatéraux entre responsables politiques et
personnalités du sport ou du show biz mais en outre dévoilement de la vie privée des élus sans
leur accord, selon des processus de scandalisation.(Jamil Dakhlia et Marie Lherault, 2008:1).
And even if the grounding studies of Morin, Les Stars and L’esprit du temps are marking
the rise of the mass culture, ‘an era when consumption takes precedent over production, the loisir
value, over the work value, hedonism over Puritanism, individualism over mass community,
cultural stakes over production issues’ (Eric Macé, 2001:238, our translation), it’s crucial to
emphasize the permanence of the attributes of the figures we worship or deify (in Morin’s words,
the Olympians): beauty, youth and love – as well as the springing off a new collective imaginary
configured slowly within the realist imaginary constituted by the mass culture.
The infrastructure of the starred and humanized media, intimate and voyeuristic at the
same time, is marked by the ‘double simultaneous postulation, first towards the gods, and then
towards humans, just as Morin and his exegetes have peremptorily emphasized. The incarnation
of the new ideal of self – the private, individual happiness – is to be found in these characters
Morin calls Olympians. They appear to us as ‘life models’, whose ‘super-individualization
represents the yeast of our modern individuality’ (E. Morin, 1962:148). Stars are humanized and
people aspire to be living just like the stars: ‘Human individuality is asserted in a movement

55
where the aspiration of living comes into play on the model of gods, emulating them, if possible’
(Edgar Morin, 1972:34).
«Il s’agit de personnes publiques à succès (stars, représentants monarchiques et dirigeants
politiques, champions, mannequins, artistes) dont la vie publique et privée fait en permanence la
une de la presse, sur le double registre d’un «idéal inimitable» et d’un «modèle imitable»,
«surhumains dans le rôle qu’ils incarnent, humains dans l’existence privée qu’ils vivent, ils
accomplissent les phantasmes que ne peuvent réaliser les mortels, mais appellent les mortels à
réaliser l’imaginaire» (E. Morin apud Eric Macé, 2001:244).
These new models are subversive to the extent they oppose the old norms of social
conformity to the new ‘normality’, which tends to overthrow the old models (parents, educators,
national heroes, etc.) (E.Morin, 1962:146), and mass media act as promoters of the starred
individualism and of serialized existence. This marketing policy of the great Hollywood
enterprise has exceeded all expectations; following the Hollywood stars and royal figures of the
60ies, cohorts of sport and showbiz starts came along, and then, by the end of the century,
politicians and media stars. ‘Stardom became the quasi-natural modus operandi for numerous
activities, consultants, bankers, lawyers, models, fashion designers do use this system. Not even
the book industry, the records, televisions, shows, not even the world museums or the world of
art cannot avoid’ (Françoise Banhamou, 2002, L’économie du star system apud Jean Pierre
Esquenazi, 2009:41).
Generalizing the star system is correlated to the new media genre – people genre,
present in all forms of media (magazines, dailies, electronic media); ‘all media are producing
their own candidates to the star system’ (Jean Pierre Esquenazi, 2009:42)
Proliferation of starred personalities also requires the presence of ‘mega-stars’ (animators
and producers of TV entertainment shows and segments), able to produce and ensure the
continuity of the success the stars enjoys.
The star system phrase considerably extended its referential field and the definition
Daniel Boorstin presented us a quarter of a century ago – ‘a person who is well-known for his
well-knownness’ – has never been so timely as today. The people part of the phrase sends us to a
very well delimitated reference: the most powerful persons in this world, the stars. Their main
feature is visibility, emphasized, on one hand, by a powerful iconic dispositive and, on the other,
through visibility-related verbs (to show, to exhibit, etc.):
Through a process of turning their lives in daily events fed to the audiences – happy or
unhappy moments of their lives – these extraordinary people we call stars (the Olympians), are
turned into ordinary people. Actually, by getting into the intimacy of stars, the people press
satisfies the tastes, expectations and beliefs of large portions of the heterogeneous audience, thus
instituting the foundation for the people enunciating contract, based on the possibility of
negotiating values within mass communication (see J. Dakhlia, 2009).
« Directement, par la mise en débat du quotidien et de l’intime ou indirectement par la
peoplisation de la politique et des autres medias, la presse people participe aux conflits de
définition des problèmes collectifs et représente a ce titre une «mediaculture a part entière.
(Maigret et Macé 2005). Elle contribue à déplacer le curseur entre sphère privée et sphère
publique. Mais surtout en exaltant la part sensible de l’activité politique, elle contribue à
promouvoir un nouvel espace public, non plus strictement argumentatif mais au moins autant
symbolique » (J.Dakhlia, 2009:79).

Person, character and narration in people serials

The success of the French daily La Presse, founded in 1836 by Emile de Girardin can be
explained by two major inventions: low subscription rate, due to advertising and preserving the
interest of the reader through serialization the stories. The people media of the 20th century does
nothing more than maintaining the advantage. The people press of the 20th century will keep
these advantages and add the iconic component, thus instituting stardom and emotion as kings of
readership.

56
 The people press would stage private life (focusing on the human interest: permitted or
forbidden love, breakups, life disasters presented with the help of narrative stereotypes such as
suspense, follow up, shared secret).
To the extent the character ensures some textual coherences based on frames, he also
functions as a space of pulsional ‘investment’: the people press reader is confronted with his own
impulses, since his libido sciendi (close to the sort of voyeurism underlying the pleasure of
reading in general, but hyped by the breaking in star’s bedrooms), libido sentiendi (the Eros &
Thanatos game) and libido dominandi (allowing us to vicariously live a live which is not our
own) form the structure of the people story, founded in the ambivalent star status (a person
who’s mundane and extraordinary, at the same time). This phenomenon, studied by so many,
such as Dyer, Morin, Amossy, Esquenazi, Lits, Marion, is indicating (with the help of the
elevator metaphor), towards an ascending move, due to stars inaccessibility and to the fact
dreams are made to seem closer, doubled by a contrary, descending move, which is constructing
proximity through resemblance (P. Marion, 2009:174, reminds us of a photograph of Zidane, in
the 227th issue of Public; the star was featured, under the ‘They are like us’ section, on his way
to thrashing garbage).

Sacredness and myth in our modern lives

The need for sacred, in modern humans, finds its accomplishment in the religious-like
adoration of stars and the cults resulting from it (Drăgan, I., 2007, vol 2, pp.143). In his chapter
La liturgie stellaire (The Stellar Liturgy, in Stars, pp.65-94), Edgar Morin reveals the mechanism
through which stars are divinized and transformed in gods, in a new sort of a laic religion. The
main elements of this new religion are, in author’s opinion (op.cit): the relics of symbolic value
distributed to fans devoting their lives to the new gods, impressive festivals, acting as rituals of
consecration, organizing pilgrimages, creating fan clubs, etc.

The story and the history (of individuals, groups and nations)
Stories are present at all times, in all spaces, in all societies; the story and the human
history were born at the same moment.
After 9/11, the US experienced a narrative fever, from oral story to digital storytelling
(webcams, blogs, interactive television).
In the studios of the tele-reality, in the videogames, on the screens of our mobiles and
computers, from bedrooms to inside cars, reality is wrapped in a narrative net which filters our
perceptions and stimulates our emotions.
If the great stories (grands récits) mentioned by Lyotard in The Postmodern Condition
are dead now, we remember that they are summarizing universal myths, that they are
transmitting the lessons of the past to the future generations – essentially moral and epistemic
lessons.
But there’s also a opposite movement of border crossing: it brings back to the reality
some fictional stories, it saturates the symbolic space with series and stories … The storytelling
traces behaviors and orients emotions’ (Christian Salmon, 2007).
This modern narrative programme, so far from the ‘parcours de la reconnaissance’ – the
one Paul Ricœur discovers in the narrative, offers us narrative grammars, narrative gearings
through which individuals are conducted to identify with certain models and conform to certain
protocols.
The stories are now the object of a permanent actualization and they have moved from
institutional sites (enterprises, consultants etc.) to newspapers, webzines and blogs which
represent nowadays a new contamination space.
In the consumer society (‘you are what you buy’) we don’t only ‘buy’ the products, but
also the people and the stories they tell us.

57
 Women in Romanian politics
Feminist scholars pointed out that, in communist Romania, women were de-feminized
because the State imposed on them what was called ‘a double burden’ (Marxist feminism’
concept apud Roventa-Frumusani, D., in Dragomir, O., 2002, p.30). The political participation of
women was nothing but rhetorical. In fact, women politicians (the famous and infamous 30%
women in politics quota) used to be employed in ‘soft areas’ (health, education, etc.) and at the
bottom of the political hierarchy. Women’s position in society has practically remained the same
nowadays. Only the settings and the political scene have changed from the private sector to the
public one. The changes brought up by the Romanian revolution in 1989 acted in fact, not in
spirit, against women’s political involvement. The pro-women involvement discourse was
labeled as a communist residue and any attempt to enforce a men/women balance in politics
remained fruitless.
As seen in the table below, the percentage of women in the Romanian parliament, even
though showing a slow growth, has been throughout the entire post-communist period a low one,
below 10%.

Chamber of
Deputies Senate Parliament

women % total women % total women % total

1990-
1992 18 4,71 382 2 1,56 128 20 3,92 510
1992-
1996 11 3,22 341 5 3,20 156 16 3,21 497
1996-
2000 21 6,122 343 2 1,29 154 23 4,62 497
2000-
2004 29 8,50 341 10 6,13 163 39 7,73 504
2004-
2008 27 8,10 333 13 9,28 140 40 8,45 473
2008-
prezent 33 9,90 333 10 7,29 137 43 9,14 470
Table 1: Women in the Romanian Parliament, 1990-2012

As a comparison, in the same period, Sweden’s percentage of women MP’s was around
37%; in Armenia 21%, in Hungary and Bulgaria 14% and in Congo 11%. This level of women’s
participation reached by Congo in the ’90 is still a ‘wishful thinking’ for 2012 European
Romania.
The patriarchal discourse, coming so natural to the majority of this country, is still
prevailing over the modern one; the latter was left for official meetings at a European level and
did not produce any real, important effects.
This situation is explained by Lucian Boia (2005, p.336) in imagological terms. For the
mentioned scholar, women may certainly be admitted in the political sphere and may be included
in (political) mythology, only in their designated place, in marginal positions, as witnesses and
moral support of the great male undertakings. In Romanian politics, women are allowed in the
narrow limits of the ‘ideal female’ depicted by society: silent, competent, forgiving, conciliating,
submissive. Women must play their role gracefully, and leave the scene when they are no longer
needed; and here, the confinement is: do not overshadow the male leader.
Also, one can say that women’s presence in the top hierarchy is strictly banned. Crossing
the unwritten interdiction would immediately earn women the ‘wicked’ or ‘evil’ label. In the last

58
century, only a few women refused to obey. Among them, the Evil triad has to be mentioned:
Elena Lupescu, the reason for Carol IInd abdication (his mistress) Ana Pauker, double harmed
(because of her foreign ethnic origin) the image of the proto-communist party; and last but not
least, Elena Ceausescu, the evil half of the presidential couple, and the main reason for Nicolae
Ceausescu’s alienation.
The scholars (Boia, L,. op.cit., p.335; Enache R., in Teodorescu, B., Gutu, D., Enache,
R., p.185; Stefanel, A., in Roventa-Frumusani, D., ed., 2010) identified the following typology
of women in Romanian politics: the mistress or the wicked wife; the missing women; the martyr;
the non-political woman; the Western-style of the political woman; and the successor. The
following section will present those categories relevant for our study. It will be argued that Elena
Udrea tried to impose the image of a Western-style political woman, even though the stories
about her converge to the mistress or the wicked wife image.
The first one, the mistress or the wicked wife is the most striking one. The public, the
media and the politicians cast in this role any woman with a certain influence, by (re)shaping
reality in order to fit the story in which all evil in the public space have a female behind it. Over
the last 20 years, this role has also been played by: Corina Cretu (to Ion Iliescu); Zoe Petre (also
evil/over protective mother), Dana Nastase (behind husband prime minister Adrian Nastase), etc.
In what concerns Traian Basescu, president for two mandates and vividly disputed, on the brinks
of being overthrown or demise, in the summer of 2012, this part was brilliantly played by Elena
Udrea, our main focus in this paper.
As such, she can be labeled as ‘Western-style political woman’. This kind of woman is
charming without being frivolous, having authority without virility, and being representative
without losing her own identity. The main threat for the women in this typology is the possible
glide into the first pattern, the mistress or the wicked wife. This type of woman is the one who
did not resign from her womanhood, but used it in order to reach her political goals.
A possible inversion to the commonplace saying ‘behind every successful man, there is a
powerful woman’ would be – ‘behind every successful woman there is a powerful man’. Under
the given typology, such an allusion can transform these women into mistresses, implying a
sexual exchange where there can be none.
In the mediated Romanian politics, women are not only less visible than men, but also
treated by different standards. For a man, the Procustean bed is the expertise; for women the
essentials lay in the family status and attractiveness. For the young ones, there are romance
stories to be told, while the older ones must settle with the cast of the evil witches or reject their
womanhood.

Elena Udrea: brief presentation of her political carrier

Elena Udrea began her public political activity in 2005, when she was a state counselor
and a head of the Presidential Office under President Traian Basescu. During this period, she
launched a series of attacks on Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu. She first got media’s
attention by speaking, during a televised interview, of the ‘President of Norway’ (in fact a
monarchy) and with her pink, tight gowns, glamorous necklaces and expensive designer bags.
After a short while, Elena Udrea resigned from her position, mentioning the ‘profoundly unjust’
attacks on her and others involved in Băsescu's anti-corruption project, and her desire not to
become a burden for her superior.
Moreover, she was characterized as ‘the blonde from Golden Blitz’ – a restaurant once
frequented by Băsescu, whose owners had business ties with Udrea's husband – having been
photographed there with the elected President Băsescu in 2004. Despite rumors that stated the
contrary, she affirmed in an interview that her relationship with Traian Basescu is ‘strictly
professional’. Following her resignation, Udrea continued to act as a presidential surrogate, soon
afterwards accusing the prime minister of placing a call to a prosecutor on behalf of his friend
and business partner Dinu Patriciu. She returned to this subject in 2007, when she alleged that
Tăriceanu had written the president a note asking for the latter's intervention in the case.

59
 At the last parliamentarian election, Elena Udrea became an MP. Three days after the
legislative session opened, she was sworn in to the new office as a Minister of Tourism. In
December, a new cabinet, led by Emil Boc, came into office; there, Elena Udrea presented the
Regional Development and Tourism portfolio. Along with the rest of the cabinet, she resigned in
February 2012.
In July 2010, she became interim head of the Bucharest Democrat Liberal Party; she took
the position on a permanent basis later that year, when she was the only candidate to fill it. She
resigned this position in 2012, after PD-L’s catastrophic election results.
Elena Udrea is known to the public for her expensive wardrobe. Media often talks about
her branded shoes and purses. In August 2011, she generated controversy when she wore a dress
that some media outlets claimed to have costed £14,310.

The Imagological Axis of Elena Udrea’s image

Elena Udrea’s image – in her own words, as well as in other stories told about her – can
be analyzed by deconstruction, using the following Cartesian system:

Figure 1. The imagological axis of Elena Udrea’s image

As pointed out earlier, women in Romanian politics are subject to a tension between the
feminine and the masculine. When the emphasis is put on their feminine side, this would actually
expel them from the decision-making political sphere. In opposition, when emphasis is put on
masculinity, they are ridiculed and seen as underdeveloped men. There are two main access
points for women in the public spectrum: hypersexualization and professionalization which are
put in tension one towards the other and cannot co-exist in the same story.
a. The Hypersexualization – female
From the early beginnings of her public carrier, Elena Udrea took advantage of this
dimension and presented herself as a beautiful/desirable woman, confident of her sexuality. She
often appeared in shots for glossy magazines, dressed to seduce, with colorful and provocative
clothes.
People labeled her as the ‘Golden Blitz blonde’, the presidential blonde; the pink
eminence, etc.
Even if she is married to an important Romanian businessman (almost never seen around
her) her relationship with Traian Basescu is taken for granted in the mediated-politics, a relation
that is believed to have crossed the line of fair professional cooperation. All this underline and
shape the model of the mistress. She is seen (mostly by her opponents but also, in innuendoes, by
her colleagues) as a younger, sexier version of Elena Ceausescu with all the evil influence of the
latter.

60
 b. Professionalization - female
To minimize the image of a ‘fame-fatale’ and to become more ‘eligible’ in the eyes of a
patriarchal electorate, during the parliamentarian campaign, she presented herself in a manner
closer to the ‘ideal woman’: she sewed, she cleaned the floor with a mop; she even cooked
cabbage rolls and talked about the Christmas cake (cozonac) she baked for her family and about
her desire of having a child. All these, in front of the cameras (TV or photo).
Once released, the story shapes a life of its own. Her attempt to impose her story was
reshaped and became a weapon used against her by her opponents and by the public. The first
ones made jokes and have thrown the subject into the ridiculous. In January 2012, during the
street protests, on a protest board could be read, ‘Elena Udrea, back to the kitchen’. When one
wants to emphasize the public exit of a man, jail is evoked; for a woman, the symbol is rather the
kitchen.
c. Hypersexualization - male
This category refers to the lesser used dimension of her image – but, since it is a part of
the semiotic square drawn above and it also relates to the image Elena Udrea herself projects
outwards, consciously, we decided to use it. There has only been one shooting-session of her; the
pictures appeared on her blog and in a local paper and did not make it to other media. The outfit
is very masculine, the make-up almost unnoticeable, the hair scattered, the gun (symbol of
subliminal masculinity) reveal another image of Elena Udrea. Sexualized, but masculine.
d. Professionalization - male
After the nomination as a Minister of Tourism, Elena Udrea started to tell another story,
in which she presented herself as a good professional, with manly behavior. Sexy outfits were
replaced by serious ones; glamorous necklaces and her heavy makeup have vanished. She started
talking about her carrier-choices ranging from military doctor, to construction engineer and
lawyer.
At a discursive level, both opponents and supporters refer to her in masculine terms:
politician, power, corruption. During the 2009 presidential electoral campaign. Traian Basescu
spoke of her using male language marks (untranslatable, due to the Romanian term, om, which
designates a person or a man, according to the context): a very active and very efficient
‘person/man’ (un om); an efficient minister (un ministru); a loyal ‘person/man’ (un om loial),
etc.
Even if, lately, she emphasized this aspect, related to her image, there is a contagion of
this dimension with the opposite one (hypersexualization – female): the Prime Minister kisses
her hand in a political meeting and she is greeted with flowers in her official meetings or work-
visits (remains of a patriarchal era, a sort of positive discrimination to women seen only in their
feminine capacity).
In a very important political party gathering out in the country, a town mayor confessed
that he sleeps with her picture under his pillow. Also, the External Affairs (Exterior) minister
mentioned, in a public media-covered event, that he finds it hard to focus when he is around her.

Conclusions
Loved and hated with equal intensity, Elena Udrea is a model of a politician which can be
imposing in Romanian politics, at any level, crossing political-party limits and cannibalizing
other models. The stories she tells are the object of a permanent actualization and constant
modification of shape in order to fit in (Proteus). In the same manner stories that others tell about
her have the power of re-shaping her public imagine, undermining her own efforts (Circe).
As a woman politician, Elena Udrea is constantly the subject of the media: good press or
bad press, in quality or tabloid newspapers or TV shows, she has to find the strengths to re-
invent, re-present herself, in a constant transformation, grasped by the media, as a perpetual
effort of defining herself. In the eyes of the people press’ audiences, Elena Udrea is the perfect
star: she offers enough fodder for each taste, each interest, each gaze. She’s a woman, a
politician.

61
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62
 Hallyu in Romania – Understanding East-Asia fictions in Romania7

Valentina Marinescu
University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

“Hanryu” or “Hallyru” (in English “The Korean wave”) is an Asian specific phenomenon
and it refers to the present impact of the Korean folk culture products (movies, music, video or
computer games, fashion) on this region of the world (Dator and Seo, 2004; Endo and
Matsumoto, 2004; Seo, 2005).
For the Romanian society, the national exposure to products belonging to “Hallyru” folk
culture is a very recent phenomenon which began in the summer of 2009, when the main channel
of the public television service (TVR1) broadcast the first “K-drama”: “The Jewel of the Palace”
(“Daejanggeum”). In three year (2009-2010) there were other thirteen-five Korean historical
series, also distributed in “prime-time” by the public television, one of the main reasons of such
editorial decision being the audience growth for the respective TV channel during the entire
broadcasting period.
In non-Asian spaces, the impact of such cultural industry type on consumers was
connected to the way in which “Hallyru” was perceived especially inside large Asian
communities residing in USA and less in Western Europe (Chan, Ma, 1996; Keane, 2006;
Cunningham, Jacka, 1996).
The present article analyzes the reception of such series in Romania, including the
reasons that determined the orientation of a certain part of the public towards the consumption of
cultural products relatively unknown for them before.
The main objectives of the present study are:
1. What is the influence exerted by these Korean historical series on the Romanian
people’s perception in general and more precisely on their perceptions about Asia?
2. Which are the reasons that could explain the popularity of such products among
Romanian audiences?
In order to achieve these objectives, this research project will consist of the analysis of a
set of interviews with the Romanian viewers of this type of series. Due to reasons of
methodological validity, the data from the interviews are triangulated with a discourse analysis
of certain discussions on the topic of these series on three Romanian internet forums devoted to
Asian movies and culture.

General theoretical framework

According to the studies devoted to “Hallyu” phenomenon (Montira Tada-amnuaychai,
2006), the expansion of the Korean folk culture had two distinctive stages: the period before the
year 2000 (“The First Korean Wave”) and after this date (The Second Korean Wave”). If in the
case of the first stage, Korea exported especially movies and television series in various
countries, the untimely success of the Korean folk culture is based on the combination between
“the cultural mix” and the use of the newly emerged economic opportunities – particularly the
access to the digital scope (Internet) -Cho Hae-Joang, 2005.
In Romania the visible impact of “The New Korean Wave” is the one generated by the
broadcasting of Korean historical TV series. Regarding Korean cultural products for television,
we can notice the difference between two large series types: the so-called “romantic comedies”–
similar with “soap operas” and Latin American TV series – and “historical dramas” or “sageuk-
dramas” (Chua B. H., 2006).
A particular TV genre, “sageuk” series have as main characteristic the narrative “mix” (at
the level of the series’ script) of real historical facts (existing in historical recordings) and

7
The research project at the basis of the present article was made with the help of the Academy of Korean Studies’s
fellowship (July-September 2011).

63
elements belonging to the “legend” and “tale” sphere (without any real origin substratum).
Having as starting point historical data and documents existing in the archives8 this mix of reality
and fiction ensures a higher degree of adaptability for the narrative type to its transposition into a
filmed material for the TV screen9. “Sageuk” series from the period of the First Korean Wave
(the ‘80s-‘90s time interval) were based exclusively on historical data, this being considered as
“The Golden Age” of this genre10. In spite of all these, the genre in itself entered into a deep
crisis period at the end of the First Korean Wave, the main proof being the extremely low ratings
for this type of productions in the origin country. The change took place in 1999 when director
Lee Byung Hoon together with the scriptwriter Choi Wan Gyu made the TV series that would
change for good Sageuk genre: “Hur Jun”. In Lee’s opinion, the biggest problem of Sageuk
genre in that period was the inability of attracting a significant proportion of younger audience
(10 – 20 years old), a growing number of Korean TV stations’ viewers belonging to this age
segment11. For the “Hur Jun” series, Lee focused not necessarily on the historical events but
particularly on the characters, following the hero’s life from his early humble years until his
successful period as the king’s doctor during Joseon dynasty. The result was achieving a national
audience of over 60% and the appearance of a new sub-genre, the so-called “fusion-sageuk”,
more precisely a narrative combination of historical elements certified by documents and modern
elements referring to emotions and sensitivity. The next impressive success in terms of audience
growth was “Daejanggeum”12 series. The story of the first medicine-woman during Joseon
dynasty, combined medical narrative threads (like in “Hur Jun” series) with the sumptuous
presentation of the royal cuisine of those times, transforming into a real Asian or even worldwide
“cultural phenomenon” (the TV series registered spectacular ratings in Taiwan, Hong Kong and
Japan).
What are the ingredients of success in the case of these Korean products, namely
“sageuk” dramas? At a first glance, we could say that in spite of all the disadvantages that Korea
might face in terms of language barrier and “cultural visibility” level (especially when compared
to North-American cultural productions) its media products managed to turn the use of
polyvalent cultural elements and the attentively articulated content into advantages. “The cultural
value” of these products is multidimensional so that it doesn’t strictly reside at the language level
known by the public or by just part of it (Cunningham and Sinclair, 2001). Regarding the
content, the appeal to general common values allows cultural assimilation among Asian
audiences, reducing thus the danger of cultural opposition or rejection. Moreover,
standardization and specialization are necessary for such products in order to be able to reach
global audiences13.
The articles in the specialty literature referring to the impact of Korean folk culture
products on East-European consumers are almost non-existing at present. Most of the studies
that took an interest in the impact of such cultural products on external audiences were made on

8
In this case it is about the so-called “Archives of the Joseon dynasty” that cover the Korean history for 500 years.
Nowadays, people are working to digitalize the archive, available on:
http://sillok.history.go.kr/main/main.jsp.
9
Another reason for this change was connected to the huge amount of work in the case of an attentive study of the
official historical documents existing in Korea. The so-called “Annals of Joseon dynasty” – which lay at the basis of
most Korean historical dramas – totaled hundreds of volumes written mostly in Chinese letters ("Hanja"), and this
could have been the equivalent of a titanic work of translating and adapting into the modern Korean language.
10
This is the period in which are made and broadcast Korean series that are extremely long, of hundreds of episodes,
such as: “500 Years of Joseon dynasty” (a series of more than 800 episodes, divided in its turn into 11 distinctive
series), “Han Myung Hwi”, “Jang Nok Soo”, “Tears of the Dragon”, “King of the Wind”, “Im Ggeok Jung”.
11
The Korean TV stations making and programming historical series were confronted at the end of the 90s with an
unexpected competition from the “romantic” dramas that were emphasizing a script adapted for young people and
starring many attractive actors.
12
“Daejanggeum”was the first sageuk drama in Romania in 2009.
13
Of course, regarding Asian markets and their aspects, we could add some economic factors as well. Thus, in Japan
the distribution costs for the American movies are high enough, although there is a big demand for successful
movies (“blockbusters”) similar to Hollywood productions.

64
societies situated in the proximity of Korea (Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, China) or on diasporas
placed in various geographical areas (USA, Western Europe).
That’s why we considered that an exploring study on this topic could offer a series of
answers related to consumption reasons and the impact of this type of cultural products on a
“remote” society in terms of space and culture, completely different from the medium these
products were initially conceived and produced in.

Data set, research variables and hypotheses

The methodology used in the case of this article consists of triangulating the research
methods applied at the level of the same data set. From a strictly methodological point of view,
we chose the interview, the discourse analysis and the virtual ethnography. We thus started from
the fundamental assumption according to which the discourse analysis is a method that helped us
identify the manner to reconstruct social identity through the intermediate of language – in the
direction indicated by Sweeney (2003) and Sancho (2003). We chose the interview, the meaning
of such research method in communication being that of a (Asa Berger, 2000: 111):

„...conversation- interaction between a researcher (somebody/ a person who wishes to

obtain some information) and an informer (somebody/ a person who probably holds all the
important information, necessary to find the answer to our research topic)”.

Out of the diversity of interview types we selected the semi-structured interview (Asa
Berger, 2000: 111-112), a case in which we considered that there could be an average level of
control over the interviewing situation. The reason for such a choice derived from the
fundamental characteristic associated to this type of interview: the researcher is interested in
studying in more depth a certain given domain or in identifying the stages in the evolution of an
already known domain, through the intermediate of “a list of questions”. The researcher’s role
this time is to propose specific discussion topics which are not freely approached, not
spontaneously but rather in a conducted way, following a pre-established logic.
The projected sample made during the research project is an “inductive” one (Crabtree,
Miller 1992: 41). To be more precise, the sampling scheme used in the research project had a
“purpose” and its main characteristic, according to the specialty literature (Black, 1999: 118),
was that it allowed a selection of the subjects according to their belonging to a certain social
group: the audience of the Korean series broadcast by the public national television station
(TVR1). The volume of the studied sample was of twenty-five interviews made on the basis of a
semi-structured interview guide.
The second analysis method used was a discourse one – applied to certain discussions
related to these series on three Romanian internet forums devoted to Asian14 movies and culture
We thus had as starting point Fairclough’s theory (2001) in which the use of language is related
to power and ideology and we considered that language is not only a social product but also an
evolution process (Fairclough, 2001).

Data analysis
On the 19th January 2011, the evening news-hour at the second channel of the Romanian
National Television (TVR2) hosted a debate about the popularity of Korean TV-series in
Romania.
”The movie is more important than life!”(“Filmul bate viata!”) was written on the screen
when the anchormen asked the opinion of an important Romanian movie-critic – Irina Margareta

14
The three analyzed forums were: “Asian film-fan” forum (http://seriale-coreene.forumgratuit.ro/index.htm);
“Korean series” forum (http://seriale-coreene.forumgratuit.ro/index.htm) and “Septokcoreea” forum
(http://steptokorea.webs.com/). Due to reasons related to research ethics, the forums will be named in the text
through the intermediate of several codes as follows: “code 1” – “Asian film-fan” forum; “code 2” – “Korean
Series” forum; “code 3” - “Septokcoreea” forum.

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Nistor – about the reasons behind this mass phenomena and the discussion was illustrated in
background with images from (on-going at that time) “Jumong” TV-series.
The main reasons invoked by the expert in the favor of K-dramas ‘success were: the
series follow a general prescription in order to fit the tastes of a „Western public”, there is an
obvious „exotic character” of the TV-series which satisfies the need for new and un-usual in the
case of a certain TV-audiences and there is a valuable school of cinematography in South Korea
(Kim Ki Duk was invoked as an example in the debate) that has its life apart from the products
of “popular culture” – such is the case with TV series.
During the last three years there was, also, a Romanian printed press (newspapers and
magazines) large coverage of the success recorded by the Korean television series in Romania.
In the case of Romanian media coverage of the Korean television series the stress was put, as in
the televised debate’s case, on the “exotic” character of those cultural products and, on the other
hand, on their obvious artistic quality. The problem of the fit between the audience’s
expectations and values and the Korean television series appeal at this set of values was not
taken into consideration.
The sets of interviews made in 2010-2011 revealed that the members of the Korean TV-
series’ audience assessed as their main values:
1. Wisdom (Mature understanding of life): 10.7%;
2. Security of the family: 10%;
3. True friendship and Freedom (Independence): 6.7% each
4. Peace in the world, Happiness and Peace in the world: 6% each.
The general value “decoding” procedures for Korean TV series indicated, as such, the
fact that the subjects we interviewed had found in the Korean series an “axiological” substratum
close or even similar to the personal one (e.g. the values stressed as important in the above-
mentioned Figure 1). Thus, the respondents pointed towards the existence at the level of the
Korean series’ script of certain values belonging to a common spiritual “family” with those
contained in the Korean television series they watched: “Virtue”, “Honesty”, the love feeling,
“Integrity”, “Respect”, “Loyalty” etc. This similarity between personal values and those
delivered by the television series is to be found also in the analyzed online discussions at the
Romanian Internet forums devoted to Korean movies and series. The participants at the virtual
dialogues emphasized the return to certain personal values and interest topics present in the
historical series viewed by them: “Love”, “Respect”, “Wisdom”, “Importance of the family” etc.
According to the answers registered in the interviews set and during the online
discussions on forums devoted to these TV series, the defining attributes for the Korean folk
culture products broadcast by the Romanian television could be the “historical” character, “the
complexity” and “the surprising”, “the unexpected” (the last open with the meaning „different
from what one could have initially assumed”). We find this stress put on the combination
between the “unexpected” or/and “surprising „natural landscape and the appeal to perennial
cultural elements (belonging to the specific history) as the main characteristic emphasized by the
participants to the analyzed online dialogues:
When asked about the main traits of the Korean television series the interviews offered
the following: mainly with a fast action (23.3%), neither dense nor light as plot (30%); intense
(23.3%); presenting an unique genre (16.7%), with a rather complex script (23.3%); neither with
violent actions nor with non-violent ones (23.3%) ; with a “traditional” theme (43.3%); being
obviously full of significance (23.3%) and with a truthful story-line (20%).
According to the same sets of interviews and forums’ discussions, the informational
dimension represented the most important axis along which the motivation for watching Korean
television series broadcast by the Romanian national television got structured. More precisely,
the interviews set indicated some knowledge contribution related to this cultural-geographic
space. The overwhelming majority of the respondents stated that, when initially viewing the first
episode of these TV dramas, they possessed a minimum level of knowledge about the Asian
culture, history and civilization. Those general informing function as well as the educational

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function exerted by the media in the case of the Korean historical TV series was, also, obvious
for the people participating at the discussions on the Internet forums devoted to these series.

Conclusions
Referring to modern cultural identity as an essential element in the construction of social
identity (for individuals and groups), St. Hall shows that (Hall, 1990: 225):

“Cultural identity, in this sense, is a matter of “becoming” as well as of “being.” It

belongs to the future as much as to the past. It is not something which already exists,
transcending place, time, history and culture. Cultural identities come from somewhere, they
have histories. But, like everything which is historical, they undergo constant transformation. Far
from being eternally fixed in some essential past, they are subjects of the continuous “play” of
history, culture and power.”

In the case of our study, the analysis of empirical data demonstrated that the main
element laying at the basis of the Romanian public’s reasons for watching Korean series was the
value one. Thus, not only the respondents from the interviewed sample but also the discourse
analysis made on discussion forums devoted to these series came up with a common set of
personal values in the axiological and thematic “constellation” of sageuk dramas watched by the
public. Belonging especially to a spiritual register, they classify the audience of these series
according to a specific typology which we can call a “Balanced-normative” one.
At a narrative level, the Korean TV series tell a story with a unique character, their script
being interpreted by the audience as a blend of “exotic” tinges (the “unexpected”, “surprising”
nature for the members of the public) and the use of value insertions belonging to a general
human cultural background. We are thus witnessing an illustration of “glocalization” for these
cultural products, a fact underlined by further analyses devoted to this phenomenon (Chan, J. M.,
Ma, E. K. w., 1996; Cho H. J., 2005; Dator, J., Y. Seo, 2004). It is thus becoming obvious that
the analysis of the way in which sageuk series are received by the Romanian public confirms the
thesis according to which (Eun-Young Jung, 2009):

“Popular cultural products and cultural consumption in the twenty-first century have
become increasingly transnational as hybrid national, cultural and ethnic boundaries around the
globe become less clearly defined.”

The “stories” told by the script of the “sageuk” dramas were “read” by the Romanian
public as a narrative in which there was a mix of Korean unique cultural values and a set of
universal values, this ensuring a global reach for the Korean series. We have thus witnessed the
confirmation of the validity of the “uses and gratifications” theory associated to media messages
consumption (McQuail, 1993: 73).
Given the lack of general, cultural and historical information through which the public
could be in the position to contextualize the consumed cultural products (Korean series) we can
say that in this specific case, we are witnessing the practical validation of Liebes and Katz’s
theories (Katz, Liebes 1985: 188; Katz, Liebes 1986; Katz, Liebes 1988) referring to the cultural
motivations involved in the media consumption.
Our analysis opened the way towards new questions related to the appearance of a new
“cultural identity” in the case of postmodern audiences (Eun-Young Jung, 2009), in which the
hybrid cultural products consumption (Korean exported cultural products) is brought along not
only by new consumption motivations (polyvalent) but also by new abilities to decode (derived
especially from the mix of media “genres” made possible through the technological and digital
process).
If we agree to St. Hall (1996, 617) that “modern nations are all cultural hybrids” we can
conclude that the success of Korean cultural products is based on their “glocalization”.

67
Accepting the hybrid character of this type of cultural products could help us to understand better
the “authenticity”, as well as the cultural and social “purity” terms.

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 The making-up of the star’s public life
Silvia Branea - University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

Nowadays, media is considered to have an essential role in the social construction of the
reality. This point of view is more often found in the discussions/debates regarding the political
journalism, but also when we ask ourselves the following question: how do certain public
figures/stars manage to influence the public opinions both in their “domain” and in others, too?
This particular question is accompanied by other queries, too, which are related to the
aspects/fragments that a star’s public life puzzle is built on. Which one of these
fragments/aspects makes him/her so notorious that he/she is able to persuade people to donate
money for the children in Africa or to no longer discriminate?
One of the possible explanations comes from the authors preoccupied with the
globalization issue. If we build “global idols”, we end up trying to unify points of view from
different parts of the world and even (according to some researchers) to transmit a standard
vision according to a set of values suggested by MTV and Hollywood stars.
In Giddens’ point of view (2000, p. 64), the globalization can be defined as the
enhancement of social relationships on a global level, and this enhancement connects distant
towns in such a way that the local events are shaped at a great distance and vice-versa.
The result of this process is not always a series of general changes going in the same
direction, but, many times, it consists of tendencies opposing each other.

Communication globalization
The special element occurring when communication is globalised is that, no matter which
media channel is used to transmit the messages – closer or farther from the place where they are
produced – it can happen that their transmission is simultaneous in several places in the world.
For instance, the teenagers in Bucharest or in Seul will be able to watch a royal wedding in
Europe at the same time and the “event” could have a certain meaning for their socialization.
Globalization can be considered in the terms of world occidentalization (Tomlinson, p.
129). World occidentalization could mean the spread of European languages (English in
particular) and cultural consumerism. This process implies other elements, too: „exporting”
clothing styles, habits of cultural consumption dominated by media, transmitting a wide range of
values and attitudes regarding the personal freedom, gender and sexuality, human rights, religion
and so on.
R. Cohen and P. Kennedi argue that the world infusion of the occidental model
(American) is combined with local traditions and a polychrome hybridization emerges, not a
grey standardization, a world monoculture (apud Iluţ, 2001, p. 58).
The occidental model is adopted creatively in different countries which did not manage to
pass through all or some of the stages of modernity construction. In the context of
„synchronization” to modernity/post modernity/hypermodernity, the question arises on how the
countries with a communist past will manage to get to the process of convergence of old and new
media.
In 1999, Sonia Livingstone launched the expression „media environment” trying to
integrate in the same conceptual scheme older and newer media and to find both the continuities
and tensions resulting from their competition (Livingstone, 1999, p. 22). The expression “media
environment” launched by the British author is relevant even more as its individual
“arrangement” implies using extremely customized media supports, both in case of film
consumption and music consumption and/or games: audio cassettes, video cassettes, cds, DVDs
and so on.
The dominating tendency in the case of “old media” is to use the Internet network as a
support to rebroadcast or broadcast simultaneously radio or television shows, allowing thus an

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increase in the number of listeners and possible viewers (Barbier, Bertho-Lavenir, p. 334).
Moreover, the radio stations and the television channels develop games websites, websites to
discuss with the radio listeners or television viewers, to promote future shows, to make a loyal
public and establish the preferences and consumption habits.

Universal stars?
Generally, the media show is centered around the cult of celebrity which supports the
dominant role of models and symbols, “idols” concerning the fashion, appearance and
personality. In showbiz, celebrity extends to any major social area, from entertainment to
politics, sports and business. There is an extremely developed industry of public relations which
takes care of certain persons and makes them famous protecting their positive image in the
endless fights for image. In this area, there is always the danger that the star could become a prey
to the “hazardous” negative image and lose its status or become a negative figure (Kellner, 2003,
p. 5).
Some of the theories circulated in the last decade can fall into the tendency of considering
media to have an essential role in the social construction of the reality. This point of view is
based on the idea that the influence can work more efficiently if an indirect path is used, thus
appealing to controlling the informational environment of the individual.
Media can contribute to shaping the reality by drawing the public attention on some
stakes (themes), statements or facts that the public can use as criteria to evaluate the politicians’
actions, programs and speeches (priming effect). Another effect is the “classification”: media has
a significant role in establishing the frame of reference of the events and statements because they
are inserted in a specific context (Derville, pag. 95-96).
For Kellner, the social construction of the reality is partly generated by the symbolical
interaction between the life experience and the closeness of media culture. This is a dialectic
process which enables the personal experience to be mediated, uttered and focused by the
cultural media, but it also includes interpretations and media uses which are built by individuals
in real life situations. The appropriation of different portrayals to the audience and the use of the
media material depend on gender, race, class and ideological perspectives (Kellner, 2003, p.
103).
Media brings forward models of thought and action socially valued, especially with “fun”
programs (concerts and sports broadcasts, fiction series, shows on stars’ life); depending on these
models, the individuals are able to found and revise their own identity with slight adaptations, or
in other words, to reevaluate their self-esteem.
Critical multiculturalism is one of the rare visions which allow the merge of the studies
on informational media with the studies on “entertainment” media. The two referential areas are
usually separated and sometimes the “entertainment media” is undervalued in comparison with
the “informational media”. “The wide range of social speeches which are competing are at a
certain point articulated in the media culture which in its turn is based on the rival social
speeches at that particular moment and it circulates them thus interfering in the social conflicts
and fights” (Kellner, 2001, p. 129).
The idea that the producers of a text prefer a certain ideology can be corroborated with
the actual tendencies in the attitudes of the target-audience of that particular text. Therefore, if an
audio-video text conveys explicitly or implicitly a certain social speech, the appreciations of the
audience will show to what extent the speech promoted by the film is adopted by the audience in
general or by a specific audience. In what concerns the message conveyed by a source in the
mass culture sphere, it can be analyzed using the visual analysis that Valentin Marinescu
considers to be an analysis of the narrative: “the narrative is actually a ‘cause and effect’
relationship which forms a chain of events occurring in the construction of the filmed image on
the action, time and space” (Marinescu, p. 189).

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 It is more difficult to find how the audience receives what the source conveys than to
evaluate the meaning of a media product, because the audience of the world media is enormous
and the analysis methods are always fragmentary.

The rise of a star: from the “bad girl” to the “opinion shaper”
When different types of information is delivered to the audience, it also receives a “pair
of glasses” in order to see the reality, says Gerstle (apud Derville, p. 93). In the case of television
shows on celebrities, the stars often become victims of the paparazzi who invade their private
life and afterwards “build” the stars’ life based on pictures or video recordings.
There are also stars who are accomplices to the efforts of the tabloids in order to become
more famous but, in this case, they accept only the portrayals which are believed to bring more
success with the audience. In other words, the audience has once again an important role in
filtering the desirable/undesirable behaviors of the stars. With the help of different media
devices, the stars eventually reveal those aspects of their lives which are accepted and
appreciated by the audience. However, it is not easy to choose the desirable behaviors of a star
from the point of view of the audience because “it is difficult to identify the way in which the
media audience manifests” (Beciu, p. 81).
The stars’ submissiveness to the audience’s desires makes us often notice unexpected
changes of the stars’ image (for instance, Madonna has been considered to be a “bad girl” for a
long time but lately she seems to be preoccupied with the social causes – she deplored the Roma
people being discriminated during her concert in Romania). It is interesting to ponder over the
fact that the actions of the stars who support the political correctness are not always well
received by the fans, as it happened when Madonna militated against Roma discrimination at her
concert in Bucharest.
Madonna tried to speak about the Roma population in Eastern Europe who suffer for
being discriminated against during a break of her two-hour show in Romania, according to the
British news channel Sky News. She said that it made her sad and that no one should be a victim
of discrimination of any type. ‘It has been brought to my attention that there is a lot of
discrimination against Roma in Eastern Europe and it made me feel very sad.’ said the artist
during the song La Isla Bonita, which she sang in gypsy style.
Associated Press writes that the boos were even more intense when Madonna mentioned
the gays. ‘We believe that Roma, gays, people who are different should be accepted. They all
should be treated likewise, remember that.’ continued the Queen of Pop. Many of 60.000
Romanians who came to the concert were outraged by Madonna’s message, but she did not have
any other reaction, say the journalists (www.ziare.com, Thursday, august 27th 2009, 8.04 PM,
author: Alexandru Toreanik).
Kate Muir (The face that launched a thousand theses: Madonna, The Times (London,
UK), August 4th, 1992) reviews several academic approaches regarding the different faces of
Madonna. One of the approaches belongs to Laurie Schulze (A Sacred Monster in her Prime:
Audience Construction of Madonna as low-Other) who wonders why some people designate
Madonna in such unfavorable terms: the promoter of the most primitive form of popular culture -
despicable, marginal and so on. Laurie Schulze form Denver University said that if Madonna is
so controversial, it means that she is representative for the anxieties, pressures and actual/present
desires of the world.
Madonna’s portrayal in unfavorable terms can be undoubtedly made by those who see the
world in pre-modern terms. On the contrary, the acceptance of her points of view is an attribute
of the followers of postmodernism. In trying to bring again to the centre the consciousness of the
peripheries, we retrieve the romantic adventure of the marginal (Connor, p. 321). The
reconsideration of the centre and the periphery which characterize this conception explain to a
certain extent the importance gained by themes which were formerly marginal (sexuality, vices
and so on). Thus, Madonna, who brings these themes on “wave”, becomes a remarkable example
for the researches who want to contribute to the affirmation/confirmation of postmodern theories.

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 Other attempts of analysis are based on her music which they analyze note by note and
always keep finding new “meanings” or focus on how Madonna violates the decency of the
middle class.
The academics who stop upon Madonna’s figure end up describing her in more and more
sophisticated terms: Metatextual Madonna, the Freudian Madonna, the Sadeian Madonna, the
Baudrillian Madonna, the Postmodern Madonna, the Postfeminist Madonna (cf. Kate Muir).
Who is SHE beyond the spotlights, Photoshop corrections, researches’ portrayals and
journalists’ views?
The fragment below is from the Pro TV news about Madonna’s arrival at the concert in
Bucharest. Actually, we notice that the audience who wants to know the “real Madonna”,
regardless of what the marketing and media have constructed, does not manage to achieve it. The
audience will keep on having the constructed/prefabricated images: “On Wednesday afternoon
before the rehearsal, Madonna hasn’t left the royal suite in the five-star hotel, where she stayed
with her children and her boyfriend, too, the model Jesus Luz. The singer left the hotel around
4.30 pm dressed in a white sports suit, a white baseball cap and sunglasses [These outfit details
become significant for the shaping of a public image associated to purity. In this way, the pop
star “adjusts identity building to contextual elements, in keeping with the features of the targeted
audience” (Boicu 2011 p. 122).]. At 3.25 pm the dancers in Madonna’s band headed for Izvor
area. From the airport, the star and her staff got on armored cars with black windows, so no one
managed to take a peek inside. They spent the night at a five-star hotel in Victoriei street. The
floor where they were accommodated became a fortress guarded by 40 bodyguards who made
sure that not a soul entered there. The fans have waited in vain until late at night in Victoriei
street hoping they would glimpse her at the window. Madonna probably went to sleep. While the
artist didn’t show, at 10 pm some of the dancers in her band left the hotel and went to a pub
nearby. They didn’t talk to the journalists. They were hoping to find an open club in the area but
they returned disappointed” (stirileprotv.ro/.../surse-madonna-ajunge-azi-la-18-... August 27th,
2009).
A public figure followed by both her fans and detractors who want to find what
abominable things she might have done in order to question her even more, has of course been
“deconstructed” in the online environment, too, a place of debate where passions lay on a planet
where opposing poles are populated with statements of total submission or complete hatred
declared in trivial terms. The comments of the readers of the article published on the Pro TV
website reached 964 in June 2012. This great number of posts proves the great interest that the
Romanians show for Madonna. Many of the comments are critical and very critical towards her,
but the fact that she stirs so many debates makes us agree with Kate Muir who said that this star
causing so many controversies might mean that even today she “absorbs” form the public o
series of fears, dreams and views and then returns them to the audience in a different form.
After so many years that she has been portrayed and Madonna herself portrayed herself
as a “bad girl” both with the intention of appealing to the fans and also to provoke the critical
audience in an attempt to irritate, stir debates/controversies which might help her sell her music,
we ask ourselves the following question: which are the grounds/postulates motivating the urge to
change attitudes? In other words, we wonder whether it is possible that the power she gained in
the “fight” with the more or less favorable audience through unorthodox means gives her the
“ammunition” she needs in order to get involved in social causes and thus we witness a Freudian
collective sublimation.
If the answer to the question were affirmative, we might say that Madonna guides us on
an initiatic path with a desirable end. Thus, by invoking the dark and the powerful in the human
being, she draws our attention (willy-nilly) and then shows us the right path of the “great
causes”. Another reason why the star has acquired a great power of influence may be the
consequence of the attention she received from the universities that have credited her undoubted
merits in undermining the patriarchal, racist and capitalist structures (Melanie Morton provides
an example in this case when she analyzed the song “Express Yourself” in a deconstructivist

73
manner). Surprisingly, the stars’ construction become reason for dispute between the academics
specialized in cultural studies and media. Thus, Cathy Schwichtenberg, editor for The Madonna
Connection (apud Kate Muir), says: “Most of the foolish things are produced by the press rather
than the academic community”. The academic community that takes interest in Madonna
circulates the idea of the star’s independence and even contestation of the dominant patriarchal
culture (Real, p. 113).
If we think about the researchers’ view on the stars’ social commitment through both the
messages of their “musical texts” and the “public” image of their private life, we might believe
that this is the source of an enormous power of influence (even when the audience can be
puzzled by the anti-discrimination fight led by the stars, as it happened during Madonna’s
concert in Bucharest).
The studies regarding the globalization tendencies in media and the music industry are
not insignificant. These studies state that there might be some sort of a sui-generis “spiral of
silence”: the audience in a certain country/continent might be impressed by a star’s great
popularity on several continents and then take into consideration that particular star (including
his/her “political” views) as a result of his/her impressing notoriety.

Bibliography
Barbier, Frederic; Bertho Lavenir, Catherine,2000: „Histoire des medias”, Paris: Armand Colin;
Beciu, Camelia, 2011: Sociologia comunicarii si a spatiului public, Iasi: Polirom
Berger, Peter, L.; Luckman, Thomas, 1999: „Construirea socială a realităţii”, Bucureşti: Univers;
Boicu, Ruxandra, 2011: „Ethosul prezidenţial şi stereotipurile de gen” in Daniela Rovenţa-
Frumuşani (ed.), Ipostaze Discursive, vol. II, pp. 115-150, Bucureşti: Editura
Universităţii din Bucureşti;
Briggs, Asa; Burke, Peter, 2005: „Mass-media. O istorie socială: De la Gutenberg la Internet”,
Iaşi: Polirom;
Connor, Steven, 1999: „Cultura postmodernă. O introducere în teoriile contemporane",
Bucureşti: Meridiane;
Derville, Gregory, 1997: „Le pouvoir de medias. Mythes et realites", Grenoble: Presses
Universitaires de Grenoble;
Fiedler, Roger, 2004: „Mediamorphosis - să înțelegem noile media", Cluj-Napoca: Idea Design &
Print;
Giddens, Anthony, 2000: „Consecințele modernității", Bucureşti: Univers;
Ilut Petru, 2001: „Sinele şi cunoaşterea lui: Teme actuale de psihosociologie”, Iaşi: Polirom;
Kellner, Douglas, 2001: „Cultura Media”, Iaşi: Institutul European;
Kellner, Douglas, 2003: „Media spectacle", London: Routledge;
Livingstone, Sonia, 1999: „L’enquete comparative europeene” in „Reseaux”, No 92-93, Paris:
CNET/HERMES;
Marinescu, Valentina, 2005: : „Metode de studiu in comunicare", Bucuresti, Niculescu;
Muir, Kate, 1992: „The face that launched a thousand theses; Maddona",The Times [London
(UK)] 04 Aug 1992;
Silverstone, Roger, 1999: „Televiziunea în viața cotidiană", Iaşi:Polirom;
Tomlinson, John, 2002: „Globalizare şi cultură", Timişoara: AMARCORD;

***

www.ziare.com
www.stirileprotv.ro

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Fiction in media of information

75
 Mediatized Cultural Reality: Fact or Fiction?In Search of New Concepts
Dobrinka Peicheva- South-West University “Neofit Rilski”,
Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria.

Internet and mobile telephones, which have become part of the everyday lives of people,
are meta-media cultural products that concentrate in themselves nearly all the communication
means and nearly all the arts that have ever existed. With the exception of “live” art, all
traditional media and cultural practices are located in them in a duplicated, and often modified,
form; there they unfold in a boundless, dynamic trajectory.
Moreover, many other new media have found a haven in the Internet (and in mobile
phones and interactive television, for that matter), including collective and personal sites, blogs,
podcasts, wiki forms, social networks, profiled communities, etc. (Humphreys, 2005; Katz,
2006; Kim et al., 2007). They emerge as mega-aggregates of media content and cultural content,
and transform our notions of culture and cultural life, of authorship and co-authorship, of
participation and co-participation, of possession of cultural products, of purchase and sale, etc.
(Cammaerts, 2008, Ahonen, 2008; Domingo, Heinonen, 2008).)
Some time ago, when video and specialized TV channels first appeared (meant for an
audience of specific target groups), they were said to be a peak in the evolution of the media.
Video and profiled television channels provided the possibility of asynchronic communication,
of possessing the audiovisual products themselves, of choosing the time and place for contact
with the products. By this resource they revolutionized what had until then been a one-way
communication model, and made it a two-way model; the audience changed from a passive into
an active participant in the process of communication. The new communication model was, in a
way, the end of an evolution and there was no indication efforts would soon be made to find new
media and communication “peaks”. However, the dissemination of the Internet provoked a
rethinking of forecasts about new communication means and of qualifications of “peaks”.
Scholars had to restrain their prognoses in this respect, due to the appearance of modifications of
the existing media in the Internet and the appearance of completely new online media not
existing in physical space (blogs, sites, etc.). Today, no self-respecting scholar would talk about
a peak in communication means, none would dare make a forecast as to what new means will
appear or theorize about their positive and negative cultural developments.

The new media amidst the transformations in communications and culture

The new media have become established as something more than a means of
reproduction and broadcasting. And the people taking part in the Internet and in telephone
communication have become more than consumers. Through the resources of the new media
many people have taken on the new role of disseminators of cultural products, have turned into
independent media through which, and in the framework of which, contents are created and
disseminated. By increasing, as a result of this, the share of active communication, the new
media imply that theorizing should go in new directions: towards the conceptualization of
communication itself and of its restructuring, the conceptualization of participation in culture and
in models of cultural behaviour, the conceptualization of public space, etc.
Interpersonal communications were perhaps the first abode of media-determined
transformations in our times. The sustained positioning of mobile telephones has changed
interpersonal communication. The attractive tariff plans that mobile operators are offering,
attract people and contribute to increased communication through mobile means. In fact,
communication is not rarely done for its own sake, as people seek to reach the tariff limits. This
tariff-determined, mediated way of communicating is restructuring interpersonal communication
itself, directing it from live to media-determined, from stationary to mobile. Actually, mobility is
the other important determinant for the restructuring of interpersonal communications, both the

76
direct ones, which are declining, and the indirect ones, which are increasing but shifting towards
mobile means of communication. (Ishii, 2006; Wei & Lo, 2006’; Katz & Sugiyama, 2006; Kim,
H., Kim, G. Park., Rice, 2007; Lu, & Weber, 2007).
An important accelerating factor is the possibility of instantaneous response, which is the
completing element in the act of communication. Such response, which not long ago was located
in live forms of communication, is now becoming an immanent feature of written contacts as
well. Sending written greetings by mobile communication means makes possible the
instantaneous response of recipients in different points of time and space, and this brings about
the transformation and restructuring of previous practices. The possibility of instantaneous
response stands out as a revolutionary development in the mediatized society.
Mobility and the instantaneity that accompanies it, have proven to have a unique
advantage over the limitations of stationary communications and distance. Interpersonal
communication through the mobile media is growing and reaching a mass scale, imposing
thereby new concepts for identifying the forms and kinds of communication. (Campbell, 2007;
Peicheva, 2011)
The mobile character of the new media are bringing about a transformation not only in
interpersonal contacts. Changes are also taking place in today’s cultural processes. The
sustainable positioning of the Internet and the cell phone within culture, and of culture within the
new media, is resulting in significant mobile transformations of culture, both with respect to
creation and dissemination and as regards cultural participation. Culture is also becoming
instantaneous and mobile in character.
The modern dimensions of cultural changes are related to participation in culture, to the
possibility of instantaneous and direct participation in cultural life, and to transformations in
participation as such.
Among the new communication means, the mobile telephone was the first to provide the
possibility for non-traditional cultural participation. By means of the option of creating personal
contents, the presence of the separate individual in cultural life has become transformed from
passive into something vividly active. From a recipient of cultural content, the separate
individual is taking on the role of communicator, from viewer he/she is becoming an author;
from consumer, producer; from contemplator, disseminator, etc., in assimilating and applying
various other professional skills, such as those of photo reporter, journalist, photographer, movie
director. People now take part in all branches of cultural life not only by the creation and
dissemination of cultural products, but also as live sources and “material” for other creations
(Molyneaux, 2008). The video clips created and sent to specialized Internet sites (such as
YouTube) are often used by world media companies in their programmes (Jenkins 2007).
According to information found on the YouTube blog15, over 13 million hours of video
were uploaded during the year 2010. On the average, 850 000 minutes of video recording were
added to the site each day. We learn that people watched more than 700 billion video clips in a
year. Video clips are used not only as a visual support for verbal arguments on television
programmes, but also as original audiovisual units. These and other practices are particularly
forceful arguments that individuals are creators and disseminators of cultural “production” and
can therefore be defined as independent media.
But it is not only by creating and disseminating video clips with their mobile phones that
people play the role of individual media. The administration of personal sites, blogs, vlogs,
podcasts, etc., in the Internet tends to break down and enrich individual media practices. A
sociological survey conducted by the Sociological Laboratory of New Bulgarian University in
2009162 has found that 12 percent of the respondents had their own site; 5,5 percent of

1
Global faces and networked places. (2009) Retrieved from http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/wp-
content/uploads/2009/03/nielsen_globalfaces_mar09.pdf

2. The representative sociological surveys on Mobile phones and models of internet usages were conducted
by assoc. prof. Ivan Evtimov in NBU- Laboratory of sociology, 2009. Retrieved from: http://bgsociety.nbu.bg/4.htm

77
respondents indicated they had their own blog. The popularity of individual sites is indicated by
over 40 percent of the surveyed persons, while well-known bloggers attract the attention of
12,3% of the participants in this type of communication. It was found that genuine participants in
cultural life are between one fifth and one fourth of the surveyed persons, predominantly people
from the younger age groups. The active participation of young people in cultural life appears to
offer a new theoretical perspective and to be an important socio-cultural phenomenon.
It seems that the creativity in fan fiction is the clearest demonstration that individuals are
becoming creative communicators who materialize their responses in the form of new creative
objectifications. The fan audience of a given work of art, who become, as it were, co-authors to
the original creators, are actual co-participants in the creation and completion of the images of
the personages; they objectify themselves as interpreters of the work of the initial authors. The
creation of various video products and of fan fictions through the new communication means is a
media-determined activity that demands the redefinition of the subjects of culture but also of the
factors and preconditions for the multiple variants of culture. In other words, new concepts and
identifications are being imposed in this respect by the video products. With regard to musical
fan fictions, Nancy Baym (2010) writes: “Mobility makes it much easier for music fans to turn to
one another. The phrase used to be ‘I’ll record you’. Today fans make on-the-spot reviews,
publish concert videos and podcasts, receive information and experience from others, and much
faster than by the traditional forms. The mobile media are an expansion of what fans do with
music online, but also a great transformer of the game. While Internet itself is a transformer of
the game, mobility does it far quicker.”
Blogs are another significant form of instantaneous response and creativity. They “gave
birth” to a new cultural phenomenon with a civic dimension to it: in blogs people take part in the
interpretation of events and explanation of trends, presenting a variety of viewpoints. Blogs have
become a new pathway for journalist practices, giving grounds for reference to a new journalism,
to citizen journalism, to the power of citizen journalism, to the latter’s impact on the audience,
etc. Conferences and seminars are organized, doctoral dissertations written, on the topic of
citizen journalism. Bloggers and their blogs are being directly classified as new media, and they
now compete with the traditional means of communication (Gillett 2007; Domingo 2008;
Mansell, 2008). It is impossible to calculate how many bloggers there are today, for their number
is constantly growing. Even professional journalists not only write in other people’s blogs but
create their own. With reference to the old and new media, the well-known blogger Arianna
Huffington (2008) writes: “The new and old media may clash and oust each other but the two
worlds are quickly drawing closer to each other, bringing out the best of themselves.” Though
Huffington describes herself as a supporter of the old media, she lauds blogs. “The new media
cannot fully take the place of the old, nor can they achieve results similar to those of
investigative journalism, but they are a free place where people’s thoughts are respected”.
According to her, what is most important is that “blogs give people that have no access to
Reuters or Time the right to a voice, the faith they will continue to exercise that voice and that
interest in it will not wane (Huffington, 2008). Citizen journalism today is a widespread cultural
fact. It is becoming an immanent means of expression of civic consciousness and a sort of
identification of our times.
The new type of cultural participation results in a series of transformations in the reading
of books, newspapers, and announcements of various kinds. Hardly anyone would deny that
today, people read more than ever. They read electronic publications, emails, Facebook, all sorts
of professional materials, they read – and write – in forums, etc. Reading and writing can
continue while other activities are being conducted. The new means of communication, however,
have made reading and writing highly media-determined. Of course, reading has always been
mediatized, for all carriers of contents to be read have always been presented in media form: a
book, a newspaper, a magazine. Today, with the appearance of new electronic forms, the carriers

78
of content are supplemented by ever new electronic variations. Today one has to specify what
the carrier of a text is, and the carrier from which a text is read – whether it is a hard copy, email,
disk, diskette, USB, etc. People often express preference for paper carriers, and not only older
people. Perhaps the concern of some authors about the decline of the old media forms is
groundless, but concerns are hardly groundless with regard to the possible negative physiological
consequences of the new models of reading. People are reading more than ever, for if the initial
cause of communication is the content itself, the text itself, today this text exists in many new
media forms. Moreover, it is leading to the appearance and establishment of a new type of
consumer relationship. Many of the texts are fully accessible in the Internet. In many cases there
is no need to obtain them through purchase or to pay for them on contact. Despite the constant
appeals for regulating and restricting their access, the latter can be obtained for nearly all cultural
forms: the press, the radio and television, scientific production, books, articles, cinema, musical
works. The unlimited technical possibility for sharing and downloading products is one of the
preconditions for the sustainable positioning of these products in the everyday lives of people.
In her article “I Read, You Read, He e-Reads.” Dorotea Nikolova (2010) presents data
from a large-scale survey conducted by The Book Industry Study Group in 2009, on the reading
habits of people in the USA. The findings show that one out of five Americans has substituted
electronic books for paper copies. The main reasons for preferring e-books, according to the
survey, is their accessibility, easy search options, and environmentalist concerns.
Nearly half (47 percent) of those who prefer e-books read them on computers, and the
rest use special e-book readers.
It was found that, two years after Amazon launched Kindle, the most popular e-book
reader, 32% of the respondents indicated they preferred it.
The data also show that only 28% of respondents buy e-books that have a safeguard
against illegal copying. Moreover, 30% of the surveyed buyers of traditional books are not
willing to wait even the three months after the publication of a book on paper carrier after which
they can legally obtain it in electronic version. The growing acceptance of electronic forms is in
fact due not only to considerations of economy of money and space, but also to the mobility they
provide: the possibility of reading such books on a computer, on mobile phones, etc. The media
determine not only the format but also the variety of possible ways of contact with the audience,
and they universalize these ways to an incredible degree. Access to literature, whether fiction,
scientific, educational, can be had practically anywhere.
The non-traditional media create new behaviour practices in culture and bring about
transformations of the existing models. The reminding resources typical for some of the
applications of the new media, are also bringing about changes in cultural behaviour. In fact, this
change of the cultural models is another aspect of the mobile determined socio-cultural
transformations and their consequences. The new cultural practices provided by the new media
for creating mobile programmes for the day, week, or month, for a kind of personal agenda
setting, etc., are unmatched in the history of culture and communications. While in traditional
culture the noting of the dates of meetings, of family celebrations, of special events, etc., was
done mainly on paper notebooks of various kinds, and in a relatively stationary way, today this
cultural model is localized in the notebooks and organizers of the mobile phones, in the social
nets, in electronic mail, etc.
As a natural consequence of mobility and instantaneous access, today’s culture
(literature, art, science, behaviour models) is becoming not only more mediatized but more
globalized (Peicheva, 2003; Wall, 2007).
The prerequisites of these cultural transformations are based on the immanent
characteristics of the new media: speed of contacts; ubiquitous use; personalization of media and
contacts; selectivity in engaging in communication; combination of written and verbal language,
transportable cultural products. These immanent features are combined with the possibility for
simultaneous participation in the various forms of communication: by telephone and post; audio
and audiovisual; communications related to reading and writing; creative or passive

79
 communication, etc. A prerequisite for the cultural transformations is the possibility of the new
media to include within themselves the traditional media as well; in this sense, they prove to be
an environment for media modifications. As such, they become a location of mega-
communication formations, which has both foreseeable and unforeseeable innovative effects.
The new media not only serve to harbor the traditional and more modern media but likewise
provide a means for a variety of contacts – interpersonal, group, mass-scale contacts, and
determine the appearance of new communication configurations with new possibilities for
creativity and participation. (Humphreys, 2005; Peicheva, 2009). They have the resource to
provide a new type of cross-based cultural communication that results in new cultural models
within a mobile framework (or even with no framework at all), and this capacity of theirs
ultimately objectifies the constant restructurings of the space of communication and culture.
These restructurings, which, as a rule, are indicators that the new media have been accepted, and
even serve as labels for whole epochs (e.g. “the age of traditional written culture”, “the age of
electronic culture”, etc.), have mobility as their essential characteristic. Mobility becomes
cultural mobility, not simply a technical feature. On the other hand, the variety provided by the
new media for cultural participation and practices, places people on a basis of equality in their
striving for self-perfection and growth (Kellner 1994; Peicheva, 2006). Moreover, it leads to
“unlocking” of people’s creative potential, to publicizing of what they have created, and to
restructuring of the cultural public.

Restructuring of public space

The mediatization of cultural practices actually predetermines the appearance of new
possibilities for publicizing and naturally results in a restructuring of public space.
The restructurings of public cultural space today are related not only to those
restructurings that result from the appearance and establishment of media which, though new, are
traditional in their organization and way of functioning, such as the different electronic variants
for politics, arts, science, etc. These restructurings are related to media that are unprecedented in
their way of organization and functioning, and that come close to revolutionizing the very notion
of “mass communication means” and the function of inter-group mediator that mass
communications perform.
New media are functioning in the area of communication whose specific characteristics
are revolutionizing collective creativity and intermediation by reducing these to individual
performance. These media are concentrating within themselves the creation and dissemination of
cultural values and the control over these processes. The assuming of the role of media by
individuals, a trend that has begun in the last decade and is unfolding before our eyes, is perhaps
the surest demonstration of the restructuring of public cultural and media space. Instead of the
collective-mediating mechanisms of publicity, the trend now is that of counter-cultural
processes, in other words, of individual-mediating mechanisms for self-publicizing of one’s own
constructs of reality. The individuals who create sites, blogs, etc., explicitly assert that what they
are making are personal constructs, in which the expressed criteria are personal, though the
product is meant for the public. Edvin Sugarev writes: “In my capacity as editor [of the blog], it
is I, the individual, who determine its contents. The latter do not depend on any other collective
will except that of its readers – and it will continue to exist as long as they show interest in it.
Here you can read about why things happen, not what things happen. About the mechanisms that
are driving Bulgaria today; about their secret compartments and backstage” (Edvin Sugarev 174).
Self-publicizing is the act that underlies the new processes that cause restructuring of
public media space.
The increase of the number of new media can be interpreted by further developing
Habermas’s (1995) reasoning about the expansion of public space by the Internet; the growth of
new media stimulates the attempt at conceptualizing their impact on traditional publicity. In fact,

4. See http://www.svobodata.com/

80
if we follow up Habermas’s assertion (1995) that publicity, seen in a macro perspective, is a
socialization through the media, that publicity signifies to make public something already created
or being created at the moment (all this, in the interest of the largest possible share of people who
have access to those media), and that this is a representative publicity, then we may relate
publicity in a narrower aspect to the materializing, objectifying of ideas, opinions, viewpoints,
etc., at micro level. The publicizing of commentaries, publications, lectures, reports, information,
etc., in the so-called individual and social media is also a form of making things public. The
difference is of the same kind as that separating representative from non-representative publicity,
whose dividing lines are gradually dissolving for some individuals and groups. The impact of
self-publicizing can hence be arranged in two aspects: as centering and objectification within the
new media, and as a new type of feedback.
In both aspects, self-publicizing, as a “bottom-up” initiative, becomes one of the basic
concepts of sociology and cultural studies, respectively of sociology of communications and of
culture. It is a fundamental concept both in a more specialized aspect – as expressing the
concentration of communicative action and reaction – and in a more general reactive-productive
aspect, as a new general sociological and cultural phenomenon.
Self-publicizing as an expression of the self-presentation of individuals in the new media
is one of the most indicative social facts of the last two or three years; it points to the need for
conceptual changes in the sociology of communications at individual, community, and
institutional level. Through self-publicizing, a new structural element appears – in the action
aspect – within the new media: a new kind of social actors who is simultaneously producer and
consumer, recipient and communicator. Bloggers, forumists, authors of video clips, of fan
fiction, and other materials publicized on specialized sites or in the social networks (Twitter, My
Space, Netlog, Facebook, YouTube, etc.) belong to this new type of social actor.
A close scrutiny and analysis of the new media practices show that self-publicizing in
these media is a reactive-active phenomenon, and is the latest and most important feature in the
social action aspect. Self-publicizing appears as: a counter-elitist, intentionally reactive action, as
a reaction in the forums; as counter-productive when seen as an activity in postings.
As a relatively new phenomenon in publicity, it not only gathers within itself both
reaction and creation, but it equates communicative with social action.
Self-publicity may be articulated as a response to the long violated trust in paradigms,
programmes and personalities that claim to give last-instance interpretations, and in the
institutions providing and ensuring publicity. In this perspective, it could be described as a
resistance against the status quo in the public sphere on one hand, and, on the other, as an
additional opportunity for winning new territory. Here is what E. Sugarev418 writes about his
idea of the kind of blog he is proposing: “[It is] About the freedom to think beyond convention,
the freedom to see beyond the blinkers, the freedom to comprehend beyond the matrices, the
freedom to act and be capable of bearing responsibility for one’s actions. About freedom not as a
political term, not as a generally-accepted norm, but freedom as an individual characteristic;
freedom not according to canons and the tables of the law, but according to those who are free in
spirit.”
Thus, publicizing may be articulated as a form of feedback that reveals paradigmatic
changes of weighty socio-cultural consequences. It can be interpreted as a form of feedback that
explicitly completes the communication process, the communicative action in its singularity. The
new media not only make it possible for each feedback to be simultaneous and hence an equal
element of mass communications; they also enable the feedback to be made public. What is
more, the presence of the feedback alongside the message of the communicator (actor) in their
material presence is something that revolutionizes the media constructs and objectifications. The
publicizing of the feedback in this aspect makes possible the emergence of new cultural

5. Theory of communicative action. Habermass basic concepts and ideas .(In Russian) Retrieved from:
http://historic.ru/books/item/f00/s00/z0000022/st079.shtml

81
syntheses and a new kind of objectification and materialization. This type of synthesis gradually
begins to correspond to the other materializations and objectifications in society.
Publicizing has become fundamental in the societal aspect as well. The new media forms,
such as Facebook, Twitter, are a harbor for new kinds of group publicity and structures (Fuchs
2009). The possibility for various types of presentation and self-presentation to take place,
expressing a community publicity, has become a fact in these new media forms. The new social
networks have been affirmed as unique cultural units and as forms of permanent reactions and
publicity in a community aspect. They contain announcements, photos, achievements, author’s
materials, correspondence, options for telephone calls, references, etc. These new media
constructs of group communication are unprecedented in the past evolution of cultural and socio-
cultural formations. They are indeed independent of time and space and of the age and
qualification of participants; they are dynamic and internally mobile substructures, solidarities
and public intents; and they tend to expand.
It is not accidental that, when asked what his greatest success so far had been, Pierre
Cardin answered: “The fact that I became famous throughout the world!” (Stoykov 2000: 177).
Other people would probably give the same answer, who have become famous thanks to the
media, including pop stars, sportspeople, television celebrities, even intellectuals and leaders of
public opinion.
It is an indisputable fact that self-publicizing points to the segmenting and de-
massification of mass communication, to the de-centering and atomization of public space. By it,
new media pictures of reality are constructed, which are independent of the official themes and
contents. These new constructed social realities are restructuring the traditional constructs of
social reality. They posit strictly personalized, individual realities as a response to the official
pictures. The result of this type of restructuring of public space is a simultaneous manifestation
and functioning of a large variety of realities (traditional and/or personalized ones).
Hence, self-publicizing is a phenomenon with indisputable cultural effects. It is an
individual choice that is not officially imposed upon a person, but is value-based; a construct that
combines creative challenge and the striving for unique interpretation. The fact that publicizing
subsequently serves to integrate people and attract followers, makes it an even more relevant
phenomenon, which involves authorship and has cultural consequences. As a striving to respond
to what is happening in society, it is yet another testimony to people’s urge to fulfill themselves,
a testimony to their uniqueness and potential. It reveals that individuals are active actors – being
interpreters and creators of on-going events.
Consequently, reality in the new media and through the new media is not a virtual world.
It is not only a parallel world existing alongside the physical world. Whether we like it or not, we
are at the threshold of a new “real” reality that combines the virtual and the physical.
Functioning in this new reality are individuals, groups, and institutions: they are the actors of this
reality, who constantly combine the two worlds in a mediatized trajectory.
Mediatized cultural reality, in all its variety, is not a fiction or a second reality - it is our
factual reality.

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 Storytelling the (new) Romanian Revolution.
Case Study of OTV Reporting/Reshaping the January 2012 Events

Adriana Ştefănel - University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

Since their beginnings, human societies have passed on their cultural histories, values and
norms through narratives. Whether formulated in songs, poetry, epic writings, or broadcasts,
humankind has passed what it deemed as important. All over the world, at any time and in any
culture, the narratives are a significant human artifact ( T.E. Cook apud Johnson-Cartee, K.,
2005, p. 149) therefore they cannot lack in ours, being hidden in the most visible place: in the
news.
Within “the society overreached by communication” (Bernard Miege, 2000) media tends
to replace the traditional social stance (family, school, church, peer group) and from this position
it claims its role as a primary source of political information and also a resource for political acts.
As constructivists have argued, media has a growing role in the construction of social
imaginaries – values, laws commonly shared by society – on the one hand due to the high-
capacity of imposing its own truth and, on the other hand, because of the practical impossibility
of verifying this fact by normal individuals.
The concept of news as storytelling was brought up in the landmark study by Bird and
Dardenne (1988) in which the authors successfully explored the idea that news is not simply seen
as objective reporting of fact, but also as a form of storytelling that functions in a mythological
manner. They argued that news-makers operate like traditional storytellers, using conventional
and mythological structures to (re)shape events and to (re)define the facts in the ways that
reflect, reinforce and construct the audience’s reality.

News as storytelling. The bardic function of television.

In today’s media-saturated world, TV-news play a cultural role similar to that of stories
in traditional cultures: using familiar, recurring narrative patterns in order to explain new events
gives them a sense (an orientation) and by doing that, makes them predictable. This idea was
tested by Jack Lule (2001) in an extensive study in which he traces a series of mythical
archetypes in the New York Times, pointing out that heroes, tricksters, good mother and flood
archetypes play out in news stories, couched in familiar and comfortable forms and describe
journalists as ancient bards or scribes. He also suggests that “ancient myths have taken modern
form on the front page” (Lule, J., 2001, p. 2) and argued that “any discussion of journalism that
does not account for storytelling and myth will miss a vital part of the news” (op.cit. p.3).
The continuity between popular ballads, broadsheets, legends, tales etc. and news as a matrix for
understanding reality have been intensely analyzed by scholars: the early studies of D. A. Bird
(1976) argued that “folklore and mass communication share common frameworks of defined
situations, structure, function and tradition” (p. 285 apud S.E. Bird 1992, p. 165); D. Robins and
Ph. Cohen (1978) suggest that the popularity of Kung Fu movies among British working-class
youths can be explained by the correspondence of narrative conventions in the movies with those
existing in oral tradition; J.H Brunvand. (1981) points out the manner in which newspapers
articles sometimes become urban legends; J. Fiske shows that TV news draws on and also feeds
oral traditions (1987) and with J. Hartley (1989/2002) underline the “bardic function” of
television.
The quoted authors summarized the function performed by television (and by the news
in particular we may add) in its bardic role (p. 89):
1. To articulate the main lines of the established cultural consensus about the nature of
reality;

85
2. To implicate the individual members of the culture into its dominant value-systems, by
exchanging a status-enhancing message for the endorsement of the message’s underlying
ideology (as articulated in its mythology);
3. To celebrate, explain, interpret and justify the doings of the culture’s individual
representatives in the world out-there; using the mythology of individuality to claw back such
individuals from any mere eccentricity to a position of socio-centrality;
4. To assure the culture at large of its practical adequacy in the world by affirming and
confirming its ideologies/mythologies in active engagement with the practical and potentially
unpredictable world;
5. To expose, conversely, any practical inadequacies in the culture’s sense of itself which
might result from changed conditions in the world out-there, or from pressure within the culture
for a reorientation in favor of a new ideological stance;
6. To convince the audience that their status and identity as individuals is guaranteed by the
culture as a whole;
7. To transmit by these means a sense of cultural membership (security and involvement).
This paper argues that channel OTV(Oglinda TV, translated as Mirror TV) makes use of this
bardic function of the media and (re)shapes the events from January 2012 using the mythological
December 1989 in order to present the star and the owner of OTV (Dan Diaconescu) as the
Savior Hero (in Girardet’s sense of the term).

Myths and politics. An imagological perspective over politics

Placed under the Rationality-sign19, the occidental thinking form which Romanians claim
to be part of, has a long tradition of putting “in quarantine” (L. Boia, 2000, p. 31) any other way
of thinking. Following Socrates and St. Augustin’s tradition, the Enlightenment philosophers
condemned without appeal, in the name of Rationality, the old beliefs and superstitions. A long
period of time, occidental philosophers undervalued mythical thinking and excluded the
imaginary’s scale of analysis matrix of understanding reality. Since the beginning of the 20th
century the issue seems to be solved: on one hand there was a pre-logic way of thinking,
particular for the primitives; on the other hand there was a logical way of thinking, particular for
modern societies. In those societies, politics was seen as rational not emotional; the culture and
all that makes us humans has been left aside (D. Kertzer,1988/2002, p. 19).
After the Second World War, the importance of myths in political thinking couldn’t be
overlooked. Both Nazism and Communism did not make use of ration but of emotion and myths
(Cassirer, E.1944/1994; Tismaneanu, V., 1998/1999; Boia, L., 2000, etc.) in order to impose
their perspective over society; people’s response was overwhelming and an explanation was
required. Besides the institutional logic and the rational thinking, the political imaginary and the
mythological approach can be used for a better understanding of political history and the present.
The intertwining of rational and non-rational elements may constitute the fundaments of political
representation, not as intrinsic good or evil but ambivalent as argued by
Wunenburger.(Wunenburger, J.J. preface of Delsol, C., Masclowski, M., Nowicki, J.,
2002/2003, p.15).
Scholars (Edelman, M., 1985/1999, Wunenburger, J.J., 2005, Kertzer, D.,1988/2002,
Coman, M., 2003,etc.,) recognize the contribution of the imaginary in understanding the political
complex reality. Without myths and storytelling, the political reality would be reduced to a
chaotic conglomerate of facts.
Myths and metaphors permit men to live in a world in which the causes are simple and
net and the remedies are obvious. In place of a complicated empirical world, men hold to a
relatively few, simple, archetypal myths, of which the conspiratorial enemy and the
omnicompetent hero-savior are the central ones. In consequence, people feel reassured by

19
Rationality was deified during the French Revolution, contradiction left unnoticed by those who preached the
separation of myth, emotion and the imaginary

86
guidance, certainty, and trust rather than paralyzed by threat, bewilderment, an am unwanted
personal responsibly for making judgments. (Edelman, M., 1971, p.26)
Myths light up shadowed areas of politics, even if the process is incomplete: not from the
shadow to the light, but from the shadow to semi-darkness, from the hidden to the interpretable.
In this semi-darkness, the political battle is for imposing the interpretation-frame or the scheme
(socially constructed) through which one can “read” reality. The social schemes are abstract
symbolical systems which shape the knowledge; their relevance are a result of the important
cognitive economy and of the stability of understanding. Those schemes predefine the shape of
the events and pinpoint the optimal reactions. In the study Ritual, politics and power
(1988/2002) David Kertzer explains the manner in which the schematic-thinking (re)shapes
reality and makes it comprehensible:
Since we cannot have an exhaustive perception of the world we came in contact with, the
perception must be selective (…). Our perceptions are rather the result of the mental schemes we
have at our disposal; those schemes determine not only the information we chose to take into
consideration, but also suggest the possible way of interpretation. (D. Dertzer, op.cit. p.97)
In the same context, the quoted author mentions the link between the act of knowledge and
emotion. The more emotionally aroused in the event, the lower is the concentration and less
explanatory categories are taken into consideration. (…) at the extreme limits, the people under
the emotion empire risk to operate in a dychotomic manner and divide individuals (or events,.) :
into me-against me; good against evil.
The January 2012’s events were, without a doubt emotional, and therefore prone to a
dychotomic representation and mythological (re)configuration of reality. This paper will
underline OTV’s usage of myths, especially the Revolution mythology influence.

The who and The what: our story about the key elements of the analysis
Even if this paper’s focus is not on the events themselves, but on the mediated
(re)construction of those events, we will briefly present them drawing the attention to the fact
that this is just another way of storytelling, our own.

a. The who: OTV channel

OTV channel has its own place in Romanian media history: it is the ordinary people’s
television; with low economical and symbolical resources; those who do not identify themselves
with other TV channels. It is a television where the rules of society are placed between brackets;
it is a free space for exaggerations, for personal attacks, for aggressive nationalism and populism.
The owner who is also the star of the channel appears in long talk-shows, without an imposed
structure or emission-time, addressing subjects which are considered taboo or not important for
other national TV channels.
The Elodia story, a 1000 episodes talk-show about a missing and presumably dead
lawyer, brought up the performance of this TV channel. The studio was moved in a larger
location, in order to underline its new status: a legitimate television, frequently attended by
personalities. Even President Traian Băsescu –back then a “friend” of Dan Diaconescu-
participated in some electoral broadcasting in 2009.
This friendship, though, did not keep Dan Diaconescu out of justice for economic fraud.
In 2010 he was remand in custody and spent 24 hours in jail. Upon his release from custody, he
announced his intention of running for presidency and becoming an adversary of Traian Băsescu.
The battlefield is a mythological one: The Good (Dan Diaconescu) and the Evil (Traian
Băsescu); the maverick which becomes the Savior; the Conspiracy Myth (including a foreign
conspiracy); etc.

87
b. The What: the January 2012 events
The trigger of what happened in January 2012 riots in Romania was Raed Arafat 20’s
resignation as Health sub secretary of state, after an argument– in a political talk-show - with
president Traian Băsescu. This event was presented as a forced resignation, another chapter in
the story about Traian Băsescu’s authoritarian presidency.
Piața Universității is the mythological place of the Romanian 1989 Revolution (Inter
Barricade) and the traditional gathering point for spontaneous political meetings. Obviously,
those who supported Raed Arafat, or who simply did not appreciate Traian Băsescu’s politics,
gathered there to express themselves. After some violent incidents (some staged, some argued)
massive police forces were sent to intervene.. The population’s reaction was symmetrical since
many people joined the protests.
Slowly Raed Arafat was forgotten and people’s complaints against Traian Băsescu’s
regime took over the scene. The re-empowering of Raed Arafat did not produce any calming
effects. The manifestation continued for the whole month of January (even on extremely low
temperatures) and slowly vanished after media lost interest in it.

News storytelling structure

The political imaginary is, by excellence, polarized. Every symbol has its antithesis: day
and night, Good and Evil, water and fire, spirit and matter, Christ and Antichrist, construction
and destruction, progress and decay, ying and yang etc.; one cannot exist without the other. This
polarization proves the emotional tendency through simplification and dramatization. The grey
tones have disappeared; the reality is either black or white.
The structure of OTV news regarding January 2012 events is based on two mythological
doublets: good-evil; sacred-profane which create a Cartesian system of axis that configures and
gives sense to the entire discourse.

a. Good-Evil doublet
This doublet is used in the story narrated by OTV in order to create an imagined community (in
an Andersonian sense of the term) of PP-DD21 voters; a community lead by Dan Diaconescu,
casting as the Saving Hero. Traian Băsescu is, by antithesis the Anti-Hero. Synthetically, this
doublet has the following composition:

Table 2: the Good-Evil doublet in OTV’s story about January 2012 events
Good: Dan Diaconescu Evil: Traian Băsescu
Protesters (The People, PP-DD People) The State
OTV: the only television that tells the Truth Other televisions: misinforming
PP-DD: the protesters party Other parties: part of the corrupt system

The low level of understanding between different groups of protesters was a distinctive
and an assumed mark of January 2012 events. Everyone who had something to say could find a
tribune in Piața Universității. The anti-Băsescu discourse was dominant but not hegemonic.
Some manifested against the entire political system, others against PDL22 and its government, or
against Traian Băsescu only. The feminists find a place to express their claims; the football fans
manifested against the “football mafia”; the nationalists stated the necessity of the Union with
the neighboring country Moldova23. There were even some voices that requested legalization of

20
A foreign origin doctor (Syrian), the founder of SMURD –emergency medical unit. In a country that rejects the
Stranger, Raed Arafat is one of the most esteemed “Romanians”, decorated by two presidents (Traian Basescu being
one of them).
21
The People’s Party- Dan Diaconescu (the party created and lead by Dan Diaconescu)
22
Back then the main governmental party
23
Once part of the Romanian territory

88
soft drugs. Without taking these facts into account, in OTV’s story the protesters were presented
as a single voice, with a single demand Down with Băsescu! (Jos Băsescu!).There was also an
implicit demand, stated at first by Dan Diaconescu himself and confirmed by the protesters
invited in the OTV studio: Dan Diaconescu, president! or via SMS Mr. Dan24, please take
control over Romania! (a text-message request, 16.01 20.21).
Opposed to The People is The State (the corrupt one). Regardless of their political
involvement, the State’s representatives acted unitarily against the People: the Prefect of
Bucharest demanded the cleaning of the square until midnight; the Mayor of Bucharest asked the
citizens to stay at home; the MAI (Internal Affairs Minister) announced that all the salary debts
will be paid in a week; the police forces acted non-democratically. The police are randomly
searching the protesters and filming them “they must state the day, the month, the year of birth
and other details of this sort (...) this means that Băsescu’s intention is to arrest them (16.01;
20.32).
Another example: The entire local police forces, Oprescu’s25 famous local police were
concentrated at the University Square (...). The local police forces are against the People, too!
(15.01; 20.35)
A similar antithesis is placed in the media field: OTV –the new Free Public Television
from the first 1989 revolutionary days; other media - part of the corrupt system: we are left with
the only television that speaks the Truth, the viewers said that! All the other televisions
misinform the people; they report a low number of protesters and speak only of the police’s
casualties (15.01, 20.10).
The misinforming practiced by other televisions is a grotesque one, strongly
undiminished by camera footage: to speak as other televisions do, there are approximately
twenty protesters there. But there are a thousand- five hundred of them! (18.01; 21.23).
OTV remained the only television close to the People and its role is believed to be acknowledged
as such. A short message (SMS) read live by Dan Diaconescu is a good example: OTV is the
lamp that lays by the Romanian people’s bedside. This way it (the Romanian people, our note)
might get redemption (19.01; 20.24).
Last but not least, an antithesis is presented in the political field: all parliamentarian
parties, from PDL26 to PSD27, from PNL28 to UNPR29, from UDMR30 to minority representatives
turned their back to the People and voted against the People. (15.01. 20.14). All political forces
are united against the People: Crin Antonescu31 demanded the police to arrest the hooligans;
Sorin Oprescu asked how much time they can resist; Piedone32 beat some protesters himself
yesterday, Gigi Becali33, Silviu Prigoană34 who spoke about hooligans that must be punished
(16.01; 20.26).

b. The Sacred-Profane doublet

The second doublet that helps configured the OTV story is used in order to delimit the
profane every-day life from the sacred revolutionary times (both 1989 and, by contagion, 2012).

24
A familiar name used in order to underline the link between Dan Diaconescu and his fans
25
Sorin Oprescu, independent mayor of Bucharest, former member of PSD, at that time an opposition party;
26
Democrat Liberal Party (the main governmental party at that moment)
27
Social Democrat Party –opposition party at that time
28
National Liberal Party-opposition party at that time
29
The Union for Romanian Progress –governmental party
30
Democratic Union of Hungarian Minority-governmental party
31
Leader of PNL, an opposition party at that time.
32
Mayor of one of Bucharest’s districts, UNPR member (governmental party) at that time. Man with immense
force, as his nickname (legally transformed in his name in order to be recognized by voters) suggested
33
Leader of PNG, non-parliamentarian party with the same electorate as PP-DD.
34
a PDL’s MP.

89
Some myths of the 1989 revolution are used in order to legitimate the current events and to
(re)present them as part of a new Romanian revolution.
1.The terrorist’s myth: the story of an elite force faithful to Nicolae Ceausescu that
infiltrated revolutionary masses and caused casualties among them in order to maintain the
communist status-quo. The terrorists are, as in 1989, members of the intelligence, by nature a
secret service and for that an occult force; their methods are similar: creating chaos and anarchy.
Consequently, the 1989’s revolutionary call do not shout! is transformed in the panicked
question: Who is shooting? (16.01; 21.10) or Are you hurt? (15.01; 20.19). Also, tributary to this
myth is the information35 regarding three casualties.
2.The Inter36 barricade: one of the most respected symbols of Romanian revolution is
reconfigured in order to underline the evilness of police forces. Once there was an obstacle that
prevented the police to reach the protesters and kept them away from the sacred place of
Revolution, a new barricade (in fact a burning tire) was built by the law enforcements in order to
prevent people to join the manifestation: The barricade is at the auto-underpass. They fear that
people from Berceni37 are coming that way (...) those are the barricades ordered by Oprescu
(15.01; 20.39).
One should not be concerned by the inadequacy between those two stories or of the
inefficiency of such construction38. The emotional schematic thinking is not interested in casual
details. A barricade is a barricade, no matter the method or the purpose it was built for; and an
event with a barricade is a textbook revolution.
3. Ceausescu’s loop: Traian Băsescu’s absence is treated in the same manner as
Ceausescu’s loop. The hiding place, Scroviștea, one of Ceausescu’s palaces, is well known to the
public, underlining the fact that some intelligence forces have already joined the People. Traian
Băsescu is not the only politician that looped. Victor Ponta39 left the country being somewhere,
in Brussels, in Monte Carlo (17.01; 20.25).
4. The call for the Army to join the People: in 1989 this was a crucial moment (under the
slogan the army is with us!). In 2012 this moment is anticipated and demanded somebody tell me
that the military police are unsatisfied, too. I asked them to use the amendment stipulating that
an unreasonable, illegal order must not be followed (16.01; 20.45).
5. The communist’s elite trial is anticipated and Dan Diaconescu is self-casted in the
prosecutor’s role.
6. The spatial continuity of the University Square (Piața Universității) and the television
set: the same pilgrimage of protesters that bring news from the Square, addressing the People;
the only difference is that in 2012 the channel people address is not the public television, but
OTV.
7. Other mythological similarities: Elena Ceausescu’s request of washing the blood from
Timisoara’s streets is similar to the one of Bucharest’s prefect; Ceausescu’s shout stay calm in
your places! Reappears in 2012 as Citizens, remain calm at home! (Sorin Oprescu, quoted on
scroll); the contradictory information about the trains which stopped in-between stations,
interrupted communication,, the hidden number of the wounded/dead, etc.. Even the forecasted
temperature remained the same, extremely warm for that time of the year.
8. The missing myth: the trigger. Even if very appealing for a mythical approach, the
similar beginnings of the two events40 have been left aside. In OTV’s story only one Hero is

35
This information was not confirmed by other media or by police, neither denied by OTV in the analyzed period.
36
Intercontinental hotel, near The University Square. In front of this hotel a barricade was build in 1989.
37
A Bucharest neighborhood. The mention is not made without an explanation: there are a lot of OTV viewers in
this suburban neighborhood.
38
The subway underpass is for auto-usage not for pedestrians, there are other, more efficient, ways of getting from
Berceni to the University Square, Berceni is a quiet neighborhood, inhabited mostly by retried people.
39
Leader of PSD, an opposition party at that time.
40
A citizen of foreign origin, highly esteemed is forced to dislocate for opposing the system; silent manifestation of
solidarity; brutal force orders a response

90
needed. Raed Arafat’s role is minimized, and he is associated with the oppressive system (at an
innuendo level).

Conclusions
Graphically represented, the story’s structure is the following:

Figure 1: the structure of OTV’s story regarding January 2012 events

The time-line is not a linear but a cyclical one (mythological concept): the astral moment
of its beginning is the 1989 revolution; the corrupt “today” and the glorious “tomorrow” that will
punish the present and re-install the Golden Era (also known as the golden age, the promised
land, etc.). The mythological construction eludes reality and reshapes it to serve various political
interests. The 2012 events are forced to fit in the 1989 revolutionary frame.
There are two sets of identity tensions which are being highly discussed: Traian Băsescu
is associated with Nicolae Ceausescu, while Dan Diaconescu – Traian Băsescu’s successor - is
dissociated with Ion Iliescu –Nicolae Ceausescu’s successor and the leader of the corrupt present
political system, suggesting another possible end for the story: the Revolution lead by Dan
Diaconescu will not be stolen but will be left to the People, or, at least to the People’s Party.
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Mass-Media Mit si Ritual. O perspective antropologica ed. Polirom
Delsol, Chantal; Maslowski, Michel; Nowicki, Joanna (2002/2003) Political Myths
and Symbols in Central Europe/ Mituri si simboluri politice in Europa Centrala ed.
Cartier
Edelman, Murray (1971/1999) The Symbolic Uses of Politics/Politica si utilizarea
simbolurilor ed. Polirom
Fiske, John (1987) Television Culture Routledge
Fiske, John (1989) Understanding Popular Culture Routledge
Fiske, John; Hartley, John (1989/2003) Reading Television/ Semnele televiziunii
ed. Institutul European
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 Girardet, Raoul (1986/1997) Political Myths and Mythologies/ Mituri si mitologii
politice ed. Institutul European
Johnson-Cartee, Karen (2005) News Narratives and News Framing: Constructing
Political Reality
Kertzer, David (1999/2002) Ritual, Politics and Power/Ritual,politica si putere ed.
Univers
Lule, Jack (2001) Daily news, eternal stories: the mythological role of journalism
The Guilford Publications
Miege, Bernard (1989/2000) Society Conquered by Communication/ Societarea
cucerita de comunicare ed. Polirom
Robins David;Cohen Philip (1978): Knuckle-Sandwich: Growing Up in the
Working-Class City, Pelican, Harmondsworth
Tismaneanu, Vladimir (1999) Fantasies of Salvation. Democracy, Nationalism and
Myths in Post-Communist Europe ed. Polirom
Wunenburger, Jean-Jacques (2005) Political imaginary/ Imaginariile politicului ed.
Paideia

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 Convergencies places and elements of fiction in mass-media
Mădălina Bălăşescu- University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

The current study is aimed to prove that the mass-media represents indubitably a space of
fiction, whether intentional or unintentional, carrying within it numerous elements which
contribute, differently and to various degrees of influence, to the main feature of the
“fictionality” of the mass-media field. Given the context, fiction is generally perceived as “the
representation produced in one's imagination, which is not real or has no counterpart in reality”
(DEX, 1998, p. 377).
At a first glance, seen from the perspective of its own professional culture, mass-media
corresponds to facts, reality, concrete action, tangibility, lack of doubt, transparency, direct
access to events etc. This is also inferred by the terms and phrases employed every day by the
journalists, such as “live from the scene”, “raw reality”, “hot news” etc as well as from the
perspective of the universal values of the profession (objectivity, truth, transparency, etc.) they
convey in situations which imply more or less reflective speeches about the professional
practices. But if we were to consider the mass-media only from this angle, it would leave too
little room for discussions about it and about fiction and it would have to be understood as a type
of socio-professional activity whose “core” would be the accurate reflexion of reality through the
senses and the proper writing and speaking skills. If we are to analyse mass-media as the
“mirror” reflecting scenes, people and actions, throughout the simple “caption” and
“retransmission” of the true and fair view of reality by means of specific professional techniques,
it becomes very difficult to associate fiction to mass-media. However, if we push aside the
“shell” of the ideological discourse of the journalists about their own occupation and the few
frequently used clichés meant to signal it (such as “the journalists are objective”, “the journalists
tell the truth”, the journalists report the “raw reality from the scene” etc.), the debate about the
existence of fiction in mass-media becomes possible. Furthermore, the scientific literature
abounds in critical reviews dismantling piece by piece the “mechanistic” vision of the journalists
on their own occupation. After nearly a century of media research in the field of mass-media
seen from various useful perspectives, the critical tradition of mass-media investigation prevails
a generally accepted idea at the present time. Beyond the stereotypes and representations from
inside or outside mass-media, it represents a a complex space of interaction, “alive”, in constant
motion, consisting of a system of organisations and heterogeneous professional practices,
embodying different types of logic and professional goals, influenced by numerous factors.
Therefore, the structural and functional “map” of mass-media as a socio-professional system
indicates a series of significant “spots” allowing an association between media and fiction, such
as: 1) the vulnerability “nodes” admitting the penetration of the system by the fiction inflows, 2)
the concrete means adopted by the fiction in media, 3) the mass-media products containing the
hallmark of fiction. All these elements are to be found throughout the media production chain
and are only specific to the transmitter profile of mass-media, as seen from the perspective of
mass-communication (S. Ball-Rockeach, M. DeFleur, 1999). The characteristics applying to
each of these elements of the “fiction map” that may occur in the media are the following:
1) In terms of “nodes” which may occur at the level of the production system
network of relationships and interdependencies. Metaphorically speaking, inside the media
space, a “node” allowing the penetration of fiction is either a concrete spot (for instance an
interior or exterior scenery) or an abstract one (for instance the journalist’s creativity skills)
where interventions and massive corrections of the reality are possible, diminishing the
correspondence between what is real and what is represented as real. At this level, the “nodes”
equate the most exposed production areas in terms of fiction, respectively the individual,
organisational and ideological perceptions and representations of the informational practices
(definition of the event, selection of stories, construction of the reality, the bureaucratic and

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psychological and social influencing factors). One of the most useful paradigms for explaining
the media “reality” is the constructivism, as opposed to the positivistic ideas of the journalists
sustaining that the symbolic “construction” of reality through the perspective of various levels of
filters intervening in the selection and description of the journalistic events, ranging from the
psycho-individual to the bureaucratic ones, is the core argument. Constructivism is a valid tool
obtaining its arguments especially from the psychological theory according to which people are,
each in itself, strictly individual universes, especially in terms of the perception and
representation of immediate reality mechanisms. In this respect, in terms of journalistic logic of
defining events and selecting information in order to process and spread it at a large scale, we
may say that the journalists themselves, given their socio-cultural baggage, represent the most
subjective exposure area due to their own filtering mechanism. The key-words to be taken into
consideration for this topic, representing as many individual variables, are: values, primary and
secondary socialisation, perception, representation, needs, expectations, assigning. The
dependency model, the “use-and-satisfaction” theory and the cultivation theory are just mere
examples of studies which became traditional in the general framework of the mass-
communication paradigm, articulated around strictly psychological notions such as: need,
expectation, dependency, adaptation to the environment etc. Somehow, these theoretical models
respond to the question “why the individual constructions are subjectives?”, attracting a
somewhat expected reply, which is that the subjectivity of the media constructions is, first of all,
involuntary when correlated to the personality factors and the psychological profile.
Beyond the psychological factors, at the level of the “selection mechanism” as well, we
must also mention the “editorial orientation”, a rather slippery concept, difficult to define apart
from certain thematic directions and ideological topics established by the editorial strategy at a
certain point in time. However, even so, it is strategically used by the journalists in their
legitimacy discourses when faced to the need to justify certain choices they make with regards to
certain facts. Most of the times, even when they make their choices according to personal
options, the journalists seek refuge under the umbrella of the editorial orientation in order to
justify certain approaches, means of reporting or editorial accents giving way to multiple
interpretations in the public space.
The difference in approach occurring when dealing with certain events, especially when
it comes to political, economical and social events, can be understood through the light of the
two components (psycho-individual factors and editorial orientation). When performing a
comparative review of the topics discussed in two newspapers or on two different television
newscasts, one may notice significant differences at the informational level, both in terms of the
structure of the organisation of the message (space allocation, title, lead, approach, graphic
illustration, language used) and in terms of significance. The explanation comes from the
combination of individual selection factors with the general pattern of the editorial orientation,
consciously or unconsciously mentally integrated in the routine of the everyday practices, from
the understanding of the information at the level of the personal reference system to the
delivering of it under different shapes.
Example: The same topic, different approaches- Protests in Piaţa Universităţii reflected
in the media (January 2012).
Such an event as the January 2012 protests represents for each journalist an
“important” topic, that each of them is waiting for, from a professional point of view, with some
sort of cynical eagerness. Following certain apparently routine controversies, announcing major
conflicts, in a live news television address, the president Traian Băsescu criticised Raed Arafat,
the Secretary of State who founded the SMURD emergency service, with regards to an
administrative issue. The latter presented his resignation shortly after, and from here on,
through different means, people made common cause with the doctor and went to the Piaţa
Universităţii to express their dissatisfaction with regards to the government in power, especially
with regards to the Prime Minister and, in parallel, to the President. From then on, a few days of
intensive protests have followed, reflected almost entirely by the media. However, beyond the

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adrenalin rush of the moment felt by both the journalists and the citizens, through the emotional
message of the grown-ups who experienced in the 1990’s the “Romanian revolution”, the
“miners’ strikes” and the “piaţa universităţii phenomenon”, there have been many issues
regarding the description of the event. The Media Monitoring Agency ActiveWatch, a non-
governmental organisation dedicated to monitoring the media in relation to the ethical practices
and democratic exercise, reported a series of media shortfalls: “abandoning of the neutrality
and equidistance required by the journalistic good practice, the emphasis of the sensationalism
and the thorough check of the information”41. According to the same source of information, the
most severe and frequent types of deviations from professionalism have been associated with:
outright instigation to participate in the protests or, on the contrary, outright daunting of it;
processing and transmitting biased information, in favour of the Romanian Gendarmerie,
without a thorough check of the information source authenticity; distorted reflection of reality on
site (selection of speakers, positioning of the cameras, exaggerated speeches of the TV
commentators in the studio or of the reporters, even though the images shown had rather calm
contents); the journalists’ defiant or aggressive attitude towards some of the protesters or
certain guests in the sudio; outright political militantism manifested in certain television debate
shows; excessive replay of certain images, without mentioning the date and time of the depicted
events42.
Other points of view of certain participants (bloggers, free lancer journalists) have
evinced the guiding intervention of the media in the events: “...the manifestations in Piaţa
Universităţii have transformed into a media event, manipulated and directed by most of the
televisions, each eager to gain audience and/or promote certain political parties (...) the
Romanian mass-media has acted up(...). The media alignment was made instinctively by the TV
news producers and the newspapers journalists. (...). In the news studios, things were
exaggerated and the images, most of the times pimped up, transmitted live from the scene, were
afterwards interpreted by the guest commentators.(...) The setting o the scene was made with the
help of some of the “leaders” of the protesters, localised and mobilised starting from day four by
some of the news televisions. The “trainings” of the “mobilised” citizens were done outside the
broadcasting area. I spotted two such trainings.(...) Things were simple- we (the television) want
to see X, the “mobilising” citizen would have to convince the members of his group to do
whatever the television involved wanted them to do (...). The protesters’ sympathy and antipathy
were partly lead and manipulated through sound and image. Some tried to come up with
shootings which would emphasize as much as possible the uprising and the number of the
protesters to this manifestation, the absolute masters of this technique being the Antena
televisions, which, repeatedly created a collage of images accompanied by labels on the screen,
which had nothing to do with what happened in Piaţa Victoriei (in the case of the USL
manifestation) or in Piaţa Universităţii (…) the news have become comments, bearing
for/against messages (…) the Romanian media has become a main manipulation and deflection
tool (…) most of it (there are certain notable exceptions however), continues to compromise
itself (…). Mass-media can no longer be the democracy watch-dog, as it has already been too
trained to still be able to reflect the truth”43.

2) At the level of the means of production: the most important element to be taken
into consideration at this level is the language, generally referred to as set of signs, codes and
symbols. Through the language, at a syntactic and semantic level, the message receives different
shapes and meanings, according to the broadcasting channel and the journalistic genre by which

41
http://www.paginademedia.ro/2012/01/semnal-activewatch-derapaje-grave-ale-presei-in-reflectarea-protestelor/
42
idem
43
http://www.contributors.ro/reactie-rapida/o-revolta-diluata-%E2%80%93-preambul/

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the information is delivered to the general audience. The two levels of analysis are useful as they
introduce different criteria of treating the information.
The channel (written, audiovisual, online) builds the message especially in relation to a
more efficient reception of the information and it uses a series of specific techniques for that: the
written language tends to reach coherence, intelligibility, clarity, authenticity indicators etc. and
it uses the graphic signs and design elements for complementarity and suggestion; the
audiovisual language uses parallel elements of the nonverbal and paraverbal communication, as
well as elements from the visual area techniques (photographic, cinematographic); the online
language, the most recent of all, borrows elements of the traditional journalistic languages (text,
image, sound) and complemented by innovative elements created, also, by the logics of
efficiency in receiving the text (strategies of attracting and maintaining the attention by
combining different levels/stages of lecture, graphic strategies: special letters, icons and symbols
to eliminate words and reduce the time needed to go through the information, etc., strategies for
a deeper reception of the information: active links to texts with similar content, interactive
strategies such as the online discussion boards, strategies of reducing the ephemeral character of
the message: archives, data bases, strategies of constructing the messages according to the
specific of the perception by senses: words, symbols, graphics, sound, still images, moving
images.
The journalistic genre as “model” of organising the information implies the observance
of certain indicators, amongst the most important of which are the relation between the journalist
and the narrated reality (time of narration/presence to the event/ emotional involvement/ well-
defined intention) and the language codes (subjective/neutral, general/specific etc). Obviously,
the recent evolution of the professional culture paradigm involving norms, values and
journalistic procedures (emphasised marketing, salient audiovisual strategies, the occurrence of
new professional elements in the online environment, the tendency to adapt the messages to the
technologies allowing a faster reception etc.) indicates a relaxation of the once “classical”
delimitations between the journalistic genres and the borrowings from one to another: the news
are no longer short texts, the headings, specific to the long and complex texts, appear
increasingly often in the short texts, the interviews, which would be held compulsory during a
face-to-face meeting between the journalist and the interlocutor are most of the times conducted
by e-mail or telephone, and so forth.
Where is the fiction in this? At this level, fiction can appear under different shapes. One
of them refers to the information collection techniques and can show up, for instance, at the level
of the information awarding rule: any piece of information received from the reality exterior to
the journalist and the editorial which has no assigned source can be considered as fiction. This
kind of information is being severely susceptible of having been invented in the absence of a trip
to the scene or of a source. The famous sentence “information received from some sources”
frequently used especially by the TV journalists is a “questionable” formula from the point of
view of its truthfulness and casts doubt on the credibility of the respective piece of information,
as well as on the journalists’ intentions. A second important form in which fiction can appear and
manifest is associated to the “fitting” of the information. For this purpose, we can take into
consideration especially the images (still or moving) which are not directly related to the
narrated subject, but lie within the general category of which the journalistic topic is part of,
without being captured in the specific context of the narrated situation. We may mention here the
following elements: archival footage, illustration footage, images describing the general scenery
without a precise context, older portrait-photos used for current subjects etc. The third form of
journalistic expression bearing the mark of fiction reunites the speech disorders in relation to the
values of precision, accuracy, authenticity of the information. The unidentified/unnamed sources,
the lack of answers to certain questions raised naturally due to an incomplete message may be
also considered “generators” of fiction. In that matter, they trigger rather unconscious
suggestions to the mind of the receiver, as the human mind is “programmed” by psychological
laws of representation, to perceive the whole even when confronted with incomplete (physical or

96
mental) structures. The (language) clichés and the (perception and mental representation)
stereotypes represent two other important mechanisms influencing the relationship between the
internal and the external reality. Through the use of outdated speech formulas applied to different
situations, the clichés reduce the level of informativity and homogenize different situations,
whilst the stereotypes, regarded as simple schemes of internal integration of the external world,
simplify excessively the types of situations/categories, for the long run and are hard to change;
therefore, once assimilated, they lower the level of information openness to situations similar to
that determining the absorption of the stereotype.
We observe that from the point of view of the degree of possibility of fiction both at the
level of the transmitter and receiver, the key-element is the meaning, designing a generous place
for interpretations and reinterpretations, creating favourable ground for fiction. The linguistic
approach (language, sign, code, symbol, semiotics, structuralism, narrativity etc), the psycho-
sociology (interaction, exchange, social influence, public opinion, opinion leader,
communication networks, stereotype), are the most used elements in the analysis of the linguistic
parameters (more specifically) and communicational parameters (more broadely), that may
become sources of fiction.
Example: Pictures used in Adevărul online (December 2010, January-February 2011,
theme: „Parliament”):
1) Neutral illustration to the subject of the text, but not actual:

Tuesday, 8th of Feb 2011: „The Proposal to oblige the broadcasters to broadcast 40%
Romanian musical works was rejected by the Commission”

97
 The Petromidia Năvodari Refinery is the main asset of Rompetrol Rafinare: „Today’s
agenda of the Chamber of Deputies plenary session includes the debate on the Emergency
Ordinance 248/2000 for the modification of the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 64/1998
regarding the Petromidia refinery privatization”

Wednesday, the 2nd of Feb 2011,The witches might be obliged to issue fiscal invoices:
„The draft law providing that the occultism practitioners must issue fiscal invoices and pay the
VAT could nt be applied even if it receives the vote of the Chamber of Deputies”.

Monday, 20th of Dec 2010, The Parliament Plenery: „172 votes for, 48 votes against and
three abstentions lead to the adoption by the deputies of the Emergency Ordinance 58?2010,
establishing the increase in the VAT rate to 24% by modifying the Fiscal Code”.

98
 Photo: Agrerpres: „The President of the Senate, Mircea Geoană, suspends the meeting,
putting in difficulty the Prime Minister Emil Boc”.

2) Ilustration involving contradictions to the content of the text (place, theme, topic,
approach):

Thursday, 9th of Dec 2010: „Mircea Geoană believes that the president’s explanations
regarding the National Day incident are deplorable”

Tuesday 7th of Dec 2010, Iaşi, the Senate of Romania: „The Senators decide to resend the
Education Law to the Commission for an additional report”.

99
 Wednesday 2nd of Feb 2011, Gypsies: „The Senators of the Commissions for human
rights and equality of opportunities have decided to replace the designation “Rom” to that of
“Gypsy”. The approved the PDL deputy Silviu Prigoană legislative proposal”.

Tuesday, 7th of Dec 2010, photo: Marian Vilău, Teo Trandafir: „The Deputies started
dancing a round dance Tuesday morning, on the halls of the Parliament, with a group of carol
singers and a folk group. Amongst them, there were as well Teo Trandafir and Mircea Toader”.

Iaşi, the Senate of Romania: „„The Senators decide to resend the Education Law to the
Commission for an additional report”.
3) Pictures used several times (different days, different topics):

100
 4) Pictures bearing explicit editorial intervention:

5) Pictures which have undergone technical interventions:

3) The “pure” products of the journalistic fiction. The psychological factors and the
information production factors which, through more or less random combinations allow the
identification and analysis of a large register of fictionality in the mass-media, are rather
acquired through individual education and general vocational training. Apart from these two
categories “by nature”, there is a third, different, consciously acquired one, referring to the
ensemble of strategies and techniques meant to influence the behaviours at a social level. Among
them, stand out those bearing a positive dimension (such as the social campaigns for
humanitarian purposes like serious diseases and natural disasters) and those bearing a negative
dimension (party propaganda: disinforming/para-informing/ under-informing/ over-informing
etc., political election campaign marketing, disguised public relations campaigns). A forth
category of the possible fiction register is related to the unprofessional and/or economical aspects
of the media production (for instance, the news without impact, based on reconstitution). The
fifth category of the fiction in the mass-media is represented by the debates on current topics,
during which a relatively small number of guests, experts in certain fields, express their opinion.
In correlation with the requirement of pluralism of opinions of the democratic public space
model, a determination relationship can be established between the limited number of powerful
“voices” (through the frequency of apparitions and impact of their opinion), therefore of the
“labels” on the events, and the stability of the public space configuration at a certain moment in
time from the point of view of the drivers of public opinion.
As the mass-media brings at the debate table the same guests, who are subjective
individuals with personal values and ideological visions remaining relatively stable on an
individual life scale, we might cautiously state that, from this perspective, the media feeds a
fictional democratic space, made of compositions of points of view and predictable, redundant
discourses.
The hegemonic model (the media as the place of representation and expression of the
dominant elite), the agenda-setting theory (mass-media as organiser, upon personal criteria, of
the public agenda), the cultural studies (media content as symbol of the fight for power) and the
theories of the public opinion (public opinion as part of the public space, depending on various
101
factors) are just some of the theoretic tools to bring solid arguments in favour of the statement
according to which, at the level of a global effect, mass-media creates a fictive democratic space,
in which only a limited number of social categories find their place and representation,
frequently favouring some voices to the detriment of others.
Example: the permanent guests of certain tv debate shows, mass-media opinion leaders.
The Political Rating Agency has monitored the Realitatea TV and Antena 3 daily or
weekly talk shows during the period 6th of September- 1st of Octomber 2011. The study aimed at
identifying the leaders of opinion in Romania, which proved to be predominantly media/political
analysts and trade unionists. The conclusions of the study show that: the politicians represent
58,7% of the total of guests, the journalists and commentators – 25,3%, and the trade unions and
employers 16%; the ratio of trade unions/ employers is unbalanced: 41/9; out of 81
“commentators” present on TV, 45 of them are journalists and media analysts, 7 are
representatives of NGOs, 27 are experts (lawyers, psychologists, economists, consultants,
political analysts) and 2 specialists of the NBR. According to the same study, Mugur Ciuvică has
registered the most frequent apparitions on TV during the monitored period: 26, being declared
the leader of opinion on the news channels in Romania44.

Bibliography
Aniţei, Mihai, 2010, Fundamentele Psihologiei, Bucureşti, Editura Universitară
Bălăşescu, Mădălina, 2003, Manual de producţie în televiziune, Iaşi, Polirom
Berkowitz, Dan-coord., 1997, Social Meaning of News. Sage Publications Inc.
Defleur, Melvin, Ball-Rokeach, Sandra, 1999, Teorii ale comunicării de masă, Iaşi, Polirom
Dicţionarul Explicativ al Limbii Române, 1998, Bucureşti, Univers Enciclopedic, ediţia a doua
Fishman, Mark, 1980, Manufacturing the news, Austin, University of Texas Press
Giles, Robert H., 1995, Newsroom management, Detroit, Media Management Books, Inc.
Marinescu, Valentina, 2011, Introducere în Teoria Comunicării-Modele şi aplicaţii, Bucureşti,
Editura C. H. Beck
Mathien, Michel,1989, Le systeme mediatique, Paris, HachetteMcQuail, Denis, 1987, Mass-
Communication Theory, London, Newbury Park, Beverly Hills, New Delhi, Sage
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Molotoch, Harvey, Lester, Marylin 1997, “News as Purposive Behaviour, On the Strategic Use of
Routine Events, Accidents and Scandals”, în Dan Berkowitz, 1997-coord, Social
Meaning of News, Sage Publications Inc., pp. 193-207.Neculau, Adrian-coord, 1995,
Psihologia câmpului social-Reprezentările Sociale, Iaşi, Editura Polirom
O’ Sullivan, Tim et alii, 2001, Concepte fundamentale din ştiinţele comunicării şi studiile
culturale, Iaşi, Editura Polirom
Pailliart, Isabelle-coord. (2002). Spaţiul Public şi comunicarea, Iaşi, Editura Polirom
Rieffel, Remy, 2008, Sociologia spaţiului public, Iaşi, Polirom
Roşca, Luminiţa, 2004, Producţia textului jurnalistic, Iaşi, Polirom
Shoemaker, Pamela J., Reese, Stephen D., 1997, Mediating the message-Theories of Influences
on Mass-media Content, Longman Publishers, ediţia a doua
Stuart, Allan, 1999, News Culture, Buckingham, Open University Press
Zamfir, Cătălin, Vlăsceanu, Lazăr, 1999, Dicţionar de Sociologie, Bucureşti, Editura Turnul
Babel

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http://monitorul.com.ro/local/cine-sint-liderii-de-opinie-din-romania-doar-4-parlamentari-de-iasi-
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44
http://verticalnews.ro/mugur-ciuvica-si-monica-tatoiu-cei-mai-toxici-romani/

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 Romanian Amateur Fiction in the age of New Media
Bianca Marina Mitu - University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

The Internet has opened up many opportunities for publishers, editors and amateur
writers through its capacity of creating communities. The online literary communities empower
the amateurs as writers. This article aims to evaluate the Romanian online fiction websites and to
provide insights into the ways of constructing amateur fiction online. The present study also aims
to offer a large perspective on an emergent phenomenon, that of the expansion of the Romanian
literary online communities and the practices used by these communities to engage the people in
their activities. The article introduces a new topic among scholars and could become subject to
wider debates at national and global level.

Introduction
There can be no future without a past and the books are considered testimonials of the
past. In the age of new media the books are gradually becoming an extension of the past rather
than a part of the future of the new generations. The development of television and Internet,
which are based on interactivity, has changed the behaviors and the hierarchies for the new
generations. The reading is today replaced by watching television or surfing on the Internet,
activities that are much more attractive and easier to deal with. Levinson (1998) states that
cultural stability is today damaged by the development of what he calls the ”network beeings”,
people driven by the pleasure of ”surfing”. The author identifies three main generations: the
generation of the book, the television generation and the electronic generation of web surfing.
However the book continues to own an important place in people’s lives even if reading books in
the age of new media occupies a minor place in comparison to the use of electronic media
(Levinson, 1998, after Drăgan, 2007: 713).
The impressive transformation brought by the development of the new technologies of
communication had major effects on the entire society and also on the book publishing industry.
Taking into consideration that “the Internet has become a normal feature of everyday life,
shaping the way things get done in just about every sector of society” (Dahlgren, 2009: 152), in
order to resist, books had to adapt. Today’s books have moved on the Internet and also the
writing has moved online. Many amateur writers are hoping to reach success by publishing their
literary works on the Internet.
The main objective of this study is to evaluate the Romanian online fiction websites and
to provide insights into the ways of constructing amateur fiction online. The paper also aims to
offer a large perspective on an emergent phenomenon, that of the expansion of the Romanian
literary online communities. The core argument of this study is that amateur writers are willing
to engage via different literary websites or to become members of an online community as long
as a series of “terms and conditions” are met that would make this engagement meaningful to
them. These include the existence of visible benefits such as: publication, distribution, feedback,
new contacts or being recognized in the community. We have as a starting point the
technological determinism theory, who states that media technology has the power to shape the
way that individuals feel, think or act and the way that the society as a whole functions while
moving from one technological age to another (such as: tribal, literate, print, electronic).
Marshall McLuhan’s (1962) theory focuses on the importance of the “medium”, asserting that
people feel, act and think according to the messages they receive through the current media
technology they use. McLuhan considers that the new technologies of communication are
changing the human senses, the people and the entire society. The technological determinism
theory has been developed in the context of the exploration of the psychological,
anthropological, economical, political and cultural impact of the media on society and explains

103
everything in the light of media’s relation to the technological developments. The most
important media determinists who embraced this theory are the Canadian scholars, such as:
Harold Innis, Marshall McLuhan, Derrick de Kerckhove, Edmonto Alberto, Paul Levinson,
Joshua Meyrowitz.

Internet and Online Communities

The new technologies of communication have the power to reshape all the domains of
society and also reshape people’s lives, as Sonia Livingstone states “We can no longer imagine
living our daily lives- at leisure or at work, with family or friends- without media and
communication technologies. Nor would we want to. As we enter the twenty-first century, the
home is being transformed into the site of a multimedia culture, integrating audiovisual,
information and telecommunications services” (Livingstone, 2002: 1). Since the new media has
emerged in the research agenda of scholars there has always been a controversial dispute
regarding the comparison between the advantages and disadvantages of old media and new
media (Jenkins, 2006) in the contemporary society. Although, both are able to reach small or
large audiences, there have been identified many fundamental differences in terms of
distribution, production and technology. The new communication medium, basically, often
separates the direct and mutual observation of the communicative participants. Opposed to the
traditional face to face talking, the utterance is de-contextualized and therefore needs to be re-
contextualized by the receiver in order to be understood. Hence, the written word gains a
context-independent existence. Sonia Livingstone (2002) presents four themes that suggest how
new media contribute to the changing of today’s social environment:
1. familiar media are being used in new arrangements of space and time
2. media are diversifying in form and contents, resulting in local and global, general
and specialized television channels, in diverse kinds of computer and video game, and so forth
3. emerging screens technologies contribute to convergence across hitherto distinct
social boundaries
4. the radical change is the shift from one-way mass communication towards more
interactive communication between medium and user (Livingstone, 2002: 19-20).

For a clarification of the terms “old” media and “new” media we believe that it necessary
to integrate some of the differences between them into the following table.

Table 1. “Old”, Written Media versus “New”, Digital Media

Old, written media New, digital media
Industrial media dominantly produced by large Personal media primarily produced by internet
multinational corporations users
Linear, One-way media Interactive media
Reaches the audience Connects the audience and with the audience
Brings forward the content Brings forward the user
Passive users - Users as Recipients and Active users - Users as participants and
Consumers of Media Content Creators of Media Content
Static media Mobile media
One-sided platform distribution More diversified multi-platform (hypermedia
and multimedia) distribution
Less available and accessible to the public, Generally available and freely accessible to the
distribution costs and therefore reading public at little or no cost
becomes more expensive for the public
The time to obtain a feedback can be very long Capable of instantaneous feedback
(days, weeks, or even months)
Once created, cannot be altered (once a Easily altered. Provides instant editing and
newspaper article is printed and distributed, the instant writing comments
journalist does not have the possibility to make
more changes to that article)
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Storage capacity for media content is relatively Storage capacity for media content is very high
low because archives are necessary It is an online database
Low level of content categorization and High level of content categorization, annotation
sharing of content and sharing at any time
Less peer-to-peer power More peer-to-peer power
Publisher-Centric User-Centric Model
UGC – User generated content
Less creative content creation More creative content creation

Romania has officially become connected to the Internet on February 26, 1993, when the
domain ”.ro” was created and recognized by the Internet Asignement Numbers Authority. Today
the Internet is used both in urban and in rural areas, but there are still a lot of Romanian people
who do not have acces to the Internet. The Internet has opened up many opportunities for people
to gain information and keep in touch with other people that share same interests. Although the
Romanian people begun using the Internet later than other European countries, they have
managed to overreach the historical gap caused by the Communist Regime. Therefore, after 2003
people begun more and more interested and technologically educated and begun creating online
communities.
The idea of an online or virtual community is not new. It was pushed forward by Howard
Rheingold, who offered one of the first definitions of such communities as “social aggregations
that emerge from the Net when enough people carry on those public discussions long enough,
with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace” (Rheingold,
2000: xx). This definition focuses on the affective aspect, considering that the online
communities are built through affective investment. The same suggestion makes Shawn Wilbur
who also sees emotional engagement as an essential element: “for those who doubt the
possibility of online intimacy, I can only speak of…hours sitting at my keyboard with tears
streaming down my face, or convulsed with laughter” (Wilbur, 1997: 18). Leila Green also
focuses on engagement when she states that “communities depend on individuals engaging with
the general exchanges, projecting themselves and their identity in an ongoing conversation”
(Green, 2010: 148). Other authors rather than coming up with a specific definition of online
communities, they preferred to focus on “defining the concept by ‘prototypical attributes’, so
that communities with more of these attributes were clearer examples of communities than those
that had fewer” (Whittaker et al., 1997). The core attributes of online communities that
Whittaker et al. (1997) identified are as follows:
- online community members need to have some shared goal, interest, or activity that
provides the primary reason for belonging to the community
- members engage in repeated active participation and there are often intense inter-
actions, strong emotional ties and shared activities occurring between participants
- members have access to shared resources and there are policies for determining access
to those resources
- support and services between members as part of their community interaction.
- a shared context (such as social conventions, language, protocols).
In the same manner, another author, Preece (2000) defines an online community as
containing the following four components:
- social interaction
- a shared purpose
- a common set of expected behaviors
- forms of computer system which facilitate communication.

Romanian Fiction Online

Analyzing the online Romanian medium we find that Romanian literary online
communities are an expanding category among the other Romanian online communities. We find
four different types of websites that concern with fiction:

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 online amateur writers’ communities, such as:
www.bocanculliterar.ro, www.europeea.ro, www.bookaholic.ro,
www.rostiri.ning.com, www.egophobia.ro, www.LiterNet.ro,
www.proza.ro, www.hyperliteratura.ro, www.creatie-
www.agonia.net, www.agonia.ro , literara.pasiune.eu

This websites offer great possibilities for young writers to publish their work and get
feedback. The number of members that join these communities is impressive and it is
growing every month. Even so, these online communities are considered rather small, each
one having between 1200 and 3000 members. These literary communities use many practices
in order to engage people and to provoke them to become members of the community. On
their web pages we find literary contests, the possibility to vote for the favorite piece of
literary work, advices for young writers, advices and opportunities for publishing and so on.
We observe that only two of the analyzed websites have an English version (Figure 1 and 2)
and this particular situation makes us state that these writers address mostly to the national
rather than international audience.

Figure 1. www.egophobia.ro – English Version

Figure 2. www.agonia.net – English Version

We also notice that the online writers prefer to sign their articles with their real name,
while others prefer to choose a pseudonym and remain unknown.

- fan fiction online communities:

- www.educat.ro (Harry Potter Romanian online community),
- http://startrekro.wordpress.com (StarTrek Romanian online community)
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 These online communities’ websites contain news, contests, fan clubs, online games,
latest information about the characters, actors and films relevant for the community.

literary forums:
http://forum.softpedia.com/index.php?showtopic=806799,
http://forum.ioanistrate.ro/archive/index.php/t-4762.html,
www.delibris.net

- amateur writers’ blogs:

www.atelier-literar.blogspot.ro, http://mikaella15.wordpress.com/category/
http://www.cititorsf.ro/povestire-costi- carti/fictiune/,
gurgu/, http://poetamariabarbu.wordpress.com/cat
http://dandobos.ro/, egory/fictiune/,
http://anaveronica.wordpress.com/povestir http://thesearchforsomethingmore.wordpre
i-sf-f/, ss.com/2011/09/28/doneaza-citind-intra-
http://tesatorul.blogspot.ro/, in-clubul-de-fictiune-all/,
http://michaelhaulica.wordpress.com/about http://andreeamatei12.wordpress.com/tag/f
/, ictiune/,
http://sczeller.blogspot.ro/, http://blog.serialreaders.com/,
http://fansf.wordpress.com/, http://blogenciclopedic02.blogspot.ro/2011
http://www.toateblogurile.ro/blog/14330/al /12/invizibilitatea-candva-fictiune-in.html,
exandru-dan-gothic-fantasy-non-fictiune, http://gazetino.wordpress.com/2012/03/10/
http://losty88.wordpress.com/tag/fictiune/, aproape-fictiune/

It is well known that blogs offer a great freedom, they can be written by anyone. For
the writers it is important to receive feedback, the help of other people is essential in
producing a qualitative piece of writing. These blogs allow people to express their opinion
regarding the pieces of fiction published by the amateur writers. Also these blogs are able to
help aspiring writers with limited promotion budgets to meet others and to make useful
contacts. Also, the blogs are creating online communities that gather together people that
have the same interest in fiction.

online literary magazines:

http://www.sci-fi.ro/, http://fanzin.clubsf.ro/category/carti-sf-
http://revistanautilus.ro/, and-f/
.
Most of the Romanian authors who publish on the websites that are the subject of this
analysis are hobbyist orientated, writing for fun and because of their interest in the source material.
These amateur writers are more motivated freely to share their works since that in itself is their
main goal, to gain an online identity as writers. The development of the Internet in Romania has
also brought changes in electronic publishing. The ease of electronic publication has lead to a
massive migration to the Internet. Taking advantages of the reduced costs that publishing on the
Internet demands, the amateur writers have embraced the new means of online distribution of their
literary works. Analyzing the literary websites we find two types of amateur writing available
online: ‘original’ fiction and ‘fan’ fiction. Fiction is a social convention (Schaeffer, 1999: 26). Only
in fiction we are able to live many “realities” that are much more difficult than those we face in
everyday life, but the fiction can help us recognize similar situations in everyday life, protecting us

107
from the consequences (Schaeffer, 1999: 86). Some scholars define fiction by opposing it to
journalistic writing, usually viewed as non-fiction (Underwood, 2008). The non-fiction is the
opposite of fiction dealing with real people, events and places. Frus (1994) considers that
journalistic writing “is tied to everyday life and is thus hampered by its pragmatic function, which is
to provide information”, and therefore the journalistic writing is in contrast to “fiction’s imaginative
freedom and creativity, journalism is discursive and mundane. It is objective where fiction is
subjective, and more like science than literature in its transparent, rather than self-conscious, form”
(Frus, 1994: 2). In this perspective, Frus contends that the contemporary blending of the traditional
categories of fiction and non-fiction have made the division between the two become “problematic”
and it may be time to reconsider the view that journalism is inherently an inferior category to fiction
(Frus, 1994: 8-10, Underwood, 2008: 11-12).
In the distinction we have made between the two categories of amateur fiction, original
fiction and fan fiction, by the term ‘original’ fiction we do not intend to imply any value
considerations. Fan fiction does not lack the originality to create new stories, new characters or
settings but it explores the existing, loved and famous ones. The exact definition of fan fiction has
lead to a controversial dispute among scholars and has been intensely debated by both academics
and by those within the fan fiction community (Derecho, 2006). Fan fiction as a concept has been
attested since the 1960s with credit most often being given to the Star Trek fan community. In
Convergence Culture (2006), Henry Jenkins uses the Harry Potter fan community to discuss fan
fiction. Fan fiction, in its broadest form, is fiction written about some famous characters or set in a
world that has been previously created by someone else. Leila Green (2010) considers that “fan
fiction communities do more than get together online to talk about their passion: they produce and
consume materials which reinforce aspects of their fan identities, allowing them to enjoy richer,
prosumer fan experiences” (Green, 2010: 147).

Conclusions
New forms of writing, editing and broadcasting online are emerging, but these do not seem
to announce that the books will disappear, as Derrick de Kerckhove also anticipates, the books will
resist. The Internet is a fascinating medium and offers great potential for writers and editors. The
use of the Internet as a publishing medium has advantages and disadvantages for the amateur
writers. Among the advantages we find: the reduced costs of publication and distribution, the huge
possibility to create unlimited archives, the visibility, the possibility to have a quick evaluation and
a feedback on the published literary works, the possibility to get in touch with writers and editors
from other countries, the possibility to easily create an identity as a writer. Also, the Internet
succeeds to make a selection between good and poor amateur writers or literary works, usually
through the number of views and comments. Amateur writers’ personal web pages are frequently
changing address, going down temporarily for maintenance or due to bandwidth limitation or just
vanishing because of the lack of interest. Therefore the Internet makes a qualitative selection of the
published literary works. Regarding the disadvantages of online publishing we can notice that the
online literary texts tend to become shorter. Although the Internet offers unlimited possibilities of
creating archives, the online fiction writers prefer to publish short texts of maximum 3-4 pages.
Therefore it becomes difficult to publish a novel on the Internet. Some amateur writers have tried to
combat this trend by publishing their novels chapter by chapter but this is risky, because the online
literary websites are not always visited by the same people and therefore some might find it difficult
to connect the chapters.
Anyway, either professional or amateur writers, in online communication networks people
are all readers, but most of all, they expect to be read by others all the time. The Internet has a great
potential for reconnecting the new generations with the act of reading. It is impossible to estimate
the proportion of original fiction and fan fiction on the Internet but, while it still remains widely
distributed, online fiction represents one of the larger global electronic libraries. Either we use
traditional or electronic books, either we prefer amateur online fiction, original or fan fiction, we
need to take into consideration Noica’s statement “you have as many lives as many books you have
read”.

108
Bibliography
Dahlgren, Peter, (2009), Media and Political Engagement: Citizens, Communication and
Democracy, New York: Cambridge University Press.
Derecho, Abagail (2006), “Archontic Literature: A Definition, a History and Several
Theories of Fan Fiction”, in Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse (eds.), Fab
Fiction and Fan Fiction Communities in the Age of the Internet, McFarland and
Company, pp. 61-78.
Drăgan, Ioan (2007), Comunicarea- paradigme şi teorii, Volumul I, Bucureşti: Rao.
Frus, Phyllis (1994), The Politics and Poetics of Journalistic Narrative: The Timely and
the Timeless, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Green, Leila (2010), The Internet: An Introduction to New Media, Berg, Oxford.
Jenkins, Henry (2006), Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, New
York: New york University Press.
McLuhan, Marshall (1962), The Gutenberg Galaxy: The making of Typographic Man,
Toronto: University of Toronto press.
Preece, Jenny (2000), Online Communities – Designing Usability, Supporting Sociability,
John Wiley and Sons Ltd.
Rheingold, Howard. (2000), The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic
Frontier, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, also at http://www.rheingold.com/vc/;
Schaeffer, Jean-Marie (1999), Pourquoi la Fiction?, col. Poetique, Seuil, Paris.
Shawn Wilbur (1997), “An Archaeology of Cyberspaces: Virtuality, Community,
Identity”, in D. Porter (ed.), Internet Culture, New York: Routledge, pp. 5-22.
Underwood, Doug (2008), Journalism and the Novel: Truth and Fiction, 1700-2000,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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SIGCHI Bulletin, 29 (3).

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 Fictionalization through literaturisation in the Romanian press
- A historical perspective-
Marian Petcu - University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

The evolution of the Romanian journalism has been accompanied by much confusion. One
of them could be summarized as follows: the journalistic discourse as a form of literary discourse or
something totally different from the literary speech. Or a speech almost literary ... The fact that
many writers published, very earlier, in newspapers and magazines, was the strongest argument to
assert the common origin of both types of discourse, which led to the connection between
journalism and literature.
The polemics are justified in part by the fact that, in Romania, the separation between
journalism and literature occurred relatively late, in comparison with other cultural areas. On the
one hand, our press release was a “hot”, rich in opinions, moralistic judgments and passionate
reactions. This is the area where we find, almost all the time, the writers. It’s not the truth that
prevails in this type of journalism, sometimes not even the arguments, but the intensity of showing
that we are different from the others. The metaphorical halos and the lyrical expressions seem more
important than the facts. On the other hand, the absence of journalistic education (and later, his
ideology) has slowed the process of clarifying the relationship between the two occupational areas.
Could this argument have somehow a history in the Romanian culture? It seems so. That is
why this study presents some of the position papers about the relations between writers and
journalists, as expressed in the press over the years.

Journalism, a matter of talent

Under the heading “Literature and journalism”, Tudor Teodorescu-Branişte wrote in 1921:
“a debate arose again around the issue of writers and journalists. It's one of the issues that were
discussed everywhere and especially here, where there are so few literary journalists. These
disputes have always led to regrettable violence. Although the two categories of pen users work in
different fields, although it would have been logic that both of them have enough space to develop,
writers and journalists collide, as they would meet in the same crowded areas. Is the field of
writing so tight? (...) Writers and journalists have the same target: the awakening of a rare spark
deep inside the soul of the others. They use the same material: the verb, the divine verb that
Caragiale was praising so passionately. The difference is that the writer creates in peace for a long
time, and the journalist creates something for the next moment. The literary work lives in time. The
journalistic work is about intensity …” (Branişte, 1921,1). Here is a description of a journalistic
production using the most literary means of expression - “the awakening of the rare spark ...”? T.T.
Braniste is on this issue, several times. In 1924, for example, at the death of Robert de Jouvenel, he
writes an editorial for the newspaper Adevarul (The truth), praising the deceased and bringing
critics to the media detractors, the “pseudo-literary” writers, those who do not understand that”
beyond pencil and paper, between the press and literature there is no contact. Media is about
objectivity, information, action. Literature involves subjectivity, contemplation, lack of action (...)
but the losers of the literary café seem to be interested in the counterculture attitude of the press.
And they enthusiastically sigh for the time when newspapers appeared without telegrams (...) it
seems that all these authors of unread books would like that modern newspaper – the newspaper of
a wireless telegraphy and of a reporter from the airplane - to be a harmless page of some old and
uninteresting news, because it is... more patriarchal that way! As soon as a newspaper director
assigns a section of a newspaper to a writer of our days, that section becomes the area of petty
intrigues, confraternal envies, with echoes among those hundred customers from Capsa, but no
impact for thousands of readers ...“(Branişte, 1926, 1). However, the position of T.T. Braniste
regarding this question was somehow duplicitous – he denied the need of the journalistic training,
on several occasions, implicitly accepting that journalism is a matter of talent and attitude, where
writers can be noticed and become famous.

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 Most often, the controversy was generated by the criterion of “talent”, that journalists were
not able to prove, as some expected to happen. Whenever one brings into question the professional
training of journalists, the same hypocrite speech will be promoted - one needs talent! And no
school can guarantee that talent! With rare exceptions, however strange it sounds, in these terms
was discussed the issue of talent in the interwar period, and even later. Which is curious, given that
this was promoted by people who circulated all over the world, had information about the evolution
of this profession in many countries and so on.
We continue the series of reactions with two of Pamfil Şeicaru’s interventions. Trying to
explain the difference between the result of the work of a reporter and of an editor, he said that, in a
newspaper, “the nice and good article is not the one with rich coloring pictures, but the one
providing the right judgment and information. The journalistic article should supplement the
reader's laziness or incapacity of judgment” (Șeicaru, 1922, 3). Saddened by some reactions to
Demetrius Tomescu’s proposal to claim that journalists should be more educated Şeicaru notes:
“the hostility that arose from the journalistic chests has abundantly proved the absence of relations
between media and culture. If we mention the poor preparation of most journalists, that leads
implicitly to an offensive reprimand. The prestige of the talent competes with the culture. Journalist
may be ignorant, if only he has talent. If this condition is accomplished, he can understand a law,
know geography, follow a conference on Einstein and understand the debates of civil law reform. If
one puts the right adjective and use the adequate verb, regardless of the content, is there any more
need to think? Is the journalistic writing only a simple proof of stylistic acrobatics?” (Șeicaru,
1922,2). About the talent, the most commonly argument quoted, Şeicaru wrote later: “the talent in
the press is a luxury that almost all newspapers avoid, preferring energy work and various
knowledge over a shining style (...) Of course, on one hand, newspapers promoting attitudes,
advocating for controversial idea still appreciate talent, and, on the other hand, information
newspapers appreciate the capacity of the journalist to inform” (Șeicaru, 1926, 1). He knew exactly
what he was saying – he had experience as a journalist and editor, he found that readers prefer the
information press to the opinion press that too often proved itself to be only a seasonal release (e.g.
on the eve of elections).
A voice heard, usually, by both journalists and writers was that of Nicolae Iorga. In 1923, he
also feels the need to speak about the perpetuation of the religion of the talent in the press: “The
magazine Ramuri from Craiova publishes the following remarkable article written by the literary
man and journalist who is Mr. N. Iorga: <Once again, these days, I found somewhere, told by
young lips of a good and religious man, unwittingly cruel and unjust, this idea: newspaper prose.
Nowadays, literature, since it has no lyrics - and Poesia itself so rarely has them! - how would it be
different from the newspaper prose ... Considering the influence that the newspaper exercises
daily, impossible to avoid, the newspaper would have burst into literature with its forms of neglect,
the duty of a quickly writing, uncharted, uncontrolled, with a light touch of deep feelings, with its
culture often incomplete or lagging behind, the most solemn truths and, especially, with the thirst of
sensational, and the need that anyone understand anything, without delay, in a battle of the eyelids,
for the newspaper is not meant to be read. One should not read it. This would be the explanation.
And the most proud talents, the most original natures have to be aware of that : in the newspaper
their writing is lazy, which is worse. So they have to pluck, to appear to be so easy to be understood
(.) The newspaper reader likes only to recognize the form of the idea in it, and then why would he
turn into a humble scholar of someone who would have nothing to teach him? The newspaper is in
fact the literary genre - I would say precisely the kind of public expression - of our time. What
doesn’t fit in? And who, in a more vivid society than ours, does not reach it, then often remains in
it? It is an encyclopedia, every day. What was the Summa totius theologiae for the Middle Ages is
for the contemporary time the collection of a great newspaper, of true national value. And there are
some newspapers where the world's pulse beats for decades. The newspaper requires no ease or
negligence. It gives permission to any originality to assert. But it claims one thing: that this
originality becomes social, human. To approach the humankind. And this is an education for which
everyone who came in its discipline cannot be grateful enough. It is possible that in the actual
literature one who has no talent hide behind the culture, promoting a specific madness. In the
newspaper this is impossible. The newspaper doesn’t promote the worst kind of writing. But those
111
who don’t appreciate the prose in the newspaper should ask themselves if they contributed to the
quality of the newspaper>“ (Iorga, 1923, 2).
We are an immature culture, this seems to be the explanation given an editor of Dreptatea
(The Justice) in 1927, speaking about this confusion: “in countries of ancient culture, literary and
journalistic style have set boundaries. As far as we are concerned, both of them still developing, the
frequent mixing between styles is explained. The literary style becomes year after year more
accurate. Each writer, with each new volume, gives his most significant and humble contribution.
Nothing is superfluous - even the most unexpected figures of speech. The journalistic style is
constantly growing – perhaps in worse conditions. The journalists have borrowed not only words,
but also foreign phrases that couldn’t penetrate into literature. The clichés made their appearance.
We encounter them at every step. Ugly expressions are used. For example: the fact that the
government took such measures is understandable, but the fact that the opposition approves it,
that's a real disgrace. And phrases are not always pondered, sometimes they cannot be read out
loud. The journalistic style tends to be more unaesthetic that the conversational style. There could
be an objection to this affirmation: but the journalist writes in haste, under the pressure of the
editorial secretary, of the printers, of the machines, etc. The haste does not excuse a spelling
mistake. It should not excuse any imperfections of style. The journalist has a duty to inform –
seriously and clearly. He has the duty - if it is a political newspaper - to argue and persuade. The
arguments cannot do gymnastics, ready for the parade. They need agility, no superfluous ornament,
only what is essential. The logic should have freedom of movement. But these movements cannot be
made anyway. A distinction is always advisable” (Dreptatea, 1927, 3).
Well, the fact that the two “styles” - literary and journalistic - are growing at different
speeds is not so serious. But “the styles are often confused when the journalist and the writer -
representing two different worlds –transgress one into the other’s field. The writers start writing
too literary in newspaper and the journalists to simply in books (...) To overcome these drawbacks
– the journalist and the writer, even if it would be better if they remain in the appropriate field for
each of them, should rise above styles and dominate them. They ought to realize that a certain word
or phrase works in literature, but does not work in journalism and vice versa. These people,
condemned by circumstances or spiritual impulse to write in two different genres, are obliged to
acquire also two different styles: journalistic and literary. Any foray into the other's style is a loss
for the writing”. “The persons convicted” to write, not in both styles, but in both “different genres”
without having acquired their characteristic features, have continued working, sometimes without
any good evidence of knowing the mother tongue- it was room for everyone, journalism and
literature. Even the institutional membership and, as we call it today, the professional adhesion (at
trade unions, unions, federations) may be negotiated (Petcu, 2005, passim). It was not desired to
establish criteria, rigors, and synchronization with the press in countries where there were
functional rules in place in journalism and also in other fields.
We are not supposed to imagine that the situation mentioned above occurred only in
Bucharest, as in all areas of the country there was “a tradition (...) of the presence of most writers in
the press columns. The ivory towers could be counted on fingers. The great writers, the good
writers and simple writers have worked for the newspapers, working every day in newsrooms (...)
That explains, to a large extent, the dimension of the cultural interests for the press”, noted
Abramovich P. Samson, referring to the '30s - '40s (Samson, 1979, 127).
Still, something was different in Romania compared to other countries - to quote again
Samson – we overshadowed the French and the British in terms of the production of texts of
opinion: “even taking into consideration the evolution of the press and the multiplication of pages
dedicated to news and reportages, most newspapers focused their efforts on <the first page>,
consisting entirely of articles, notes, reviews, political and cultural chain stories. Five major
Romanian newspapers kept this structure, which represented, compared to the media whose goal
was to inform, a higher percentage than they could find in English or French press”. Why was this
statistic worthy of praise, it is not mentioned in the text. However, obviously the absence of
performance could be complemented by metaphor, passion, color, and writers or publicists, as
often said - a journalist was, in the Romanian culture, a derogatory qualifier - could defy the natural
development of European journalism: separating information and opinion texts, journalism and
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literature, media advocacy and information media, called “ of large circulation” or “ reportage
press “. The writer wouldn’t go to the location of the event, as the reporter would. He wouldn’t find
out, but knew already what had happened ... therefore, he would prefer putting things into
perspective, adding the right colors according to his taste and more fiction through literature. This
was, unfortunately, the journalistic cafe that did not produce at the time better informed citizens,
better voters. The fee of the writer was more important than the society’s development, its
evolution.

Something about the philosophy of genres

After 1945, both at the level of the Journalists’Union, and especially in the magazine Presa
Noastră (Our Press) discussions are initiated to clarify the features of press genres - which will be
called, until 1990, journalistic genres, another evidence of lack of rigor. Effects can be seen again as
a consequence of the lack of journalism schools, but also of the perpetuation of confusion between
the two speeches, literary and journalistic. My hypothesis is that philology graduates journalists
served the communist propaganda in a much greater extent than those with no philological training.
After all, the propaganda needed images metaphor and ideological constructs, not only dry,
concrete, non evaluative reports. Well, there were many who said they believed that an expressive
and colorful writing was superior to a non evaluative, nonliterary speech.
We are in a culture where the release of a story in its essential and contextual data (the
essence of information journalism) did not receive positive feedback – the facts reporters were (and
are, unfortunately) the most despised “species”. This is the context in which political authority of
the time accept (and even promote) the confusion between the two plans - the figures of speech
have a more predictable chance to manipulate. We must accept metaphorical speeches - as we have
been teached in school during the 12 years of training, when everyone, on his way from child to
adult, consumes thousands of hours of fiction. The social reality defined / constructed symbolically
through metaphor is a way of simplification, and also handling. No need to go into details, this time,
on the issue of relations between information and opinion in the Romanian press.
The first episode of the debate on the specifics of the reportage, for example, begins in 1956,
when there are organized meetings between the heads of newspapers, there are published some
articles and opinions are issued, more or less surprising. In all major cities there were groups of
reporters operating, discussing the problem of writing, the genres, the models. For example, the
literary reportage Group from the Journalists Union made great efforts to assure the participation at
the debate of the most illustrious representatives of the genre, but significant progress did not
appear. Geo Bogza, for example, defined the genre in terms like: “What is reportage? To me, it’s
the story of real facts, told in a realistic way” (Presa noastră, 1956, 5) Paul B. Marian, after having
studied the statements of Bogza, Boris Polevoi interviews, Maxim Gorky’s texts, was convinced
that “the reportage is a literary genre used by media everywhere to portray the life and deeds of
people, the events of the day”. Conceptual clarifications were needed - then Romania had 2,179
journalists and related occupations! (Cornescu, 1956, 11). Let us mention here two other
participants in the debate – I. Felea and Dinu Hervian. For Felea, “The communist journalist who is
at the same time a communist writer, uses the same source of inspiration: people’s life. The
communist writer, being journalist, has the same attitude towards his real heroes, whom he meets
as a journalist; he approaches them with love and brother thought, to show them at work, in their
family life and as citizens, with the same tools used in the literature. In newspaper life is
represented in certain types of journalistic genres. In the novel or poetry, it’s true, something more
is required. It doesn’t mean that a journalist can be a novelist. But a writer, guided by the concept
of socialist realism in art must be present in the pages of a new type of press, he must participate
enthusiastically in building the history of our days” (Felea, 1960, 26).
And he provides an example of a novelist and journalist at the same time, Serban Nedelcu,
praising him in a few pages. At the associative level, the slippage is just as dangerous - this is what
the secretary of the Journalists’ Union, Hervian, says: “Our Union of Journalists is a professional
organization of creation (...) the journalistic writing is a literary genre. Like the painter, the
journalist must choose the right colors...”(Hervian, 1961,1). With such views, is it a surprise for us
that newspaper headlines are “battle flags” of the Party? The refuse to separate the literary
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reportage from the journalistic reportage, to treat differently journalistic and literary productions
doesn’t seem to have been merely evidence of ignorance, but of the interest to earn income from
both areas. If the press is creative, as the literature, why do we need two associative institutions? –
The Writers’ Union and the Journalists’ Union. Because it happened this way in U.S.S.R., seems to
be the answer. What distinguished writers of journalists? Probably just that some published more
often, others more rarely.
To reconcile both journalists and writers, Demostene Botez said in 1956: “realistic
journalism and literature are two chronicles of the times. They record at the same time, temporary
or claiming the immortality, events and human faces (...) the material published in the newspaper
may be the subject of an interesting novel reflecting truthfully a whole period of time. I don’t
understand why no novelist thought about recreating his time based on the articles and press
releases, the same day. They reflect everything. This means that between journalism and realistic
literature there is a close relationship (...) but newspapers don’t present only the raw material for
literature. The journalism has developed throughout the time a series of literary genres. The chain
story, which also seems to me a literary feature, is a characteristic feature of newspapers. Heine, if
not his father, is one of those who have illustrated it. The pamphlet is also a product of journalism,
just like the portrait, - not to mention the reportage, that became, from a simple story, a much
appreciated literary genre. The travel notes, a certain kind of science-fiction literature and also the
literary chronic had flourished beginning in newspapers. It is obvious that between a newspaper
and a literary book there is a difference, because the newspaper doesn’t use, to the same extent
that literature, the picture as a means of reproducing reality, but the fact as it happens, with the
comment that convinces through logical arguments and demonstrations, in a scientific manner (...)
There are a lot of writers who have began their career writing for newspapers in our country (...)
young writers shouldn’t consider their work for newspapers as a foreign interest of their mission
as writers” (Botez, 1956,3).

The reportage, literary or journalistic?

In 1958, the board of the magazine Presa noastră (Our Press) takes in charge the mission
to clarify the status of the reportage. Here are some examples. George Vlad: “I work at the Scânteia
(Sparkle) newspaper, in the department of sketch stories and literary reportage department. I
sometimes go out with a well defined theme (it is understood that it is imposed by editorial needs),
or I look for this issue on my own (...) in any of these situations, the key issue remains the data
collection (...) in the past few years the mission of the reportage (I refer especially to the literary
one, which appears in daily newspapers) has changed. Therefore its task is not only to inform, but
also to educate the reader. For the reportage to have an educational function, it must operate
through artistic images, as, for example, the sketch, short story or novel, of course keeping the
proportions” (Vlad, 1956, 5). The author clarifies later the definition of the literary reportage - is
that one “to which I have not assisted, but I was told about. This is, for me, the story-sketch. As the
operational story, up to date, whose action takes place right before our eyes, I consider that it isn’t
as difficult as the former, on condition that the reporter is, as one might say, all eyes and ears”. In
other words, the “sketch” reportage is a reconstruction, a false reportage, and the “operational”
story is the journalistic reportage in the current sense. But regardless of type, to deserve its name, it
has to be literary! ...
In February 1958, the editors of the magazine Presa noastră claim that “wanting to show the
importance of frequent collaboration of the writers in newspapers pages, the magazine (...) has
initiated a series of meetings to which are invited all those writers who began writing for
newspapers, or who have given, over their literary activity, due attention to journalism” (Presa
noastră, 1958, 4).
Why call the writers is easy to guess – they were more prestigious than journalists, some
were part of the nomenclature of the Communist Party, they appeared in textbooks. Here is the
answer Zaharia Stancu gave to the question “Is there a difference in the writer’s style in the press
article and in the literature?”-”Yes, there is. The newspaper article is written quickly on concrete
facts, it’s not postponed. The journalist style – I speak about the true journalist - is clear, nervous.
Literature requires phrases like that, and, of course, another language, according to the described
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time, to the characters, to the actions”. N. Holban believed that “there are some journalists who
consider the reporter as a kind of growing writer, as a man who must document for several days
and - if he respects himself – he must give up to two items per month! And these reports should
cover at least one third of the newspaper page, “or” a newspaper reporter must provide
information and information reportages. This is primarily his task” (Presa noastră, 1958, 4). These
views appear normal, but we should not rush to conclusions. For one month away, Eugene
Jebeleanu ensures us that there are differences between journalistic and literary writing, but that
“newspaper article may have literary elements (metaphors, comparisons, etc.), as there are many
writers, who are said to have no style (they are often preferred to those having style). But press
article remains a press article and the literary work – a literary work”. Marcel Breslaşu, who
presents himself as a “writer who didn’t do journalism” say that “the lack of this experience kept me
from some inherent flaws journalistic: superfluous analysis of the document, false lyricism of many
texts written on haste, relative professional indifferentism that occurs when practice changes in
routine, spontaneity in tics and templates. Let me not be misunderstood, I always appreciate
literature better than bad journalism...”. On the other hand, Lucia Demetrius believes that
“journalism is a school of sincerity. Honesty has no time to run the tortuous forms, when it is
expressed in poetic figures; they have almost always the gift of spontaneity and thus their price. I
think I've learned, writing articles, not to be too poetic about the theme, but to go directly into it.
Perhaps the best way that I would recommend to any beginner in writing is not to search, writing,
the most beautiful means to express an idea, but the most direct, without thinking for a moment how
it will show what it means, but only that that thing has to be understood” (Presa noastră, 1958,3).
Finally, a military journalist - Nicolae Tăutu: “the newspaper article first addresses to the
persuasion on the path of reason, logically. The belief in the literature is based on the affect, on the
sentiment, on the artistic emotion. But between them cannot be raised a wall of partition,
insurmountable. However, the language of the newspaper article differs from pure literary style...”.
At the debate also participates the Hungarian writer Miklos Danoş. For him, “the reporter
must be present, to be an eyewitness of the events”. As for the “ literary story, and this is one of the
more troubled issues, many reporters express the view that literary reportage is not only in the
literary style, but in the literaturisation of the theme. In other words, the reporter loses touch with
reality. Its sole willing changes facts, people and characters. He offers only a part of the reality and
leaves the rest to be completed by his imagination, his qualities of writer. Thus, the reportage will
create a quarter of reportage, half a sketch and a novel fragment (...) The reportage is not useful to
readers. The true story is based on the most rigorous respect of the facts. The reportage actually
plays a true story in a literary form. The literary character is provided by description, by choosing
the typical theme, by painting complex characters, and not by letting the free play of imagination,
by the literaturisation of the truth (...) in my opinion, there is no need of some fancy themes,
superliteraturised, but of reportages reflecting the truth, written on a high artistic level” (Danoş,
1958,3). The series of media interviews from Presa noastră continues also in April 1958. This time
they George Macovescu and Otilia Cazimir are asked about the relationship between journalism and
literature, especially from the perspective of the reportage. “Among the journalistic methods, the
reportage is of central importance”, says Macovescu, “the reportage reflects what is more typical
and significant in the daily kaleidoscope of the present. Presenting aspects like colors or ideas,
geography or politics, economics or culture, the reportage embraces an infinite number of aspects
of life, seen in its dialectic development, in the circumstances of time and space whose infinite
variety is also infinite (...) the story is directly the journalistic product of the events, the immediate
reflex of life in its many forms” (Ivaşcu, 1958,1). And to be clearer, “a newspaper article builds on
logical demonstration, while the literary work is a succession of artistic images. The difference is
obvious and it is reflected in the style (...) there is a newspaper article style, journalism style. Great
journalists – without being at the same time creators of art - have their style, a journalistic style
and not a literary one. How is this style? Let us study the great journalists and ... especially
journalists who have contributed to it. Maybe time has come for journalism to exist by itself and not
as a poorer or richer relative of the literature. I think so” says Macovescu.
The writer Otilia Cazimir says: “writing daily and for everyone, means looking in the first
place the concise sentence , the direct word and the practical meaning: a man who reads the
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newspaper in the tramway or in work break, has no time to literature. That’s why I become so
angry (and it exasperates me sometimes) seeing the reportages that go crazy, by far, with detours
and unnecessary incursions through folklore, only to finally say, in a confused and vague way,
which had to be said at first, shortly and clearly. Because journalism is life, while the literature is
... literature” (Cazimir, 1958,1).
To clarify once and for all (?) the confusion on the reportage, the authorities of Bucharest
held in 1958 what was called the “International Meeting of the reporters”. A lot of money has been
spent, it was useful to propaganda, but has not made a concrete result, in the way of clarifying the
relationship between the two occupational areas: journalism and literature. A possible explanation
seems to be the fact that most participants came from socialist countries. There, the professional
guides were the Soviet Pravda newspaper (and the Sovietskaia Peciati magazine). The confusion
we are talking about was fueled not only by the ignorance of our journalists, but also by the
uninspired imitation, copying the Soviet model. In 1959, some conferences are held at the
Journalists Union, the theme is how the press supports the agriculture, the newspapers graphics,
the”patriotic and internationalist education of the working people”, the “communist figure in the
reportage” with Victor Bârlădeanu as reviewer (at the reportage Group). That year obsessively
continued the debate on the of literature delimitation from journalism, a debate selectively reflected
in the Union magazine, Presa noastră (Our Press). For example, under the heading “Notes on the
reportage”, Toma George Maiorescu, testified that “the reportage school is the fiction school. The
reporter is, at least potentially, a writer. About the long and controversial dispute over reportage as
a genre, I rather believe that the reportage is literature. Someone will protest: all right, but
literature is about fiction. It's true. But a less rigid and circumscribed understanding of fiction, it
appears clearly that the selection process itself, the choice and the compositional arrangement of
the material of life, is part of the fiction. The purpose of literature is human life, the accurate
reflection of its complex and irreversible processes, in other words, the reflection of life. Does the
report has the same object?” (Maiorescu, 1959,2). Horia Bratu holds a similar view -” the limit of
the literary reportage area is not easily predictable. Its factual content is not fundamentally
different from the content of journalistic reportage. However, the literary reportage embraces
otherwise the facts. For example, an innovative personality is presented in the literary reportage
not only in a veridical way, but also with an artistic characterization (his physical portrait), the
moral character is pointed out, the originality of the innovator’s behavior appears very clearly (...)
literary reportage are thus between journalism and literature”.
The reportage, a genre invented by journalists, had long before been seized by writers, for so
long that its origins had been forgotten (?). This is, of course, false. Those who participated in such
“clarifications” have not explained anything in the last hundred years (instead they amplified the
confusion), were educated people. There is a difference between saying what you saw (the
journalistic reportage) and saying what you felt (the literary reportage).
The debate involved a little more lucid person - Victor Nămolaru, the Editorial Office for
foreign publications representative, who says that the success of the magazines he worked for is
explained as following:” from the very beginning was combated the misconception that there was
accredited in mind of some editorial workers, that the journalistic writing is synonymous with
surface effects, with many twists and turns of phrase and shaped fireworks. No! Journalism is not
really conceivable without wide use of all journalistic genres, as it requires a large variety of
genres, but this has nothing to do with flowers of speech, or with false literaturisation! Journalism
is not only a problem of form (...) but, above all, a problem of content, of themes (...) the need to
focus on the facts is the first step, the next, and not least, is to put man at the center of our
materials, the man as a creator of new life, the passionate and daring builder who, educated by the
party, does not give up when obstacles and difficulties appear, fighting tirelessly for the triumph of
the new” (Nămolaru, 1959, 23).
Numerous discussions, conferences, articles will turn on all sides the same issue of
separating the journalistic speech from the elements of the literary expression. Without noticeable
effects, however. Meanwhile a school of journalism in Bucharest (1951) is funded, dominated by
philologists, who after several years and will be dissolved. This experience does not cause
synchronization of local journalism with a more stable press, like the one from other countries, the
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Polish or Czechoslovak one, if we refer exclusively to the socialist camp. Again, the Communist
Party propagandists didn’t need authentic journalists, with reflexes, doubts, with the sense of
justice. Or propaganda, it is well known, is more effective if you deal with images, with tenderness,
with metaphors, if you use “artists” on the ideological front, not journalists. Therefore, the
confusion was maintained for political and, let’s recognize it, financial reasons.
Here are the opinions of an experienced journalist, who had known the market journalism
(capitalist), but also the communist one - Tudor T. Braniste. In an interview for Luceafarul (The
Star) magazine granted to Valeriu Râpeanu (1963), answering the question “do you think there is a
distinction between the style of the literary reportage and of the newspaper article?” Braniste said:
“Today, at the level reached by the press, we can no longer make a categorical distinction between
the style of the reportage and the newspaper article on the one hand and the literary style on the
other (...) I do not mean that any reportage is literature and any literature page is reportage. The
genres are still different, but their connection is obvious and indisputable. Each time the press has
used first hand elements (Eminescu, Iorga), its pages were high quality” (Branişte, 1976, 140).
Well, but how to get multiples of Eminescu and Iorga in the Romanian culture?
We seem to be in a pathologic area, in a difficult to explain myopia that affects the most assessors
of the relationship between literature and journalism. It’s not comparable what Eminescu and Iorga
left as a legacy, with thousands of unread texts produced by those who fed from the confusion
which is the subject of study. In June 1965, the editorial committee of the only magazine of
professional culture, Presa noastră (Our Press), debates the issue of the information press. Here are
some of the positions of important journalists of that time. Henri Dona, senior editor of Flacara
(The Flame) and professor at the Faculty of Journalism, says that “there is a publishing genre which
is well defined, the information, and that do not deliver information and news in an indirect way,
but directly”. Why “indirect” remains unclear, however, says Dona “in the information genres we
can place the interview and the investigation, the note, the information reportage“, not just the
news. In fact, to translate somehow what the teacher in journalism from the University of Bucharest
says, in the area of the information genres stand as well the interview, the survey, the note, the
information story - although the sequence should start with the news, “the journalist’s basics”. Why
was this genre “publicist” and not journalistic, as they said then? In order to not offend those who
thought the journalist profession was less than that of writer, publisher.
Somehow more clearly, Virgil Danciulescu from România liberă (Free Romania) stated
that “the most common forms of information as journalistic genre used in the newspaper are, as it is
known in theory and practice of media, the news, note, report, interview, investigation, statement ,
reportage(...) the most common is the news”. It was difficult to understand how journalistic
production can be divided into two major types - information and opinion, with their divisions. But
this was the education level of some of our journalists. On the same occasion, Dumitru Tabacu from
Romania libera (Free Romania), for example, insists on publishing a handbook - “we must all
cooperate to be in possession of a manual to clarify these specific terms of our wok. Now it’s time
to start the serious work and have for us and for comrades in the future of this profession a greater
clarification about the journalistic genres”. And Zănel Florea from Agerpres thought (as well as
other participants) that the practice of the information literaturisation should end.
Nobody could produce a manual at that time, for reasons easy to guess - none of the
thousands talented journalists and writers Romania had, clarified for himself the problem of genres.
As for the “no-literaturisation” of the journalism, given that about 90 percent of journalists had
literature as their scientific origin, it was out of the question. Especially since literal expression had
more space in the newspaper or the magazine, which means to discharge the duties of office
working less - more information means more work. Nothing about this aspect was ever honestly
discussed, unfortunately.
In 1965 continued the debates about the reportage – its nature, its use... Serban Cioculescu
wrote that “the reportage emergence is related to the occurrence of journalism, whose original
purpose was no other than to inform the widest possible audience (...) there is, for the reporter, a
desire to rise in terms of literary expression. This ambition seems natural (...) writers, novelists or
dramatists are not considered complete if the reality reflected in their work is not seen to some
extent at an angle of poetic transfiguration” (Presa noastră, 1965, 45). It is true, painfully true
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which Cioculescu says. But who would have taken him into consideration? For Paul Anghel, the
reporter is like a “electrical conductor” and the direction is the “social order”. But what is this
“social order”? What the Communist Party decides, of course. Ion Baiesu said that there is only one
kind of reportage – the interesting one. He does not believe in the coexistence of two categories -
literary reportage and journalistic reportage. The literary one is “a hybrid genre, unnecessarily and
endangered”.
Flora Şuteu also granted an interview to Presa noastră magazine, complaining about the
excess of affection of local journalism “reportages and serials are a kind of meeting points of
journalism and literature. Written with nerve, often in metaphorical language, the newspaper
columns put dry and impersonal information in a commentary that sets it apart. Borrowing methods
of literary expression, journalists try so their literary pen, inventing figures of speech for daily
facts”. But, says the author, “in all that the measure must be maintained”, otherwise are created
texts as “Bălan - city whose coordinates take us not far from Olt sources, in the Ciuc beautiful
depression” (Steaua roşie – The Red Star, Târgu Mureş, no. 112). Or “twenty-four years ago, when
I started travelling from peak to peak, from Rarau to Stanisoara, we never thought that going
through this wilderness of water, I put my footstep on the backbone of a future high industrial
significance” (Zori noi –New Dawn, Suceava, no. 5420).
As can be seen, readers do not appear at all in this dispute, precisely those who paid the
writers and the journalists. We are in an era of supply media, not of demand media – one reads
what the party decides, it’s not an individual choice. Were they totally ignorant, the decision factors
of the two “creative” unions? No – they were travelling in many countries (capitalist and
communist), had access to the media in many countries, they had journalism textbooks from USA,
France, Germany, Poland .There was nowhere this strange combination. Who paid the costs of
encouraging the journalists to try their “literary pen”? Nobody seemed to know.
Here is the context in which the journalist Sergiu Fărcăşan published in Presa noastră (Our
Press) for several months, “How to gather news and how to write them “, taking pages of “How to
report the news and write”, by Laurence R. Campbell and Roland E. Wolseley, printed in the USA
(1961). To enable the printing of such a text, Fărcăşan shows that “recent documents of the party
and the article of Comrade Nicolae Ceauşescu about the party leadership role underlines the
urgent need of job knowledge, of all the best that has been created in various fields, here and
abroad. We are also warned against the pragmatism which will not take into account the scientific
knowledge”. It was a desperate attitude, we might say - it seems that no one sincerely wished to
clarify the relationship between fiction and reality, between literature and journalism. In other
words, a double lie was perpetuated – first, about the content of the reports and second, about the
form in which events were packed. Let’s not forget that we were in an era where reality was deeply
marked by the official ideology and metaphor served to the propaganda more than news. By
definition, the news is not a landscape! Or journalistic discourse seems to be glorifying, that means
literary.
We continue this sequence of reactions, judgments and clarifying searches with Al.
Philippide, who was to declare: “we can say, with considerable justice, that the differences between
journalism and literature are deep. First, by their nature. Literature is art. So it’s a spirit game
which must first of all be pleasant. Any kind of literature must have this character (...) Journalism is
not art. There is not a simple game (at least in essence). It doesn’t necessarily claim to please.
Journalism proceeds of another need. The need for information. So it meets the individual's social
curiosity. And it fulfills a social function (...) to write good literature and to write well in journalism
are two things that do not always fit together. Literary style does not coincide with the journalistic
style. A newspaper article written only in a literary way is a mediocre article, as well as mediocre
is also a piece of literature written only in a journalistic way. Journalistic style requires some
qualities that literature does not need immediately. It requires first accuracy and fastness...”
(Phillipide, 1970, 5). And George Macovescu is bothered by the literaturisation practiced in the
press - “serious things that require a certain style, a certain precision and seriousness, (can be)
dressed in a coat ... totally unfit”, if they are expressed literally.
But let’s see what an appreciated journalist of the moment, Sânziana Pop says: “Journalism
is a field of art and it has aesthetic rigors as well as literature. Journalism is a matter of vocation
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and talent is a matter of discipline and profession. Publicity not can be judged in comparison with
the literature and as the literature, it does not exclude beautiful, on the contrary, it involves it, it is
even conditioned by beauty. If literature is an evolution, a judgment value with the force of
generalization, the journalism records time, the immediate actuality, a judgment value daily “ (Pop,
1970, 1).
Dictionaries say that the publicist is the person who publishes political, social, cultural
works, but also a person who publishes articles in the press; sometimes, the dictionaries define the
publicist as a writer dealing with journalism. In any case, the publicist is not synonymous with a
journalist, employed in a newsroom and living on journalism income. Finally, the term itself
deserves a careful analysis.
Back to Sânziana Pop’s text, summarizing: journalism involves beauty and judgment value,
it has aesthetic rigors, as literature; it is a matter of vocation and talent, that is exactly what happens
in literature. Further, the author states that “literature implies selection, capacity of transfiguration,
the very act of creation is a symbol. Journalism involves the whole. It can and should tell all. One
of the great beauties of journalism is this settlement in the whole reality, this difficult, but
exceptional requirement to express about everything. One of the great satisfactions of the journalist
is to have at hand the enormous reality, to imagine its huge being and to dare to call it, to subject it
in a few pages of newspaper (...) Journalism is not a no rigor field, but an area with other rigors
then those of literature, a field with more labile legislation, with more flexible laws than fiction, but
with laws! With canons! If there is still poor journalism, it’s only because there is this false and
pernicious impression of total freedom, of natural writing. Very false and very dangerous. The only
difference between journalism and literature in terms of writing discipline is putting them under the
influence of different rules, but these rigors exist, they are mandatory, recognizable! That’s why
today, more than ever, it is necessary to discuss the journalism aesthetics, to give an important role
to the idea of talent and profession in publishing (...) What is talent? (...) talent is work, talent is
effort, talent is the discipline of writing. I do know for sure, talent is not the end but the beginning of
the road, we all start by having the talent and we end up professionalize the talent by the discipline
and subject it to eternity...”(Pop,1970,1).
Here there are, in the text above, several demonstrations. One of them consists in the fact
that journalism, with its labile laws, flexible - compared to fiction - is inferior to literature. In other
words, one grows through literature and regresses through journalism in the culture to which one
belongs. This representation is strange, damaging and widespread. That explains why we have not
had a genuine information press and why very few wanted to remain in the collective memory as
journalists – publicist, writer is infinitely more. A comparative history of journalism in European
countries would show how unusual, not to say ridiculous, was the hierarchy of the two areas and
the damages caused by the writers who didn’t allow to journalism to evolve independently, to grow
and to synchronize with what was happening in more settled countries, so to speak.
We wonder if journalism has ceased to be a matter of talent, and has become a matter of
style...An attempt to find an explanation and reconciliation tries, in 1971, Silvian Ionescu in his
book, “The frontier literature”: “hunting for sensational produced immeasurable amounts of
antiliterature, of bold deeds, reproduced with outrageous comments. It was, however, a huge
reservoir where the literature has found suggestions, an infinite spectrum of relationships,
reactions, situations. There are a lot of writers who have used the diverse fact, achieving
memorable results (...) sensational information represented - even if that is not entirely flattering -
a crossing point to literary reportage (...) at first sight is difficult to speak about the establishment
of a journalistic style with its own structure. There are many styles, different stages (...)The style
barometer of the press was and remains sensitive, scoring models to literary pastiche. At the
bottom, some figures of speech, rejected by the literature, survive in the press. But we cannot judge
the press style after the newspaper template. Controversial influences are easily found. The
newspaper styles had memorable impact on the literature (...) Gradually, the modern media of
information, more hostile to verbalism and literary exercises - which took refuge in the mediocre
reportage - capitalized the retention and the almost telegraphic brevity”(Ionescu, 1971, 308).
Here is the voice of a journalist who knew the interwar media, but also the communist one:
Nicolae Carandino. He would declare: “journalism is creative to the extent that any written and
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printed activity is creative, but the media is of course a separate sector from literature, having often
key differences. I mean the role of the present in journalism field is essential (...) For a regular
reader, journalism is a very general creation, but for a practitioner areas it carries enough trouble
that often require contradictory qualities. There’s a difference, in the press, between being an
article writer and picking up news (...) in the press is more pleasant the one who knows how to save
adjectives and metaphors, one who knows how to give an incandescent lyricism to the current verb.
The idea - and journalism is an idea a day - does not need the support of false rhetoric”
(Carandino, 1989, 3). I asked N. Carandino, even at the first meeting (1992), which is the
journalist‘s life ideal, in his opinion. The answer was “not to deny reality” ... So, neither the stream
of opinions more or less legitimate, nor the intensity of the controversy, metaphors or imagination,
but reality seems to be the journalists’ right measure. Something so simple, but so hard to
understand.
“What literature can you see in the news or in an interview?” - ironically answered Nestor
Ignat - “I have been sustaining for over 30 years that journalistic work is nonliterary. I also
published a study in this respect, in Greece “. Well, I said, but as Dean of the Faculty of Journalism,
you have tolerated this confusion, excessive literary curricula. “Then, there was nobody to teach!”
…
But let’s go back to the story and follow the opinion of a journalism professor, Marin
Stoian. According to him, the reportage would be a journalistic genre that meets the following
qualities: up to date, authenticity – it implies the presence of journalists at the event; attitude -
requires emotional participation of the reporter and call the reader's affection, plasticity, the strong
emphasis of the significant elements in the reportage, which is being done when “the reporter uses
the means and procedures related to literary composition - narration, dialogue, portrait -, the
artistic image - metaphor, comparison, hyperbole -, style - lyricism, irony, dynamism, vocabulary.
Therefore, the reportage requires literary talent (...) But if the many victories of the reportage are
related to the neighborhood with literature, this is also the source of its many failures. Going on
regressive ways, the plasticity became color and the beautiful and brilliant color was poorly
understood; therefore, the reportage is often stuck in peripheral areas of interest, removing the
reporter from his true role” (Stoian, 1987, 99). After searching several bibliographical sources, the
author proposes a definition of the reportage: “the journalistic genre relating with literary means, in
terms of personal attitudes, genuine events that have immediate echo in actuality”. To strengthen
the theoretical position, the author takes one of Mihai Stoian's opinions, that “the strength and
attractiveness of the reportage lies, however, in a kind of deliberate, systematic <deformation> of
the nude reality, which makes that event, that character (the heroes of the reportage) signify and
serve the surrounding reality, from a particular perspective and also generally valid” (Stoian,
1987, 101).
Here is the well expressed imperative - the reporter should “serve the surrounding reality”,
tuned to the indications of the propaganda, to twist reality according to it, to promote “heroes” of
socialist construction. In any case, do not relate nude reality. It is one of the basic postulates of
communist journalism, defined by V.I. Lenin many decades ago.
I conclude this series with another response of a journalist who practiced journalism before and
after the communist government, Paul Lăzărescu: “the truth is that many writers have worked at
newspapers. But remember that not all fueled confusion - read Nicolae Carandino’s articles and
you will not find an adjective! And he is not the only one”.

Was it myopia? Was it ignorance? Would earning money have been so important for the writers
who published in the press, that truth may not have mattered? Perhaps, some of each.

Bibliography
Botez, 1956: Demostene Botez, Journalism and literature, in Presa noastră, year I, no. 2,
June 1956, pages 3-4.
Braniste, 1921: Andrei Branişte, Literature and journalism, in Adevărul, 29 September
1921, page 1.

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Braniste, 1924: T. T. Branişte, Between press and literature, in Cuvântul liber, 26 july
1924, pages. 1-3,
Braniste, 1976: Tudor Teodorescu Branişte, Scara vietii / The scale of life, edition by
Constantin Darie, Eminescu Publishing House, Bucarest, 1976, page 140.
Braniste, 1989: Tudor Teodorescu-Branişte, Intre presa si literatura, Between press and
literature, ediţion by Constantin Darie and Paul Ion Teodorescu, tome I, Minerva
Publishing House, Bucureşti, 1989.
Carandino, 1989: N. Carandino, Journalism does not need the support of false rhetoric, in
Tineretul liber. Supliment literar-artistic, year I, no. 1, 30 December 1989, page 3
(interview from 1986).
Cornescu, 1956: Al. Cornescu, After one year of activity, in Presa noastră, year I, no. 8,
December 1956.
Danos, 1958: Danoş Mikloş, Three of many problems…, in Presa noastră, the monthly
magazine of the Journalists’ Union, year III, no. 3 (23), March, 1958, pages 3-10
Hervian,1961: Dinu Hervian, Our local unions and the Journalists’ Union tasks, in Presa
noastră, year VI, no. 12 (68), December 1961, page 1
Ionescu, 1971: Silvian Ionescu, Literatura de frontier/ The frontier literature, II nd
edition reviewed, Editura enciclopedică română, Bucarest, 1971, page 308
Iorga, 1923: Nicolae Iorga, The movement of ideas. Newspaper prose, in Adevărul, year
XXXVI, no 12.138, 22 April 1923, page 2 (text in Adevărul from Ramuri
magazine).
Ivascu, 1958: George Ivaşcu, The international reunion of the reporters, in Presa
noastră, the monthly magazine of the Journalists’ Union, year III, no. 4 (24),
April, 1958, page 1
Maiorescu, 1959: Toma George Maiorescu, Notes on the reportage, in Presa noastră,
year IV, no. 3-4 (35-36), March-April 1959, page 2
Petcu, 2005: Marian Petcu, Jurnalist in Romania / Journalist in Romania- the history of a
profession, Comunicare.ro Publishing House, Bucarest, 2005.
Philippide, 1970: Al. Philippide, Journalism and literature, in Presa noastră, year XV,
no. 10 (174), October 1970, pages 5-8.
Pop, 1970: Sânziana Pop, Publishing-talent, discipline, profession, in Presa noastră, no.
11(175), year XV, november 1970, page 1.
Samson, 1979: A.P. Samson, Memoriile unui ziarist / The memories of a journalist,
Cartea Românească Publishin House, Bucarest, 1979, page 127.
Seicaru, 1922: Pamfil Şeicaru, After the congress of the press– press, liberty and culture,
in Hiena, year III, no. 10, 17 December 1922, page 3.
Seicaru, 1926: Pamfil Şeicaru, Press and culture şi cultura, in Cuvântul newspaper, year
III, no. 381, 13 February1926, page 1.
Stoian,1987: Marin Stoian, “ The reportage in the print media”, in Elemente de teoria
presei /Elementes of the press theory, tome II, Academy of Social and Political
Studies, Journalism Section, Bucarest, 1987, page 99.
*** “How to write”, in Dreptatea magazine, year I, nr. 50, December 1927, page 3.
Colectia revistei Presa noastră, Uniunea Ziaristilor Profesionisti, Bucuresti

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 Romanian Narrative Journalism: Ethics, Authenticity and Unreliability in
Creative Nonfiction: A Study Case
Elena Ghineţ, Ana Elefterescu - University of
Bucharest,Bucharest, Romania

1. Introduction: from ‘grand narratives’ to narrative journalism

Postmodern theorists place the individual at the core of contemporary society as a node in
multiple networks rather than a member of one or more communities. The overall social
fragmentation, the informational segregation into ‘global villages’ and the increasing individualism
can all be seen as symptoms of what Lyotard explained through the death of ‘grand narratives’ in
the postmodern world (Lyotard, 1988). As the over-arching philosophies that ethically and
politically shaped human societies through the past ages have gradually lost their credibility, the
legitimation of knowledge in postmodern society has to come from other sources. Grand narratives
are, thus, replaced by Wittgenstein’s “language games” (apud. Lyotard, 1988): linguistic conducts
that regulate social behavior in various groups and in different aspects of life. Instead of giving
credence to holistic philosophies of history – such as religious doctrines, enlightenment and
universal reason or Marxism – postmodern men fragment their life into smaller contexts, taking
localized social roles (student, employee, spouse etc.) that are regulated by different logics and
different ethics.
According to Bauman (2009, 14), “[t]he task of holding society together (whatever
“society” may mean under the liquid-modern conditions) is being “subsidiarized,” “contracted out,”
or simply falling to the realm of individual life-politics.” Thus, one of the problems of
contemporary men is that, by getting lost in the network, their inter-human relationships become
ever more fragile and they tend to lose the sense of “belonging” and the ability to place themselves
in the broader, universal frame.
Following all these social, political, economic and environmental changes, individuals end
up re-questioning their ways of building identity – for the self, for a group, a community etc.
In this context, mass media play an important role, not only as a watch-dog of democracy,
but as (the main) creator of informational content regarding either major “breaking” news at
international level, or micro-events pulled from the daily routine that, in the end, shape our
imaginary universe. Thus, the media content is deeply assimilated, if not mirrored, in the identity of
the individuals constituting the audience and – more importantly – can play a significant role in the
identity-building process. However, mainstream media in every form contributes rather to the
preservation of the status quo through its agenda setting: McLuhan’s term of ‘global village’ comes
to mind when observing the way individuals exposed to ever more advanced and wide set of
information regarding the world tend to rather isolate themselves from it. Too much information
causes apathy and people end up building a sort of immune system in order to cope with the news –
generally, not very bright – of the risk society that we live in (Beck, 1992). Other forms of
journalism address this issue and explore the ways to fill in the gap between the individuals and
their society.
Narrative or literary journalism (we will discuss the terminology in the following pages)
addresses the very issue of how individuals interact with their environments by delivering
rigorously documented accounts of events, where the author places himself not omnisciently
outside of the story, but in the midst of it. Fully immersed into the subject and using narrative
techniques borrowed from literary writing in order to tell their stories to the public, narrative
journalists usually offer a different perspective of things and use the very subjectivity as a way to
“get” to the audience. Due to the long-term commitment and thoroughness in researching their
topics, they tend to address issues that are otherwise seen as marginal or, on the contrary, well-
known subjects that are brought into a new light. As we will see further, literary journalists
generally aim to authentically write at the level of “felt life” (Kramer, 1995) – but at the same time,
the better their stories are, the more they manage to touch a universal cord that resonates into every
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reader. This is a key element for every good storytelling work, but in narrative journalism the stakes
might be higher because, as a form of media, it takes part in the creation of collective memory and
consciousness. In this sense, narrative journalism might well take the role that grand narratives
previously had: in a fragmented society where different language game structures apply to different
social roles of individuals, the way to reach them and to keep them geared in the social mechanism
is through similarly localized narratives that do not portray a holistic view of how everything should
work, but instead throw in shards of what the world might look like from a different perspective.

2. A narrative theory of journalism: legacy, meaning and traits

Narrative journalism refers to journalism that combines the storytelling elements of fiction
with the truth-telling of traditional journalism and is often used interchangeably with the term
‘literary journalism’, because it demands a standard and quality of writing found only in literature.
(Goc et. al. 2008, 213; Holm, 2006). In fact, an extended list of terms that refer to this journalistic
technique includes narrative/literary journalism, creative non-fiction (Meyer, 2011), new journalism
(Boynton, 2005), intimate or immersion journalism (Harrington, 1997; Kirtz, 2011).
Narrative journalism started in the U.S. in the 60s under the form of the New Journalism
movement of writer journalists such as Truman Capote; but as he himself admitted, the roots of this
journalistic approach are to be found in the works of earlier avant-gardists – going all the way back
to Daniel Dafoe in 1700 or to the European realist writers of the 18th-19th century, as Zola, Balzac
or Dickens (Boynton, 2005; Kramer, 1995). New journalists have placed the seeds of long-form
nonfiction, while their contemporary counterparts – gathered under the clumsy label of New New
Journalism – tend to write stories that benefit from the legitimacy that Wolfe’s legacy has brought
to literary nonfiction, while reaching another level: Boynton (2005) characterizes their writing as
being “rigorously reported, psychologically astute, sociologically sophisticated, and politically
aware”. The current generation of narrative journalists thus brings her own contribution to this
structure by developing techniques of long immersion reporting, trying to cover the gap between
their subjective perception and the reality they want to depict (Vanoost, 2010, 23).
By observing their writings, Kramer (1995) has drawn a set of more formal characteristics
of this journalistic genre. The style of the articles tends to be simple, frank – intimate or ironic – but
always keeping a personal touch. Taking from literary narrative techniques, a piece of narrative
journalism has a plot and characters and presents an action that takes place during a certain period
of time. Scenes may be narrated in a non-linear order and extended dialogues are employed.
The way journalists create news stories is regarded as framing, a process of selecting and
rejecting information in the construction of a news story by placing emphasis on a particular aspect
or angle (Goc et. al., 2008, 215). Thus, mixing the main narrative with various digressions and tales
allows the writer to amplify or reframe events. And all this is done in order to develop meaning and
to lead the readers to a worthwhile destination.
Philip Meyer (2011) suspects that the technologies of the information age produce content at
a faster pace than their capacity to produce understanding. Narrative journalism, thus, comes as
complementary to the 24h news stream that the digital media have made possible and responds to
the audience’s need for synthesis and interpretation. According to Nancy Graham Holm (2006),
“[i]n the postmodern age, journalists must assign meaning” because “information alone […] does
not inform”. Narrative journalists believe that too much information turns people off and that it is
difficult to get and keep people’s attention when they are constantly being “assaulted” by
information from various sources. Thus the key elements for them are information, fascination,
identification (Holm, 2006).
The topics they cover usually come from the universe of the daily routine, rather than
extraordinary events – there is material that allows long-term, in-depth fieldwork, and there are
news that require a quick reaction and leave no time for frank access and interpretation – and they
adopt a mobile stance in order to tell the story and address the readers directly. However, literary
journalists reject the idea that narrative needs to be soft and explanatory. On the contrary, they
believe that “its greatest unrealized potential is to communicate the hardest news - the crucial
questions of social justice. Grim subjects, destitute characters; complicated wrongs need narrative
so people will read them and give half a damn.” (Katherine Boo apud. Kirtz, 2011) As objectivity
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seems to be outdated in the general postmodern apathy, the storytelling approach might well be a
good way of re-engaging people in their societies, of getting them to re-think their social role and
their relations with others (Lallemand, 2011). As Kramer (1995) puts it, “[t]he process moves
readers, and writers, toward realization, compassion, and in the best of cases, wisdom. (…) And
narratives of the felt lives of everyday people test idealizations against actualities. Truth is in the
details of real lives.”
The narrative model seems to address some of the key-questions for journalism as a whole,
as well as for its democratic function. To go back to Kramer (1995) – literary journalism has, for
him, an intrinsic politic, democratic, pluralistic and “anti-elite” function within society. However,
narrative journalism also poses some new ethical questions that need to be addressed in order for it
to really achieve its goals – that is, to bring novelty in the journalistic field and to lead to a deeper
comprehension of social issues.
The ethical question. Comparing two approaches to the story of a 81 year old man
diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease who decides to take his own life – one of them being a
“traditional” journalistic reportage, while the other one was a narrative approach to the story –
Holm (2006) comes to terms with the fact that narrative journalism requires ethical compromise
(although she admits that the print form might not be as invasive as video documentaries). Her main
concern lies in the unavoidable invasion of the journalist in the life of the subject who may or may
not be aware of his exposure, while the audience/readers might end up feeling like uncomfortable
voyeurs.
For Lallemand (2011), narrative journalism needs an even stronger set of rules and controls
than traditional media forms because it employs a subjective perspective that may influence the
journalist’s relation with his sources and the expression of his own stand towards the topic
researched. Meyer (2011) considers the problem with narrative journalism to be the writer’s
temptation to avoid fact checking for fear that the facts might ruin a good story. His ‘perfect model’
would be the one of an evidence-based narrative – that is, good storytelling based on verifiable
evidence. For instance, journalists may face the situation where, in their story, they have to narrate
scenes that they hadn’t really witnessed – the question, for Vanoost (2010, 24), is whether and how
must they state this.
Moreover, since literary journalism is based mostly on the “witness” position of the writer
and on his sensibility in telling the story, this form of journalism is to be analyzed not by the
standards of objectivity (as we have already seen), but rather in terms of authenticity. (Cornu apud.
Vanoost, 2010, 24) By serving built stories that aim to provide a complex understanding of the
world, narrative journalism can bring a significant contribution to identity construction. But,
according to Salmon (2007, 111), the narrative also comprises a high potential of manipulation.
Given that the very act of narrating is subjective and under the full control of the narrator, the result
might be a persuasive story that imposes to its public a certain vision of the facts. Another ethical
issue revolves around the question if narrative journalism is, in the end, an extensive and complex
account of reality or a way to simplify, schematize and manipulate the readers? As suggested by
Vanoost (2010), the possible answers to these questions lie in the implicit reading agreement
between the writer and his readers: such an analysis has to take into account the narrator’s stance in
the story – outside or within, subjective and limited or omniscient etc. – as well as the role
attributed to the reader – is he perceived as a passive or a critical voice, does the author leave any
doubts for the reader to explore etc.
Just as the postmodern men, to whom these creative nonfictions are addressed, don’t
subscribe anymore to a universal set of values and rules, no single ethical interpretation can be
applied to all narrative journalism materials. Unlike the ‘grand narratives’ that were legitimized by
a certain objectivity, the small narratives of literary journalists have to be read in a deconstructed
ethical context. According to Lyotard (1988), the sole ethical behavior in postmodern times is to
remain alert to threats of injustice – that is, to see things in their particularity, and not enclosed in
abstract concepts.

3. Research: corpus and methodology

The articles chosen. We consider “Decât o Revistă” (further on, DOR) as unique in the
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Romanian journalistic field because it is the only magazine that systematically publishes pieces of
narrative journalism. As it is stated in their description and confirmed by the creator and Editor-in-
Chief, Cristian Lupşa, whom we’ve talked to, the purpose of the publication is to “tell stories about
how we live today”. The core elements of this approach are “depth” and “emotion”: the stories that
unfold in the quarterly pages of the magazine are meant to “reflect and explain, in words and
images, the ideas and obsessions of today’s Romania”.
Thus, for this study, we have selected a series of narrative articles, first of all, based on their
popularity and success – most of them have been promoted on DOR’s website or in the social
networks. A second criterion was based on their variety of styles and typologies – we have chosen
articles written by different authors and ranging from portraits/self-portraits to narrative coverage.
The final corpus is, therefore, made out of six articles:

English Title Original Title Author Issue

“The Loneliness of Monica “Singurătatea Monicăi
Macovei. What Happens If Macovei. Ce se întâmplă DOR 7.1,
Vlad Mixich
You Always Want to Tell the dacă vrei să spui mereu Autumn 2011
Truth” adevărul”
“Christian Ciocan Loves “Christian Ciocan te DOR 4,
Tea Teodorescu
You” iubeşte” Autumn 2010
DOR 5,
“Dana’s Choices” “Alegerile Danei” Simina Mistreanu
Winter 2010
DOR 3,
“Cristi Puiu” “Cristi Puiu” Cristian Lupşa
Summer 2010
“From Behind the Pink “Din spatele cortinei DOR 7.1,
Laurenţiu Olteanu
Curtain” roz” Autumn 2011
“Cealaltă viaţă a lui DOR 9,
“The Other Life of Ghiţă” Ana Maria Ciobanu
Ghiţă” Summer 2012

Most of the articles chosen are more or less portraits – that is, they are focused on a main
character that the author is depicting by using a series of narrative techniques such as reproduced
dialogue, framing and so on. “The Loneliness of Monica Macovei. What Happens If You Always
Want to Tell the Truth” portrays former Minister of Justice, Monica Macovei, as a fighter in the
name of truth in a corrupt country. “Christian Ciocan Loves You” depicts the narcissism and self-
centrism of the Romanian Police’s spokesman, Christian Ciocan, involved in several press scandals
regarding his inappropriate behavior towards female journalists. In “Dana’s Choices” we learn
about the struggles of a woman fighting breast cancer and understand more about the choices that
one has to make once on this path. “Cristi Puiu” is the portrait of internationally known “enfant
terrible” of Romanian cinema, Cannes awarded movie director Cristi Puiu in his own words, as well
as his friends’ and critics’. “From Behind the Pink Curtain” is a subjective account of a
homosexual’s “coming out of the closet” and the challenges he has to face in contemporary
Romanian society. And, last, “The Other Life of Ghita” tells the stunning story of a young man
whose life and identity had been decided through a series of unfortunate bureaucratic errors.
Problems and research questions. What we want to verify, through this study, is the extent
to which these narrative journalistic materials truly adhere to the “reading convention” (Vanoost,
2010) specific to this style of writing and the ethical challenges they bring out.
Due to the narrative approach, the author’s voice is very present in all materials and our aim
is to identify the means through which this presence is felt – firstly, at the textual level, and
secondly, at the level of meaning and influence towards the readers. The very subjectivity of
narrative journalism cuts both ways: while adding more credibility to the facts through the personal
account and assumed stance, it also may bring in front of the audience a story that is already
“processed”, interpreted by the author and, thus, manipulate the readers towards a single
interpretation of the facts. Through this reading convention, the author is attributing a certain
position and role both to himself and to the reader. This is translated into the stance that the author
takes in his story: is he assuming a witness position, acknowledging the limits of his subjectivity or
does he assume an omniscient position, presenting a single and certain story without any “grey
125
areas”? As for the reader – is he being assigned a critic role of understanding and interpreting the
story in his own way or is he being served an already digested story? Of course, between these
extremes, many other stances of the author in relation to the story and to his readers are possible.

Based on the chosen texts, we will try to identify the main indicators of the author’s
presence in the writing and assess the extent of this presence and its intended influence towards the
readers. Of course, this study cannot – and does not aim to – analyze the outcome of the articles, as
this would require a different type of research based on a corpus of readers. However, we are
interested – as mentioned – in the authors’ stances and their techniques of interacting and
influencing the narrative texts delivered to their audience.
Methodology. Through qualitative content analysis, we passed the six selected materials
through two analysis grids. The first grid addresses the “reading convention” and it is based on the
observations of Genette (1980), Lallemand, Todorov and Vanoost (2010). This grid is mainly
focused on the form of the text and on the techniques of staging the story (“mise-en-narration”).
The indicators that we have chosen are meant to point out the place and the role of the narrator, as
well as the place and the role he attributes to the characters in his story, at a textual level. The
question that would best synthesize this grid is: How can the narrator’s presence shape or distort the
reality of the facts?
The second grid can be titled “Authenticity vs. Unreliability” (based on Denzin, Richardson,
Frank apud. Jeppesen & Hansen, 2011) and it reunites key concepts regarding what can be
understood as true writing, and what cannot, according to the authors.

Heterogeneity A sense of the other’s inner unfinalizability;

Interviewing another is a privilege

Change One story calls forth another story; Generate new

questions; Take public action on private troubles

Sensibility A space of consolation; Affect emotionally or

Authenticity Categories

intellectually; Create moral compassion

Transparency A new relation of author to character; Show one’s

moral colors

Reflexivity Instigate self-reflections; Reader experiences his

own subjectivity

Emotionalism Unification with the other; Confessional mode

Unreliability Categories

Neutrality Extracting static themes or listing of

characteristics; Boring

Superior Monologue; The scientific goal is representation;

Knowledge Certain experiences are more authentic than others

The analytical questions that this grid approaches are related to the capacity of the writing to
make room for heterogeneity, to the ability of the story to instigate change and – again – to the
author’s position, although this time at the level of content, and not form.

4. Discussion
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 The narrator’s relationship to the story. Building on Genette’s observations, we can
identify in the texts three different narrative stances (Genette, 1980): either the narrator tells his own
story (in which case he is also the main character), or he tells someone else’s story, which can be
seen from a completely exterior point of view (extradiegetic) or through the eyes of a narrator-
witness, but who is not as well the hero of the story (intradiegetic). The indicators that signal the
presence of one – or more – of these stances are mainly the pronouns, used either in 1st single
person or in 3rd person. Changing points of view and taking the perspective of a character are
narrative techniques used in literary journalism, but to which extent can a journalism claim to know
what is in the head of his character?
Among our chosen articles, only one of them is a pure subjective account of the narrator’s
own story: “From Behind the Pink Curtain” is written more as a confession than a portrait, which
places its author at the center of the story, both as narrator and as main character. But the largest
part of the texts (four articles out of six) proves to be intradiegetic – “The Loneliness of Monica
Macovei. What Happens If You Always Want to Tell the Truth”, “Christian Ciocan Loves You”,
“Dana’s Choices”, “Cristi Puiu” – as they bear the subjective mark of a narrator-witness who wants
to make his presence felt at the textual level, but not as a character in the story itself.
The last article appears to be extradiegetic in its approach (“The Other Life of Ghiţă”), as
the narrator never makes his presence obviously felt in the text (on the contrary, when having to
mention himself, he uses the word “the reporter” instead of a 1st person pronoun). The effect is that
the writer-narrator seems to subtract himself almost entirely from the story, thus leaving the facts at
the sole interpretation of the reader. On the other hand, it allows the reader to fully identify with the
narrative voice and to read the story though a single, omniscient point of view without assuming
any subjectivity.
The narrator in relation to his characters. Continuing to follow Genette’s and Todorov’s
works, we can identify three types of approach to the characters of a story: “from behind” (as
named by Todorov) – when the “symbolization” of the narrator overweighs the one of the character,
or the “zero focus” (Genette, 1980) – “with” – when the “symbolization” of the narrator equals the
one of the character, or Genette’s “internal focus – and, finally, “from outside” – when the
“symbolization” of the narrator is overweighed by the one of the character and corresponds to
Genette’s “external focus”. In other terms, the narrator can either assume that he knows more than
his character, claim that he knows as much as his character or show that he knows less than him. In
the extremes, the vision “from behind” points out a tendency of the author to build an interpretation
of the text and to tell more than facts themselves; while, in the “outside” vision, the author assumes
his witness role, without “getting in the head” of his character.
One of the chosen articles, “From Behind the Pink Curtain”, is a clear proof of a narrative
approach “with” the character. Since the narrator is the main character, the facts and emotions
presented are to be read as genuine and self-conscious, as there is no external voice that mediates
the story to the readers.
However, four of the articles prove a vision “from behind” (“The Loneliness of Monica
Macovei…”, “Christian Ciocan Loves You”, “Dana’s Choices”, “Cristi Puiu”). What we have
considered as indicators of this fact are usually the assumptions stated by the authors especially
regarding the emotions or attitudes of the character. For example, describing a conversation that he
had not witnessed, Vlad Mixich makes the story livelier by adding several details: “Suddenly, Silvia
felt that her daughter’s life is on the bridge of getting very complicated. (…) Macovei looked at her
and answered hesitatingly “Yes… I believe not. It’s too much. But wait until I talk with someone
else too.” Although the bring color to the story, indicators such as “suddenly…felt” or
“hesitatingly” cannot be verified by the author’s knowledge and are, therefore, mere assumptions
that the author knows what the characters were feeling at the time of the conversation. Of course, all
the information may – and has to – be backed by a thorough research; but indicators that hint the
emotions and attitudes are most subjective and can influence the reader’s opinion more than mere
facts. In the case of the last article, “The Other Life of Ghiţă”, such indicators are minimal, thus we
may say that the narrative vision is “from the outside”.
Story type. According to Vanoost (2010) the stories can be either closed – when they are
delivered to the readers containing the interpretation as well – or open – when the reader is
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“invited” to draw his own conclusion. In the first scenario, the narrator offers a unique vision of the
facts, while in the second case, he leaves space for inferences (“places of uncertainty”, ambiguities,
flows etc.) The act of “closing” a story can be pointed out by various aspects, some of them more
obvious than others. At the textual level, the ironic use of certain words or the slip of connotation
phrases targets directly the role of the reader.
Towards the end of “The Loneliness of Monica Macovei…”, the author exposes a
meditation regarding his character’s place as a symbol in the Romanian society: “She knows that
she is rather a symbol than a ferocious politician. And today, more than anytime, Romania is going
through a crisis of symbols. Every one of us wants to believe that a fair man arrived in a power
position is not a naïve dream, but a possible one. Every one of us needs that and Macovei is among
the few remaining symbols that we can hang on to (…) continuing to be only a symbol, a jewel to
be shown off on a wedding day.” The connotations and implications of this passage are obviously
pointing towards a favorable interpretation of the character by the reader. In “Christian Ciocan
Loves You”, the series of repetitions “I love you, I love you” is an ironical way of pointing out a
persisting trait of the character – but a single one.
However, the other four articles have all the chances to be considered open stories (“Dana’s
Choices”, “Cristi Puiu”, “The Other Life of Ghiţă”, “From Behind the Pink Curtain”). Regardless of
the author’s opinion and interpretation of the facts, these are not to emerge from the text and impose
themselves on the reader. The authors tend to avoid places of certainty and leave a lot of room for
the reader to fill in the gaps. The facts are not entirely explained and further explanatory comments
are usually avoided. For example, reproducing a conversation between Ghita and his father, the
author of ““The Other Life of Ghiţă” restrains from explanatory indications: “Ghita tried to
understand how come his parents came back for him at the hospital and brought home another
child, but neither his father knew any better. He showed his father the criminal record that brought
him so many troubles and placed his right hand next to his. They both smiled when they noticed
their nails looked alike.”
Authenticity. At the level of content, “Dana’s Choices” seems to be the most heterogeneous
of the articles, as it presents multiple facets of the story and employs various voices and tones.
While, at the other end of the spectrum, “The Loneliness of Monica Macovei…” and “Christian
Ciocan Loves You” are the least heterogeneous, both presenting a “single story”: Macovei is
portrayed as the solitaire good character fighting against injustice, while Ciocan looks as the classic
type of histrionic, egocentric character.
From the point of view of the drive to change, “From Behind the Pink Curtain” stands out of
the corpus chosen, as it generates new questions regarding homosexuality in the Romanian society.
Moreover, the fully subjective point of view and the confessional tone contribute to the accuracy of
the testimonial, without explicitly aiming a certain outcome. Paradoxically, by not targeting a
specific goal, the article manages to call for many new stories, interpretations and to instigate to
changes in the general perception regarding the topic of homosexuality. Along the same lines, the
story of Ghita brings out a new light over the life of orphan children, their chances and their
struggles in life. Without aiming to do so, the story point out naturally certain aspects that offer the
readers the opportunity to think and reassess some of their prejudgments.
Unreliability. Emotionalism is felt in several articles, including “From Behind the Pink
Curtain” and “The Loneliness of Monica Macovei…” In the first case, the article presents a
unilateral vision and the confessional tone – although authentic – falls in the “trap” of ignoring any
social scientific perspective (Richardson apud. Jeppesen & Hansen, 2011). The second case is an
example of unification with the character, of complete empathy with the character’s positive traits,
without looking anywhere around them. This observation is continued in the sphere of neutrality:
“The Loneliness of Monica Macovei…” is a single sided depict where the character has no
“evolution” throughout the story, but is portrayed as a sum of (positive) traits. Narrative journalism,
through its subjective voice and thorough research is desired to take a stand towards the story, while
keeping the necessary distance in order not to impose is to the audience. Neutrality – as a “bad”
characteristic – refers here to the passiveness and lack of nuances in portraying the character of the
story.
Last but not least, “Christian Ciocan Loves You” proves the best example of an article
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where the author makes proof of superior knowledge towards his readers. The narrator seems to
“know better” that the character and, at the same time, than the readers themselves. The end of the
article: “…AŞA NU”/”This is a BAD EXAMPLE” could not be clearer in this regard.

Having these considerations in mind, we can say that an overall reading convention of these
articles is being shaped. “The Loneliness of Monica Macovei…”, as well as “Christian Ciocan
Loves You”, prove to be narrative articles very strongly built, to which the public is implicitly
associated. The first article attempts to exploit only the positive traits of the character, almost
pushing the reader to identify with her as a victim of the system and to admire her as an
indisputable symbol of honesty and courage. In the second case, we are facing a type of “rallying”
journalism that does not try to understand the complexity of the character (Ciocan), but uses him to
reinforce the community (the public) around the same feeling of indignation, without really urging
the reader to reflect upon the facts.
Of course, in some cases it is difficult to tell from the text only if the writing is genuine or
not: for example, when reproducing or quoting dialogue, the narrator might use indicators either as
his own supposition of how the character might have felt, or because the character himself admitted
to have felt in a certain way. Some explanations, on the other hand, can be eliminated from the final
draft in order to ease the text and allow it to flow. But without a further study of the entire
journalistic process of documenting and writing the text, we can only accept the limits of this study.
Some of the other texts, such as “Dana’s Choices” or “The Other Life of Ghita” manage to
establish to links with the public. Sometimes, the journalist’s and the character’s points of view are
in a blur, enforcing their relationship and, thus, the break with the readers. In other places, the
narrator breaks with the character through the absence of interpretations and seems to be closer to
the reader, both witnesses to the same extent. This decentralized approach, as an intermediary
between the community of readers and the character gives a certain openness to the text, as it
summons both an emotional and a reflexive reading.
Thus, the reading convention shows a delicate balance between narrative and ethics and is to
be analyzed contextually. This convention is rather implicit, based on indirect “language games”
that the reader can update according to his own – unpredictable – beliefs and interpretations. This
calls for a high responsibility of the writer, as practicing a responsible narrative journalism would
mean to acknowledge all the stakes, the narrative tools and possibilities and to use them
consciously.

Bibliography
Bauman, Zygmunt (2008). Does Ethics Have a Chance in a World of Consumers? Cambridge,
Massachusetts: Harvard University Press
Boynton, Robert S. (2005). The Roots of the New New Journalism. The Chronicle of Higher
Education, March 4. Available at http://www.robertboynton.com/
articleDisplay.php?article_id=1515
Goc, Nicola (2008). Media Narratives: The ‘Murdering Mother’. Bainbridge, Jason, Goc, Nicola and
Tynan, Elizabeth, Media and journalism: new approaches to theory and practice. New York
: Oxford University Press
Harrington, Walt (1997). A Writer’s Essay: Seeking the Extraordinary in the Ordinary. Introduction
to Intimate Journalism: The Art and Craft of Reporting Everyday Life. Sage Publications.
Available at http://www.niemanstoryboard.org/1997/03/28/a-writers-essay-seeking-the-
extraordinary-in-the-ordinary-2/
Holm, Nancy Graham (2006). Narrative Journalism: Subjectivity, No Longer a Dirty Word. P.O.V.,
22, December
Jeppesen, J. & Hansen, H.P. (2011). Narrative journalism as complementary inquiry. Qualitative
Studies, 2(2): 98-117
Kirtz, Bill (2002). Overview: Aboard the Narrative Train. Poynter. November 21. Available at
http://www.poynter.org/uncategorized/3700/overview-aboard-the-narrative-train/
Kramer, Mark (1995). Breakable Rules for Literary Journalists. Nieman Storyboard. January 1.
Available at http://www.niemanstoryboard.org/1995/01/01/breakable-rules-for-literary-
journalists/
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Lallemand, Alain (2011). Journalisme naratif en pratique. Bruxelles: De Boeck
Lyotard, Jean- François (1988). La condition postmoderne: rapport sur le savoir. Paris: Minuit
Meyer, Philip (2011). Precision Journalism and Narrative Journalism: Toward a Unified Field
Theory. Nieman Reports. Fall, Online exclusives. Available at
http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/article-online-exclusive/100044/Precision-
Journalism-and-Narrative-Journalism-Toward-a-Unified-Field-Theory.aspx
Salmon, Christian (2008). Storytelling, la machine à fabriquer des histoires et à formater des esprits.
Paris: La découverte
Vanoost, Marie (2010). Journalisme narrative. Derrière l’engouement pourle récit, de vraies
questions éthiques. Médiatiques. Récit et société. 47, Autumn, 23-27

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Virtual Worlds and Fictions

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 Virtual environments and online social values
Case Study: Online Reputation
Poliana Stefanescu - University of Bucharest,Bucharest, Romania

Introduction
The use of Internet has an important impact on personal and professional life of individuals.
Content diversity is richer on the Internet than in traditional media and new online communication
technologies are emerging. This characteristic makes Internet to have something for everybody. As
this rich content of the Internet may be available at home, in schools, libraries or at work place, this
suggests people have access to satisfy different needs in different social contexts.
Because privacy became an important issue, a large number of studies took place to
investigate personal and social consequences of Internet use. While television, radio and the print
media are regulated and surveyed by the society, Internet is not at all regulated. Recent initiatives,
like ACTA, failed after many online and offline protests. The main idea is people do not wish any
regulation in the online environment, no matter how serious damages could happen.
However, the uses of the Internet have serious negative effects, including spam, the
spreading of the viruses and worms, spyware, phishing, hacking, online frauds, invasion of privacy,
etc. Further, the uses of the Internet are creating new paradigms in such areas as business,
copyrights, governance, democracy, human interactions, information search, entertainment, etc.
When companies noticed the online reputation progression, as the direct involvement of the
internauts on Web 2.0, they realized what unexpected challenge they had to face. In these
circumstances, the enterprises understood they have to preserve the positive reputation and to
protect against negative opinions on the Internet. The online reputation issue became also important
at individual level, although people, especially the youngest, do not realize the importance of
having a good reputation for the present life, but mostly for the next events in life. The media
reported several times that employers are looking for information on the online social networks
when trying to hire someone.

Online reputation
Reputation is the opinion (more technically, a social evaluation) of a group of entities
toward a person, a group of people, or an organization on a certain criterion. All Internet users have
a digital or online reputation. Essentially, this digital reputation is the opinion that others hold about
the user. People aspire to have a positive online reputation.
Digital reputations are developed over time and are based on the individual’s digital
footprint, that is a collection of the traces left by someone's activity in a digital environment—an
accumulation of personal information, content shared or other data which can be accessed by other
internet users. In particular, it depends on the behavior in various social media sites.
Digital footprints can be either passive or active:
 A passive digital footprint is created when data is collected about an action without
any client initiation. At a low level, this could be someone’s name and contact details. It may also
include photos, public postings and, in some cases, public records.
 An active digital footprint is created when personal data is released deliberately by a
user who wishes to share information about themselves, such as deliberate postings or sharing
information in the public and semi-public areas on the internet.
‘Digital footprint’ can also refer to the size of a person’s online presence—the number of
individuals they interact with on social networking sites.
The online reputation for a company depends on delivery of great products or services,
ability to provide professional, friendly and timely customer service, ability to identify and control
negative responses, and many other factors Positive and negative information about a company and
products is continually circulating in cyberspace. In these circumstances, companies have to adapt
and to use the same tools as their customers use online.

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 While the literature reflects various definitions of corporate reputation, a popular definition
is identified as “a perceptual representation of a company’s past actions and future prospects that
describe the firm’s overall appeal of its key constituents when compared with other leading rivals”
(Fombrun, 1996, p.72). This definition explains reputation is the synthesis of various stakeholders’
perceptions and creates an organizational persona that can be formulated, implemented and
managed).

Online reputation situations

1. One of the classical examples is the 10-day blog storm that induced the Kryptonite
collapse in 2004. Kryptonite was a bike locks manufacturer and launched a new lock. A teenage
client complaint was posted on different web sites proving that the new lock could be opened with a
simple ballpoint pen. Because the company did not react to this complaint, other clients posted new
proofs of this lock failure. Then, mass-media reported the incident and, in ten days from the
beginning, Kryptonite had to announce a free product exchange that cost 10million USD.
2. In the USA, Universities are starting to warn students about employers’ usage of online
information when hiring people. Many college students don’t realize how much information about
them can be easily found online, nor do they understand the consequences of that information being
publically available.
A digital footprint can last a lifetime unless an individual takes measures for online
reputation management (monitoring). According to a May 2010 study conducted by Pew Research
Center, young adults between the ages of 18-29 have a positive trend in taking steps to protect
themselves by managing their online reputations.
3. In Romania, Futurelab Research45 published a top of Romanian brands according to their
online reputation. The top list was ordered using an online reputation index computed as a ratio of
positive and negative mentions during August 2008. Pepsi was the first with an index of 727,
followed by BMW -787, Peugeot -321, Coca-Cola-253 and Carnay-228. Surprisingly, this top of
online reputation is different from the top of offline reputation High Impact Brands made by
Synovate.
4. Footprints left by someone‘s activity on the Internet could lead to full identification of
his/her everyday life. A well known example is the portrait of Mark L. a real person, whose online
data served in an article published in an online magazine (see: http://www.le-tigre.net/Marc-L-
Genese-d-un-buzz-mediatique.html ). After this moment, a lot of protests invaded the Internet
warning about the lack of anonymity guaranty online.

Digital reputation management

Digital reputation management is about the monitoring of the Internet for all reviews or
mentions of the business on review sites, social media, blogs and forums. This way, a company may
have notifications of negative or positive reviews and may know what its customers are doing or
saying on the Internet. The websites monitoring and evaluation allow identifying opportunities for
the improvement of companies’ mission, business goals and corporate strategy.
A study by Amaral and Gomes (2009) revealed that SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
techniques are important for reputation management as well as for reaching the most relevant
publics. They are talking about the usage of two strategies for corporate reputation management:
1st strategy: negative /unfavorable content is pushed down on the search engine list;
2nd strategy: improve the position of the corporate website and positive/favorable content
within search engine results.
Reputation management should be supervised by public relations professionals. They must
pay special attention to search engines such Google because they are the primary source of
information for organizations or companies. In the following lines we can see the main steps for
internet reputation management:
Monitor major search engines regularly
Taking corrective action

45
http://100.futurelab.net/
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 Content distribution
Social bookmarking
Track results.
Corporate and employees blogs become important channels of communication. They have
the advantage to be more similar and linked to traditional media coverage and they “humanize” the
organization (Wilcox, 2009). Many corporations encouraged employees to write blogs that
accomplishes several objectives like: (a) they empower employees, (b) they enhance corporate
reputation, (c) they are a vehicle to interact with public, customers. The well known Forbes
Magazine is watching the topic of online reputation and provides the readers advices for preserving
an managing a positive reputation (http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/20/manage-online-reputation-
leadership-careers-identity.html )

Many college students don’t realize how much information about them can be easily found
online, nor do they understand the consequences of that information being publically available. In
the USA, universities published a tip list for students and their families in order to advise them how
to manage their reputation on line46:
Privacy: avoid posting too much personal information;
Avoid oversharing;
Don’t look guilty by association;
Stop sharing unsuitable content;
Stay offline when under the influence;
Stop complaining;
Be consistent;
Separate social networking from job networking;
Consider a name change;
Google yourself;
Generate positive content;
Use Google/Profiles.

The next diagram is visualizing the e-reputation process (management and monitoring) as
recommended by specialists47.

46
http://www.safetyweb.com/online-reputation-guide-for-college-students
47
http://digitalreputationblog.wordpress.com

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 Online Reputation
Process

Online Reputation Online Reputation

Management Monitoring

Networking/Social Media

Personal Branding

Promotian of Blogs Free Tools: HowSociable,

Omigli, Kartoo…
SEO/SEM
Payed Tools: Reputation
Viral content
defender, AMI Software,
Digimind…

Allert Tools: Google Alerts

The Internet provides a great number of tools for personal reputation monitoring and
management. According to Wilcox (2009), it also provides multiple channels to reach mass and
niche audiences. That include:
Blogs
Tweets
Photos on Flickr
Videos on YouTube
Podcasts
Posting on MySpace and Facebook
PowerPoint presentations on SlideShare
Documents and papers on Scribd
Webpages and online newsrooms
Webinars.
Monitoring company and brand mentions on the Internet can be done with several free tools
that one can find in the list below:

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 Tools for personal reputation management

 Google – Google.com/alerts
 Blog posts –technorati.com
 Blog comments – backtype.com
 Discussion boards –boardtracker.com

 Twitter- search.twitter.com

Tools for corporate reputation management

 Google Alerts
 Technorati
 Twitter Search
 SocialMention
 SamePoint
 Versionista
 Delicious
 Knowem
 Google SideWiki
 Yahoo! Site Explorer

Conclusions
The Web revolution is a new challenge for companies because they have to take care of their
e-reputation (online reputation). This activity has a direct influence on the market acquisitions.
Customers will be influenced by the company mentions on the Internet and will react to the positive
or negative content, as we saw in the examples above.
In Online Public Relations Phillips and Young (2009) explain in what way Internet affects
organizations, forcing them to become more transparent. So, Internet became a channel of corporate
communication by means of corporate websites and corporate Social Media.
Companies must always remember they act in a random environment, with no control on the
content posted on the Internet. They have to be reactive to any discourse in order to keep control
over information. They have to use Internet interactivity to keep a trustworthy relationship with
other internauts and regular customers.
But, one could think it is almost impossible to control and monitor the immensity of the
Internet. Online reputation drove to a new market: the emergence of measurement tools and new
professionals for helping companies to take care of their image on the Net.
Last year, Google launched a new reputation monitoring tool on the Internet called Me on
the web. This service alerts Google account users whenever the name or some key words are
mentioned in the Internet. It also gives advice for erasing bad content about a person or a company
from the Web. This service is a reply to Facebook practice of privacy invasion and lack of personal
data protection. Besides personal attention and effort, there are new developments for preserving a
good reputation online: a new profession came out in the last 10 years- online reputation manager.
Such person will control online information and will start strategies for improving the online
content dedicated to an individual or a company.

Bibliography
Amaral, B., Ero-Gomes (2009), Corporate Reputation and Social Outcomes, in A.
Rogojinaru, S. Wolstenholme, coordinators , Current Trends in International public Relations,
Tritonic, Bucharest, 2009
Fombrun, C.J., (1996), Reputation: RealisingValue from the Corporate Image. Boston:
Harvard Business School Press.
Madden, M, Smith Aaron, (2010), Reputation Management and Social Media. How people
monitor their identity and search for others online, Project Pew Research Center
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Phillips, D, Young, Ph. (2009), Online Public Relations: A Practical Guide to Developing
Online Strategies in the World of Social Media, 2nd. Ed.Kogan Page Ltd.
Stefanescu, P, (2009), Global Network –Global Society, in Proceedings of ICEA-FAA
Conference, University of Bucharest
Wilcox D. L. (2009), Preserving Reputation in the Internet Age, in A Rogojinaru, S.
Wolstenholme, coordinators , Current Trends in International public Relations, Tritonic, Bucharest,
2009
Wolton, Dominique (1999), Internet et après? Une théorie critique des nouveaux médias, Paris,
Flammarion

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 Fictional or Real Blog Readers’ Identities?
Ruxandra Boicu - University of Bucharest,Bucharest, Romania

1. Introduction
There is little specialized literature on the blog readers’ contribution to blogging in general,
and few studies that have explored readers’ online identity, in particular, as against the rich
scientific reference to bloggers’ identity, as Baumer, Sueyoshi, Tomlinson (2008: 1120) pointed
out. In this paper, we presume that there is more ambiguity in perceiving the difference between
real and fictional/virtual identities with non blogger readers than with bloggers, since with the latter,
there is more observance of blogging identification norms.
The present research focuses on some constitutive elements of blog readers’ identities and it
equally attempts at explaining how virtual identities are shaped by the very participation in a
specific blogging community. In this respect, the analysis relies on Dennen’s (2009: 27) list of
“[e]lements of blogging identity: (1) Name and blog title; (2) Profiles; (3) Post content; (4) Voice;
(5) Affiliations; and (6) Visual design. We mainly insist on the readers’ online names and their
posts contents, analyzed in terms of norms and practices of the given blog community. Depending
on the blog ideological orientation, blog readers might use pseudonyms in order to “obscure
identifying details to varying degrees” (Dennen 2009: 25).
Victor Ciutacu’s personal blog, ”Harsh Words” (”Vorbe grele”), has been selected for
research; actually, one blog category was monitored for a year. It is not coincidental that the
monitored year was 2009. In 2009, Victor Ciutacu’s blog was the sixth most commented blog in the
ZeList. In the middle of the year (in July 2009), it climbed onto the first position. Nevertheless, it is
not only this popularity that decided on this study interest in it. ”Harsh Words” also stands out as a
combination between a means/medium of promoting ”Intact Media Group” ”ideology” (constituting
an informal type of corporate blog), through ”vivid” political analysis, and the blogger/journalist’s
space of personal marketing. The underlying premise of this study on identity and identification is
that there are shared values of the ”Intact” media consumers, definable in terms of political bias.
The producers and comsumers’ common goal is to criticize the representatives of the political
power before and during 2009 (mainly President Traian Băsescu, Prime minister, Emil Boc, and the
minister of tourism, Elena Udrea), with the far-fetched pretention that everything they undertook in
politics was wrong” (Boicu 2012: 39). As Boicu (2012: 42) clarifies, Ciutacu has been considered
”an important employee of the “Intact” trust, as a journalist and political analyst, given the content
and orientation of his media products. E-users who were familiar with his journalistic activity off-
line were prepared and “eager” to find the ideological bias of the “Intact” trust on Ciutacu’s blog
too”.
In this study, a second hypothesis is formulated, according to which, since the blog under
discussion is owned by a political analyst working for a politically biased media trust, blog readers’
demographic identity interpretation is subject to ideological identity. In order to support this
hyposesis, statistical and qualitative analyses are applied to the readers’ names/pseudonyms and
explicit identity details, posted mainly under one of the blogger’s main posts.

2. Theoretical framework
Baumer, Sueyoshi, Tomlinson (2008: 1111) are among the few theorists that emphasize the
disproportion between the studies devoted to blog owners and the research on blog readers’
contribution and co-creation of blogging. The authors explain that: “[i]n order to gain a better
understanding of the social practice of blogging, we must take into account the role, contributions,
and significance of the reader […]. The role of this ever increasing population of blog readers
presents a promising and important, yet little-explored, area of research”.
It is worth mentioning that blog readers, due to their great number, make the
blogger’s ideas circulate publicly as far as “about half of the bloggers also give reasons [for
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blogging] influencing other people” (Schmidt 2007: 1411). Blog readers are also associated to a
passive, manipulated category of people by Nardi, Schiano, Gumbrecht (2004:226), as far as the
others explain: “Some bloggers wrote opinion pieces to share their ideas and influence others. [ ...]
Bloggers used their blogs to express opinions and advice, often with a clear statement of particular
actions they wished their readers to take” (Nardi, Schiano, Gumbrecht 2004: 226).
Through “procedural rules” of blogging as a new media genre, blog owners have
control over blog content and self-presentation. These procedural rules of blogging “can be
analytically separated into the three components of selection, publication, and networking, which
refer to different actions, different roles, and different strategy sets [by the blogger]” (Schmidt
2007: 1412). The blogger’s self-presentation, off-line reputation, as well as selection of posted
content influence the readers’ decisions on “declared” identities. When posting on a blog, readers
have “an opportunity for exploring one’s own identity. With each new group joined, a person must
make decisions about self-presentation […]. Through their stories shared online via media such as
blogs some individuals are seeking status, also relying upon acts of self-presentation” (Dennen
2009: 23).
Since not all bloggers explore identity issues, some blogs “may be fairly impersonal”.
According to Dennen (2009: 24), Technorati (2008) devised a blog classification system “which
considers content and authorship, using the labels personal, professional, and corporate”. The
author adds that, in a survey performed by Technorati (2008), it was shown that “one-third of all
bloggers had privacy concerns related to their identities, based on possible impact on family and
friends as well as disapproval of employers, family, and friends”.
Blog readers, together with the blog owner “develop a sense of group identity” that
specialized literature defines as the foundation of a community of practice. “A community of
practice (CofP) is a group of people brought together by some mutual endeavor, some common
enterprise in which they are engaged and to which they bring a shared repertoire of resources,
including linguistic resources, and for which they are mutually accountable” (McConnell-Ginet
2003: 71 apud Boicu 2011). The CofP approach focuses on the practice that legitimates participants
as group members. Within the fluid, dynamic and emergent computer-mediated community, it also
indicates the degree to which they participate in the group activities. Wenger (1998: 73 apud
Holmes and Stubbe 2003: 580) identifies three criterial features of a CofP: (1) mutual engagement,
(2) a joint negotiated enterprise, and (3) a shared repertoire of negotiable resources accumulated
over time. In terms of blogging communities, Schmidt (2007: 1419) gives them a more specific
definition as “groups of people who share certain routines and expectations about the use of blogs
as a tool for information, identity, and relationship management”, considering that “social realities
can be perceived as historical and daily constructions of the individual and collective actors”
(Mucchielli & Guivarch 1998: 116 apud Branea 2011: 245).
Analysts of blogging communities agree that identity issues play a crucial role in the
shaping of community norms. There is an interrelated influence between the choice of
bloggers/readers’ individual identity and the collective identity of the blog community as a whole.
As Dennen (2009: 27) emphasizes: “Note that while individuals make identity choices that express
who they are, at the same time these choices tend to reinforce community norms”. In “Identity via
name”, which concerns our study too, Dennen (2009: 27) specifies that bloggers most often use
pseudonyms instead of their real life names. We attempt at demonstrating that non blogger readers
are all the more inclined to hide their off-line identities under pseudonyms. The author explains that
“Pseudonyms may indicate gender, field of study, academic position, and attitude”.
Complementing readers’ choices of names or pseudonyms, we are equally interested
in bloggers/readers identification through the content of their posts, that Dennen (2009: 29) termed
“Identity via post content”. The study authoress explains:

“Over time, bloggers tell their stories, constructing a narrative of their lives. With varying
degrees of openness, they share details about their families, hometown, life history, and
relationships along with tales of their academic experiences. Readers who follow a blog regularly
will come to learn these background details and assemble a fuller picture of the blogger”.

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 Consequently, cumulating identity elements of both bloggers’ and readers’ identities, “a
fairly comprehensive persona emerges for each of them” (Dennen 2009: 30). Identity presentation is
discussed within the framework of blogging practices on Victor Ciutacu’s blog.

3. Methodology and data

The present research relies on the statistical analysis of the blog readers’ signatures, as well
as the content and discourse analysis of the readers’ comments. Statistical analysis concerns Victor
Ciutacu’s second relevant post (in reverse chronological order), under the blog category “The Day’s
Replies” and has the blog archives as a source. The blogger’s main post is entitled “Speaking on
behalf of the sovereign people” [“Vorbind în numele poporului suveran”] and is commented in 121
readers’ posts. The topic under debate is whether President Băsescu’s totalitarian behaviour in
politics is comparable to Hitler’s. This may be considered an interesting political topic of
discussion, since it was launched by the blog owner a few weeks before the 2009 presidential
election, in which Băsescu was one of the candidates. The research hypothesis of the statistical
analysis of the commentators’ signatures contains the assumption that readers who are not bloggers
themselves are ”shier” than bloggers as readers, as fas as identity revealing is concerned.
The latter half of the research is devoted to the content and discourse analysis of the readers’
comments, both under the previously mentioned main post (2nd post of the blog category), and
under the third head post of “The Day’s Replies”. The third main post is entitled: “End of an era?
Beginning of history…” [“Sfârşit de epocă? Început de istorie...”] and it includes the readers’
analysis of one of president Băsescu’s strategical defeats, when Mona Pivniceru, President of
Romania’s Association of Magistrates, succeeded in not allowing the President of the Republic to
get involved in an important act of deliberation of the Association members. This section interprets
the readers’ declared identities (ideological, professional, age, gender, etc) and attempts at
confirming the second research hypothesis, according to which gender and age identities are
instrumental in triggering ideological controversies, marked by the pre-electoral context.

4.1. Bloggers vs. non bloggers’ signatures as multi-faceted identification

We assume, in keeping with specialized literature, that bloggers are more identifiable than
non bloggers, that is to say their identity may be considered less fictional, since, in addition to the
few explicit specifications of their identity data in comments content, they make more or less
consistent self-presentations on their own blogs. There may be forms on the blog home page that
specify “information on gender, age, work, location, and personal interests, or […] there may be
more freeform [in identification] ‘about me’ pages featuring a narrative profile. Alternately, a brief
(two or three sentences) profile blurb may appear in a sidebar on the main page of a blog” (Dennen
2009: 29).
Nevertheless, there are less explicit blog main pages too. A telling example is Codeus, a
blogger who comments on Ciutacu’s blog under this signature. On Condeus’ main page, one may
only find out that Codeus was ranked among the best blogs in 2009 and that s/he welcomes readers
to post on condition they use civilized language and do not post anonymous comments. On the
“About me page” of codeus41, a second blog s/he owns, there is some explicit self-presentation,
posted in October 24, 2010 at 9:31 pm, as an answer to her/his readers’request for more identity
details:
“[T]he stories or summaries or whatever they are on this blog are mostly autobiographical.
So if you’ve read this blog, it means that you know me. And those who just want some dry
information about me that would fit here at About show they haven’t read my blog. I don’t know if
I somehow managed to clarify this issue. I am 43, although this information exists somewhere in
the blog” [povestirile sau rezumatele sau cum or mai fi de pe blogul asta sunt in marea majoritate
autobiografice. deci daca ai citit blogul inseamna ca ma cunosti. iar cine vrea doar niste informatii
seci despre mine cum ar incapea aici la About inseaman ca nu mi-a citit blogul. nu stiu daca cat de
cat am reusit sa lamuresc problema. ani am 43 desi si informatia asta exista undeva in blog].
Besides the above-quoted clarifications, the names included in Codeus’ Blogroll may add
valuable information about the blog author’s identity: ADI HĂDEAN, ADRIAN NĂSTASE,
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ANDREI BĂDIN, ANDREI CRIVĂŢ, CHINEZU, COMISIA EUROPEANĂ, CORINA CREŢU,
ION ILIESCU, MAMI NINETA, MARCUS-IRONICUS, MILE CĂRPENIŞAN, MONITORUL
OFICIAL AL ROMÂNIEI, MOSHE&MORDECHAI, MĂDĂLINA IONESCU, NEA
COSTACHE, OCTAVIAN PALER, Palconi, PARLAMENTUL EUROPEAN, Tudor, VICTOR
CIUTACU, VLAD PETREANU, ŞTEFANIA COŞOVEI. Blogroll information is termed by
Dennen (2009: 30) as ”identity via affiliation”, relying on identification through explicit belonging
to a particular group of bloggers.
Resuming the statistical aproach of Ciutacu’s readers identity, in Table 1, I calculated the
ratio between the numbers of bloggers and non bloggers, mentioning their respective signatures:

Table 1. Readers’ Identity as bloggers or non bloggers

Readers’ status Names, pseudonyms Nr. of
readers
Bloggers and Codeus, Lilick , valentin, feroviarul, Fanu, Costin Tanasescu, 28
commentators Julia, C. Bojan, horya, mery, superm, Drujbaru, balauru84,
Dispecer Blogosferă, bercea interstelarul, Emil Stoica,
wickerman, indignaredegeaba, PODI, inconstanta, Theodora,
Florin, Emilia, Eugen, Lucius Fascius, Cum se fură ideile fără să
faci copy/paste, « Irongates's Blog”, alexandru brasov
Commentators violet, smoker, alegatorul, vingt ans après, korbul, sho-ping- 58
pong, nostradamus, ALM, eu, NEMESIS, Maximmouse,
IoanaP, lol, unu` ratacit, Roshu, HAPAX, Simon, florentin radu,
SuKăRiT, Begone, I.I., Greywolf, Doru, eliza, Asztalos Floare,
parafaragaramus, Il Consigliere, B, MICUTU, santinela, stan,
che, marius, mishulescu, Fiara, Mihai, adada, doi lei, Ametitu,
cornel, mutter, Silviu Pana, pace, Marcel Taban, Antonescu,
Adriana, Bubulea, Hosty, Iordachel Gudurau, dan, contele,
Plebea, Eliana, Seful, Lucid, MIHAIL ANTOFIE-SPANIA,
aliosha41, Maria

Discussion:
Both bloggers’ and non bloggers’ signatures have been included in Table 1, in the
chronological order of the postings, under Ciutacu’s main post: “Speaking on behalf of the
sovereign people” [“Vorbind în numele poporului suveran”]. We remark that more than half of
Ciutacu’s readers are not bloggers, therefore, according to the study hypothesis, it is more difficult
to separate fictional from real identity in their case.
In terms of signature formal aspects and their implications, Table 2 proposes an
attempt at approaching the readers’ signatures semantically:

Tabel 2: Signature types in the bloggers’ (1) and non bloggers’ (2) groups
Signature type Nr. of signatures Nr. of
in group 1 signatures in
group 2
First names (diminutive names included) 11 16
Surnames 3 2
Full names 2 6
Nicknames 4 15
Pseudonyms proper 8 22
Masculine pseudonyms/names/full names 15 33

Discussion:
Mention should be made that statistics may not be exact as there is overlapping of
categories. Even with this approximation in mind, we attempt at interpreting the data, comparing
the categories from the point of view of the readers’ intention of revealing or hiding their real
identity under possibly fictional signatures. It seems that the readers find that first names are safer
141
than surnames or full names. That is why, in both groups, first names largely outnumber surnames
and full names. Readers’ blog full names give the appearance of real names, and thus observing the
Netiquette rule of “declaring” one’s identity. In spite of this more formal norm with bloggers, it is a
paradoxical observation that non bloggers use full names three times more (2 vs. 6).
Semantically speaking, the nicknames and the pseudonyms chosen by Ciutacu’s readers
have sometimes a funny connotation which is suitable to the fairly playful linguistic style on this
blog, but thist may be judged as not serious, therefore less credible, even for the content posted
under such signatures.
Pseudonyms proper make the most numerous category with both groups. What we call
pseudonyms proper are common nouns, initial letters, names of famous people or fictional
characters. They are varied in nature and difficult to classify, ranging from “superm” (that has no
denotative meaning) to “How ideas can be stolen without copy/pasting” [“Cum se fură ideile fără să
faci copy/paste”] and « Irongates's Blog”, in group 1, and from “twenty years after” [“vingt ans
après”] to “SuKăRiT” [“upset” in Romanian, with a peculiar spelling], in group 2. The larger
number of pseudonyms used by non bloggers (22 vs. 8 with bloggers) proves that bloggers are more
concerned than non-bloggers with blogging norms, one of these norms implying the revelation of
bloggers’ real identity.
In terms of gender implications, both categories of readers show the same preference for
masculine pseudonyms and names. It is interesting that, depending on the gender of pseudonyms or
names selected, the reader’s posts will observe the Romanian grammar rule of gender agreement,
although some of the blogging community members still doubt about the other readers’ real gender.
At the same time, considering the data in Table 2, we may conclude that, in the two groups studied,
there are mainly men or the participants feel that Ciutacu’s blog is a male-controlled environment
and consequently, choose masculine pseudonyms or names.
We cannot end this section without noting that some signatures are totally or partially spelt
in widely used foreign languages such as English, French, German or Russian. Likewise, the names
or phrases used for signatures may be interpreted in keeping with the dominant anti-Băsescu
ideology on Victor Ciutacu’s blog.
The statistical analysis of the blog readers’ signatures confirm the research hypothesis that,
except for the full name category, non bloggers (group 2) feel freer than bloggers (group 1) to use
types of names or pseudonyms that are difficult to decipher in terms of identiy.

4.2. Inventory of identities explicitly mentioned in the readers’ posts

Using content and discourse analyses, we have found a relative recurrence of some identity
marks, although there are scarce explicit references to demographic identity features in the readers’
comments. The most explicitly or implicitly present is the sense of identification with the blogging
community, through the readers’ support of anti-Băsescu positions, promoted by the blog owner
himself. For instance, in the bloggers’ group, ”Costin Tanasescu”, who shares the dominant blog
ideology, posts more than the other bloggers (3 times vs. ”Lilick” and ”valentin” who post twice
each, while all the other 26 participants in group 1 post only one comment). As far as non bloggers
are concerned, there is a more obvious correspondance between conformity with Ciutacu’s political
views and the number of posts. To be more specific, ”nostradamus” criticizes the regime in power,
at that time, in 6 comments, ”che” satirizes Băsescu’s physical flaws in 4, other faithful members
such as ”I.I” (4 comments) or ”violet” (3 comments) interfere whenever they feel necessary to
defend Ciutacu’s person or ideological bias. On the list of declared supporters, we should also
include ”Asztalos Floare”, ”Bubulea”, ”Iordachel Gudurau”, ”MIHAIL ANTOFIE-SPANIA” who
post only once. The followers’ list to which they belong is much longer than that of the ”Intact”
critics and, implicitly, of Băsescu’s defenders.
On the latter list, we should include ”Begone” who, although in a civilized tone, attacks
Ciutacu and his supporters, ”B, MICUTU”, well educated and critical too, or ”doi lei” who suggests
that Băsescu is beneficial to the ”Intact” finances, as far as he is the prominent targey of the above-
mentioned media trust criticism. This list of ”adversaries” of the blog main ideology may be
extended so as to include “softer” stands, put forth by blog readers identified as “PODI”, “smoker”,
“Mihai” or “Marcel Taban”.
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 Another interesting “debate” within the readers’ community focuses on age identity.
Whereas from “balauru84”’s post, we can only infer s/he is a young reader, since in her/his posts,
there are quotations from “Parazitii” (a Romanian hip hop group who, because of using explicit
language in their songs, were, according to Wikipedia, subject to multiple restrictions imposed by
the Romanian National Audiovisual Council. “Romanian television and radio stations were
repeatedly fined for playing some of their videos/songs and two videos were banned outright. This
motivated their song "Jos cenzura!" ("Down with Censorship!") which criticized the Social
Democratic government” and was released shortly before the local elections in June 2004), we can
witness the fact that “nostradamus” utterly dismisses “balauru84”’s uncomfortable remarks,
showing that they may only come from a young and naïve person. There are other marks of age
identity too: “HAPAX” has a son in Greece, so s/he is old enough to have a grown-up son, while
“Roshu” seems to be young enough to use English words or to be ironic about people who lived in
Ceauşescu’s time.
In shaping fictional identity, we consider that it is problematic to pretend being an
educated person when one is not. There is little doubt that, although linguistically brutal,
“bercea interstelarul” has above-average educational background, as against ”NEMESIS” who just
keeps swearing at Băsescu’s supporters. In the category of cultivated readers, we should include
“I.I.” who posts quotations in English, just like “mutter”, “mishulescu”, who is proud of writing on
this blog and who comments on media missions in society, “cornel”, who posts four decent
comments, as well as “dan” or “Plebea”, among others.
Finally, there is gender identity that deserves a special attention. Generally, it is carefully
hidden by the readers, with a few exceptions. “Simon” declares to be a happy man with the women
in his life. Being outspoken in terms of gender, he thinks he is entitled to question the others’
identity. Actually, in a post in October 30, 2009, he ironically addresses a co-reader with “Mr.
Eliza” [“domnule Eliza”], attacking Eliza on gender ambiguity. In fact, we have noticed that both
gender and age identities are subject to controversies, demographic identity being subordinated to
ideological one. There is a controversy under the third head post of “The Day’s Replies”, entitled:
“End of an era? Beginning of history…” [“Sfârşit de epocă? Început de istorie...”], that continues in
the 2nd main post. It involves ”violet”, who pretends to be a middle-aged woman, and ”Marius”, a
supposed young man who disagrees with the blog and ”Intact trust” policies:

I am 24, I have no connection with politics and I want to live in a decent country. But
Victor, it is inadmissible to do press in this way. Think about you and your family that everything
you do will affect your and our common future too (By Marius on September 10, 2009 at 2:43
p.m.)
[Am 24 de ani, n-am nici o legatura cu politica si vreau sa traiesc intr-o tara decenta. Dar nu
se poate, ba victore, sa faceti presa la modul asta. Gandeste-te la tine si la familia ta, ca tot ceea ce
faci o sa se rasfranga asupra viitorului vostru si al nostru al tuturor.
(De Marius pe 10 September 2009 la 14:43)]

It is the same day that « Marius » launches an injurious remark about « violet », one of
Ciutacu’s most faithful readers:

Violet ... I do not know if you're a stupid man (woman) or you can understand what it is
about. I would realize that if you tried to write some consecutive sentences.
(By Marius on September 10, 2009 at 3:20 p.m.)
[Violet…nu stiu nici eu daca esti prost (proasta) sau te duce capul. M-as lamuri daca ai lega
si tu cateva fraze consecutive.
(De Marius pe 10 September 2009 la 15:20)]

There is a double offence in Marius’ post: “violet” is called both stupid and fake, in terms of
gender identity. Violet is a feminine name and it is all the more destructive for a declared middle-
aged woman to receive injuries from a declared young man such as “Marius”. “violet” answers this
verbal aggressiveness in the following way:
143
 “@ Marius
Now I see what you've written about me: I forgive you, considering you're too young. I
still tell you you're not able to give me marks, at least because I got some very good marks,
from my university teachers. 17-22 years ago. [...] (By violet on September 10, 2009 at 16:30)
[Acum am vazut ce mi-ai raspuns: te iert, considerand ca esti prea tanar. Iti spun totusi ca nu
esti tu in masura sa-mi acorzi mie calificative , macar pentru ca eu am obtinut cateva si inca foarte
bune, de la profesorii mei universitari. Acum 17-22 ani. [...]
(De violet pe 10 September 2009 la 16:30)

The verbal conflict between these two readers continues when “Marius” (on September 10,
2009 at 18:06) asserts independence of thought and behaviour, in spite of “the young age that I
have”. The reader accuses “violet” of lack of discernment and of being misinformed and misled by
“Intact”. How “violet” answers these accusations is characteristic for the category of obedient blog
readers to which s/he belongs:

«@ Marius:
I’ll put an end (to this quarrel) here, first of all because Ciutacu does not like chatting (one-
to-one interaction) on his blog, and secondly, I don’t see why I should continue.
(By violet on September 10, 2009 at 6:57 p.m.)
[Eu pun punct aici, in primul rand pentru ca lui Ciutacu nu-i place chat-ul pe blogul sau, iar
in al doilea, nu vad de ce as mai continua.
(De violet pe 10 September 2009 la 18:57)]

After “violet”’s post, the two blog readers will continue posting, each of them being faithful
to her/his discursive bias, under the 2nd head post, but, there will be no more direct interaction
between the two: they will ignore each other. In terms of fictional or real identity, it is worth
mentioning that, in “violet”’s pleas against Băsescu, she confesses being proud of belonging to
Ciutacu’s blogging community, not only because “people who join the net are above the average”
(October 29, 2009 at 19:54), but also because she considers Băsescu “a drunken sailor” (a hint at
the President’s former job as ship commander). According to Dennen (2009: 29), these are
examples of marks of “Identity via voice, Voice, or writing style”.
In the researched corpus, there are masculine overtones (directness of address being
associated to masculine discursive styles in specialized literature). Older men’s positions are
encouraged, since young people are judged as immature and more difficult to cope with (meaning,
probably, that it is more difficult to influence and manipulate them from an ideological point of
view). Actually, there is a permanent blog dispute between younger and older readers. Younger
readers consider that older generations are used to “safer and calmer times” (Marius, in October 30,
2009, at 10:14) when they enjoyed softer socialist policies, while, at present, they feel
uncomfortable with tougher neo-liberal economic and social measures.

5. Conclusions
In the corpus researched, we have attempted to demonstrate that Victor Ciutacu’s blog
readers of one of his relevant posts (181 comments) use signatures, as well as post content, that may
be interpreted as components of their fictional blog identity. We have tried to reveal what “stories”
they tell and what “stories” they hide, in their blog communication.
The analysis had, as a premise, that people open blogs from various reasons. Nardi,
Schiano, Gumbrecht (2004: 225) made the following 5-reason list:

“Bloggers (that the analysts interviewed) blogged in order to:

1. Update others on activities and whereabouts
2. Express opinions to influence others
3. Seek others’ opinions and feedback
4. Think by writing
5. Release emotional tension”
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 In the case of the blog of political analysis under research, all the five reasons apply, but it is
acknowledged by the “Harsh Words” community that the second reason is the most significant for
Victor Ciutacu’s blog, that is to say, expressing opinions in order to influence others. Moreover, we
assume that some (if not most) of the readers already share the blog ideological identity when they
start posting comments. Writing about political ideology, reading habits and political participation,
Baumer et al. (2011:14) rely on previous studies when they claim that “all of our participants
predominantly read blogs with whose political ideology they agreed, [but] they do not avoid reading
blogs whose ideology conflicts with theirs”.
This finding may explain why Ciutacu’s readers are divided into supporters and critics of
the blog dominant ideology, while the former category outnumbers the latter.
What would be the identity profile of a typical member of this blogging community?
Ciutacu’s readers would share the general technological and social passion of writing on
blogs. Then, they would enjoy political analysis and would side with “Intact” media trust
views.They would choose ironic names/pseudonyms, mocking at Romanian political life, they
would be middle-aged or young men, of an above-average educational background. Feminine
discourse is under-represented, under the influence of the blogger’s male values, attitudes and style.
The analysis of names/pseudonyms, as well as the presentation of perceptions of blog
readers’ identity by the other members of the community has also assumed that there is a distance
between the readers’ online persona and their private identity. First, we have to mention that there is
ambiguity concerning the readers’ identity in all blogging activities. Nevertheless, what could
explain the reasons for which Ciutacu’s readers hide behind pseudonyms and fake identity
declarations? The answer is difficult to provide, we may only speculate that the readers are cautious
enough not to take in charge the posted political bias, all the more so as their comments were
against the President of the State in 2009. As some commenters expressed, the readers might be
afraid to attack the Power, thinking of the security of their families and friends. They might not be
brave enough to reveal their real identity, nevertheless, they may and they do attempt at finding a
public way of showing their dissatisfaction with their everyday life and at feeling relieved through
blogging.

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the Activity of Blogging. CHI '08 Proceedings of the twenty-sixth annual
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 From hero to zero in Web 2.0: online cult heroes.
Chuck Norris vs. Fuego
Monica Mitarca -
University of Bucharest,Bucharest, Romania

As we move forward towards a participatory culture, made possible by the Web2.0, new
phenomena arise, stirring researchers’ interest. The online cults around showbiz figures are among
these phenomena, mobilizing Internet users to put their creativity to work in formulaic ways.
Our paper focuses on two such cases: the Chuck Norris cult – enhanced during the January
street movements, when it has been taken over and broadcasted by the main TV stations, spreading
its awareness to something else than its previous audience – and the Fuego ‘anti-cult’. Thus, we
shall uncover the mechanism underneath this very productive process of creating online content and
meaning. For this, we’ll by analyzing the precise, condensed ‘facts’ attributed to them, and also
some of the communication instances where these online cult or anti-cult heroes were circulated, in
a secondary, re-signifying process. As such, Chuck Norris has been circulated during the January
2012 street demonstrations, in Romania, as a savior figure – the hero who would save the day –
while Fuego was used, recently, in a similar process, to explain and account for, metaphorically, the
political crisis of June and July 2012, in some of the online constructions.

Key words: online cult hero, meme, participatory culture, Web 2.0
Web 2.0, defined as ‘the new generation of web based services and communities
characterized by participation, collaboration and sharing of information among users online’
(Annemarie Hunter, Netconcepts48) is the sum of user-generated contents and social interaction
online produced with the help of ‘wikis, folksonomies49, blogs and networking sites’ (idem). That is
also the place the new social fabric is shaping up. And inside it, apparently there are new forces
operating and working for such a web to form, thicker as a fabric or looser, as a proper spider web.
Recently, a series of strong heroic figures started to develop, in the Romanian-based web
2.0, stemming from two characters – each, pre-existing and having a definite, strong personal image
associated, and also benefiting of awareness from media-related, offline, areas (film industry,
respectively, showbiz).
Those two characters are Chuck Norris, the ‘good’ bad guy, type-casted film actor, and
Fuego, the ‘bad’ good guy of Romanian pop music. They’re ‘online cult heroes50’, thus defined
according to the specificities of the processes involved in their making as heroes (or, as we’ll prove,
as anti-heroes). We shall come back to the concept along the article.
The way these characters were taken over by the Romanian web2.0 users and circulated as
symbols and beyond, is fascinating but not unexpected for such an unruly medium as the Internet.
As they are real persons, with a real life, different from the one projected by these users relating to
them in the ways we shall describe later, the whole process is worthwhile analyzing from various
perspectives, in order to see whether they converge on some key points or only overlap.
Our analysis would go for assessing the core of these ‘cultural constructs’, ‘online cult
heroes’, around the two (Chuck Norris and Fuego); for the first, the analysis will focus on the
English language ‘memes’ (online meaningful constructions, similar to sayings, proverbs and other
maxims, with a wider circulation and which are easily memorized and improved in the process,
according to Goleman, 2007:51) and then on the protest boards from January 2012 (Bucharest,

48
On http://www.seoglossary.com/article/745, on 29th of June, 2012. Whatever definition one might seek or create, it
will reduce to the same idea of participation through producing one’s own content to add it up to other people’s content,
via various and improved online communication technologies.
49
A folksonomy is the term coined by Thomas Vander Wal, around 2004, to refer to the social collaboration of users on
networks who create and manage tags in order to annotate and categorize content (intuitive ways people use to classify
online content). Also known as collaborative tagging, social classification, social indexing or social tagging.
50
As named in Time magazine issue from March 20, 2006; some of the ‘weird, but wildly popular sayings’ related to
Chuck Norris were quoted and analyzed in an article.
147
Bistrita Nasaud and Timisoara); for the second one, we will analyze the Romanian language
constructions encountered (disseminated) online.

User generated content and its limits

As Web2.0 became vastly used by the masses via numerous devices (as opposed to WWW’s
beginnings, when it has been used predominantly by web-savvy elites, people mastering the social
and technical skills see Bell, 2001, Rheingold, 1993), users’ power to generate online content
increased tremendously. This, in turn, resulted in an increased divide between the ‘branded’
communication by users with self-management and self-marketing skills and the ‘anonymous’
users, generating content for the benefit of others (Andrew Keen, .Net magazine interview in
October 2007).
As the familiar notions of media studies (related to mass media, production, ownership,
influence, etc.) are challenged by the ‘participatory culture’, by the Web2.0, new notions are coined
to give account of the changes in the human communication practices. These notions – such as,
UGC (user generated content), prosumer (not a mere consumer of information, but also a producer),
social software, social networking sites, DYI (do-it-yourself) media, data sharing, community
building, indymedia (as opposed to hierarchical, elite-centered media), micro-elites – are used
recently by scholars to describe the new realities of ‘mass-produced’ communication. (We
ultimately get, with each of our papers, to challenge the ‘mass’ part of each notion in the field for its
inefficacy in addressing properly the quantitative aspect of production and consumption; niches and
fragmented audiences may count just as heavy as wider, mass audiences, when it comes to certain
phenomena.) Nevertheless – and concomitantly with the wider social impact they had, the issues
correlated to these recent changes are also connected, simultaneously, to money flows and to
creative issues.
The ‘participatory culture’51 specific to web2.0 came with lower aesthetic limits and lower
thresholds to our creativity. This means that a person who previously wouldn’t have gotten the
production means to express himself/herself creatively, now has the ‘free’ means to do it, via
affordable technologies; it also means the previous artistic standards are lower, in terms of aesthetic
criteria. Specific to this new form of culture is the continuous production of content, mostly online,
which is also binding people together, alongside with allowing them to shape and maintain their
own sense of self (blogging is a tool for self-definition just as much or may be more than a tool for
‘sharing’ information with the others). The notion of ‘affinity’ applied onto interpersonal online
communication can also be used to explain our social interactions – Bell and Daly (1984) designed
an index, ASI, affinity-seeking instrument, to size up the two dimension of AS: the strategy and the
performance. Correlating these notions to users’ online behavior, the idea that most of the prosumer
behavior is conjoining strategy and performance in order to get affinity seems to be a pretty
effective model. If we see all our online activities as affinity seeking, we should circumscribe them
to a combination of poetics and prosaics – a mixture depending on the creativity involved into the
processes of communicating one’s self. When it comes to the creative dimension of all our online
encounters, Katya Mandoki differentiates, in Everyday Esthetics between ‘poetics as the aesthetic
production and reception of the artistic, and prosaics as the aesthetic dimension in everyday life’
(Mandoki, 2007:51). Mandoki noted, ‘prosaics is particularly at stake through the strategies of
constitution of and interaction with personal and collective identities’ (idem). Thus, in online
communication, identities are created and actualized constantly with the help of individual and
collective strategies. We dare advancing the hypothesis that all creation behind the Chuck Norris’s
memes is part of a process of creating individual and collective identities online. Thus is the power
of social media. Nevertheless, in the trends opened by information and communication
technologies, phrases such as ‘relational aesthetics’ occur to explain what happens to art during
prosumer era. Bourriaud phrase is explained as ‘forms of art which focus less on the production of
an object or an image, but instead seek to instigate new social relationships. Interest in new forms of

51
Term coined in 2006 by Henry Jenkins (and his team) to describe the way communication technology puts creative
tools in the hands of ordinary people who were, by then, mere consumers (in Confronting the Challenges of
Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century).
148
collaboration in the making of artworks now extends to exploration of collaboration as the artwork’
(in McQuire, 2010:7). In this respect, as each ‘CN fact’ (or meme) occurring online may be the
result of such an esthetics, it’s likely to be analyzed and explained as ‘collective production’,
subjected to the same criteria of production as the others.
We should discuss a little bit more the meme concept, as it’s one with roots in neuroscience
and with only remote filiations in the wider social studies. It all started with the scientists’ interest
in sharing emotion and form. In November 2006, the Scientific American wrote (p.60):
‘…populations of mirror neurons in the insula become active both when the test participants
experience emotion and when they see it expressed by others. In other words, the observer and the
observed share a neural mechanism that enables a form of direct experiential understanding.’ (p.
60). This is the scientific explanation for the cells in our brains mimicking or responding to the
actions or emotions of the other, a branch called memetics. Starting from here (and from Robert
Aunger’s work, The Electric Meme: A New Theory of How We Think, Daniel Goleman addressed
the issue of lower class memes, media induced or at least propagated with the help of the online
content. He identifies them as ‘impact ideas’, ‘entities reproducing itself by passing from one
person to the other’, very powerful, ‘norm delivery systems’ inside a culture, operating on the
affective level (2007:58). The easiest way to explain them is to envisage them as formulaic, strong
and easy to remember phrases or assertions people agree with even without realizing they do. It’s a
sort of wisdom emanating from the people, giving them also the satisfaction of having created
something which lasts. As everyone can feel responsible for carrying them, nobody really is, since
they are collective creation. And that’s the power of the memes – even if we admit not all the
sayings related to Chuck Norris rise to the occasion, some of them, the memorable ones, do, due to
the qualities of one might call ‘social media’.
When searching social media on Wikipedia.com, one gets to the definition provided by
Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein in their 2010 "Users of the world, unite! The challenges and
opportunities of Social Media"52: ‘a group of Internet-based applications that build on the
ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allows the creation and exchange of
user-generated content.’ Social media is a consumer generated media, opposed to the industrial
media, produced for a profit by companies orchestrating their business and editorial efforts of a
corporative manner. Concepts such as social authority, vanity or social capital are related to social
media debate and incipient theory: there’s an assumption, among theorist, that deep involvement in
social media is a measure of a person’s need of earning authority, online and, subsequently, offline,
and their efforts to get it may be interpreted as efforts to gather social capital – defined, in sociology
and economics, in relation with the capacity of groups to be working together, stressing on ‘trust,
reciprocity and mutuality’, but with newer dimensions added lately, as Web2.0 is pushing us into
expanding our view on communication and collaboration. This new dimension is ‘the economic
value obtained in institutional or individual networking’, as Alexander Flor ‘ventured to add’ in his
research report53. Meaning, users engage in communication and information transactions which lead
to them constructing a ‘reputation’ online, a harvestable reputation on the long run.
In order to get there, online users first communicate – they put their communication
competencies (Dell Hymes term is referring to the specific abilities of a person to use language
actively and productively language, within the cultural paradigm) at work; these competencies are
actualized in communication sequences, where they get tested and improved with each interaction
and each act of producing meaning, in conversations or as discourses addressed to the others.
As such, web-based content serves as a tool of personal expression, connecting at the same
time users in multiple, polymorphous and floating virtual groups. We may represent this process,
visually, as an ocean of dots which light up intermittently, activating at that moment a wider or
smaller grid of connections, sometimes overlapping, sometimes, not (it’s a visual model we
created). In this model, there’s a time and space dimension, but also a dimension giving account of
52
In Business Horizons 53(1): 59–68.
53
Design, Development and Testing of an Indigenous Knowledge Management System Using Mobile Device Capture
and Web 2.0 Protocols, published online - but also in Flor, Alexander G. 2004. Social Capital and the Network Effect in
Building eCommunity Centers for Rural Development (J.K. Lee, Editor). Bangkok andTokyo: UNESCAP and the ADB
Institute.
149
the intensity of the process (based on the simultaneity of the communication acts). Intensity, in this
respect, is a matter of how much the network is used – to what propensity, by how many users at a
time.
As the platforms multiply (sites, apps, etc.), content earns in variety: from videos on
YouTube, sound clips on Trilulilu, own pages on various SNS, personalized to contributions on
various wiki/pedias, own blogs, twitting, pinteresting, and further to creating collaborative content
through apps (see the recent project of Pegas, “Inaripeaza un Pegas”). Issues following from this are
related to ownership/copyright, to public content, privacy, control and surveillance – and limits are,
usually, related to ownership of the original idea – since the collaborative Internet subcultures rarely
awards users for their creativity (rare are the cases of users who got to get rich or strike gold
without intensive marketing of themselves or their ideas/projects).

Chuck Norris – The real person

The latest Chuck Norris ‘legend’ is unprecedented in the Romanian media. There was no
other figure to have crossed the border and turned from a human being (actor) into a legend, based
on his perceived features in the fiction pieces he has been cast in as a character. It’s true that, a
decade ago, Bruce Willis seemed to have reached the point he could have turned into a cult hero,
but the two criteria he didn’t meet were: the saying involving his name never got to a fixed form
(they were rather flexible mentions of his name in various context, related to his heroism in movies
or to his ability of ‘staying alive’ or ‘dying hard’) and they didn’t subsisted long enough to become
‘memes’.
Why is Chuck Norris good and why bad? First, we should mention that he is ‘good’ because
his violent, ‘bad’ acts in movies restore order. He is, thus, ‘bad’, from the media effects perspective,
because he uses violence to enforce law – an oxymoronic situation, incidentally exploited heavily
by the creators of the Chuck Norris legend, (who were, perhaps, totally unaware of the similitude
between the operations underlying their content production and the ideological operations used in
action movie where the hero acts the same as the villain, only with the backing of the law).
The legend around Chuck Norris started offline (at TV, Conan O’Brien started telling jokes
about CN – on his segment, Late Night with Conan O’Brien), and then had spread online – not in
the Romanian language online content, but in English. But, after a few years of ‘facts’ piling up on
his behalf on various steady websites or as a content flow on social networking sites, Chuck
Norris’s ‘legend’ trespassed its own statute and became a real person again, a hero – one to be
summoned to help real people (see the case of January protests, in Romania, but also the case cited
by Wikipedia as an instance of melting down the thin line between real life/offline, mass media and
online. Between reality and fiction, which, now, earns multiple dimensions (since Walker, the
Texan Ranger is a first hand fiction, created inside the industrial, profit-based media, and the legend
of Chuck Norris is a fiction of another level, harvesting different types of popular culture symbols).
The other quoted example (on Wikipedia.com) of Chuck Norris being involved as a fictional hero
in a protest was ‘Only Chuck Norris manages to achieve a bachelor's degree in scheduled time’
mesh hung inside the University of Bamberg campus.
It’s not only that the film star was never around here, nor related in any way to Romania, but
him being chosen as the ‘hero to save Romania’ by the protesters (as we shall see on some protest
boards in January-February 2012, Bucharest, Bistriţa Năsăud and Timişoara) was the result of the
process under scrutiny in this paper, a process which is not confined to Romania, nor specific to,
but here, under the specific circumstances of the January, 2012, riots and protesting movements,
evolved of a specific manner. The phases of the process will be presented as two collective
signification processes, using newer mechanisms, never to be met before the Web2.0.

But who’s Chuck Norris, anyway?

Chuck Norris (Carlos Ray ‘Chuck’ Norris), born March, 10, 1940, in Ryan, Oklahoma is a
martial artist and Hollywood actor, whose choice of roles, as he has type-casted himself, due to his
martial arts skills, has made him the aura of a ‘tough guy’. He’s famous for the TV series Walker,
Texan Ranger, but also for The Delta Force, The Hitman, Missing in Action, Firewalker and
Sidekicks – all of them, made during the last two decades of the 20th century. He’s got a black belt
150
in Tang Soo Do and Tae Kwon Do, had establishes 32 karate schools in the US and won a ‘Triple
Crown for the highest number of tournament wins’54.
As such, around 2005, on the Internet there’s been a spree of ‘Chuck Norris facts’
(following the only traceably incipient spree around Vin Diesel 55), some assertions related to his
almost supernatural powers. As we can read on Wikipedia56, the facts are ‘ascribing implausible or
even impossible facts to Norris’57. Yet, when, in December 2007, a book gathering all these facts
was released by Gotham Books58, Chuck Norris the real person filed suit on the grounds of
trademark infringement, unjust enrichment (sic!) and privacy issues, among others. Which was a
statement of limits, as the actor previously has declared to have been ‘amused’ by the facts
attributed to him. Leaving jokes aside59, he admitted each time he addressed the issue publicly that
there’s a God and we should not attribute to humans such super-natural powers60. The online cult
hero Chuck Norris was constructed as a super-being, endowed with all improbable powers, defying
all or at least some natural laws.
These are the main information, for the ‘facts’ above-mentioned are a different story. The
‘spree’ of online communication involving his name – turning him into a legend, a hero of a
different kind than the one he really is – started worldwide at the beginning of the Century, but
recently evolved, in Romanian based Web2.0, in a collective creation process whose results shall be
analyzed further.
Far from being a mere ‘tough guy’ (usually associated to no-brains), Chuck Norris the real
person has strong political conservatory views, wrote books on Christianity, positive thinking and
writes conservative columns, while developing various charitable and philanthropic campaigns.
Searching the Internet for an explanation or for other information, we came across a debate
(question, answer and further comments) initiated on www.reddit.com, under the thread, Explain
Like I’m 5. The question raised by a user was ‘Why is Chuck Norris an online cult hero?’, and the
answers were (we sampled some of the answers): ‘From what I remember, it actually started around
2005 with the site http://4q.cc that had a Vin Diesel fact generator. Eventually, the fact generator
was expanded to include Mr. T and, of course, Chuck Norris. The Chuck Norris facts, combined
with the Walker, Texas Ranger lever bit that Conan was doing around the same time, sort of
cemented Chuck Norris as an internet demigod61. Another notable comment was, ‘I've heard the
claim that even the Vin Diesel facts were an riff on the SNL Bill Brasky skits from the late 90s, as
they have more than a passing resemblance in tone and style.’ (by user destroytheheart), tracking
things a bit further back. Nevertheless, by starting with ‘I’ve heard’, the user unwittingly pins down
the fact that all these are rumors, half-information one can’t rely on. A few more comments shows
us there’s a real confusion regarding this legend – that’s how legends and myths are created,
apparently out of nothing and impossible to track back completely: ‘I like to believe that Chuck

54
As one can find out on http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001569/bio.
55
Facts which didn’t even originated around Chuck Norris, but Vin Diesel (starting from the popular saying ‘Nothing
can scratch Vin Diesel’ and developing into a trend, according to reddit.com). Also, Bruce Willis has almost been the
recipient of a similar legend, around the time he used to play in action movies, but his sudden turn to psychological
films made the general public withdraw their vote of confidence and sympathy, since the newer characters played by the
famous actor were not so clear cut, rather problematic – in movies with characters not so polarized (on a good-vs. bad
axis, but rather sliding confusingly on a scale between good and bad.
56
We think it’s nothing but fair to quote Wikipedia-based materials, articles and information – as well as other texts on
the Web2.0, since we’re talking about collaborative content within the wider participatory culture online.
57
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Norris_facts, last consulted July the 12 th, 2012, 23.23.
58
The Truth About Chuck Norris: 400 facts about the World's Greatest Human.
59
…and, as we may read on Wikipedia.com, ‘on October 7, 2009 Tyndale House Publishers issued The Official Chuck
Norris Fact Book, which was co-written and officially endorsed by Norris’, on
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Norris_facts.
60
‘It's funny. It's cute. But here's what I really think about the theory of evolution: it's not real. It is not the way we got
here. In fact, the life you see on this planet is really just a list of creatures God has allowed to live. We are not creations
of random chance. We are not accidents. There is a God, a Creator, who made you and me. We were made in His
image, which separates us from all other creatures. By the way, without Him, I don't have any power. But with Him,
the Bible tells me, I really can do all things — and so can you’ – Wikipedia quoting ^ "On Chuck Norris 'mania'
sweeping the Net", WorldNetDaily. 2006-10-23.
61
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/n2wwc/eli5_why_is_chuck_norris_an_online_cult_hero/
151
Norris's online cult status arose originally from Conan O'Brien's "Walker Texas Ranger Lever’
(user crutz) and ‘I dunno, man. Chuck Norris has a pretty strong record on the karate scene. 183-10-
2 is a pretty good record, and six years as champion of any sport is impressive. His acting is stupid,
and his politics are ridiculous, but there is little denying he was actually kind of a badass.’ (user
averyv). ‘He is just a person who has such a ridiculous set of characteristics and credentials that he
lends himself easily to being exaggerated. If you watch Walker, Texas Ranger you will see how
absurd both his acting and the show are. Combined with his endorsement of the total gym, his
ginger beard and martial arts past, and you essentially have the perfect storm of comedic material.’
(user YoungSerious). ‘Chuck Norris being an unstoppable, God-like badass became a meme, and
people still remember it.’ (user mikekozar).
It is possible these responses/comments would account for the whole range of possible
views on what this online cult hero phenomenon might be; yet, we would, nevertheless, go further,
in search of other, more theoretical, perspectives.

Chuck Norris: ‘Facts’

Popular saying or empty symbolic constructs?

Far from being an individual expression on a given subject, the ‘facts’ – the memes, as we
defined them before – attributed to Chuck Norris represent some form of collective creation. There
are some sites and forums where users challenge the others to come up with ‘other’ facts, ‘truths
about Chuck Norris, but from your own memories, not translations’ (Adevaruri despre Chuck
Norris, din amintirile voastre, NU traduceri, the original thread name on the forum)62. So, for a
variable period of time since the original posting, users do address the challenge and come up with
‘new’ facts. The variety in themes/threads, in creativity and in linguistic abilities of those ‘facts’ can
be traced back, in research, to users’ variety and skills; yet, since it’s not our focus to account for it,
we only mentioned it as possible follow up.
The first thing we should notice is that these facts are presented as sentences of variable
length which resemble popular sayings and proverbs. They ascribe to CN a universe of meaning,
making him a central character in our human evolution and in our civilization. Questions arising
are, do we need one person through which everything should be explained (seriously or satirically)?
Is he a sort of clown, a god, a trickster – deus otiosus or the King’s fool?

Legends, myths or mere fictive, heroic acts?

The facts associated with or attributed to Chuck Norris are of a satirical nature. Prima facie,
they may represent a sort of popular creations based on intertextuality, a way the Internet users play
with language and knowledge of their own social context, while creating online content. As most of
them are presented as paradoxes, as implausible facts attributed to a person, their own grandeur and
exaggeration is possible to have made them so popular.
Here there are some of the facts circulating widely on the Internet:
Chuck Norris flosses with an electric fence.
When Chuck Norris takes a break of killing people, there will still be victims.
Chuck Norris can kill 2 stones with 1 bird.
There are fifteen Top Ten facts about Chuck Norris.
Chuck Norris won a round of blackjack, with one card.
Chuck Norris doesn't believe in the periodic table, he only belives (sic!) in the element of
SURPRISE!!
Chuck Norris can copy-paste in real life.
Curiosity didn't kill the cat. Chuck Norris did.
When you say no to Chuck Norris, he takes it as a death threat.
Chuck Norris can play Blu Rays on a record player.

62
Some example of this can be found at the Internet address
http://forum.softpedia.com/index.php?s=7ca7c8a6d1e33961d626c5657556c13e&showtopic=380969&st=36 –
consulted July the 10th, 2012.
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 Chuck Norris once leaned on the Tower of Pisa....

We selected these out of the few hundred existing online, in order to give account of the vast
array of subjects they are related to. Our analysis would first aim to find the resorts of this
continuous production of meaning around a person not so circulated today by the showbiz – whose
glorious days as an action movies actor have been in the past – and then would categorize the ‘facts’
according to some key features and criteria.
As Jean-Jacques Boutaud wrote in Communication, Semiotics and Advertising Signs:
Theories, Models and Applications, we live in a world of meanings, most of the times, secondary
meanings, conveyed as connotations – to which advertising helped creating massively. There’s an
inflation of signs63, and to this regime, the Internet – with its democratic participation in production
as well as in consumption – contributed just as much as advertising (and more generally, popular
culture) did, the last century. In this rich climate of meaning, ‘we see clearly to what extent the
passage from code to a codifying process all too vaguely defined – and likely to result in confusing
meanings or to lead to multiple meanings – will encourage advertising to dare all and challenge
everything’ (p. 59, our translation). It’s likely that, in this very context, common people, who
merely got from a consumer to a prosumer position, would dare play the advertising game
themselves and become creators of tiny bits of productions, similes to the outcome of advertising
and with a greater attractiveness. Our playful behavior as prosumers online enables us to turn the
knowledge we got as consumers into productive knowledge. Thus, turning popular saying and
making them over as to encompass a newer target element – such as CN – is an operation
advertising uses for decades. It can ‘borrow’ meaningful phrases from Shakespeare and sell soap,
beer or honey with them. The same process is involved in the Chuck Norris’s case: historical facts
are singled out and given new explanation, new perspectives or simply another hero attached
(Chuck Norris once leaned on the Tower of Pisa.... – or even better, Chuck Norris used to dig
ditches as a young man. This is when the Grand Canyon was formed.)
Yet, heroism and action-oriented facts, ascribing a universe and explaining it in relationship
to some ‘Chuck Norris’-ness are not the only important threads; there’s always CN’s appearance
(his reddish beard, his bodily hair already unfashionable, etc.), his quick anger and apparently
jumpy demeanor (tributary to production recipes, script and a whole action movie ideology and not
at all specific to Chuck Norris the real person, according to all online sources), and so on.
It’s interesting to see how many of these memes or ‘facts’ are indexes of a new vision on
identity. Chuck Norris is a person, a fictional character, a state of mind, but also a sum of parts: he’s
sometimes identified with his beard, his feet (and his roundhouse kick), his fist, his eyes (eyesight):
a true post-modern vision on identity.

…Legendary facts
They construct a ‘legend’ out of a person, but the process involves a handful of features
related to the real person and a lot of aspects related to the specific social, political and cultural
context of the society creating it.
As there are numerous meanings of the word ‘legend’, we shall present two of the main
directions we could use it in this particular case. One of them is, ‘a non-historical or unverifiable
story handed down by tradition from earlier times and popularly accepted as historical’ is a larger
view applied on our case. The other one, ‘a collection of stories about an admirable person (or the
person who is the center of such stories)’ is more suitable, as there’s really ‘a collection’ of
‘stories’, ‘an admirable person’ and a very productive audience. The first one presents us with some
other view, stressing on the ‘non-historical’ and ‘unverifiable’ story ‘handed down by tradition’. An
applied reading would be, Chuck Norris’s facts are ‘non-historical’ stories, ‘unverifiable’ under no
circumstance and ‘handed down’ in a different way than these things used to be handed down
before the Internet – we shall outline below.

63
The Romanian edition, Comunicare, semiotică și semne publicitare. Teorii, modele și aplicații Tritonic, 2003, p. 58-
59.
153
 Mass media substituted oral communication in its role of handing down traditions (Coman,
2003); the omnipresent media tells us the same old stories, in always newer forms/shapes; with each
new channel or platform there’s an avalanche of re-telling the same stories. As such, a handful of
publications, radio and TV stations and a couple of hundred sites fill the place left empty by the
village’ storyteller, destitute old, tradition-based sayings, invent and circulate new folklore, new
puns, new legends and always newer myths to explain the same old facts.
The role of the media in telling the grounding stories of a culture (see Hollywood
productions covering European historical events – and the newer trend on covering apparently
historical facts in HBO TV series such as Game of Thrones, Borgia, etc.) is accomplished as widely
and as variedly possible. Legends may appear out of everything, once a channel or a media
company decides to invest in promoting a product. Thus, if Chuck Norris was not a legend in itself,
once a player in the movie industry or showbiz64 may have been interested in him and his ‘legend’,
he may become one rapidly. Is this a secondary circuit, a secondary signifying process or a
completely new routine, never foreseen by the older media and made possible with the Web2.0?

Mythological facts
The mythical aspect of the CN facts and the way they are culturally constructed is
interesting to explore and analyze; since here we only have one character whose attributed, related
facts ‘explain’ everything (Creation, several historical facts, natural laws), there seems to be a
certain connection to myth and mythology. Yet, as there’s a great ‘boundary confusion between
myths and other textual constructions, some themes can show up also in other types of texts, such as
legends, fairytales, epic stories, ballads, popular novels, etc.’ (Coman, 2008:288). It’s inside this
mythical paradigm we should try to find this particular case’s ‘compliance’ to theoretical criteria.
Is Chuck Norris a mythical figure, a legendary one or a mere ‘online cult hero’, as he’s been
defined online and offline, in recent writings? We want to challenge the ‘online cult hero’
perspective and add to it some mythical dimension.
On a brief analysis, one can notice some threads underlying the ‘facts’. We shall present
them in the table below, classifying them according to types of myths (Coman, 2003 and 2008).

Types of myths ‘Facts’

Cosmological myths Chuck Norris used to dig ditches as a young man. This is when the Grand
Canyon was formed.
When Chuck Norris saw the true form of Zeus, Zeus turned into ashes.
Chuck Norris can turn the sun off and on by clapping his hands.
(similar to the Moon/Sun myths)
The universe is under Chuck Norris’s hat.
Etiological myths Chuck Norris once leaned on the Tower of Pisa....
It is an obvious fact that Chuck Norris has been to Mars, seeing as there is
absolutely NO life on Mars.
Someone talks to a friend of Chuck's in a bad manner, Chuck walks up from
behind the man and, taps his shoulder, the man turns around and becomes
stone.
If a Chuck Norris round house kick met another it would cut a hole in the space
time continuum.
Chuck Norris roundhouse-kicked the faces of his best fans into the side of
Mount Rushmore.
Eschatological myths - none identified yet – the end of the world as we know it does not rhyme with
CN. He’s an optimistic agent, working for the continuity of the human
civilization.
Heroic myths Chuck Norris could have stopped the Metrodome roof from collapsing.
On July 30, 1975 one man pissed off Chuck Norris, his name was Jimmy
Hoffa, we all know how that turned out! Dont we?
The only reason Osama Bin Laden is dead is because they finally let Chuck
Norris into Pakistan...
…and others…

64
It happens than Chuck Norris himself produced some of the movies and TV series he starred in, so it’s been the self
interest just as much as the interest of the producer.
154
 There’s a high degree of creativity embedded in the process of creating these ‘facts’: how
else would have appeared saying Chuck Norris can make a stop sign say go? Or Chuck Norris can
punch a Cyclops in between the eyes? Beyond knowing what a Cyclops is, one should play with the
knowledge and decide challenging it; there a definite challenge in the idea that stop signs can say
something (a personification operating there even beyond the CN). Underlying the process of
creating them, there’s a playfulness, a inclination towards games and playing, previously used,
exerted, circulated in oral communication on a smaller scale and in smaller groups, which, once
applied on this very fecund ground (Chuck Norris the legend), led to a folklore never imagined
before. The sheer size of the ‘population’ involved in this process (and, for that matter, in similar
processes) – on and off, as we tried to model before – is unprecedented.
The ‘facts’ can be further categorized according to 1.) the rhetorical operations involved in
their creation and 2.) the threads, themes, subjects brought from reality to either prop the legend of
CN or to be validated in a backwards process, as current tools to creating the online ‘reality’.
The most difficult categorization is according to the rhetoric figures used. First, since most
of them represent paradoxes, the researcher would be tempted to include all in the above mentioned
category and only then create subcategories. Paradoxical, about all memes, is that they represent
outrageously courageous or impossible actions related to CN. Since the memes are hundreds and
increasing everyday, our classification can only give us a hint on the extent of the rhetorics used in
creating them.
Thus, we can find among the hundreds ‘facts’ paradoxes, related to either natural laws or
other ‘known’ facts – such as, Newton's 3rd Law never applies to Chuck Norris or
Chuck Norris can score a 181 on a game of darts or Chuck Norris sprinted 2 marathons -
backwards.
But we can also find puns (Chuck Norris does not get frostbite. Chuck Norris bites frost. Or
Chuck Norris told the Bermuda Triangle to get lost), paraprosdokian (Curiosity didn't kill the cat.
Chuck Norris did.), oxymoron, hyperbole (The sky is the limit, unless of course you’re Chuck
Norris; Chuck Norris knows EVERY word in EVERY language plus ten thousand more!; Chuck
Norris can grind diamonds into coal.; Chuck Norris wrote his own IMDB profile using the power of
his beard) metaphors, inversions (Chuck Norris eats a cereal of bowl at breakfast), chiasmus
(Chuck Norris doesn't die. Death Chuck Norrisses. Or Chuck Norris doesn't pay the government,
the government pays him.), anaphoras, litotes and many others. Also, some of them are
metadiscursive approaches to the phenomenon (There are fifteen Top Ten facts about Chuck
Norris.), as well as dialogical aspects in them (those mentioning CN’s real reactions, as a real
person, to the ‘facts’ or their creators/readers).
There’s a whole semantic universe in in these ‘facts’, and figures of speech can only give us
a half measure of their power as tools and carriers of the online cult around Chuck Norris.
On the other hand, the vast array of subjects Chuck Norris is connected to, related to,
associated with, gives account on several needs: certain areas we still need to explain to ourselves;
the facts which still remained without an answer, no matter how much science evolved; some
controversial facts we still need to address, talk about and negotiate, in terms of meanings. Some of
the paradoxes are just as playful as we should not try to find some meaning behind them being
chosen. Also, the choice of subjects is an individual matter – although the creation process is an
anonymous one and the legend is created collectively, the ‘facts’ themselves are created
individually. So it’s likely that some choice of subject should be tributary to personal, individual
concerns, idiosyncrasies – and even to coincidence. Notice how some of the categories in the tables
below do overlap with the categories in the other tables.

Types of subjects Facts

Creation or creation Tectonic plate shifting occurs when Chuck Norris does his splits.
(they explain the origin of Acid rain isn't caused by pollution, Chuck Norris just roundhouse
things yet to be understood). kicked a man who had just eaten a lemon. He falls as powder to
this day.

Social or historical facts Obama voted for Chuck Norris.

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(blending things we know The killer bees stopped their northern advance at Texas, cause
about social life into the Chuck Norris has family in Oklahoma.
legend of CN) Chuck Norris' whereabouts were unknown from 1939-45, when
he was found walking around Hiroshima, saying "the last thing I
knew was falling out of a plane".
Chuck Norris only drinks Chuck Daniels.
Chuck Norris bowled a 301 after constructing another pin out of
his beard hair.
Chuck Norris hit a homerun while playing for the Dallas
Cowboys.
The Titanic sunk because Chuck Norris ran into it during his
swim.
Apollo 11 LOST TAPE! "One small step for man, one giant leap
for Chuck Norris."

Media induced content, The world ends on December 21st, 2012. Only because that's
circulating media symbols when Chuck Norris masters the Falco Punch.
Chuck Norris made Ronald McDonald the Joker.
Contrary to popular belief, Chuck Norris starred in the Final
Destination series - As the role of death.

Natural law defying facts Chuck Norris has an infinite amount of chromosomes. His DNA
is made of solid gold.
Chuck Norris is so fast, he can turn the light off and get into bed
before it gets dark.
Chuck Norris can see his breath in the summer.
Chuck Norris can grind diamonds into coal.
Light year was created to measure the distances you would travel
if Chuck Norris Roundhouse kicks you.
Chuch Norris eats one sided pancakes for breakfast.


Chuck Norris – The Romanian hero

Ever since the January 2012 protests, where CN’s name showed up on boards, in the street
(that is, ‘offline’, as opposed to the environment his legend started and was built), there has been
added another phase to the signification process Chuck Norris has been subjected. Thus, if the first
phase involved his being taken over by the online and constructed into a super-being, capable of
doing every unimaginable thing – getting as far from Chuck Norris the real person as possible – the
second phase operates backwards.
The reversed process means Chuck Norris the legend is re-signified into a human again –
some real person who can come up and save the day. The boards of some protesters, which read
‘CHUCK NORRIS Help!’, are only half mockery (a further research, on reception, would go
further into this; our intuition is that CN is brought into the game first in order to show to the
politicians that they are cartoon-like figures and the only one who could fight them properly is a
legendary character, who already got to be fictional, turned human again. Yet, beyond this, there’s a
certain sense of desperation of the protesters, also to be revealed by further inquiry into the
phenomenon).

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 Figure 2. Protests in Bucharest, January 2012

]
Figure 3. Bistrita Nasaud. The protesters.

The boards present in the protests were: CHUCK NORRIS Help!!!! (with a variable
number of exclamation marks), Chuck Norris for President, Chuck Norris Save us from
ACTA and “Sînt Chuck Norris! Am sosit. Unde sînteţi?” (in original; the translation would be
I am Chuck Norris, I got here already. Where are you?). It’s remarkable that only one of
them is in Romanian – and also, easily to attribute to a person over 3565. All of them exploit
the Facebook legend of Chuck Norris, which started to circulate among the Romanian users
of FB; nevertheless, they express the seriousness of the situation, the sense there’s no
alternative, politically, other than a fictional, legendary character – and also demonstrate a
certain playfulness, a propensity towards the linguistic games, creative minds (especially the
last one, appearing in Timisoara, on a freezing protest night when almost nobody showed up).
The protester carrying the board had his face covered and stood up, with the board in his
hands, in the February cold. His cover up can be read first as a method to hide his identity –
to pass as Chuck Norris – and second, as a protection against the cold outside.

65
Due to the ‘î’ used twice instead of an ‚u’; in 1993, there has been a change in use of this letter and some of
the people who were finishing their studies back then kept it and refused the new graphy.
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 Figure 4. Timisoara. I am Chuck Norris. I am here already. Where are you all?

Another important aspect is that the boards were not important per se, but in terms of
their circulation in the media – they were there so that the television cameras should get them
on film and disseminate them further. And they were – news coverage, by Antena 1, Pro TV
and Acasa TV, of the funny protest boards:
‘It’s not the first time Chuck Norris gets around here, in Romania, this year. “Chuck
Norris, Help Us!” was one of the messages found on the protesting boards in Bucuresti.
Timisoara responded with, “I am Chuck Norris, I am here already. Where are you?”’, or
‘”Help us, Chuck Norris” is the hilarious message which made its way to 9gag.com, the site
with over one million three hundred fans on Facebook.’ (Stirile Pro TV, March 14 and
February the 20th).
The only inadvertence, in the coverage of such a protest board, was in the news’ lead
(Romania does not lose its sense of humor – not in its hardest moments. The message to
Chuck Norris or Photoshop or reality, an image got to get thousands of views on one of the
most popular humor sites around, 9gag.com) and in their category selection (under ‘show-
buz/fun). But the inadvertence is easily explained by newsroom policies, since online
verification and credibility are as such as journalist would not take for granted any
photograph, no matter how brilliant it looks. It happens that many protesters, bloggers and
other photographs, including news photo reporters, so that there’s no doubt the protest board
has been there; nevertheless, the newsroom decision of pacing the event under the ‘fun’ may
have had yet other reasons, such as de-tensioning the explosive social climate. But that’s just
a hypothesis, although strongly supported by other media coverage of the same picture
(ziare.com and other news aggregators online).

Fuego – The ‘bad’ singer

Paul Sergiu Surugiu, known as Fuego, is a Romanian pop singer with a great appeal
to housewives, middle aged women and other audiences defined as low earners, working
class, consumers of tabloid media and soap operas/telenovelas.
His growing ‘legend’ follows the model opened by Chuck Norris, but with some
noticeable difference. First, it’s mostly about image – there are no ‘facts’ attached, no fixed
form sayings, but rather images created with the help of specialized, easy-to-use software to
enhance digital image. The few lines appearing underneath the pictures are redundant; they
don’t invent anything new about the guy; they merely take over some content already
associated to Fuego and interpret it. Thus, a picture of Fuego underneath which there’s the
message, Mama, y u not impodobesti bradul? (Mom, Y U not decorate the [Christmas] tree
already? represents the main message in most of the creations and can be traced back to a
Fuego song, Mom, please decorate the tree, a song correlated to Christmas time – a lot less
imaginative and innovative
than any of the facts attributed
to Chuck Norris.

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 Figure 5. Mama, Y U no decorate the tree?

We should underline the fact there’s no other public figure to have earned a similar
transformative process, until the recent Victor Ponta plagiarism scandal (where similar
creative forces turned our prime minister in a cartoon-like figure of an extent one cannot
probe yet, as the scandal’s unfolding. line anyone could trace back.

Figure 6. Fuego has just visited this person's FB profile

Another type of content associated to Fuego presents the singer as someone important
– without having any reason to be so, someone important but void of any meaning. Thus, two
very circulated ‘online overwritten photographs’66 are 1) a picture of Fuego, framed with the
Facebook blue, saying, “Fuego just visited this person’s profile’, with a white arrow pointing
to the profile picture of the person ‘sharing’ it and 2), a processed image with Victor Ponta,
the infamous prime minister these days and Fuego’s head on somebody else’s body. The
legend reads, ‘Ponta, ignored by Fuego in Brussels’. This is an example of content exploiting
the sensitive political context where Ponta insisted he should go to Brussels, whose presence
there was neither welcome, nor necessary. This time, the mechanism is that through which
Ponta is belittled and diminished even more in satire than he’s been in the news media, by
showing the audiences that not even Fuego (who’s important without being really important)
acknowledges him as an important person. In a way, is an ideological operation to stress on
Ponta’s illegitimacy as the head of the Romanian government – and Fuego is used as a tool.

Figure 7. Ponta, ignored by Fuego at Bruxelles

66
The overwritten photographs – which, sometimes, are mere text messages on colored squares, are another
phenomenon of the Web2.0 and especially of Facebook, deserving a whole research.

159
 A third message circulating either as a image plus text or simply as saying (just as in
CN’s case) is the statement, Fuego never sleeps during winter. This is intertextuality to the
summer of 2012’s heavy rotation list song, During summer, I never sleep (‘Eu vara nu dorm’,
sang by Connect-R) and plays on the same context – Fuego is being associated with the
winter holidays for one of his songs, Mom, please decorate the tree!.

Figure 8. I never sleel during winter

Yet, Fuego received recently the help of the media, in the shape of editorial content in
tabloid magazines. Cornelia Ionescu, editor in chief of ‘Star’ magazine, expressed, in the
editorial in the 14th of June issue of the weekly publication, entitled Fuego and the envy of the
mediocre people, her solidarity with the singer and underlined his vocal qualities, his
exceptional career, dissociating herself from the mass of detractors she confessed she
wouldn’t understand. Her passionate plea for Fuego can be read in many ways, but the word
‘mediocre’, applied onto the detractors of Fuego is the core of the rhetoric used by the writer:
the confusion between ‘massive audiences’ and value as a singer, between having a good
voice and, again, the value of the music resulted. The confusion should help us address the
real issue here: there’s a class clash between Fuego’s audience and the online cult anti-hero
Fuego: the latter are highly educated people who may have picked up Fuego for his
apparently innocent, non-problematic, serene lyrics and turned it into an epitome of
‘simplicity’.
The kind of jokes around Fuego are always related to what he is not. He is not an
intellectual – and him appearing on TV with spectacles which might have turned him look
intellectual was rapidly sanctioned online: ‘What’s worse than seeing Fuego on TV? Seen
Fuego with glasses on’.

Two models, one process

As the two got ‘online cult heroes’ (with variations, Fuego being somewhere between
an online anti-cult hero and a online cult anti-hero), they suffered at least a couple of
transformation, as we have been showing above. But, beyond that, the way these
constructions around them – image and word or only words – got to be turned into memes –
given their power onto the cultural climate and their epidemic dissemination and circulation,
has to be read as any image: ‘In each of its manifestations: presentation (of the object),
anecdotization (inserting the object in the respective culture) and metaphorization (adding
value to it), image has an institutive (of transforming the product into sign) and coagulating,
declining the social paradox ad infinitum. (Frumusani, 2005:166). According to this schema,
stage 1 would consist, in one reading, in the whole time CN made his notoriety as an actor,
stage 2 would consist in the first period his name started to be circulated in sayings and stage
3, turning him into a metaphor, is the current stage, when all assertions related to Chuck
Norris have another meaning, mediating between the denotation and connotations.

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 From hero to zero: Online cult heroes
Despite the fact both our ‘heroes’ are encountered apparently evenly in the Romanian
Web2.0, on similar sites or contexts, there are noticeable differences in their circulation.
While CN is to be found mostly on specialized sites or on special forums dedicated to him
(chucknorrisfacts.com, softpedia.com), but also on Facebook – and recently, in the traditional
media, following the above mentioned protests –, Fuego is mostly on Facebook, but also on
9gag, a very popular joke and satirical site.
According to our findings, there’s a big difference between the two ‘online cult
heroes’ – for quantitative and also qualitative reasons. Number-wise, Chuck Norris
outnumbers Fuego, the facts related to him being as much as a few hundreds or even a
thousand, according to some accounts. Yet, Fuego’s legend is only at the beginning, and his
being taken over by the traditional media in this new capacity is adding up to it. Although
both of them are showbiz performers – thus, not being ‘themselves’ for the public in most of
their apparitions – CN is being constructed as an omnipotent hero, while Fuego is presented,
satirically, as an ‘anti-hero’67. The table below would sum up specifics of both and explain
the process.

Chuck Norris Fuego

Actor (US) Singer (Romania)
…but not only. Writer of books on Creation -
and on inner peace and other editorial content.
Values: Values:
Conservative (family, country, Christianity) Family/love. No social concerns, no wider
message.
In showbiz: In showbiz:
- roles as a law enforcer, somebody who - music with positive, soothing lyrics. Started
restores order THROUGH VIOLENCE (bad with love songs. NON-VIOLENT (good guy
guy turned good as he’s got fine purposes). turned bad as he’s got no purposes).
In the media: In the media:
- gap between his perceived image by those - no scandals attached, positive media coverage
who don’t discern the character from the real - bad press from satire groups and morning
person (who tend to identify CN with his roles) news guys with editorial comments on reality
and the image CN has for his conservative (Neatza/Antena 1)
political position
Facts: ‘Facts’:
Constructed as a omni-potent, omni-present Defined as a ‘void’ figure, lacking distinctive
hero, defying his own ‘hic et nunc’. features, onto which one can copy/paste a
A demi-god, to be feared and revered, who limited array of things.
defies natural laws.
Traditional media: Traditional media:
Circulated on a secondary stage in the media in Circulated constantly in the Romanian media,
news reports trying to ‘explain’ the protest since he’s still active in showbiz. Yet, some of
boards. the instances are satirical and do not address
the ‘newer’ cult anti-hero, but the real singer
and his performance in the media.
WORDS IMAGES

67
Defined as ‘main character in a dramatic or narrative work who is characterized by a lack of traditional heroic
qualities, such as idealism or courage’,answers.com or ‘a protagonist who lacks the attributes that make a heroic
figure, as nobility of mind and spirit, a life or attitude marked by action or purpose, and the like’ (on
dictionary.reference.com). Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/anti-hero#ixzz21NCN1iVQ

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 Another noticeable difference (yet to be documented in a follow up to this research,
oriented on use) is related to these online cults’ audience. Chuck Norris’s cult has a mixed
audience, with two strains converging on the same content (young, educated, critical
audience deriving pleasure from creating content, manifesting predominantly on Facebook,
using CN legend in various circumstances, on one hand and an audience on forums, dedicated
to the legend and manifesting themselves on dedicated threads and sites, on the other). Fuego
has his first hand audience (that of his music) middle aged women from the middle class, and
his anti-cult is composed mostly of critical, educated people, who construct Fuego as ‘the
other’, the epitome of the star figure having nothing to say (to them).
*
Either we see them as everyday esthetic’s creations, as memes, sayings, proverbs,
paradoxes or facts, these meaningful messages created and disseminated/circulated online are
a part of the participatory culture; they function as collective creations, collectively
consumed. Chuck Norris, the actor, and Fuego, the singer, were stripped of their real-person
reality and codified only for some of the perceived features of their fictional character or their
on stage persona. The result is an online cult, a form of validating the features selected as
important for the members of the participatory culture.
While Chuck Norris is more of a hero of an online cult – created in a process of
emphasizing on his heroic actions in the action movies he’s starred -, Fuego is more like the
hero of an online anti-cult. As the facts and messages created around these heroes are
engulfing social, historical, economic, media-circulated themes, the legends are validating
our common history, piece by piece and event by event.
The process by which the two are transformed in heroes of cult or anti-cult is
especially productive, yet different. Chuck Norris, the ‘bad guy’, judging from his record of
violence in movies, is turned as a good, heroic figure, ‘saving the day’; Fuego, the ‘good’,
unproblematic singer, is turned ‘bad’ for its lack of depth. These contrary processes are at
first random – in what concerns the choice of characters (instead of Chuck Norris we might
have had Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwartzenegger or Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and the like 68) –
and secondly, semantically complex (as they are contrived out of a mixture of themes,
subjects, figures of speech).
Circulated, at first, as fictional character, Chuck Norris has been taken over and re-
signified, during the January –February 2012 street protests in Romania, as the hero to ‘save’
or ‘help’ protesters. This second circuit is bringing Chuck Norris back to life again, as a
mono-dimensional character – someone who can deal with difficult situations and solve
them. Thus, some other features, exploited heavily in his ‘online cult’, were let aside (such as
his appearance, beard, body hair – which made for a big part of the ‘facts’ discussed in our
paper).
On the other hand, Fuego’s online anti-cult is validating social ideas and invalidating
other persons, associated with him via those online constructions. His image is not enhanced,
during the process; he’s not deified, but diminished, based on his positioning among his
audiences, rather than for individual reasons.
Both actors of the cults discussed here are male; yet, one of them is constructed on
action, on what he may or he may not do, while the other, on being: what Fuego is not, what
he may want to be like or appear to be. Both cults recycle ideas, events, persons and places,
in various degrees. Both these constructions define a new kind of social imaginary, where
facts and media-induced threads, issues, themes or subjects are one and become some
perpetual fodder for our minds thirsting for meaning.
68
Our intuition is that all those mentioned above have had strong reasons not to become ‘legends’ of this kind.
Schwartzie entered politics, Bruce Willis changed characters and roles played, Bruce Lee died, not allowing for
the quantity of mockery this ‘legend’ or ‘cult’ creating process might have called for, and so on.

162
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i
In this context it is worth noting that one of the first films that portrayed a school shooting, Lindsay Anderson’s
If…. (1968), has never inspired any copycat killing. I believe this is because, in spite of the detailed planning of
the armed revolt by the three boarding school protagonists in If…., and the subsequent ambush and shooting of
students, teachers, and representatives of the establishment in the courtyard of the school, the act is so political
and so imbued with the ideology of the youth at that time, that it could not inspire an individual or a gang of
copycats with criminal intent as it could, for example for Basketball Diaries or Natural Born Killers.
ii
This style of painting was subsequently called trompe l’oeil, literally meaning to deceive or to fool the eye and
flourished for a while in both the Baroque period, especially in mural paintings, and in the 20th Century photo-
realism.
iii
I can add from my personal experience that when I started watching this film, after it had started, without
knowing anything about it, and having turned the TV on during a scene where a journalist is reporting from the
deck of an aircraft carrier about movements of the Soviet army in the Persian Gulf, I was for a long moment
convinced that WWIII had started.
iv
Clinton on Bauer. http://www.humanrightsfirst.org; Justice Scalia defends Bauer. The Wall Street Journal,
June 20, 2007; Hollywood get’s it wrong on torture and interrogation. The Jack Bauer Story
http://wwwprimetimetorture.org
v
Read more:http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2012/01/19/mark-wahlberg-insults-11-families-who-is-
most-insensitive-celebrity

163
vi
August, 1914 The Times of London, disseminated by the Bureau de la Presse and published in September 1915
La Rive Gauche.

164