Threats, truths and strategies: the overlooked relationship between protests, nation branding and public diplomacy

Jimenez Martinez, Cesar ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2921-0832 and Dolea, Alina 2024. Threats, truths and strategies: the overlooked relationship between protests, nation branding and public diplomacy. Nations and Nationalism 30 (1) , pp. 39-55. 10.1111/nana.12980

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Abstract

Although protests are an essential part of modern politics, scholars in nation branding, public diplomacy and soft power have had very little to say about these episodes. Discussions in the field have only marginally addressed dissent and disruption, falling into a methodological statism that emphasises what states do to construct and legitimise specific versions of national identity. Debates on nation promotion consequently overlook how individuals and organisations outside the state and outside national boundaries can be equally important in the construction and communication of national images. Drawing on domestic and foreign news coverage of protests in Brazil, Romania and Chile, we propose three frames to analyse the relationship between protests and nation promotion: (1) protests as threats, (2) protests as expression of the true nation, and (3) protests as strategic communications. These frames shed light on how bottom-up efforts contest –overtly or covertly– state-sponsored versions of national identity, and how protests are visibility arenas where competing discourses about the nation are communicated. Protests should therefore be acknowledged not as mere disruptions to national images or reputations, but as another expression of the contingent, multifaceted, and shifting nature of nationhood, particularly in highly mediatised contemporary societies.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Journalism, Media and Culture
Subjects:	F History United States, Canada, Latin America > F1201 Latin America (General) H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Publisher:	Wiley
ISSN:	1354-5078
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	8 December 2022
Date of Acceptance:	7 December 2022
Last Modified:	26 Mar 2024 14:05
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/154767

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