Embedded Files
Vol 17, No 2 (2025)
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Articles
Styles of Communication is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
https://doi.org/10.31178/SC.17.2.01
IULIA-MARIA BÂRZĂ
VERONICA CÂMPIAN
Abstract: By using the public's general dissatisfaction and negative feelings regarding the political class, far-right parties have succeeded in gaining the favour of the people all over Europe. They have reached success by criticising the status quo and by often promoting nationalist and Eurosceptic ideologies. The Party for the Alliance of Romania (AUR), founded in 2019, also followed this trend, shaping itself around ultra-nationalist and anti-establishment rhetoric and a strong social media presence. This paper looks into how AUR weaponised the potential Schengen ascension to further their Eurosceptic discourse and to fabricate a depiction of 'the people' pitted against 'the corrupt political elite’. A qualitative content analysis was conducted on Facebook posts from key AUR members and official party statements over a six-month period, respectively, three months before and after the Schengen decision. The paper looks into the narrative techniques by which the AUR party paints Romania as a victim of both external and internal forces. Results show that AUR intentionally frames the Schengen rejection to mobilise its supporters. It does so by targeting other EU states and depicting them as national enemies, and by criticising the Romanian government. With this framing, the party can position itself as the sole defender of national interests. This paper highlights how AUR uses the Schengen issue to deepen societal divisions and promote Euroscepticism, contributing to the broader understanding of political discourse and far-right dynamics in Romania.
Keywords: far right party, populism, Euroscepticism, content analysis.
THE IMPACT OF AESTHETICIZED INFLUENCER MARKETING ON ROMANIAN GEN Z FEMALES’ BEHAVIORS AND PRACTICES
https://doi.org/10.31178/SC.17.2.02
LAURA BOIA
DELIA CRISTINA BALABAN
Abstract: By 2025, the global influencer marketing market has reached an estimated $32.55 billion, with projections indicating continued growth at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 33.11% (Influencer Marketing Hub, 2025). While existing research has examined source credibility and authenticity in influencer marketing, limited attention has been paid to how aestheticized influencer content specifically affects Gen Z females' beauty-related behaviors and practices. This study addresses the gap in understanding how social media influencers' aestheticized content translates into actual consumer practices through the lens of Social Learning Theory and Practice Theory. This exploratory study aims to investigate how Romanian Gen Z females integrate beauty-related advice from social media influencers into their daily practices, examining the role of aesthetics in purchase behavior and the learning processes involved. Qualitative data were collected through focus group interviews with 21 Romanian Gen Z females aged 15-26, divided into three age-based groups. Participants were recruited from middle-class backgrounds across urban and rural areas of Romania. Thematic analysis was employed to identify emerging patterns regarding beauty influencers, aesthetics and styles, social media's influence on beauty practices, and social learning processes. Results indicate that Romanian Gen Z females actively learn beauty techniques and product knowledge through observation and imitation of social media content, particularly on TikTok and Instagram. They demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of product ingredients and safety, having developed comprehensive skincare routines influenced by social media education. Five distinct aesthetic typologies emerged as influential: Clean Girl, Cottage Girl, Korean Beauty, Asian glitter trends, and Old Money aesthetics. Participants value authenticity, transparency, and relatability over traditional influencer metrics, with the "de-influencing" phenomenon reflecting their desire for genuine recommendations. Platform differences were observed, with Instagram serving as visual inspiration and TikTok functioning as an educational resource. The findings confirm both Social Learning Theory and Practice Theory, demonstrating that consumers learn through observation, imitation, and the integration of personalized practice. For practitioners, the study suggests that beauty brands should prioritize user-generated content, authentic representation, and educational value over traditional celebrity endorsements when targeting Romanian Gen Z females. The research contributes to understanding culturally-specific consumer behavior in the digital marketing landscape.
Keywords: social media influencers (SMI); influencer marketing (IM); beauty marketing; consumer behavior; generation Z.
https://doi.org/10.31178/SC.17.2.03
ROXANA CHIVU
Abstract: In the context of continuous technological development, the current literature discusses the reconfiguration of televised news due to the impact of the Internet, with an emphasis on aspects such as the recursiveness of information and the fragmentation of media content. This study examines the ways in which TV networks integrate digital practices in creating electoral communication when they transpose televised political news to the digital environment. The analytical framework privileges theoretical approaches that discuss media convergence in relation to practices relevant to news reconfiguration, such as hybrid communication and news (re)mediation. The research consists of 27 televised political news items, each with a duration of approximately one hour and 24 minutes, shared on the Internet by two 24-hour news TV networks in Romania (Euronews Romania and the news channel of Romanian Public Television, TVR Info, respectively) on their Facebook pages and websites, as a recurring practice. It considers the intense political negotiations in the public sphere in February 2024 regarding the merger of the local elections and the European Parliament elections. Through a qualitative thematic analysis, the study investigates videos (and their transcripts) of televised political news shared on the Internet and highlights a reconfiguration of the media agenda and the role of journalists as “loyal facilitator” and “interventionist”, through hyperlinks, information fragmentation, and repetitiveness. The research shows that televised political news is recontextualized through digital hybrid practices, highlighting a bias in televised political communication during a key campaign moment in Romania.
Keywords: televised political journalism, digital environment, news mediation, hybrid practices.
https://doi.org/10.31178/SC.17.2.04
INDRĖ IGNOTAITĖ
Abstract: Translanguaging research has predominantly focused on spoken interaction in educational contexts, leaving written multilingual practices outside classrooms comparatively underexplored. This article addresses that gap by examining translanguaging in written, asynchronous computer-mediated discourse by analysing the length of English text fragments embedded in 2,100 Lithuanian “Twitter” messages. Adopting computer-mediated discourse analysis within a translanguaging framework, this study operationalises a length-based typology, reports relative frequencies of each length category, and discusses their characteristic features, thus linking structural distribution, pragmatic function, and sociocultural meaning. A total of 2,493 English fragments were identified and categorised as word-length (1,459, or 58.5%), phrase-length (603, or 24.2%), and sentence-length (431, or 17.3%). This corresponds to approximately 118.7 fragments per 100 tweets, or roughly 75.6 fragments per 1,000 words. Empirically, the research shows that English single-word insertions dominate, functioning as compact, high-salience resources for stance-taking, identity indexing, technological literacy signalling, and memetic reference, whereas longer forms are comparatively rare. Methodologically, this paper demonstrates how the structural and pragmatic dimensions of computer-mediated discourse analysis can be adapted to capture the distribution, form, functions, and meaning of multilingual features in social media texts. These findings extend beyond the Lithuanian-English context, as they highlight how brevity-driven platforms, such as “Twitter”, foster highly lexicalised translanguaging, with implications for understanding language contact, digital literacy, lexicography, and language technology. Limitations include the single-corpus scope and the absence of user metadata. This study concludes with recommendations for comparative, cross-platform, and mixed-methods research to further theorise short-form translanguaging as a distinct phenomenon in global digital communication.
Keywords: Lithuanian-English translanguaging, computer-mediated discourse, language contact, multilingual communication, social media, the social network “Twitter”.
https://doi.org/10.31178/SC.17.2.05
GRACE O. PREZI
Abstract: This research work is a sociolinguistic study of business conversations among traders and buyers in selected markets in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria. A total of 50 business persons, both male and female, are observed during business transactions to collect primary data from their conversations, while secondary data are obtained from textbooks, journals, and the internet. The observations are conducted at the Swali, Kpansia, Tombia, Agudama, and Igbogene markets in Yenagoa. The researcher uses a conversation analysis (CA) approach to interpret the data and such findings as the ones below are evident: Traders and buyers adopt conversation strategies such as the use of pleading, request, promise, explanation, repetition, code-alternation and questioning/answering bearing in mind factors such as purpose of the speech, setting and participants while choosing them during business transactions. Some sociolinguistic significance of the appropriate choice of conversation strategies by traders and buyers in Yenagoa is to create an environment for peaceful business transactions, prevent conflict/crises, and maximize profits. Equally evident in the study is that conversational participants are very aware of when, where, and how to organize, allocate, and take turns coherently. Again, features of adjacency pair structures such as question/answer, request/decision, offer/acceptance, pleading, and acceptance/consideration/rejection abound in business conversations. Turn allocations are observed to be through prosodic turns, yielding eye-gaze and hand signals by the current speaker, thus resulting in minimal overlapping of talk-turns. The researcher also recommends that traders and buyers should consider the setting, participants, and purpose of the talk while choosing a conversation strategy. It is also recommended that further studies be conducted on business conversations in formal settings.
Keywords: Business, conversation, conversation analysis, turn construction and taking, sequence organization.
https://doi.org/10.31178/SC.17.2.06
SEKAR DIVA PARASDYA
EDI SANTOSO
MITE SETIANSAH
Abstract: Film is a projection of the realities that grow and develop in society. In the current industrial revolution era, film practitioners increasingly highlight societal problems, for example, those related to economic issues. The film Sleep Call (2023) depicts many societal problems, ranging from the current reality of vulnerability to the trap of online loans to meet economic needs to the issue of how women can experience multi-layered vulnerability due to economic problems. This research aims to analyze and describe the representation of female workers’ vulnerability through the main character, Dina, a former flight attendant who is trapped in an online loan-debt cycle while caring for her sick mother. Using Roland Barthes’ semiotic analysis, this research examines the denotative and connotative meanings in the film across its visual, verbal, and audio aspects. The results show that the film Sleep Call (2023) represents three main forms of vulnerability: economic vulnerability through online loan debt traps, social vulnerability through job stigmatization, and psychological vulnerability due to past trauma and current circumstances. Roland Barthes' semiotic analysis of the film reveals how it serves not only as a reflection of social reality but also as a critical medium that addresses various issues in the contemporary socio-economic context. Theoretically, this research contributes to the development of gender representation studies in Indonesian film media. In practice, the findings of this research can inform policymakers in designing regulations to protect women workers.
Keywords: film analysis; female vulnerability; gender studies; media representation; workplace issues.
BOOK REVIEWS
Page updated
Report abuse