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PROJECTS |
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Current research project:
This study is developed in joint cooperation with Dr. Giorgia Nesti, University of Padua, Italy. Its aim is to analyse how certain Italian public administrations applied policies on e-democracy and e-governance into projects that facilitate citizens’ participation and involvement in local decision-making. Three relevant project are chosen and analysed. These are Iperbole of the municipality of Bologna, Mo-Net/Unox1 of the municipality of Modena and Partecipa.net of the Emilia-Romagna Region.
2004- 2007: Promoting the European Union. Comparative analysis of EU communication strategies in Finland and in Italy
This research was an analysis of how public organizations with short institutional history and not recognized reputation communicated with their publics in order to acquire legitimation and further establishment. The public organization analysed were the European Commission and its DG for Communication, the Finnish and Italian representations of the European Commission and Finnish and Italian EU offices at regional and local levels. The research was based on a multi-level (European versus national) and comparative (Finnish versus Italian) approach standing on organizational communication and public relations theories but including as well some of the theories of public diplomacy, community relations and marketing communication. The methodologies applied were based on a triangulation of different techniques such as content and document analyses, qualitative analyses of an online survey and of face-to-face interviews and a meta-analysis of existing public opinion reports. The main qualitative empirical study consisted in five parts: the study of five EU documents on information and communication policies developed between 2001 and 2006 and their effects on member states’ implementation; the Finnish and Italian communication strategies through the analysis of EU officers’ activities at the local level; the analyses of different Eurobarometer surveys about citizens’ EU perceptions; the study of EU media relations and the examination of some EU information campaigns as a tool for enhancing organizational image and trust and citizens’ support. The results of this research revealed a similar trend in Finland and in Italy for EU communication strategies. During the period 2001 and 2006 EU communication strategies were not enough tailored to the needs of national publics and they mostly were one-way-symmetrical communications. EU policies on information and communication claimed a decentralisation of tasks and functions which was not completely delivered in terms of local involvement in communication decisions. The effects on improving citizens’ EU perceptions and on positive EU image and trust were pretty low and journalists’ opinions on EU interests in establishing mutual and beneficial media relations scored very poor in both countries.
Publication information The dissertation is published in the series Jyväskylä Studies in Humanities, number 87, 291 p., Jyväskylä 2008, ISSN 1459-4323, ISBN 978-951-39-2893-3. It can be ordered at the University Library’s Publications Unit (click here). For an electronic version (PDF) you can contact me by email
2007: Comparing professions. How Italian journalists and public relations practitioners perceive their and the other profession
The aim of this study was to analyse, understand and rationalise how journalists and PR practitioners perceive themselves and value the other profession; how they evaluate their professional roles, working methods and relationships and their opinions on Italian news. This study was conducted between March and October 2007 with the support of FERPI (Italian Federation of Public Relations) and FNSI (Italian National Press Federation). It was based both on qualitative data, collected through face-to-face interviews with 6 senior PR practitioners and 6 journalists, and on quantitative data gathered through an online questionnaire. The online questionnaire, which was created from the outcomes of the content analysis performed to the material of interviews, was composed of 10 thematic sections plus one introductory section where personal information about the respondent was asked. 562 people correctly replied to the questionnaire, of whom 317 were journalists and 245 were PR practitioners. The results of this investigation show some common trends for 3 out of the 10 thematic sections. Similarity in the answers of the two groups is visible in the sections concerning the role of journalists, professional ethics and personal influence, while the answers about the role of PR practitioners, journalists and PRs' working methods, their opinions on their professions, on their working relationships, on Italian news, on the necessity of institutionalizing the PR profession and and on social media are different. In particular this investigation shows how Public relations is still perceived as a vague and ambiguous profession if compared to the well-established profession of the journalist, and whose principal roles and functions are not yet clear for one of its main publics, the journalists. This project was developed in joint cooperation with Dr. Toni Muzi Falconi, University of LUMSA, Rome, Italy. (see publication page)
2007: Report about the activities of the Italian centres 'Europe Direct' for the involvement of civil society
This study was supported by the Italian Representation of the European Commission within the framework of EU activities for enhancing and promoting dialogue and debate among citizens and organizations of the civil society upon questions of relevance for the EU. The scope of this investigation was to study which tools and actions the Italian centres 'Europe Direct' developed and implemented between September 2006 and May 2007 for establishing stronger relationships with the organizations of the civil society and for a more active involvement of these organizations in EU debates. This study had two priorities: first, to know the status of the Italian civic activism in relation to the activities developed by the centres 'Europe Direct', and second, to examine how these centres improve their interaction capacity with the organizations of the civil society on the basis of the results obtained. The methods applied were content analysis of documents produced by 38 centres 'Europe Direct' and a qualitative analysis of the phone interviews with the main responsible person of the centres. The phone interviews were made between the second and the third week of May 2007. The method used for the phone interviews was the Single Respondent Organizational Survey (SROS).
2004: The Communication Quality of Kuriiri Project
The aim of this research was to investigate the communication quality of employees working in Keski-Suomen Yhteisöjen Tuki (KYT), the Supporting Association for Third Sector Organisations in Central Finland, which were involved in the national project Kuriiri and in the transnational project 4Work. The aim of this investigation was to analyse the communication quality and management of a public organization that administers international projects. Specifically communication quality was considered as an indicator of functionality and efficiency of Keski-Suomen Yhteisöjen Tuki towards their international partners. The data were gathered through personal interviews with the main officers of KYT, content analyses of briefing and minutes material, field observations and an online questionnaire sent during the summer 2004 to those people who were in 2002-2004 collaborating at the 4Work Transnational Partnership and were analysed through a new re-elaboration of the balanced scorecard for public institutions.
2002- 2003: The Euro 2002 Information Campaign: Analysis and Evaluation of the National Advertising Campaigns
The aim of this research was to analyze and compare the national advertising campaigns developed by the twelve EU countries for the introduction of the euro. The first part of this research focused on the presentation of the information campaign at the European level, which was the general framework for all the other national campaigns. After some considerations about the objectives, the structure and the communication strategies adopted at the European level, this research focused on the national advertising campaigns. The twelve countries, which introduced the new currency, were divided by communication strategy adopted and compared each other by media evaluations and communication effects (message content), and then evaluated mostly on the basis of “recognition”,“recall” and results achieved.
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Copyright
© 2004-2009 by Chiara Valentini
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