Dr. Naila Hamdy: Bloggers in the Arab World Offer Readers an Alternate Voice
New communication tools are bringing us new ways to exchange ideas, to interact and to transfer information and entertainment. This is the era of RSS feeds, podcasting, wikis and blogging. (Gill, 2005)
Blogging formally known as Web logging, is one of those new communication technologies. The verb is to blog, the contributor to blogging is a blogger. If a blogger joins a blogging community he is also a member of the blogosphere. (Wikipedia Dictionary)
Using the potential of the Internet, members of this cyberspace zone have harnessed this tool to publish their efforts using a simple, cheap technology. Web logs are a series of web-based publications - that can range from individual diaries, to travel reviews, to media campaigns to political dissent. In fact, in a broad sense, blogs can range from personal musings about intimate details, to literary, political, and social commentary on an expansive range of topics. A typical blog consists of a string of updates posted on a webpage, most commonly, in a form similar to a personal diary or journal, with commentary on and links to other websites. (Wikipedia Dictionary) They are often opinionated, dogmatic, and sometimes even incoherent. They are also mostly biased, not necessarily accurate, or balanced. Yet they have exploded in popularity becoming a phenomenon, not just because of the millions of blogs that exist but because of the large numbers of people interested in what bloggers are saying. These frequently updated, highly hyperlinked, and unedited online journals entice many readers by contributing unfiltered, uncensored glimpses of other people's lives and thoughts. A phenomenon that is not to be taken lightly is one that is not only emerging as a new trend in journalism, but also emerging as a new brand of journalism. (Lassica, 2002, Raynsford, 2003)
And the Arab world is not immune to this phenomenon. It has its blogs (madoonat), it has it bloggers and its blogosphere. While it is yet to develop a following like that seen in other areas of the world, there are none-the-less many blogs originating in the Arab region. Despite Internet access barriers and impediments there have been plenty examples of blogging from Iraq, Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria, Sudan and others. (Abdul Hamid, 2005)
Blogs are globally popular. Unlike the messages from traditional media outlets, these blogs provide unmediated dynamic communication. Often without an agenda, without an editorial stance and with no editor standing between the writer and the readers, blogs can provide a raw and exciting form of reporting and analysis. (Raynsford, 2003)
It was the 9/11 attacks on the US that pushed blogs into the light. The attacks caused news consumers to rush to online news sites for the latest but it also gave a thrust to blogging, the public wanted more information, more thought, more reflection, more news to make sense of the disaster. Blogs offered people an opportunity to find comfort and relief in the words of the multiple blogs that sprouted on the net with raw, amateur, subjective expression. Nothing like the production of traditional media organizations restricted by the standard journalistic standards of objectivity, balance and accuracy, blogs offered simple unprocessed articulations. (Lassica, 2002, Raynsford, 2003)
The second major news event that caused readers to once again flock by the millions to online news sites was the 2003 war in Iraq. But according to JD Lasica, senior editor of the Online Journalism Review, the story does not end there.
The readers also dashed to weblogs in search of skeptical analysis, for critical commentary, for alternative perspectives that were unlikely to be seen or heard on mainstream media, and sometimes even for the occasional first hand account of the war. (Raynsford 2003)
For the Arab World it was the war in Iraq that fueled Internet users interest in blogs and blogging. The Internet was already bustling with activity during the 2003 war. People went online from all corners of the Arab region to share opinions about the conflict, to send and receive e-mails mobilizing others to oppose or support the war and news websites offered news, pictures, analysis, discussions and live audio and video feeds to satisfy many appetites that had not been fulfilled by traditional news media messages. But that was not all. A flurry of activity on the Arab cyberspace could be witnessed. Fueled by audiences need to participate with their perspective of the war, blogging began to take root in the region. In fact, at the time uncertainty about what was happening in Iraq brought blogs into the daylight, Arab bloggers wanted to stress their opinion, debate and seek alternative sources. In retrospect, it can be said that Blogs evolved as a truly useful resource for those who wanted to post opinions and diaries about the war for those who needed to in the Arab world. (Hamdy & Mobarak 2004)
Salam Pax pioneered the idea of writing from the heart of Baghdad during the war. Probably the first Arab to start a blog with an eyewitness account of the day-to-day life of an Iraq caught in the war, this particular Iraqi architect's blog was so popular that traffic to his site caused the server to go down. Through his blog "Where is Raed?" Salam provided a haunting description of a city under bombardment.
On March 22, 2003 he wrote: "Half an hour ago the oil-filed trenches were put on fire my cousin came and told me he saw police cars standing by one and setting it on fire. Now you can see the columns of smoke all over the city."
Salam collected his writings in a book on the war. (Hamdy & Mobarak, 2004) The final entry on this famous blog dates back to 2004< [1] but for all those blog addicts out there he's back with more commentary on a new blog " Shut up you fat whinner". [2]
Encouraged by Salam Pax, Riverbend - the pseudonym of a young Iraqi girl started her own blog to chronicle her own thoughts and experiences. Bahgdad Burning was inspired by Riverbend's frustration over the occupation of Iraq and has been accessed over three million times since she started recording her feelings. (Graff, 2003) Today she has been joined by many other Iraqi voices, Imad Khadduri's blog Free Iraq, A Star from Mosul comes from another girl - but this time from Mosul, Treasure of Baghdad from a Baghdad blogger and an Iraqi blogger from outside the confines of Iraq brings contributions to the "Truth About Iraqi's [3]" blog. Then there is the Ibn al Rafidian who challenges his readers to question'What makes the situation a horrifying one more than that of Saddam's period?'[4] and even the complaints of the Iraqi neurotic wife who can never see her husband as he is "rebuilding Iraq."[5]
In Iraq, now-a-days the number of blog sites disseminating alternate is in the hundreds, not just postings of Iraqi nationals but also some coming from coalition soldiers and foreign journalists. You can find Sunnis and Shites, Kurds and Assyrians, Communists and Nationalists, Islamists and Secularists. Their political stances range from support of the US led invasion to callings for Jihad against the Americans. (Fisher, 2005)
Communicating from Syria, Sasa a journalist keeps her readers updated with bold reports, observations and comments covering events that occur "from the Damescene hamlet of Saroujah to the cobbled Beiruti streets of Ashrafeiyah "on the Syrian News Wire Blog.[6]Equally as bold is the Syria Exposed blog that promises to break all external myths and internal taboos about Syria through its "Reality bites".[7]
Many others are blogging away in Syria. On Ghalia's Coctktail Blog you can click your mouse and link yourself to another 34 Syrian bloggers[8] giving a sense of Syria, Syrians and their day-to-day problems and concerns.
Blogging is coming to its own as a publishing platform in the region, despite the fact that it is still held by many to be a sub cultural activity. In Lebanon, blog sites have appeared with numerous entries scrutinizing the details of the UN Mehlis report on the president Harirri' assasination and tributes to other victims of violence in this time of Lebanon's current tensions. [9]
Amidst the bits and pieces floating throughout the Arab Blogosphere, and as the Internet comes of age adventurous Egyptian bloggers are making strides with voices that can be heard rising above the noise. Other than travel blogs, personal blogs and literary blogs, political blogs have gained wide attention lately. Expressions of political tensions preceding Egypt's 2005 first multi-candidate presidential election sprouted on the Internet causing true cyber turbulence.
When Egyptians on the 25 of May, 2005 were asked to vote on the amendment of Article 76 of the constitution, some took to the streets to demonstrate. Details of the demonstration, including supposed human rights violations were overlooked by mainstream journalism leaving the public with nowhere to go but the Internet's blogs.
Alaa the author of one of the currently most popular blogs "Alaa and Manal's bit Bucket" told al Jazeera that blogs gave a better in-depth coverage and analysis of Egypt's referendum story than any traditional Egyptian or International news medium. (Al Shouboky, 2005)
Alaa continues to blog anti-Mubarak regime notes and uses his blog to post information and update readers on the opposition movement of "Kefaya"s upcoming demonstrations.
But political dissidence in the Arab blogosphere may land you in jail. In Tunisia, the government is determined to squelch all cyber-dissent. Political activist Zouhair Yahyaoui who recently died of a heart attack had been sentenced to jail for posting a letter to the president written by his uncle Judge Mokhtar Yahyaoui for criticizing the judicial system. (Reporters Without Borders) This was not the only one of such cases.
Blogger Mojtaba Saminejad closely escaped a death penalty for "insulting the prophets" by a court in Tehran this year but he must still serve a two-year sentence for insulting the Supreme Guide. (Reporters Without Borders). Another Iranian blogger was sentenced to 14 years in prison for spying and aiding foreign counterrevolutionaries after using his blog to criticize the arrest of other bloggers. (Fisher, 2005) Iran has been the worst violator of bloggers' rights in the region.
Other bloggers/cyber dissidents have also been arrested in Syria, Algeria, and Egypt. (Reporters Without Borders)
But the threat of jail does not necessarily seem to stop some cyber activists. A quick glance at Sabbah's blog from Bahrain finds him organizing clandestine meetings and openly discussing taboo subjects. [10] Nor does it stop Mahmoud a Bahraini Shite from openly criticizing al Sheikh Sabbah.[11]
And just in case you are wondering, there is a committee to protect bloggers. Where bloggers can be guided to anonymous blogging sites, where they can get news on jailed bloggers, where they can sign petitions to help jailed bloggers, and where they can get information and contacts of threatened bloggers and freed bloggers. (Committee to Protect Bloggers)
In conclusion, Blogging has brought fresh prospects to Arab nationals. With the global spread of the Internet during the 1990's many scholars voiced optimism about the opportunities that it could offer and changes it would bring. The Internet was both touted for its unique chance for being a public sphere where deliberative democracy could form and that it also brought opportunities for individual freedom particularly for those who have been held back by the constraints of every day life.
But after a decade it seemed that only those who could make a web page were able to have their voices heard on the web until the problem was remedied with a new Internet technology in the form of Weblogs. (Schaap, 2005) This in turn has given Arabs an active corner in the blogosphere.
And now that attention has been brought to the Arab blogosphere, watch out because in a region where the press is often tightly controlled, many voices that are shut out from the mainstream media can move to the web to disseminate information. (Glaser, 2005) And although their numbers may not be in the millions, bloggers are likely to be young, likely to be well educated, likely to be politicized, likely to have influence, a key selection of Arab citizens certainly worth observing.
[2]
http://justzipit.blogspot.com/
[3]
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/
[4]
http://ibnalrafidain.blogspot.com/
[5]
http://neurotic-iraqi-wife.blogspot.com/
[6]
[7]
http://syriaexposed.blogspot.com/
[8]
http://cocktail4.blogspot.com/
[9]
http://lebanonheartblogs.blogspot.com/
References:
Maciej Kapko: Election Marketing - an Instrument of Manipulation or a Fundamental Element of Modern Campaigns? The Polish Example
Election marketing came to Poland together with transformations in the economic and political systems. It was first applied to parliamentary elections in 1989. Taking into account its effectiveness, a marketing approach to politics quickly became popularized, influencing the evolution of the democratic system. At the same time many critical voices appeared pointing to the negative effects of this phenomenon. Despite this, politicians have not resigned from the application of political marketing, whose importance for the election results, which they obtain continuously, grows in the age of rapid mass media development. Today, resignation from marketing instruments can sense a disaster. Modern voter-clients expect clues as to which of the candidates is the best, and will most effectively represent their interests. In election marketing the very voters themselves are important - so the broadcast is directed to them and they decide which of the candidates wins the elections.
The essence of political marketing
The term "marketing" (also marketing in Polish) originates from the English word "market" and was used for the first time in the US by lecturers in the field of Commercial and Industrial Economics between 1906 and 1911 (Białecki, Bobrowski, p. 14). Its basic techniques were compiled in the United States. Proper development of marketing, however, began only after the conclusion of the Second World War.
Philip Kotler defines marketing as a social and organizational-governing process, thanks to which both the individuals and the defined groups reach their intended goals through the creation, offer, and exchange of goods of a defined worth on the market (Kotler, p. 7). Kotler derives the basic concepts determining marketing action, i.e. needs, desires and demand, products, worth, price and satisfaction, exchange, transaction and relationships, the market and participants in the market. A Kotler definition includes marketing, as well as, extra-economic disciplines of public activity.
In order for marketing to exist, four conditions must be fulfilled:
The component elements of marketing are therefore: product politics (which is how to develop a product in order to find a client), price politics (how to apply prices so that the product will sell well), distribution politics (in which areas to offer the product, in order to achieve success in the market), communications politics (how to inform the client about offers interesting for him).
Political marketing owes its beginnings to the needs of these same socio-political organizations, and one of their goals became the communicating and satisfying of the needs of "actors" on the political scene (Wisznowski, p. 17). Kotler and Levy, who noticed the possibility of using marketing in this type of action, have popularize the possibility of using marketing in political operations. In their opinion, the only apparent difference consists in the fact that political marketing is more unpredictable than classical marketing.
"Taking advantage of the media as a conduit for information, propaganda, and advertising transmission; growth of the significance of public opinion polls; and the professionalization of the practice of politics" contributed to the rise of political marketing (Kolczyński, Sztumski, p. 105). The development of the mass media (especially television) and the possibility of communications on a mass scale influenced the quality of social communications, including political communications.
The phenomenon of public opinion is just as old as power itself. Public opinion polls appeared in politics relatively long ago. George Gallup and Archibald Crossly began a systematic research of public opinion in 1935. Together with the development of the political market, improved research methods became more precise, thanks to which from 1948 onwards research for the use of parties and politicians became a fundamental element of campaigns (Kolczyński, Sztumski, p. 106-7). Results obtained in polls make up the starting point in the process of creating a general campaign strategy and defining the manner of using particular marketing instruments.
In Poland until 1989 there was not much research on public opinion. During the years 1948-1956 the government prohibited this type of research, and later they were carried out only on subjects selected by the government and were censored. After the period of martial law, the Public Opinion Research Center (CBOS - Centrum Badania Opinii Społecznej) came into being, however it was only after 1989 that polls and election forecasts for parties and particular politicians appeared in the mass media. Currently, research into the political market accompanies all political actions: elections of all positions, referendums, and citizen initiatives - make up a vital element of each election campaign.
Political marketing is defined in many ways. Grażyna Ulicka defines it as "a group of theories, methods, techniques and social practices having the goal of convincing citizens to provide support to a person, group, or political project" (Ulicka, p. 166). Robert Wiszniowski defines political marketing as a "group of techniques serving the creation of behavior changes in subjects of politics and citizens within the range of political rivalry, in defined and long-term processes" (Wisznowski, p. 42). According to Andrew Lock and Phil Harris, political marketing is a "discipline which is occupied with the study of the processes of exchange between political subjects and their environment and between themselves, particularly relating to the positioning of these subjects on the market and their communications and methods, thanks to which strategies can be carried out, including research concerning attitudes, consciousness, and reactions of target groups" (Mazur, p. 18). Marzena Cichosz and Dariusz Skrzypczyński propose treating political marketing as "a group of techniques used to create the appropriate image of a candidate among his electorate, promoting his person, distinguishing him among rivals and obtaining the maximum amount of votes through the minimum use of funds" (Cichosz, Skrzypczyński, 1997). In a similar way political marketing is defined by M. Bongrand, who considers, that it is "a group of techniques used in creating the appropriate image of a candidate among his electorate, promoting his person, distinguishing him among rivals and acquiring the maximum number of votes through the minimum use of funds" (Mazur, p. 17). To recapitulate, it can be stated, citing Dominic Wring, that political marketing is, first of all, philosophy (attitude and perspective), secondly it is more particularly a set of activities, which should put this philosophy into practice (Mazur, p. 15).
Political marketing and the wider political communications alike serve central, somehow definitional goals of politics - acquiring and holding power (Ryszka, pp. 18-19). Specialists of political marketing distinguish two areas of action. In the first area political marketing is understood as a group of actions having the goal of promoting a definite political initiative. It encompasses the presentation of the initiator's goals of action and the benefits, which his supporters receive. In the second area political marketing is understood as a group of actions conducted on the election market having the goal of the presentation of a given candidate / party in the most beneficial light. In this depiction marketing is a basic element of an election campaign and encompasses a group of actions heading towards precise definition, and then promotion of the electoral promises of the candidate. These actions above all have the goal of presenting voters with benefits resulting from the support of a given candidate / party and the development and strengthening of his positive image. The most intense form of political marketing which adopts the most aggressive shape is election marketing.
Together with the rise of political marketing, new professions in the job market appeared, represented by specialists of political and election marketing, of creating and shaping the political image, of mass media, of developing positive relations with the media, in the field of analysis of the political market, of public opinion research, of political public relations and advertisement, of buying air time and advertising space (media buyers), and coaches in the field of oration and public speaking (coach).
The emergence of political marketing also changed the approach of many researchers towards the analysis of socio-political reality and the way of seeing the place and role of political parties in the modern world. This discipline has at the same time supporters, as well as, critics. And this is how for example Ziemowit J. Pietraś presents four main arguments against the marketing style of running elections: "first of all, [...] their running weakens the functioning of the party system, [...] secondly, marketing amounts to corruption of candidates and the entire political party alike, [...] thirdly, marketing demands complete professionalism in election activity, thanks to which the role of activists and volunteers becomes less important, which can influence the demobilization of the electorate, [...] fourthly, use of marketing techniques leads to a flight from real political problems into the sphere of shallow propaganda" (Pietraś, pp. 436-8). However despite criticism, election marketing seems to be a vital tool of politics today.
The rules of leading an election campaign are defined in election law. The initial product of political marketing is a candidate with a program, image, and personality. Marketing planning is divided into a few stages. The first stage is testing the market - attempts are undertaken to define the needs of voters and the optimal type of candidate with the greatest chance. The electorate is subject to segmentation into categories on the basis of social, political, demographic, economic, and cultural criteria.
The most beneficial image of a candidate or party among the electorate, a catalog of needs and their articulation by particular social groups, electoral preferences, behavior of the voters towards the campaign and the influence of the campaign on the change of behavior of the electorate - this type of information make up the basis for a comprehensive analysis of the election market. So begins the process of creating a slogan, a program, etc. thus, a campaign making it easier for the candidate to reach specific groups. The campaign presented by the candidate should be a political offer and contain a group of ideological, cultural, and utilitarian features, which must be shaped by taking social needs into consideration (Mazur, p. 19). It is important to remember that in politics there is a lack of objective and definite demand, there are however citizens, who vote (Wisznowski, p. 233).
Voting is one of the forms of social exchange. If we assume the rationality of behavior of a citizen, an individual, who may expect various awards, accomplishes this exchange in the political market. The first type of award is an internal award - contained in actions and exchange (Wróbel, pp. 135-6). The second type is an external award - the facilitation of a political career for candidates, the possibility of association with like-minded individuals, the action of the candidate consistent with the aspirations of groups of voters rendering him votes, and the satisfaction of the interests of the voters (Mazur, p. 20). In conclusion, the basic task of the election staff is to make their candidate receive support, become popular and well known.
In election marketing two strategies stand out: positive and negative. Their role becomes more and more significant - many post-election analysts suggest the "predominance of form over political content" (Kolczyński, Sztumski, p. 120).
A positive campaign is disposed towards the promotion of their own candidate, a negative campaign is against rivals. The operation of a negative campaign relies on the presentation of the world and events not openly, but by leaving behind certain hints. (Wojtasiński, 2000).
American political market specialists suggest that the key to election victory is an apt catchphrase and slogan, which during the time of the campaign appeal to the subconscious, associations, and sentiments/ fondness of voters, and indicate in a concise way the path, which the politicians want to pursue. "The assignment of the slogan is to attract the attention of voters and suggest to them a defined political behavior" (Kamińska-Szmaj, 1996). The frequent use of a slogan is very important, in order to start to have an effect similar to that of a graphic logo - it quickly sinks into the memory. Experts in political marketing emphasize the importance of preparing an election strategy from the perspective of broadcasting in the electronic media.
Because political marketing is related to the creation of a new or distinctive image of a politician in all forms of the media, those such as the press, radio or television, are the most effective means of exerting influence on public opinion and the most important medium for presenting political statements is television. This medium has a very large influence on the style of election campaigns. Creating the image of a candidate or party on television has become the key to electoral success and the popularity of the campaign. The best formula for television presentation is films prepared in the form of television spots. These allow a brief presentation of the candidate and the elements of his election program.
The creation of a lasting political media image should have long-term effects, but at the same time the election campaign does not last long. A politician is judged continually by society after the conclusion of the campaign, as well. If the gestures learned for the sake of the election campaign are replaced after the campaign by old habits, the politician may very quickly lose support.
Election marketing andn experience in Poland
In Poland election marketing was applied for the first time during the first free parliamentary elections in 1989 (Raciborski, pp. 28-35). The election campaign was at that time surprisingly intense and differentiated in respect to form. Numerous models of electoral propaganda transferred from the West caught on easily in Polish society. Besides rallies enlivened by the performance of popular artists, and also posters, flyers, postcards, brochures, and radio and television broadcasts also appeared special cars riding through the streets with amplifiers, paid advertisements in the press, individual letters to voters, as well as, video clips. With regard to form and technique, the election campaign of "Solidarity" ("Solidarność") was, especially in the larger cities, considerably more diversified than the campaigns of the ruling party bloc. Wanting to take advantage of the experience and western models in leading an election campaign, "Solidarity" hired Jacques Seguela as an advisor, one of the best-known French creators of advertisements and an advisor of many years to President François Mitterrand (Staszak, 1997).
"Solidarity" was striving to make the impression that their candidates made up one "team" - "Lech Wałęsa's team", fighting as a whole against the government camp. Posters presented each candidate of "Solidarity" with Lech Wałęsa, which was also supposed to additionally distinguish them from the crowd of government candidates and strengthen their recognizability. The first issue of "Gazeta Wyborcza" ("Election News") appeared in print on 8 May 1989, and two days later the first pre-election program "Solidarity" was broadcast in the election studio "Solidarity". The superiority of the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR - Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza) in the information system was lessened by the phenomenon of mass desertion of the elite, who made it difficult for the ruling party to regulate the press and television.
On 8 March 1990 the Sejm accepted the Law concerning local government (Dz. U. 1990 nr 16 poz. 95) and the Electoral Regulations Law concerning the District Council (Dz. U. 1998 nr 95, poz. 602). The local elections of 1990 were the first completely free elections. The regulation divided districts into two groups. In districts of more than 40,000 inhabitants a proportional system of voting was introduced, with the division of seats made according to the method of Saint Laguë, whose essence is the rivalry of the party lists. However, the element of personal election was taken into consideration as well, where voting on the list took place through the indication of a certain candidate from the list. In districts with less than 40,000 inhabitants the majority system relying on the rule of relative majority was adopted. In this case the rivalry took place between specific candidates who could, although did not have to, indicate their party affiliation on the list. In this campaign, the dominating rule was played by the citizens' committees, whose unity was supported, although they grappled with the difficulty in defining an action plan: as a centrally controlled unified movement or as a loose union of party, movements, and various types of local initiatives. Within these groups conflict appeared in the sphere of selecting administrators, and also in jurisdiction disputes between committees of different levels.
The basic activities of the committees were of a symbolic essence, especially independence. Local programs formulated by committees mainly relied on investment tasks - with only a faint chance of implementation. Election propaganda was quite intensive, taking advantage of all conventional means of political marketing, however in the majority of cases these were flyers with the photographs and biography of the candidates, as well as, their oftentimes-unrealistic programs.
In the larger cities an attempt was made to repeat the campaign model from the earlier, June parliamentary elections, and especially such elements as canvassing after a church service, and frequently also from the pulpit, meetings with voters with the participation of celebrities, as well as, leaflets in the form of "crib sheets" with the names marked of who to vote for. The colors of "Solidarity" were ubiquitous, which were meant to ease identification of that party's candidates.
The General Election Commissioner, Jerzy Stępień, also played an active role in the campaign, in leading television broadcasts dedicated to the reform of local government, rules of voting, and at the same time directly agitated for participation in the elections and in a veiled form for support of the Solidarity candidates (Raciborski, p. 119).
Lech Wałęsa and Stanisław Tymiński played the main roles in the first Polish presidential campaign in 1990, and 13 candidates sought the presidential seat (Raciborski, pp. 57-65). Marketing operations led by election staff were not yet completely professional and slip-ups occurred. Tymiński's campaign was traditional in form. Numerous meetings were held, some in the exotic company of his Peruvian wife, and stories with them were the main contents of television programs. The very existence of Tymiński on the political scene was possible thanks to television and the interest of the media in his personality, triggered by the unquestionable exoticism of the candidate, and later the systematic growth of his record in polls. The campaign of Lech Wałęsa was led with an undoubtedly greater force and professionalism. A team of sociologists and psychologists, and radio and television journalists under the guidance of Jacek Merkel worked for him.
In the parliamentary campaign of 1991 a negative trend predominated (Raciborski, pp. 34-43). The majority of the groups concentrated not so much on the presentation of their own programs and candidates, but on criticism of the current and previous governments, on criticism of the president and on mutual attacks. During the campaign the election blocs on television had fundamental importance, filled with programs prepared independently by various election staffs. These programs with regards to form were very similar to each other, although they differed in the degree of professionalism of their execution. The lure of these election blocs for viewers was low because of a crowd of "talking heads" and similar-sounding sound bites and slogans. Posters, upon which the leaders of particular groups with their names and numbers on the list were often printed, were used on a larger scale than in earlier elections.
During the parliamentary electoral campaign of 1993 there was a certain "slip-up", where the "authors" were specialists in political marketing from the agency of Saatchi&Saatchi hired by the Liberal Democratic Congress (KL-D - Kongres Liberalno-Demokratyczny) (Raciborski, pp. 44-55). The election campaign prepared for the KL-D recalled American models with many elements of game and entertainment, and with regard to the difficult situation in the country, voters did not receive this well. In effect the Congress lost the election, and soon ceased to exist as an independent party, merging with the Democratic Union (UD - Unia Demokratyczna) to become the Freedom Union (UW - Unia Wolności). The characteristic feature of this campaign was also a particular intensity of invective and full of absurd accusations.
The local elections in June 1994 were the first elections in the Third Republic, which occurred at a normal time - after the lapse of the tenure of the citizens' committees. Almost all parliamentary parties appeared in large cities under their own name, or in a coalition clear to voters (Raciborski, p. 124). The election campaign did not differ, however, from the earlier local campaign. Though quite it was visible in large cities, in smaller cities and in the country, however, it passed unnoticed. The main tools of political marketing, similarly as in the earlier elections, were posters and leaflets.
13 candidates took part in the presidential elections of 1995. The leading roles were played by former president Lech Wałęsa and candidate Aleksander Kwaśniewski of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD - Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej). The leader of SLD displayed in the campaign, beside his youth, a great deal of political experience, education and knowledge of the English language, as well as, very good relations with many foreign politicians. Kwaśniewski presented himself as a contented man, optimistically oriented towards the future and accepting "disco polo" music, which was emphasized by the election hymn "Ole, Ole, Olek (nickname for Aleksander), we choose the future as well as style!" (Raciborski, pp. 75-85).
Alexander Kwaśniewski's election campaign was unusually active. The candidate made appearances on soccer fields, tennis courts, and at election meetings, during which he presented his professional way of seeing current issues related to Polish internal and international politics. It is worth noting, that for the needs of the campaign Kwaśniewski lost a considerable amount of weight and always appeared well-dressed in a navy blue suit and blue shirt, which was meant to emphasize the color of his eyes. One of the elements Kwaśniewski's campaign also used was an "election bus", which traveled above all to smaller cities, especially those where strong support for the Social Democrats was observed in the parliamentary elections of 1993.
The image created of A. Kwaśniewski was the work of Jacques Seguela, who had earlier worked for "Solidarity". Seguela stated: "Aleksander Kwaśniewski is for me, and also for many global politicians a ‘European Clinton' who embodies modernity, technical progress, and economic liberalism with a social face. Features vital in the 21st century. Beyond political games he tried to become the president of all Poles. President Wałęsa was supposed to be for those who rejected old Poland" (Staszak, 1997). Seguela added: "The constituent votes for a man, and not a party. During the campaign the most important is an idea, not an ideology. Elections and election posters must have a more psychological than political character. The constituent votes for the future, and not the past" (Staszak, 1997).
As compared with the actions led by Kwaśniewski's staff, Lech Wałęsa's campaign did not look so sensational. In the campaign the special status of Wałęsa and his role in history were emphasized and in this way he was supposed to stand out among other candidates. Election slogans served this goal, as well, for example: "There are many candidates, but only one Wałęsa". Mottoes, which dominated Wałęsa's campaign, were patriotism, Polish identity, and religion.
The mass media, especially television, played a significant role in the presidential election campaign of 1995. Among other things to come out of this were the two television debates with the participation of both candidates and invited journalists. According to the unanimous opinion of public opinion research centers, they had very high ratings and exerted a vital influence on the preference of the voters. Furthermore, for the first time in the history of Polish election campaigns, paid election advertisements were broadcast by the request of three election committees: Jan Olszewski from the Movement for the Reconstruction of Poland (ROP - Ruch Odbudowy Polski), Waldemar Pawlak from the Polish Peasants' Party (PSL - Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe), as well as, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz.
In the parliamentary elections of 1997, the campaigns of the Freedom Union and Solidarity Electoral Action (AWS - Akcja Wyborcza Solidarność) stand out. UW "played" on Leszek Balcerowicz under the slogan "Smart choice - better life", whereas AWS took advantage of many of their leaders in the campaign, which was justified by the structure of AWS that was made up of various groups. Even though there was a common slogan - ("AlWayS Poland" - "zAWSze Polska"), the leaders went with their own local slogans and used their own campaign methods.
For the first time in the history of Polish election campaigns nearly all of the most important political parties created their own web page, and there were two independent information services dedicated to elections also on the Internet.
Local elections in 1998 coincided with the administrative reform of the nation. These changes meant that the local elections of 11 October 1998, in which administrators were chosen to represent the organs of local government in townships, districts, and provinces, were of special significance. Local powers received broader authority; many matters heretofore were left to the management of the central administration now dependent on the administrators chosen in these elections. Representatives of all political forces, as well as, the Church, strove for the broadest participation of citizens in the local elections (Rzeczpospolita, 22.09.1998). In the election campaign, the concept of superiority of a political party over a single candidate, and the display of leaders and party colors instead of local candidates and their formulas for ruling townships and districts predominated. There was little possibility for direct contact with candidates who avoided election meetings and gatherings. P. Aleksandrowicz from Rzeczpospolita assessed the campaign as "not very substantial, strongly party oriented, and as concerns the programs, more was said about national than local matters. What is worse, programs and candidates were not dealt with often at all, but there was only an appeal to vote for lists and numbers" (Aleksandrowicz, 1997).
A scandal erupted at the end of the campaign. Just before elections Gazeta Wyborcza and Życie published the results of election forecasts, breaking the law in force, which forbid publication of polls from seven days before the elections. According to Tomasz Nałęcz, a representative of one of the left-wing groups, the goal of such action was to convince voters to vote for the groups supported by the editors, the Freedom Union and Solidarity Electoral Action, and not disperse support among less known election committees (Nałęcz, 1998).
Parliamentary elections in 2001 were not only a selection of a new parliament but a change in government - a defeat of the right-wing, victory of the left, and a road to power for SLD. The general election campaign was monotonous and uninteresting and in its background Self Defense (Samoobrona) came into existence. The Self Defense campaign was led by ICCE Greenpol and relied upon the personality of Andrzej Lepper, as created by Piotr Tymochowicz. The leader of Self Defense as a member of Parliament had already stated that his charming personality and advantageous group program had been chosen, and not some artificial creation, some false media Lepper.
An item of curiosity of these elections was also the entrance of the League of Polish Families (LPR - Liga Polskich Rodzin) to parliament, whose election campaign relied on Radio Maryja, and whose main program premise was the statement that all of the country's problems amount to a problematic integration with the European Union.
The presidential elections in 2001 were above all the negative election campaign of Marian Krzaklewski. At the head of the election staff of Krzaklewski was Wiesław Walendziak, to whom the election strategy of the candidate and its most spectacular ideas are attributed - from the slogan "Krzak-yes" (Krzak-tak) to the use of cassettes showing Marek Siwiec parodying the Pope John Paul II. There is no doubt that the Church was pulled into the election struggle by Krzaklewski's staff. Indignant moralists also joined to denounce Aleksander Kwaśniewski: activists from AWS demanded that he be placed before the Tribunal of State, priests demanded his resignation from seeking re-election, whereas Cracovian administrators of AWS accepted a resolution regarding Aleksander Kwaśniewski and Marek Siwiec as "personae non gratae" in Cracow. However Krzaklewski's staff did not only strike the president Aleksander Kwaśniewski, but also their own electorate, since not all supporters of the right-wing accepted the conviction that the leader of AWS becomes smarter and more trustworthy if his only argument will be the discrediting of the president in office. Conducting the run-off elections turned out to be unnecessary, because the winner of the first round of elections (Aleksander Kwaśniewski) received more than 50% of the votes.
The local elections of 2002 were the first direct elections of city, town, and country mayors (Dz. U. nr 113, poz. 984). For the first time in the postwar history of the nation, there was a chance to gain real power for people who were not designated for such a position by such and such an assembly, but free citizens in direct elections in one-vote election areas. In connection with the introduction of new rules for choosing city, town, and country mayors, local elections took place in four different areas: elections to town councils, elections to district councils, elections to provincial government, and elections for mayors of cities, towns, and country.
It was expected that the direct election of city, town, and country mayors would cause a greater interest in local elections, and along with this would go a larger election attendance. However the election attendance was very low - in the first round it amounted to 44.33%.
During the election campaign candidates often did not have anything to offer beyond similarly common-sounding slogans or common catch phrases referring to not so much local but rather national matters. Among the candidates appeared multitudes of the unemployed, students, retirees and people with only basic education, who counted on the per diem to strengthen their home budget. Almost all the candidates distanced themselves from contact with election image specialists and leading campaigns. They hired their families and friends who decided about their image and spread flyers and posters. Already a few weeks before the elections all possible spaces were covered with posters, which were evidence of the fact, that election the staffs did not have ideas for campaigns. Election regulations clearly specify where posters may be hung (Dz. U. 1998 nr 95, poz. 602), which is why there were peculiar battles conducted about free space to hang posters by the candidates themselves hanging posters at night on top of those of their rivals.
"The poster war", consisting of ripping down or pasting up posters, is a common phenomenon and is observed in practically all countries, however the Polish local elections of 2002 brought a number of new election tricks of doubtful ethical value. The most notorious event was a brawl in the SLD in Bydgoszcz, where the party members fought over place on the election list (PAP, 20.09.2002).
In an unusual way the Election Committee for the Platform of Law and Freedom (Komitet Wyborczy Platformy Sprawiedlwosci i Wolności) also wanted to discredit the candidate for the mayor of Sosnowiec in the eyes of the voters: activists gave him a two-month-old pig, which was supposed to help him understand how to build a pigsty and raise swine. This was the answer to the earlier utterance of the candidate, who advised the unemployed in Sosnowiec to raise and fatten pigs in their free time (Krupa, 2002).
City, town, and country mayors, in office also commonly took advantage of their position in the election campaign, spending public funds on the campaign goals. Most often the public funds were spent on all kinds of mass parties, whose star was the city, town, or country mayor, and also on publications meant to make up a "summary" of their term in office. During these elections there was even some buying of votes, before the local elections themselves. For writing an "x" by the indicated names, alcohol, cigarettes, or small sums of money were offered.
As a consequence of the above survey of election campaigns in the Third Polish Republic, thanks to the election marketing devices and professional media advisors the actions of election staffs turned out to be more effective with regards to reaching the voters, shaping their positions, attitudes, and in consequence having an effect on their decisions. Today political actions depend in a greater way than in the past on the voters - their needs and expectations. Political marketing will develop in the world and in Poland. The degree of development will vary, but future progress in the professionalization of campaigns, irrespective of which level it takes place on, seems to be unavoidable.
Election campaigns cause costs to rise, however. Independent candidates are in the worst situation. It is clear that in each of the subsequent local elections, appropriate finances will be a basic condition for leading an effective election campaign.
The times when election campaigns were prepared by small groups of enthusiasts convinced of the worth of their candidate for country mayor (town mayor, city mayor, representative, etc.) are passing irrevocably, as we already cannot imagine leading an election campaign without the participation of the mass media, from the press to the Internet. For this reason campaigns demand the involvement of significant financial funds, as well as, the work of specialists from various fields.
In a short time local election campaigns in Poland will probably be public spectacles to an even greater degree than they are now, and that the increasing number of candidates running for the position of country mayor (town mayor, city mayor) will take advantage of the services of professionals preparing and leading election campaigns. It can also be expected that the mass media: the press, television, radio, and the Internet, will be taken advantage of to an increasingly greater frequency.
Politicians already have accepted the fact that in order for their message to reach its audience and be accepted, they must take advantage of the mass media. The younger generation of politicians understands the rules of political marketing better and willingly yields to the directions of experts in this field.
Still, many politicians at the local level believe that help in election marketing is not necessary for them. Many of them regard the media as their main enemy, and this feeling is often intensified by media advisors and press spokesmen, among whom many still recognize their primary task as that of the prevention of journalists from contact with their bosses and reaching any kind of information.
Therefore, we are only left to demand more and more from our political representatives, with respect to the contents of their speeches as in the form of their transmissions. The low frequency of voters during the most recent local elections proves, among other things, that as long as the offer on the political market does not yield to similar mechanisms such as those that steer the free market, voters will not actively participate in elections. People go to vote if they have the need to choose. The future of our cities - our "little homeland" - will depend on us - voters, our frequency of voting and completed elections. Yet the future representatives of townships, districts, or provinces should point out to the voters the benefits that result from choosing them for this position. They must do this conscientiously and in good style. In order to achieve this there is no better method than a professionally led election campaign.
Bibliography:
Acts:
Olga Mitchuk: Culture of Airtime Speech
Modern society cannot exist without competent speech - the most important means of communication, expression of ideas and information transfer for recipients. It is of great importance to study and use the correct language means of giving a view depending on the purpose and content of one's utterance. Language regularity in a media-text is, first of all, observance of those literary norms, which are a fixed model for the native speakers of this language.
Theoretical and practical principles of speech culture are the process of linguistic activity realization, the unique objective display of the language. A speech concept includes such concrete aspects of language as verbal aloud utterance, to talk without the articulation perceived by the ear, and writing, that is the fixing of utterances in the process of their forming, and also texts of mass communication entails the result of utterance processes or their written reflection in printed mass media (means of mass communication).
Speech as the general process of public linguistic activity consists of individual speech acts of every member of a linguistic collective. As the individual speech acts are the transmitters of certain concrete data for conscious perception by other members of the linguistic collective. A speech concept involves also concrete semantics of every utterance - verbal or written. In modern linguistic science the speech concept, according to F. de Sossuer, is examined in contrast with the language concept, which refers to the linguistic system as a well-organized aggregate of structural language units - phonemes, words, grammatical forms, syntactic charts, word combinations and sentences.
The two contrasted aspects of mass media language activity usually emphasize the differences between the dynamic, subjectivity, individualization, arbitrariness, purposefulness, situation conditionality of speech and passivity, statistical, objectivity, public allocation, obligatoriness, and independence from the situation system of language. In such a contrasted linguistic system (language) it is not often placed on a unique ontologistical level with speech, as one of two, with equal rate, but as an autonomous linguistic display. But speech is quite often examined as the realization of a linguistic system. In this case it is not the linguistic system that is only the internal property of language that is available only as a language.
As a real concrete display of language speech is a much more complex phenomenon since it is considerably more difficult to research than the abstract linguistic system. In contrast to the paradigmatic nature of the linguistic system, in which the structural elements of language are only distinguished, and contrasted to each other and united according to their structural features into groups of relatively invariant units of the same types, speech has a syntagmatic nature of a linearly formed construction within the limits of which structurally different units of language unite and co-operate and in these terms acquire a wide variety. Varying in the field of lexical unit, semantics is the most widespread.
The sound sphere of language assumes numerous variants such as phonemes, prosodic descriptions of words, intonation arrangement of sentences. A variety of linguistic units in the processes of speech depend on three basic directions of extra-lingual and inter-lingual nature:
A separate type of divergence between the inversions of the linguistic system and various displays of speech allows for a typical colloquial practice of deviation from the standardized linguistic norms and casual individual errors in speech.
Use of the physical reflections of linguistic signs in the processes of intellection - words and sentences - without pronouncing them aloud and without their written fixed form is called internal speech. The internal speech is accompanied by the hidden articulation of linguistic sounds, which is brought forward as an instrument of registration.
The internal speech in the process of thinking and the creation of journalistic texts differs from the external speech through its conciseness, fragmentariness, considerable semantic meaning of separate words, possibility of replacement of concrete images of certain words, and word combinations by their schematic pictures or their functions in the structure of a thought. But in a correct creation of internal speech the speech culture plays a greater role.
The culture of speech is the observance of certain verbal and written literary pronunciation, and also conscious, purposeful, skilful use of linguistic expressive means depending on a purpose and means of intercourse. Ontology, language stylistics (functional and expressive estimation of language means), speech stylistics are important component parts of speech culture (degree of expedience of the languages refers to use in a text).
The low culture of speech is characterized by violation of rules of word usage, grammar, pronunciation and accent, and writing. For example, journalists often make mistakes using in their speech loan translations from foreign languages adapted to Ukrainian instead of real Ukrainian words and phrases. Radio and television journalists often use the wrong accents. Deafening of voiced consonants at the end of words is a sign of low culture of speech used by journalists, and the soft pronunciation of a hushing sound. The culture of speech is estimated in relation to its exactness, quality, expressiveness, stylistic accuracy, linguist skills in the use of lexical, grammatical symbols, and in the selection of utterance variants.
There are syntactic means of making the culture of speech more expressive. They are rhetorical questions, addresses to the listeners, varied forms of conversational language, which give expressive richness, emotionality, ease, playfulness to journalistic speech. The high journalist culture of speech is the mastering of the stylistic richness of language, avoidance of stock phrases, bureaucratic clichés, and dialecticisms in linguistic practice, and an achievement of such verbal and writing form of intercourse that would precisely reproduce the idea. Linguistic stereotypes, and negligence in the utterance is a sign of poverty within journalistic thought.
The journalist culture of speech is directly related to the state of setting norms, literary language fixing, reflected in the dictionaries, grammars, practical language courses, where the managed function of speech culture consists, in particular, in achievement of dialectical balance between historical grammar, and the theoretical and practical courses of language. In a different way it is a reaction to the regularities of well-educated circles of social verbal intercourse, which is rich in variants compared to the culture of written speech.
The culture of speech is an appreciating category, but individual tastes have to be based on public linguistic practice. Bases of speech culture are laid in preschool and school education. Linguistic etiquette is formed here, and the standards of linguistic conduct are polished in the process of cultural intercourse among native speakers of a language. The language is mastered and the individual work on speech culture continually improves and lasts a lifetime.
Speech culture education is the development of a sense of language in the process of cognition of the best artistic and aesthetic language patterns, and the mastering of linguistic cultural traditions within a nation. The mastering of the culture of speech depends on the level of linguistic standard. For most nations of Europe a literary language to some extent is remote from the real linguistic practice. In addition to regional features there is a slang of social groups and different strata of society. The phenomenon of diglossia is widely used when the same speaker depending on the situation chooses different languages or dialects.
The language of mass media and modern Ukrainian literature lives according to the new stylistic laws. Clear signs of official business and artistic style are not inherent. Formerly the «exemplary» journalists' speech absorbed a variety of spoken language vocabulary. Depending on the genre, works of modern authors are saturated with criminal jargon and young people's slang, and as original linguistic laboratories, demonstrate an elemental development of the language.
There is the problem of normativity within the young people's social slang in Ukrainian linguistics. The question is not only about journalistic creative work, when the author decides if it is expedient to enter uninformative lexeme in a text. The editor has a much more difficult choice: to correct an uninformative word or to admit it into the linguistic space.
The problem of the functioning of slang vocabulary in the language of mass media is current that is why we will consider the normativity of stylistic aspects within the functioning of slang, which focuses upon the vivid aesthetic broadcasting and unprintable curse.
The word "surzhik", which is a mixture taken from two languages, has been known in the Ukrainian language for a long time and also in the media-linguistic space. Nowadays, the wretched, degraded spiritual world of a man is called "surzhik". Confessedly, to use a mixture from two languages is one of the most anxious phenomena of journalistic character. The disfigured language makes a man dull, erects its thought towards the primitive. Finally, this mixture from two languages has taken a considerable place in the subculture of the younger generations, where it began to penetrate from the 1970s from the level of the underground and finally became firmly established on the first festival "Chervona Ruta" in 1989. This began to emerge together with the entrance of a mixture from two languages in the media through linguistic aggression, which is found in the displays of some media texts with the help of various slang expressions within the anti-cultural layers of society.
The culture of speech, as a social and linguistic discipline depends on a linguistic policy, public functions of language, and the distribution of the prestige of literary language through the publishing activity of mass media. In the language of mass media there is in practice a noticeable violation of norms of the literary forms of Ukrainian. Linguistic science must propagandize the best standards of practical realization of literary Ukrainian.
During the difficult times of the dominant influence of Russian in colloquial practice the question of the perfection of the language was considered important. It is impossible to attain it without studying the norms of modern literary forms of Ukrainian. Facilities of mass communication, which act in greater part in development of the literary language, must promote the distribution and strengthening of literary norms, in enriching its dictionary, in the lexical and grammatical setting of norms, and in opening its stylistic possibilities. Taking into consideration the responsibility of the radio and television workers and their linguistic registration intended for the transmission of materials, every error of the announcer inflicts harm and widens the gap between those fighting for the preservation of cultural broadcasting.
Professional skills of television and radio announcers must represent the norms of literary Ukrainian, because they are the exemplary transmitters of ideology and language of the home country. Television is an important informative channel, which has an unlimited influence on a spectator, and the same entails the perfection. In the programs featuring on television it is often possible to look for a violation of orthoepic norms. The speech of radio announcers often warp the ear with phonetic errors. It is possible to explain it with the dominant influence of colloquial Russian, which influences the features of pronunciation of sounds and also defects the pronunciation related to the construction of journalist or announcer linguistic device. In the process of the development every language is filled with new words created after present models in one's own language or adopted from other languages.
A grammatical tidiness is the sign of speech culture. The observance of rules regarding a change of words and their creation, constructions of word combinations and suggestions, tidiness and appropriateness of word usage, enters here. A space, speech volume and professional linguistic etiquette are also important aspects in the work of an announcer or television journalist.
Every person is characterized by his or her own speech, which is unique. Linguistic etiquette is the totality of verbal forms of courtesy that people accepted in a certain circle, in a certain society, in a certain country. Linguistic etiquette affects a person, directs his communicative activity by forming a linguistic personality on the whole. It is here you can personally observe the influence of language on a man's behaviour.
A language extraordinarily and sensitively reacts to the changes in social life. The question is not only about the names of denoting linguistic concepts, and social factors set in motion by potential forces which are fixed in the language system. The Ukrainian of the 90s, as well as, other languages of post-totalitarian societies, is characterized by the processes of democratisation and liberalization. First of all, this is to be observed in the language of the mass media.
Research in the changes of a language in general and in the language of MASS-MEDIA on a comparatively short modern segment must take into account social factors, conditions, in which language lives and the time requirements of language. On the other hand, there are internal regularities, which focus upon the changes in language space, and are directly unconnected with social terms. Consequently, the language of modern mass media depends not only on the development status of national language but also on the difficult co-operation of external and internal forms.
With the flow of time, and foremost in the unique literary processes of the last half-century, those communicative rules were formed, that are fixed in the consciousness of the Ukrainian people as "Russianness", slang, and jargon. But let us characterize the linguistic picture of our present-day society. In fact the phenomenon of "avoidance" of the Ukrainian language in Ukraine acquired widespread development, and the phenomenon of bilingual aspect has civilized development in newspapers.
By the regulation of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine concerning the application of official language by state authorities, by the bodies of local self-government and its use in an educational process in educational establishments of Ukraine, confirmed that in Ukraine the official language is Ukrainian.
However, the discussion as to the possibility of introducing a bilingual concept in our state is not completed, and negatively influences the creation of the culture of language and its function. There are two aspects of this problem: on the one hand, it is the expansion of Russian-language editions; on the other - it is an unwillingness of people in some regions to speak Ukrainian, especially in everyday life. Although this prevails somewhat in an official sphere and in the sphere of state life, too. The language is used in state and administrative documentation.
What is considerably important for the fate of the language? What is done in other spheres of public life, but above all, in the field of culture and mass media? Here an official language loses its position. About 90% of television and wireless stations (mainly private) recently registered, do not feature the transmissions in the Ukrainian language, but in the Russian language; when from 214 national newspapers in Ukraine 78 is published in the Ukrainian language only, which forms 32% of the total.
Indisputably, to forbid the representatives of Ukrainian nationalities or Russian-speaking Ukrainians to speak, read, listen to programs or go on the air using their mother tongue is not forbidden. Because our legislation foresees the presence of television and radio programs in Russian and in languages of other nationalities for a large amount of Russian-speaking population in the places of their compact residence. However, each of us must realize that our duty is to respect an official language, study, and popularise it, because it is one of the basic attributes of the state system.
There is no language, and consequently, there is no nation - every conscious Ukrainian will agree with it. An official language unites people in an integral society, creates a spiritual culture. The language culture of man is an indicator of its general cultural level, the level of education.
In connection with the noticeable weakening of requirements of the observance of normative principles of literary Ukrainian language from the end of 1980s there is a considerable strengthening of the use of jargon, slang, vulgarisms and improper vocabulary in mass media. For example, we can observe this on "STB", "New channel", "Our radio". An interesting display of general democratisation of literary Ukrainian is the use of jargon and elements from argot.
Today, through the given circumstances one pays attention to jargon which does not show the integrity: the language of different mafia groups, drug abusers and others; fortunately, it has not yet become Ukrainian. Considerable part of slang is created and functions in the environment of intellectual young people, who know a literary language. Jargonism penetrates from the Ukrainian Argo past epochs (beggarly, thievish), territorial dialects, urban jargon, from the Russian jargon vocabulary, and jargons of the English-language groups. We want it or do not want, but they penetrate the mass media.
Jargonism in the language of the mass media executes a different function: it underlines saying, promotes the attention of the reader (listener), and creates a tone of ease. We very often meet the words of innormative vocabulary, which give the vividness to saying, but litter a language.
Mass media should open up actively with regard to increasing the cultural word, and the prestige of the language.
Mass, unsystematic penetration of Russian elements in the Ukrainian communicative structure within the conditions of a protracted unequal contact generated by the phenomenon of Russian and Ukrainian linguistic "unliterary language" as one of the forms of Ukrainian common speech. Sociologists defined the use of "unliterary language" in the sphere of culture as a means of a comic element that is perceived in various forms: on the one hand, cases of dissatisfaction by the Ukrainian intelligentsia on the surplus thrusting of these features of linguistic Ukrainian portrait, on the other, it is a positive attitude toward a linguistic confusion by the nationally irresponsible Ukrainians.
In the language of humorous monologues, which are transmitted over the television, radio, Tarapunka and Schtepsel have used "unliterary language". From the beginning of the 90s the genre of "unliterary language" has become almost the basic means of humor. According to psychologists, such programs do not belong among the good ones; we do not laugh about a language, and do not twist it on purpose. Besides, rolling our colloquial and everyday speech in the riverbed of marginalia is not simply a defect, but a misfortune and disease. Wicked people laugh at a misfortunate illness; decent people do not take the liberty to do so.
Every citizen has to know the national language well, love it, and also to accept the languages of other people. The knowledge of languages will promote an informative safety, and the information will pass exactly, without linguistic distortions, twisting, and only then will we be able to select that corn from the straw, because mass media is one of the powerful facilities of influence on the consciousness and the perception of the human being.
The citizens of our state, as well as, every other, have linguistic duties, which consist in defending and preserving the mother tongue. Protecting the mother tongue is the most natural and the simplest, the easiest and the most necessary method of national revival and self-affirmation. The mother tongue is not a merit, but the duty of every conscious linguist. That is why, the process of linguistic ecology, cleaning the language of unliterary language forms, and jargons must begin with the concrete person and be carried out by the original person's speech at all levels' of usage. That is why each and every one of us must take care of the culture of the language and require others to do so, as well.
The greatest poetess of our epoch, Lina Kostenko said: "In the beginning of creation and creating the world there was the Word. In the beginning of creating a nation there must also be the Word". Remember this. Then nobody will say anything bad about the Ukrainian nation and its speech.
Rune Krumsvik: The digital challenges of school and teacher education in Norway. Some urgent questions and search for answers
Abstract
This position paper highlights the digital challenges within education in Norway and how the digital revolution creates new possibilities, dilemmas and challenges for school and teacher education in our contemporary society. Today we find a consensus among policy-makers, researchers, teacher educators and school management that digital literacy and ICT-implementation must be given high priority and needs to be explored more deeply in our contemporary educational institutions. Despite this consensus, previous ICT-efforts have revealed that implementation of ICT in the Norwegian context has been more strongly anchored rhetorically, than in practice. Consequently, the paper focuses on whether we now have learned from the past and are entering a time of upheavel within technology-implementation and what kind of possibilities, challenges and dillemmas teacher educators and teachers face in this new pedagogical terrain.
The paper directs focus towards some urgent questions and some search for answers within this pedagogical area, based on research findings from PILOT (Krumsvik, 2004a, b; 2005a, b), other relevant research studies, policy-documents and theoretical foundations.
Introduction
The core perspective in this position paper is directed towards how the digital revolution and active use of the Internet[i] creates new possibilities, dilemmas and challenges for school and teacher education in our contemporary society. In Norway there is an urgent need to explore this area more deeply, because of the high technological density in society in general, the youngsters' massive use of technology in their everyday life, and the teacher education and schools, face difficulties in integrating and utilising the technology for educational purposes. Teacher educators are increasingly affected by this digital revolution and in the Rammeplan for Praktisk Pedagogisk Utdanning (General Plan for Teacher Education[ii], MER 2003) it is highlighted that teacher education students have to achieve a digital literacy to be certified as teachers in this new pedagogical terrain. For the Norwegian schools it was demanded that from the school-year 2002/2003, all ICT use was a mandatory requirement in the Norwegian schools (Action Plan for ICT in Norwegian Education. Plan for 2000-2003 (MERCA, 1999). And in the Program for Digital Kompetanse (Program of Digital Competence 2004-2008 (MER, 2003), the White Paper nr. 30 Culture for Learning (MER, 2003-2004), and in the new Norwegian, educational reform, The Knowledge Promotion[iii] (MER, 2005) digital literacy (digital competence) has been included and highlighted as one of the five mandatory, basic literacies (basic competencies) in all subjects, which demands a more digital confident teacher-role. On this backdrop, we find a consensus among policy-makers, researchers, teacher educators and school management that the ICT-area needs to be explored more deeply in our contemporary educational institutions. However, despite this consensus and good intension one has to bear in mind that earlier efforts[iv] with ICT-implementation have been more strongly anchored rhetorically, than in practice in school and teacher education. And today we find that there is a dicrepancy between the ICT-visions in the new educational reform and the reality in school. Even if the technology-access in Norwegian schools is quite good compared to other countries, we still find that there is a lack of necessary digital literacy among teachers and there is too much low-speed Internet-access in the schools, which has not been taken into account by the reform-makers ambitious ICT-visions. This situation illustrates the complexity of this area and, consequently, a number of questions arise as a result of this.
Does the new, converging[v], Internet based technology create a fertile ground for this new, mandatory digital literacy in school? And if so, what happens with the teacher-role, students and subjects when digital literacy becomes mandatory in all subjects as the fifth basic literacy?
Does the screenagers[vi] "on-line"- existence and digital literacy change our traditional perception of what learning is? Does this development contribute to a new (digital) epistemology[vii] within education? Does this alter how "teachers teach and learners learn" in the Norwegian school and teacher education? Or is this just another "technology-hype" which will disappear like dust in the wind? Therefore, the current paper focuses on the question whether we are now entering a time of upheavel within technology-implementation and what kind of possibilities, challenges and dillemmas teacher educators and teachers face when trying to integrate the new, Internet-based technology[viii], in its educational activities. A main problem is: How does the digital revolution affect schools and teacher education in our contemporary, Norwegian society? This paper directs focus towards the new currents within this pedagogical area, based on research findings from the Norwegian, national ICT-project PILOT[ix] (Krumsvik, 2004a, b; 2005a, b), other relevant research studies, governmental policy and theoretical foundations. I will direct a special focus on screenagers (and lower secondary school), where we find the most innovative and frequent use of ICT under Norwegian conditions. This focus might give some contribution to teacher education and decrease the gap between this arena and the practise field within this area.
Stability and change
In recent years Norway has become one of the leading countries with regards to accessibility of technology in schools and in society in general (Castells, 2001; OECD, 2003; Vaage, 2005). And in the eNorge 2009 - det digitale spranget (eNorway 2009 - the digital leap, MOD, 2005) further plans for the broadband-development is declared. In the school-year 2005/2006 the technology-density is 6,3 students per computer with Internet-access in the Norwegian primary school (SSB, 2005) and 2,5 students per computer in secondary school (Kløvstad, Erstad, et al. 2005). And 93% of the computers in lower secondary school have Internet-access and 6% of these schools has ISDN-access[x] (Kløvstad, Erstad, et al., 2005). Considering Norwegian students in lower secondary school (13-15 year) private access[xi] to technology, 95% have access to home- computers[xii], 82% have Internet-access at home and 96% have mobile-telephones. One can also find that in the Norwegian society, public libraries are well-equiped with broadband-based Internet-access and "Internet-café's" are a common phenomenon in general in our country.
Despite this relatively good technological access in school and in general, one can still find that there is a discrepancy between the ambitious ICT-visions in the new educational reform and the density and quality of the PC's in school, as well a, the actual subject-use of ICT in the Norwegian school (Kløvstad, Erstad, et al., 2005). We find some of the same tendencies in the Norwegian teacher education (Ludvigsen and Rasmussen, 2005). Thus, there is reason to ask critical questions about how policy makers see ICT-visions and the reality in school. But we cannot only blame the ambitious ICT-vision of policy makers; there is reason to ask how Norwegian schools and teacher education organise their ICT-use when technology is present.
A number of earlier studies reveal that school as an organisation adapts slowly to technological alteration, despite the fact that many attempts on implementation have been initiated (Cuban 2001). Many raise critical questions regarding the discrepancy between expectations and results when ICT is implemented. A popular perception of many technological projects seems to be that, when ICT is introduced in the classroom, changes will occur more or less by themselves (Cuban, 2001). This understanding has prevailed and the rhetoric has been so sweeping that few have raised questions and therefore the presumed excellence of the technology has overshadowed the more problematic issues. We therefore see that a fair number of the more comprehensive technological experiments from the 1980- and 90s appear to be dominated by a technological deterministic view where ICT was to confer both competence, knowledge and changes in the classroom. ICT has thus been considered as a means to improve and increase the efficiency of teaching, and as a tool students must learn to master in order to succeed in their studies and careers (Ludvigsen, 2000). According to Arnseth (2000) and Ludvigsen (2000) the conditions for implementing ICT in school are determined by other participants than the school itself. And Cuban & Tyack states: "In the top-down process of advocating and implementing technology, teachers were rarely consulted, though it was mainly their job to make it work in the classrooms" (Cuban & Tyack, 1998, p. 121). This might explain why changes often only happen on "the surface" (first order, Cuban, 2001 or solution innovation Engeström, 1995), and conceal a traditional school reality where one primarly did what one had previously done. Consequently, Larry Cuban sums up the technology efforts in this way: "The overall picture that emerges after a decade of advocates' claims and public urgency is that computers play a marginal role in regular instruction in public schools. A one-line summary of the situation to date might be: computers meet classroom; classroom wins" (Cuban & Tyack, 1998, p. 126). Cuban is therefore critical of the rhetoric concerning the implementation of technology in school and education and points to the discrepancy between the arenas of formulation and realisation in this field. On this backdrop, there is reason to believe that despite good government intentions, the "ICT-pedagogy" is more strongly anchored rhetorically, than in practice. This presents a situation where the teachers are actually doing what they have always done and where traditional teaching methods and technology-free learning environments are dominating. This situation has also epistemological implications and Brown, Collins, and Duguid (1989) argue that much of common educational practice is the victim of an inadequate epistemology:
A new epistemology might hold the key to a dramatic improvement in learning and a completely new perspective on education (...) It is, however, already possible to begin serious reappraisal of the assumptions about learning that underlie current classroom practice (Brown et al., 1989, p. 13).
This has gained momentum in our contemporary society where the digitalisation and Internet is changing the underlying premises for the subjects. Paul Gilster describes this as the great paradigm shift beyond traditional media and state that if the core competency of the use of Internet is critical thinking, to understand its online application we must move beyond the concepts that we have been taught to apply to other media (Gilster, 1997). And Lankshear (2003) underlines that this information technology revolution gives a time of upheaval for epistemologies and states that: "(...) it is concluded that conventional epistemologies face serious challenges. These challenges in turn have far-reaching implications for contemporary educational practice and education" (Lanskhear, 2003, p. 167). We therefore need to develop a digital epistemology[xiii] to understand this development, to capture the changes and how they influence schools and learning.
New digital areas - time of upheaval?
Even if Cuban has a critical perspective on implementation of technology in school, he also recognises factors that distinguish the computer from other technological artefacts: "Computers are far the most powerful teaching and learning machines to enter the classroom. Students and teachers can interact with computers in ways impossible with film, radio, and television" (Cuban & Tyack, 1998, p. 126). In Norway, Søby & Rasmussen (1993), Dale (1996), Erstad (1998) and Østerud (1998, 1999) and Grepperud (1999), among others, have asked whether it is possible to weave together pedagogy and ICT in order to create new digital fields in school and education. This has become increasingly relevant over the last four or five years as the new, digital technology (broadband[xiv], Internet, World Wide Web) has had a relatively huge impact on society, with an increasingly improved infrastructure and technological density. The whole aspect of new net-based teaching resources, portals[xv], ultra-fast search engines, multimedia[xvi] and interactive teaching platforms (Learning Management System [LMS][xvii]), together with a general digitalisation of daily life exemplifies this development. Lower-secondary school students are in many respects internauts[xviii] and digitally self-confident in this new online, digital "landscape". They are more comfortable with the innovation Internet than their parents'-generation (Tapscott, 1998).
They write, they search, they construct knowledge, they communicate, they play, they find digital teaching aids, they try out identities, and they make films. As a result of the technological convergence (Castells, 2001) they have an arsenal of teaching tools available at the click of a mouse, which provides a completely different basis than a decade ago when the PC was unknown in school and the textbook had hegemony. The digital[xix] format and Internet are an important part of their contemporary culture, but this is often associated with entertainment and leisure activities, and to a lesser degree related to knowledge and formal learning. Our contemporary culture has consequently an ambivalent attitude to the new, converging media. But according to Drotner (2001) we should acknowledge children's and youth's rights in this area. Drotner points to the United Nations Child Convention from 1989. Under §13 it is written:
The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child's choice (Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989[xx])
This means that children and youth shall be able to employ the cultural techniques and media the society and school can offer at any time. In our democratic and high-technological welfare society this is a premise for being an E-citizen. Lars Løvlie (2003) talks about a techno-cultural bildung[xxi] ("digital dannelse") which is based on a more holistic understanding about how children and youth learn, as well as, how they develop their identity. For today's screenagers in the network society, media and technology are important "construction-stones" in their "bildung-journey". From a culturally pessimistic perspective this gives rise to concern for a lost of presence and a growing anaemia of society (Negt, 1985). But Niklas Luhman (2000) does not support this concern and claims that this has to be considered as an evolutionary process of society, where the presence is challenged by new streams. These new streams consist of a kind of bildung which Qvortrup (1998) describes as administration of hypercomplexity. This, of course impacts the development of a new learning-environment in school and education. The techno-cultural "bildung-journey" and abundance of technological methods available for the youngsters has consequences for the schools' activity-system, even if many teachers have witnessed the difficulties of weaving the technology constructively in their practice field. In many ways the school's context has changed radically over the last decade, but at the same time we witness that the school fumbles in its response to this development, and remains static and protected against technology, even if the students "bath" in technology in their leisure-time. Not only do they gain the skills to use a special kind of technology, they also acquire a more general digital literacy that takes into account the increasing development in this area. However, it is legitimate to ask whether the screenagers digital competency also includes pitfalls like the "cut & paste"- phenomenon, which undermine some of the ground pillars in learning processes. From the Norwegian PILOT-project (Krumsvik, 2005b) it is interesting to note that this problem seems to fade in paralell with teachers digital confidency. It is also important to bear in mind that students "cut & paste" from the Internet is not always a pitfall in learning-processes. A new, Norwegian doctoral thesis documents this issue (Rasmussen, 2005) and shows that for certain student-groups this seems to be constructive entry-points in learning-processes. These new currents challenge us pedagogically and involves also new forms of communication between students and teachers, with the use of Electronic-mail (E-mail), Short Message Service (SMS) and online chat (chat) also after school-time. While individual teachers have entered the "online-existence", there are no structures in the schools which reflect this new teacher-role. The lack of structures for this new pedagogical terrain can (interestingly enough) give a "bottom up"-situation, where students' everyday ICT-use necessitates new remedial actions from the school witnessesing this development.
However, Drotner (2001) warns against the possible hazards if we over-estimate the value of youngsters' "online-existence" and digital competence in pedagogical setting. She mentions that if children and youth are used as truth-witnesses for technology-use in school, we may get a situation where Big Brother and Playstation are legitimised in schools. This form of solidarity with the informants (or in some cases the students) is by the anthropologist Clifford Geertz (1988) termed ethnographic ventriloquism, and often results in a sympathetic, inside-out-description, in which one can become rapidly house-blind[xxii]. Therefore, one has to be aware of this issue in different settings, but Drotner (2001) emphasises that the innovators in the technology-arena, the youth, can give us new perspectives on how to utilise the technology. This is based on the fact that screenagers are digitally self-confident and utilise the technology in new ways that the software-producers have not anticipated[xxiii]. Not even Pierre Bordieaus' (1994) term cultural capital[xxiv] or symbolic capital[xxv] seems to capture the net-generation's digital competence[xxvi] and "techno-cultural bildung"-journey. This is based on the discrepancy between the elitist bildung-foundations in school and the counter culture among screenagers where mass media plays an important part of their "cultural capital". School premiere special kind of cultural habitus, often based on a traditional, scholastic thinking. Consequently, we know what kind of cultural capital counts in school and there is reason to ask whether the school has to reconsider what common values and "cultural capital" shall be founded upon. Screenagers' cultural habitus and narratives have to be incorporated in such "re-thinking" of school in our contemporary society. Thus, one has to explore what this really means for our schools' and educational systems and how curricula can incorporate such currents.
Digitalisation[xxvii] and Convergent Technology
Digitalisation has led to a much easier distribution in several areas where the digital format is superior to the paper-format. Young people have discovered the potential inherent in the digital format and use the Internet as a publication-channel to distribute texts, pictures, music, animations and films to a "real audience". In general more and more texts are being digitalised and "shovelled out" on the Internet, with the resulting positive and negative effects. Castells expresses that: "So, overall, textbooks are going online" (Castells, 2001, p. 198). At the same time he claims that books in general:"(...) does not seem that demand is fading (...)- after all, it is a very user-friendly and portable device" (Castells, 2001, p. 199). But the continuous escalating of "bytes" (the digitally) compared to "atoms" (e.g. books) is linked with the fact that technology is easier to use, we use it more than before, it goes faster, it is (often) more updated and it is more eco-friendly. The increasing use of hyperlinks, animations and videos in digital text-documents[xxviii] is a leap from the paper-based text-documents, and gives several new opportunities for the writer to illustrate and for the reader's perception of the text. But many are critical to all the information that is "shovelled out" on the Internet, (by many described as garbage), and what it actually contributes to the pedagogical practice in school. Others ask critical questions about whether a digital textbook on the Internet is progress, when it has the same structure as a traditional textbook. In general, the web has been held in low esteem in education and academic contexts since its "birth", in the beginning of 1990's (Castells, 2001).
Another dilemma is raised by Eriksen (1998) stating that digitalisation and the Internet have considerably shortened the "life-length" of books in our contemporary society. At the same time there has emerged a new "symbiotic" relationship between books and the Internet, with the fact that books have increasingly become dependent on the Internet as a marketing- and distribution-channel (e.g. www.Amazon.com). And we can see the countours of similar trends in the music-industry, where the law of intellectual work for Internet-distribution of music (MP3-format[xxix]) is accepted among the artists and this increasingly changes the consumption-patterns among people. There is reason to believe that it is just a matter of time before we will experience the same tendency with books in general and within scientific journals where this is (more or less) already an established practise. This new stream has created new paths and new terrain for both producers and consumers, and even if the printed textbook still seems robust in an educational context[xxx], one can see an emerging transformation of this "terrain", which will probably influence school and education increasingly. Paul Gilster (1997) points out the complementary potential in this process. He expresses that the digital networking supports and extends the power of print rather than supplanting it. Gilster means that the two technologies intertwine like DNA strands, the double helix of the twenty-first century's intellectual revival (Gilster 1997).
What other traits characterise the Internet that distinguishes it from traditional software and learning resources? Internet tones down the distance-dimension and we can no longer equate the geographically distant and the unknown. Rural parts of Norway (which has suffered throughout decades of such rhetoric) has increased its accessibility to information and knowledge through the digital format and Internet. Today it is no longer a future scenario to participate in online, syncronic, video-conference[xxxi] seminars where e.g. the lecturer is situated in Bergen, while the participators are hundreds of miles both from Bergen and each other. A legitimate question is: where does this seminar take place? In Bergen? At the participators' different locations? We are facing a situation where we have to reconsider our perception and attitudes in questions of time and place, as well as, access to information and knowledge. Thus, Internet contributes to globalisation and under Norwegian conditions we may say that the Internet has a democratic[xxxii], and district-friendly[xxxiii] potential[xxxiv] where the growth of "the global in the local" increases continuously. Nørrestranders (1997) express that Internet is the counterpart of the personal presence and can be described as personal absentness[xxxv]. In many ways he claims that the Internet can be regarded as the most important transitional force in our culture (Nørrestranders, 1997) and e.g. for many youngsters in rural part of Norway Internet has become an important, new trajectory; "a window to the world", based on personal absentness. And there is reason to claim that the value of personal absentness, paradoxically, has increased communication betwee n Norwegian youngsters of today. Their "online-existence" with a dense use of text-messages, chat, Skype, e-mail, weblogs gives new forms of communication and a reason to re-consider the (overestimated?) value of face-to-face interaction in our contemporary culture.
But, Luhmann (2000) asks how we can participate in society when we are physically absent? And how can we contribute to the societal evolution without being in an interactional system, which requires syncronic participation both in time and space? The fact that these complex questions have greater impact under Norwegian conditions is because of our relatively minor digital divides and a technology-density which is among the highest in the world. According to Castells: "In terms of density of use of the Internet, Scandinavia, North America, Australia, and (interestingly enough), South Korea, came clearly above all other countries" (Castells, 2001, p. 209). This means that most of our youngsters become well-acquainted with the technology through their leisure time at home, in school, in library and through society in general. Today's students are in possession of an important cultural technique (Andresen, 1999) that schools so far have neither "welcomed" nor considered worthwhile. The question is how schools can learn to utilise this potential. How can schools utilise and challenge their digital competence for the benefit of the learners? These are complex questions because we find ourselves at an educational crossroad where the new educational reform, The Knowledge Promotion (MER, 2004) demands schools and teachers to give digital literacy a high priority in all subjects. This implies that the teachers need to become digital confident in order to understand how they can utilise their students' digital self confidency in processes of knowledge construction and learning. This is a complex process where pre-service training within digital literacy, action learning and teachers participating in a "apprenticeship"-culture in their everyday practise, seems to be necessary steps to increase teachers digital literacies. From the Norwegian PILOT-project (Krumsvik, 2005b) there is reason to claim that to incorporate digital literacy in an effective way, we might have to develop a new pedagogy, The Third Way (Østerud, 2004) or Blended Learning[xxxvi], where both school, the pedagogy and the evolving digital literacy among teachers and students, can capture these new trends. As Castells (2001) expresses it: "The critical matter is to shift from learning to learning-to-learn, as most information is online, and what is required is the skill to decide what to look for, how to retrieve it, how to process it, and how to use it for the specific task that prompted the search for information" (Castells, 2001, p. 259). Tapscott (1998) shares this understanding and states that the digital revolution[xxxvii] requires ability to navigate in the information-society. Implicit in this is the need to achieve the ability to collaborate, investigate, analyse and distribute to succeed as "digital literate", students in school today. Erstad (2004a) and Kløvstad & Erstad, et al. (2005) thus argues that it is necessary to revitalise the term digital competence (or digital literacy) in school, decrease the skill-focus and give it a broader content than it has traditionally had.
But in this new pedagogical terrain the need to develop new assessment-forms which capture the escalating use of computers in school is obvious: "Increasing use of computers in schools has led to a misalignment between the way some students develop skills and how they are tested (...) Paper-based tests (...) require students to produce written responses [that] underestimate the achievement of students who are accustomed to writing on computer" (Russel, 2002, p. 1). The Apple Computer of Tomorrow (ACOT)-study confirms that students develop new competences with the use of the computer, which traditional tests do not capture (Baker, Herman, and Gearhart, 1996). Fisher, Dwyer, and Yocam (1996) also express that the use of computers among the students leads to a digital competence: "(...) not being captured by traditional assessment measures" (Fisher et al., 1996, p. 5). Under Norwegian conditions this urgent need for new assessment-forms has (to a certain degree) been followed up by the Directorate of Education, which outlined (in 2003) a step by step escalation of ICT-based exams from spring 2004. The main aim with this escalation is to develop new assessment-forms and to increase the status of ICT in school. In this way it is almost impossible for the Norwegian school in our contemporary society to avoid ICT in their education anymore, and teachers are more obligated to use ICT when it is tied to "steering-instruments" like assessment-forms. As a consequence of this development we found that some new Norwegian assessment-efforts (digital portfolios) so far have been uplifting (Køpmand Petersen, 2004), and need to be explored and developed further to capture this new pedagogical terrain. However, despite the urgent need for new assessment-forms we see at the same time that the new Norwegian reform Knowledge Promotion[xxxviii] (MER, 2004), PISA[xxxix], TIMMS[xl], PIRLS[xli] and national tests[xlii] seem to support and preserve (and partly "electrify") traditional assessment-forms.
ICT and Curriculum - "Hand in Hand"?
How can ICT become more than an "add-on" in the classrooms and what distinguishes today's implementation-efforts of technology in school from earlier efforts? Manuel Castells (1996) argues that the digital revolution and the new millennium emerging network society also affect how we perceive time, space, interaction and knowledge. This can be recognised through the escalation of the digital format and the new Internet-based technology that has led to transformations in society in general. As mentioned, this has changed our society, but what kind of impact has this digital revolution had on school? Darrow (1932) expressed that the radio could "bring the world into the classroom" (Darrow, 1932 cited in Cuban, 1986, p. 19). Cuban demonstrates that this has not happened. The radio never gained admittance in classrooms, even if the expectations at the time where quite high. Some of the same rhetoric is heard concerning World Wide Web's potential impact in school, and the critics ask if we are now "recirculating old trails". Others claim that the World Wide Web is a considerable, technological leap away from the radio's potential. Here the virtual and the real world are increasingly joined together (Drotner 2001). Nevertheless, a common tendency in many earlier technological-efforts was the dilemmas and technological problems ordinary teachers experienced when they were trying to use the technology. The question is: will transformations speed up when new and more user-friendly technology with a lower threshold is launched? Does the convergent and transparent technology shift the focus away from the technology-issue to the pedagogy?
The convergence of technology and the interactive, flexible and networks'-engraved nature of today's ICT opens possibilities for access, manipulation, and production of information which surpass the objectives of the earlier software, educational system and curriculum which has been created a decade ago (Lund, 2003). At the same time many experience these reforms and curriculums as ambiguous and as Østerud (2001) describes it: "(...) like the antiques Janus figure the reform turns one face forward to the new millennium and one backwards to the industrial-society which now, in increasing tempo, becomes replaced by the information society or network-society, as one also describes it" (Østerud, 2001, p. 221). Østerud also problematises how this affects the teacher-role which has one foot on tradition and one foot on the new era: "Yes, even the information technology which has its starting point in line with the new millennium and the new society-formation, becomes at times mentioned as if it should be an effective instrument to preserve the established" (Østerud, 2001, p. 222). This technological ambiguity in curricula presents us with a situation where the teachers adopt the "safe and well-known", instead of the "new and unknown". They become "audience" and miss out on new possibilities for transforming the schools' pedagogy. Referring to the curriculum, Roschelle & Pea (1999) say that: "Since these documents guide efforts to improve and reform schooling, it is very unlikely that technology can achieve a large-scale impact without tight coupling" (Roschelle & Pea, 1999, p. 23). We have seen this dilemma in Norway where (though ICT became mandatory through the national action plan for ICT in the school from 2002/2003 (MERCA, 1999) recent ICT-studies (Kløvstad, Erstad, et al., 2005) shows limited subject-use of ICT compared to accessibility in school and society in general. In this way one witnesses the action plans, the rapid development and accessibility of technology creates certain new possibilities for teachers, but has to be clearly anchored in the curricula if it shall be institutionalised in school.
In a way the network society opens new horizons where the local, national and global, distributed practice is woven together and challenges our perception of geographical distance, identity and culture. According to Lund (2003) we encounter a situation where new ontological[xliii] and epistemological aspects escalate and "disturb" well-established and institutionalised views of the core in education; knowledge, learning and instruction. Despite this, Selander and Skjelbred (2004) say that the textbook still has the hegemony in Norwegian schools and controls much of the instruction in the classrooms. Norwegian textbooks are also characterised by a concervatism that entails canonical[xliv] texts and a canonical view of knowledge. As Haavelsrud notes:
(...) cultural literacy does not provide enough attention to the daily culture of youth and different ethnic cultures in comparison to the established and static culture that has already been institutionlized. (Haavelsrud, 1997, p. 251).
According to Østerud (2004) such cultural literacy (or cultural canon) preserves the established in school and e.g. the strong position of the textbooks becomes an obstacle for the curriculum's emphasis on project-work and the subject-use of new technology. Consequently, there is a reason to assert that in the school, the PC is still perceived as an external technology, while the textbook is an integrated part of the culture. Recent studies in Norwegian schools (Kløvstad & Kristiansen, 2003; Erstad, 2004b; Kløvstad, Erstad et al., 2005) confirm this and show that the use of ICT in the subjects is limited, the skill-aspect has the strongest focus, and the view of technology is often instrumental.
Teachers' Digital Challenges
In the network society it is necessary to become digitally self-confident in order to participate in society in general, as well as, in school. Technology becomes increasingly seamlessly integrated in the way we communicate and transparent our practices. Consequently, our traditional perception of communication has changed and the net-generation (Tapscott, 1998) is in many respects the innovator in this area. This communication transformation has its benefits and disadvantages, and opens new pedagogical terrain for the teachers. It is therefore reasonable to claim that this challenges the teacher in many ways. In the network society the teacher faces an increasing complexity which stands in contrast with the situation, current only a decade ago, when the World Wide Web was still in its infancy. The Norwegian teachers of today have to deal with the fact that digital literacy has become mandatory in all subjects, the distance between the subjects in the formal school setting and "the real world" decreases and new trajectories emerge. At the same time, the textbook-hegemony crumbles and the underlying premices for the subjects are changing[xlv] and the subjects are expanding their knowledge-foundations. But this is not problematic and it is necessarily a common development even if the technology-density gives educational possibilities. The teachers' perception of the Internet's contribution to education differs substantially and can be described as a "Rorschach-test of educational philosophy" (Resnick & Rusk, 1996a). According to Resnick and Rusk (1996a) we can find three main groups of teachers according to their instructional- and educational philosophy: The first group "(...) sees education as instruction: If we could just "deliver" better instruction, we would have better education. The second and third are more "learner centered", based on the belief that people actively construct knowledge from their experiences and explorations" (Resnick & Rusk, 1996a, p. 11). Resnick and Rusk (1996a) point at epistemological and ontological aspects which, in many ways, reflect how differently the Internet is perceived among teachers and what its contributions to educational purposes might be. They are specially preoccupied with the third group which: "(...) puts a special emphasis on design and construction activities, based on the belief that people construct knowledge with particular effectiveness when they are actively engaged in constructing meaningful artifacts" (Resnick & Rusk, 1996a, p. 12)[xlvi]. Even if one believes that the Internet has this potential, one still encounters several challenges and dilemmas when one gets closer to the concrete use of the Internet-technology for educational purposes. Several questions emerge, such as: Can one believe what one sees?[xlvii], Is the web-page cited today gone tomorrow? and Are net-encyclopaedias as reliable as paper-format-encyclopaedias?, which shows a discrepancy between the intentions and reality, as well as, the fact that we are in a way still in the infancy of the instructional use of Internet in school. The dillemma the teacher faces is obvious: when net-portals, net-encyclopaedia, net-dictionaires are a mouse-click away for the students, why should students bother with borrowing (often old) encyclopaedias and dictionaires from the Library (if it is not on loan?). The teacher also faces the dillemma between free, open-source, easy accessible encyclopaedias as Wikipedia[xlviii] (with limited quality assurance) versus high-cost, paper-based Store Norske Leksikon (The Great Norwegian Encyclopaedia) and Encyclopaedia Britannica with high quality assurance. But at the same time this terrain seems to alter, because in Nature an expert-led investigation with peer review of the coverage of science in Internet encyclopaedias, revealed that Wikipedia came close to Britannica in terms of accuracy (Nature, Special Report Dec. 2005). This might change our perception of such free encyclopaedias and how we can utilise such learning resources in school and to e.g. decrease digital divides[xlix].
Another issue will occur when all the paper-based encyclopedia goes (in full-version) online: can we value more favourably knowledge written on paper than the same words of knowledge in the digital format on the Net? These dilemmas give rise to a situation where actually: "Very few web resources are indexed to curricula, state frameworks or national standards" (Roschelle & Pea, 1999 p. 23), and are therefore not considered as valuable as paper-based textbooks, encyclopedias, dictionnaires.
Therefore, the Internet's "Rorschach-test", the distinction between "atoms" (books) and "bytes" (digitally learning resources) challenges us (Lankshear, 2003), and becomes continually revived; it enforces both pedagogical debates about educational philosophy in the network society, as well as, the need for a broader digital literacy among teachers, teacher educators and students to capture these challenges and dilemmas. The first step in this new pedagogical terrain is to admit that the Internet is a considerable leap from traditional software and as Castells expresses: "(...) the Internet (...) is not just a technology. It is the technological tool and organisational form that distributes information power, knowledge generation, and networking capacity in all realms of activity" (Castells, 2001, p. 269). Consequently, educators need to be aware of this distinction and the digital revolution's powerful convergence of traditional medias, which (in many ways) can be a time of upheavel of technology's impact in school and teacher education.
Conclusion
This position paper has directed a perspective on how the digital revolution affects teacher educators, teachers and schools in todays Norwegian, contemporary society. The main problem has centered around the question: How does the digital revolution affect school and teacher education in todays Norwegian, contemporary society? In this last session I will summarise the paper and highlight some of the main challenges.
First, the paper discussed why the implementation of ICT only succeeded when the school-organisation is able to restructure itself, and not just overlay the ICT on the old organisational structure. At the same time it is claimed that it is not sufficient to integrate ICT in such alteration-processes if one wants to achieve breakthrough innovations in the school organisation. Other structural changes must be implemented simultaneously with the introduction of the technology and to achieve this, it is important that both school leaders and teachers are the driving forces in such innovation processes, to be able to transform a well-intended project into an operation in the organisation, and be institutionalised.
One can also observe the importance of the Internet resources impact on the school's institutional structure. Digital artefacts have earlier been considered as "just a tool", but due to the fact that they have to be ascribed a higher authority in school (on the syllabus, part of exams, etc.), they can contribute to solve some of the digital challenges. This is a frequently encountered challenge for using web in education. Digital artefacts have to be integrated in the school's structure if teachers and students are going to use them (Roschelle & Pea, 1999). It is also worth noting that web-resources can also be used as new methodical gateways by both teachers and students, and when connected to the local needs and screenagers "online-existence", they seem to have their strengths where traditional textbooks fall short. And there is no doubt that the Norwegian students are digitally self-confident and motivated in the new pedagogical terrain, but at the same time, dependent on digitally self-confident teachers and new assessment-frameworks to avoid well-known pitfalls in technology-rich learning environments.
The paper also indicates that the students' seamless, "online"-existence, opens new trails with no subject-use-priority yet[l] (web-blogging, high chat use, sms, IP-telephone communication, PDA's, GPS-devices, etc.). This can be interpreted in light of Ulrich Becks' (1992) term subpolitisation, where screenagers are engaging themselves in issues which are tied to their lifeworld (including political issues). Specially, web-blogging seems have an interesting potential within digital literacy, which schools' must explore and incorporate as part of their curriculum and subject-use of ICT.
With this backdrop I claim that one can consequently see the countours of a situation where more technology is tied to the curriculum, syllabus and assessment-forms, the better the structural impact on the school organisation and the revitalisation of the teacher-role.
Secondly, the paper discusses whether we are facing epistemological challenges in our contemporary educational system. We know from the past that there has been a relationship between what we consider to be knowledge, and the means and methods by which this knowledge has been gathered, assessed and passed on through an educational system. The educational system has had an advanced grid of control and gatekeeper function, through certification mechanisms. We can also find that the educational system has been built upon the premises that indicate information has been restricted in terms of access (distribution through teachers and textbooks). From this paper I attempted to argue that these premises are now being challenged in our contemporary society. A high technology-density in the Norwegian society in general, combined with screenagers "online"-existence and digital literacy, challenges increasingly the school's hegemony as the main "knowledge-arena" in society. Consequently, the digital revolution and Internet give a re-conceptualisation of the core questions in learning and teaching: the what, the how and the why. I intimated that one can see the contours of new ontological and epistemological aspects emerge and disturb well-established discourses on education, knowledge, curriculum, learning and teaching. Through the new technology (the digital format and Internet) the epistemological perception of "what knowledge is" and knowledge-construction has changed. To a certain degree we see the conturs of learning as increasingly grounded in a social ontology, based on these emerging trajectories in the network society. The schools (and teacher education) have to incorporate these new trajectories, include this new-developed, broader, digital literacy (MER, 2005), and consider it as an important part of the screenagers' cultural habitus in the network society. If the school rejects the technology and neglects utilisation of the students' digital self-confidence, we can experience that (put to the extreme) the homes and "out-of school"-learning become a more important learning-context than the schools. With Doornboos' (2005) study in mind concerning formal/informal learning, the digital revolution and Internet can be considered as catalysts for "out-of school"-learning and learning as a social activity. However, this emerging, digital epistemological and ontological development creates several dilemmas, challenges and problems which show that the area is still in its "infancy".
As a conclusion, I will propose that some digital challenges of the school can be solved by upgrading the schools technological facilities to achieve the ambitious ICT-visions in the new educational reform. At the same time the schools have to make structural changes, by locally anchored strategies, with both the school management and teachers as "driving forces". As Cuban & Tyack says: "(...) whether teachers will embrace this new technology depends in good part on the ability of technologically minded reformers to understand the realities of the classroom and to enlist teachers as collaborators rather than regarding them as obstacles to progress" (Cuban & Tyack, 1998, p. 126). In this way the policy-makers, politicians, reseachers and school-leaders have to consider the factor which is probably the most important in our contemporary, ICT-implementation: the teacher, and give him/her necessary digital literacy to actually experience where the technology gives added value and where it is redundant. This can be constructive in achieving the mandatory ICT-use in school in general and incorporate the mandatory digital literacy in all subjects. Such develoment can alter how "teachers teach and learners learn" in our contemporary society, instead of participating in the general rhetoric around the technology's excellence or the exaggerated scepticism. And when ICT-use is not founded on technological discourses from the past, but on a more thoroughly "hands-on"-experience, it might be easier to bridge the Norwegian school and teacher education within this area.
References:
Balázs D. Kiss: Analysing Online Photo Pages
Since the 1991 introduction of the World Wide Web the standard appearance of pictures and photos has become available. With the help of this graphic surface web- pages are not only more colorful, but also more informative.
As one could easily prepare his/her own webpage, photographers and artists soon realized that there are almost endless possibilities on the Internet. Pages in connection with photography started to mushroom. Many pictures have been published this way for the first time and organized into virtual galleries. We are allowed to judge the pictures, to give voice to our pleasure or displeasure on many of these pages.
Another group of online web-pages are composed of photomagazines dealing with the technical matters of photographing. At first, these were Internet extracts of printed newspapers. Publishers knew very well that appearing on the Internet would become compulsory and inevitable. However, they also needed to make a profit, so first, only extracts of the paper could be found, and actual news and tests were published later than it appeared in printing. Later, they realized that with the help of the Internet they could reach their readers faster, and would not lose their returns by selling the possible commercial space (for example banners). Furthermore, advertisers would not only get an estimated number concerning publicity rates, but there are exact numbers to prove attendance. Afterwards editorials were founded that only appeared on the web. On these sites mainly the digital image taking is discussed that may be the most important advantage of the Internet. The features of digital pictures cannot be reproduced in the usual manner of printing on the Internet. For instance, comparing a resolution or showing how an operation is executed, is almost impossible to demonstrate in printing. Pictures displayed on the Internet, however, can be saved on a computer and seen with the help of a picture viewer or photo editor program. Neither is possible in a normal newspaper to keep the camera in your hands, turn it around and have a close look at it. On the contrary, on the Internet, however, there are almost endless possibilities. For example, with the help of a simple 3D program anyone can produce pictures that show all sides of an object.
This entails instant and secure success for these web-pages. The latest generation of photographic sites are called blogs, i.e. Internet diaries. Blogs not only deal with artistic themes, but also show daily issues, stories accompanied by a few lines of text. Generally, anyone can tell his/her opinion concerning either the picture or the text.
The EOJA viewpoint system is not always applicable when we analyse websites dealing with photographing, as the text is often not necessary for the understanding of the picture. Nevertheless, it is totally subjective whether you like the picture at hand or not. The same image can raise different feelings based on cultural, social or religious beliefs. That is why I will try to remain objective throughout my analysis. Still, it will not be easy, for my choice is already subjective, as this is not the first time I see and read these sites.
With this article my aim is to clarify how these value systems were set up. I will try to show and rate both Hungarian and international web-pages from several aspects: surface, layout, content, etc.
The main criteria is that everyone should have access to the page i.e. it should serve with material without payment.
In this essay I am, first, going to examine these sites separately, based on their outer appearance and content, then I will finish by comparing them. When working on the analysis of surface and content I have considered the following viewpoints:
Surface
|
External appearance: How informative is the first page |
1-5 points |
|
Construction: Frames and proportions. Location within the homepage. |
1-5 points |
|
Graphics: Visual components. Graphics, flash, java and colours. |
1-5 points |
|
Menu: What is the menu system like? Practicability. |
1-5 points |
|
Links: Are links written or graphic. Placement. |
1-5 points |
|
Transparency: Arrangement, letter type and size. |
1-5 points |
|
Summary: Maximum points for the surface. |
30 points |
Content
|
Language: Written in one or more languages? |
1-5 points |
|
Value: Content. How detailed and useable is the site? |
1-5 points |
|
Layout: Construction of the subject matter. |
1-5 points |
|
Accessibility: E-mail address, co-workers. |
1-5 points |
|
Links: Further links on the topic. |
1-5 points |
|
Summary: Maximum points for the content. |
25 points |
However, not even this method can be used when analysing blogs. These are specified forms of appearance, which can only be analyzed in text, so in the case of these websites only outer appearance, content (quality of the images) and quantity of the links can be rated on a 1-5 point scale.
The first blogs appeared around 1997, usually written for a closer circle of friends. The word "weblog" was coined by Jorn Barger in December 1997. Since then several people tried to define the expression more precisely, but one thing is sure: „Weblogs are pages refreshed regularly, pointing to other articles on the Internet, often with remarks, or with links pointing to an article on the same page." (Dave Winer) First they were a collection of links with a few remarks, but today, blogs are also written with a private, commercial or political purpose. It was Howard Dean who first used weblogs as a tool in his election campaign. (http://www.blogforamerica.com/ )
Writing photoblogs has spread soon after bloggers made their diaries adequate for publishing pictures.
The first website to be analyzed is the most significant Hungarian page on photographing, called the Index Digicam.
|
Surface |
Content |
||
|
Aspect |
Points |
Aspect |
Points |
|
Apperance: |
4 |
Language: |
1 |
|
Layout: |
4 |
Value: |
5 |
|
Graphics: |
3 |
Layout: |
5 |
|
Menu: |
3 |
Accessibility: |
4 |
|
Links: |
4 |
Contacts: |
5 |
|
Transparency: |
3 |
|
|
|
Summary: |
21 |
Summary: |
20 |
The website started in 1999 as a member of the Index group. In the beginning the articles coming from other pages dominated its content, but today it is the most often visited Hungarian online magazine on photography. Digicam gives room for not only technical news, but also for tests and arts. Regular and permanent photo competitions organized by the website attract many talented amateurs to send their pictures.
Appearance and layout is better than the average, still, graphic components are out of date and yearly refreshing is lagging behind regularly. Unfortunately, Index Digicam can only be read in Hungarian what makes it more difficult to be competitive on the international scene.
The second website to be analysed is Steve's Digicams, one of the most significant photo magazines on the Internet.
http://www.steves-digicams.com/
|
Surface |
Content |
||
|
Aspect |
Points |
Aspect |
Points |
|
Apperance: |
4 |
Language: |
2 |
|
Layout: |
5 |
Value: |
5 |
|
Graphics: |
4 |
Layout: |
4 |
|
Menu: |
4 |
Accessibility |
4 |
|
Links: |
5 |
Contacts: |
3 |
|
Transparency: |
4 |
|
|
|
Summary: |
26 |
Summary: |
18 |
Steve Sanders founded the page in November 1998. Sanders was a well-known expert in the USA, as well, and published in several newpapers. The site mainly deals with technical issues, has a huge database and consists of information about almost all types of digital cameras. Articles are written by professionals in a style easily understandable and exciting, for those interested in a specific type of camera. In case of amateur machines a simple and comprehensible style is used, while during the testing of professional cameras the description is detailed. They tend to use multimedia solutions. Since the foundation of the hompage nearly 519(!) million people have visited it. I am sure this number speaks for itself.
The third page to be analized is called LetsGoDigital, which is a typically European site.
http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/index.html
|
Surface |
Content |
||
|
Aspect |
Points |
Aspect |
Points |
|
Apperance: |
4 |
Language: |
5 |
|
Layout: |
5 |
Value: |
4 |
|
Graphics: |
4 |
Layout: |
4 |
|
Menu: |
5 |
Accessibility |
5 |
|
Links: |
5 |
Contacts: |
5 |
|
Transparency: |
5 |
|
|
|
Summary: |
28 |
Summary: |
23 |
Most of the authors are Dutch, but there also some English and Spanish among them. Even after a long search, LetsGoDigital is the only homepage that can be read in 5 languages: English, French, Dutch, Spanish and Turkish. Perhaps German should have been added, as well.
The site contains links to other pages on the topic, and also about tests and descriptions on previous products by the same manufacturer. LetsGoDigital also possesses a huge database; it is probably not exaggeration to state, that this is the best European homepage.
The fourth website to be analysed is Imaging-Resource, an English page
http://www.imaging-resource.com/
|
Surface |
Content |
||
|
Aspect |
Points |
Aspect |
Points |
|
Apperance: |
4 |
Language: |
2 |
|
Layout: |
4 |
Value: |
4 |
|
Graphics: |
3 |
Layout: |
3 |
|
Menu: |
4 |
Accessibility |
4 |
|
Links: |
5 |
Contacts: |
3 |
|
Transparency: |
4 |
|
|
|
Summary: |
24 |
Summary: |
16 |
After five years' planning this was founded by Dave Etchells. Although Etchells is not a real expert, still, after having a few initial difficulties, managed to develop the site into one of the most prestigious pages. Imaging-Resource is the only site to support RSS standard that makes it easier to read news on the Internet. This method saves a lot of time for the reader, as most important news items are collected for him. It would be important for editors of other web-pages to recognize a potential in this kind of technology.
Now comes the analysis of two photoblogs. The first will be a Hungarian one: photoblog.hu. http://photoblog.hu/
The author of this blog is Ervin Sperla. On his own admission, Sperla is an amateur photographer, but this is not noticeable in his pictures. The images are magnificent, sometimes full of tension, sometimes perfectly calm. Although the titles are not always as good as the pictures themselves, this is not of major importance. The essence is that the images always tell us what the author has seen or felt that day. Regular visits to this site are highly recommended!
Appearance: 5
Content: 5
Links: 4
The final page to be analysed is photodotmonkey. http://photo.monkey.net/
The only information concerning the author is that he is an expert of photography. There is hardly any information about the images; the titles and technical details of the pictures can be found alone. The most frequent topics are the sunset and children's portraits. These themes, however, vary because sometimes other themes are also portrayed, as well.
In spite of the commonplace topics he is tries to take pictures that have a meaning for the spectator, unfortunately, with not much success, as most of the comments show that pictures recall the viewer's own child or someone familiar. Most of the sunset pictures show a tree that gives us nothing new. Obviously, he exploits the technological know-how of his camera and lens, but the pictures lack novelty.
Appearance: 4
Content: 4
Links: 5
Variety, is something that is typical of the Internet, but is also true for the sites dealing with photography: some of them are simply illegible, and not worth visiting, while others are professional both in the quality of the pictures and their content. Everyone can find something for his/her taste, but careful, the combination of the text and picture might lead to serious dependance!
Balázs E. Pataki: 10 years of SZTAKI Dictionary
Imagine a world without Google, without Amazon, without Wikipedia, without broadband and without the need for them. This is our world ten years ago in 1995. In 1995 when Kevin Mitnick was arrested by the FBI and charged with breaking into some of the United States' most "secure" computers systems; when AFC Ajax beat AC Milan 1-0 to win the Champions League; when the oldest flute, made by Neanderthal maybe from the phalanges of a Neanderthal mammoth, was found by Dr. Ivan Turk; when „Toy Story", the world's first feature-length completely computer-animated movie, could be seen at cinemas together with Mel Gibson running all over the Scottish highlands with his blue painted face roaring "Aaaaaa" and "Grrrrr"; when Netscape launched its initial public offering; when Microsoft released Windows 95 without a web browser, because why would anyone need it; and when the Walter Ostanek band received the Grammy Awards in polka category. Congratulations!
And 1995 is the year when in June the SZTAKI Dictionary started up with its English-Hungarian dictionary as the first interactive service of the Hungarian web. According to contemporary estimations, there were only about 23,500 so-called "web sites", thus pages like "Wagner list" containing manually edited link collections listing new web pages in Hungary were essential and worked as the homepage of the Hungarian web. At that time the World Wide Web was only two years old and not even the Linux hackers knew what to do with those disgusting HTML markups - or whatever they are called - that they should serve with their newly set up CERN www server. In the meantime, those a bit familiar with the WWW in Hungary started a debate over how ‘website' should be translated into Hungarian: címlap, főétlap, nyitólap, ottlap, bázisoldal, honlap? Címlap wins the "official" competition, yet honlap, which came in the fourth place, becomes the de facto standard naming for web pages. Honlap, together with ottlap, is the creation of dr. László Kovács, the initiator of the SZTAKI Dictionary honlap.
To make a quick travel in time you may click this link and see what the dictionary looked and worked like in 1995, when it was a non-trivial for web browsers to support frames and tables.
The SZTAKI Dictionary was started as a small "hobby" research project at the Department of Distributed Systems (DSD) of MTA SZTAKI to learn about WWW and the various scripting languages showing up and supporting the web. And the status of this project hasn't really changed since: this non-profit service is continuously developed and managed by the members of the department in their free time, although in these ten years the number of pages served by the dictionary raised from a weekly 2500 to today's daily 7-800,000. For a long time the dictionary was developed together with SZTAKI's own homepage, but in 2001 the szotar.sztaki.hu and dict.sztaki.hu domains were created and the dictionary was turned into a separate project. Unfortunately the dotcom boom never reached us and no one wanted to throw 4 tons of gold and other precious metal dirtied with gems into Lágymányosi Street, so that we can make a big business from the dictionary. After the dotcom bubble's deflation we realized that we can do this web business that badly by ourselves too, so we came up with the idea of reaching the top with strong marketing in the absence of capital ventures. The only problem was that we didn't know what marketing is, but it didn't really seem to bother our company. We issued our first SZTAKI Dictionary marketing pages in 2001 at Christmas, where we promoted a number of new features of the service with the help flash movies (a boxed elephant, rotting animated rose depicting the logo of the Barátok közt soap opera, etc.) and with texts we found funny. It turned out that our users found these things funny as well, therefore we decided to come up with new editions and new marketing pages of the dictionary more or less regularly - usually every season - where we announce new developments or other information related to the dictionary.
During the ten years the dictionary has been continuously developed with the help of our many and enthusiastic users without whom it would have been not as fun spending our free time on the service as it was. They helped us with their advices and critics but also with tremendous contribution. At the beginning we had the English-Hungarian and German-Hungarian dictionaries, the databases of which we got from the Hungarian Electronic Library. Later we received more or less complete databases from our users in various languages, which we published with their help. Today the SZTAKI Dictionary serves dictionaries in 5 languages (English, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Polish). Let us say thanks for our supporting users for their great work.
Besides extending the number of dictionaries and contents of the dictionaries the service got more and more new features. It now includes pronunciation support in English and German, a talking dictionary in English and Hungarian, and various access methods besides the standard web form (bookmarklet, context menu search, WAP; Open Office and MS Office integration, as well as a MacOS X dashboard widget is on its way - thanks to dictionary user contributions again).
Developing the dictionary and exchanging thousands of emails with dictionary users was fun on its own. However, there were some extremely amusing moments in the life of the dictionary. In April 2003, for example, we received an email from Diana:
Dear sir,
My name is Diana and I have visited your web site with a very good on line hungarian-english dictionary. Unfortunately, I didn't find the translation in English of the word "pinarago". I suppose this is the hungarian word for a specific kind of fish.
I suppose, also, that "pinarago" is a very rare fish, because I couldn't find it anywhere on the web (google, yahoo, altavista). Could you tell me, please, the english or french word for this fish?
Thank you very much in advance,
Diana
First we thought that someone must be joking with Diana, because pinarágó did not sound like a name of a fish at all. However, after some search on Google we had to change or mind and we had to send this reply to Diana:
Dear Diana,
when I first read your email I thought someone must have been joking with you, because "pinarago" didn't really sound like a fish to me. Instead it sounds more like a slang or cursing. That's because the word-by-word meaning of "pinarago" is "pussy chewer" or "pussy bubblegum"
Then I did a search with Google and found this:
http://szekelymagyar.transindex.ro/?betu=p
"pinarágó: aprótermetű" hal (valószínu"leg vágócsík, lat.Cobitis taenia), leánykák elrettentésére használják: pl. ne menj a mélyvízbe, mert ott a pinarágó"
This means: "pinarago: small fish ('vágócsík' in another word, or Cobitis taenia in Latin) used to deter girls. For example: don't go into the deep water, because there is the pinarágó".
"pinarágó" is used by székelys - Hungarians living in Transylvania.
You made me learn something new, and I hope I could help you as well. :-)
This story, published in the marketing pages, was picked up by some users and spread all over the Hungarian internet like a virus and made a name for the dictionary. Even events that are otherwise considered catastrophic turned into amusing and amazing situations. In March 2005 the power supply of the dictionary server broke down. In the lack of a spare power supply the dictionary service was halted and the dictionary URLs were redirected to a single page on another server informing the users about the sad facts. The effect of the temporary loss of the dictionary service was surprising: in a couple of hours we received half thousand emails from users all over the world telling us how sorry they are, how much they like the service and how much they miss it. Replying to this high demand, we started a little blog in the place of the temporary information page to inform the visitors about the status of the broken part, when the new will arrive, etc. mixing all these infos with the funny messages we received from the users themselves. This emergency blog was so successful that we had nearly the same number of visitors as if the dictionary server was normally running.
We celebrate the 10th anniversary of the dictionary with a complete rewrite of the user interface based on XHTML and CSS. With these changes the pages served by the dictionary engine became much (about 40%) smaller and works much better with browsers. For example with Opera. But not always in Internet Explorer. An there's the Mac ... But Firefox rules. Anyway, now we have a dictionary interface that is much more accessible and can be easily changed to look just as ugly as we (or our users) want it. But this is only the first step in our next 10 year dictionary developing program. We would like to make it more usable, more feature rich and the dictionary content more adequate then ever. For this we would like to work even closer with our users and build the next generation of dictionaries using a new and exciting collaborative dictionary editing platform.
Balázs E. Pataki: 10 years of SZTAKI Dictionary
Summary
I have examined the tendency of mineral water consumption habits in Hungary, applying comparative research. I have taken Anikó Barkász' questionnaire made for mineral water market survey in 1993 and aimed for similarity in methods and inquiry for a better comparison. (Sampling based on the gender, age and dwelling of persons questioned.) My goal was to search for an answer as to what manner of changes have taken place during the last few years, how this has influenced the consumers' attitude, how often, when, where and for what purpose people buy, consume mineral water and why they decide for a certain product, and where they buy it. The result of the research is that consumption habits are generally influenced by the privatisation of state companies, a demand for a healthy lifestyle, with an increasing tendency of consumption in Europe, and a growing solvent demand and transformation of food distribution network.
Introduction
In Hungary, mineral water consumption habits have radically changed in only twenty year. The tendency of a balanced, low consumption of 2,5-3,5l/year/capita, illustrative of the ‘80s, has changed in the middle of the 90's. The basic cause is the more market-friendly attitude of newly privatised state companies. Due to the changing of their approach they spend much more money on marketing and make the consumers acquainted with the effects of natural mineral water on the human organism (www.asvanyvizek.hu). In 1994 the Hungarian population consumed close to 50% more mineral water than the preceding year. In spite of this we can observe a dynamic (mostly double-digit) growth in the industry (Fórián 2002). (Sheet 1.)
Sheet 1. Consumption of bottled mineral water in Hungary.
|
Year |
Rate of growth/preceding year |
|
1994 |
49,2 % |
|
1995 |
30,9 % |
|
1996 |
10,2 % |
|
1997 |
26,4 % |
|
1998 |
28,2 % |
|
1999 |
23,3 % |
|
2000 |
40,0 % |
|
2001 |
8,2 % |
|
2002 |
17,9 % |
|
2003 |
18,5 % |
|
2004 |
20,0 % |
Source: Ásványvíz, Üdítőital, Gyümölcslé alkoholmentes italok, 2002/3-4. szám. (Mineral waters, soft drinks, fruit juices and non-alcoholic drinks, 2002. No. 3-4.)
We can generally observe that the people of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the lands lying north of it prefer carbonic mineral water; whereas the inhabitants of the southern countries prefer still mineral water. In Hungary, in 2004, the people only used a quarter of the amount of still mineral water in comparison with the carbonic one. Mineral water is placed on the market in PET- and glass bottles, and in throw-away and returnable bottles. A recent tendency of the past years has been the increased demand of throw-away PET-bottles, which owing to its lightness, durability and better accommodation suited consumer habits better. From among the packages the most popular are the 1,5 litre and 0,33 litre bottles.
An ascending tendency of mineral water consumption expands over the entire European continent, which has given rise to the following:
On the basis of the statistical measuring of GISENEC-UNESEN, Hungary is in the middle-field in mineral water consumption with an amount of 60 litres/year/capita (in 2004). This value is half the consumption of Germany, and only one-third of Italy. The intention of the industry is to catch up with Austria, which has a value of 90 litres/year/capita.
Materials and Methods
In my research I wish to concentrate on the tendencies of mineral water consumption habits in Hungary in the past twelve years. My goal is to demonstrate the fundamental structural, marketing and customer changes of this period. The aim is to attach importance to answering basic issues like how often, when, where people drink mineral water and why, in which shop and for what purpose they buy it. For this, it is necessary to perform a comparative assessment beside using sources of specialized literature. In the research the marketing research results of Anikó Barkász (Hungary, 1993) have been used as a basis for comparison. (Considering circumstances, attributes and examination of population aimed at similarity in order to complete the comparison.)
Altogether 500 persons took part in the examination, from which 300 were women and 200 men. The division according to grouping by age and dwelling approach the estimates provided by the KSH (Statistical Bureau of Hungary). (Under the age of 20 20%, between the ages of 20 and 30 36%, 30-40 16%, 40-50 12%, above 50 16%. In grouping by dwelling 12% of the queries were in villages, 26% in the capital and 62% in towns.)
Results
The following will begin to present the results of the questions and the possible answers provided in the questionnaire.
Every day, every week, occasionally, or never.
Contrary to the data of the year 1993, the rate of habitual mineral water consumers has grown from 24% to 59% by 2004, among the questioned persons (sheet 2.). Parallel with this the volume of consumption has also grown by leaps and bounds. In 1993 from 6,5 litres/year/capita to 60 litres/year/capita by 2004; consumption increased by nearly ten times. Rate of occasional consumers decreased by 30%. People became habitual consumers (among others) as a result of their ambition for maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
According to the measuring of GfK Hungária in 2005 a Hungarian adult consumes mineral water three days a week and consumption doubled in the past fourteen years (www.gfk.hu). Moreover, the prices of mineral waters have grown only a little in Hungary, thanks to price competition. In the questionnaire reasoning of non-consumers has corresponded with the 12 years earlier one, however today consumers know the benefits and physiological effects of mineral water better. (The most frequent answers were: "I don't require it", I don't consider it important, it is worthless for me, tap water is just as good, etc. /Barkász, 1993/)
Sheet 2. Frequency of consuming mineral water.
|
Frequency |
% (1993) |
% (2004) |
|
Every day |
15 % |
24 % |
|
Every week |
9 % |
45 % |
|
Occasionally |
59 % |
19 % |
|
Never |
17 % |
12 % |
Every season, seasonally, every...
From the results of this question it appeared that nowadays mineral water is a fundamental consumption product and its seasonal character has been lessened. According to the measuring of GfK Hungária in the first quarter of 2005, mineral water is on the 11th-12th place in the series of mostly consumed products (www.gfk.hu). We must emphasise however, that summer still remains the largest trade period, besides the big holiday shopping (Christmas, Easter). This fact is supported by the steps taken by market actors, too. From June, 2005, Szentkirály Mineral Water Ltd. has doubled its daily production capacity, because demand for mineral water greatly increased in summer, which could not be supplied with the two old production machine systems of the company (www.drink.hu).
At home, at work, at catering places, everywhere.
Sheet 3. Places of consuming mineral water.
|
Place |
% (1993) |
% (2004) |
|
At home |
45 % |
33 % |
|
At work |
9 % |
10 % |
|
At catering places |
29 % |
22 % |
|
Everywhere |
17 % |
35 % |
The sheet shows that in the beginning of the ‘90s the most characteristic consumption place was the home of the family, and restaurants, catering places. By 2004 this consumption habit of ours has changed, too. (Sheet 3.) Today home consumption is also important, but people drink mineral water almost everywhere, every time, in every situation with pleasure, owing to its many-sided usability. Sporting, recreation and after-lunch consumption loom from these (László 2004).
On the basis of its contents, price, brand, ad, outside, type, suggestion by acquaintance, only this is on the market, other:...
This question is necessary because it is important to understand what motivates people to drink mineral water and what is the reason for somebody choosing a certain product from the shelves. Understanding the attitude, and the acts of people is supplied by motivation psychology and various motivation theories. Attitudes for filling needs are explained (among others) by Maslow with his pyramid of needs, McClelland with achievement motivation, Murray with division of needs into primary and secondary classes. Manufacturers must understand that consumers do not buy products: they buy a solution for fulfilling their needs (Hoffmeister-Tóth 2003).
Sheet 4. Standpoints of buying mineral water.
|
Point of view |
% (1993) |
% (2004) |
|
Contents |
33 % |
36 % |
|
Outside |
4 % |
6 % |
|
Price |
10 % |
25 % |
|
Type |
10 % |
6 % |
|
Brand |
11 % |
14 % |
|
Suggestion |
7 % |
7 % |
|
Advertising |
2 % |
4 % |
|
Only this is on the market |
16 % |
1 % |
|
Other |
7 % |
2 % |
The result of the measuring shows that choice was greatly influenced in the beginning of the ‘90s by logistical problems, which have almost been held off by now. The category of "contents" is often heavy to separate from taste, since contents determine consistence, salinity and carbonic characteristic of mineral water. People chose and choose on the basis of contents, but price always remains a strong influential factor. Also the measuring has verified that Hungarians are very price-sensitive. Today we can distinguish three categories according to prices on mineral water market in Hungary:
Manufacturers have to calculate with the following cost-agents during their production process: compulsorily payable water-utilization contribution, carriages, packaging costs, and marketing expenses.
We can draw a conclusion from the changes of data of choosers by brand and by advertising that companies have a strengthening marketing activity, which is becoming stronger with intensification of market competition. We do not consume more mineral water on the basis of outward features and suggestion of other people - shows the research. (Sheet 4.)
For supplying a biological water demand, instead of drinking tap water, it is a part of healthy nutrition, for dilution (e.g. wine, syrup), for a specific lifestyle, other:...
Sheet 5. Aims of mineral water consumption.
|
Aim of consumption |
% (1993) |
% (2004) |
|
Biological water demand |
17 % |
9 % |
|
Instead of drinking tap water |
21 % |
18 % |
|
Healthy nutrition |
28 % |
54 % |
|
Contents |
14 % |
4 % |
|
Dilution |
14,5 % |
10 % |
|
Style |
0,5 % |
3 % |
|
Other |
5 % |
2% |
Consumption data have formed in accordance with the expectations. Category of healthy nutrition and healthy lifestyle has doubled (54%), value of "biological water demand" has practically halved (9%). Today, beyond filling physical-biological needs, mineral water consumption touches more and more on the upper stages of Maslow's pyramid (self-fulfilment). Slightly fewer people drink mineral water instead of tap water, but this can change with a degradation of urban public utilities network. It is interesting that in the questionnaire based on a self-assessment rate of consumers for the style has sextupled (3%). Because of self-assessment this value is usually larger in reality. (Sheet 5.)
Supermarket, hypermarket, greengrocer, market, other:...
The structure of food industry has dramatically changed from the beginning of the ‘90s by now. Earlier data demonstrate that supermarkets were the most popular at that time. Intense spreading of hypermarkets with wares in large quantity and range (Tesco, Cora, Auchan) results in changing our shopping habits. Large weekend shopping of families is typical in these commercial units. Families generally choose 1,5 litre bottled products in a six-piece package because of its economical character and practical keeping quality. (Naturally, this shopping habit postulate a motorised lifestyle.) Among others, the "Other" category is increased by the typical case of people choosing the nearest little shop for quenching. They generally take the 0,5 or 0,33 litre bottled product in such case (László 2004).
Sheet 6. Places for buying mineral water.
>
|
Place |
% (1993) |
% (2004) |
|
Supermarket |
64 % |
34 % |
|
Hypermarket |
10 % |
10 % |
|
Greengrocer |
5 % |
5 % |
|
Market |
3 % |
7 % |
|
Other |
18 % |
44 % |
The categories of "Greengrocer" and "Hypermarket" have not changed. Nowadays, greengrocers rarely sell mineral water, but keep a lager stock of soft drinks. The category of "Market" shows an interesting growth. Renovation of large markets can play a key role in the doubling. (Sheet 6.)
Glass bottle, plastic bottle, metal can, paper can.
While in the ‘90s imported mineral waters were often in metal and paper cans, nowadays consumer needs have made glass and valuable plastic bottles come to the foreground. This was important because glass and plastic bottles emphasize and strengthen better mineral water associations formed in consumers. This is verified with measurements that healthy and delicious ideas and their synonyms occur first with the consumers. Healthy, because it is clean, natural and free from chlorine and delightful, because it refreshes, delicious and quenches thirst (www.asvanyvizek.hu).
Sheet 7. Packaging types used for mineral waters.
|
Package |
% (1993) |
% (2004) |
|
Glass bottle |
60 % |
2 % |
|
Plastic bottle |
37 % |
98 % |
|
Metal can with velcro |
1 % |
- |
|
Multi-layered paper can |
2 % |
- |
The measuring done in 1993, as well, supports the theory, that Hungarians are conservative in their consumer decisions. At the same time, such a high rate of glass bottles (60%) is not a means of a high environment-friendly consumer attitude, knowing the purchasing power of the time (Barkász 1993). Production of today is fundamentally based on plastic bottles. (Sheet 7.) Opinions vary between consumers whether one-way or recyclable bottles are better. People who prefer recyclable products say these bottles are cheaper, stiffer, they are easier to hold and they are environment friendly. Others prefer comfort, because they do not have to redeem disposable PET bottles (László 2004).
Holbusz and Pekk demonstrated (with their examinations with university students) that 83% of the questioned people choose disposable bottles and only 17% choose recyclable ones, although most of the brands cannot be bought in recyclable bottles, glass bottles have spread in catering (Holbusz-Pekk 2003).
Conclusion
The mineral water market, including the consumer habits in Hungary, has totally changed from the beginning of the ‘90s until now. Average consumption in Hungary has been increased from the middle of the ‘90s by now and has reached 60 litres/year/capita. With this value, Hungary is in the middle-field in the series of countries. Our middle-distance intention is to join Austria, which has a consumption of 90 litres/year/capita. An ascending tendency of consumption is characteristic in the whole of Europe, which has assigned in one respect to demand for healthy nutrition and lifestyle, a growing solvent demand, and increasing marketing activities of market stockholders. Hungarian consumers generally prefer 1,5 litre and 0,33 litre bottled carbonic mineral waters, depending on their manner of shopping.
Comparative research shows that beside the growth of consumption volume, people today drink mineral water more permanently (69% of inquired people). People have become habitual consumers (among others) as a result of their ambition for a healthy lifestyle. Moreover, prices of mineral waters have grown only a little in Hungary, thanks to price competition. Nowadays, mineral water is a fundamental consumption product and its seasonal character has been lessened, too, though summer period remains determining. Consumption at home and in catering places has been a characteristic of the beginning of the ‘90s, also of today, but people now drink mineral water almost everywhere, every time, in every situation with pleasure.
Consumption decisions, at the time of the preceding research, were greatly influenced by contents and the question whether mineral water is buyable at all. Today, beside contents, price is the key factor, so forging ahead of commercial brands is expectable in low-price category. Today, beyond filling physical-biological needs, mineral water consumption means more and more a healthy lifestyle and nutrition. With the fast spreading of hypermarkets, the place of purchasing has also shifted; our purchasing habits show large weekend shoppings, where we generally buy 1,5 litre bottled mineral water, packaged in six piece units, in foil. In the town, however, for fast relief of our thirst we prefer 0,5 litre bottles. Today, glass bottles are used only in the catering industry; unbreakability, transparency of PET-bottles satisfies the consumers' requirements.
Bibliography