Journal for Social Media Inquiry

Emotional Contagion on Social Media Platforms: New Directions in Cognitive Science and Practice

Abiola Bamijoko-Okungbaye — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0300

Social media platforms have been hypothesised to be a source of mental disorders to develop, and emotional contagion has been described as a precursor of these disorders. This paper systematically explores the key features of emotional contagion as a psychophysiological and behavioural experience required for the conversion of these disorders to propose an innovative characterisation of mental disorders on digital platforms as socially construed and value-laden phenomena.

Transferring Historical Iconography into a Contemporary Visual Perspective. Case Study: Adamclisi Monument

Cornelia Motaianu — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0300

It's known that any form of communication uses signs. Communication through signs, the imagistic dimension of artistic creation, has been the basis of all periods of cultural development of humanity. Understanding these periods in human history has been a constant concern for historians, art historians and archaeologists. For example, the translation (the decoding) of the hieroglyphs (i.e. visual narratives) allowed the understanding of the complexity of the Egyptian culture.

Another example comes from the time of ancient Rome, where visual narratives contain complex infographic messages. The war periods followed by peace were an opportunity for cultural affirmation and development in which infographics played an important role. The power of the prominent figures of the Roman Empire was also due to the use of infographics on the emblematic monuments.

This paper aims to bring a new perspective on the cultural history of humanity through the presence of infographics as a political tool for transmitting complex messages. The study presented in the paper is a decoding of the Adamclisi Monument, a Roman triumphal piece of architecture located in southern Romania, used to show a strong cultural and political message about war and peace. By transferring the symbols, shapes and human images from the metopes of this monument into contemporary visual form, one can lead to new ways of rendering historical and cultural events in a contemporary artistic interpretation.

Mediatizing and Framing the Centennial Year. Comparative Study between Government’s Communication and Media’s Social Construction of Reality

Mihaela Păun — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0300

Government’s communication and media’s social construction of reality should be one and the same and should reflect what is happening near or around us. The Centennial Year was for Romania a very important one that had a special attention from the authorities and from the media. The Centenary meant for the media sadness, circus, pragmatism, the Centenary of Disunity, chaos, incompetency, lack of respect for the country. As through commemoration the government shows how important is the history, in this case, for the people, this research brings into attention the role of the historical memory and mediatizing moments.

The content analysis was used to research the 98 articles and press releases in order to find out how has been presented one of the most important moments from Romania’s history. The articles have been selected taking into account the following themes: the main one – the Great Union Centennial, the second theme: legislation and budget.

Romania is part of many international entities such as European Union (2007), North Atlantic Treaty Organization (2004) or United Nations (1955), and the legislative, financial or social decisions are related to the policies, rights, responsibilities and procedures of all the transnational agreements and actors implied. In this international context, the Romanian Centennial Year 2018 has a historical significance and might be mediatised in connection with the political shifts from Romanian “government 2.0” to “government 3.0”.

As the government has been changed for so many times, so were the decisions, and this is the main objective of this research: to see and to present what has been the significance of the Centenary.

Analysis of the Organization of the Council of Europe from a Historical Perspective

Loredana Terec-Vlad — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0300

Before the start of the first world conflagration, the problem of the organization of the European territory was perceived as being stringent, and two main directions were advanced: on the one hand, by "simple cooperation, that respected the existing state sovereignties", and on the other hand, by "overcoming sovereignties through a process of unification, followed by integration" (Manolache, 2018). The two World Wars, that caused millions of victims in a relatively short time, and the establishment of totalitarian regimes, fascist ideology and communist tendencies determined the creation of systems for the protection of human rights.

General Considerations on International Human Rights Law in the Context of New Technologies

Loredana Terec-Vlad — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0300

Throughout history, man has been presented to us, on the one hand, as a barbarian, and on the other hand, a being endowed with reason, capable of carrying out actions for the benefit of his fellows etc. Man is the only moral being, the only rational being, therefore is often the subject of the most controversial situations that history could register over time. In this paper we will analyze the situation of the natural person in international law (Barbu, 2015a, 2015b), emphasizing a series of relevant aspects for contemporary times, aspects that, in the context of new human bioenhancement technologies, invite us to reflection, to critical thinking and establishing a moral/ethical/legal attitude.