UNIVERSITATEA BUCURETI Facultatea de tiine Politice Secia Englez

LUCRARE DE LICEN

ndrumtor tiinific: Prof. Dr. Alexandra Ionascu Absolvent: Lixandru Daniela-Elena

Bucureti Iunie 2013

ANALYSIS OF THE DISCOURSES FRAMING THE 2008 ELECTION IN ROMANIA

ndrumtor tiinific: Prof. Dr. Alexandra Ionascu

Absolvent: Lixandru Daniela-Elena

Bucureti Iunie 2013

Table of contents Chapter I. Introduction..........................................................................................................4 1) Pragmatic perspective on the speech...................................................................................6 2)Objectives of pragmatics......................................................................................................9 3)Pragmatic boundaries of political discourse........................................................................11 4)Concept of speech................................................................................................................11 5)Political communication concept.........................................................................................12 Chapter II. Theoretical framework on political discourses.................................................17 1)Notion of political disourse...................................................................................................17 2)Political and electoral speech................................................................................................19 Chapter III. Discourse and situational context of the parliamentary elections of 2008...........................................................................................................................................26 1)The role of the internet in the election campaign...................................................................27 2)Social media- communication tool.........................................................................................29 Chapter IV. Case study on the political discourse strategy-Candidate: Horia Laurentiu(PDL).......................................................................................................................34 Conclusions................................................................................................................................42 Bibliography ..............................................................................................................................44

Chapter 1.Introduction Political transformations can be defined according to the theory of chaos: the development of the system is non-linear, unpredictable, sensitive to any change and even from simple everyday events. We find here a lot of opposites: generalized conflict, understanding the seemingly unthinkable betrayal within alliances, friendship between opposers, own interests more important than any other interests. Also, is not a surprise for anybody if, in the political discourse, one promisses and changes his mind, one says something to someone, another pass as the opposite, own achievements which occurred by itself and translate as personal failure success collectively. Therefore, we are in the face of complex realities but especially contradictory, with ideological, political speech appears as a lack of credibility or even manipulation, in which good and evil are placed in brackets, as well as any other related judgments of morality. The objectives referred to in this paper are presented in the form of research questions methodological levels, operational level, descriptive, instrumental, but especially explanatory. Thus, as regards the methodological aspects, we can identify the following challenge: How can be built a research model that would explain the "influence" of a type of political speech? It pursues a methodology which would decrypt the method of operation of political discourse and that the groundwork for the construction of an explanatory theory of discursive relations capacity. This methodology is based on the identification of two ways to use the language expressed in terms of persuasion and manipulation. For each of these, it will follow the discursive forms of manifestation. In an operational plan, the research question is: how are delimitated the influencing mechanisms and strategies of political speech ? It will be the identification of the means used for social influence. This will give us the ability to decipher the process adopted in the wake of the attitudinal "utterance" of a political speech. In descriptive terms, the goal is interrogative expressed as it follows: How are the electors influencing mechanisms and strategies used in the romanian political speech following the exposure of a political speech? Observing the actual manifestation of contemporary romanian political speech contributes to highlighting the fact that the forms of

social influence, including high-profile ones persuasion and manipulation-are common practice and not simply abstract concepts. They are intended for carrying out a guide of how to use the mechanisms and strategies for achieving the goals of a political actor, aimed at explaining the answer to the question: The political speech- persuasion or manipulation? The universe of this research is at the crossroads of pragmatic and political speech, social practice of language study centering on political speech capacity to influence opinions, attitudes and beliefs. The review will take into account the concept of political speech whose sphere extends maximal from orality to writing, from direct communication to the technologically mediated, from text to context, from Word to image. The intention of this research is to put an overview of ways in which the political discourse is explained in terms of "social influence", in a general sense. The vastness and complexity of the field of political discursivity make it necessary to establish a methodology that can provide an answer regarding the explanation of political speech. Thus, the work does not have an undisciplined character, it is at the boundary between the rhetorical and pragmatic sociology. Pragmatics provides a comprehensive understanding of discursivity and some of the research methods of political speech, rhetoric structures the examples analysis, of individual discursive formations, and sociology, in particular by ethnomethodological direction, contributes by delimiting social spaces, and context of the different variables used in the analysis of political discourse. Complementarity of the paradigms of pragmatics, rhetoric and sociology into study the phenomenon of political discursivity is warranted, additional by the features present as intersection points.

Discursive activity is one activity fundamentally marked by rules affecting the production and the interpretation. In appearance, political discourse is a phenomenon strictly regulated: linguistic (semantic, syntactical rules or pragmatic), legal (Criminal and Civil Codes and the law on access to public information), institutional (regulations and discursive practices of each type of an existing organisation) and moral (need to respect promises made, discursive ethics). At the same time, the production of political speeches, however, seems not to follow any rule, sometimes not even the elementary.

The Research Center, thus, providing a response to an essential question: what is the influence of technical political discourse? Throughout the investigation we will try a consolidation of the image of the public space as social practice, we will identify and investigate political communication, the concept of speech and political discourse, but also elements of influencepersuasion and manipulation-as the current facts, communication strategies and of sociological research. "The media defines social dialogue in public as direct interaction that allows the changing of opinions through access to information, through democratic freedom of speech but also through" transparency "political acts. In today's media society, "political action spreading is constitutive"1, is a social reality which appeals to today's developments in methods and techniques for obtaining power.

1) Pragmatic perspective on the speech. This chapter aims to provide the first step towards a systematic research on political discourse as an instrument of "influence" of understanding social phenomena. In the first place, it will provide a methodological view, it will outline the purpose of pragmatics as scientists, will be an analysis of the concepts of speech and political discourse, the discourse of legitimacy and the place occupied in the specialized political communication. Therefore, starting from general to the particular, it will be outlined an overview of the starting point of the research, and innovative perspective on the approach. Political communication is defined primarily in terms of intentionality, it is an oriented, scheduled for completion desideratum purposes action. "It is a field of social relations in which some patterns of inducement are intersecting"2. Summarizing the characteristics of communication, it gets through its distinctive particularities (situations pertaining strictly political-speech communication, propaganda, political campaign, political relations, methods, etc.), from the perspective of pragmatics, the study of the object of research. Pragmatics studies "the use of language in context and context dependence of various aspects of the linguistic interpretation"3. Starting from the initial assumption of pragma,
1

Beciu, Camelia, Politica discursiv.Practici politice ntr-o campanie electoral, Polirom, Iasi, 2000, p.10l Idem, op, cit. The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995, p. 586.

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understood as action, Language Sciences Dictionary assigns pragmatics the meaning of "the study of using the language"4. More precisely, this is seen as a discipline whose object is the language, regarded not only as a system of signs, but also as an action and communicational interaction. Pragmatics would be, in this perspective, a usage linguistic, examining the effect of various components of the context of the production and reception, both in terms of structure and meaning. The emergence of this science relates to the contribution of Charles Morris, in his final approach to semiotics5, surrounding three sides of the general theory of signs: syntactic, semantics and pragmatics. Syntactic is the study of formal relations and signs mutual focuses, neglecting other areas of the relationship, on logic-grammatical structure of the language. Semantics deals with the relationship of signs and denoted objects. Pragmatics is part of semiotics that deals with reporting to their users, and signs and all phenomena involving psychological, sociological and biological that interfere in semiosis functioning. The merit of this definition is the putting of the two fundamental aspects of pragmatics, the sign and its users. Definitions of pragmatics are different depending on the paradigm that underlies them. Thus, Anne-Marie Diller and Francois Recanati had given a definition of linguistic Pragmatics: "pragmatics studies the use of language in speech and specific marks in language, demonstrating its discursive vocation". For these authors, pragmatic deals, as well as semantics, with showing the meaning, as in the way in which certain linguistic forms convey their meaning only through the determination of the use. The same paradigm, Oswald Ducrot and Jean-Marie Schaeffer believes that it can distinguish between two models of pragmatic: "the first studies everything that pertains to a situation where the sentence is used and not just the linguistic structure of a sentence; the second deals with the effect of the speech situation; thus, the sentence, in addition to information that it provides, takes into account the relationship established between the speaker and the participants in a discussion ". In both ways, pragmatic speech, either studying from the perspective of change in the direction of providing context, either from the point of view of processing based on speech, the situation in which this is happening. Linguistic approach of pragmatics puts emphasis on the study of particular elements of the signs, particularly on what at first instance, in the common sense we call text. This approach provides an analysis of the limitation, deriving less relevant components of the global context.
4 5

Bidu-Vrnceanu, Angela et all, Dicionar de tiine ale limbii, Editura Nemira, Bucureti, 2001, p. 121 Morris, Charles Writtings on the General Theory of Signs, Mounton The Hague, Paris, 1971.

Analyzing the studies of pragmatic, Francois Latraverse believes that can be delineated two meanings of this science. First, broader, understands the role of pragmatics as being to "explain the functioning of language in relation to the concrete conditions", including all of the features that enable compliance with the requirements. Thus, pragmatics becomes interdisciplinary, opened to the contributions on other disciplines, such as sociology and psychology. The disadvantages of this definition relate to the fact that does not allow a rigorous identity pragmatics, by assigning a constant empirically, descriptive character, does not allow a conceptualization is notable. Pragmatics is being developed, here, from a logical perspective; it comprises not only the index problem, but also that of the language laws. Despite the obvious perspectives diversity, all these definitions outline a point of intersection of the research in the field, but also the diverse approach. Pragmatics is integrated to semiotics is originally because, later on, to develop independently. His first boundary was made autonomous by John Austin and John Searle, through acts of language theory. His area has witnessed a continuous development and then diversification, which has led to the emergence of conflicting opinions about its status as a science. The current guidelines are between the comprehensions poles of pragmatics as integrated to Linguistics (alongside syntax, semantics and phonology) and perceiving it as a truthful, independent. I believe, in a restrictive way, on the footsteps of Francis Jacques, that "a pragmatic approach to language at the same time as a discursive phenomenon, social and communicative is analyzing the conditions of possibility of discourse". By extension, the research becomes composed by views of this perspective, following the main directions: construction of meaning and analysis of argumentation; the theory of language, techniques and presuppositions; the study of language and the conditions for "success": conversational maxims, influence theory, theory of ethics; some research areas and specialized languages (political speech, journalistic, scientific, etc.) and special events.

2) Objectives of Pragmatics

Starting from the assumption, the characteristics of pragmatics, there can be delineated two main outcomes of this science: first, defining a common language research and specialized ones; Secondly, the study of conditions for communication in general and effective communication in particular. In what concerns th approach to common and specialized language, if Linguistics was oriented towards studying the linguistic system as such, pragmatics endpoint is to study the process of language ageing. Pragmatics was developed due to certain changes in the language sciences perspective. Thus, understanding the language as having not only a representative function, but, at the same time, active and communicational was a starting point for pragmatics studies, particularly on the language laws and conditions of communication. The language process is a form of deliberate behavior, closely related to human action. In his work, How to Do Things with Words, John Austin has developed the theory of language, the theory that proposes a demarcation between illocutionary acts, locutionary and perlocutionary. The locutionary consists of a simple issue of signs based on the internal code of a language. The act, seeks to force ilocutionary communication of a sentence, and lies in the act of saying explicitly, leaving aside exceptions, how locution should be interpreted. Perlocutionary consists of the act taking effect and consequences for the parties .To perlocutionary acts, in Austins interpretation, comes to obtain certain effects on the emotions, thoughts, behaviors or actions of the speaker. Illocutionary acts can be carried out only if the intention under which are submitted by the emitter and conventions of interpretation are assumed by the receiver, but the explicit perlocutionary acts are independent of consent of the parties. We can say that its basic meaning can be found at the illocutionary level, hidden, "metaphorically" at the perlocutionary level. From another point of view, the distinction between constitutive and the performative utterances can be achieved through the use of the criterion of authenticity. Therefore, there are constitutive sentences that can be put under the sign of truth or forgery and performative sentence which are not assigned these values of truth, they can be "judged just in terms of success or failure. These sentences are not thankful just to say something, but to do something. For distinction are used performative verbs: he said, she promises, to praise, and in current speaking are used variously as " language tricks" accent, intonation, often contextual elements

are essential. These distinctions are fundamental in delimiting and defining communication and political discursivity. The issue of language acts, of their effectiveness, of direct and indirect types, translates into an essential concern of pragmatics, i. e., on the observation of action. The domain of language acts, considered by some of the authors, along with the study of index, the main legitimate study for pragmatics, it can be provided a new perspective, pointed to praxeology but also to the action theory. In a new twist, the linguistic meaning of Austin and Wittgenstein has generated pragmatically concerns and pragmatic conditions of communication. If the study conditions for effective action took place particularly at the level of the sentence, looking from this new perspective is going to another level. The link between a part and its context consists of communicative reasoning. Research of conditions of effective communication is carried out from the point of view of pragmatics, through recourse to concepts such as: maximum principle and law of the speech, and in our case even to discourse ethics. Therefore, pragmatics can be defined as the study of the use of language, as a science focused primarily of effects in a cause-and-effect report. The effects of changes involve context with regard to the interpretation of the text, and in particular, those of the speech upon speaker. Language, in this view, not only has a self-referential, but strictly a communicative and actionable role.

2) Pragmatic Boundaries of political discourse: Analysis of pragmatic perspective on discursivity tries to answer two fundamental questions: what do we mean by diatribe from the standpoint of pragmatics and what are the mechanisms for analyzing a speech.

3) Concept of speech:

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The term of discourse sends to a polysemantic universe, in which the differences in the definition of a fundamental influence the methodology and scope of the analysis. The concern for language and communication led to the formation of diverse and complementary sciences that attempts to delimit fields and specific research methods. Pragmatics is a permanent dialogue, mostly beneficial, with these related disciplines with whom it has shared the study field of the relation of signs to their users. Reporting from some of the pragmatics of opposing disciplines, we find its specificity with regard to the concept of speech analysis. The speech is, for complex issues of sociology, a field of research. For Pierre Bourdieu and Loc Wacquant the notion of field has the meaning of "objective network relationships between social positions." We identify, in this perspective, specialized speeches as the scientific, administrative, media. Delimitation is ambiguous in relation to the generation sources, a fact that affects the accuracy of the investigated area. Defined in ancient times as "the strength of convincing" or "science of speaking well," rhetoric simplifies the speech in the concept of lecture. In present times this domain extends to writing, but also to the new systems of signs (posters, images political marketing). "The rhetoric analyzes the performance of the speech, emphasizing the argumentative, poetic, conceptual, textual mechanisms ". In all rhetorics assumptions, however, the speech has the meaning of unique communicative event. The new rhetoric is based on the speakers attitude, the legitimization of the "axiological" rationality (Weber)6, being understood as an attempt to identify ways of discursive enunciation of certain views, schematization of human interaction situations and concerns as "the fundamental reality of language , conversation analysis. In Linguistics, speech is not limited either as language but as a social product of the language based on a set of conventions, adopted by social bodies to permit the exercise of the faculties of individuals or as speech, individual and moment using form of the language, but now becomes reality between them. It is a particular typology of organized speech specific means in order to achieve a purpose. In fact, when we talk about the linguistic of lecture, we have in mind not a discipline, with a well defined object, but an overview of research that addresses the language by placing in the foreground subjects, dynamic of the sentences, relationship with the social context. 5)Political communication concept:
6

Raymond Boudon, Handbook of the Sociology of Morality, 2010, Springer, p17

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Harold Lasswell wrote in 1936 that politics refer to the "who, what, when and how obtains," or, as it denotes much later another american7, is "the art of getting votes from the poor and raise funds from the wealthy, promising them to protect each of them apart from each other." As a result, policy always means to seek to convince other social actors, to make them understand that a particular collective decision will be beneficial to discuss to arrive at an agreement between groups with divergent interests. So, communication is inherent in any political action and entitles us to conclude: politics is a discourse and communication universe or, as David Bell said8, "politics is discussion"; however, as a discussion is not the same thing as a politics. In this manner is tackled the concept in the small political science encyclopedia9. Thus, in a narrow sense, political communication is the activity of specialized institutions that were created in order to disseminate and promote information, attitudes and ideas on the issues of governance, and in the broad sense is the exchange of information or "pooling" of values that allow the various actors to understand the political society. According to this dictionary, communication political character shall be assessed according to the direct or indirect, mediated or immediate consequences that may have on the political system. From this perspective, the communication policy is the one that ensures consistency between the ones that govern and the ones that are governed through a continuous exchange of information: an expression of the sovereign decisions of those who govern on the governed, it expresses the legitimacy of the authority towards the governed. Along history, political communication has developed, expanded and diversified, occupying a place in contemporary political systems. The nature and purposes of political communication varies from one political system to another, depending on the actual purposes of the system and the extent to which it incorporates and develops the principles of real democracy. And whereas, answering this way to Harold Lasswell also, individuals and groups obtain what they want through their and others political type actions, due to the way in which society is structured at a time, through rules and conventions that are governing the modalities accepted by action.
7 8

Stan Le Roy Wilson, Mass Media/Mass Culture: An Introduction, McGraw-Hill, Inc. 1993, p.358 Bell, David, V.J., Political Linguistics and Political Education (Lingvistica politic i educaia politic). Lucrare prezentat la al X-lea Congres mondial al Asociaiei Internaionale de tiine Politice, Edinburgh, 16-21 august 1976. n Limbaj i comunicare politic, Academia "tefan Gheorghiu", Caiet documentar 4/1977 9 Mic enciclopedie de politologie, Editura tiinific i Enciclopedic, Bucureti, 1977, p.82-83

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Many of the definitions relating to the process of political communication ascertains the author of a study devoted to discursive politics-start from variables such as "intentionality" "the way"-"political event" to which are given different emphases and contents10. The main idea you have in mind is that this communication is understood as a teleological action, an actionoriented, scheduled, designed for specific purposes (political), which involves rules, procedures, techniques and resources enabled by certain political events. At the same time, however, the author draws attention to us and the other item-heterogeneity of conditions which contributes to the production of political communication, which makes some authors to assign political communication to a "space" or "field" of social relations. These variables broaden or narrow the field of political communication definition. With respect to the legitimacy of the public space it is representative to the political parties and political figures, statistics (scientific) for the polls and public opinion, and media and their professionals (journalists) are that of the possession and use of the information. Belanger (1995) includes political communication to social relations, typical for the process of influence, "an influence in the first place, and then converted into a willful act or, on the contrary, in action. It's always a pillar of a possible behavior of the receiver ". Negrine (1996) addresses the political communication in the perspective of a complex system of political information communication centered on journalistic practice, a certain political socialization of society and the democratization of state institutions. Laureniu oitu, without having to define the synthesizers, considers political communication, broadly, what members of a society think and say, meaning public opinion, located on the first level of the grid (table)11. Outlining social communication levels indicates political communication specialization: describing public opinion by surveys can be resumed and played with using mass- media, its knowledge becoming a social fact of second order; political institutions, in turn, generates specific communication: between citizens and power - from citizens towards power: the vote; power communication to citizens through propaganda and legislation; communication between states - diplomacy

10

Camelia Beciu, Politica discursiv. Practici politice ntr-o campanie electoral, Polirom, 2000, p.27-28 SOITU, Laurentiu. Pedagogia comunicarii. Bucuresti, Editura didactica si pedagogica, 1997,p.25

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Social level of communication Individual communication Reunion of individual communication Renewal of individual communication in massmedia Specific social communication

Field of political communication Individual opinion Public opinion Opinion poll

Vote Table made by me

Uundoubtedly, the author discusses that the study characteristics (variables) are not just of political communication; they are defining for any act of communication (which is intentional, regulating the context), because the act of communication is a "regulated" interaction of not only the parties but also the identities of the communicative act being carried out. We talk, however, about types of communication because the "functions" and "interaction rules are different. Political communication is an institutional interaction between political actors, media, public and electorate, therefore, between participants with formal ID, representatives (not to be equated to the institutional communication, which is in reality a category "good for all", used by professionals to refer to everything that is not product promotion). In fact, political communication actors constitute institutional genres with resources, projects, and different motivations. They interact with a number of codes and rituals meant to produce political domain visibility - a field consecrated through definition to (by Convention) advertising. Because of that, frequently political communication passes as the preserve of other "institutions", the public image manufacturers. This would turn "politics" into an appendix of "communication" of the different techniques and formulas for the production of "the political

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show" (note that, although everything related to public visibility, ultimately, has a dramatic dimension, but the phrase "political show" was enshrined in conversational sphere.) On the other hand, the communication policy is increasingly treated as a dramaturgic action being forgot the fact that we are dealing with a social practice that can serve democracy. The relationship between political actor and democracies the public space we will find that each media contribute to the production of the other. Public space mediates between political action and democracy space12. Political communication is a product of the public space13 as far as media coverage has become a process of incorporation of all public practices, including politics (for a politician, media coverage has become an integral part of his action. At the present time, the action of the political man needs to be consistent, one way or another, with the coverage). When you support a point of view is recommended not to be forgotten, however, two things: First aimed at publicizing the fact that, although it is a procedure of "intervention" more or less "free" over some facts, it is assumed by the public that a particular actor, as a rule, is a media channel. Therefore, not the procedure itself should be brought into question, but its utilization. Regardless the deontological, political and legal system, media coverage means a quadrate of the public interest facts; The second, social practice, media coverage should not be reduced to an exercise in manipulation. Social groups and personalities participating in the public space, primarily politicians, is already thinking about participation in mediatic terms. Finally, the power of the "resistance" of the characters.

Politic sphere is constantly feeding public space with themes and communication practices. Language and political reasoning would constitute the dominant code of public agenda (including the nonpolitical agenda), reduced increasingly to a "demonstration force". The

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Democratic space -formed by actors,procedures and institutions that form the decision related to a collectivity.Rationalizes the media and public space giving it a goal and a model of organization.
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Public space- a concept of the principle of publicity as a social norm.Unlike propaganda, advertising is one of the values of the democratic regime;democracy is a condition of posibility of a public space,and this, also consists as an indicator for democratization.

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democratization of political action, however, depends also on the characteristics of public media space. As far as media coverage is designed as a democratic project, it develops or should develop responsible politician in front of the electorate. It is expected that media practices to produce not just a "political show", but to contribute to the democratization of political action. Political communication is one of the most eloquent expressions of social modernity. It drew the attention of specialists as the development of the democratic system has to turn politics into public domain. However, as a study discipline, it was relatively recently after many time figured as one of the sociology themes of mass media and communication sciences. Referring to this issue, Doru Pop writes that the research projects of political communication were stimulated by the studies initiated by Walter Lippmann, especially through his reference paperwork based on the existence of an audience able to keep themselves informed and of a responsible press14. This analytical trajectory has been continued in the study group of the University Colombia, being developed in the theory of restricted effects of which model put on a functional interpretation of political communication structures, especially by ignoring the role of the media in influencing political campaigns and processes. It can be said that political communication science has emerged as expression of interdisciplinary research of the 1950s. In the late 70s begun a series of critical attacks against this perspective, especially taking into account the development and extension of audio-visual techniques in political communication. The development of an advertising electoral and persuasion culture by specific means of television advertising, functioning on commercial advertising criteria has moved the one direction interest for the "institutionalized" media towards the more sophisticated means of communication. The call to music, video-clips, symbolistics and imagery, especially for building negative materials, transfers the effects of the media on political communication in a domain where the influence becomes a criterion for evaluation of its results, prompting a whole new category of "image communicators", specialists in forming public images. However, political communication uses media as a side information channel, its main expression forms being the informational and political ones, which manifest at the level of political structures.

14

Doru Pop, Mass-media i politica, Institutul European, 2000, p.21-22

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Chapter II. Theoretical framework on political discourses 1)The notion of political discourse "Speech" is a complex term that can be defined as a set of sentences of a transmitter, which refers to a single topic. From a pragmatic perspective, the speech is "an explanation involving a locutor and an auditor, and the speaker's intention to influence each other"15 . Other interpretations of the speech concern the equivalence with: - The text (in which the communication perspective and the topics generally coincide, such as, for example, within the framework of the written communication); - A number of texts (conversation) that illustrates an interaction between two or more speeches centered around a single theme, and made each of several texts (since each sentence of the conversational exchange represents a communication unit, and so the story itself). "Discourse" (public exposure on a subject16) is not only the content that is communicated at a time, though without the content is not possible the production of the speech. Patrick Charaudeau in his work Grammaire de sens et l ' expression defined the discourse as a comment about the situation in which communication occurs. In other words, the speech is a way of organizing the content of communication-through a combination of enunciation, logistic operations, themes, etc.-which enables an additional content on how the locutor in evaluating a specific time, which informs his position and the position of interlocutor.17 "The speech," says Camelia Benciu, is a way to use language and speaking (nonverbal languages, different specialized vocabularies languages) on the basis of which a social actor has his interlocutors an interpretation of some facts. As far as using a certain language and speaking, produce effects on our direct and indirect parties, we can say that any act of communication has a discursive dimension. So "the speech is the contents of the message that a person communicates toward after it has been processed, to stimulate and trigger certain emotions, thoughts or discussions in the public's mind or heart."18
15

Emile Benveniste- Probleme de lingvistica generala,vol. II,trad. Lucia Dumitrescu,Editura Teora, Bucuresti,2000, p.68 16 Dicionar de neologisme, Editura Academiei R.S.R, Bucureti, 1973, p.352 17 Chraudeau Patrick, Langage et discours. Elements de semiolinguistique ,Paris, Hachette,1983,p.64 18 Camelia Beciu, op. cit., p.42

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Synthesizing some authors views (Recanati, 1980; Ducrot, 1991; Charaudeau, 1992), Camelia Benciu states that developing a "discourse", we put into circulation certain facts and, at the same time, characterize the facts in question; We ascribe to our interlocutors in a new position according to the situation in which we find ourselves; we indicate how much we engage in the act of communication and how important it is for us the situation in which we communicate. Through the speech, we are redefining the communication situation evolved. The speeches differ, because they comment different communication situations and contexts with some degree and type of social encoding. A situation of communication includes: - the interaction context (the discursive role of each participant in the Exchange and expression of satisfices certain expectations of the other party); - communicative context (type of communication-verbal, Visual, etc.-which supports the expression and sharing which correspond to the specific practices of communication); - event Context (which triggers the speech situation). Usually the first two contexts are already coded and emergent; It depends on how each participant uses these contexts, as resources when you initiate a discourse. It follows that the typology of the speeches may be determined according to: - the situation type to be commented; - the comment corresponding type.

2. Political and electoral speech Political speech is a public speech, aimed at presenting and arguing some principles, ideas, and problems of public interest, from a political perspective, aiming to make decisions, to adopt laws and public action directions19. Uttered in the Forum or in the Senate, in the ages of antiquity, democracy in Greece and then in Rome, political discourse has been illustrated by great orators who got into history and considered as models of eloquence (Demonstene, Cicero, Quintilian). Aristotle dedicated a work (Rhetoric) to this kind of communication, studied in educational institutions. Rhetoric, in fact, continued to be studied and in the middle ages, recognized as being among the "seven liberal arts". Political speech flourishes or fades
19

Sultana Craia, Teoria comunicrii, Editura Fundaiei Romnia de Mine, Bucureti, 2000, p.65

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depending on the social climate. He is the product of democracy so that it develops in the framework of specific institutions (parliaments) and in the electoral context (in English, American democracy, and then in other European democracies, in the 19th century and in the 20th century).

Characterizing the political discourse Camelia Benciu20 highlights the following highlights: First, the speech is political, because it evaluates the communication situations which are highly ritualized. Development of politics is becoming more specialized, there is already a repertoire of events which enable, on one hand, communication and political action, on the other hand, practices, communication and political action. So, political discourse is updating the default relative situations due to the fact that they include already-encoded-contexts. Secondly, what distinguishes the political speech of other types of discourse is precisely the high degree of political discourse: political speech is punctual and depending on events. Any political discourse operates on the basis of a conventional argument justifying, on the one hand, the role of the institution and, on the other hand, the public image of the man who represents the institution. The actor should be determining in performant economy different types of contexts that make up a situation, acting in what degree and in what contexts coded contributes to the emerging context and interpretation, thereby producing a speech. Thirdly, a speech is a political speech through the specific comment that produces on the communication situation. Commenting on the actual content is always a part of the standard comment concerning the veracity of the communicated content. Fourth, a speech is political when it is self-evaluated as "true" or fair. More than any type of speech, a political speech communicates the "correct version" of a content and, through that, the maximum commitment of the author in relation to the veracity of the content. Political discourse tells the truth "before" the content itself, i.e., before any other comment assigned to this content. Moreover, the political discourse matter stems from the fact that the politician activates depending on the communication
20

Camelia Beciu, op. cit., p.42-43

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situation, certain credible communication strategies that organizes the content in such a way that they can communicate the truth (the politician needs not only to affirm truths, but also be perceived by voters as being the person who tells the truth in this situation, and the truth "in general regardless of the situation "). Too anxious to build credibility, political actors promise too much or too much ease to say what they want people to hear. On the other hand, the media in which political actors contribute to the development of some more sophisticated credibility techniques. Thus, in a first stage political discourse is found as "truth" based on ideological grounds, an outcome of the era, politicians have a whole technological device and scenic that produces "true images".

Chapter III. Discourse and situational context of the parliamentary elections of 2008 Until 2004 the parliamentary elections were held together with the Presidential ones. Now, for the first time, the electorate voted only for candidates for Parliament, presidential elections being scheduled for 2009. If Romania until 2004 used proportional representation, now, for the first time, was put into practice the uninominal system. In November 2008 parliamentary elections have a much more specific note. This is because both the political and economic contexts in which they occurred and a number of intrinsic elements of the electoral process have experienced changes and brought an extra dose of novelty21. The 2008 parliamentary elections marked the sixth electoral exercise after December 1989, marked as a psychological threshold of the end of the transition had a high degree of unpredictability. Several factors have contributed to customize the moment: -Were the first parliamentary elections held after EU accession. Beyond the historical and symbolic importance of the moment, the country's new political status is relevant because it

21

Bulai Alfred, Mecanismele electorale ale societatii romanesti, Editura Paideia, 2010, p. 25

20

boosted stake electoral confrontation. This is because winning power provides access to Community funds, an extremely attractive and necessary for successful governance. For the first time, elections were not held in parallel with the presidential. Increasing the President's mandate to five years has made the choice of Deputies and Senators a distinct independently electoral process. The lack of "electoral locomotive", i.e. the identification of parties with potential presidents and personalization of the offer had consequences not only on the conduct of the election campaign, the strategies and actions of each competitor, but also influenced the vote presence. - The architecture of political scene based a relative triangular equilibrium left an opened to any result confrontation. The Romanian type unique 1 co-habitation experience dispersed and limited political control of the power and the existence of two political actors and parties (PD-L and PSD) bastions forces have created a unique background for the parliamentary elections. The economic crisis has created the prerequisites of political attitudes and behaviors are subjected to a psychological pressure of relativization of everything that means the standard of living (employment, income, prices, costs, etc.)22. Even if the topic developed in an exclusively discursive way and only the last part of the election campaign and even though at that time the economic crisis existed primarily as potential, it contributed to the creation of the specific context of developing the parliamentary elections (not every year is a global economic recession). Changing the electoral law was unquestionably the central and defining moment of parliamentary elections in 2008. The existing stake around the so-called "uninominal vote" has created a disproportionate level of public expectation in relation to the purpose, role and significance of the electoral system. This is an aspect that customizes the parliamentary elections of November 2008. Therefore, requires further explanation. Beyond the confusion which exists in the present between the electoral system and elections or between type and rule processing of votes in places, was created and was induced through political discourse the idea that political discourse the way of voting, in this case "uninominal vote" can have curative effect to the political scene. The changing from blocked lists to "uninominal vote" was considered a panacea for the relationship between voter and representativeness. However, in reality the electoral system does not have such power. Its
22

Gheorghe Teodorescu(coord.),Volumul I Alegeri 2008 Campanii lideri si sondaje, Editura Polirom, p. 12

21

purpose is not to reform the parties or "to renew the political class"23. Electoral legislation does not make the politicians more responsible and active citizens. The capacity of electoral mechanisms to produce effects at the level of the political system has been greatly overstated. Expectations were not just exaggerated, but also unrealistic. It is true that the electoral system puts his mark on the architecture and operation of the political system. But he is just one of the factors that act in this direction. His influence over the party system must not be generalized and elevated to the rank of exclusive condition, but neglected. Its strength to change visibly the politic status-quo is rather a conjectural and dependent on other factors such as the action of a community, its history, the dominant political culture, social structure, etc. In Romanias case, the electoral system could generate less structural changes at the level of the political scene, taking into account that it did not suffer any changes. Law No. 35/3008 maintains proportional representation system as a general principle under which is determined by the composition of the legislature. Thus, the "uninominal vote mean neither in theory, nor in Romanian practice, the application of the rule of the majority (winner takes all). He has not established a majority electoral system with the uninominal vote, although he hinted that. Despite the cropping constituency (equivalent to counties) in Maramure and the establishment, at the level of these colleges, absolute majority rule conditionally applicable , the electoral system used to elect deputies and senators is as proportionally as possible (given the use of the d'Hondt method24, large parties, as well as favorable and the existence of electoral threshold). The effects of majoritarian type are compensated, and the finality of the election process reflects the principle of proportionality. Results achieved confirm this.

Table 2 Parties/ DEPUTIES CHAMBRE SENATE

23 24

Idem 2, p. 45 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D'Hondt_method -accessed on 20/05/2013

22

political formations

VOTES Abs no. %

MANDATES VOTES Abs no % Abs no. %

MANDATES Abs no. % 35,76 37,22 20,43 6,56 100

1. PSD+PC 2. PD-L 3. PNL 4. UDMR 5. Total

2.279.449 33,09 114 2.228.860 32,36 115 1.279.063 18,57 65 425.008 6,17 22 334*

34,13 2.352.968 34,16 49 34,43 2.312.358 33,57 51 19,46 1.291.029 18,74 28 6,58 100 440.449 6,39 9 137

6.886.794 100

6.888.055 100

*National minority organizations, others than Hungarian ones: 18 mandates, meaning5,38%. Total registered electors on electoral lists: 18.464.274 25

Complementing this picture, the electoral inadequacy extent highlights a reality which the artisans of "uninominal vote" did not have it in mind: new formula increased the electoral proportionality system generating the most balanced report votes/seats since 1990 and until present. Denoted by G and calculated according to the formula proposed by Michael Gallagher26, inadequacy index highlights the existent discrepancy within a political system between the popular vote and the political vote. This variable expressed as a percentage of the votes were distributed differently than they voted. Following the parliamentary elections of 2008, the value of Gallagher index is 2,457. Therefore, the "uninominal votes, wrongly identified with majority rule has reduced the degree of electoral inadequacy and generated the most proportional results of post-communist history of elections, although it has introduced a few majority items (in the process of allocation of mandates and the transformation of votes into seats).
25

Table 2- http://www.becparlamentare2008.ro, accessed on 28/05/2013 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallagher_Index , accessed on 29/05.2013

26

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Immediately after the announcement of the election results, "uninominal vote" has undergone a wave of criticism and gripes came from the political and media sectors. The reproaches towards the law No. 35/2008 have been linked to the process of awarding of mandates related to the hierarchy of electoral colleges. For one part of public opinion it was incomprehensible how the winner (with a relative majority of votes) of the College did not receive the mandate27. Amid a sense of injustice were political signals concerning a new amendment to the electoral law? "Uninominal Vote" was and is considered a first step toward reforming the electoral system and on the way to the politic class. The next step may be that of a mixed formula, since the revolutionary option from proportionality at majoritarian is neither commonplace nor recommended. Obviously, you can skip this step directly to the majority electoral system with the uninominal vote (with one or two rounds). Again, however, such a system generates and produces, in any case, i.e. overnight after one or two shots in a row, an abstraction of "reform of the political class". Majority rule is appreciated because it favors the creation of a parliamentary majority, the turnout, by converting a relative majority of votes in an absolute majority of seats. In consequence, Governments have just one color (more) stable and (more) effective, proponents of this type of electoral system. However, both the post-political experience, as well as the political scene after the parliamentary elections of 2008 is questioning the majority arguments. Not only the power, but also the opposition have been released in the populist measures that have made Romania "worst governed" member of the EU, after The Economist For example, in September 2008, the Parliament approved a salary increase of 50% for teachers28, which the national budget could not back it up. Convinced that it is worth increasing remuneration and ignoring the possible inflationary spiral, the unions have threatened a general strike, but succumbing in the end. Social discontent and the first signs of the powerful international economic recession also marked the beginning of the election campaign. But the campaign has not centered on any topics of national importance, not that many candidates have highlighted the problems of local communities, but because they did not want to endanger the chance of being elected29. Unsure of how the uninominal would translate into practice, the candidates did not presented daring
27 28

Idem 2, p. 40 http://www.mediafax.ro/social/salariile-din-invatamant-cu-50-mai-mari-3246244, accessed on 02/06/2013 29 ARPAD, Teodor, Anul electoral 2008: alegeri strategice i evoluia cmpului politic n TEODORESCU, Gheorghe (coord.), Alegeri 2008. Continuitate i schimbare, Editura Polirom, Iai, 2009,p. 74

24

programs and did not assumed risks, preferring to adopt cautious positions to amass as many votes as possible. To be noted the unrealistic commitments made by applicants (construction of 1,000 km of highway in a country where they have just completed 300 miles in the last 20 years), or have set goals which were prerogatives of the parliamentary mandates (free distribution of auto tractors equipped with GPS systems). The campaign has ignored issues such as nationalism, corruption and getting read of communism. If in 2000 Vadim Tudor was to win the Presidency, in 2008 its chauvinist calls have not found its listeners. I have never heard voices raised against the claim of the Hungarians from collective autonomy or the situation of Romanians in Moldova, or the "sacrifices" that the Romanians have made for the defense of the West. The massive influx of people to Western Europe after 2007 probably reduced the nationalist sentiment. Just as important was the absence of getting read of communism, the subject addressed in all previous campaigns. Removing the subject from the foreground has not reflected an unexpected progress in the process of getting read of communism. . Among the candidates were experienced politicians, former and current local and district councilors, mayors, Ministers, deputies or senators (former Prime Ministers Adrian Nastase and Petre Roman, former Minister Tudor Chiuariu, Bogdan Niculescu-Duvz, Sulfina Barbu, Victor Ponta, Laszlo Borbely, etc.). Others enjoyed the reputation in show business without political experience (actors Mircea Diaconu and Florin Clinescu; singers Dida Dragan, Nicolae Furdui Iancu, Victor Socaciu; sports commentator Cristian opescu; footballer Helmut Duckadam) The new electoral system requires, therefore, a "human" approach between candidate and voter. Here is a choice based on a mechanical, in the absence of a tradition in this respect, reach out to betray the mental maps of the logical system of institutionalization of citizens. Customizing the power turned into the pervert effect of a system that aimed, maybe in good faith, the regeneration of the political class, this was the main topic in the electoral discourse. The first elections after the accession of Romania to the European Union on the parliamentary elections on 30 November 2008 brought news in politics. First, were separated by the presidential election and, secondly, was given hope to the electorate that will not vote for the proposed lists of parties, but will vote for personalities. Law 35/2008 offered a theoretical chance to reform the electoral system characterized by dependence on candidates for the party

25

leadership, promote domestic issues even in preference to those of the local community, strengthening political clientage and promoting political personalities that fall fool of the law. The vote on the list was replaced by uninominal vote, but the phrase "constituency" must be understood in this case as a "mixed electoral system based on proportional representation uninominal vote, in one tour" 30. The same parliamentary elections in 2008, reported to the parties and the political system of our country, have punctuated the following important changes: small parties have entered the Parliament, no longer witnessing the rise of a big party on the political scene, the political competition between the three parties (PSD, PNL, PD-L), has gone from extreme to moderate pluralism, from multipartidism to tripartidism . Despite criticism regarding the failure of the new law to "reform the political class", at the high level of absenteeism and the method of allocation of mandates in colleges, the 2008 has ensured the most proportional representation postCommunist parliamentary, forced the parties to look for candidates with a high degree of credibility within the local communities, caused the disappearance of the 'forever ' parliamentarians but unknown to public opinion or deprived of its trustee, favored direct communication between candidates and electors31.

1) The role of the Internet in the election campaign For the initiation or strengthening of communication with voters, the Internet provides the most innovative and interesting possibilities: e-mail, blogging, podcasting, and online feedback mechanisms of participation, social networking and online video resources sharing beginning with the interactivity inherent in allowing information to circulate among politicians, political parties, institutions and citizens, continuing with the quickness and overcome national boundaries, with the freedom of movement of users in virtual space and the lowest costs associated with this freedom lack of editorial interference and the possibility of vertical and horizontal communication, all show that the Internet can be a good tool to equalize the political

30

PAVEL, Dan, Noul sistem. Cercetare asupra noilor tendine din sistemul de partide i sistemul politic din Romnia postcomunist n Sfera politicii No 131-132, 2009, p. 25 31 Idem 2, p.88

26

scene and the consolidation of democracy32. Smaller parties and candidates would have a better chance of keeping up with strong candidates and big parties on the internet than they would have through traditional methods and would be able to gain access to a wider audience. In addition, the search report after certain mechanisms would ease the process for those interested and the anonymity of the user would no longer be able to provoke his exclusion from a political dialogue because of sex, race, age or belonging to a certain social class. Analyzing these possibilities, welcoming the initiative of the Clinton-Gore Administration in 1993 to distribute on the internet press releases33 and posting information of general interest, many researchers believed then that the Internet would provide a more democratic form of political communication. Their initial optimism has been tempered by the inequality of access to the internet, increasing demands from the trade or online entertainment at the expense of information that encourages political participation or civic, the commitment of skilled web designers fare in a continuous growth and the ability of candidates/parties with notoriety in the offline environment to better guide voters in virtual environment. The assumption that the Internet will equalize the electoral scene by reducing the gap between large and small parties, known and unknown candidates, including those with solid financial resources and those with modest financial support was complemented by a finding that the internet policy is sometimes just an extension of the offline policy and fails to alter existing structures. Although research on the use of the Internet in election campaigns are in a continuous process, there are data that show that the new method was able to mobilize citizens not involved at all in the political life and who contend that the groups that were already active and had access to political information they found another way to satisfy their curiosity. It is considered that when we want to understand the impact of the use of the Internet in politics, "strengthening the model seems to be more effective than the mobilization model"34 . They say politicians and campaign teams that do not exploit the potential of the new medium, not being concerned with innovation in communicating with and mobilizing their voters, but by applying the pyramid model of communication that already exists: the headquarters of political parties and institutions to the citizens, to disseminate information about candidates, campaigns and political agendas.
32

Aparaschivei, Paul, Euroimaginea candidatului romn online n Guu, Dorina (editor), Bloguri, Facebook i politic, Editura Tritonic, Bucureti, 2009,p 43 33 http://www.upenn.edu/computing/i2/press/clinton.html acessed on 2.06.2013 34 Idem 2, p. 55

27

Because the traditional media organizations consider that monitoring of political life becomes an optional activity for those interested in that the interest in news regarding the elections might be put on the same footing with those for horse races, for example, we believe that the Internet would be able to revive the interest of citizens for election phenomenon, could strengthen the democratic process by stimulating the judging or participation. Furthermore, the Internet is no longer just a political tool, but it's "a generalized space of waking and of the world, is itself the function of surveillance" 35. 2) Social media communication tool in the campaign for the parliamentary elections of 2008 Dropping the hypothesis of passive consumer, social media (blogs) have changed the method of circulation of information on the internet by supporting blogger-reader interaction or blogger other bloggers. This new format also rewards those very active in posting information; dialog oriented and motivated to establish sustainable social relations. In the era of web 2.0 they are considered new and opinion makers ' fifth power in State power in state36 .The politicianblogger has the possibility to mobilize their supporters and voters, attract sponsorships, to provide information or topics of debate for the media and voters, to present themselves in a positive manner to the public. Romanian politicians have understood that the license enters into the blogosphere offers blog, publicity, fairness in presenting points of view, the dissemination of messages and solid images. In July 2009 the Romanian political blogosphere contained 350 blogs belonging to politicians, the top being the PSD with 132 blogs, PDL with 90, PNL with 87, PNTCD with 20, and PC with 11.37 In order to see to what extent it has been used in the blog the parliamentary elections of 2008, I started to calculate the number of candidates supported by political parties in Parliament on the first three positions in political life. Please note that all the data from our study will refer only to the three major political parties: the National Liberal Party, the Liberal Democratic Party

35 36

Idem 2, p. 97 Idem 8, p.34 37 Dorina Gutu, New Media,Bucuresti,Tritonic,2007,p 150-163

28

and the Alliance of the Social Democratic Party and the Conservative Party. The situation of candidates enrolled in the electoral race in 2008 is presented in table 3: Tabel 3. The situation of candidates enrolled in the electoral race in 2008

Party/ Aliance PNL PSD+PC PDL

Candidates enrolled 446 446 428

Candidates enrolled for Candidates enrolled Deputies Chamber 311 311 301 for Senate 135 135 130

Source: http://www.becparlamentare2008.ro, accessed on 30/05/2013 The purpose of our quantitative study is to find the answer to two questions: 1) To what extent have the candidates in the parliamentary elections of 2008, the blog as a tool to communicate with voters, as a "tool" of the uninominal campaign? 2) Can we realize a robot-portrait of the Romanian politician who uses the blog during the election campaign? Please note that I have not included in the study campaign websites of politicians, but only blogs. By active blogs we understand blogs that have at least three topics posted during the election campaign. I discovered more inactive, but these were not included in my calculations. To answer the first question, I have summarized the data in table 4 and in Figure 1.38 Table 4. Candidates who used the 2008 campaign blog

38

Gheorghe Teodorescu,Alegeri 2008. Volumul II: Continuitate si schimbare, Editura Polirom 2009

29

No. Of candidates with blog by party PNL PSD+PC PDL TOTAL

Deputies Chamber 22 13 18 53

Senate 4 4 11 19

Total candidates with blog 26 17 29 72

Source: http://www.sferapoliticii.ro/sfera/159/art07-Patrut.php#_ftn15 accessed on 8/06/2013 As can be seen, the three political parties have sustained 1320 candidates for the two Chambers of Romania Parliament. Of those 1320 candidates only 72 have used blogs in the election campaign, that is, from the total applicants enrolled in the first election uninominal campaign only 5.45% have turned to blogging. Candidates for the Deputies Chamber have used it at the rate of 85% (56 of contestants out of 72) and those for the Senate have used it by 15%. Liberal candidates are the first in the rankings of candidates-bloggers (41%) and those from the PSD + PC Alliance ranks third (34%).

a) between the two Chambers of Parliament

30

b) Beetwen parties http://www.sferapoliticii.ro/sfera/159/art07-Patrut.php#_ftn15 accessed on 8/06/2013 Figure 1. Blog distributions

To make a robot portrait of the candidate who has created a blog to maximize their chances in the 2008 election, we have centralized the data according to the following variables: political affiliation, age, sex, constituency. Unfortunately, the educational level variable could not be identified for all candidates and gave up on it. Electoral districts have been grouped by geographical regions for ease of presentation of graphical data. As can be seen in table 3 and figures 2 and 3, the candidate with the blog campaign is rather man (80,55%) than female. It can be encountered in all age ranges, but most in the range 31-40 years (37.5%). Table 3: distribution of candidates-bloggers after age and sex Age Sex <=30 years 31- 40 years 5 22 41- 50 years Over 50 years 2 16 4 13 Total 14 58

Female 3 Male 7

31

Total

10

27

18

17

72

Source: http://www.sferapoliticii.ro/sfera/159/art07-Patrut.php#_ftn15 accessed on 8/06/2013

Figure 2. The numeric evolution of blogger-candidates on age intervals From a geographical point of view, most candidates that have a blog are from Muntenia (29 %) and Bucharest (28 %).

32

Source: http://www.sferapoliticii.ro/sfera/159/art07-Patrut.php#_ftn15 accessed on 8/06/2013

Figure 3. Distribution of candidates with blog according to region of origin If you follow the blog charts and according to the number of visitors during the electoral campaign39, we find that only three are blogs with a larger number of visitors (at Elena Udrea with 32512, Diana Tus and of the 2854 Lockback with 1533 visitors), the remainder being under a thousand visitors. Furthermore, we note that analyzing these rankings are more accessible blogs which have notoriously political actors in the offline environment than less well-known candidates on the political scene.

Chapter IV:Case study of the political discourse strategy PDL campaign IN Campina city , local election for the City Mayor's 2008;

Candidate: Horia-Laureniu

General presentation

The campaign is supported by the Liberal Democratic Party in the town of Campina, Prahova County framed within the General campaign of the County, set at the same time as the election of the local Council, the County Council and the Chairman of the County Council. The elections took place in a context in which Horia Tieanu, was occupying the primary position and already the perception of citizens was a good one.
39

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/52288607/Top-Blog-uri accessed on 8/06/2013

33

General data as it relates to candidate according to a newspaper interview with on 7 April 2008, Horia Tieanu was born in 05.11.1957, in the city of Cmpina. He graduated the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Bucharest in 1982 and a post-graduate course in Management of local public administration ", he worked at " Neptune " factory of Campina up in 1996 as an engineer and in 1996 he joined the Government, first as Deputy Mayor, and in 2004, as Mayor of the locality. Is married and has one son. From the point of view of political career Horia Tieanu came into politics to the Democratic Party in 1996 where he served until 2004. In January 2004 he enrolled in easily, and at the end of the year, it was affiliated with the National Liberal Party. After two years in the NLP, Tieanu returned to the Democratic Party, where candidates now at City for the second time. The election campaign for the Office of mayor has been produced in accordance with the policy of the electoral campaign of the Liberal-Democratic Party, while respecting both the indications coming from the Center and local political reality, party consultants in terms of public relations and its specialists in election campaigns.

Political analysis

The main factors were taken into account in drawing up the strategy of the campaign were the following: Election of the city of Cmpina , one quite important in the political scheme of the Prahova county, with a potential for high economic growth and influence of this kind on the Prahova valley, and with a political trend in favor of the PDL and the candidate of this party, Horia Teianu. Social and intellectual Condition of the inhabitants of the city of Cmpina, which is generally a good one, as citizens-oriented guidelines and the other things than everyday living, a population with a high awareness and desire with a high interest on the decisions and political information in your area. Culture and tradition in the military area, urging the population to education and training, refresher and a discipline that can open up a new perspective in politics. 34

 The notoriety of the candidate Horia Teianu, already owners of the function of Mayor and leader of the PD-L, positions in which they can increase capital trust and may be the goal of gaining local elections. Possession of necessary measures leverages cutting-edge, administrative and political candidate and unconditionally support to be enjoyed by the local political organization and the County. The main challenger, Florin Anghel is a man who enjoys notoriety in the County and founded the PNDC, for which he candidates now. Offensive action directed in general against the PNDC and Democratic Party candidate. Research Research objectives have been outlined in public relations techniques are applied on the case of a local election campaign, trying to dig out the techniques used. Research into this case study was done with the objective of removing the public-relations strategies presented in the first chapter of the licence and to give it a practical dimension. The techniques used were collected from local publications, dailies, official statistics, sources from within the Liberal Democratic Party and the people who worked on that campaign. Strategic plan The strategic plan of the study has been carried out on two major components: pre-campaign and electoral campaign. Pre-campaign trail has been thought from the standpoint of public relations and election management as follows: Organization of the campaign team. Development of offensive and defensive election themes. Knowledge of challenger. Organizing campaign materials. Development and launch of subversive materials on the market, to discredit the challengers, assumed or not party: leaflets, manifestos, newspaper articles. Organizing demonstrations popularized by means of specific, on the occasion of the launch of the candidacy of the Mayor in a new light.

35

 Popular Action candidates on the occasion of religious holidays The election campaign had the strategy plan for the following things: In the early days of the election campaign were shared for promotional materials (leaflets, posters) Mobilization of voters by the area responsible Continuing operations "door to door" The Organization of two major manifestations to be attended by leading political figures within the PDL, organized a demonstration at the stadium. Launch political attacks towards the main challengers Attacking PSD with every opportunity, accrediting the idea of wearing the responsibility of administrative and economic failures. Organizing a public event (motorcycle or ATV parade) and sympathizers of the party members The candidate on the streets of the city, along with other people with notoriety of Cmpina, in support of the idea of popularity, administrative and political support. OBJECTIVES: The strong Association of the name of the candidate with the PD-L and the candidate at the County Council, Association with the solutions to the problems of the primary label householder must continue their mission for the European development of city THE CAMPAIGN'S MESSAGE: Development of a proactive campaign No direct response to the challenges of challengers Candidate launches and prioritizes the themes of the campaign debate related to the project to Cmpina. (Continuation of the development of road infrastructure, medical and educational, viable solutions applied so far and future projects) The purpose is that in the last week of the campaign to talk about the project for Campina, touchable, vector of institutionalization of the campaign.

36

 "Staining" sleeve in 2004 that was promised it was made on billboards in the street From the point of view of the team, it was called the Orange team, and for the promotion of the image they have brought PD-L and leaders to put posters with them. With regard to Romania was burnt by reference to attributes of the largest County, Prahova valley-national brand, in Green County. The largest State should be within the framework of the speeches, the most important province, and on the concept of green County, were discussed and explained in the directions of action: clean water in every home, cleaner rivers, a healthy environment for our children, the European methods of collection and recycling of household and industrial waste, tourism developed very high-standard services in the County by a European quality etc. The concept of Green: i have explained, in the context of political communication, concepts covered by this concept of local barons, interest groups, and costs. The notions of prosperity, well-being, future, hope, will complement the action of the policy directions of the concept. The concept of this campaign was: "the Orange Team for Prahova green" Therefore the concept of the campaign was linked to the general; most materials to promote the image of the candidate were promoted the idea of bringing the team together with the candidate for the President of the County Council of the party. These things were launched and a custom slogan, but taking into account the overall strategy. SLOGAN: The slogan used for the city of Cmpina was "The Orange Team, for by Campina Tomorrow! ". The usefulness of the slogan was seen in awareness of the fact that he is the essence of the concept of this campaign, has been associated with nearly all the issues that were raised in the campaign. Thus, messages can be hindrances in the way of reaching the promised projects to Cmpina, unite against lobbyists, pollution etc. This message has been associated with the idea of the candidate to the Presidency of the County Council will directly support the development of the city, through the allocation of funds for development projects through the obligatory 1 to a new level of access to resources. Characteristics that this slogan had taken into account according to the following things:

37

 The use of collective nouns like: team, great family, our team, our duty to the arts school in Cmpina. Actions related to the slogan were made with the help of electoral instruments in the form of leaflets, promotional, video-audio commercials, post-election campers who roamed the city, letters of the candidate, "outdoor", "door to door", and press releases on subjects, all of them with the character role of political approach. TOOLS: As tools of persuasion and political communication, beyond what is said above, the campaign staff of two specific instruments namely the letter and election leaflet which contained the draft of the new term. In the drafting of the letter in which Mayor is addressed to citizens with the message that he wants to continue what he started, now with the support of the County Board , because the challenger has constituted a group of interests, so as to recommend the candidate for President. The general message of this material had to include references to the city's rescue by the interests of the County Council, which acts against the general good. Basic flyer was named Campina project, and it was elaborated during the electoral campaign, which supported the concept of the campaign, and was widely used by the electoral program of the candidate, on the conduct of the campaign. He appeared at the beginning of the campaign and has been distributed in all sections of the city and post to all events of the campaign in which the Mayor attended. RELATIONSHIP WITH THE MEDIA AND ELECTORAL COMMUNICATION From the point of view of electoral communication and relations with the media, being a city of Campina province were mainly used media means only locally available. The topics were prepared in advance, flying from a set before with citizens from various areas of the city, and may provide such credibility on the campaign and a positive image. After carrying out campaigns to "door to door" those have been made by the local party Councilors, were released and issued press releases, which were exposed to solutions that the candidate has the acute problems of the city. The press releases were published in local newspapers and were distributed in boxes of postal town and especially in target areas.

38

CAMPAIGN METHODS AND TECHNIQUES General methods used in this campaign were diverse, which endorsed both individual actions and collective Mayor and Councilors, but focused on the main challengers. These methods were generally as follows: The candidate and his team of advisers were performed legally in order to strengthen actions idea well welded team. Visits were made at factories in the industrial sector in general, where there are large pools of voters unsure or undecided. Has organized a concert or event attended by a significant number of prospective voters, especially in the target audience. The candidate has presented information about the person and the running mate at every opportunity of showing the public baths. Challengers: launch attacks as far as their competence of local public administration speech which tended to notice and to leave the city's realities, some very well-known mechanisms of candidate as Mayor. Has pursued growth in popularity of the party with the distribution of leaflets and other materials in relation to challengers. Distributing promotional materials to show support from some people in the party who have ties to the Center and popularization on a wide scale to the slogan of the campaign. Results of the survey and campaign From the personal point of view this study gave me the certainty that in election campaigns in Romania, even at a local level using techniques and tactics relating to the field of public relations. By presenting this strategy campaign, I noticed the need for strident as those who carried it out give introduces modern political communication techniques and tactics of public relations as well as adaptation to specific target audiences, election advertising techniques, strategies for communicating with the press, the codification and transmission of messages,

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according to the public relations, branding and of course diversion and propaganda tactics common in a public relations campaign. From the standpoint of results occurred after the elections proved that the use of these strategies have yielded the expected results, and even though the candidate had a certain notoriety, techniques and strategies of the campaign proved to be decisive in winning elections. Thus, in the first round of local elections for the city of Cmpina were the following results in order of votes obtained in accordance with the table: Name, candidate and party Laurentiu Tiseanu Horia (PD-L) Alin Moldoveanu Ioan (PNDC) Victor Bercaroiu (PSD) Jenica Tabacu (PIN) Gabriel Arghir Elvis (PNL) Decebal Gavrilescu Dan (PNTCD) Razvan Petricica (PRM) Traian Dragusin (PNG-CD) Constantin Filipescu Nicolae Stoian (PPPS) Source www.bec.ro accessed on 03/06/2013 results were: Laurentiu Tiseanu Horia (PD-L) 69,75% Alin Moldoveanu Ioan (PNDC) 30,24% As noted in the results of the election, we can say that the campaign strategy was a success, and techniques taken from public relations listed above represent a very substantial advantage especially in the second round of elections. Therefore it can be said that the objective was fulfilled. Percentage 33.99% 24.34% 14.71% 12.70% 6.84% 2.01% 1.92% 1.68% 1.26% 0.50%

Results presented above have gone into the second round with the top two candidates, and the

III. Conclusions

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The 2008 elections were the first elections of the post-which Romania introduced the "uninominal votes", although the purpose of the system was proportionate. In terms of the emergence of competition inside the electoral constituencies, we expected the candidates to use all tools of communication to maximize the chances of winning. Although political blog requires minimum financial investment and offered the possibility of other democratic candidates to compete and "peer" in the virtual environment, it has been used in a very small proportion (5.45%) for the first three candidates of political parties of the country. Candidates-bloggers who have managed to attract a larger number of visitors were to an extent greater than candidates who had already gained notoriety in the offline environment compared to those unknown to the public. In the parliamentary elections of 2008 electoral communication via the blog of the missed opportunity of democratization of electoral competition and has preserved the broad forces and reports discrepancies existing in the electoral capital. The November elections were marked by several serious drawbacks: voter turnout was low; civil society was absent; the electoral system was confusing and non-representative and the coalition formed seemed one of convenience and expediency, not out of conviction. However, each of these shortcomings is, unfortunately, a common feature of the imperfect democracy system. More specifically, each of these shortcomings is usually the type of problem that someone is waiting to meet her in an advanced democracy, mature. Uninominal vote disadvantaged independent candidates, none of them being able to enter into the Parliament. If Independents have had to gather a majority of votes in electoral colleges to get the mandates, the candidates were parties qualified through the redistribution of votes. Redistribution has restored political parties as the main electoral players, because the colleges where no independent candidate obtained a majority of votes went to the party candidates of political, even when they have got far fewer votes. Uninominal vote privileged big parties and those with a concentrated support in territory, not new and small parties, with supportive dissipated. Sometimes the candidate who won the most votes in the College was a different political party than the candidate who has obtained the mandate, if the latter the strongest party at national level. 120 candidates having assembled a plurality of votes in colleges have not been in Parliament since their mandates were redistributed to candidates of powerful parties.

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Starting from the negative electoral advertising, a more and more frequent phenomenon in romanian electoral campaigns, we have been trying to counteract the effects of this kind of advertising by suggesting a legal framework which would forbid these practices causing serious problems to the communication process between the political actors and the electors. In general, the effects of a negative electoral campaign determine, together with the increase of the politicians interest for the electoral campaign, the decrease of the electors interest for it, leading to the loss of the electorates trust in politicians, public clerks, authorities.

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