The Romanian Mayor - Present and Future Image

• Author: Coman, C. - Briciu, A.
• Position: Faculty of Sociology and Communication, Transilvania University of Brasov
• Pages: 251-260

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov

Series VII: Social Sciences • Law • Vol. 7 (56) No. 1 - 2014

THE ROMANIAN MAYOR – PRESENT

AND FUTURE IMAGE

C. COMAN1 A. BRICIU1

Abstract: Starting from the legislative aspects regarding the function of

mayor, a five category scale was drawn (honesty and ethics, incorrupti bility,

competence, transparency and efficiency) and used within the

communicational content of three daily newsp apers (“Libertatea”, Jurnalul

NaYional, Adev<rul). The research emphasized the manner in which the

image of Romanian mayor’s dimensions are being presented by written

media and highlighted which are the specificities when it comes to presenting

each of the features according to the corre sponding newspaper’s nature. The

data analysis led to the conclusion that the image of Romanian mayor is

reflected by the written media is highly negative and implies three

dimensions with great visibility.

Key words: high life, lawfulness, morality.

1 Faculty of Sociology and Communication, Transilvania University of Brasov.

1. Introduction

The study aims at identifying the

Romanian mayor’s image presented by the

national written media, starting from the

assumption that it is mainly negative and,

by exposing this image, the citizens are

losing faith in the mayor’s institution. The

mayor’s function has been legally set since

1864 by the law, in the same way that law

set the provisions regarding the

relationships between mayor-media [15]

and mayor-citizens [12].

2. Conceptual framework

The word image was used with the

meaning of product, political party or

politician representation. It is the synthesis

of all that is written by the press (whether

true or false) about the subject of the

research and it stands at the basis of the

citizens created image, in the sense of

mental representation, global vision on

people or objects. It is heterogenic, like a

mosaic with elements in movement. It is

recreated from the fragmentary images that

we are capable to reunite at the time when

we are being asked to name the person or

the representation object. For a politician,

it relates to the Party he belongs to, or the

function that he possesses, of his strenghts

and weaknesses, or the physical perception

we have about him [9, p. 81-82].

The institution of the media has a public

nature, dealing with issues on which there

exists a public opinion or that opinion may

be created. It does not deal with personal

and private issues or with those generally