Branding Romania in the Age of Disruption.Technology as a Soft Power Instrument

Abstract

In the age of disruption and in today’s platform society (Van Dijck et al., 2019), communication between nation states is influenced by the development of technology. The nation state is responding to the new communication environment through “techplomacy” and through the use of Artificial Intelligence as a strategic asset in the global tech race. Arti- ficial Intelligence (AI), including the strategies to come up with viable AI, has a big potential for nation branding, being also a competitive advan- tage for countries worldwide. In this context, the aim of our research is to investigate technology as a soft power (Nye, 2004) instrument for Romania and to analyze how the nation brand is constructed in relation to technol- ogy. In doing so, our research revolves around the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy for Romania, presented at the IT&C Summit on May 8, 2019, and 50 news articles, published in the quality press (Adevărul, Gândul, România Liberă) employing mixed methods such as framing analysis (Entman, 1993) and critical discourse analysis (Van Dijk, 1993). The results show that there are four dominant media frames: (1) artificial intelligence, (2) the 5G technology, (3) education and (4) smart city, while both journal- ists and public actors have an active role in constructing technology as a public issue in Romania.