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

Abstract

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.