Humorous Messages Research Articles

Using Humor to Promote Social Distancing on Tiktok During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

BackgroundDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, many humorous videos on how to practice social distancing appeared on social media. However, the effect of using humor as a crisis communication strategy to persuade people to conform to social distancing rules is not known.ObjectiveDrawing on the literature on humorous message framing and crisis communication, this research explores the effectiveness of a humorous message in communicating social distancing rules in two crisis severity phases (low vs. high severity) and also evaluates how humor affects individuals’ online and offline engagement intentions during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsA 2 (message framing: humorous vs. non-humorous) x 2 (crisis severity phase: low vs. high) between-subjects design experiment was conducted to test the research questions during the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic in China from January 30 to February 2, 2020.ResultsThe results showed that the severity of the phase of a health crisis can significantly affect stakeholders’ online and offline responses toward the disease. More specifically, in a low severity phase, humor led to increased source likability for the message, and more online and offline engagement intentions. However, no differences between a humorous and non-humorous message in perceived risk were observed. Whereas, in a high severity crisis phase, humor reduced individuals’ offline engagement intentions and a decrease in perceived risk, no significant difference was found between a humorous and non-humorous message on source likeability.ConclusionHumor can motivate both more online engagement and offline protective action intention when the crisis severity phase is low, while when crisis severity soars, a non-humorous message should be more desirable. More specifically, using humor in communicating information about an infectious disease can enhance the spokesperson’s likeability in a low severity phase, and also helps to spread health information to a larger audience. While, the negative side of using humor in communicating an infectious disease appears in severe crisis phases, as it then decreased the public’s perception of risk, and triggers less protective actions. Going beyond previous research, this study recognized that crisis severity changes in different phases of the spread of infectious disease, thereby providing actionable strategy selections for crisis practitioners in a dynamic communication environment.

The Effects of Humorous Posts on Twitter during a Time of Uncertainty: The Case of Kuwait during the Coronavirus Pandemic

ABSTRACT This study examines the effects of humorous posts on Twitter during an uncertain time, such as the Coronavirus pandemic, which brought panic globally. In Kuwait, many Twitter users have posted humorous tweets about the Coronavirus to influence the public’s understanding of the pandemic and exert pressure on government to take measures to stop the spread of the disease. However, the impact of many of humorous tweets was indirect and negative, causing panic and division among social groups. An online survey was employed to examine the effects of humorous Twitter messages on understanding the pandemic, causing hatred toward others and augmenting a sense of negative emotion in society. The response of 1,031 to the survey indicated that humor increased negative emotional reactions and increased understanding of the pandemic. There was no link between Twitter humor and hatred of others. The influence of humor during times of uncertainty and crises is discussed.

Invitational Rhetoric and Humor: Making Audience Laugh, Inviting Them to Think

Humor is a resource for discourse dealing with the taboo. Through the use of humor, comedians can practice uninhibited use of free public speech because audiences expect to laugh in these situations. This inherent expectation creates an environment where expression, objective opinions, and otherwise offensive ideas can be shared in a public space without fear of persecution or repercussion. As such, humor message creators are free to push social boundaries to create a discourse necessary to address what would be offensive. This freedom is important to this work because of how comedians approach the use of stereotypical ethnic humor. The culmination of audience expectation and openness creates an environment readily available for analysis of ethnic humor messages by researchers. Using the lens of Invitational Rhetoric, we uncover rhetorical messages embedded in the humor that work to challenge negative stereotypes about identity.

Humor in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The research is focused on the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Croatia – March 2020. The subject of the research are humorous messages related to the pandemic. By combining quantitative and qualitative methods, this research showed how the interviewed respondents experienced the received humorous content related to the coronavirus and what content characteristics of the humorous messages were detected through the content analysis.

Humour as a Sensitisation Tool in Nigerian Comedy Skits about Covid-19

Previous studies in educational pedagogy and commercial marketing have focused on the perceived impact of humour in dissolving barriers to positive consumer behaviour. However, the function of humour as a sensitisation tool during a pandemic is yet to attract scholarly attention. The article addresses this gap by examining the strategies some popular Nigerian comedians have resorted to in the social media landscape to sensitise citizens to the need to adhere to Covid-19 safety protocols. The study draws on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), a theory of persuasion which postulates that persuasive information is processed through two distinct psychological routes: central and peripheral, the first leading to positive reception and the second to negative reception. Through exploring purposively sampled skits, the study uncovers the strategies deployed to counter harmful conspiracy narratives about the pandemic in Nigeria. It is argued that the positive responses on the part of certain characters to the comedians’ humorous messages imply that these skits are an effective sensitisation tool. The article concludes that because most Nigerians lack confidence in government policies due to increasing socioeconomic failures and clumsiness in handling the Covid-19 pandemic, the strategies used by the comedians to sensitise audience members to safety protocols are more creative and effective than the government’s messaging. In effect, the comedians become strategic partners in the war against Covid-19.

What the Poor do to Survive. (Im)Politeness and Classism in Brazilian Twitter

Research on (im)politeness (CULPEPER; HAUGH; KÁDÁR, 2017) has widely replaced the term ‘culture’ with the concept of ‘community of practice’, or by the umbrella-like term ‘interactional practices’ (MILLS, 2015, p. 30; MILLS; KÁDÁR, 2011). From this view, this study aims at examining hashtags related to the topic #What the poor do to survive, which include #thingspoorpeopledo (#coisasquepobrefaz) and three other variants, #thatispoverty (#pobrezaéissoaí), #poverty (#pobreza), and #poor (#pobre). To do that, data were collected from Twitter posts published in Brazilian Portuguese and listed among the trending topics in 2017 and in 2019. After we collected the posts and their accompanying hashtags, a qualitative analysis was performed, aiming at describing and categorizing the impoliteness strategies identified. In this phase of the research, over 400 tweets containing hashtags were analyzed. We found that the hashtags investigated primarily aimed at exchanging humorous messages, mostly associated with social class division in Brazil. At the same time, our findings also showed that the hashtags signalled a recurrent verbal behavior shared by a community of practice assembled under a tag (BRUNS; BURGESS, 2011; STARBIRD; PALEN, 2011). Additionally, our data demonstrated that hashtags had a dual purpose: while they employed mock impoliteness and sarcasm to reinforce valid social norms, they also promoted a jocular debate on classism and ideology in Brazil.

Effects of Humor in Health Communication: Experimental Evidence for Video Sequences Aiming to Increase the Willingness to Donate Organs.

Humor has been proven to provide support when dealing with fear-related aspects of life. Therefore, it might be a useful communication strategy for addressing the need for donated organs. We conducted an experimental study among University students in Germany (n = 236) aged about 25 years (M = 24.60, SD = 5.86) investigating the effects of four video sequences related to organ donation on the willingness to donate organs. Based on random allocation, each study participant received one video sequence. The video sequences were presented by either a prominent or non-prominent speaker and included either humorous or neutrally framed information related to organ donation. An online survey was conducted before and after the intervention. A follow-up to investigate long-term effects was conducted 4–6 weeks later. Overall, the four interventions led to high proportions of self-reported willingness to think about organ donation and talk about it with relatives and friends subsequent to the respective intervention. Appraisals beneficial to organ donation improved significantly only in the non-humorous interventions. It seems to be of little relevance whether the humorous message was communicated by a prominent or non-prominent person. However, future investigations should focus on sample populations with lower education, because they are less likely to possess an organ donor card and more likely to have lower levels of positive attitudes toward organ donation and may, therefore, show different results regarding the effectiveness of humorous interventions.

Funny and meaningful: media messages that are humorous and moving provide optimal consolation in corona times

Abstract During the first months of the corona crisis, people worldwide produced and shared thousands of uplifting (e.g., humorous, moving) media messages. The six studies reported here empirically tested the consolatory effects of viewing such positive media messages in the US, The Netherlands, and the UK. I compared the impact of humorous and moving (i.e., touching, heartwarming) messages, as they provide different kinds of well-being: hedonic versus eudaimonic. Studies 1–3 had correlational designs. Largely in line with the hedonic versus eudaimonic well-being framework, the results suggested that humorous messages lift people’s spirits by providing pleasure, while moving messages lift people’s spirits by providing realism, optimism, and by illustrating core human values. Studies 4–6 used a pre- and post-measure of negative and positive emotions. The results showed that viewing non-moving humorous messages significantly reduced negative emotions but did not increase positive emotions. Viewing non-humorous moving messages reduced negative emotions and increased positive emotions in the US and UK, but not in The Netherlands. Finally, viewing messages that are both humorous and moving reduced negative emotions and increased positive emotions in all samples, implying they are particularly valuable as mood-enhancers during crises. The practical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

The Use of Idioms and Wordplay in The Big Bang Theory Sitcom

Language is a powerful communication tool. A skilful person uses words and manipulates them for different purposes; be that for persuading clients in buying different products or joining a congregation; soothing aggravated patients and consoling people who lost their loved ones. Language is used for teaching, informing, entertaining and making people laugh. Many public speakers, teachers, politicians and leaders use humour for breaking the ice and engaging the audience into listening. Moreover, nowadays a vast number of sitcoms are popular among different age groups based on the topics, genre and the audience’s field of interest. One such series which has caught the interest of a broader audience on Netflix is The Big Bang Theory. The usage of idioms, wordplays, puns, rhyming structures, pop culture language and scientific jargon, permeated with humour, are widely spread into the characters’ daily conversations through entire episodes. From the linguistic point of view, the corpus of The Big Bang Theory episodes will be thoroughly analysed for finding the relevance of using idioms, wordplays, puns and other structures in transmitting humorous messages to the audience.

Informasi Hoax di Media Sosial Facebook

This study aims to: (1) describe the structure of hoax on Facebook social media, (2) describe the contents of hoax messages on Facebook; and (3) describe the characteristics of using hoax in Facebook social media. This type of research is a qualitative descriptive study. This research was carried out on Facebook. Data collection was carried out during August 2019 - January 2020. The research design used was descriptive qualitative. The focus of this research is hoax information and hoax information disseminating accounts. Research data sources, namely hoax information disseminating facebook account. Data collection techniques are done by reading Facebook account posts, identifying hoax information, making screenshots or screenshoots, copying hoax-identified messages, verifying, determining hoax-categorized information, and analyzing based on data analysis guidelines. The research instrument consisted of the main instrument namely the researcher and the observation guide table. The results of the study reveal the structure, content of hoax messages, and the linguistic characteristics of hoax texts. The structure of the hoax text found consists of 10 patterns, namely (1) Recognition of issues, Reaffirmation, Series of arguments, and Statement of solicitation, (2) Statement of solicitation, Recognition of issues, Sequence of arguments, and Reaffirmation, (3) Recognition of issues, Sequence arguments and solicitation statements, (4) recognition of issues, series of arguments, and reaffirmation, (5) recognition of issues, invitation statements, and series of arguments, (6) recognition of issues and series of arguments, (7) recognition of issues, and solicitation of invitations , (8) solicitation statement and series of arguments, (9) introduction of the issue, and (10) solicitation statement. The contents of the message found consisted of 5 types, namely (1) scary hoax messages, (2) emotional hoax messages, (3) hoax messages full of promises, (4) encouraging messages, and (5) humorous messages. The linguistic characteristics found consist of 3 namely (1) the use of technical words, (2) the use of argumentative conjunctions, including (a) the use of the conjunction "if", (b) the use of the conjunction "cause", ( c) the use of the conjunctions "because", (4) the use of the conjunctions "so", (5) the use of the conjunctions "their consequences". (3) use of command sentences, including (a) viral (b) distribute.

Mobilizing collective hatred through humour: Affective-discursive production and reception of populist rhetoric.

This research examines the mobilization of populist rhetoric of the 2019 Finns Party election video. By focusing on both the FP’s election video (production) and Youtube users’ comments (reception), we examine the constructions and uses of social categories and humour as well as responses to their rhetorical deployment among like‐minded supporters and opponents. The multimodal analysis of the production of a populist campaign video demonstrates the construction of social categories and humour through the five steps of collective hate. These humorous messages are differently received by like‐minded and opposing YouTube users. Two supportive affective–discursive practices – glorification and schadenfreude – both express shared joy and laughter, but while glorification emphasizes the positive self‐understanding of the in‐group, schadenfreude belittles the ‘political Other’. Two opposing affective–discursive practices – irritation and scorn – place FP voters in subject positions of morally and intellectually inferior fascists, racists, and idiots. The populist message fosters expressions of social anger and polarization between FP supporters and opponents. Humour entangled with hatred encourages a sense of moral superiority in both groups. This study contributes to the current knowledge of mobilizing populist rhetoric and polarization, and responds to the call to broaden analysis of political communication in the field of multimodality.

Laughing alone, together: local user-generated satirical responses to a global event

ABSTRACT This paper presents a first systematic analysis and conceptualization of local comic responses to global events, as articulated by internet users. We probed the multifaceted interactions between the global-local and entertaining-disruptive dimensions of contemporary satire through a cross-linguistic analysis of reactions to Donald Trumps’ election. Using a combination of qualitative methods, we analyzed humorous messages in Arabic, Chinese, English, German, and Spanish (n = 321) on Twitter and Weibo during November 2016. We found that globally shared themes are mainly apolitical and entertaining, while glocal responses align with three ideal types, which we term inbound, transitional, and outbound satire. Each type of satire featured a distinct combination of protagonists, targets and humor mechanisms. In conclusion, we discuss how cross-national satire on social media problematizes the (already murky) distinction between entertaining and disruptive satire, why satire is uniquely equipped to domesticate global affairs through estrangement, and how our typology may be linked to bilateral relations between countries in the contemporary international arena.

Ideational Meaning and Morality in the Internet Memes of 9gag about the Interaction between Teacher and Students

As multimodal text, Internet memes encompassing verbal and visual elements have a significant function in producing meaning both independently and inherently. In addition, they are not only used to entertain the reader through humorous messages, but also used to convey moral message. This research investigated the ideational meaning and the critical message in the internet memes related to the interaction between teacher and students in teaching and learning activities. It was conducted to reveal experiential and representational meaning; inter-semiotic logical relations; the portrayed events; and the implied problems as criticism to both teachers and students contained in these Internet memes. They were obtained from Instagram account of @9gag. Focusing on the ideational meaning, it applied three theories, namely, transitivity system, representational component of visual grammar, and inter-semiotic logical relations. It also applied the theory of relevance to reveal the critical message behind these internet memes. Several studies, related to the internet memes both in multimodal discourse analysis and pragmatic study, have been conducted. Nevertheless, this present study is the development of those studies using different approach. Specifically, this study focused on internet memes concerning teachers and students interaction which have never investigated before. The results revealed five kinds of verbal processes; five kinds of visual processes; six logical relations between caption and image; five portrayed students’ behaviours; nine problems implied in student figure; and six problems implied in teacher figure. Through this study, the readers are expected to understand both wisdom and un-wisdom messages of criticism in the Internet memes.

Cultural Authority with a Light Touch – Museums Using Humor in Social Media Communication

The distinctively informal and participatory environment of social media can help museums improve comprehension by providing new ways of seeing, interpreting and experiencing. Aparticular potential in that digital context may relate to a humorous discourse. Given that museum research has yet to explore the use of humor in social media communication, the aim of this article is to fill the gap by investigating how museums incorporate humor to communicate over the net with wide and fragmented audiences. The empirical study was based on a content analysis of messages posted on the social media profiles of museums from the Mal opolska Region in Poland. The analysis involved material gathered from 71 institutions running proprietary social media sites (of a total 119 museums in the region), whose activity was observed during a two-and-a-half-month period. The final sample developed through a consensus coding procedure consisted of 47 humorous messages posted on profiles of 15 institutions. The findings identify certain common trends as well as differences in the use of humor in the social media communication of museums. Observed discrepancies relate to distinct framings and cohesiveness of practiced humorous communication. Along with a variety of humorous utterances different reactions of the audience were identified.

Mood Effects on Humor Production: Positive Mood Improves the Verbal Ability to Be Funny

Can mood influence people’s ability to produce humorous verbal messages? Based on recent theories linking affect to social cognition and information-processing strategies, this experiment predicted and found that positive mood increased people’s ability to generate more creative, humorous, and elaborate verbal contents. Participants viewed positive, neutral, or negative videos, then produced verbal captions to fit four different cartoon images. Their messages were rated for creativity, humor, and elaboration by two trained raters, and the processing latency to produce each message was also recorded. Results showed that positive mood resulted in more creative and humorous messages, and that this effect was significantly mediated by mood-induced differences in information-processing strategies. The results are interpreted as supporting recent theories linking affect to cognition, and the theoretical and practical implications of the findings for everyday verbal communication are considered.

Синтаксична мовна гра в американському гумористичному дискурсі (на матеріалі ситкому "Клініка")

The article is devoted to the study of syntactic language play techniques in humorous discourse, since the phenomenon of language play is closely connected with this type of discourse. The notions of humorous discourse and language play are considered.
 Humorous discourse is based on the principle of transmission of a humorous message from the addresser to the addressee. The purpose of this message is to get away from a serious conversation, reduce the social distance between the conversation participants and form friendly interrelationship. Communicative intension and humorous tonality are key components of humorous discourse.
 Language play means intentional violation of the rules of the language in order to achieve a humorous effect. Language play exists at all levels of language structure: phonological, morphological, lexical and syntactic.
 The article is based on the material of a popular American sitcom “Scrubs” dedicated to the everyday life of doctors. Сases of usage syntactic language play in the speech of six characters of the sitcom (John Dorian, Percival Cox, Christofer Turk, Elliot Rid, Carla Espinoza and Jordan Sullivan) are considered. In their jokes, characters in the majority of cases use lexical language play techniques, but syntactic language play is also quite common. The most frequently used syntactic means (repetition, parcellation, rhetorical questions, tautology, zeugma) are determined. Specific cases of usage language game techniques at the syntactic level are presented.

Юмор как инструмент взаимодействия пользователей сети интернет

Ускоряющиеся темпы технологического развития и последующие изменения в социокультурной среде во многом изменили способы взаимодействия и общения современного человека. Интернет проявляет себя как пространство коллективного творчества, где юмор и позитивные эмоции являются доминирующими стратегиями общения. Вместе с тем, ощущается нехватка эмпирических исследований, направленных на изучение психологических функций юмора в коммуникативном пространстве социальных сетей Интернет. Целью данной работы является изучение связей между характером юмористических сообщений на страницах российских пользователей сети ВКонтакте и их полом, и возрастом. Корпус интерактивных материалов юмористического характера собирался на основе новостных лент пользователей социальной сети. Нами были проанализированы 500 страниц пользователей сети в возрасте от 15 до 30 лет. Результаты исследования показали, что визуальные элементы являются преобладающими чертами юмористических сообщений в социальных сетях. Было выявлено влияние пола и возраста на использование различных форм и тем юмора. Так, письменный текст практически не встречается в юмористических постах подростков. Их юмористические сообщения, в основном, обращены к темам агрессии, семейных проблем и человеческой глупости. Молодые и зрелые пользователи социальных сетей предпочитают публиковать юмористические сообщения, связанные с темами карьеры и социальными проблемами. Женщины-пользователи социальных сетей видят больше возможностей в легких ироничных постах, основные темы которых связаны с отношениями между полами и модой. Мужчины-пользователи социальных сетей предпочитают юмористические сообщения о деньгах, аддикциях и социальных проблемах. Исследование показало, что пользователи социальных сетей используют юмор для выражения своих ключевых потребностей, где юмористические сообщения становятся ключами-подсказками для понимания их личности другими пользователями. В этом плане юмор становится инструментом пользователя социальной сети, указывающим на его состояния; он позволяет наладить общение с незнакомыми людьми и быть на одной волне со значимыми другими.

An Examination of the Role of Funny Reminders and Embedded Survey Items on Response Rate

Web surveys provide researchers a platform to gather data in an inclusive manner and from a global audience. However, web surveys typically suffer from low response rates. To combat this issue, numerous studies have investigated how invitation messaging can improve response rates. A few studies have investigated embedding the first survey item in the e-mail invitation message and how adding humor to a reminder message might improve response rates. Our study adopted a 2 (invitation message embedded item vs. not) × 2 (reminder message embedded item vs. not) × 2 (humorous reminder message vs. not) study design. Results showed that among participants who only received the initial invitation, embedding a survey item in that invitation did not enhance completion rates. However, completion and break-off rates, compared to nonresponse, increased when participants received a survey item embedded in their reminder. Further, participants who received a humorous reminder were more likely to complete the survey than to break off. No interaction effects between the embedded item in the reminder message and the humorous tone of the reminder message emerged. Implications for invitation design are discussed.

Gotcha! Realism of Comedic Violence And Its Impact on Brand Responses

ABSTRACT Two experimental studies in Poland examined how perceived and manipulated realism of comedic violence may influence consumer responses to brands. Disposition to laughter, measured by katagelasticism (the joy of laughing at others), gelotophilia (the joy of being laughed at), and gelotophobia (the fear of being laughed at), was included as a potentially important factor in driving individual responsiveness to humorous messages. The results reveal that highly violent humor—compared with less violent humor—lowered perceptions of realism and produced negative brand attitudes. Manipulated realism led to less positive attitudes than manipulated unrealism in a high comedic violence condition but had no effect on brand evaluations when comedic violence was low. In both studies, the effects of realism on brand attitudes grew with increasing levels of katagelasticism and gelotophilia.

Twiplomacy against Viruses On Challenges and Opportunities of the New Era of Information Diplomacy

In recent years, the official Twitter of Ukraine has amply demonstrated several examples of successful twiplomacy. @Ukraine account came into being on 2 June 2016 through shared endeavour and ardour on the part of the Presidential Administration. It owes its existence and development to the three inspired young people, namely Yarema Dukh, Oleh Naumenko and Artem Zhukov, professional communicationists. Twitter accounts of countries are nothing new. Such virtual representations have long been administered by France, Canada, Norway, Russia and others. As a rule, foreign office staffs are in charge of these accounts, filling it with quite neutral content on tourist and investment appeal of their respective countries or holiday greetings. However, in 2017, Ukraine’s Twitter set a new standard for global twiplomacy. It goes un-challenged that a spillover effect of the Russo-Ukrainian war could not fail to include virtual space. It began in May 2017 with a humorous message, in which the official Ukrainian page responded in a specific way to Russia’s attempt to arrogate to itself the memory of Anna Yaroslavna, daughter of the Grand Prince of Kyiv and wife of Henry I of France. It happened in the immediate aftermath of the Russian President’s bigoted statements during his visit to Versailles. While dwelling on historically close ties between Russia and France, the leader of the terrorism-sponsoring state decided for some reason to recall Anna Yaroslavna in an attempt to depict the friendly relations between the two countries. In its message, Ukraine reminded the correct historical sequence in a digitally kind manner: in 1051, when Anna Yaroslavna became queen of France, Moscow was still a boggy birch forest. The official Russian response was not long in coming in its inherently imperial style: according to it, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus have a common history and only politicians “divided the fraternal peoples”. Ukraine’s response was very succinct: “You really don’t change, do you?” with an attached video extract from the popular Simpsons animated sitcom, where in one of the scenes a Russian representative in the UN Security Council bangs his fist on table, causing “Russia” nameplate to flip and reveal the thinly disguised “Soviet Union.” In an unexpected turn of events, this picture and six words above resonated in the hearts of the Western audience making Ukraine’s humorous response go viral. When the number of retweets reached tens of thousands, world media outlets turned it into a breaking news. In a matter of hours, the message about the Ukraine-Russia clash in Twitter became a talk of the town owing to dozens of international outlets, inter alia, The Daily Beast, Mashable and CNN. In less than an overnight, the message garnered nearly 40,000 shares and more than 100,000 likes. CNN called the event “an example of groundbreaking diplomacy”, and The Daily Beast noted that by using the gif, Ukraine “threw major shade” at Russia. Certainly, all the world media, which wrote about the event, also had to explain to their readers that Anna Kyivska was the daughter of the Grand Prince of Kyiv, to whom Russia has a dubious link, and that now there is a war ongoing between Ukraine and Russia. These messages were there to serve as a much-needed reminder in the world media outlets at the time when Western audiences were no longer receiving reports of hostilities in eastern Ukraine. That way, the three young communication specialists from Ukraine emerged victorious in an important information battle with the entire Russian Foreign Ministry department in charge of the Russian Twitter account, owing to their savvy, wit, and insight into the West-ern cultural context, courage to act outside the box and trespass the confines of the bureaucratic red tape. The courage has borne generous fruit, displaying Ukraine’s progressiveness and creativity, while also attracting extensive international coverage, which unanimously awarded Kyiv victory in one of the first twitter battles of the two states. Keywords: Twitter, twiplomacy, professional communicationists, pubic diplomacy, image formation.