Image, image, and brand of a country: delineation of concepts in terms of the communicative process

Abstract

The subject of the research is the distinction between the concept of the image of a country and related concepts such as image, brand, stereotype, reputation, and perception. The conceptual field in which these terms are usually mixed is organized by a common criterion, which is the side of the communicative process to which each concept belongs. The image of a country is understood as a meaningful correlate that is formed in the consciousness of the perceiver selectively, according to their systems of relevance and existing knowledge. Image and brand are viewed as projections of the sender, created through public communication tools, political technologies, and territorial marketing. The subject also includes an analysis of two common methods of defining the image: through closely related terms and through a list of reflected characteristics, along with the tacit assumption that the projected message directly settles in the consciousness of the recipient. A separate place is occupied by the methodological consequence of such a distinction for the choice of the object of sociological measurement. The work relies on conceptual analysis, typology, and comparison within the framework of moderate social constructivism. The key instrument is the phenomenology of imaginative consciousness, with its differentiation of the bearer of the image, the imaginative object, and the depicted, as well as the distinction between objective and subjective reality in the theory of social construction. A unified principle for distinguishing between the image and related concepts is proposed, which passes through the side of the communicative process and is not reducible to the content of the image. Image and brand are classified as projected imaginative objects by the sender, while the image, stereotype, reputation, and perception belong to the recipient's side. The phenomenology of imaginative consciousness is introduced in a new function for this field: image is interpreted as the imaginative object, the image as the depicted, and the distinction between projection and reception is translated into the language of sociology of knowledge through the dialectic of objective and subjective reality. Stereotype is defined as a typifying filter of perception, reputation as a stable evaluative residue of the image over time, and perception as the format of existence of the image in ordinary consciousness. The main source of conceptual fragmentation in the field is eliminated. The image is recognized as the object of sociological measurement on the side of citizens, while image and brand are retained as external conditions for its formation, partially and selectively transitioning into the image. The obtained distinction returns a strict subject to the study of the image of the country and lays the foundation for its subsequent operationalization.