Publicaties

De rijke stad, de gevulde tafel en de mondige boer

Vanouds bestaat er een vanzelfsprekende verwevenheid tussen boer en burger en tussen producent en consument. Zonder vitale landbouw geen gevarieerd voedsel, zonder uitgekiende afzetkanalen geen volle supermarkten. Maar in de historische ontwikkeling waren het altijd steden die de voedselproductie dichtbij en verder weg hebben vormgegeven. En bij smaakvoorkeuren en tafelmanieren waren het rijke stadsbewoners die de toon zetten.

Journalistiek & Communicatie | 01-01-2018

Notions of the Sublime

A re-experiencing of the wilderness ideal is taking place in the Netherlands. This is expressed in the attention that is being devoted to projects in which agricultural land is transformed into nature. One of these projects is central to this article: the island Tiengemeten. We aim to study the experiences of visitors to this project in order to gain insight into the extent to which there are layers of depth visible in these experiences. For a lot of respondents going into in nature in general and making a visit to an island such as Tiengemeten in particular are ways of escaping from their day-to-day existence. It is noticeable that the words and images that the visitors use to describe their experiences fit in mainly with the wilderness view of nature. The wilderness view of nature is connected with experiences of the sublime; so in this article we also ask the question as to what the shift to the wilderness view of nature means for the religious landscape of the Netherlands.

Journalistiek & Communicatie |

Government Communication as a Normative Practice

The network society is generally challenging for today’s communication practitioners because they are no longer the sole entities responsible for communication processes. This is a major change for many of them. In this paper, it will be contended that the normative practice model as developed within reformational philosophy is beneficial for clarifying the structure of communication practices. Based on this model, we argue that government communication should not be considered as primarily an activity that focuses on societal legitimation of policy; rather, it focuses on clarifying the meaning of the actions of the government. If the government can convincingly answer the question about the reason for their actions, societal legitimation will subsequently follow. Hence, it is argued that government communication is primarily linguistically qualified.

Journalistiek & Communicatie | 12-12-2017

Publiek debat vraagt om deugdelijke verhalen

Wat maken journalistiek en communicatie tot vakken waar je trots op kunt zijn, vakken die een maatschappelijke meerwaarde hebben? Het antwoord op deze vraag is dat beide professies, elk op eigen wijze, een bijdrage leveren aan de hygiëne van het publieke debat.

Journalistiek & Communicatie | 12-01-2017

Reflective Practices for Future Journalism: The Need, the Resistance and the Way Forward

In newsrooms journalists encounter numerous constraints accelerated by increasing technological and economic pressures. The complexity of the job and the need for (constant) innovation coupled with the rising call for transparency and accountability ask for journalists who “reflect-in-action”. Newsroom ethnographies consistently suggest that journalists experience a gap between the wish for increased self-reflection and its actual practice. Additionally, both newsroom research and journalists’ expressions in the trade press show significant resistance against reflection as being a largely academic exercise, or simply too time-consuming. We propose that considering reflection primarily from a learning perspective can overcome this resistance. Secondly, the article acknowledges that in order to enable professionals to fit reflection into their precarious practice, critical reflection should develop out of the practice itself. Reflection only makes sense if it starts from the sense of immediacy and autonomy within journalistic practice, recognises the constraints that journalists face and acknowledges the aversion among journalists against standardised protocols in their craft. Outlining the basic tenets of reflective practice, journalism's current precarity and the learning perspective, we propose further research in how informal reflective practices can enhance professional autonomy.

Journalistiek & Communicatie | 12-01-2017

In search of religious elements in the dutch nature policy

The way people or organizations describe or depict nature conveys their view of nature. In the Dutch discourse, views of nature are mostly conceived as socio-cultural constructs regarding the character, value, and appreciation of nature. Views of nature tell us how we perceive nature and how we want to relate to it. Likewise, they shape our preferences for certain types of nature. Views of nature function as frames and provide an interpretive and reflective context for our experiences with nature. Views of nature are also digestions of meaningful experiences. It is through communication that we become aware of such experiences. We argue that meaningful experiences have religious depth. On the basis of this argument any discourse on nature contains, in a sense, religious subtexts. We examine the Dutch discourse on nature.

Journalistiek & Communicatie | 12-01-2017

Wistful wilderness: communication about ‘new’ nature in the Netherlands

Based on in-depth interviews, this article presents findings of a study centred on public communication regarding Tiengemeten, a Dutch island previously occupied by farmers. An answer is sought to the question of how visitors to Tiengemeten evaluate, according to their own experiences, the discourse of people involved in Tiengemeten from a policy and communication perspective. This study showed that visitors’ experiences do not always match the emotions appealed to in public communication materials. It is also suggested that people involved from a policy and communication perspective should refrain from using ‘heavily value-laden’ phraseology. For reasons of trust, this article suggests aligning public communication with genuine experiences of visitors. This is also necessary for avoiding scepticism of visitors as policy makers and communication professionals run a risk that public communication regarding nature becomes counterproductive.

Journalistiek & Communicatie |

Deugt het verhaal?

Journalisten en communicatieprofessionals zijn er om zorg te dragen voor hygiëne in het publieke debat. Klopt het verhaal dat organisaties naar buiten brengen? Is het verhaal geloofwaardig? Vaak staan de taak van de journalist en de taak van de communicatieprofessional in spanning met elkaar. Voor een gezond publiek debat heb je echter beide professies nodig.

Journalistiek & Communicatie |