Marketing and Culture in University Websites

Simin, Shahla; Tavangar, Manoochehr; Pinna, Antonio

doi:10.7771/1481-4374.1703

Cited by 3 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The culture-specific parameter of colour has also been studied at length both in Human-Computer Interaction literature (Russo andBoor 1993, del Galdo 1990) and in empirical studies (Duncker, Theng andMohd-Nasir 2000, Barber andBadre 1998). Additionally, several studies have attempted to relate website design to Hofstede's cultural dimensions (Callahan 2011, Charalampidou 2011, Simin, Tavangar and Pinna 2011, Singh and Baack 2004, Dormann and Chisalita 2002, Marcus and Gould 2000, Robbins and Stylianou 2000. All these studies have revealed differences in various levels of website design related to the receivers' cultural background.…”

Section: Theoretical Background and Methodological Toolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous research results from a comparative analysis of English university websites, mainly from the USA and Britain, to smaller countries' university websites (Apperson 2015, Tomášková 2015, Callahan & Herring 2012, Simin, Tavangar & Pinna 2011, Bernardini, Ferraresi, Gaspari 2010, Callahan 2006 will constitute a point of departure for the specific research. The Greek locale has been included in two of the above studies but in the first case (Callahan & Herring 2012) the scope of research was limited to the study of linguistic choices in each website while the second one (Callahan 2006) was conducted twelve years ago and major differences have been observed in relation to the current Greek universities' online presence.…”

Section: Theoretical Background and Methodological Toolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…American and British universities, which mainly draw on private resources, have been increasingly using promotional rhetoric in their websites (Tomášková 2015: 2,18) which, according to Fairclough (1993), is characteristic of companies trying to attract customers. However, this is not the case in university websites from smaller countries such as Czech Republic or Iran, whose main resources come from the government (Tomášková 2015, Simin, Tavangar andPinna 2011). The question that arises regarding Greek universities concerns their web identity-making and the polysemiotic rhetoric that they use when addressing a non-Greek audience.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, we expect the operative function to be more prevalent in their websites, similarly to what Fairclough (1993) found twenty-five years ago in university brochures. On the contrary, research has shown that in university websites from smaller countries such as Czech Republic or Iran, whose main resources come from the government, the rhetoric used is quite different (Tomášková 2015, Simin, Tavangar & Pinna 2011. The prevailing function of university websites in the Greek socio-cultural context remains to be analyzed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Untitled

2021

Punctum

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Introduction -Design as Semiosisdrawing their research material from diverse areas of contemporary design. Sonia Andreou explores the meanings of postage stamp design as part of a country's official repertoire, the ideologies behind them, and how they are perceived by the citizens of the state, focusing on the Republic of Cyprus, a relatively newly-founded, post-colonial state, independent since 1960. The author presents findings of a survey, according to which the official state repertoire favored topics pointing to Cyprus' ancient past and religion, while citizens sought renewed ways for the official representation of their country through stamps depicting local folklore culture, suggesting more 'subversive' forms of self-representation. After discussing specific examples, she concludes that postage stamp imagery not only offers historical evidence regarding the country and time period studied, but also provides insights as to the negotiated character of official culture and its ongoing interaction with the citizens.John Reid Perkins Buzo discusses the development of 'maker' communities that usually originate from designers who employ technology in their own work, but then tend to embrace a larger vision of community empowerment, as they diffuse technological skills to the non-technical and non-academic public. Following John Deely's reading of the concept of Umwelt, the author investigates the semiotic environment in which these efforts take shape, focusing on the staged process of the development of two specific examples in Southern Illinois. This process is likened to a passage from the Innenwelt of private concern to the Umwelt of public space leading to an expansion of the Lebenswelt of human community forms, bringing together more people within the semiotic network.Parthena Charalambidou presents a comparative semiotic analysis of university website design in the US, the UK and Greece. Using concepts derived from Greimas, Barthes and Lotman, and focusing on the image/text relationship, the author examines the field of University website design and highlights points of convergence or divergence regarding education ideology in university websites. Looking into the different approaches to University marketing adopted by US, UK and Greek Universities, the author demonstrates that University online identity-making bears many similarities in Britain and the USA but ideological conceptions of education in Greece seem to form a rather separate semiosphere.Robin Fuller investigates the work of Rick Griffin, one of the leading figures of the psychedelic design movement in late 1960s San Francisco. Fuller argues that, although not an overt theorist, Griffin reveals aspects of the visual semiotics of writing that provide insights for the semiotic study of graphically-embodied language. Suggesting that it is only in recent years that semioticians and sociolinguists have begun to pay more attention to how language functions in its graphic manifestation, Fuller explores Griffin's experimental and innovative work discuss...

show abstract

Section: Theoretical Background and Methodological Toolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Background and Methodological Toolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Untitled

2021

Punctum

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This theory argues that world cultures vary in relation to four key dimensions: power distance, individualism vs. collectivism, femininity vs masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance. While this approach has been used quite widely in marketing and business analyses, only a limited number of studies have applied cultural theories to the analysis of university websites (Ewa Callahan, 2005 ; Jano et al, 2015 ; Shyshatska, 2016 ; Simin, Tavangar, & Pinna, 2011 ).…”

Section: Review Of the Existing State Of Higher Education Research Based On Websites Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Studying similarities and differences in higher education organisations based on their websites – comparative methodological approaches and research potential

Lažetić

2019

International Journal of Social Research Methodology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article discusses the possible ways in which visual research methodologies can be extended and applied to study similarities and differences in higher education institutions (and systems) in the context of the visual and digital turn in social science methodologies. The article focuses on the methodological potential of the institutional website analysis as a fruitful approach in comparative higher education research. The article futher focuses on two specific comparative methodological issues: different purposes of comparisons and different organisational aspects which can be compared. The review of the current state of research based on university websites found that the analyses are largely cross-sectional and focused on issues related to institutional identities and positioning of individual self-identities towards institutions as well as on representations of different types of students. Organisational aspects of structure and hierarchies, disciplinary differences, leadership and management cultures, organisational aesthetics as well studies which focus on the representation of non-student groups of university members, are rare and represent potential research frontiers. Most of the reviewed articles are guided by linear causal explanation logic, while other comparative purposes like a better description, critique and provision of alternative explanations are less present and potentially could lead to a better understanding of higher education.

show abstract

In search of the myth in multicultural website design: the case of English university website versions in the British, the American and the Greek locale

Charalampidou¹

2018

Punctum

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Barthes (1957) has argued that the two orders of signification, namely denotation and connotation, combine to produce a myth which usually remains unobserved as it is very often taken for granted. Myths traverse various aspects of life in western societies and become evident in different forms of communication. In the present article we will attempt to investigate the ideology behind university website design through the comparative study of British and American website macrostructure with Greek websites translated into English. The present research is expected to shed some light on the unexplored area of university website design as semiosis and highlight possible points of convergence or divergence regarding education ideology in original English and translated (into English) Greek university websites.

show abstract

Marketing and Culture in University Websites

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

Untitled

Untitled

Studying similarities and differences in higher education organisations based on their websites – comparative methodological approaches and research potential

In search of the myth in multicultural website design: the case of English university website versions in the British, the American and the Greek locale

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About