Communication and representation in the construction of the European identity

Abstract

Our study deals with the issue of the relationship between what is conveyed through mass media and what is represented and organized socially in the form of social reality. The first part of our study focuses on theoretical aspects of this relation, by defining and explaining concepts such as mass-communication, social reality, social representation, cognition, imaginary, and social identity, along with trying to understand the specific relation between these concepts. The second part aims to present and briefly reproduce some of the conclusions of one of our study on European identity, in close relation with the issue of the way in which social representations are constructed from the initial message of the sender with the affective, cognitive and imaginary participation of the receiver.