Arms up, Guns down. Analyzing the Clash between the Narratives of State and Media Actors on Light Weapons Control in Albania (2017)

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to reflect on the relation between Communication studies and Security issues, by fitting particular developments into a larger scheme. In my hypothesis, public order and security can never be an exclusive duty of State Police alone, but a joint attempt for common goals. The institutional identity of the Police or Ministry of Interior itself is constituted by their purpose (why they exist), their brand (how they are perceived by others) and their culture (how members interact and work within them). Nevertheless, popular culture and mass media play an important role in effective institutional public communication. The challenge is to prevent, identify and manage incompatible or opposite messages promoted in the content managed by governmental and media authorities of a country, on the same topic, to the same audience, at the same time. By analyzing the behavioral communication and reflecting on how media exposures skew already available mental models to affect judgments, beliefs, and attitudes, I expect to provide a more complete framework on events occurred almost contemporarily, and to contribute in narrative-based persuasion strategies applied by governmental institutions in the future in Albania, suggesting Grunig’s systemic approach of Public Relation. In the following work, I will construct the media narratives related to light weapons control in the Republic of Albania in 2017, and deconstruct the two incompatible narrative-based strategies in this regard. They demonstrate the need to harmonize the production or diffusion of public narratives and content on specific public order and security strategies.