A Transactional Communication Study
of the Swedish Embassy in China
MAJ
GRANBERG
Master of Science Thesis
Stockholm, Sweden 2011
A Transactional Communication Study
of the Swedish Embassy in China
MAJ
GRANBERG
Master’s Thesis in Media Technology (30 ECTS credits)
at the School of Media Technology
Royal Institute of Technology year 2011
Supervisor at CSC was Christer Lie
Examiner was Johan Stenberg
TRITA-CSC-E 2011:031
ISRN-KTH/CSC/E--11/031--SE
ISSN-1653-5715
Royal Institute of Technology
School of Computer Science and Communication
KTH CSC
SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
URL: www.kth.se/csc
A Transactional Communication Study of the
Swedish Embassy in China
Abstract
Communication is something that happens all around us everyday. We are all a part of
the communication consciously or unconsciously. Communication can be everything
from what we choose to put on in the morning to statements made during the day, thus
communication is not only what is coming out when people speak. A working
communication is important to avoid unnecessary trouble or misunderstandings.
This thesis is going to study the Swedish embassy’s communication in China. The
embassy is located in Beijing and the study had been done during an exchange with
Peking University. The study has focused on the embassy’s communication towards
Swedes. The purpose is to get a clear view of the embassy’s communication and how it
is received. Then shortage and improvement points in the communication are
highlighted and some suggestions on improvements are made.
To gather information about the embassy’s communication and see how the Swedes
reflect on it, interviews and questionnaires have been used that resulted in a survey.
The survey showed that the embassy has many communication channels but the target
group knows few of them. The target group does find some of the communication
channels interesting and would like to have been introduced to them earlier. In general
the Swedes were satisfied with the information they got but some small improvements
could make it easier and less time-consuming to reach the information they were
looking fore. The study shows that all of the communication channels except from the
embassy’s homepage have to get more visible to the audience if they are supposed find
them on their own.
En “transaktionell” kommunikationsstudie av
svenska ambassaden i Kina
Sammanfattning
Kommunikation är något som händer runt omkring oss varje dag. Vi är alla en del av
kommunikationen, medvetet eller omedvetet. Kommunikation kan vara allt ifrån vilka
kläder vi väljer att sätta på oss på morgonen till uttalanden som görs under dagen,
kommunikation är inte bara det som kommer ut när folk talar. En fungerande
kommunikation är viktigt så att onödiga problem och missförstånd kan undvikas.
Detta examensarbete kommer att studera den svenska ambassaden kommunikation i
Kina. Ambassaden är belägen i Beijing och studien har gjorts under ett utbyte med
Peking University. Studien har fokuserat på ambassadens kommunikation mot svenskar.
Syftet med studien är att få en klar bild av ambassadens kommunikation och hur
mottagarna av informationen uppfattar den. Efteråt kommer brister och synpunkter på
kommunikationen belysas och förslag på förbättringar kommer att ges.
Intervjuer och enkäter har använts för att sammanställa ambassadens
kommunikationskanaler för att se hur svenskarna förhåller sig till dessa.
Undersökningen visar att ambassaden har en hel del kommunikationskanaler, men
målgruppen känner inte till många av dessa förutom ambassadens hemsida. När
målgruppen får höra talas om dessa kommunikationskanaler tycker de dem låter
intressant och skulle vilja ha hör talas om dessa tidigare. I allmänhet är svenskarna
nöjda med den information de hittat, men några små förbättringar kan göra det lättare
och mindre tidskrävande för svenskarna att hitta informationen de söker. Studien visar
att alla kommunikationskanalerna, förutom ambassaden hemsida, måste bli synligare för
publiken för att de ska kunna hitta dem på egen hand.
Acknowledgments
This thesis could not have been done without help received from the Swedish
Embassy’s staff, whom always hade time to answers questions and helped me getting in
touch with the right persons. I would also like to thank my supervisor at the Royal
Institute of Technology, Christer Lie who have guided and supportive me all through
the project. Finally I would like to thank all of the participants who were involved in the
survey, for taking of your time to highlight your opinions on the subject. Thanks!
Table of Contents
1 Introduction..............................................................................................................................1 1.1 The responsibilities of an Embassy...................................................................................1 1.2 Significance of the study...................................................................................................1 1.3 Research questions............................................................................................................2 1.4 Method ..............................................................................................................................2 1.5 Limitations ........................................................................................................................2 1.6 Structure of the thesis........................................................................................................2 2 Communication........................................................................................................................3 2.1 Defining Communication..................................................................................................3 2.2 Different perspectives ......................................................................................................4 2.3 Communication is... ..........................................................................................................4 2.3.1 …A process? ..............................................................................................................4 2.3.2 … Transactional? .......................................................................................................5 2.3.3 … Symbolic? .............................................................................................................5 2.3.4 Communication is both a process, transactional action and containing symbolic
messages.................................................................................................................................5 2.4 Creating a message ...........................................................................................................6 2.4.1 The Constructivist point of view................................................................................6 2.4.2 The Action Assembly point of view ..........................................................................7 2.4.3 The goals of message production...............................................................................8 2.5 Receiving a message .........................................................................................................9 2.5.1 Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM).......................................................................9 2.5.2 Inoculation Theory.....................................................................................................9 3 Method and Implementation ..................................................................................................11 3.1 Getting familiar with the field.........................................................................................11 3.2 The communication model .............................................................................................11 3.3 Interviews at the embassy ...............................................................................................11 3.4 Finding the target group..................................................................................................12 3.5 Designing the Survey ......................................................................................................12 3.6 Processing the data..........................................................................................................13 3.7 Reliability and validity....................................................................................................14 4 Result .....................................................................................................................................15 4.1 Communication of the Swedish embassy, Overview .....................................................15 4.2 Communication Channels of the embassy ......................................................................15 4.3 Communication to Swedes in, or interested in, China....................................................17 4.3.1 www.swedenabroad.com .........................................................................................17 4.3.2 Sweden in China Calendar.......................................................................................19 4.3.3 “Finance and Promotion news from China” and “China, market, energy and
environmental technologies”................................................................................................19 4.4 How the information differs to Chinese citizens ............................................................19 4.4.1 Brand Sweden ..........................................................................................................20 4.4.2 Progressive communication .....................................................................................20 4.5 How does the people working at the embassy perceive their communication? .............21 4.5.1 No communication template ....................................................................................21 4.5.2 Usually asked questions ...........................................................................................22 4.5.3 How they see their own communication..................................................................22 4.5.4 Printed communication ............................................................................................22 4.6 The recipients’ view of the embassy’s communication ..................................................23 4.6.1 The target group .......................................................................................................23 4.6.2 The knowledge of the embassy’s communication channels ....................................23 4.6.3 Communication Channels the participants used ......................................................24 4.6.4 The interest in the embassy’s communication channels ..........................................25 4.6.5 How the participants see the embassy’s communication.........................................26 4.6.6 What information were the participants searching for and why did they choose the
embassy’s webpage? ............................................................................................................26 4.6.7 The participants who mainly searched information elsewhere................................27 4.6.8 The participants thoughts about the content of the embassy’s communication.......27 5 Analyses .................................................................................................................................28 5.1.1 Homepage the natural choice...................................................................................28 5.1.2 How often do they visit the homepage ....................................................................28 5.1.3 How they get in touch with the embassy and what they ask for..............................28 5.1.4 What they think about the communication channels except fore the homepage .....28 5.1.5 Criticism towards the communication channels ......................................................29 5.1.6 Complaints about the interface ................................................................................29 6 Conclusions............................................................................................................................31 6.1 What kind of information do the Swedes want from the embassy? ...............................31 6.2 Do the embassy reach out to the Swedes, as they want? ................................................31 6.3 How can the communication improve? ..........................................................................32 6.4 The strengths and weaknesses of the embassy's communication ...................................32 7 Discussion ..............................................................................................................................33 8 Future studies .........................................................................................................................34 Bibliography.................................................................................................................................35 Appendix A ..................................................................................................................................36 Appendix B ..................................................................................................................................37 Appendix C ..................................................................................................................................39 A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
1 Introduction
It does not matter where you come from or what kind of background you have, you do
communicate with everyone around you in some kind of way. If the messages goes
through? - That is another question. But communication is something that is happening
all around us, day and night, all the time. The complex term “communication” is
exciting but also hard to wrap our mind around, which makes it extra interesting to take
a closer look at it.
This study is aiming to understand and analyze a part of the Swedish embassy’s
communication in China. The embassy is located in Beijing and is informing Swedes,
Chinese and others who take an interest in Sweden, about practical matters and what
Swedish related activities that is going on at the moment. This study has been done in
China at Peking University. The communication analyzed in this thesis is mainly
communication between Swedish citizens and the Swedish embassy.
1.1 The responsibilities of an Embassy
The Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs is represented by the Swedish embassies
abroad. They are a part of the foreign representation among other represents such as
delegations and representatives. The main role is to monitor, represent and promote
Swedish interests. They also have a role to help and guide the Swedish government,
businesses, organizations and individuals in fields concerning the country they are
operating in. On regular basis they send reports to the Swedish government with
information and analyses about the economic and political development in the country
they are active in. They also report stands the country takes in different international
matters. The embassy should promote Sweden to stimulate abroad investments and they
should help Swedish business in the foreign countries. Another part of the embassy’s
daily base work is consular matters regarding Swedish citizens (Regeringskansliet,
2010).
1.2 Significance of the study
The embassy is communicating with both Chinese and Swedes. During this study the
focus is going to be on the communication going out to Swedes. It is in both the
embassy’s and the Swedish citizens interest to have a communication that is efficient
and well functioning. This study is going to investigate what the embassy is
communicating, if the messages goes through and how the Swedes perceive the
communication. Today the embassy’s way of knowing if the communication reaches
the goal is based on what they hear form people around them and how many hits they
have on their newsletters.
The purpose of this study is to get an better understanding of how the embassy
communicates with Swedes, and to see which techniques they are using
(print/online/meetings/blog and so on). The thesis is aiming to highlight what kind of
information Swedes are looking fore and how the embassy is meeting their expectations
today.
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A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
1.3 Research questions
To answer the issues mentioned above, these questions have been drawn out. These
questions are going to get answered during the research.
•
•
•
What kind of information do the Swedes want/expect from the embassy?
Do the embassy reach out to the Swedes, as they want?
How can the communication improve?
1.4 Method
To answer the research questions the method is going to be divided into two parts.
During the first part information will be collected about how the embassy
communicates. This information will be gathered by interviewing employees at the
embassy who work with the communication. The second part of the method is to get the
Swedes’ point of view of the embassy’s communication by doing a survey. The survey
is also going to explore the relationship between Swedes’ and the embassy’s
communication. To get a broader and deeper understanding of the Swedes’ opinions
small informal conversational interviews are going to be held and added to the survey.
For further description see chapter 3 “Method and Implementation”.
1.5 Limitations
Since communication is a broad term it is, in a study like this, necessary to limit the
research area otherwise the study could go on for decades. As mentioned before the
thesis is only going to focus on how the communication works between the embassy
and the Swedes. The choice of focusing on the Swedish part of the communication is
also based on obstacles that occurred with the Chinese language and the Chinese
firewall that is restricting the Internet. It is important to keep in mind that the
communications going out to Swedes are not the only communication flows that the
embassy is handling.
1.6 Structure of the thesis
The thesis will start with an introduction to the communication field with different
theories about communication and message handling. Then an overview of the
embassy’s communication is going to introduce the reader to their communication.
Those two chapters will serve to get the reader a background and an overview. After
this the method is going to be discussed and reviewed, followed by the result. In the last
part of this dissertation the result is going to be discussed, analyzed and summarized,
followed by suggestions for further studies.
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A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
2 Communication
The word communication originates from the Latin word communicare, which mean,
“to share” (New Oxford American Dictionary). The study of communication is nothing
new according to Miller (Communication Theories perspectives, processes and
contexts, 2005). One can trace back the study of communication to the 5th century B.C.
One of the big question marks that scholars have been trying to answer all through these
decades is how to define communication. The scholars still have not found a definition
that they all (or most of them) can agree on.
2.1 Defining Communication
To get a perspective on how difficult it can be to define communication Miller (2005)
shows the reader seventeen different attempts to define communication. Below there are
some of the most noteworthy definitions listed for this research.
“[Communication is] all of the procedures by which one mind can affect another” the
quote originate from Weaver (1949).
“Communication can not be understood except as a dynamic process in which listener
and speaker, reader and writer act reciprocally, the speaker acting to provide direct
and indirect sensory stimulation of the listener; the listener acting on the stimulation by
taking it in, investing the meaning by calling up images in the mind, testing those
images against present information and feelings and sooner or later acting upon those
images.” The quote originate from Martin and Anderson (1968)
“Communication means that information is passed from one place to another.” Miller
(1951)
“Communication does not refer to verbal, explicit and intentional transmission of
messages alone… The concept of communication would include all those processes by
which people influence one another.” The quote originate from Ruesch and Bateson
(1961)
“Communication: The transmission of information, ideas, emotions, skills, etc. by the
use of symbols- words, pictures figures, graphs, etc. It is the act or process of
transmission that is usually called communication.” The quote originate from Berelson
and Steiner (1964)
“In the main, communication has as its central interest those behavioral situations in
which a source transmits a message to receiver(s) with conscious intent to affect the
latter’s behavior.” The quote originate from Miller (1966)
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A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
“Communication [is] patterned space-time behavior with a symbolic referent.” The
quote originate from Hawes (1973)
New Oxford American Dictionary describes communication like this: “the imparting or
exchanging of information or news and the successful conveying” or “sharing of ideas
and feelings”.
While typing in communication in Wikipedia (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 2010)
you get this definition: “Communication is a process whereby meaning is defined and
shared between living organisms.”
2.2 Different perspectives
When looking at these definitions of communication the problematic of defining the
term gets more obvious. Some of the definitions are quite abstract while others choose
to only include human beings. All the definitions agree on seeing communication as
something being transmitted between two parts. Then it is up to the individual and the
context to decide what limitations they want to apply on their own definition of the
term.
In this thesis the communication studied is going to be the interaction between the
embassy and the Swedes, thus the thesis is going to handle communication in a more
practical than abstract way. It is preferable to base the study on only one of the
definitions mentioned above. Millers (2008) definition from 1951: “Communication
means that information is passed from one palace to another” does not have a too broad
nor a too narrow framework, it suits the purpose of this study. When communication is
mentioned in this text it will refer to that definition.
2.3 Communication is...
2.3.1
…A process?
One can look at communication as a part of a bigger picture, that it is not only the
messages being transmitted and received at the moment. Some scholars believe that one
cannot only look at an isolated part of a communication. A scholars named David Berlo
spelled out the concept like this, quoted by Miller (2008): “If we accept the concept of
process [when it comes to communication], we view events and relationships as
dynamic, on-going, ever-changing, continuous. When we label something as a process
we also mean that it does not have a beginning, an end, a fixed sequence of events. It is
not static, at rest. It is moving. The ingredients within a process interact; each affects
all others. “ Looking at communication from this angle it gets even more complex. This
means that only studying a part of the communication and ignore the context might not
be preferable in a study. Instead, to get a fair picture of what is going on in the
communication between two parts, and not only which words that are communicated,
one have to look at the whole picture. Which means that to study communication it is
not enough to only look at what is being communication right now, instead it is
preferably to see both the past and the right now communication.
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A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
2.3.2 … Transactional?
When looking at communication as a process, the information being transmitted is the
main part, although the researcher pays attention to communication being transmitted
before. If you on the other hand look at communication as a transactional event, you
both study the message being sent and how the recipient receive and react on the
message. When seeing communication as transactional the context that is surrounding
the communication should also be studied since it has an impact on how the receiver
interpret the information being sent. To sum it up, seeing communication in a
transactional way means that you pay attention to the feedback and surroundings as well
as the transmitted message, to get a broader understanding of the communication that is
being transmitted. According to Miller this theory is the most common model when
conceptualizing communication.
2.3.3 … Symbolic?
Communication between two parts that do not have the same background experience
can fail because of a lack of the same symbolic reference system. Lets have an example
to clarify: a human from the most northern parts of the world meets a friend from the
equator during wintertime in Germany. The person being used to cold would probably
classify the weather as quite warm. While the friend from the equator would think the
weather was pretty cold. If the friends started to talk about the weather before going to
Germany the used-to-cold-person would probably say that it would be quite warm, but
the friend would say that the weather would be really cold. This kind of “failures” in
communication can happen because the two individuals do not have the same reference
system. To see communication as a symbolic happening means that when studying
communication you look at how the symbols are being interpreted by the transmitter
and the receiver. A symbol can be a word but also how the message is transmitted. Did
the transmitter choose to spread the message by letter, email or personal meetings? A
symbol can be what kind of clothes the transmitter is wearing, the cloths meaning can
change depending on what kind of environment the person is in while transmitting the
message. As an example; a person wearing a diving suit in the sea would probably be
taken for a diver. But the same person (in a diving suit) walking around in the city core
would probably be taken for a person doing some kind of commercial for a company.
The way we interpret people depends on what kind of symbols they are using and the
context. According to Miller “there will always be gaps in the understanding. The gaps
will be smallest for individuals who have shared the experiences (e.g. growing up in the
same culture, being of the same generation, having professional similarities). They will
be largest for those who have had radically divergent social experiences.”
2.3.4 Communication is both a process, transactional action and
containing symbolic messages
Scholars generally accept all of these perspectives on communication, although
depending on the focus of the study a researcher may emphasize more on one of the
perspectives than the others. Which perspective depends on what kind of study the
researcher is doing according to Miller (2008).
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A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
2.4 Creating a message
Before there is a communication, there must be a message to transmit. There are
different ways of understand how a message is created. This chapter is going to describe
two different theories of message creating, handling the cognitive structures and how
the structures affect the way people communicate.
2.4.1 The Constructivist point of view
Constructivism is the first theory about message production developed by Jesse Delia in
1970, Miller (2005). Constructivism explains how humans interpret a situation and then
process it into communication. As the term indicates, constructivism, deals with how
the mind is organized when it is creating a messages. Constructivists believe that every
human have their own set of frames when they interpret an impression and then put it
into words. These frames can be limited or complex depending on the persons’
knowledge in the situation that is being interpreted. As an example; a kid watching a
movie might classify the movie as “fun” or “boring” while a grown up would refer to
the movie as “interesting with a lot of fun stories although it was a little bit slow in the
beginning”. The kid has a more limited choice of ways to describe the impression than
the grown up, since the grown up has a more developed constructive mind. Which
basically means that the adult have more references available to describe the
impressions of the movie. The difference between these persons is the different frames
they have when it comes to how they relate to an impression. In the case mentioned
above it is the age difference that is creating the gap. But a gap can also be found when
humans get into new situations, like when a sailor meets a person that never been on the
sea before, they are most likely to not have the same constructive mind when it comes
to talking about sailing. But the constructive mind holds more than just the way people
describe their impressions. It also deals with the way a human cooperate different areas
of knowledge and combine these in communication. Thus a person can have a high
level of constructivism in one area but a lower level in another area. The constructivism
also has a certain way of looking at the present communication. In the ontology
perspective constructivism argues that the “now” is created by the ongoing
communication. They also recognize that interactions happened in the past plays an
important role in the ongoing interaction which means that the creation of the present is
influenced by interaction happened in the past.
The constructive mind at the embassy might be the bureaucratic vocabulary. While the
constructive mind of the receivers of the embassy’s communications might be very
different from one another and the embassy’s. Since there seldom is a communication
back to the embassy, where misunderstandings because of the constructive mind can
interfere, this aspect is not that important to this study.
Person and Position-centered communication
Constructivism differs between person-centered communication and position-centered
communication. A person communicating in a person centered way communicates from
how the receiver will interpret the message. While a person communicating in a
position-centered way keep the surroundings and the norms of the situation in mind
while communicating. According to Miller (2005) a person with “more differentiated
construct system (i.e. individuals who are more cognitively complex) will produce more
person-centered messages”. Miller is mentioning Burleson’s point of view of why a
person with a more complex cognitive mind often produces more person-centered
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A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
communication. Burleson argues that a human with a more cognitive complex mind are
more likely to produce communication to reach their goals. The communication can be
in a persuading or supporting way, but the main point is that the transmitter reaches the
goal he or she sat up in the beginning of the communication. Even though the embassy
so not pay that much attention to the differences in the constructive minds, the embassy
tries to communicate in a person-centered way. At the same time they have to be
formal, which means that they communicate in a position-centered way too.
2.4.2 The Action Assembly point of view
Assembly theory was developed by John Greene in 1984 and has another way of
structuring a message production. Action Assembly theory divide message production
into three parts; action, situation and outcome. Here is an example: Person A and B
meets, A wants to make a good impression on B (situation) by being polite (action) and
show respect that B appreciates (outcome). Action Assembly theory has divided the
senders output into four different cases, Interactional Representation, Ideational
Representation, Utterance Representation and Sensorimotor Representation. To get an
overview, see the table below quoted from Miller (2008).
Table 1: Output representation Levels in Action Assembly Theory. The first column shows the
different representations and the second column the way an “asking for a date” situation would
be formulated in each of the cases.
Interactional Representation • “I would like to ask this person for a date in a manner that will be effective and not embarrassing” Ideational Representation • “I will mention a new movie that has come out and see if there is any interest in a date” Utterance Representation • Chris: ”Hey, I hear Mystic River is just great. Have you seen it yet?” • Pat: “No, I’ve been meaning to, though.” • Chris: “Do you want to go out on Friday night and catch it with me?” Sensorimotor Representation • Actual production of these messages in a clear and friendly tone with adequate eye contact. Actions before transmitting a message
Before an interaction is to begin, the human must define what they want to transmit, this
is referred to as procedural record. A person can come up with a lot of different ways to
put the message that is being transmitted, although only one way of saying the message
can be used. The message being transmitted becomes the “behavioral-production” of the
human. Between the procedural and behavioral part of message production, action
assembly theory classifies two more steps: the activation process and the assembly
process. The activation process selects the best way of putting the message so the
transmission works out as the sender intentions. An example of the action assembly
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A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
process: Person A wants person B to bring some food to the table, A comes up with
different ways of spelling it out (assembly process); “give me the bread”, “pleas, can
you bring the bread with you to the table”, eying at the bread and then to person B.
Person A chooses which one of the alternative that is most likely to get the bread to the
table and sends the message (activation process). The assembly process can take time,
depending on the situation. So it is common to talk about an assembly time. The
assembly time depends on the person’s, as Miller (2008) puts it, “information
processing capacity”. It is individual and is depending on habit and how the person uses
to handle a certain situation. It can be shortened if the person gets to prepare before
transmitting a message. Example: Person A is going to hold a speech about African
food, if person A prepared the speech the assembly time shortens. If person A gets on
the stage without preparing the speech the assembly process will slow it down and even
make silent gaps in the performance, according to Miller (2008). Miller refers to Green
who states that (in his study) the ones that got to prepare before holding a speech, or se
the subject they were going to talk about, spoke more fluently and could keep a faster
pace than the unprepared speech holders. Green did another test, where the participants
did not know what they were going to talk about, but half of the grope got to prepare
(structure, time limitations and so on) before seeing the subject. This study showed that
the people who got to prepare were more likely to talk with out hesitation and
interruption.
2.4.3 The goals of message production
A conversation is often held to achieve a goal that is not always obvious for the receiver
and sometimes not even for the transmitter. According to Miller (2008) there are usually
three aspects of goals discussed in message production. The transmitter does not only
have one goal but several or multiple goals. These goals can be divided into primary
and secondary goals. Primary goals can be to change an attitude or getting a favor out of
the conversation. Secondary goals can be divided into five subgroups according to
Dillard (the list is quoted from Miller (2008)):
•
•
•
•
•
Identity goals, involve preservation of the self-concept.
Interaction goals are concerned with being socially appropriate.
Relational resource goals are concerned with increasing or maintaining
relational assets such as support, attention, or simulation.
Personal resource goals are concerned with increasing or maintaining an
individual’s personal assets.
Arousal management goals are concerned with maintaining arousal within
an acceptable range.
Another type of goal is metagoal, it is defined by the main goal being restrained by a
secondary less important goal. Even though it is a secondary goal it is still important to
the transmitter. An example of a metagoal is efficiency. In the communication the main
goal is to get the message through, but it is important to the sender that the
communication goes smoothly and efficient to get the message through. Another
example is the metagoal of being socially correct, the transmitter usually does not want
to seem impolite. Sometimes these metagoals interfere with each other like when person
A wants to get a favor done by person B. A wants to keep the conversation
straightforward to get to the point without being rude to person B. The metagoals of
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A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
being efficient is blocked by the metagoal of being socially correct. The embassy deals
with metagoals since they want to be polite but also communicate in n efficient way.
2.5 Receiving a message
Theories handling message processing are quite complex since the receiver can be
anyone. A message being transmitted to a big audience must be able to reach everyone
in the group and not just a few. Since a group of people is quite inhomogeneous and has
different background experiences it is complex to create a message that gets through to
all of tem. This chapter is going to explore some of the message processing theories.
2.5.1 Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)
Richard Petty and John Cacioppo who were active in the social psychology filed
developed the Elaboration Likelihood Model theory. The theory choose to see humans
as “motivated (for social reasons) to hold correct attitudes” in conversations. The theory
points out two ways to persuade someone. The communication either takes the “central
route” or the “peripheral route”. The transmitter can try to send the message with one of
the routes but never be sure which one the message actually has taken. If a message
takes the central rout it means that the receiver thoroughly will go through the message
and then react on it. While a message taking the persuasive rout is not aiming to get the
receiver to thoroughly go through the message, instead the receiver is supposed to react
on the message in a whim or subconsciously. Lets have an example to clarify, a
commercial selling washing powder: the company has a celebrity holding the packet
while a speaker announces why the washing powder is the best. Person A listen to the
speaker and reflect over what has been communicated, the message then took the
central route to the receiver. While person B focus on the celebrity instead and then
decides whether to buy the washing powder or not, the message has then taken the
peripheral route to the receiver. The ELM theory states that there are ways to predict
which way the message is going to take. The two most decisive points are the capacity
and the interest of the receiver. Capacity means the individual’s capacity to process the
message in a critical way and then react on it. Talking about capacity means talking
about the receiver’s background experiences, education and so on. Interest affects in a
way that if the receiver is interested in the content of the message the receiver is more
likely to go through the content carefully. This means that a person can process
messages in both a central route and peripheral route-way based on the receiver’s
background and interest. Depending on which of the routes the message is being
processed the ELM theory states that the reaction on the message can be stronger or
weaker to influences later on. Lets go back to the washing powder commercial. Person
A, who got the message processed through the central route is more likely to stick with
the decision, since it is based on a well-considered decision. While person B when
choosing washing powder in the store might change the decision and go for the cheapest
one instead of the washing powder shown in the commercial. Thus a message being
processed in the central rout it more likely to remain than a decision based on a message
being processed through the peripheral route, Miller (2008).
2.5.2 Inoculation Theory
In contrary to ELM theory Inoculation theory deals with how the receiver can resist
arguments sent to change the receivers mind. Inoculation is like the communication
equivalent to the medicine’s term vaccination, in a way they are both working by
9
A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
injecting a small amount of something that will make the object resistant. When we are
talking about vaccination it is a virus being injected while when we are talking about
inoculation theory there is a message being injected, in the mind. Miller (2008) writes
that if a person is “attacked” on his believes with weak arguments, the attack is easy to
dismantle (like vaccination works). If you dismantled one attack it is more likely that
the next time your beliefs are being attacked you have a stronger stand and develop a
more skillful way of tackling arguments. The scholars look at this process as a part of
building up skillful ways to defend one’s opinion. There are two major ways to start the
inoculation process. The first one is based on warnings, which means that a person can
be warned, before an attack on his or her beliefs. This way of inoculation is referred to
as threat preemption. Lets have an example: Person A believes that the yummiest food
in the world is pizza. To secure this point of view the friend, person B (who do not want
to loose a pizza eating friend) says: Pizza is the best food ever, but people will tell you
that it is not that healthy. By hearing this, person A, next time a discussion about the
healthiness of pizza arise, have a knowledge about what people might say and can come
up with arguments easier. The second way of preparing people for arguments against
their beliefs is Refutional preemption. It is called Refutional preemption because it has a
structure of first saying something that challenge the believes and then refute the
statement. Lets have the pizza example again: Person B says: “pizza is not that healthy,
but you only eat it every second month so it does not matter” than person A has been
exposed to refutional preemption. It prepared him for attacks in the future on the pizza
matter, and gave him an argument to use in future discussions. Pizza is a silly example,
but the patterns are the same weather you discuss politics, drugs or other subjects. The
major differences between these refutional and attack preemption is that refutional
preemption gives the transmitter an argument to use in a discussion. There are not only
humans that can communicate in an inoculation way, but also video, print, radio and so
on. There have been researches of whether one channel is better to communicate
inoculation-messages than others.
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A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
3 Method and Implementation
3.1 Getting familiar with the field
To get an overview of the communication field, literature was studied in the
communication area. The feeling that communication is quite complex and a huge field
made it clear that tighter frames had to been drawn out for this project. To try and cover
communication all in all was an impossible task even though it would have been very
useful and interesting. The same feeling entered when starting to study the embassy’s
communication. It would have been interesting to get an overview of all the incoming
and outgoing information but obviously it would have taken to much time for this
project. Instead the thesis got more focused on the main departments where most of the
embassy’s communication where located. To get an understanding of the embassy’s
communication the decision was made to go there and make interviews.
3.2 The communication model
As mentioned in chapter “Communication is…” One could look at communication as a
process. Which meant that it would not make sense to only study the tings being
transmitted at the moment, instead one had to look at the context and see what have
been communicated before to get the deeper meaning of the communication. This
theory is not really useful to this study since the communication is not a flowing,
everlasting interaction (like between family members). Instead the communication
being studied in this theses starts with a question and usually ends with an answer. One
could look at the newsletters as an ongoing communication but it is also only a one-way
communication which make the “flowing part” disappear. The embassy’s
communication has been studied from a transactional-communication angle.
Transactional communication both studies the message being transmitted and how the
recipient receives the message. The embassy seldom gets to know their recipients’
reaction about their messages and that is what this thesis is going focus on. The other
communication model, symbolic communication, is interesting. But because of the time
limits of the project there will be no time left to look at that aspect.
3.3 Interviews at the embassy
To get an overview of the embassy’s communication interviews were made. The idea
was to get a deeper understanding of the communication being transmitted and received
at the embassy. The disadvantages of doing interviews were the possibility of projecting
personal bias or being too subjective when asking the questions and interpreting the
answers. The expectations on the interviews were to get a clear view of how the
embassy’s communication was structured and how they looked at it themselves. The
creation of the interview was done in three stages. First an extensive brain storming
process took place. During the mind mapping it got clear which areas that was the most
important for the theses, thus answers to the research questions could be received. The
main areas were:
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A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
•
•
•
•
What kind of information is incoming/outgoing
By which mediums are this communication traveling
What is the most important to communicate
What is problematic with the communication
With these main areas mapped out a new brainstorming session took place to come up
with interview questions. Afterwards the questions were worked through, summarized,
reformulated and written down to an interview. All the questions were modified into
open-ended questions since they can give more flexible answers and allow the
interviewer to ask follow up questions. The idea was then to, during the interviews, ask
follow-up questions when something extra interesting or unclear came up. So the
concept of the interviews was a combination of the “standardized open-ended
interview” and the “informal conversational interview”(Cohen, L. Manion, L. Morrison,
K, 2000). The strength of an informal conversational interview is the possibility to adapt
the interview to the interviewee and the context. On the other hand an informal
conversational interview can make the data collecting more difficult since the question
might differ when there is no predetermined questions to work from. The other type of
interview, standardized open-ended interview, has strengths in the predetermined
questions, which make all the interviewees answer the same questions. The negative
part is that the interviewer just follows the predetermined questions and do not adapt the
interview after the situation. Therefore, to reach the best possible result, the interviews
created were a combination of the two interview types. The interviews were hold in
Swedish since that was the native language of the participants.
3.4 Finding the target group
Finding the target group of people who the research was going to study started once
again with a brainstorming session. First of all, the people in the research, had to have
been in contact with the embassy or been in a situation where they were expected to
contact the embassy. The target group started out as everyone who was Swedish and
had been to China or Chinese who had been to Sweden or in contact with the embassy.
Then a structure was made to separate people within different occupations in China (for
Swedes) and in Sweden (fore Chinese). Later in the project it got clear that this structure
was unnecessary since it was difficult to get in contact with Swedes in China. This was
mainly because of the Chinese Governments extensive firewall or blockade of certain
applications to spread a survey by email. It was too difficult to find enough Chinese
people who been in contact with the embassy and who could participate in an interview,
to make them a sub target group. So two of the sub target groups, thought of in the
beginning, got eliminated by being to time consuming to get in contact with. After
realizing this the target group got transformed into Swedes who has been or were in
China.
3.5 Designing the Survey
To collect data to the survey an anonymous questionnaire was sent out to the target
group. It felt like the natural and straightforward way to find out how Swedes felt about
the embassy’s communication. When designing the questionnaire it was based on the
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A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
literature and the interviews done at the embassy. The goal was to see how much of the
embassy’s communication that got through to the Swedish citizens. But also to see how
attractive the target group found the different information and their communication
channels and how they would prefer to receive the information. The questionnaire was
divided into four parts; personal information, participants who been in contact with the
embassy, participants who had not been in contact with the embassy and a part where
the participants got a chance to express what they thought about the embassy’s
communication more generally. The questionnaire mixed, multiple-choice questions,
rating scales and open-ended questions. According to Louis Cohen (2000) multiplechoice questions and rating scales questions have the advantages that the participants
writing skills do not affect the answer, and the answers are easy to organize. While
open-ended questions have the benefit that the participant get a chance to express their
feelings without having words put in their mouths. The open-ended questions are
usually more difficult to draw general conclusions from. By mixing both of the question
types, the questionnaire was trying to cover both a general view and an individual view
of how the target group saw the communication. The questions were organized so the
general and easy to answer questions came first, and then the open-ended questions
(that demanded some deeper thought). The number of questions in the questionnaire
was around fourteen. Only the most important issues were brought up to eliminate the
chance of participants to skip the last part of the questionnaire (because they found it to
extensive). Once the questionnaire was designed and ready to send out to the target
group Ms Skärlund at the Swedish embassy read it through and some small corrections
were made.
Interviews plus questionnaire
During the designing process of the questionnaire a feeling that some information might
get lost because of the strict framework got more and more intense. Thus to eliminate
the framework a little bit the decision was made to have some “special participants”.
That basically meant that they filled out the same paper as the rest but then did an
informal conversational interview with the questioner as the starting point. By doing
this the chance to solve some uncertainties in the participants’ answers, get a deeper
understanding and see how the participants thought when they filled out the
questionnaire were made possible. It also gave a chance to discover if some of the
questions got misunderstood or were bad formulated.
3.6 Processing the data
Cohen, L writes of three steps when processing the collected information in Research
Methods in Education (2000). The steps are completeness, accuracy and uniformity.
During the completeness phase the researcher is supposed to check that every question
has gotten an answer. During the accuracy phase the researcher has to go through the
answers and see that they make sense and that no question has been given a nonsense
answer. During the last part, uniformity, the answers should be checked so that people
receiving the questionnaires have interpreted the questions in a correct way and that
there have not been any mistake done because of the way the questions were asked.
These steps were applied on the questionnaires before the data was compiled into charts
and percentages.
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A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
3.7 Reliability and validity
The part of the method with the biggest uncertainties is the survey and one and foremost
the questions. To get the advantage of both the question types a combination of openended and closed ended-questions were made. Closed-ended questions have the benefits
that they are easy to draw conclusions from, since the answers are predetermined and
the one filling out the questionnaire have a limited choice of answers. Although closedended question never gives the respondent a chance to explain or develop their thoughts
on the matter. Open-ended questions on the other hand have a possibility to give the
participant a chance to put their own point of view in the answer. But if the participant
is lazy or stressed the answer might just be short and not a well thought through
response. Another problem with open-ended questions are how to relate the answers to
each other, and how to draw general conclusions. A common problem with
questionnaires generally is the way people interpret words differently Cohen L. (2000)
says, “this is the hart of the problem of questionnaires – that different respondents
interpret the same words differently.” Cohen L. also writes about the difficulty of
handling sensitive questions, although the questionnaire used in this research cannot be
considered as having a sensitive character. In the introduction to the questionnaire it
was made clear, to the participants, that the survey was anonymous and if there were
any questions or uncertainties it was just to email them. The informal conversational
interview supplemented the reliability of the survey, thus the chance to ask follow up
questions and see the reaction of the respondents could eliminate some of the abovementioned problems.
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A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
4 Result
4.1 Communication of the Swedish embassy,
Overview
The Swedish embassy in Beijing is an extension to the department of Ministry for
Foreign Affairs in Sweden. The embassy is divided into nine sections: the Political
Section, the Press Culture and Information Section, the Trade and Economics Section,
the Military Attaché, the Development Cooperation Section, the Ministry of
Employment Science/Technology, the Migration Section and Consular and the
Administration Section. Each of these sections handles their own specific field. Since
the study is aiming to examine how the embassy communicates with Swedes in Beijing
the departments studied are mainly the Culture and Information Section and the
Consular and Administration Section. Even though the other sections are
communicating as well. As the name indicates the Culture and Information Section is
communicating “Sweden” and takes care of incoming questions about Sweden and
China. The Consular Section helps citizens with consular services and administration. A
big part of the Swedish embassy’s communication is directed to Chinese citizens (which
make sense since most of the citizens are Chinese). The other part of the communication
is going out to Swedes.
4.2 Communication Channels of the embassy
The Embassy has several ways to spread their information. Which communication
channel they use varies and depends on what they want to achieve with the information.
The general information about Sweden is mainly going out to Chinese citizens, while
the consular and practical information is aiming to reach the Swedes. This section is
going to map out which communication channels the embassy use right now. (The
content in this section is obtained through an interview with Ms Veronika, Skärlund,
Assistant Sinologist at the Swedish Embassy)
Websites
Sweden Abroad: The official homepage of the embassy that are translated into Chinese,
English and Swedish.
Target group: People interested in Sweden, Swedes in China.
Purpose: To distribute practical information.
www.sweden.cn: This is the Chinese version of www.sweden.se “The official gateway
to Sweden”. First published 15 of May in 2010.
Target group: Chinese speaking who are interested in Sweden.
Purpose: To send out a positive picture of Sweden as a country with good place for
studies, tourism and investments. The homepage is also aiming to increase the
knowledge about Sweden and our culture.
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A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
News Letters
“Ekonomi och Främjandenyheter från Kina” (Only in Swedish): Translated into English
the title would be “Finance and Promotion news from China”.
Target group: Swedish companies, investors and media.
Purpose: Inform about the Swedish related activities the embassy takes part in.
Followers: 1168 persons, 22.04% opened the August letter (2010).
“Kina, marknad, energi och miljöteknik” (Only in Swedish): Translated into English the
title would be “China, market, energy and environmental technologies”.
Target group: people with environmental interest and companies within the
environment business.
Purpose: To inform about CENTESs work (Center for Environmental Technology).
Followers: 2636 persons, 23,75% opened the August letter (2010).
Sweden in China Calendar: A Calendar informing about Swedish related happenings in
China (in Enligsh).
Target group: Swedes who live in China, others who take an interest in Swedish related
activities in China and media.
Purpose: Send out information and invite people to Swedish related events in China.
Followers: 895 persons, 24,80% opened the letter in August (2010)
Alumni nyhetsbrev: Translated into “Alumni News letter”.
Target group: Chinese with study experiences from Sweden, participants in SIDA’s
course for the state employees.
Purpose: To keep in touch with Chinese with experiences from Sweden and inform
them about activities and the embassy’s work.
Followers: 1767 persons, the percentage of opened newsletters is unavailable.
Social Medias
Sweden embassy blog (www.swedenembassy.blog.sohu.com)
Target group: Chinese citizens, mainly the teenagers,
Purpose: To communicate Sweden, the embassy’s work, how it is to work on an
embassy and how the embassy relate to happenings in China. The information is trying
to be communicated in a simple and fun way, to fit the target group.
Hits: 111847 visitors until 08-23-2010.
Sweden in Touch: This is a community for people who are going to or have studied in
Sweden from all over the world. The Chinese students have their own sub alumni group
on in the community consisting of around 100 students.
Target group: Students who have an interest in Sweden or been visiting Sweden for
studies.
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A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
Purpose: to create a possibility for Chinese students who been studying in Sweden to
keep in touch with each other, but also to give the embassy an chance to stay in touch
with the students.
Other communication channels
News market: this is an online platform holding news and press releases from the
embassy. The material is free for journalist all around the globe. News market have
been used for one and a half year, it is not clear totally which roll the hub has in the
embassy’s outgoing communication since it is a new way to spread the communication.
Target group: Everyone through media.
Purpose: To tell the world about the embassy’s activities and engagement in China and
the Chinese culture.
UD:s Insidan “Hänt på UM”: Translated into “Happened on Ministry for Foreign
Affairs”.
Target group: Employees at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
Purpose: To inform about the embassy’s work and happenings.
Meetings with Journalists: The embassy has a network of journalist who they invite to
participate in different happenings, and send out press releases to.
Printed Information: This can be folders, handouts brochures and so on. Either the
embassy or SI produces the printed material. Two handouts that the embassy is working
with in August are “Swedish Business in China- Trends and Challenges” (available in
both English and Chinese) and “Sweden-China 60-years of Diplomatic
relations”(available in two languages). Some of the folders that SI provides is available
in Chinese and it is often translated by the embassy, usually the folders are printed in
Shanghai. One of the latest folders being produced is “Facing the Future” and “SwedenUp North, Down to Earth”.
Fairs/ personal meetings: the embassy has participated in several fairs to spread the
information about Sweden. They have been participating in European Union fairs,
charity fairs and similar activities. They have arranged events for people living and
working in Beijing, and Chinese students returning from Sweden.
4.3 Communication to Swedes in, or interested
in, China
The main gates for the embassy to reach out to Swedish citizens are the Swedish version
of the website (www.swedenabroad.com), Sweden in China Calendar and the tree
newsletters.
4.3.1 www.swedenabroad.com
According to Ms Veronika Skärlund who works with the embassy’s communication in
the section of “Press, Information and Culture Affairs” the information being uploaded
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A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
on the Swedish version of the embassy’s homepage can differ from the Chinese and
English version of the pages. This is because the embassy tries to orientate the
information uploaded depending on who the receiver is. She says that the content on the
Swedish version are more focused toward Swedes compared to the Chinese and English
version. To see how big the differences are between the three versions of the homepage
a short comparison between their indexes are going to be done.
The Swedish version
The English version
•
The Embassy
•
The Embassy
•
Addresses
•
Addresses
•
Country Facts
•
News and events
•
News and events
•
Press
•
Press
•
Science and technology
•
Trade and Investments
•
Development and cooperation
•
Science and technology
•
Sweden and the European Union
•
Development and cooperation
Additional tabs in the English
•
Citizenship
version:
•
Passport, driving licenses etc.
•
Marriage
•
Travel Information
•
Emergencies
•
Sweden and the European Union
+ Visit Sweden
+ Work and Live in Sweden
+ Services for Swedes
+ About Sweden
The Chinese index over the webpage can be seen in Illustration 1. It is a screenshot
from www.swedenabroad.com taken 01-21-2011. The translation of the index looks
something like this:
•
The Embassy
•
Addresses
•
News and events
•
Department for Development Policy Analysis
•
Press
•
Visit Sweden
•
Study in Sweden
•
Live and work in Sweden
•
Services for Swedes
Illustration 1: index of the
Chinese version of
swedenabroad.com
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A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
The translation from Chinese to English is not exact, instead it is aiming to get the
reader a feeling of what the embassy believe is the most important to communicate to
Chinese citizens. The main differences are between the Swedish version and the other
two versions. The Swedish version is adapted for Swedes with information and advices
about practical and consular matters. While the other two versions have a lager focus on
Sweden itself, and how it is to live/study there. When scrolling through the Swedish
version of the homepage a feeling appears that there are a lot of information available,
for Swedes.
4.3.2 Sweden in China Calendar
Sweden in China Calendar is, as the name implies, a newsletter informing about
activities that are connected, in some way, to Sweden or Swedes. The Calendar is
written in English and is produced and published by the Swedish embassy. It is
available at their home page and people can signup to get the newsletter emailed to
them. The Sweden in China calendar is the main way for the embassy to spread
information to their audience since they do not have any email list of their own. When
they want to send out information via email they have to go through the Chamber of
Commerce. Examples on events that previously have been published in the calendar are;
Christmas gatherings, Concerts, lectures, fairs and so on.
4.3.3 “Finance and Promotion news from China” and “China, market,
energy and environmental technologies”
Both of these newsletters are written in Swedish, which only make them available to a
Swedish speaking audience. The “Finance and Promotion news from China” emerged
from a lot of questions and obvious interests about the financial climate in China that
the embassy experienced from people and organizations around them. The development
of “China, market, energy and environmental technologies” was initiated by CENTEC.
CENTEC stands fore Center for Environmental Technology, which is an organization
within the Swedish embassy. Their goal is to reach out to Swedish environmental
technology companies since they feel that China has a lot of opportunities in that
business field. Both of these newsletters are quite subject-specific in their area, and
might not be so helpful for the general Swedes arriving to China. But they still have the
Swedish citizens as their target group and is there for a part of the communication that
the embassy are transmitting to Swedes in China, which makes them noteworthy in this
section.
4.4 How the information differs to Chinese
citizens
The communication tools the embassy has to reach out to Chinese citizens are the
Chinese version of the website www.swedenabroad.com , www.sweden.se, the alumni
newsletter and the Sweden embassy blog. Through these channels the embassy spreads
information about Sweden to the Chinese society. They have guidelines from SI
(Swedish Institute) drawn out on what to emphasize on when arranging events or
promote Sweden in China.
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A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
4.4.1 Brand Sweden
When the embassy communicates a message they have some guidelines in mind. One of
these guidelines is “Brand Sweden”. Brand Sweden was created by seven organizations,
together known as NSU (The Council for the Promotion of Sweden Abroad) it was
launched in 2007. The idea of a common platform for how “Sweden” should be
communicated started in 2003 and developed until 2006, it was put in use by 2007
(http://www.sweden.se/sverigebilden). Their goal was to draw out lines for what should
be communicated to be Sweden and Swedish in an abroad context. The organizations
creating the platform were: the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Swedish Institute,
Invest in Sweden Agency, the Swedish Trade Council, the Ministry of Industry,
Employment and Communications and Visit Sweden. They look at the project of the
platform in this way: “A brand is everything we say and everything we do –all of us
who represent Sweden around the world. Together we can boost Sweden’s image by
spotlighting what is most important in our country’s narrative. It is vital therefore, that
we agree on what this is -and it is this that the Brand Sweden platform sums up”
(Allies, 2009).
4.4.2 Progressive communication
The picture given of Sweden abroad should be
as a progressive country. NSU writes this
about progressiveness “On a comprehensive
level, progressivity means having a strong
faith in the future and a desire to gradually
make the world a slightly better place. It
means having faith in the creative force of
people and the ability to take responsibility for
one’s life. Working together and being open to
the rest of the world and to the future in order
to take advantage of its opportunities”(the
Swedish Institute, 2008). The illustration to
the right (Illustration 2) shows the idea of the
Illustration 2: The platform, illustrating how to
create progressive communication about
progressive communication platform. The
Sweden. Copied from “Progressive
platform consist of five parts; openness,
communication in practice Successful projects,
innovation, authenticity and caring. Together
engaging stories and distinct messages”. The
Swedish Institute, 2009
they can communicate a progressive
message. Or rather the progressiveness
contain all these four shares shown in the model. The different parts of progressive
communication will be shortly described. Innovative stands for a new way of thinking
and the choice of seeing the possibilities instead of the obstacles in new tasks. By
“open” the model is referring to both the openness of the mind and the possibility for
humans to feel free and travel in Sweden. “Caring” substitutes the way Swedes take
care of themselves and the people around them. The “down to earth thinking” and how
Swedes appreciate to spend time on the countryside is summed up by the term
“Authentic”. Some examples are given in “Progressive communication in practice
Successful projects, engaging stories and distinct messages” on what kind of Swedish
related information that can be spread by progressive communication. Two examples
are; Swedens skills in “sustainable urban planning” or the “ecological fashion”. As said
before the guidelines are made for Swedes abroad when they are communicating
messages about Sweden. So when the embassy publishes new material on the blog or
THE PLATFORM
The Brand Sweden platform is the foundation on
progressive country, distinguished by four core v
Let’s begin by looking at what these represent b
practice in the rest of the brochure.
OPEN
ÖPPENHET
INNOVATIVE
NYTÄNKANDE
PROGRESSIVE
PROGRESSIV
CARING
OMTÄNKSAMHET
20
AUTHENTIC
ÄKTHET
PROGRESSIVE
At the heart of the platform is the allembracing term “progressive.” This is the
position that Sweden is seeking to establish
in people’s minds, in relation to the positions held by other countries. It is not a
word we use to describe ourselves—rather,
it is what we want others to feel when they
think about Sweden in various situations.
By “progressive,” we mean that Sweden
is a country focused on development based
on people’s needs and environmental
considerations. Broadly speaking, progressiveness is about having strong faith in the
future and a desire to gradually make the
world a better place. It means having faith in
the creative force of people and the ability to
take responsibility for one’s life. It also
entails working together and being open to
the rest of the world and to the future in
order to take advantage of its opportunities.
im
p
w
co
va
A
ou
ex
O
on
sp
p
te
ki
of
A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
the Chinese version of Sweden abroad they should always have this “Brand Sweden and
progressive thinking” in their mind.
4.5 How does the people working at the
embassy perceive their communication?
To get a better insight and understanding for the embassy’s communication there has
been three interviews done. The interviews aim was to learn more about the embassy’s
communication and see how they look upon their own communication. These are the
persons interviewed:
•
Ms. Ekeroth, Eva, Cultural Counsellor, Head of Section at the Section for Cultural
Affairs
•
Ms. Hasselbom, Elisabeth, Second Secretary at the Consular and Administration
Section.
•
Ms. Skärlund, Veronika, Assistant Sinologist at the Section of Press, Information
and Culture Affairs.
The most common things that the Embassy communicates are, according to Ekeroth;
information about applications for visa and residence permit questions, information
about Sweden and travel information about how a Swede can get help in China if there
is an accident. Hasselbom, in the Consular and Administration Section, often get
questions about marriage in China, passport applications and how to register newborns.
She cannot say that one thing is more important to communicate than something else
since the questions are equally important to the people who ask them. She also adds that
in those cases when they cannot answer a question they always try to redirect the person
to someone who can give an answer. Ekeroth agrees with Hasselbom that everything
they communicate is important but she finds the consular information extra important to
always be updated and correct especially if something would happen. When the
embassy wants to communicate something they use the communication channels
mentioned above (swedenabroad.com, Sweden.cn and the newsletters). Sometimes the
information can be urgent so they have to use all their communication channels and
borrow an emailing list from the Chamber of Commerce. Skärlund gives an example
when the embassy arranged a national day celebration in the spring of 2010. The
decision to have a celebration at the embassy was decided quite late so the information
about the celebration had to reach the Swedes quite fast. The information was published
on the embassy’s homepage, in the Sweden in China Calendar and then they asked the
Chamber of Commerce to send out the information via email to the Swedes. This is the
fastest and most effective way to reach out to the target group when they need to get out
a message fast.
4.5.1 No communication template
The embassy’s communication does not have a strict pattern to follow, but they do have
guidelines such as “Brand Sweden” and the progressive communication in mind when
communicating. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has designed the framework of the
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A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
homepage even though it is the embassy that decides what should be published online.
But some of the content cannot be accessed by the embassy, Skärlund discovered this
when she saw a wrong spelling and tried to correct it and realized that she did not have
access to that page.
4.5.2 Usually asked questions
Hasselbom says that most of the embassy’s communication goes out to Swedes that are
living or visiting China and Chinese people who are, or have been, living in Sweden.
Ekeroth agrees and adds to the main target group: Chinese who need a visa or residence
permit, Chinese investors and potential master students. People often uses email, call or
visit them when contacting the embassy. Usually Chinese citizens want help with visa
applications, register a child, issuance of marriage certificates, driving license and other
certificate to show to the Chinese government. Or they have a case specific question,
like “What happen to my visa application” and so on. They also get questions about
Chinese visas and custom regulations (from incoming Swedes) but these questions are
usually directed to the Chinese embassy in Stockholm. Skärlund has received questions
from Chinese students and citizens who are curious about Sweden. Sometimes they
want to get a contact or ask about studying Swedish. Otherwise she usually gets
questions from Swedish school kids who do projects about China. She says that she
only sees the questions that are directed to her email from the general email, which
makes it hard for her to have an overview of all the incoming questions. The visa
section often gets questions from Swedes about the possibility to write exams on the
embassy (it is usually denied).
4.5.3 How they see their own communication
Hasselbom thinks that the embassy’s communication are working out well, but
sometimes people forget to check the homepage first before asking questions and she
feels that it is a shame since the information at their webpage are quite extensive and the
answer can usually be found there. Skärlund agrees and believes that when people did
not check the homepage before emailing a question it is probably because the
information was difficult to find online or that people do not have time to search the
homepage. In general she believes that the communication are working out well but
adds that it is hard to know if there is an interest in the things being communicated or
not, because they do not know how many people who actually read the information they
send out. When it comes to the embassy’s communication Ekeroth points out that she is
not responsible for the communication, but she believe that in her general experience
the communication can always improve. On the question of “how the communication
worked out before Internet" she says that the main channels for communication was the
phone and telex. Telex stands for “telegraph exchange” and is a devise to telegraph
messages, nationalencyklopedin (2011). Ekeroth also adds that questions back then
were not sent as instant as today’s questions, because it took time to write and send a
telex. Thus, only the most important and urgent questions were sent to the embassy.
4.5.4 Printed communication
According to Skärlund the embassy have a lot of printed folders, brochures and
handouts. They use these when they represent Sweden in different events around China.
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A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
She believes that printed material has a better impact on the receiver than just letting
them know the address to the official homepage. Skärlund believes that during fairs the
printed material is the best way to spread their information. Most of the printed material
is produced by SI but handed out by the embassy, although the embassy has produced
some folders like “Celebrating 60 Years of Diplomatic Relations Sweden & China”. Ms
Skärlund says that handouts make the information more concrete and that it is
something to show the audience and that they can bring it back home when the fair is
over. They also used rollups to communicate their messages during fairs. The printed
material are handed out during; fairs, events, they send it out to different sections of the
Chinese government and other places where they believe the folders can become handy.
They prefer to use printed material when they inform about Sweden-specific subjects
like Ingmar Bergman, the Swedish food or how we celebrate feasts in a Swedish way.
When there are urgent messages they use their online channels instead. She also
believes that the printed information is practical in a way that it creates an interest that
can later be complemented by more information online.
4.6 The recipients’ view of the embassy’s
communication
The questioner was emailed out to sixteen persons and handed out in hard copy to six
other participants. Answers were received from ten of the emailed persons and all of the
people who got the questioner in hard copy.
4.6.1
The target group
The target group consisted of Swedes who been or was in China. It did not matter
weather they been in contact with the embassy or not. The gender and age was mixed
although most of the participants were in the 20-29 year old category. Most of the
participants have spent one to six months in China. The most common occupation
among the participants was student (65%) then came visitor (23%), employee (6%) and
other (6%). For more detailed information see appendix A.
4.6.2
The knowledge of the embassy’s communication channels
From the survey it got clear that few of the participants knew of more then two to three
communication channels. Everyone did know about the embassy’s home page. The
Sweden in China calendar and the email address to the embassy was also relatively well
known. But the rest of the mediums that the embassy uses to communicate were quite
unknown to the target group. Few knew about the newsletters, news market and the
emergency phone. See Illustration 3 ”The knowledge of the embassy’s communication
channels” for all of the results.
23
A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
The knowledge of the embassy’s communication channels 16 3 2 Emergency phone 3 Personal meeting 1 Printed Information Kina, marknad, energi och miljöteknik 0 News market 1 Ekonomi och Främjandenyheter från Kina 5 Sweden in China calendar Email 6 Sweden Abroad: The ofUicial homepage of the embassy People 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Communication channels Illustration 3: The Knowledge of the embassy’s communication channels.
4.6.3
Communication Channels the participants used
From the chart “Which of the following communication channels have you used?”
(Illustration 4) it gets clear that some of the participants knew about the embassy’s
communication channels but had not used them. Most of the participants have been in
contact with the home page and the email, but few have used one of the other
communication channels.
20 15 0 0 1 2 1 Emergency phone 0 Personal meeting Email Sweden Abroad: The ofUicial homepage of the embassy 4 Printed Information 5 0 News market 5 Kina, marknad, energi och miljöteknik 16 Ekonomi och Främjandenyheter från Kina 10 Sweden in China calendar Number of participants Which of the following communication channels have you used? Illustration 4: Which of the following communication channels have you used?
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A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
4.6.4
The interest in the embassy’s communication channels
Even though the participant hade not been in contact with all of the communication
channels, they got to rate each of them according of how interesting they found them.
Below in the pie charts is the result of what people thought about the different
communication channels displayed (Illustrations 5-13).
How interesting or useful do you 1ind the embassy’s homepage? (rate 1-­5, 5 very interesting , 1 not interesting) 1 2 3 1 0% 4 How interesting or useful do you 1ind the embassy’s email? (rate 1-­5, 5 very interesting , 1 not interesting) 5 1 3 0% 2 3 4 5 1 0% 2 6% 4 27% 2 31% 5 46% 5 67% 3 4 15% 8% Illustration 6.
Illustration 5.
How interesting or useful do you 1ind the Sweden in China Calendar? (rate 1-­5, 5 very interesting , 1 not interesting) 1 2 3 4 How interesting or useful do you 1ind the newsletter “Ekonomi och Främjandenyheter från Kina”? (rate 1-­5, 5 very interesting , 1 not interesting) 5 1 1 0% 5 18% 2 3 4 5 5 1 0% 8% 2 18% 4 25% 4 18% 3 46% 2 34% 3 33% Illustration 8.
Illustration 7.
How interesting or useful do you 1ind the newsletter “Kina, marknad, energi och miljöteknik”? (rate 1-­5, 5 very interesting , 1 not interesting) 1 2 5 8% 3 4 How interesting or useful do you 1ind the news portal, News market? (rate 1-­5, 5 very interesting , 1 not interesting) 1 5 2 3 4 5 5 0% 4 33% 1 17% 1 11% 2 22% 4 25% 2 25% 3 25% 3 34% Illustration 9.
Illustration 10.
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A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
How interesting or useful do you 1ind printed information? (rate 1-­5, 5 very interesting , 1 not interesting) 1 2 3 4 How interesting or useful do you 1ind personal meetings with the embassy? (Rate 1-­5, 5 very interesting, 1 not interesting) 5 1 2 3 4 5 5 8% 5 31% 4 6% 1 19% 3 38% 2 15% 3 46% Illustration 11.
Illustration 12.
From the answers it is clear that most of the
participant found the home page and the email
very useful. When it comes to the other
communication channels most of the
participants have stayed neutral to rating them
as interesting or not interesting. Although
Sweden in China calendar, printed information
and the emergency phone got more positive
then negative responses. Personal meetings
and the newsletters got more of the lower
rankings. News market caused a tie, 34%
stayed neutral, 33% gave four or fives and
33% gave ones and twos.
4.6.5
1 16% 4 15% 2 6% How interesting or useful do you 1ind the emergency phone? (Rate 1-­5, 5 very useful, 1 not useful) 1 2 3 4 5 2 0% 5 25% 4 17% 1 8% 3 50% Illustration 13.
How the participants see the embassy’s communication
From the statistics it gets clear that most of the participants know little about the
embassy’s communication channels. Everyone has used the webpage but knowledge of
the other communication channels is weaker. Even if some recognizes random
communication channels few of the participant have used them. From the pie charts it
becomes clear that there is an interest for some of the “unknown” communication
channels. To get a clearer view of how the participants thought about the
communication channels, and what expectations they had on the embassy’s
communication, some open-ended questions were asked. The result is going to be
shown in the next chapter. It is important to point out that the quotes below are not
published to state facts. The quotes are there to give the reader a chance to understand
how the participant thought when they filled out the questioner, as Runa Patel and Bo
Davidson writes in “Forskningsmetodikens grunder att planera, genomföra och
rapportera en undersökning” (2003).
4.6.6 What information were the participants searching for and why did
they choose the embassy’s webpage?
The first open-ended question was “What information did you gather when you came in
contact with one of the embassy’s communication channels”. There are two main
26
A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
categories of answers among the responses. The first category is the participants who
have answered that they were looking fore general information about China. The second
category is the participants who have been looking for a more case specific kind of
information: “I was looking for information about the Swedish election” and “I wanted
to find out about gatherings arranged by the embassy”. Then the question “Why did
you turn to the embassy’s communication channels for information about China” was
raised. Here are some of the answers “felt serious and trustworthy”, “googled”, “easy
to find the embassy’s home page”, “felt like the natural way to start collecting
information” and “thought they could help”. These answers show that in general the
target group sees the embassy as a trustworthy source of information, and as the natural
choice when searching information related to China. Most of the participants thought it
was easy or quite easy to find the information they were looking for even though some
wrote that they had a hard time finding it. Almost everyone was satisfied with the
information they got.
4.6.7 The participants who mainly searched information elsewhere
Most of the people in this group has indicated that they looked for information
elsewhere, while some did not feel the need to search for information about China or the
travel. On the question “In what situation would you turn to the embassy to get help”
these answers were written; “If I loose my passport or if something unexpected happens
when I can’t control the situation”, “if I’m in distress, or I need medical information, or
have problems with the government”, “legal cases, if there is some trouble with the
law”. From the answers can be determined that people are not unaware of what the
embassy can help them with. They know that they can turn to the embassy in
emergency situations, but when it comes to gather information they chose to look
elsewhere.
4.6.8 The participants thoughts about the content of the embassy’s
communication
The participants want it to be easy to find contact information about the embassy (phone
number, email, visiting address, opening hours and so on). This kind of information
does the participants also see as the most important to them. But they also want the
embassy to provide information about how to find different specialists like dentists and
lawyers if something unexpected happens. Some want to be able to find visa application
rules for Swedes entering China at the webpage while others believe that it is more
important that the embassy takes care of the Swedes by being service minded and
welcoming. When it comes to information that the participated missed, or wish that they
could find on the homepage, most were satisfied. Some wished that there could be
tipped on how to act in the Chinese society, to avoid unnecessary culture clashes and
more of the travel information. There have been complaints about the visibility of the
information and that it could be better, one wrote “For new arrivers to China, the
embassy’s information could be more visible since they have a lot of information but
few people knew about it.” A couple thought that the need of visa when traveling to
China could be more highlighted and easier to find. All in all there were no common
information that most of the participants missed. Generally it seems like the participants
think that the information is good but the information could be more visible.
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A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
5 Analyses
This part will analyze the participants answer and thereby the result by studying the
informal conversational interview. In this section the answers shown above will be
supported by background discussions.
5.1.1 Homepage the natural choice
In general the participants find the embassy as a trustworthy information source.
Comments like “They have been active in China a long time, and have a vast
knowledge about the country plus they represent a government instance which makes
their home page trustworthy”. Another one said “it was the first thing that came to
mind when I was looking for information before going to China”. Two said that it was
the natural choice to search for information there, one of them after living in China for
seven years is continuously revisiting the home page.
5.1.2 How often do they visit the homepage
But not everyone are regularly revisiting the homepage “I checked out their home page
before I went to China to get some travel information, but since I got here I only visited
the home page once, and it was to get information about voting abroad. Otherwise I
don’t know what kind of information I can get there. So far I only used the home page
when something has been going on otherwise I don’t see why I should go there.” It is
common that people are visiting the home page when they have a problem or need to do
Sweden-specific things like vote or apply for a new passport. One of the participants
went to the home page to find out if there were some Christmas related events e.g.
organized by the Swedish church.
5.1.3 How they get in touch with the embassy and what they ask for
The main way of reaching the homepage is to search the Internet for “sweden embassy
china”. Most of the participants in the informal conversational interview have sent
emails to the embassy when they could not find the answers. One example was weather
one could write “högskoleprovet” in China or when the passport section was open. Most
of the participants think that the email contact is good, and that the embassy answers
fast, one said “so fare they have answered all my questions”. Another participant thinks
that it is very important that the embassy answers emails fast: “If I send an email I
would like to get an answer within one day, except for weekends of course”. Two have
been in contact with the embassy staff to get printed material to fairs. One of the
participants said that there were a lot of different printed material that they had, so he
choose the ones he thought fitted best for the purpose and later got them sent over. Later
on, during the fair, he thought that the printed information about Sweden cached the eye
of the visitors.
5.1.4 What they think about the communication channels except fore
the homepage
Most of the participants do not find the printed material that interesting they rather
search information online instead. Two of the participants have signed up for “Sweden
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A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
in China Calendar”. One participant reeds them every month, he believes that it is the
most important information going out to Swedes, since it is an easy way to get in touch
with other Swedes. The other participant who signed up for Sweden in China calendar
got the advise to sign up from a friend in Sweden, she did it to find out about Swedish
bands that are playing in China. It is interesting that it is only two of the participants
who have signed up for Sweden in China calendar, especially when it is created for
Swedes in China. Most of the participants do not even know about it. One interviewee
said that a friend was signed up to the calendar and thereby the information was spread
to him as well. When it comes to the other communication channels they are quite
anonymous to the participants. One said, “I didn’t reflect over the embassy’s
communication channels, I thought that they only had the webpage, an email, and the
calendar. I probably would have found the other ones if I really searched the embassy’s
home page, but since I didn’t know that were more information to look for I didn’t
search, and therefore didn’t find it ”. Then the participant adds, “I would actually like
to write these list of communication channels down” and takes out a paper and pen and
starts to write, so there is definitely an interest for the embassy’s communication among
some of the participants. About the newsletters some say that they do not find them
interesting because they can reed about those topics elsewhere. While other says that
they would read it if they knew about it, or that they just do not find the subject
discussed interesting.
5.1.5 Criticism towards the communication channels
In general the participants are satisfied with the embassy’s information, but there are
some information that the participants think is missing. As an example, one participant
would like to see job advertisements or notes, or at least some information where to find
information about it. Another says, ”that the embassy’s information is good but could
be better”. Four of the participants have said that it was difficult to find information
about how to travel to the embassy. One says, “I remember the map I looked at as quite
bad. And I couldn’t find any directions by subway or how to walk from the subway to
the embassy. It would be good if it was possible to get the address in Chinese characters
so the cabdriver can read the address”. One would like the embassy to have a map on
their site and mark out where the embassy is located. The homepage has published the
address in Chinese characters, but there are no directions of how to get to the embassy
by car, subway, bus or cab. Another participant would like to know more about the
embassy and get information at the same time “It would have been interesting to visit
the embassy and see what they are doing and to get some information about China, like
a meeting where they welcome and inform Swedes”.
5.1.6 Complaints about the interface
There have been some complaints about the home page one thought that it had an old
layout, and that it was difficult to navigate on. If the embassy would have a newer
interface maybe it would be easier to find the information. There has been a suggestion
that the home page could be organized in another way to ease the navigation. One
suggestion was a special page for newly arrived Swedes in China, that page would
contain information and a list with all of the different communication channels that the
embassy provides. The one suggesting this said “to start thinking about what kind of
newsletters and lists that might exist on the embassy’s home page, without having a
clue, isn’t anything one does. As it works now your friends tell you about different
29
A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
communication channels and then you go and check them out”. Another suggestion was
collaboration between the Swedish embassy and the Chinese embassy in Stockholm. “I
don’t know if it is possible but every Swede goes to the Chinese embassy to get a visa
before traveling to China. And if the Chinese embassy saw that one were going to study
for one year they could hand out some information, a brochure or paper, nothing fancy,
just: if you are interested in this you should go to that homepage, or you might find this
interesting, or you should know about this before traveling and so on.”
There have been some interesting ideas raised above. But even though there is
complaints or suggestion of improvements made from the people in the target group
most of the people think that the embassy is doing a good job with the information. One
says, “I have a cousin who just moved to Beijing, and she can’t speak any mandarin.
For here it is like a lifeline to have the embassy to turn to, so she can find out about
meetings in the Swedish church and get to know other Swedes here.“
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A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
6 Conclusions
This thesis started with three research questions. In the following chapter the questions
are going to be answered in a short and concise way.
These were the questions the research was aiming to answer:
•
•
•
What kind of information do the Swedes want/ expect from the embassy?
Do the embassy reach out to the Swedes, as they want?
How can the communication improve?
6.1 What kind of information do the Swedes want
from the embassy?
To be able to answer this question, another question had to be answered first, “how does
the embassy’s communication work in China?” This is mainly answered in chapter 4.1
“Communication of the Swedish embassy, Overview”. Their main two-way interaction
with Swedes is the email. Then they have a lot of one-way interaction sources, see
Illustration 14.
The Swedish Embassy Websites Sweden Abroad www.swede
n.cn News Letters Ekonomi-­‐ och främjandeny
heter från Kina Kina, marknad, energi och miljöteknik Sweden in China Calendar Social Medier Alumninyhe
tsbrev Swedenemb
assyblog Sweden in Touch Other Communication Channels Newsmarket UD:s Insidan ”Hänt på UM” Printed Information Press Illustration 14: one-way interaction sources at the Swedish embassy.
After getting an overview of the communication channels we can go back to the
question, “What kind of information do the Swedes want from the embassy?” The
participants found information concerning travelling and living in China as primary to
other information. When it comes to the other communication channels (except fore the
homepage and email) participants thought, mostly judged by the name of the channel,
that “Sweden in China calendar”, “printed information” and the emergency phone
would provide them with more helpful/interesting information than “the news letters” or
a personal meeting.
6.2 Do the embassy reach out to the Swedes, as
they want?
The embassy wants to reach out to Swedes in China or Swedes in Sweden interested in
China. People in the target group have all been to China, and no one only interested in
31
A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
China have been a part of the survey. Although one can see that some of the participant
searched information from the embassy before going to China. From the survey it got
clear that few people knew about the embassy’s communication channels apart from the
homepage that everyone knew about. 37% knew of the embassy’s email, 31% knew
about “Sweden in China calendar”, 6,3% knew about Newsmarket and “Ekonomi och
Främjande nyheter fron Kina”, 18,8% recognized the printed material and opportunity
to personal meetings and 12,5% knew about the emergency phone. This is quite low
percentages regarding that these channels are made to reach out to Swedes even though
some of the channels are quite subject specific.
6.3 How can the communication improve?
From the survey it got clear that it was not a lack of interest that have caused the
unawareness of the embassy’s communication channels. Except for the homepage the
other communication channels need to become more visible to visitors if they are
supposed to find them. Since most of the participants have not been in contact with the
other communication channels most of the ideas for improvements were concerning the
homepage. In general complaints were made about finding the information. But there
were also complaints about information on how to get to the embassy, newly arrived
Swedes found it difficult no navigate themselves to the embassy. Participants also found
the interface difficult to navigate and thought it looked old fashioned. Some ideas were
raised about gathering information at one homepage that could be linked from the
embassy’s homepage. All in all the homepage could be more customized and the other
communication channels have to be highlighted on the homepage or somewhere else.
6.4 The strengths and weaknesses of the
embassy's communication
The embassy’s strengths are their knowledge about China, that they quickly answer
incoming questions and take time to help people. If they do not have the answer, they
help the person to find the information elsewhere. The weaknesses of the embassy are a
lack of highlighting the most important information and make all of their
communication channels visible to the audience. This is a quite severe problem, because
one of the embassy’s most important things to take care of is the communication. It
seems like they have forgot to spread the “information” about their own information
channels. This makes the effort they put on informing people lesser effective then it
could be. By making the information more visible and easy to find it would lead to less
questions from people who did not find the information. This time spared could be used
to disseminate more information or improve their system of handling information and
thereby get a more efficient workflow of the communication.
32
A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
7 Discussion
During this research there have been some unforeseen situations that have had some
impact on the result. Before starting this research I assumed that the embassy primary
work was towards Swedes. After the first interview it got clear that the communication
going out to the Chinese citizens was a big part of their work too. This changed the
purpose of the study to only include the communication going out and coming in from
Swedes. The choice to neglect the Chinese part of the communication was based on my
limited skills in Chinese and the timeframes for this project. The next situation that
came up was when the survey should be contained. My idea was to email the survey to
as many Swedes as possible in China but (as mentioned before) I found this difficult
because of the blockade of some websites in China. Thanks to a VPN I could reach the
blocked webpage and send out the questionnaire to Swedes who had been in China.
People in China got the questionnaire as a hardcopy instead. This have affected the
result in a way that I could only email people I knew had been to China, and ask them to
pass forward the questionnaire if they had friends who had been there too. To
compensate this I choose to do interviews with participants who got the questionnaire in
Beijing. My idea was to gather a more extensive information material from the
interviewed, instead of only relying on typed answers in the questionnaire (since I
expected that some people were busy and did not have time to write long and
informative answers). This felt as a good way to compensate that the survey only was
sent out to Swedes who had been in China. When it comes to the interviews on the
embassy and with the participants, there were a lot of surrounding facts that might have
affected the result. Although the choice to do three interviews at the embassy and with
all of the participants in Beijing were made to eliminate surrounding facts or to make
them more visible to me when I went through the answers later. I believe that
surrounding facts do not have affected the result in any important way. Except from
these two situations (the blockade and the interviews) there were no unforeseen events
that had to be handled during the project. The result of this study has been affected by
the fact that 65 % of the target group was represented by students, and 75% were in the
age category of 20-29 years. So the result best reflects what students around 20-29 think
of the embassy’s communication, even thought 35% of the target group were not
students and 25 % were older than 29 years.
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A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
8 Future studies
There are still many aspects of this study that would be interesting to cover but the
timeframes made it non optional. During the study there have been complaints about the
human-computer interaction on the embassy’s homepage. The participants as well as
the result pointed out the interface as something that could be improved and evaluated
in the future. That basically means that the standardized template used by all the
Swedish embassies ought to bee evaluated and improved. It could also be interesting to
study the embassy’s communication with another communication model. The model
being used in this study is the transactional-communication model. A study based on
communication as a symbolic interaction, I am sure, would lead new interesting
conclusions.
34
A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
Bibliography
Books
Allies, 2009. Progressive communication in practice Successful projects, engaging stories and
distinct messages. The Swedish Institute.
Cohen, L. 2000. p 245-266. Research Methods in Education. Routledge Falmer.
Cohen, L. Manion, L. Morrison, K. Morrison, K.R.B. 2000. Research Methods in Education.
Routledge Falmer.
Miller, K. 2005. Communication Theories: Perspectives, Processes, and Contexts. Mc Graw
Hill.
Patel, R. Davidson, B. 2003. Forskningsmetodikens grunder att plaera, genomföra och
rapportera en undersökning. Studentlitteratur.
The Swedish Institute, 2008. Brand Sweden the road to an updated image of Sweden abroad.
The Swedish Institute.
ELECTRONIC SOURCES
Embassy of Sweden Beijing, n.d., <http://www.swedenabroad.com/Page____20939.aspx>
[Accessed 17 January 2011].
Embassy of Sweden Beijing, 2010,
<http://ud.carmamail.com/mail/OBS13?muid=13dAOa492953981> [Accessed 21 January
2011].
Nationalencyklopedin, 2010, < http://www.ne.se.focus.lib.kth.se/sok/telex?type=NE>
[Accessed 23 Jan 2011].
New Oxford American Dictionary, the ”electronic version”. [Accessed 29 December 2010].
Regeringskansliet, 2010, < http://www.sweden.gov.se/sb/d/2721/a/14968 >
[Accessed 2 May 2011].
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PEOPLE INTERVIEWED
Ms. Skärlund, Veronika, Assistant Sinologist at the Section of Press, Information and Culture.
Affairs.
Ms. Hasselbom, Elisabeth, Second Secretary at the Consular and Administration Section.
Ms. Ekeroth, Eva, Cultural Counselor at the Section of Press, Information and Culture.
35
A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
Appendix A
Number of participants – Statistics of the target group
Time spent in China 7 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 4 2 Occupation in China Other 6% 3 Visitor 23% Student 65% Employe
e 6% Student Age of the participants 30-­‐49 6% 50 or older 13% 19 or younger 6% 20-­‐29 75% 19 or younger 20-­‐29 30-­‐49 50 or older 36
Employee Visitor Other A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
Appendix B
–Interview questions to the embassy
The interviews were hold in Swedish, the English translation can be found
after the first paragraph.
Interview in Swedish
Vad vill ambassaden kommunicera?
Hur stor del av Ambassadens arbete utgörs av kommunikation?
Vilka människor vill ni nå ut till?
Vilken typ av människor är det oftast som kontaktar ambassaden?
Hur sker denna kontakt?
Vad är det dessa människor behöver hjälp med?
Vad använder ni för kommunikations kanaler?
Vad kommuniceras på respektive media?
Hur använder ni trycksaker?
I vilka fall av informationsspridning föredras tryck?
Hur väljer ni vilken typ av kommunikationsmedie ni ska använda vid spridning av information?
Finns det ekonomiska aspekter vid val av kommunikationsmedie?
Följer Ambassadens kommunikation någon modell eller mönster?
Hur fungerade Kommunikationen innan internet började användas?
Hur Fungerar det i praktiken idag om ni vill informera om något?
Vad är det vanligaste ambassaden kommunicerar?
Hur tycker du som jobbar med kommunikationen att det fungerar? (vanligt med missförstånd?)
Finns det något mer du vill tillägga eller poängtera?
Interview translated into English
What do the embassy want to communicate?
How big part of the embassy’s work is related to communication?
What target group of people do you have?
What kind of people usually contacts the embassy?
How do they get in contact with you?
What kind of help do they need?
Which communication channels do the embassy use?
What do you communicate on each one of these channels?
How do you use printed material?
In which cases do you use printed material instead of other communication channels?
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A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
How do you choose a certain communication channel depending on the information that is
going out?
Do you reflect over economic matters when choosing communication channel?
Do the embassy has a pattern or template to follow when communicating?
How did the embassy communicate before Internet?
How does it work in reality when you disseminate information today?
What is the most common thing the embassy communicates?
How do you reflect on the embassy’s communication? Some common misunderstandings?
Is there anything else you would like to say or point out about the embassy’s communication?
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A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
Appendix C
- The questionnaire
Undersökning av Svenska Ambassaden i Beijings kommunikation
1. Hur länge har du varit i Kina? (Kryssa för rätt svars alternativ)
__
Mindre än fyra veckor
__
En till sex månader
__
Sju till 12 månader
__
Mer än ett år
2. Sysselsättning i Kina:
__
Student
__
Anställd
__
Besökare
__
Annat: __________________________________
3. Ålder
__
19 år eller yngre
__
20 – 29 år
__
30 – 49 år
__
50 år och uppåt
4. Vilka av dessa kommunikationskanaler känner du till? (Kryssa för rätt svars alternativ)
__
Svenska ambassadens hemsida, www.swedenabroad.com
__
Email, ambassaden.peking@foreign.ministry.se
__
Sweden in China Calendar (Kalendarium om evenemang för svenskar i Kina)
__
Ekonomi- och främjandenyheter från Kina (Nyhetsbrev)
__
Kina, marknad, energi och miljöteknik (Nyhetsbrev)
__
Newsmarket (Nyhetsportal, där pressmeddelanden och videoklipp läggs upp)
__
Broschyrer (tex. Swedish Business in China – Trends and Challenges, Facing the Future)
__
Personligt möte
__
Jourtelefon
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A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
5. Vilka av dessa kommunikationskanaler känns intressanta eller användbara för dig?
Gradera (skala 1-5, 5 mycket intressant, 1 inte intressant)
__
Svenska ambassadens hemsida, www.swedenabroad.com
__
Email, ambassaden.peking@foreign.ministry.se
__
Sweden in China Calendar (Kalendarium om evenemang för svenskar i Kina)
__
Ekonomi- och främjandenyheter från Kina (Nyhetsbrev)
__
Kina, marknad, energi och miljöteknik (Nyhetsbrev)
__
Newsmarket (Nyhetsportal, där pressmeddelanden och videoklipp läggs upp)
__
Broschyrer (tex. Swedish Business in China – Trends and Challenges, Facing the Future)
__
Personligt möte
__
Jourtelefon
6. Vilka av nedanstående kommunikationskanaler har du använt?
__
Svenska ambassadens hemsida, www.swedenabroad.com
__
Email, ambassaden.peking@foreign.ministry.se
__
Sweden in China Calendar (Kalendarium om evenemang för svenskar i Kina)
__
Ekonomi- och främjandenyheter från Kina (Nyhetsbrev)
__
Kina, marknad, energi och miljöteknik (Nyhetsbrev)
__
Newsmarket (Nyhetsportal, där pressmeddelanden och videoklipp läggs upp)
__
Broschyrer (tex. Swedish Business in China – Trends and Challenges, Facing the Future)
__
Personligt möte
__
Jourtelefon
Gå vidare till fråga 7 om du varit i kontakt med minst en av ovanstående kommunikationskanaler.
Om du inte varit i kontakt med någon av ovanstående kommunikationskanaler går vidare till fråga 11
För de som varit i kontakt med ambassaden
7. Vilken information inhämtade du vid kontakt med någon/några av de ovannämnda
kommunikationskanalerna? Nämn även vilken källa du använde.
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
8. Hur kom det sig att du vände dig till ambassadens källor för att söka information?
____________________________________________________________________
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A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
9. Var det lätt att hitta informationen du leta efter?
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
10. Blev du nöjd med informationen?
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
För de som inte varit i kontakt med ambassaden
11. Hur kommer det sig att du inte varit i kontakt med ambassadens kommunikations
källor? (Kryssa för rätt svars alternativ)
__
Sökte information en annan väg
__
Kände inget behov av att söka information
__
Svårt att hitta till informationskällorna
__
Inte den informationen jag letade efter
__
Övrigt: _________________________________________________________
I vilken situation skulle du vända dig till ambassaden för att få hjälp?
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
Vilken information tycker du ambassaden bör tillhandahålla?
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
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A Transactional Communication Study of the Swedish Embassy in China
13. Vilka tjänster känner du till som ambassaden tillhandahåller för svenskar I Kina?
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
Generellt
14. Vad tycker du är det viktigaste ambassaden informerar om?
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
15. Är det någon information som ambassaden inte tillhandahåller som du saknar?
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
16. Vad tycker du generellt om ambassaden kommunikation?
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
42
TRITA-CSC-E 2011:031
ISRN-KTH/CSC/E--11/031-SE
ISSN-1653-5715
www.kth.se