64 | 27, pp. 63-80 | doxa.comunicació

July-December of 2018

Perceptions of university studens regarding apologies from Spanish politicians

ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978

Abstract:

This paper analyzes the perception of University Students about the Apologies of Spanish politicians whose objective, in most cases, responds to Image Restoration Strategies. The research focuses on knowing if this type of discourse meets its objective, evaluating the effectiveness of the apology speech and knowing which wrongful events are more likely to be forgiven by the audience. We’ve used a quantitative methodology with online surveys. It has been established for a representative sample of 385 cases extracted, stratified by regions and segmented by sex, of a universe of 1,329,109 university students in Spain, with a margin of error of 5 % and a confidence level of 95%. Among the main conclusions, we found the effectiveness and the positive impact of Apologies as a strategy to restore the image of politicians. Despite of this, discourse is not enough, rather, it requires complementary actions to achieve full effectiveness of the Apologies with distinction in independent variables such as sex, ideology, voting intention, political self-identification and religion.

Keywords:

Political Communication, speech, apologies, university students.

Received: 23/10/2018 - Accepted: 19/11/2018

Resumen:

El presente trabajo analiza la percepción de los universitarios so-bre la petición de disculpas de los políticos españoles cuyo objetivo, en la mayoría de ocasiones, responde a estrategias de restauración de su imagen. La investigación se centra en conocer si cumplen su objetivo este tipo de discursos, evaluando la efectividad de la peti-ción de disculpas y conocer las acciones reprochables de los políticos que tienen mayor y menor permisividad para los encuestados. Se ha establecido una metodología cuantitativa y técnica de encues-tas online a una muestra representativa de 385 casos extraídos, de forma estratificada por Comunidades Autónomas y segmentadas por sexo, de un universo de 1.329.109 estudiantes universitarios en España, con un margen de error del 5 % y un nivel de confianza del 95 %. Entre las principales conclusiones obtenidas encontramos la efectividad y el impacto positivo de las disculpas como estrategia de restauración de imagen de los políticos. Pese a ello, no basta el dis-curso como elemento único, sino, que se requiere de acciones com-plementarias para conseguir completa efectividad de la petición de disculpas con distinción en variables independientes como el sexo, la ideología, la intención de voto, la auto identificación política y la religión.

Palabras clave:

Comunicación política, discurso, disculpas, restauración, imagen, universitarios.

Recibido: 23/10/2018 - Aceptado: 19/11/2018

1. Introduction

Although it is apparently a very specific and well- defined concept, apologies are an element which have different components which can be analysed. In fact, we cannot conclude that it is a homogeneous concept as its perception is defined by different elements such as culture, context, psychology and even religion (Smith, 2008).

From psychology and microsociology, several authors deal with the acceptance or denial of blameworthy actions as a consequence of different aspects, including social pressure, aversion to error and the influence of one’s own ego in de-cision-making (Gonzales, Manning, & Haugen, 1992; Syed, 2016). Therefore, the acceptance of errors can be defined as an experience charged with subjectivity (Felstiner, Abel, & Sarat, 1980-1981). Considering the recipient of the apologies’ point of view, subjectivity is a central element to accept or reject the same and to find out the effect of the perception of the image after the apology discourse. As stated by Felstiner (1980-1981), ‘people perceive (or not) an experience as harmful, blame someone else, claim redress or rectification or get their claims accepted because of their social position as well as for their individual characteristics (page 636).