Articulo_3_EN_Doxa_27

This present study seeks to expand the research on the repercussions of apology discourses beyond Anglo-Saxon stud-ies and to do so in the political sphere where, despite the fact that requests for apologies are frequent because of the high degree of media exposure and constant risk of crisis situations (Herrero & Marfil, 2016; Herrero & Römer, 2014), they are still perceived as a sign of weakness and lack of direction (Mills, 2001).

The objective is to understand the effects of apology discourses in the Spanish context, for which, the research method-ology applied in the Anglo-Saxon context is followed. Regarding the sample selection, the university segment is chosen (McGraw, 1990, Tucker, Turner, Barling, Reid, & Elving, 2006), since they are more inclined to participate in politics than other young people of the same age and in comparison with those who do not have a higher education (Herrero, Grossi Queipo, Rodríguez Diaz, & Fernández Alonso, 2000, Martín Cortés, 2007: 130). The chosen universe is of 1,329,109 uni-versity students in Spain (Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, December 2017). The results aim to illustrate the concerns of the new cohorts who join the electorate, which is of interest to be able to understand the effectiveness of the image perception strategies of those who apologize.

2. Theoretical framework

Different authors address image repair strategies, among those Benoit (1995), who presents (1) denial, (2) evasion of guilt, (3) reduction of the offense, (4) corrective action and (4) mortification, as actions which will lead to compensate the image of the offender. The work of Hood (2011) and Hansson (2015), who review the blame evasion strategies of governments and public administrations is also of interest. For his part, Smith (2008) makes an interesting classifica-tion of apologies and establishes nine possible ways of apologizing: categorical, ambiguous, expression of sympathy, declaration of values, conciliatory, compensatory, instrumental, obligatory and delegated apologies.

The apologies issued by a politician usually have a high media impact, given that normally this type of discourse is closely related to a crisis communication situation (Herrero & Marfil, 2016), as the apology is used as the speaker’s image repair tool, to reestablish his/her credibility and to try to restore his/her reputation (Benoit, 1995, 1997). Hence, this research is framed in a general way from the sphere of communication, and specifically from crisis communica-tion management which politicians develop when they see that their reputations are jeopardized or when they receive accusations of various kinds and origins: media, rival parties or citizen organizations.

There are several studies on the repercussions of these discourses (Bachman & Guerrero, 2007, Arendt, LaFleche, & Limperopulos, 2017), which generally focus on evaluating the effects of apology discourses on university students (McGraw, 1990; Tucker, Turner, Barling, Reid, & Elving, 2006). This research will take these studies as a methodological reference and at the same time will seek to broaden the scope of study beyond that of the Anglo-Saxon one since an element closely linked to this type of discourse is the cultural context in which it is developed. There is scarce academic research on this topic in Spanish, however, in the Anglo-Saxon world, public apologies are a relatively frequent practice and have more studies and research which delve into the subject (Arendt, LaFleche, & Limperopulos, 2017). Meanwhile, in other countries such as Japan, apologies are more normal, and it is a question of dignity (Haley, 1998).