Communication, Diversity and Internationalism. A Comparative Analysis of Gothenburg International Film Festival and Clandestino Festival from a PR perspective

Abstract

Even though the number of research on – music and film – festivals is increasing, there are fields such as the use of social media that are still waiting to be explored. Nowadays festival organisers are able to communicate with their audiences all year long thanks to the technological advancement of the 21st century and can easily set agendas and promote certain topics or countries on their Facebook and Twitter pages. Many public relations practitioners, however, still adhere to old PR traditions and communication models, and do little research on their audiences. The organisers of Gothenburg International Film Festival and Clandestino Festival1 fall into this category, even if these festivals, besides their similarities, differ from each other. They are actively present online, but most of the time they just share messages on Facebook and Twitter. Analyses show that their online activities do not always echo their mission statements of being international and diverse in topics, but sometimes they actually have very good reasons for that. Their audiences, especially their coworkers, found them diverse and international, though some surprising results appeared as well.