Abstract: The article identifies some typical initiating events occurring in product creation stories and some other genres of marketing storytelling. These are events referring to the initial stage of a product’s life cycle explaining how a product, company or brand was born. Five types of such events are discussed: (1) company/product/brand’s birth through several generations’ hard work, (2) company/product/brand’s birth through experiment or by accident, (3) purchase or present, (4) company/product/brand’s birth as a result of misfortune, and (5) naming of the product.  It is argued that marketing stories resemble advertising from the point of view of their functions, allowing companies to achieve two primary goals: (i) of getting noticed by attracting emotional responses from consumers and (ii) of ensuring that the product or brand is remembered and well-liked.

Keywords: storytelling, copywriting, company/product/brand stories, product creation stories, initiating events, product life cycle.

Rhetoric and Communications E-journal, Issue 4, April 2012,  http://rhetoric.bg/, ISSN 1314-4464

Read the original of the article (in English)

Abstract: Infertility is an important topic to bring forth, since it elicits multiple themes and cultural values having to do with the path take, with gender roles and definitions of femininity and masculinity, as well as moral and legal issues. ‘IVF is a shifting cultural artifact, as imbricated as any other in contemporary discourses and the struggles they articulate.’ [1] Reproduction is turning into a zone where gender, sexuality, economic development, public and private family life and public policies, biotechnology and the ethical dilemmas it causes, interact in a very delicate and specific way.

Rhetoric and Communications E-journal, Issue 4, April 2012,  http://rhetoric.bg/, ISSN 1314-4464

Read the original of the article (in English)

Abstract: A long-term American-Bulgarian research was done in concern with the terror act on the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, DC. It was a psycholinguistic study of how 270 editorials from five different newspapers sought to make sense of an initially incomprehensible set of events. These newspapers were the American New York Times and Washington Post, the Bulgarian Sega, the Russian Izvestia, and the English Times. The meaning of possessions and, ultimately, of time and the transitoriness of things, is very different in Western and Eastern European cultures. That was the reason five and ten years later – the reflection and the meaning of this American tragedy for the world history to be studied again as it was reflected in the print mass media of East-West cultures. Some of the linguistic results of this research are discussed in this article.

Keywords: event meanings; mass media reflections; terrorist acts; historical references; framing terrorism; breaking news.

Rhetoric and Communications E-journal, Issue 4, April 2012,  http://rhetoric.bg/, ISSN 1314-4464

Read the original of the article (in English)

Abstract: The article discusses the issue of empathy, the ability to understand and relate to other people’s emotions, and its fundamental role in human interaction. It offers a historical review on different writings and attempts to scientifically define and research the human capacity of empathy. Scientists make a distinction between the cognitive and the emotional aspect of empathy. A functional model of empathy based on social-neuroscience perspective is also presented. It plays emphasis on a third component, i.e. the ability to monitor and regulate cognitive and emotional processes. Empathy is regarded as an innate trait but at the same time it should be nourished and cultivated. Within human development, it is observed that children at the age of two normally begin to engage in empathic behaviour when they show emotional responses that are congruent with the emotional states of people around them. Relatedness is amongst the most important feelings that adults should support in their children in order to provide and cultivate satisfactory experiences in them. Empathy is also explored in the context of raised awareness of multiculturalism in the 21^st century.

Keywords: Empathy, communication, intersubjectivity, emotional regulatory processes, relatedness.

Rhetoric and Communications E-journal, Issue 4, April 2012,  http://rhetoric.bg/, ISSN 1314-4464

Read the original of the article (in English)

Abstract: The article deals with the need to re-conceptualise the use of the traditional educational models and to implement new educational methods. The focus is on the interactive training and interactive communication, and in particular on the elements of interaction.  The organisation of the procedures includes the interactive document, which gives the students further opportunities in their practical training. The model follows the classic cycle structure, replacing the element of educational resources with role-play. The educational resources are organized to present examples of good practice for using audio and visual, static and dynamic components like expressive means of the multimedia and necessary software for producing and editing these components.

Keywords: interactive communication, interactive training, educational project, educational resources.

Rhetoric and Communications E-journal, Issue 4, April 2012,  http://rhetoric.bg/, ISSN 1314-4464

Read the original of the article (in English)

Abstract: Social media and social networks are already part of almost everybody’s life. They are often used as a source of information, entertainment or a means of keeping in touch with family, friends and colleagues. However, they are quickly turning into education tools due to their popularity, relative ease of use and flexible nature. The article discusses the opportunities social media and social networks offer to teach and learn at tertiary level. After a brief overview of relevant theoretical ideas, the authors focus on a possible approach to making these part of the learning experiences of university students and, more specifically, in developing students’ writing skills in Bulgarian and in English.

Key words: social media, social networks, university education, electronically mediated communication (EMC)

Rhetoric and Communications E-journal, Issue 4, April 2012,  http://rhetoric.bg/, ISSN 1314-4464

Read the original of the article (in English)

Abstract: The article focuses on the process of categorization and stereotyping and their effects on interpersonal communication with specific emphasis on the communication in school context.

Key words: Interpersonal communication, categorization, stereotypes

Rhetoric and Communications E-journal, Issue 4, April 2012,  http://rhetoric.bg/, ISSN 1314-4464

Read the original of the article (in English)

Abstract: The paper explores the topic of Intercomprehension Analysis as the theoretical study of the phenomenon or basic research on receptive language behavior. The practical applications of the inquiry into Intercomprehension are referred to as Applied Intercomprehension research and development.

Keywords: Intercomprehension, Modular Intercomprehension Model, communicative language competence.

Rhetoric and Communications E-journal, Issue 4, April 2012,  http://rhetoric.bg/, ISSN 1314-4464

Read the original of the article (in English)