ss: what we do
DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
SOLUCIONES SEMÁNTICAS
Basically, we find out what companies say without realising.
Freud established a distinction between manifest or conscious contents and latent or unconscious contents.
The aim is to establish the degree of discrepancy betweenwhat we mean to say
andwhat we are actually saying
What do we do?
Our business is the analysis of organisational discourse
And the obvious question is: What is discourse?
The discourse of an organisation is everything produced by an organisation which has a
meaning. That is to say, all the TEXTS it produces.
Put otherwise
Our analysis is mainly based on an organisation’s written texts, but it can also incorporate other kinds of text.
There are many different kinds of text: visual, gestual, aural…
The evaluation of communication is usually carried out a posteriori, by means of polls. However, we evaluate texts in themselves.
In human communication, we are dealing with meanings, and meanings are subjective. That’s why we believe that it is impossible to establish only an objetive criterion for evaluation which is external to the text. Our main criterion for evaluation is the meaning which the emitter intends to communicate: the is, what the author means.
What’s the use of this?Being as coherent and effective as possible, both inwardly and outwardly.
External communication Website Advertising Stakeholder communication
How the organisation presents itself to the world
Internal communication Communication within the organisation
How the organisation thinks about itself
Triple analysis
Quantitative analysis
Semiotic analysis
Semantic analysis
MEANING INTERNAL TO THE TEXT
MEANING EXTERNAL TO THE TEXT
In order to do so, we carry out a triple analysis.
The way in which the text itself generates meanings internally is analysed quantitatively and semantically.
The way in which the cultural reality external to the text determines its meaning is analysed using semiotic techniques.
Quantitative analysis Concepto Frecuenci
a
ABENGOA 581
ENERGÍA 579
DESARROLLO 349
EMISIÓN 322
PRODUCCIÓN 293
SOCIAL 283
TECNOLOGÍA 269
ECONOMÍA 254
SOSTENIBILIDAD 248
INFORMACIÓN 225
MEDIOAMBIENTE 219
PRIMER 206
AÑO 200
PRECIO 199
MUNDO 182
RESULTADO 181
SOLAR 181
NEGOCIO 167
CAMBIO 156
EFECTO 153
Parte del sitio webNº de
palabras
Porcentaje
Blog corporativo 34.034 37,3%Inversores 13.552 14,8%Acerca de nosotros 12.695 14%Responsabilidad social 9.819 10,8%Gobierno corporativo 9.339 10,2%Noticias y publicaciones 7.299 8%Sostenibilidad medioambiental 4.509
4,9%
Total 91.247
100%
Quantitative analysis makes use of a number of statistical and numerical techniques taken from corpus linguistics, text linguistics, network theory, ethnographic and content analysis, and others.
We apply such concepts as frequency, salience, co-location, concordance, semantic weight, semantic degree, etc.
Semantic network
DESARROLLO NEGOCIO
TECNOLOGÍA
SOLAR
ABENGOA
RESULTADOS
PRIMER
SOSTENIBILIDAD
MUNDO
ECONOMÍA
INFORMACIÓN
AÑO
ENERGÍA MEDIOAMBIENTE
SOCIALPRODUCCIÓN CAMBIO
EFECTO EMISIONES
resultados del primer semestre/trimestre
Abengoa hace público el consenso de resultados
Abengoa desarrolla Abengoa Solar
negocio solar
tecnología solar
desarrollo tecnológico
desarrollo sostenible
desarrollo económico
economía mundial
mundo sostenible
información económica
Informe Anual
emisiones de GEI
energía solar
producción de energía
Energía y Cambio Climático social y/o
medioambiental
sectores de infraestructura, medioambiente y energía
PRECIO
30
24
9
52
12
8977
13
56
6
81 812
68
27
12
9
6
By means of the quantitative analysis, we establish what a text’s semantic network is – which are its main concepts and the relations between them. The semantic network is a sort of conceptual skeleton of the text.
Semantic analysis
The semantic analysis interprets the results of the quantitative analysis. Its aim is to establish what are the discourse currents within the manifest discourse:
the dominant discourse current the secondary (marginal) discourse
currents the relations between them
For instance, in the website of a company which we studied, the discourse currents are the following:
Dominant discourse: CSR (= environmental)
Seconday discourses:
– Technological-industrial discourse (supporting the dominant discourse)
– Financial-corporate discourse (isolated from the rest of the discourse)
Mission, vision, identity
CSR
TECHNOLOGY
CORPORATION
mission
vision
identity
We also examine the way in which an organisation defines itself by means of its mission, vision, and identity (or values).
In the case of this company, the mission includes all three discourses: corporate, technological, and CSR. Its vision is restricted to technology and CSR. And the company identifies very strongly with its CSR discourse, which is equated with the environmental discourse.
ThematisationsWe also look at the way in which a concept becomes the theme of the discourse (i.e. that which the discourse talks about).
Name of the company: associated with the financial discourse
Biofuels: secondary by comparison to sun energy, defensive discourse
Semiotic analysisThe semiotic analysis examines how the meaning of a text is positioned within the general cultural context. We employ techniques taken from structuralism and poststructuralism in linguistics and anthropology:
Binary pairs Connotation vs
denotation Metaphor vs metonymy Intertextuality Etc.
SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
NON-DEVELOPMENT
Decretionist environmentalism
Solar energy
Biofuels
Fossile fuels
NON-SUSTAINABLE
Mythic quadrantThe mythic quadrant shows the intersections of two conceptual oppositions between which the discourse is defined. In the case of the company we examined, this is the intersection of the development-non-development and sustainable-non-sustainable oppositions. The company is positioned in the sustainable development quadrant, as opposed to the non-sustainable development quadrant of fossile fuels and the sustainable non-development quadrant of decretionist environmentalism.
Code trajectories
Residual → Dominant → EmergentDevelopment as harmful
to the environmentSustainable
development???
Past ← Present ← Future
The idea of sustainable development is the current dominant cultural code. But until not long ago, development was usually regarded as harmful to the environment, and this is a view which occasionally still surfaces (residual code).
What is interesting is detecting what emergent codes are arising right now – how people will talk about development in the future – in order to be ahead of the competition.
Latent discourse
"Social concerns are less important than environmental concerns"
"Money is very important to us" "And yet, we are ashamed that money
matters to us" "Biofuels make us uncomfortable"
Our analysis shows what a company is saying without realising. In the case of the comapny which we examined, our conclusion was that what the comapny is saying between the lines is:
Recommendations· growth· efficiency· stability
ECONOMIC
ENVIRONMENTAL
· resilience/biodiversity· natural resources· pollution
SOCIAL
· empowerment· inclusion/consult· institutions/governance
· intergenerational equity· values/culture
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Our recommendation is to achieve a greater discursive integration. In the case of this company, this is particularly important as they are based on the idea of sustainable development, which involves the integration of all three discourses. That’s why we recommend to give greater relevance to the social discourse and talking about economic matters more naturally, explaining how they fit in within sustainble development.
In addition to our discourse analysis and evaluation services, we also provide in-company training.
Communication for entrepreneurs Technology communication Business writing Text clinic Semiotics for marketing
and communication Tailored courses
