Abstract

OCAMPO-VILLEGAS, María Cristina. “Brave Coffee Grower”: The roll of corporate communication over society culture. OBS* [online]. 2014, vol.8, n.3, pp.149-167. ISSN 1646-5954.

This paper analyzes the communication used by an organization (Coffee Growers Committee) with enough symbolic power to influence in the construction of reality. It looks at the strategies developed by Quindío Coffee Growers Committee and how they are in part responsible for what is called coffee culture. It starts doing a theory revision on construction of social or cultural reality and then links it to the communication strategies used in the construction of social reality. The object of research is a column called "Cafetero con garra" (Brave coffee grower) published in an institutional newspaper called "Actualidad Cafetera" (Coffe News) in a period of twenty years. A mix of research techniques were applied in order to do a discourse and content analyses. The results were contrasted to interviews and iconographic analyses. The study found that there were a series of identity features in the Quindío department. It also made evident those organizations with symbolic power which play an important role among society. It allows them to reinforce, by using communicational strategies, cultural features that are also important for organizations, in order to reach their strategic and corporative objectives.

Keywords : Coffee culture; symbolic power; cultural construction; communication strategies.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )