Delia Cristina Balaban

Delia Cristina Balaban
Babeş-Bolyai University | UBB · Department of Communication, Public Relations and Advertising

Professor PhD

About

72
Publications
57,221
Reads
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432
Citations
Introduction
Working at the Department of Communication, Public Relations and Advertising, Babeş-Bolyai University as a director of the Graduate School Communication, PR and Advertising. Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the University of Georgia, Athens, USA.Research on media, political communication, social media and advertising using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Their current projects are: 'Effects of Ad Disclosure in Influencer marketing'.
Additional affiliations
March 2013 - present
Babeş-Bolyai University
Position
  • Professor (Full)
Description
  • Courses: Media Communication, Advertising Communication, Social Media for BA and MA students Qualitative Research Methods and Communication Theory for PhD Students
October 2007 - February 2013
Babeş-Bolyai University
Position
  • Professor (Associate)
Description
  • Courses: Media Communication, Advertising Communication for BA and MA Students
October 2003 - September 2007
Babeş-Bolyai University
Position
  • Lecturer
Description
  • Courses: Media Communication, Advertising Communication for BA and MA Students
Education
January 2014 - July 2014
Babeş-Bolyai University
Field of study
  • Communication Science
February 2000 - April 2002
Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder)
Field of study
  • European Studies
February 2000 - July 2003
Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder)
Field of study
  • Fakultät für Kulturwissenschaft

Publications

Publications (72)
Presentation
Full-text available
Sponsored influencer posts should be recognizable as such. Hence, in many countries, ad disclosures are subject to a code of conduct more than strict regulations. In this study, we investigated the effects of two different ad disclosures on Instagram on a) purchase intention for the advertised brand and b) intention toward the influencer. We conduc...
Article
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Romania is one of the countries in the European Union that has been confronted with a large intra-EU migration of population towards countries such as Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom in the last two decades. Thus, one or both parents work abroad for several months or sometimes for years and their children are left in the care...
Article
The 2015 refugee crisis has held the attention of Romanian news media as well, as one of the most challenging issues for the European Union in the last decade, even though Romania is not situated on the main routes on which refugees arrive. Our research focuses on the variation of issue-specific news frames in time, according to media type, and by...
Article
Full-text available
There is an ongoing debate among scholars on how to tackle disinformation. Media education initiatives to increase literacy are effective ways to counter disinformation. Hence, the European Commission (2022) published Guidelines for Teachers and Educators on Tackling Disinformation and Promoting Digital Literacy Through Education and Training. The...
Article
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p>As previous studies highlighted, negative campaigning is a feature of current political communication during national elections. Given that voters often manifest disinterest, distrust in politics, and political cynicism, candidates and parties engage in negative campaigning and thus foster entertainment tendencies. Comparative studies on negative...
Article
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Historical accounts of the EU recurrently turn to crisis as a periodizing or structuring concept, reflecting the observation made by scholars that crisis has become a permanent feature of the social construction of our social and political reality. The concept of crisis can also be exploited for strategic purposes by political actors pursuing vario...
Article
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The present study is one of the few studies that examine the social media communication of the Romanian governmental institutions from a systematic perspective accounting for three categories of messages that enhance the goals of open governance, transparency, participation, and collaboration. Our research contributes to developing the research met...
Article
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Social media platforms are relevant for the media diet of adolescents. Augmented reality (AR) filters on social media are prevalent within the media consumption of this age group. Recent studies have unveiled the negative impact of beautifying AR filters and digitally enhanced pictures on adolescents’ well-being. However, there is a need for an in-...
Article
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Recent scholarship demonstrated that Facebook is a fertile space for populist political communication as its unmediated and viral nature make populist appeals highly efficient in mobilizing voters. However, less attention has been paid to the way these populist messages appear through political actors’ Facebook communication, and what post- and pag...
Article
Recent scholarship demonstrated that Facebook is a convenient space for populist political communication as its unmediated and viral nature make populist appeals highly efficient in voters’ mobilization (Engesser et al., 2017). However, less attention has been paid to the way these populist messages appear on political actors’ communication, and wh...
Chapter
Die vorliegenden Studien von Thomas S. Robertson & John R. Rossiter gehören zu den ersten empirischen Untersuchungen, die die Effekte der Werbung auf das Verhalten von Kindern untersuchen. Sie bestätigen die überwältigende Rolle der Fernsehwerbung als Hauptquelle für die kurzfristige Nachfrage von Kindern nach Kinderspielen und Spielzeug. Die wicht...
Article
The present paper is an analysis of the development of Communication Science in Romania during the last decades. It starts with a search for a definition for Communication Science and a short history of the research field. One of the main questions to be discussed is whether Communication Science is rather part of social sciences or part of the hum...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The phenomenon of disinformation is complex and often requires an interdisciplinary approach to understand its mechanisms. There is an ongoing debate among scholars on how this phenomenon could be diminished; there has also been discussion about the failure of the current epistemic environment to offer a precise solution to it. According to Eurosta...
Article
Despite substantial research on disclosure-related effects in social media influencer advertising, less is known about the impact of varied exposure levels on social media influencer advertising outcomes over time. Through a mixed-factorial online experiment, the authors of this study explore how evaluative persuasion knowledge expressed through sk...
Article
Full-text available
Aiming to explore the process of social influence in the social media environment, this study addresses consumers' complex psychological processes, attitudes, and behaviors when interacting with social media influencers (SMIs). Our main objective is to explore the impact of follower status on parasocial relations (PSRs) with SMIs considering the mo...
Article
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When social media influencers (SMIs) post sponsored content, it should be recognizable as such. However, there is no European Union-wide legislation governing sponsorship transparency, and monitoring practices differ significantly across member states. In Romania, where we conducted our study, such regulations are only just emerging, and there are...
Article
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The Covid-19 pandemic affected Romanian intra-EU labour migrants in a particular way and challenged the established themes associated with and the social roles assigned to them in news discourses. During the first wave of the pandemic, Covid-19 hotspots were reported abroad in Romanian migrant communities, the most notorious example being at the Tö...
Article
Full-text available
Our study stresses the importance of developing understandable and easily recognizable ad disclosures for adolescents as a specific target group of social media influencer (SMI) advertising. A comprehensive advertising literacy concept that includes a cognitive, performative, and attitudinal component builds the theoretical background of the presen...
Article
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It is an old concern in public and academic debates that people are not interested in European-level issues, and even European Parliamentary election campaigns, which are the main democratic tool of the EU to involve ordinary people into political decision-making, are mostly about national-level political topics. Moreover, even when European issues...
Article
Full-text available
It is rather contradictory that there is a high demand for authenticity in today’s virtual space, where some platforms encourage the proliferation of idealized images, the products of digital alteration. Previous studies have examined how social media users perceive the authenticity and credibility of new digital celebrities—influencers—and the imp...
Article
Full-text available
It is rather contradictory that there is a high demand for authenticity in today’s virtual space, where some platforms encourage the proliferation of idealized images, the products of digital alteration. Previous studies have examined how social media users perceive the authenticity and credibility of new digital celebrities––influencers––and the i...
Article
Full-text available
Understanding populism as a communication strategy (Aalberg et al. 2017) that is based on both messages and styles (Engesser et. al., 2017), the present research investigates the populist elements of political discourses articulating the subject of "corruption" in the context of the attempts to change the anti-corruption legislation by the Romanian...
Article
Full-text available
Understanding populism as a communication strategy (Aalberg et al. 2017) that is based on both messages and styles (Engesser et. al., 2017), the present research investigates the populist elements of political discourses articulating the subject of "corruption" in the context of the attempts to change the anti-corruption legislation by the Romanian...
Chapter
Populism is presented as a severe challenge to democracies as it delegitimises the institutions and processes on which democratic society is built. The infectious nature of populism within a system drives a shift in the public mood. We investigate this phenomenon through a content analysis of party posts on Facebook during the 2019 European parliam...
Article
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Nowadays controversial stories, conspiracy theories, or false in- formation are massively shared on social media. Fake news is supported by the online environment because it generates traffic and financial benefits (Tandoc et al., 2018). It is a chain — users share the news on their feed, then they receive the same type of content, later on, creati...
Chapter
With a turnout of an unprecedented 51%, the 2019 European Parliament (EP) election in Romania were dominated by the internal affairs. With the exception of the newcomer USR-PLUS, Romanian political parties preferred a top-down approach in their Facebook communication during the 2019 EP election campaign. The potential of the social media platform i...
Chapter
Populism is argued to represent a serious challenge to established, mainstream parties as well as the democratic project underpinning the European Union. Increased support for populist ideas led to concerns of a fragmented parliament. Finding just under a quarter of all Facebook posts by parties contained some populist rhetoric, we argue while popu...
Article
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From its very first pages, Paul Dobrescu’s new book The Dragons of Development makes its roots visible: it is built on a comprehensive literature review, and on a reflection upon progress and supremacy in contemporary societies. The author sees the development of a society as “a way to get to know ourselves” (p.10), and the ideas elaborated in the...
Article
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The massive use of online platforms has contributed to an intensifying flow of collection, usage, and sharing of personal information of users. Technological development allows every form of user interaction to be transformed into data. The use of mobile devices on a large scale has added more dimensions to the online privacy debate. Within the the...
Book
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Social media influencers (SMI) have become a relevant part of the contemporary advertising landscape worldwide. Romania makes no exception. Recent empirical research has highlighted the role of credibility, trustworthiness, expertise, and quality of the relationship with followers for the success of advertising campaigns conducted through SMIs. The...
Chapter
Full-text available
Higher education is considered to have a significant contribution to the EU integration. Even though the education policies are controlled and regulated by the member states, the EU commission was actively supporting the internationalization of education especially during the last three decades by implementing several framework programmes such as t...
Article
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Romania is one of the EU member states re- ported to have a high rate of intra-EU migration. There is a temporary labor migration, but also Romanian migrants decide to leave their country for good. This phenomenon has a large economic, cultural, and social impact on society, with the northeastern region of Romania being especially affected. The mai...
Article
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During the Spring of 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, several countries ordered lockdowns. The limitations of movement contributed to the rise of social media activity. The present research focused on how the active use of Instagram had an impact on well-being during the first lockdown in Romania. Aiming to explore how active Instagram use contribu...
Article
Full-text available
Social media is associated with the rise of new types of celebrities called influencers, who share their current experiences and ideas and often endorse brands. Developing and keeping a large community of followers is one of the most important goals of influencers. The size of their audiences is one of the elements that make them relevant to the ad...
Article
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Nowadays, the relevance of advertising on social media is es- sential, especially for the young audience category for which traditional media is no longer a real consumer option. This paper aims to explore the differences in the efficiency of online advertising with and without the sup- port of a social media influencer. We conducted a two-level su...
Chapter
What Romanian journalists and politicians understand by populism, the rela- tionship between populism and corruption in their opinion and the role of media in popu- list political communication are the main questions that the present research is focused on. The methodology consists of ten in-depth interviews with Romanian politicians, political con...
Book
Full-text available
PR Trend conferences are already part of a tradition in the Romanian com-munication studies landscape. The first edition was organized at the College of Political, Administrative, and Communication Sciences of the Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca in October 2004. Ever since, we aimed to offer both young and senior scholars a platform for inte...
Chapter
Full-text available
The Internet is a favorable environment for disseminating fake news, and health-related false information is being shared on social platforms. Instead of visiting a doctor, people prefer to search online for various health topics, such as vaccination or miraculous cures for different conditions. With regards to HPV vaccination, Romania has a low ra...
Chapter
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Between January 1 and June 30, 2019 Romania held the rotating Presidency of the Council of the Euro- pean Union. This position is often related to higher international media coverage that can have an impact on a country’s image. Scholars in the field of public diplomacy and country branding have emphasized the role of country image in attracting fo...
Article
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This article focuses on the phenomenon of the dissemination of the fake news and its implications during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Romania. At the beginning, concepts such as news sharing and information dissemination are presented, reviewing the main predictors of this online behavior. Below are summarized some of the most relev...
Article
Full-text available
At the beginning of the novel coronavirus another phenomenon was observed: the dissemination of false information on a large scale. The World Health Organization (WHO) stated that the coronavirus pandemic is not the only threat that the world is facing, but there is also an infodemic that needs to be controlled. For example, false articles claiming...
Chapter
Full-text available
Facebook ist die weltweit relevanteste soziale Netzwerkplattform in Bezug auf die absoluten Nutzerzahlen. Das gilt auch für Europa: Ungefähr 50 Prozent der Gesamtbevölkerung besitzt ein Profil auf dieser Plattform. Rumänische und deutsche Studierende der kommunikationswissenschaftlichen Fachrichtungen weisen ein ähnliches Social-Media-Nutzungsverha...
Article
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News sharing on social network sites is a common nowadays activity with complex implications. Our model combines content characteristics such as perceived information quality with the intensity of SNS use and risk propensity as predictors for news sharing on Facebook. We conducted a survey (N= 586) consists of early stage adults from Romania and Ge...
Chapter
Full-text available
The year 2018 marked the passing of 100 years since the so called ‘Great Unification’ of Romania with all its historical provinces. This event was highly mediatized and most public in-stitutions strived to initiate dialogue and aimed to involve their audiences in discussions about this event, especially on their Facebook accounts. The aim of the pr...
Article
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The present research addresses the issue of source credibility of social media influencers from the perspective of users. Social media influencers are defined as online personalities with a large number of followers, across one or several social media platforms. They have a complex role, being content creators, online opinion leaders, and even entr...
Poster
Full-text available
The 2015 refugee crisis, and the ensuing policy debates towards a common European migration policy have held the attention of Romanian news media as well, as one of the most challenging issues for the European Union in the last decade. Even though Romania is not situated directly on the main routes on which refugees arrive to European countries, th...
Article
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In a society based on sharing economy and personalized services, the book The Platform Society. Public Values in a Connective World is focused on a relevant contemporary issue, that of the platform-driven change of society. The book offers a comprehensive view of a connected world (p.2) where several areas of society are subject to change. By using...
Chapter
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Cluj-Napoca has become one of the most dynamic cities in Romania in respect to the development of the cultural/creative industries. Founded in 2002, Transylvania Film Festival (TIFF) was one of the first events that put the city on the European cultural map in the last decades. The present paper researched TIFF's role in the development of cultural...
Chapter
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The phenomenon of news sharing was in the focus of the communication research in the past years. It is a complex phenomenon with various implications for the society, but also for individual and thus, there are numerous approaches to it. Through our theoretical outlook, we propose exploring news sharing theoretical approaches through their connecti...
Chapter
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In the context that higher education is not compulsory in Romania, the development of a promotion plan and a branding strategy at this level are required, in order to attract high school graduates to higher education institutions and to keep current students in the university. Branding strategy is an especially important element in attracting futur...
Article
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The US presidential election is not only a politically relevant issue but also a media relevant issue in every part of the world. Therefore, the present paper aims to analyze the way print media from Germany, France and Romania comparatively covered the re-election moment of Barack Obama. The research intends to analyze to what degree there are dif...
Article
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New technologies such as Internet and new media introduce new challenges for public communication. Private companies from Romania use in a very creative way the new tools of Web 2.0, such as social media. In the Romanian public sector, especially in the public administration there are important steps taken towards a modern communication. Based on t...
Article
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Inaugural speeches of U.S. Presidents are part of symbolic politics. They are part of the political traditions, and represent an important moment in presenting political visions for the future. The infusion of religious elements into politicians' speeches becomes a tool in increasing the number of cast votes and the notoriety. This paper analyzes t...
Chapter
The present study aims at investigating the role of traditional and non-traditional Romanian media in framing the ethical discussion on transplantation. During 2008, Romania faced a public debate on the issue of organ transplantation, due to an attempt to change the existing legislation on transplantation from an opt-in to an opt-out system. Press...
Article
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Résumé : Ces dernières années, grâce à l'Internet, l'accès aux médias de langue étrangère est devenu de plus en plus facile, fait qui explique l'augmentation du nombre d'utilisateurs de langue étrangère. Cet article porte sur l'utilisation des médias de langue allemande par les étudiants roumains des départements de langue allemande de l'université...
Article
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The medialization phenomenon has become an area of great interest in the field of communication. This study focuses on the medialization in the field of sports. The main objective of the paper is to analyze this phenomenon by using a qualitative approach. In-depth interviews have been carried out in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The relationship between at...
Article
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Review of Mădălina Moraru, Mit și publicitate (Myth and advertising) (Bucharest: Nemira, 2009).
Article
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In the context in which the majority of Romanians are orthodox and the level of trust in Church is very high, this paper aims to analyze the level of political interference into religious life. The article focuses on particular aspects of political communication, namely the use of religious symbols and religious events in electoral campaigns. The m...
Article
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Although the idea of creating internal and external links within and between institutions is a relatively established one, the public relations domain can be considered a new branch of the promotion process, mainly in the public sector in Romania. This paper aims at creating an overview of the profile of public relations departments within public i...
Article
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In the last decades, scientific developments are largely discussed and debated mainly at the media level. Based on the agenda setting model, the importance of a certain theme is given by the frequency of its appearances in mass-media. Within this context, this paper focuses on the issue of stem cells and its media coverage in Romania. Using content...

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