The Online/Offline Promotion of National Identities in Scotland

Until the advent of the web revolution (especially the rise in popularity of social media), national identities had only been constructed, promoted and projected mostly offline (in the material world), or through the internet by extension of web sites/pages where news releases or other propaganda materials could also be disseminated. The recent spread of social media across borders has led to a shift in branding of concepts, states, cities and even stateless nations, such as Scotland. This, I will argue, has forced states and nations (in my case Scotland) to adapt their communication strategies and marketing tactics in different ways for the offline world (the material means of promoting identities) and the online world where everyone in any corner of the world can gain access to.

In the long run, as social media and the online universe become more ingrained in our everyday lives and the way societies function, nationalism will be profoundly shaped by this difference in the construction, promotion and projection of identities offline and online, and Scotland will represent the ideal case for such a study, given the heavy reliance on social media channels and platforms of the two sides in the 2014 independence referendum. Methodologically I will look at promotional materials (both text and graphics) used both offline and online to see how they differed, and what they accentuated or focused on, in constructing and promoting Scotland’s identity at such a crucial moment in its history.