ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a communication science-influenced approach to country images and explains how such images are co-created. Four data sets, which were used in previous empirical studies, are re-examined through social network analysis. The findings suggest that virtual brand communities around countries have weak ties and sparse structures. These characteristics have the potential to expand the outreach of official country messages and to increase the credibility of country images. The methodology and the findings of the chapter can be seen as a way to analyze how perceptions of countries are formed through relationships built and messages shared in networks.
