Die Absolventenbefragung als Methode der Lehrevaluation in der Kommunikationswissenschaft

Surveys among alumni are a common but hardly reflected method of evaluating teaching in communication departments. In light of the increasing significance of evaluation at the universities and the high competition on the job market, it seems advisable to look at this instrument more closely. An advantage of alumni surveys is that they allow to compare directly people’s studies and the requirements of the jobs people hold. In a meta-analysis,19 alumni surveys conducted in German-speaking countries between 1995 and 2004 were reviewed. Differences between the studies at different universities make ex post facto comparisons more difficult. Results show: Graduates from complete journalism programs find jobs especially quickly. In general, practical experience is the most important factor in finding a job. Most respondents would chose their field of studies again if they were given a chance. Future alumni surveys should be coordinated to allow for better comparison and for collecting data representative of the field.     

Das Bild der Public Relations in der Qualit?tspresse

In their survey study about the image of PR in Germany, Bentele and Seidenglanz (Das Image der Image-Macher. Eine repr?sentative Studie zum Image der PR-Branche und eine Journalistenbefragung. Leipzig: Universit?t Leipzig, 2004) presume an interrelation between media coverage on PR and the general public??s conception of PR. Their results show firstly: The higher the respondents?? media consumption the more negative was their perception of PR. And secondly: The journalists among their respondents had a much more negative image of PR than the general public. Thus, our study investigates the question of how German media cover PR. We conducted a longitudinal content analysis (1993?C2006) of quality newspapers??the first study of this kind in Germany. We compared our findings from the content analysis with what we call a ??contrasting foil,?? which represents a re-construction of the ??reality?? of PR consisting of empirical data and facts about PR and the profession??s official self-image as well as of science-based theoretical reflections of PR. This ??contrasting foil?? served as a reference to clarify the journalistic positions on PR found in media coverage and to outline differences between the media??s picture of PR and the reality of PR beyond the media. Our results show that the scandalisation of PR plays an important role in the media coverage on PR.     

Globalisierung der Kommunikationswissenschaft

Empirical communication research was, on the whole, successful in increasing our scholarly knowledge about action, media and behaviour, on the micro-analytical level. Today, a communications community operating worldwide more often designs all-embracing conceptions to make our knowledge about human communication in its objective, social and temporal dimensions more transparent. It is the ambition of this paper to show, from a perspective of the history of scholarship, premises of thought, key concepts and theoretical tendencies, in order to reconstruct a theory of communications suited for examining globalization problems.     

Kristallisationsfigur der Moderne

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Unter der Tarnkappe

The article deals with the question of whether the economic interests of media companies have an effect on the quality of their media coverage. Such an effect would violate professional journalistic standards. As a case study, we analyze media coverage on the abortive acquisition of the ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG by the Axel Springer Verlag, comparing Springer-owned and competitor-owned newspapers. The professional journalistic standards of relevance, neutrality, balance and transparency are applied to measure the quality of the media coverage. Results show systematic differences in the presentation and evaluation of the acquisition between the two media groups, in line with their economic interests. Springer newspapers apply a two-level strategy: On the one hand, they publish fewer and more neutral articles than the competitors’ newspapers — they obviously do not want to draw attention to the topic. On the other hand, they try to influence public discussion covertly by using »opportune witnesses« and «volatile issues«. The media coverage of both newspaper groups — Springer and competitors — can be explained by their economic interests. This assertion is supported by both theoretical assumptions and empirical findings.     

Zur Lage der Kommunikationswissenschaft und ihrer Fachgesellschaft. Ergebnisse der DGPuK-Mitgliederbefragung 2003

Like other broad disciplines in the media/communications field, communication science is characterized by rapid growth and increasing diversity and hence confusion. That also affects the discipline’s scholarly associations. So the German Association for Communication Science (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Publizistik- und Kommunikationswissenschaft, DGPuK), the largest German-speaking association in this field, conducted a survey among its members in early 2003. This article reports on the design and findings of this study, focusing on the perception and evaluation of the association and on the scholarly orientations (theoretic perspectives and methodologies) of its members. Various subgroups within the DGPuK diverge in their positions and opinions. This applies in particular to the less well represented research traditions and subdisciplines (as compared to the social-scientific mainstream), which tend to view the DGPuK as one-sided. Deviations also show for professionals working outside the academic field (as compared to DGPuK members from universities) and in part for older members and women. The findings not only give an up-to-date picture of the state of the DGPuK but also shed light on the situation and development of the discipline as a whole.     

Fernseherziehung in der Deutschschweiz

Parents’ influence on and monitoring of children’s television use has been investigated intensely. In recent years international research has identified different environmental and family factors which influence active mediation, restrictive mediation, and co-viewing. However, there has been no systematic simultaneous comparison of the impact of these factors in German-speaking Switzerland. Therefore the present study analyzes the impacts of parental attitudes as well as family and environmental factors on parental mediation of children’s TV use simultaneously. 252 parents of children aged 3 to 14 answered questions concerning the impact factors, their mediation behaviour as well as children’s media use. Results confirm findings from international research: Most important for parental mediation styles are parental attitudes and the family communication style as well as children’s age. Structural and other sociodemographical factors seem to be less important.     

Zur Entgrenzung der Publizistikwissenschaft

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Im Spiegel der Anderen

The concept of social comparison is a core aspect of social psychology research and an important part of identity development, yet there has been little research on this phenomenon in the context of media usage. Combining different kinds of measurements, this study investigates the similarities and differences in social comparison to media characters versus persons from the social environment. A sample of 278 respondents answered a questionnaire about both kinds of comparison. Results indicate that persons from the social environment serve more often as comparison targets than media characters. Furthermore, media characters lead to an increased amount of upward comparison and to comparison with dissimilar others. The relevance of comparison dimensions seems to be independent of the comparison target.     

Das Paradox der Medienwirkungsforschung

Results of empirical studies on media effects differ considerably, depending on whether they are derived from individual or aggregate analyses. All in all, the more precise analyses on the individual level lead to weaker evidence of media effects than analyses on the aggregate level. This can be called the paradox of media effects research. It can be explained by ecological fallacies or by the fact that analyses on the individual level are too complex and exclude the effects of interpersonal communication occurring after people were exposed to media messages. In the first step, this article argues that individual and aggregate analyses are implicitly based on different definitions of media effects. Combining a content analysis of television news and a six wave panel survey, it then shows that aggregate analyses are more fruitful when media content is consonant, and individual analyses are more fruitful when media content is dissonant. The causes of these results and their consequences for media effects research are discussed.     

Die Zukunft der Kommunikationsberufe

Ohne Zusammenfassung