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.     

??ber Terroristen und Spitzensportler

Islamophobia is more strongly developed in East Germany compared to the western part of the country. Given the lack of personal contact with Muslims in East Germany, islamophobia is probably strongly influenced by media coverage. For this reason, the coverage of two East German regional newspapers, Nordkurier and Volksstimme, is analyzed against the theoretical background of a conjunction of the social-psychological stereotype content model with the communication-scientific concept of framing. Using content analysis and latent class analysis, two so-called stereotype frames were identified. Two thirds of all Islam-related articles use the ??cold and harm frame??. Here, Muslims are often blamed for the lethal consequences of terrorist action, their behaviour is evaluated as cold or immoral, and military interventions against them are discussed. On the other hand, one third of all Islam-related articles belongs to the ??competence and cooperation frame??. Competence is ascribed to Muslims as their success in artistic, athletic or political activities is recognized and other actors?? interest in cooperation in these areas is emphasized. Whereas the ??cold and harm frame?? probably promotes medial segregation, the ??competence and cooperation frame?? is representing an assimilative model of media integration.     

Wider die Symbiose

The analysis deals with the presentation of hunger and related emergencies in the mass media. It focuses on problems and structures of journalistic production processes and symbiotic relationships between the media and the aid industry. Mass media often create the impression that ??hunger?? occurs unexpectedly and abruptly. In this way media and journalists produce their own news value, which they need for selling the topic. Bad weather, climate change and natural disasters fit into the concept of mass media, their news selection processes as well as their production structures much better than the fact that hunger is a political phenomenon mostly, at heart, a major political scandal. Such scandals require profound analysis, investigation and a high level of journalistic independence and know-how. In the field of disaster relief, development organizations professionalize their public relations efforts more and more. The dynamic and transactional interactions between the aid industry and journalists play an increasingly important role in disaster reporting. In Germany the networks of relief organizations stretch deeply into editorial offices. The relief industry has a tight media network in Germany. In their communications efforts, fear and pity, two of the strongest individual and socio-psychological emotions, play a central role.     

Die Rolle der Individual- und Massenmedien im Integrationsprozess von Jugendlichen mit Migrationshintergrund

Migrant’s media use is a growing research field in communication. This article offers an integrated view on the relationship of media use, adolescents’ identity development and social integration. Based on Hurrelmann’s conceptualization of (media) socialization, Esser’s integration theory and Keupp’s concept of identity development, this study deduces a theoretical framework for analyzing the importance of individual and mass media in the process of adolescent immigrant’s social integration. Empirically, an exploratory-qualitative survey consisting of eight group discussions and ten face-to-face interviews highlights the importance of the hybrid character of socialisatio in multi-cultural entities (community of origin and admission). The media’s role in this process is limited.     

?Wir sind besser als die anderen??

The paper applies social psychology??s results on the theory of social comparison to media content. The finding that people tend to evaluate themselves better than they evaluate others, even if there is no foundation for that in reality, presents the starting point of these considerations. Such an optimistic bias can also be observed in social groups. It is established and distributed in small groups by interpersonal communication and contributes to the individuals?? identification with the group and, thus, to the group??s stability. The paper argues that this phenomenon should be applicable to larger social groups such as religious and ethnic groups or social strata. In these cases, the optimistic bias would have to be communicatively distributed through the media. We introduce a theoretical model that combines the role of media content, its individual reception and processing, and the reciprocal effect of processing on social structure. Subsequently, first empirical evidence of optimistic-bias presentations in media discourses is presented, and resulting problems for future research are discussed.     

?Wie und nach welcher Richtung entwickelte sich das Lesebedürfnis der Arbeiterschaft?“

Media use in the early twentieth century has to be seen before a background of an epoch in media history that Jürgen Wilke describes as the age of the unleashing of mass communication. In this sense, the aim of my historical-empirical case study is to generate consolidated findings about the amount and the extent of media use, particularly of the mass press, at the beginning of an emerging modern media system during the time of the German Empire. The basic source of this paper is a survey of early German empirical social research: Adolf Levenstein??s empirical studyDie Arbeiterfrage (1912). Like other studies from the corpus of sources of early social research, this one provides an exciting historical basis for writing a history of media use in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. All in all, Levenstein??s study offers various important findings on the consumption of books, magazines, newspapers and pulp fiction, that is to say; primarily on the pre-communicative phase in the (mass) communication process including individual costs (monetary, mental, time budget) and motives (needs, expectations, functions, interests, routines) for the use of modern mass media, which cannot be taken for granted.     

Publizistische Chancengleichheit in der Wahlkampfberichterstattung?

A true democracy is based on political competition. Political parties set up programmes and suggest solutions which the electorate is then asked to choose between. Competition for tomorrow??s leadership positions can only be fair if today there are equal opportunities for all parties. The German legislative body passed several laws which are meant to guarantee equal opportunities in this contest. In times of an ever increasing importance of the mass media for political communication, this paper is meant to answer the question of whether??besides equal political opportunities??there is something like equal media opportunities, and if so, which indicators can be used to measure them. After a broad theoretical examination, an empirical analysis of the media coverage prior to the general elections in 1998, 2002 and 2009 follows. It reveals that??from a quantitative point of view??there certainly are equal media opportunities for the political parties sitting in the German Bundestag. The chances for media coverage are, especially for smaller parties, better than the gradation of equal chances by formal regulations.     

Frames in der medienpolitischen ?ffentlichkeit

This study sheds light on the media in their role as political actors and analyzes how the media cover political processes that involve their own interests. How far are the media able to fulfill, in such cases, quality demands such as diversity? The press coverage on the 12th amendment of the Interstate Treaty on Broadcasting and Online Media in Germany served as an example to study this problem. The assumption is that publishing houses had a strong economic interest in regulating the online activities of public service broadcasting. By means of a qualitative content analysis the frames used by five national print media were identified and their diversity was discussed. The findings show that the press tried to narrow down opinion formation on this topic. Frames with a negative evaluation of public service online activities prevailed regardless of the media??s political orientations, and alternative frames only occurred fragmentarily and sporadically.     

Personenorientierte Medienrezeption: Ein Zwei-Ebenen-Modell parasozialer Interaktionen

Since its original formulation in 1956 by Horton and Wohl, the concept of parasocial interaction has received remarkable attention among communication scholars. However, it still suffers from a range of desiderata and lacks a coherent theoretical foundation that could guide empirical research. In this article, we present a two-level model of parasocial interaction (PSI) that is intended to lead to a better understanding of the processes of PSI. By refering to theories of media and social psychology, two levels are distinguished: «Low-Level-PSI» comprise the less intensive, superficial modes of media person perception whereas «High-Level-PSI» refer to intensive and elaborated forms of interpersonal involvement with a media character. Both levels are discussed in terms of cognitive, emotional and conative processes which characterize person-oriented media reception. Subsequently, media factors as well as individual characteristics are introduced which are likely to facilitate the intensity of PSI processes as reception is going on. The article concludes with a prospect about useful further developments of the two-level model as well as its implications for empirical audience and reception studies.     

Publikumsvorstellungen im Rezeptionsprozess

This article addresses the question of how individual media users, who are part of a mass media audience, perceive their co-audience. We approached this question from an empirical social scientific communication research perspective by introducing a theoretical model of (situational) audience conceptions that might arise in the context of an anonymous, imperceptible mass audience. According to the model, both subjective media theories held by people and cues from the media content influence the users’ impression formation about their anonymous co-audience during media consumption. Audience conceptions would include assumptions on size, simultaneity, social structure and the experience of other consumers. We assume that, as soon as conceptions of the co-audience are formulated, they could influence cognitive and affective aspects of a person’s reception experience. The model states that the more the conception of the audience is salient in a viewer’s mind the stronger its influence on subsequent experiences will be. Possible effects on reception phenomena including social comparison processes and feelings of embarrassment are discussed exemplarily to illustrate fields the model could be fruitfully applied to. Finally, the concept of audience conception is illustrated in a model and brought into context with existing research.     

Explaining perceived media influence in politics

This study focuses on explanatory factors for politicians?? and journalists?? perceptions of two dimensions of media influence on the political process: their influence on the political agenda and on careers of political leaders. Statistical analysis was done using regression analysis and takes three predictors into account: attitudes toward journalists?? affinity to voice political views in their reporting, the actors?? proneness to having frequent informal contacts with members of the other profession, and national contexts. In addition, an analysis was made to determine whether the impact of attitudes toward politically driven journalism on perceptions of political media influence is moderated by national context. The results are based on a survey of senior political correspondents, reporters and editors of the most important national news media outlets and political elites on the national level from Denmark, Germany, Spain and France (total N?=?925). The analyses showed that cross-cultural differences as regards perceptions of political media influence existed, in particular between France and Germany. Attitudes of political elites toward journalists?? professional objectives were a significant predictor for their perceptions of media influence. Moreover, hierarchical regression models demonstrated that the relationship between attitudes toward politically driven journalism and perceptions of media influencing politicians?? careers was moderated by national context.     

Statistenrolle als Migrant zu vergeben

Studies regarding the media portrayal of migrants differentiate between the actor roles of active speakers and passive objects. Furthermore, the single indicators applied in many studies cannot capture the interconnectedness of public debates on migrants. By understanding the debate as a symbolic network of media-imparted interactions, this study analyses the discursively important role of the addressee. United in the concept of the active-passive-balance of public representation, the network-analytic indicators show to what extent the media are representing migrants adequately or whether they over-/underrepresent them in specific roles. The gathered relational data of a claims analysis of press articles from June 1999 and 2009 portray changes of migrants?? actor roles. A high legitimation of migrants as addressees substantiates indications of positive discrimination in the sense of ??goodwill coverage??. Structurally the media-imparted interactions, esp. the level of conflict in the debate, point towards existing partitioning tendencies in the social collectives?? discourse.     

Konsonanz 30 Jahre später

Consonant coverage is assumed to be an important prerequisite for media effects to occur. However, empirical evidence for this assumption is largely missing. Focusing on the issue of European integration, this study investigated, in 13 EU member states, whether consonant coverage affected EU citizens’ opinions on the issue. For each country and at the individual level of analysis, the study linked content analyses of the main evening news and the most prestigious newspaper with survey data. Consonant coverage influenced people’s opinions about European integration, while dissonant coverage made no impact. Both EU supporters and EU opponents were susceptible to the effects of consonant coverage, which tentatively suggests that consonant coverage may surmount selective mechanisms. In sum, the study is the first to provide evidence that consonant coverage may indeed enhance media effects.     

Zur »medialen Entgrenzungsfähigkeit« journalistischer Arbeitsprozesse: Synergien zwischen Print-, TV- und Online-Redaktionen

The present paper deals with the forms of de-differentiation between print media, TV and online media. These forms are are promoted and supported by cross media strategies. The empirical analysis is based upon an inter- and intra-media comparison of the products of the print edition, the TV magazine and the online edition of the journalistic brands 〉Spiegel〈, 〉Stern〈 and 〉Focus〈. Media products are analysed via content analysis; the conditions and circumstances under which media content is produced are examined via face-to-face interviews. The central question is: How does the (economic) process of de-differentiation affect the composition of the media product and the conditions under which journalistic work takes place. The results indicate a complementary structure of different media types, which all fulfil a (more or less) unique journalistic function. Even if forms of de-differentiation between the media types of print, TV and online are more than ever technically possible and economically intended, there are relatively few — but manifest — indicators of processes of adaptation. Nevertheless, these few indicators are significant on the level of the communicators and tend to be less definitive on the (observable) level of the media output.     

Political Myth as Strategic Communication: Analysis of Chinese Dream’s Rhetoric and English News Media’s Interpretation

Within a meaning-centered framework that integrates theories of strategic communication, political myth and the Encoding-Decoding model, this research examines the Chinese government’s rhetoric and English news media’s interpretations surrounding the Chinese Dream campaign. Findings show that English news media made largely oppositional readings, in contrast to the meanings encoded by the Chinese government. The research proposes that this was caused by the inherent tensions in China’s rhetoric, the top-down approach of propaganda, and the anticommunism ideology of the Western media, among others. This research provides an empirical case to illustrate Hallahan et al.’s (2007) proposition that meaning and influence are two fundamental emphases of strategic communication. It also provides an operational framework for analysis of political myth, which consists of four constructs, namely ways meaning is created, meaning created, meaning interpreted, and power relations manifested.     

Medieninhalte aus der Netzwerkperspektive

If (media) debates are treated as more than a treasure trove of isolated topics, actors and positions, a systematic connection of relational content and empirical network analysis is needed. Such a combination reveals the interrelations and the argumentative structure in debates. The article therefore investigates how data can be collected by means of relational content analysis, more specifically claims analysis, and how these data can be analysed by employing instruments of network analysis. Taking the debate on EU enlargement in two German quality newspapers as an example, it is shown how this combination of methods reveals the structure of debates (lines of communication, conflict lines and discourse coalitions) as well as the position of single actors (their framing, prestige and agenda setting).     

TTIP in den Medien

The global trade of goods and services is characterised by several disputes on policy, economic, and social issues. Especially the negotiations about the transatlantic trade and investment partnership (TTIP) between the EU and the US were highly discussed. In such controversies mass media plays a crucial role by shaping public discourses and democratic processes of opinion building. This study focuses on the deliberative media function and analyses the performance of German newspapers in the TTIP debate. Influenced by Habermas’ concept of deliberation, the public sphere is seen as an arena for rational debates and discursive interactions. According to this normative concept mass media should create a generally accessible, inclusive communication space where a diversity of political positions is argued and validated (input dimension of deliberation). Furthermore, public discourse should be based on a rational, responsive, and respectful way of communication (throughput dimension of deliberation). This leads to the empirical questions on how news reporting fulfills these normative demands of the deliberative theory.Although the concept of a deliberative public has been intensively discussed since the beginning of the 1990s, empirical studies on deliberative performance of mass media are relatively rare. Especially the conditions of a viable public deliberation need more investigation. To contribute to a deeper understanding of mediated deliberation, the present study examines different context factors which can be related to different degrees of deliberative media quality: (1) journalism type (quality vs. tabloid journalism), (2) partisan line (conservative vs. left-liberal papers), and (3) scandalisation, personalisation and emotionalisation as special characteristics of news construction. Particularly, the role played by these three patterns of journalistic news construction is unclear. On the one hand, it could be argued that substantial criticism and scandalisation of grievances is a fundamental element of public deliberation. On the other hand, scandalisation may reduce rational and respectful argumentation and create a hysterical public climate. In the same way it seems reasonable to assume that a strong emphasis on persons and their attributes rather than on issues and policy positions restricts the deliberative exchange of ideas. Otherwise, the focus on politicians and their positions could reduce the complexity of the discourse and report political concepts and abstract ideas within a personal story. Finally, emotions are ingredients of an empathic, responsive communication but also may harm the rationality of discourse at the same time. Considering these patterns of news construction, prospects for deliberative exchange are mixed and call for more empirical investigation.To investigate these contexts for a deliberative media performance, a quantitative content analysis of the debate on TTIP in German newspapers was conducted. The media sample included four quality newspapers (Süddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, tageszeitung, Welt) and three tabloid newspapers (Bild, Hamburger Morgenpost, Abendzeitung München) which represent the left-right-wing spectrum of German print media. We analysed 531 articles about TTIP from June 2013 until January 2016. The coding scheme involved the deliberative criteria and the three discussed patterns of news construction. To measure deliberative media performance, two normative demands of the input dimension of public deliberation (inclusiveness of speakers and inclusiveness of opinions) and four demands of the throughput dimension were coded (justification, verifiable justification, responsiveness, and civility).Considering the input dimension of deliberation, it turns out that the discourse across all newspapers can be seen as inclusive. Speakers and opinions from different parts of the political system as well as actors from civil society and economic stakeholders are included in the news reporting on TTIP. However, for individual newspapers it can be shown that apart from this general conclusion partisan lines limit the diversity of the debate. Especially the left-wing newspaper tageszeitung rarely quotes and discusses positions pro TTIP while the most conservative paper of the sample Welt focuses more on pro opinions from industry actors. The moderate papers SZ and FAZ draw a balanced, inclusive portrait of the trade agreement. In sum, although the whole debate on TTIP is largely diverse, single papers give a biased picture of the conflict which limits the deliberative performance of these media outlets. On the throughput dimension of mediated deliberation, the study shows substantial differences between quality and tabloid journalism. The three tabloid newspapers of this sample show significantly lower performance. In particular, a comprehensive rational justification and responsive comparison of different opinions is mostly missing in this journalism type. For the three analysed patterns of news construction we find that personalisation, emotionalisation and scandalisation relate to low deliberative performance. In particular, the civility of communication is missing when media content reports on TTIP in a scandalised and emotionalised way. But also the rational and responsive exchange of ideas is limited in articles which show these characteristics. In sum, the study shows that the concept of public deliberation offers a fruitful benchmark to examine the performance of news coverage and evaluate different contexts of media content.     

Legitimität in der Medienpolitik

This study develops a theoretical perspective on legitimacy in media policy that can be used to study debates taking place in the media. This perspective assumes that contentions about legitimacy are inscribed in media policy debates; in debates about which media content, business models and forms of media usage are legitimate. The aim of this perspective is to stimulate research questions and guide research. It contributes to understand why some regulation is successful and another is not. This article first discusses the state of research in communication studies. According to it, legitimacy can influence decisions in media policy. Legitimacy is a precondition for the effectiveness of regulation and regulatory procedures and for the stability of the media order. The media may operate as self-interested actors and deprive regulatory attempts of legitimacy. Most studies use a normative concept of legitimacy.Based on new institutionalism and the theory of structuration by Anthony Giddens, in the first step, an analytical (not normatively determined) and dynamic concept of legitimacy is developed. Legitimacy is with Suchman understood as a “generalized perception or assumption that the actions of an entity are desirable, proper, or appropriate within some socially constructed system of norms, values, beliefs, and definitions”. Drawing on both strategic and institutional approaches, legitimacy is conceptualized both as strategic reference to and as effect of normative structures. Media policy actors try to strategically employ legitimacy in order to assert or defy collectively binding rules. They cannot do this, however, without referring to expectation structures (normative structures) that at the same time constrain and enable them. Because legitimacy has these two sides, is part of action and structures, it can be defined as institution.New institutionalism differentiates between attributing, depriving of, repairing and maintaining legitimacy. The structuration theory is used to define these processes as a recursive interaction of actors and structures that takes place in public debates (structuration of legitimacy). The structuration theory provides a framework that integrates the strategic aspect of legitimacy related action and the institutional aspect of legitimacy. Furthermore, it includes the distribution of resources, political capabilities and authority in media policy and allows studying the influence of these factors on gaining, depriving of and repairing legitimacy. The following sections elaborate this framework and for this purpose, use the terms legitimacy episodes, structuration of legitimacy, grammar of legitimation, media communication.Due to legitimacy episodes, legitimacy becomes an issue in media policy. Arguing with Giddens, episodes are processes of social change that reorganize institutions. They occur with transgressions. Transgressions related to the media system can be expected when new media proliferate because new forms of media production, distribution and media usage develop, new actors enter media markets and public communication changes. Old issues of media regulations are raised from new perspectives, new regulatory problems emerge. Emerging debates and conflicts also concern legitimacy: the threats of certain new services, the acceptability of new business practices or the lawfulness of certain user behaviour.The structuration of legitimacy encompasses attributing, depriving of, repairing of and maintaining legitimacy and can be studied through the “grammar of legitimation”, resource distribution and the rules of the media. The abovementioned processes related to legitimacy take place in recursive interactions of actors and structures: within communication, sanction and power. These forms of interaction are closely related to each other. Language is a regulative force and reflects structures of domination. Three propositions can be derived from Giddens regarding the structuration of legitimacy: First, media policy conflicts can be understood through debates. Second, these debates are not only about exchanging arguments but about validity and influence. Third, public debates influence collectively binding decision-making processes because they construct legitimate definitions of an actor, a procedure, of existing rules or of other problems and discursively restrict available options. The structuration of legitimacy can be analysed by studying the grammar of legitimation, the resource distribution among actors and media related rules. The grammar of legitimation, resource distribution and media related rules are both enabling and constraining actors. The grammar of legitimation demands actors to include an interpretation of the legitimation object, a norm, an evaluation and arguments in their statements. It furthermore, demands actors to consider the structure of expectation and signification: prevailing norms, values, and patterns of interpretation. Resource distribution, more specifically the extent to which actors can invest allocative and authoritative resources structures debates about legitimacy. Legitimacy claims can be raised most effectively via mass media. The mass media are self-interested actors in media policy debates. They provide therefore not only a forum for but are actors in legitimacy debates. The rules of the media that affect legitimacy debates and their outcome are threefold: selection, interpretation and depiction of a media policy debate, the media’s own interests, and to what extent leading media cover a media policy issue. The present perspective allows identifying episodes of legitimacy, studying the structure of legitimacy statements, investigating the reasons of successful legitimacy strategies and media organizations’ self-interests.     

Empathie und Medienempathie

Empathy is the capacity and tendency of a person to recognize, understand, and be sensitive to other people’s emotions. The roots of this construct go back to the psychology of emotions and personality psychology. Communication science frequently makes use of it to describe the experiences and emotions during media reception. However, the question can be asked whether empathy and media empathy are two different constructs requiring different measuring instruments. To begin with, this question will be discussed theoretically with important arguments being presented both in favor of and against the thesis of congruent constructs. Subsequently, a measuring instrument for media empathy will be introduced which is constructed following precisely the tried-and-tested operationalization of empathy. It was employed in two studies, and their findings will be compared with one another. The results display both similarities and marked differences, especially with regard to reception variables. Since communication science uses media empathy to explain the effects of reception, different references to reception variables represent a particularly apt argument for the broad independence of the construct and thus for a separate measuring instrument. The present measuring instrument, developed in the context of a pilot study, will be suggested as a provisionally valid operationalization.     

Journalistische Qualität – eine empirische Untersuchung des Konstrukts mithilfe der Concept Map Methode

Journalistic quality is one of the most important and at the same time most complex constructs in communication science. In particular, the dependencies between the diverse number of quality criteria has barely been investigated empirically. Based on the normative definition of journalistic quality according to democracy theory and employing the concept map method, this article attempts to determine the composition of the journalistic quality construct and contribute to a clearer understanding and a more reliable operationalization of the construct. The empirical data was collected from leading editors and journalistic quality scholars who displayed their understanding of the construct in the form of concept maps. Following the procedure suggested by Roedder John et al. (2006), the individual concept maps were then converted into one consensus map—a single map that represents all concept maps. The results show high levels of reliability and face validity. Central quality criteria are found to be credibility, relevancy, and professionalism. Further criteria that significantly determine the main criteria are impartiality, correctness/accuracy, objectivity, neutrality, and immediacy.