Demokratische Internet-Öffentlichkeit? Ein Vergleich der öffentlichen Kommunikation im Internet und in den Printmedien am Beispiel der Humangenomforschung

The importance of the internet has increased significantly in recent years. The easy access of this »new« medium sparked many hopes for a democratization of the public sphere and of public debate: Many authors argued that the internet will make actors and interpretations of topics visible to those parts of the broader public who are usually marginalized in »old« mass media. In an empirical analysis, we compared print media coverage and internet communication to assess these claims. For the case of human genome research — i.e. a bioscientific topic that reseived extensive media attention in Germany —, we analyzed which actors were given public standing and which frames came to the fore. In contrast to the claims mentioned above, our findings indicate that the debate in the internet does not differ to a significant extent from the offline debate in print media. We could not find a more egalitarian, democratic communication in the internet.     

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.     

Das »Office for Strategic Influence« als Informationsmanager in der US-Kampagne in Afghanistan

The terror attacks on September 11, 2001, formed the starting point for the United States’ «war against terror,» which began on October 7, 2001, with the first bombardment of Afghanistan. The broad support around the world faded quickly after a few weeks without any significant success in the battle against Al Quaeda. To counter rising annoyance, the US Government created the «Office for Strategic Influence» (OSI) in November 2001. The declared purpose: to produce sympathy and support for the war. Though source material is scarce, it is possible to trace the activities of the OSI. In Afghanistan, the office coordinated «Information Operations» already under way. The OSI also tried to influence domestic and international public opinion by participating in the foundation of the «Coalition Information Center» and by consulting public affairs expert Charlotte Beers and the advertising agency «Rendom Group». After an intensive denunciation by several newspapers, especially the 〉New York Times〈, the OSI was abandoned in February 2002. The discussion about the office defined more concretely the formerly vague border between publicly7 accepted and necessary agitation on the one hand and reprehensible propaganda on the other.     

Interaktivität, Interaktion, Internet

In recent years, numerous suggestions have been made to clarify the concept of interactivity in communication science. Most often, an inclusion strategy is used, in which diverse definitions are summarized into a multi-dimensional notion of interactivity. Aside from this, there is also an exclusion strategy: On the one hand, certain technical media (computer-mediated communication, »interactive television«) or communicative situations (face-to-face communication) are marked as »interactive«. In doing this, no differentiation is made between potential and process, and betwen »interactivity« and »interaction«. On the other hand, the notion of interaction as it is rooted in sociology offers itself for a theoretically grounded definition. Seven ways of using the term in relationsship to the notion of communication can be found. It is suggested to conceptualize interaction as a type of communication in the sense of Rafaeli: Interactive communication is reciprocal and relates to earlier messages. The concept of interactive communication chosen here can be linked with systems theory and the deliberative theory of the public sphere.     

»Einfach typisch für einen ahnungslosen Besser-Wessi ...«: Rezipientenbriefe als Reaktion auf einen massenmedialen Reiz

In February 1999 a hypothesis voiced by criminologist and social scientist Christian Pfeiffer triggered a long and intense discussion in the media and the public at large. Pfeiffer had posited that the GDR-specific child care and early education system may have caused the high rate of xenophobic violence in East Germany today. This article does not address the validity of this claim or the arguments and studies Pfeiffer put forward in support. It is rather concerned with recipients’ letters as a public reaction to a hypothesis spread via the mass media by the science system. A sample of n=283 letters — addressed to newspapers, but also to television and radio stations and to Pfeiffer directly — was content analyzed. What do these letters say? Who feels stimulated to intervene? Are there changes over time? Do letters dominate that take a clear stance and are self-assured? Are there chances for the »organization of objectivity« (Friedhelm Neidhardt 1990)? Questions such as these are attempted to be answered, and discussed in the context of a systems theory perspective.     

Im Osten was Neues? Ein Beitrag zur Standortbestimmung der Kommunikations- und Medienwissenschaft

The aim of this article is to systematically describe and evaluate the foundation and extension of new study programs in communication and media science, and to develop further perspectives for the field. By means of a survey, the boom of programs in communication and media science at German universities is described. The various causes for this boom are not only found in the development of the media branch but also in the new (and perhaps questionable) responsibilities of university education that are subsumed under the concept of »media competence«. The article discusses the actual situation of the field against the background of the already existing debate about its self-conception. It names dimensions of the problem and develops consequences for the necessary structuring of the expanding university discipline of »communication and media science«. For the structuring, an intensified theoretical reflection about the subjects of the field, its methods, and the disassociation from neighbouring fields (still) seem to be important.     

Grundlegungsfragen der Medienethik: Für die Rückgewinnung der Ethik durch die Kommunikationswissenschaft

Communication sciences, like all modern »empirical« sciences still seem committed to Max Webers postulation of »Wertfreiheit« — abstention from evaluative viewpoints — as the principle of all research. Philosophically regarded, their mode of reasoning is that of theoretical rationality, which reconstructs what is and how something functions. Thus they cannot lead substantiated moral discourses and are unable to build the foundations for media ethics. Even though some communication scientists try to do so, using the paradigms of radical constructivism and systems theory, their concepts of media ethics remain pragmatic (Jürgen Habermas) rather than become moral: functional normativity prevails over moral normativity. If this state of affairs is to be overcome, communication theory has to incorporate philosophical ethics: While the specific field of media communication can only be constituted as a scientific object by means of communication sciences and their rationality, the moral point of view and the ethical foundations must take to philosophical means and reasoning. Nowadays such a task can be fulfilled by reconstructing the principle of universalisation as the moral viewpoint and a concept of postsubstantial subjectivity. Using anthropological considerations, it is then possible to offer basic principles and maxims for media ethics as a human rights concept.     

Das Paradox der Medienwirkung auf Nichtnutzer

The article presents data from a secondary analysis of the project »Wählerwanderungen und Politikverdrossenheit« from 1994. The data allow to conduct time series analysis on a day-to-day basis. The focus is agenda setting in combination with a thesis formulated by Marcus Maurer — published in Publizistik 2004 — on the paradox of media effects on non-users. In contrast to Maurer, the paper is not concerned with the methodological but the theoretical paradox: Can there be such a thing as media effects on media non-users? The hypothetical effect is analyzed in comparison of daily and less than daily TV news users. The analyzed models confirm the agenda-setting effect: The media agenda affects the public agenda at later points in time, but the public agenda does not have effects on the later media agenda. In addition, there are indirect effects on people who seldom use TV news. As they do not watch every day, there is no direct immediate effect of the media input on them. But there is a significant effect some days later, which we interprete as a consequence of conversation. The effect of the media on the daily users is passed on to less frequent users by interpersonal communication.     

Von »Kommunikation für Entwicklung« zur »cultura mediática«

In Latin America, theoretical and empirical approaches in media research concerning the interrelation of changes in the media, community, and society have a long tradition. They include the analysis of changes in interpersonal communication and cultural communities as well as research on the relation between communication, development and »nation building«. It is a tradition that can be successfully applied to the analysis of the impact of the implementation of New Information and Communication Technologies, and to changes in communication, the constitution of meaning, and identity. This article describes the development of the theoretical debate and studies concerning the interrelation of changes in the media, community, and society in Latin America, and stresses the impulses for European communication research.     

Konvergenz von Nachrichtensendungen aus Zuschauerperspektive

Since the deregulation of the German broadcasting system, the possible convergence of public and commercial stations has been a research subject of significant interest in the field of communication science. But so far research on convergence has focused mainly on the program, whereas there are only a few consumer-centered approaches. This study takes up this deficit. The central question is: Has the program of public and commercial channels, with respect to content and design, become more similar over the years from the viewers’ point of view? Out of pragmatic considerations, this study concentrates on the news genre, represented by one public (»Tagesschau«) and one commercial television news magazine (»RTL aktuell«). Altogether 110 respondents evaluated 24 news stories each, originally broadcast on the two channels in 1986, 1990, 1995 and 2000. Respondents had to judge various quality aspects of content and design. The results clearly show that viewers are able to recognize differences between public and commercial news. As the quality of content of »RTL aktuell« has increased over the years, a slightly convergent development can be traced here. Regarding the quality of design, viewers consider »RTL aktuell« to have become better over the time considered whereas »Tagesschau« has remained on a constant level, resulting in a divergent development in this case.     

Politische »Kultur«

The presentation of cultural topics in the feature pages of German newspapers did change much during the past two decades. Above all, the »policialization« of cultural news coverage leaps to the eye. Nevertheless, there can be no talk of basically new cultural pages. This is demonstrated by a longitudinal analysis of four daily newspapers within the period of 1983 to 2003. The journalistic offer in the feature pages of all four newspapers has not been reduced but instead it has been strongly extended. The amount of articles as well as their size has increased considerably. »Politics« has become the most important topic. In 2003, its share of all topics is 15 percent, but it does by no means supersede the classical topics like theatre, music, the fine arts and literature. With a share of about 50 percent, those topics still are the core of cultural news coverage. Obviously, journalists are more open to popular and entertaining forms where musical topics are concerned compare to, e. g., the theatre. The most frequent genre in the feature pages in 2003 is undisputably still the review. An »end of the critique« in favor of strongly personalizing, entertainment and service-accentuated forms of presentation cannot be proven.     

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.     

Martin Luthers »Passional Christi und Antichristi«

The article argues epistemologically, and with a concrete example, in favor of a plurality in methods and subjects in empirical communication research which does not cultivate pseudo-differences within the humanities and assigns to a historical and systematic approach the position that it was always entitled to during the long history of communication as an academic discipline. The subject of the empirical study in the main part is the critical evaluation and interpretation of the source, the reformation pamphlet »Passional Christi und Antichristi« of 1521. The pamphlet informs about the most notorious fake of the middle ages, and constitutes the final stage of a multi-step diffusion process. As a propagandistic masterpiece, it reduces a complex issue of constitutional law to a comprehensible symbolism and transforms the contemporary »theory of media effects«, i.e. rhetoric, into a precise stylistic correspondence of text and illustration.     

Die »Jungtürken« der Kommunikationswissenschaft

This article presumes that the identity of an academic discipline is defined by the people pursuing it, and thus at least indirectly by the societal and individual experiences these people were shaped by. Biographical interviews present a portrait of a generation of professors who greatly influenced the field of communication science in the German-speaking countries during the last four decades. This generation of the so-called »Young Turks« was born between 1929 and 1940, experienced the chaos of the 2^nd World War as children or adolescents and studied German Publizistik-or Zeitungswissenschaft in the 1950s or 60s to become professional journalists. These professors experienced the low reputation of their field both in the media world and in the university. This explains the importance of this generation’s wish for legitimacy of their field, and is a key to understanding the opening of the discipline to media practice (key-word: journalism programs) and its turn into an empirical social science discipline. It was predominantly the empirical (communication) research that promised a gain in reputation. The »Young Turks« found the appropriate empirical research in the field’s literature published in the United States, as well as in neighbouring social science disciplines, in economics and partly in the new founders of the discipline.     

Ein Objekt, das sich verweigert: Der Journalismus in der Soziologie Pierre Bourdieus

Gilles Bastin develops a critique of the concept of the »field of journalism» (»champ journalistique«) in the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu. At first, the genesis of the object under scrutiny, journalism, within Bourdieu’s sociology is introduced. Thus the continuity is made clear with which Bourdieu — from the sixties onwards — conceives of journalists as increasingly powerful agents (»opérateurs«) of »social magic« (»magie sociale«) and of processes primarily in the field of intellectuals. Bastin then analyzes the various suggestions made by different authors for describing the »field of journalism«, and he looks at the variance in using this notion, which makes the concept of the field as such very heterogeneous. In light of other conceptions borrowed from the sociology of professions, such as Everett C. Hughes’, he suggests three critical perspectives: First, Bourdieu’s concept of the field makes work »vanish«; it neglects the conditions of working and the substantial activities of journalists. Second, it leads to a disparate view of journalists’ activities as a subject for research. And thirdly, it decidedly individualizes journalists’ activities.     

Die Anforderungen an die interne Unternehmenskommunikation in neuen Organisationskonzepten

This article mainly concentrates on two questions: 1. What functions does an internal corporate communication perform in a learning organization, and in relation to knowledge management? 2. Under which conditions or circumstances can internal corporate communication fulfill these functions? In the concepts of organizational learning and knowledge management, internal communication gains an important productive function in generating, processing and saving knowledge. Instruments and tools such as face-to-face communication, internal magazines, information boards and the use of an intranet are discussed. As far as the generation, production and saving of knowledge are concerned, the instrument of face-to-face communication and the intranet are gaining special importance. In order to cope with these functional challenges, the internal corporate communication has to institutionalize selective incentives and motivating factors. For generating and saving knowledge, the actors’ reception of these media of communication seems of great importance also: Only a unified «community of practice» is able to transform information into knowledge.     

Nachrichten und ihre kommunikative Qualität

German literature on the history of journalism in agreement relates as a certainty that the inverted pyramid in news writing was established as a professional standard during the American Civil War (1861–1865), along with, and because of, the use of the electric telegraph for transmitting news and its propensity, in its early days, to fail at times. Besides this technological thesis, three others are discussed: one related to political science, the other to cultural studies, and the third to economics. All four theses trace the diffusion of the «hard» news style, founded on the principle of relevance, back to factors that affected journalism from the outside. In contrast to this, a longitudinal study of innovative 19^th century New York daily newspapers shows that the principle of «lead and body» did not prevail before the eighties of the century, and its establishment occurred in an effort to make newspapers more readable and more attractive for readers by editing the copy received. The introduction of «inside editing» was not in the least based on economic calculations of cost and benefit. This provides a starting point for explaining the spread of the public sphere and the development of professional journalism by the dynamic of the capitalist market economy, rather than considering journalistic ethos and commercial calculation as opposites. In any case, the origin of the professional news style of the inverted pyramid is to be found in the striving for communicative quality in the journalists’ product. That it can be traced back to the telegraph’s propensity to malfunction is a myth, eagerly retailed but not at all substantiated.     

Die Moderation politischer Gesprächsrunden im Fernsehen

A great number of discussion programmes (talkshows) has been established on television. They constitute a popular medium for processes of political communication. Media critics have complained that the programmes lack substance and deform public discourse. The programmes’ quality partly depends on the performances of their hosts. Critics reproach them for an insufficient level of journalistic activity, for being too soft on their guests, and for being unable to ask adequate questions that would stimulate a rational discussion. While such criticism is widespread, there are but a few empirical studies that provide systematic quantitative data on these programmes. Most of the research in the field dealt with interviews and discussions directly before or after elections. This article, however, focuses on talkshow hosts’ performances in regular TV discussions by content analyzing ten editions each of »Sabine Christiansen«, »Berlin Mitte«, »Presseclub« and »19:zehn«. The study shows notable differences in journalistic activities between different hosts, but also between different editions of the same show. Although some critical evaluations of discussion programmes are supported, the analysis hints at the need to consider significant variations in the performance of political talkshow hosts.     

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.     

Die Leistungen des Lokaljournalismus

Local news are still of rather high relevance for the audience, but in the last years few studies on local journalism in its two most important forms—print and online—were carried out in Germany. Considering that many empirical studies on local journalism were published in the 1960?s and 1970?s this is quite astonishing. At that time many deficits in quality were found: Local newspapers did not provide enough background information, they published articles with low news value and studies revealed a strong influence of public relations. Further studies pointed out that local journalism was rather uncritical, especially in reporting on local elites. In addition, the reporting was characterized by a limited diversity—regarding topics, viewpoints and journalism formats. Above all, recent studies on online journalism suggest that the percentage of exclusive content on newspaper websites is low.This study tries to fill in the gap in research on local journalism. In a first step, quality criteria for local journalism are derived from three theoretical perspectives. In (1) a functional and system-oriented perspective, journalism as a societal sub-system has a vital function for society. It was developed in the historic process by journalism itself. Journalism compensates consequences of functional differentiation in society. Journalism gathers and selects current, socially relevant and factual topics in various parts of society, edits them and returns them to society as media content. In doing so, it provides a self-observation of society with a broad social resonance. In this perspective, important criteria are, e.?g., diversity and relevance; journalism should also be entertaining and easy to understand.In (2) a normative-political perspective, criteria like, e.?g., impartiality and the respect for personal rights are located which are specified, e.?g., in media laws, codes of conduct and court decisions. Journalism is expected to support the democratic process and to offer information that enable citizens to make rational decisions. It should actively generate a common public sphere where relevant issues are freely debated by political actors and society.In (3) a spatial perspective, the local environment is regarded as the place to identify with (emotionally), as the place of everyday life (functionally), as the place of interaction and communication (socially), and as the place of participation (politically). So, local journalism should, e.?g., support political participation and connect the local and national level (quality criteria participation and glocality) and offer service news (quality criterion applicability).103 local newspaper editions and their corresponding websites were chosen by a complex two-step random sampling for the following empirical analysis. The editions were weighted by newspaper circulation and collected for one week (June 15th to 20th, 2015). 18 student assistants analyzed the newspapers and websites in a content analysis, e.?g., in terms of topics, sources, controversial debates, graphic design and service information. Data were aggregated on a weekly level for every newspaper and standardized with a theoretical or—if not possible—with an empirical maximum. The quality dimensions are mean values of the measured indicators.Data of the print analysis show that some deficits of local journalism seem to remain: Newspapers seldom provide a critical stance and neglect background information; the texts are characterized by a low news value, and they are written and designed rather boringly. In addition, local journalism offers a limited diversity of journalism formats and a small proportion of participative elements—even on the local websites. They usually offer standard options like contact addresses of the desk, comment functions or a connection with a local Facebook profile. Many of the analyzed online articles were also published in the print edition the same or the next day—however, almost 20% were original online content.Despite the number of deficits, improvements in local journalism were found: Newspapers provide a wide variety of topics, they are rather credible, and they achieve good results in independence and neutrality.Comparisons between types of newspapers (published in a major city, in a town or in rural areas or classified as tabloids) illustrate that local journalism in major cities obtains rather good values, e.?g., in terms of diversity of topics, independence, or online orientation. In rural areas newspapers often reach lower values; however, they are in the best position in terms of service orientation. In tabloids local journalism is characterized, e.?g., by a lack of participation and background information; tabloids reach—compared to other newspapers—a lower level in neutrality; however, they are much better than the others in entertainment and graphic design.All in all, the study shows that local journalism became better in some dimensions. However, major problems still prevail, e.?g., the tendency to show a harmonious world in a rather uncritical way or low news value. The article discusses methodological implications (e.?g., the question if some maximum points should be modified) and proposes aspects for future research.