Die Emotionskluft: Wie sich die Printmediennutzung und Gratifikationserwartungen in Einstellungsstrukturen niederschlagenThe emotion gap: How print media usage and expected gratifications influence attitude structures

Regarding formal, linguistic and content-related characteristics, tabloid newspapers have a relatively high potential to emotionally arouse readers, whereas broadsheets present news in a more factual style. In the present study it is argued that the usage of the different types of newspapers affects attitude structures. Specifically, it is assumed that the frequency of usage and expected gratifications during usage have an effect on the affective-cognitive attitude basis. Results of a survey (N = 505) support the hypotheses on the emotion gap: Heavy users of broadsheets base their attitudes on cognitions, regardless of their expected gratifications. For heavy users of tabloid newspapers, expected gratifications moderate the effect of usage on attitude bases: Information-oriented tabloid recipients hold cognition-based attitudes; entertainment-oriented tabloid recipients hold affect-based attitudes.     

Transnationalisierte Öffentlichkeit und Klimapolitik

For decades, the analysis of public spheres has been a core field in communication science and neighboring disciplines. Its special importance is grounded in the assumption that the public sphere is the primary realm of societal self-understanding, a sphere in which collectively relevant issues, potential solutions and the activity of political and other stakeholders is discussed and put up for scrutiny and legitimization. In much of this research, the media have played a key role, as they were seen as the generally accessible, permanent and comprehensive “master forum” of the public sphere.In recent years, however, scholarship on the public sphere has undergone a “major theoretical shift”, namely, a widening of the analytical perspective from national to transnational concepts of public spheres. Against the backdrop of a general transnationalization of the social sphere, communication scholars have increasingly paid attention to transnational forms of public sphere(s). Many of them, however, have focused on the (potential) emergence of a European public sphere in light of the expansion of the European Union, and only recently has research started to address transnational public spheres beyond Europe.This study ties in with this field of research. An empirical analysis of (potential) transnational public spheres was conducted by focusing on a subject which has been interpreted as a focal point for the emergence of a transnational or even global public sphere: international climate change policy. Due to its high priority and wide reach, international climate policy is said to constitute conditions conducive for a potential transnationalization of public spheres.We understand transnationalization as a pervasion of national public spheres with transnational references that can be distinguished along two analytical dimensions: “Vertical” transnationalization describes the extent to which organizations and actors representing a form of supranational governance are represented and/or (de)legitimized in national public spheres. The “horizontal” transnationalization describes the extent to which organizations or actors from foreign countries are represented within national public spheres.In addition, we differentiate a “strong” and “weak” variant of vertical resp. horizontal transnationalization. For example, a “weak vertical transnationalization” characterizes a case where supranational governance institutions are merely mentioned within a national public sphere; whereas a “strong vertical transnationalization” characterizes a situation where actors from supranational governance institutions have the opportunity to actively express themselves.Our main research questions are 1) to what extent is the media coverage about climate policy in the examined countries pervaded by transnational references? 2) Which patterns of transnationalization can be identified in the media coverage about climate policy in the examined countries?We conducted a manual as well as an automated quantitative content analysis of newspaper coverage about climate change policy in 15 countries. We analyzed 4955 news articles from quality, tabloid and local newspapers for the whole year of 2014. The articles were downloaded from databases like LexisNexis and Factiva, using a complex search string in four languages. The automated content analysis—used to identify the weak variant of transnationalization—followed the “dictionary approach”, with dictionaries based on elaborated word lists (in German and English) that were translated into Portuguese and Spanish and further adapted for this study. The results of the automated content analysis were tested against a manual analysis of 50 randomly selected articles, with very good reliability for each language-specific dictionary (Krippendorff’s Alpha above 0.909). Regarding the manual content analysis—used to identify the strong variant of transnationalization—11 coders were trained and achieved a satisfying to good reliability (Krippendorff’s Alpha above 0.72).Firstly, our analysis shows a visible transnationalization of public debates about climate change policy. In all countries, foreign and supranational actors dominate the domestic news coverage (weak pattern). Conversely, regarding the strong pattern of transnationalization national actors who actively express themselves are dominant.Secondly, our findings show that the transnationalization of the public sphere differs depending on the dimension examined. On the one hand, the horizontal transnationalization appears more often than the vertical one: References to actors from other countries in climate policy-related debates appear more often than references to supranational institutions. On the other hand, transnational references tend to appear rather in a weak than a strong pattern: Foreign or supranational actors are mentioned more often than they express themselves actively. Furthermore, transnational references seem to concentrate on a few actors like the UN, the EU, China and the USA.Thirdly, we found country and media type-related differences regarding the extent, structural patterns and reach of transnationalization. Media type differences seem to correspond with the findings research about European public sphere yielded: News coverage of quality papers is more transnationalized than regional and especially tabloid papers.     

Akteursbeziehungen in der Zeitungsberichterstattung über die Online-Aktivitäten des öffentlich-rechtlichen RundfunksActor relations in the newspaper coverage about the online activities of public service broadcasting in Germany

Focusing on the media policy debate about the Internet activities of public service broadcasting in Germany this paper investigates in how far strategic interests of newspaper publishers impact upon the news coverage of their newspapers. Using a combined content and network analytic approach the study examines what further actors from the media policy field were presented in the media debate and how they are related to each other. Empirically, the study relies on a content analysis examining the news coverage about the Internet activities of public service broadcasting in three national daily newspapers (die tageszeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Die Welt). 156 articles were coded using the principles of relational content analysis that allow studying actors‘ interactions as symbolized networks. Results found indication of the assumed influence of publisher’s interest on their news coverage. Additionally it was found that the newspaper’s editorial line seems to have a moderating effect on this process. Results from the network analysis point to a very polarized debate that is dominated by private media corporations and their associations.     

Die Wirkung „guter“ Argumente

Starting from a discursive perspective on public communication, we ask whether the deliberative quality of journalistic articles on policy topics influences the amount of user participation on news websites. The theory of deliberative democracy often serves as a source of normatively desirable discursive requirements. Here, however, we present empirically verifiable assumptions that we combine with explanations about media content from the spiral of silence theory and explanations of user behavior from the civic voluntarism model and the construct of self-efficacy. The spiral of silence theory assumes that people do not express their opinions in public when they feel their opinions belong to the minority, because they fear to be socially isolated. The media play a crucial role in this process, as their depiction of public discourses influences the perception of public opinion. Furthermore, the theory assumes that mass media form a media tenor, presenting similar representations of opinion distributions. In online contexts, we argue, we can no longer expect to observe a single media tenor, but we must define more individually perceived, selection-based media tenors. Thus, users are only to be expected to fear isolation in cases where a majority opinion is presented in online contents they selected which stand against their opinions. Based on the civic voluntarism model and previous literature, we understand writing comments as a form of participation that is most likely to be carried out by persons who are interested in politics, have a high level of self-efficacy and feel stimulated to participate by the immediate environment, i.?e., the journalistic article and the comment section.We therefore assume that the more representatives of the opposition, civil society and ordinary citizens are presented in the media, the more users will participate in the comment section (H1). Furthermore, we also expect articles containing conflicting and counterarguing utterances to lead to more participants than articles without this kind of utterances (H2). Regarding the rationality of the discourse, we suppose that the presence of justifications of arguments also increases users’ participation (H3). Articles often report on current debates that aim to lead to a decision. Considering self-efficacy assumptions and the relatability of a debate for the users, we assume that participation rates will be higher when decisions are discussed that lie in the future (H4a), whereas decisions that have already been taken are expected to reduce participation rates (H4b). Furthermore, we also expect articles with a reference to German domestic politics to attract higher participation rates (H5).In order to test our hypotheses, we conducted a content analysis of 400 online newspaper articles. We selected two national (WELT Online and ZEIT Online) and two regional (Rheinische Post Online and Tagesspiegel Online) online newspaper outlets, one of each belonging to the left-wing liberal and one to the conservative journalism spectrum. From the politics news feeds of the four online newspaper outlets between January 1, and March 31, 2016, we selected a systematic random sample of articles with enabled comment sections. The deliberative criteria were measured either on the level of a value-based utterance made by a representative of the government, the opposition, civil society or an ordinary citizen or on the level of the news article. Utterance-based criteria were then aggregated to the news article level. Furthermore, we measured the number of users that participated in the discussion in the comment section. We then estimated a zero-inflated negative binomial regression model in order to predict the number of participating users.Results show that the majority of deliberative criteria serve to increase the amount of user participation. The more opposition politicians are cited in a news article, the more users participate in the comment section which hints to the conclusion that discursive equality triggers participation. Regarding the reciprocity of discourses, conflicting and counterarguing utterances also increase the number of users who participate in a discussion. Another explanation of a higher number of commentators is the presence of justified arguments, i.?e., when the discourse can be classified as rational. While future decisions did not show any effect on user participation, past decisions in fact reduced the amount of participation. Furthermore, if the topic was related to domestic German politics, participation rates also increased, which represents relatability for people’s lives.All in all, we conclude that discourse-related criteria should be integrated more often into the analysis of the conditions of user participation, as they can add to explaining when people feel motivated to write comments. They are connected to considerations about opinion climates both as depicted by the journalistic article and as present in the comment section itself as discussed in the spiral of silence theory. The more opinions journalists present in an article and the better the underlying discourse, the more we can expect users to participate in the discussion. We have also seen that articles on decisions that have already been taken are not as frequently commented on, and that a relation to domestic topics leads to a more active participation. Taken together, we argue that user comments can be a meaningful addition to deliberation research, because they can serve as a measure of the effects of deliberative content, e.?g., in the news.This study focused on the contents of the journalistic articles, while the contents of user comments were not integrated into the analysis. In future studies, this gap should be closed with content analyses of user comments. Furthermore, the assumptions we made about users’ motivations and behavior also need to be confirmed in experimental designs and surveys.     

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.     

Der Begriff Lügenpresse in deutschen Tageszeitungen

In Germany, we currently see on-going changes in politics and society. More and more people seem to lose faith not only in politics, but also in the mainstream media. Since autumn 2014, the distrust in and suspicion of the news media has reached a new level: the group “Pegida” (Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West) coined the term Lügenpresse (lying press) to illustrate their growing distrust in news media. The term lying press emerged for the first time in 1914 and was regularly used for war propaganda to defame foreign media. In general, the term is not only used by followers of a certain political direction, but in the context of different, especially antidemocratic, political movements (e.?g., during the National Socialist era or during the GDR era in Germany). Since the beginning of the 2000s, however, the concept has been increasingly referred to by right-wing groups (see Heine 2015; Klarmann 2013). Nevertheless, this is not only an issue in Germany, since Pegida has support in other European countries, such as Great Britain and the Netherlands.News media become part of their own coverage as soon as they refer to these developments. Self-discussion or self-coverage can be described as journalistic communication about journalism and means that the media themselves become the object of reporting. Hence, when media use the term lying press, they inevitably refer to themselves. The present study deals with how the media refer to the term lying press and how they reflect upon it. The main question we deal with in our study is how detailed the concept is reflected on and how the media deal with the associated reproach of deliberate misinformation.Drawing on the concept of framing, a content analysis is employed in order to analyze how newspapers report on the term, how they relate it to themselves and how they deal with its implications. The framing approach deals with the emergence, dissemination and alteration of interpretive frames, which are placed on an issue and determine the point of view on this topic. According to Matthes (2014), frames can be understood as a tool to highlight certain information or aspects of a topic while neglecting others. The framing approach deals with the genesis, alteration and effects of frames, which are located at various points in the communication process. In this study, we focus on media frames in the daily newspaper coverage. We rely upon the definition according to Entman (1993) which has been most frequently operationalized so far.We postulate several research questions that deal with the concept of self-coverage and framing. We are, for example, interested in verifying the sections of newspapers in which the term is referred to and if there are differences in how strongly the term is reflected upon. Furthermore, our research interest focuses on how the term is framed, which frames are dominant in the news media and if the frames change over time. We investigated the coverage of the five most widely circulated daily newspapers (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Bild, die Welt, and die tageszeitung) in Germany from October 2014 to October 2015. We discovered 304 articles with 338 statements referring to the term lying press. With a cluster analysis, we extracted four frames.Overall, the term lying press is more strongly reflected on in media sections than in political reporting. In political sections the term is often only mentioned without further contextualization. The four extracted clusters, which can be interpreted as media frames, are termed as follows: demanding author frame, reserved expert frame, external accusation frame, and unreflected author frame.In political sections of newspapers, the two rather undifferentiated frames (external accusation frame with 35% and unreflected author frame with 36%) are dominant. The reserved expert frame (35%) and the unreflected author frame (43%) are the two dominant frames in media sections. Nevertheless, the two most common frames (external accusation frame and unreflected author frame) do not use the term lying press in a critical and reflective way (combined percentage of 60%). The selection of the term as “non-word” of the year did not significantly change the frequency with which the four frames are used within the media.Our results show that the term lying press is used in different ways – but in most cases, there is only little or no elaboration. Frequently, the term is only mentioned without a deeper discussion and classification of the term and its meaning. It sometimes even seems that newspapers use the term ironically as a synonym for themselves instead of the terms media or press. However, the associated trivialization of a term carrying such negative connotations is problematic and could help to establish lying press as an unreflected designation for the media. The media might miss the opportunity to both react decisively to the accusations and to illustrate how important they are in a democratic society. The term must be placed in its historical context and should not be permitted as a flat-rate defamation. Whether the underlying criticism is justified or not, the media should discuss the term and, if possible, invalidate it. In this context, the media must perform their function of practicing criticism – also against themselves. Limitations and future research are discussed at the end of the paper.     

Politikvermittlung durch Boulevardjournalismus

Research on tabloid journalism suffers from two shortcomings: On the one hand, scholars regard tabloid journalism mostly as an entertaining but apolitical form of journalism with little societal relevance. On the other hand, empirical research measures a variety of supposedly tabloid features but fails to ground these aspects in a theoretical concept of tabloid journalism. The paper addresses these shortcomings by theorizing tabloid media as mediated arenas for a distinct public sphere, which may very well contribute to the political functions of mass media for democracy. On this theoretical basis, the paper identifies indicators that researchers should consider when measuring the political dimension of tabloid journalism.     

Politische Skandalberichterstattung: ein Forschungsüberblick und Systematisierungsversuch

Political scandals are a frequent feature of political communication around the world nowadays. Scandals serve important societal functions, e.?g., public discussion and reformation of norms in a society; holding political actors accountable for certain (political) behaviors. Scholars have argued that the news media are increasingly reporting about norm violations of political candidates. Surprisingly, no review of international research dealing with the dissemination and media coverage of political scandals is available. Thus, in the current paper the state-of-the-art in research on political scandals is systematically reviewed. Based on an extensive literature research a total of 20 relevant studies (published in German and English language) could be found. These studies were selected and examined in depth. The results revealed that – within the last two decades – there is an increasing number of political scandals around the world (data from 31 countries were examined). Besides increases in news reports about political scandals in Germany and the United States these studies show, for example, that there is a steep increase of political scandals in northern European countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden), and therefore in countries that used to be considered as rather “scandal-free” in the past. Furthermore, the results indicate that in specific countries (e.?g., United States, UK) political news are increasingly presented in a scandalizing way. Based on these findings, the number of political scandals (the number of individual cases published by the news media) has to be analytically separated from scandalization in political communication more generally (e.?g., the expression of public anger, the use of language of escalation, or the public condemnation of a behavior in political communication). Moreover, the results reveal that particular ownership structures, partisanship of a news organization, and the competitive context tend to influence news coverage about political scandals. The results also show that the definition and operationalization of political scandals – partially – remains unclear. More precisely, definitions used in previous research are either too unspecific and broad and thus do not allow for a precise operationalization and measurement of political scandals. In contrast, other definitions used in previous studies are too specific and needlessly restrict the measurement of political scandals. Thus, quite relevant cases are not accounted for. Therefore, an improved definition and operationalization of political scandals is proposed. According to that, scandals are defined as follows:Political scandals refer to real or conjectured norm transgressions of political actors or institutions. A particular norm transgression may occur in the context of political processes or in a politician’s private life and may or may not have legal consequences (e.?g., official investigation by the office of the district attorney). National scandals have to be repeatedly covered by two or more independent media organizations (e.?g., The New York Times and CNN in the U.S.). Regional scandals have to be repeatedly covered by two or more independent regional media organizations (however, the above-mentioned criterion for national scandals does not have to be fulfilled). News coverage about an alleged norm transgression must be framed as scandalous (scandal frame) and the scandalous behavior has to be unambiguously condemned.Based on the review, several research gaps are identified and a model for predicting the intensity of political scandal news coverage is introduced. The model comprises four central dimensions to predict the intensity of scandal news coverage (intensity is defined as duration, frequency, thematization, extent, and valence of coverage). The first dimension relates to the features of a particular scandal. Cases relating solely to verbal norm transgressions (talk scandals) are differentiated from cases involving other forms of scandalous behavior. Furthermore, cases with/without official investigations are differentiated and cases high/low in moral reprehensibility are distinguished. The second dimension relates to specific features of a particular politician (e.?g., type of position, popularity, if he or she has made moralizing/hypocritical statements in the past). As a third dimension, the model takes the particular reaction of a politician to scandal allegations into account (reaction appropriate/inappropriate). Finally, the fourth dimension takes the general context into consideration (e.?g., the particular media agenda, political leaning of a news outlet, social/cultural/economic context). Based on these four dimensions, as is argued, the intensity of scandal news coverage can be predicted and – in line with the model – specific assumptions are formulated that may be tested in future research. For instance, it is assumed that the news media will cover a case intensively when a political candidate is accused of transgressing a norm (e.?g., corruption) that engenders an official investigation (e.?g., state’s attorney) and is high in moral reprehensibility. Furthermore, the model predicts that the coverage will be intense when a politician’s popularity is rather low (compared to high), when a candidate made moralizing/hypocritical statements in the past (compared to no such comments), when he or she holds a high office (e.?g., president, minister compared to a back-bencher), and when he or she reacts inappropriate (e.?g., unconfident, contradictory, incredible statements) to an allegation (compared to more appropriate reactions). Finally, the model predicts that the news coverage of a political scandal will be more intense, when there are no other important topics (e.?g., terror attack, disaster) on the news agenda and when a potential norm violation is culturally especially relevant in a particular society (e.?g., sex scandals in the United States).     

Im Abseits oder aus der Tiefe des Raumes – Wie vielfältig berichtet das Fernsehen über regionales Sportgeschehen?

Sports shows are one of the most popular programs on television. Nevertheless, there are certain voices complaining about a lack of diversity of sports content on television. In this paper, it is argued why diversity of sports programs matters. Sports is not only a highly popular and entertaining media content. More than 23 million people are members of sports clubs and athletic clubs all over Germany. That makes sports an aspect of everyday life on a regional and local level. There it provides a lot of social functions, i.?e., social integration, promoting fairness, furthering health issues, and establishing social capital. These aspects should be considered when analyzing the diversity of sports on television programs.German legal rules for broadcasting services differentiate between commercial broadcasters and public service broadcasters (PSBs). The German Federal Constitutional Court has pointed out that commercial broadcasters cannot fulfill the same tasks as the PSBs in regard to the formation of public opinion. Therefore, the PSBs must provide a wide range of content regarding the diversity of social groups and the plurality of opinions. But there are no explicit regulations on the diversity of sports in television programs of PSBs. That is why this paper proposes a framework for analyzing the diversity of sports on television. This framework is based on the differentiation between sports broadcasting and sports journalism. Whilst monotony of sports broadcasting seems to be proven, little is known about the structures of sports journalism on television. It is argued that PSBs are obligated to public value. Therefore, they are obligated to cover sports and athletics comprehensively and it is up to sports journalism to bring to the fore the diversity of sports on television. There are three dimensions to be considered in analyzing the diversity of television sports journalism: diversification of sports content, social pluralism of sports, and regional diversity of sports news coverage. The aspect of diversification is met if sports journalism covers disciplines that are not regularly broadcasted on television. Social pluralism of sports considers how many people are organized in sports and athletic clubs dedicated to particular disciplines. E.?g., there should be more coverage of volleyball than of judo if there are more members in volleyball clubs than there are in judo clubs. Regional diversity of sports news coverage would be fulfilled by covering stories from a wide range of regions, districts, and cities from all over a designated television market area.These considerations lead to four research questions: (1) What are the subjects of regional sports journalism on television? (2) Do sports newsmagazine shows contribute to diversity and diversification of sports contents? (3) To what extent is sports journalism reflecting the diversity of sports and athletics in society? (4) How diverse is sports journalism content in regional aspects?In order to answer these questions a content analysis of sports newsmagazines from three German regional PBS television programs was conducted (“Sport im Osten”, MDR/“Sportclub”, NDR/“Sport im Westen”, “Sport inside”, WDR/“Sportschau Bundesliga am Sonntag”, all three programs). All issues of these sports newsmagazines aired in 2014 were sampled (sampling units). All news stories within the single issues were analyzed (coding units). The topic of the story was recorded for every coding unit. Additionally, the covered sports discipline, the region of the reported event, and the number of on-screen speaking persons were recorded.The data reveals the structure of sports journalism on German regional television channels. Television sports news shows are offering little diversification of sports content. There is a main focus on soccer on all three programs (nearly 80% of all stories presented on the programs of MDR and NDR). Other disciplines with a notable amount of reports are handball, hockey, and basketball. The sports news shows on the MDR program are covering a broad variety of 76 disciplines. The WDR sports news shows cover 62 different disciplines. The portfolio of the NDR sports news shows consists of 40 disciplines. The degree of diversity of the sports news shows is measured as relative entropy (Shannon’s Η’). Whilst sports newsmagazines of MDR and NDR offer little diversity of content (MDR: Η’?=?0.22, NDR: Η’?=?0.20), WDR’s sports newsmagazines present a much wider range of disciplines (Η’?=?0.43).Social pluralism of sports is not met in any of these programs. This is especially true for the representation of women in sports. Only 4.3% of over 111?h of sports news cover women competing in sports. 40% of sports and athletic club members in Germany are women but sports journalism is not reflecting this at all. Social pluralism is also lacking regarding members of different disciplines organized in sports and athletic clubs. E.?g., when ranking sports and athletic clubs by the number of their members, tennis clubs are ranked 3rd place amongst all sports and athletic clubs in North Rhine-Westphalia and Northern Germany. Yet, tennis is not one of the top 5 covered disciplines in the programs of neither the WDR nor the NDR.However, the programs offer a regional complementary sports news coverage. In all three television channels, the sports newsmagazines are reporting mostly from within their designated television market area.In summary, the current study reveals that sports newsmagazines are covering a relatively broad range of sports disciplines, but their focus is on the top-class sport. The public value of sports and athletics is not emphasized in sports journalism of regional television channels.     

Schaffen wir das?

In 2015, Germany sheltered about 900,000 refugees—more than ever before. This development led to political and public discussions in the country which changed between creating a culture of welcome for refugees and the danger of foreign infiltration through refugees. On the one hand, this article investigates, if patterns could be identified in the public debate about the so-called refugee crisis in the regional press in Germany in 2015. On the other hand, it concentrates on the solution orientation of the regional news coverage concerning this topic. The reporting pattern of solutions journalism supposes this kind of journalistic reporting and it is strongly discussed in communication sciences and journalism at the moment.The two aims of this study are based on four theoretical aspects: the responsibility of journalism, the reporting pattern of solutions journalism, the state of research concerning the image of migration and immigrants in the German media and the concept of framing. The responsibility of journalism roots in its function of information and its ethical foundation. In carrying out their work, journalists have to balance ethics of conviction and ethics of responsibility: Providing full information about a topic and the (ethical) consequences of this full information is the field of conflict in which journalism lies. In the case of media coverage about the so-called refugee crisis, it is not easy to report and not proliferating prejudice and resentments against immigrants.Generally, negative reasons of reporting are often picked up by the media. In contrast to this trend, the reporting pattern of solutions journalism focusses solutions for negative reasons of reporting. Not only the problems are discussed in this reporting pattern, also solutions are presented which should encourage the recipients to act. The journalist is accredited with the role of a mediator in public debates in the pattern of solutions journalism. This role is discussed critically in journalism and communications science.Regarding the image of migration and immigrants in the German media, communication studies do not describe this coverage in a positive way. Media reports often connect immigrants to crime, foreign infiltration or describe them as an expense factor. Also, terror and Islamic faith are topics appearing since 2011 in the German media linked with immigration. Concerning the so-called refugee crisis, the few existing studies show that this situation is described as threat. In its coverage the regional press follows the argumentation of the national press and concentrates on politics when reporting about this topic.This state of research leads to the assumption that negative patterns will dominate in the regional press concerning the so-called refugee crisis, although this topic could be the chance to implement some characteristics of solutions journalism. This hypothesis was investigated in this study by a quantitative content analysis of the regional press in Germany concerning the topic of the refugee crisis. The concept of framing was used in the methodological design of this article. To frame means to extract several aspects of reality and to emphasize some of them more than others. A frame consists of a problem definition of a topic, a causal interpretation, a moral evaluation, and a treatment recommendation. Based on this definition, frames can be seen as clusters of about four elements. To identify frames, this study uses an approach considering frames as clusters of these elements. In a quantitative content analysis these single elements were operationalized and after data collection investigated by hierarchical cluster analyses to create groups of elements which often appear together. For the content analysis, a stratified sample of eight regional newspapers in seven federal states in Germany was drawn to analyze the coverage of the year 2015. Altogether, the final sample consisted of 1231 articles.The results of this analysis show that the biggest frame in the regional press is the one of “social challenge” of the so-called refugee crisis. It deals with the social and cultural problems the so-called refugee crisis causes and replaces the dominant topic of crime in the then current state of research. Further frames are the ones of “integration”, “capacity”, “demonstration” and “solution”. The frame “integration” concentrates in a positive way on the chance of integration and is astonishingly quite equally sized in comparison to the one of “social challenge”. The frame “capacity” is smaller. It deals with the problem of accommodation of refugees. The frames of “demonstration” and “solution” appear not very often and focus the problems of protest against refugees and their supporters or political solutions for the so-called refugee crisis.But not only the widely spread frame of integration in the regional press is surprising, also its significant dominance in the coverage of the regional newspapers in East Germany is noteworthy. As more hostility against refugees can be observed in the eastern parts of Germany in 2015, it is an astonishing fact, that the regional press accents the frame of integration. Maybe the newspapers wanted to be the public counterpart to the hostile atmosphere in this region.Solution orientation as it is focused by solutions journalism could be identified in this analysis by the frame element of treatment recommendation. In sum, only few treatment recommendations exist in the regional press coverage: The widely spread frames “social challenge” and “integration” are the ones which provide the fewest treatment recommendations. The small frames “capacity” and “demonstration” are those which show the largest solution orientation. The solution proposals are oriented towards politics. These findings show that the solution orientation in the regional press coverage is not very strong, but the widely spread frame of integration demonstrates that the regional press reports in a more positive way than expected—especially in Eastern Germany.     

Journalistik praxistheoretisch betreiben

This paper proposes a practice-theoretical journalism research approach that promises to present an alternative and innovative perspective to the current empirical challenges of journalism which are mainly driven by digitization. It combines the general theme of this special issue to previous contributions within the “Publizistik” debate. By examining the problems of demarcation, technological changes, finance gaps and the loss of legitimacy in journalism; this article exemplifies the practice-theoretical approach and explains its respective advantages in coping with these challenges.After an introduction, the second section describes four intertwined problem areas that challenge journalism extensively today: The first problem area is the increasing problem of definition and demarcation through digital media that has led to a growing uncertainty about which phenomena can still be regarded as ‘journalistic’. Second is the strong pressure placed on journalism to change due to even faster developing new technologies that influence its work methods, its genres and the organization of labor. The third area is the economic difficulty arising under the new competitive conditions of digitization (‘attention economy’) that fundamentally disrupt the traditional business model of publishers. The fourth problem area is the prominently debated crisis of legitimacy and authority of established products and organizations in journalism. As this section highlights, these empirical challenges are primarily triggered and accelerated by the digitization of today’s media environment.The third section begins by proposing a practice-theoretical approach as a ‘toolkit’ for productive examination of these structural disruptions and rapid developments. The proposed approach does not present a pre-defined system of hypotheses, but primarily introduces a fundamental starting point for new research questions and empirical investigations from an alternative perspective. The particular relevance of the theoretical perspective thereby arises from (1) its central decision to observe journalistic practices, (2) the transgression of conventional boundaries of journalism, (3) the denaturalization of journalistic norms and laws, (4) the explicit consideration of a material, sociotechnical dimension of journalism, (5) the focus on the tension between journalistic practices and media management, and (6) from prioritizing order generation over stability.The second part of the third section applies the theoretical lens to reconceptualize the empirical challenges of digitization described in the second section and to provide examples of the usefulness of this perspective. In this section, the following advantages are emphasized, among others: First, from a practice theoretical viewpoint, established practices, traditional actors and reified norms do not mark the boundaries of the phenomenon; the crisis of journalism’s demarcation can be reinterpreted as a promising opportunity to diversify the concept of journalism. Second, by examining the processes of technology and its role within social practices, the practice-theoretical approach advances the current perspective on technology in journalism research thus contributing to its development towards a socio-technological and data-orientated field of investigation. Third, the financial upheavals of journalism are viewed in the context of the tense relationship between journalistic practices and media management practices without however, assuming a fundamental primacy of economic constraints. Fourth, practice theories shift our perspective on the legitimacy and authority crises of journalism; from this viewpoint, it is clear that journalism does not form a fixed, reified entity, but is constantly in a process of emergence.The fourth section sums up the conceptual advantages of the theoretical perspective with regard to current problem areas. Nevertheless, the proposed conceptualization of journalism will not solve all of its contemporary challenges. Against this background, the section also presents criticism of the practice-theoretical approach. The limits elaborated here point to the fact that a fruitful pluralism of theory is indeed needed to advance journalism research. The paper concludes with methodological insights on where research can start empirically: e.?g., by examining individual practices that are studied in depth, by focusing on specific ‘sites of the social’ or by focusing on larger constellations of practice (e.?g., journalistic networks). Qualitative observational studies are proposed as the most suitable methods for these investigations.     

Der Einfluss des Tenors von TV-Nachrichten auf die wahrgenommene öffentliche MeinungThe effect of television news slant on public opinion perception

The Persuasive Press Inference is a theoretical approach that attempts to explain how the slant of single articles or programs influences perceptions of public opinion. An online experiment was conducted including N = 933 participants, who saw three versions of a public service TV news story on the “energy turnaround” in Germany. The three versions differed only according to their slant. The results confirm the central assumptions of the Persuasive Press Inference: The participants inferred the general tone of news coverage from the news item (extrapolation) and aligned their perceptions of public opinion to the perceived general tone (inference). The results even persist when participants’ attitudes towards the energy turnaround are controlled for (hostile-media-effect, projection of personal opinions). Besides the indirect effect of news item slant, a direct effect can be observed that was not considered by research so far.     

Aufstieg der Semiöffentlichkeit: Eine relationale Perspektive

In this theoretical contribution we reflect previous attempts to re-conceptualize the public sphere in a digital era and suggest an alternative perspective: to combine public sphere theory with relational sociology. By doing so, we are better able to understand the transformation of public spheres as a transformation of communicative relations within public spheres.In the past decades, scholars have addressed these transformations by mainly two strategies: a fragmentation and/or a conceptual extension of the public sphere. The first approach, fragmenting the public sphere concept, deals with the question if and how new publics emerge as a result of digital communication tools. It sees the “remnants” of the mass-mediated public sphere as only one of many new public spheres—and not necessarily as a central one in network societies, resulting in a differentiation of new types of public spheres. The second approach, extending the public sphere, focuses mainly on how digital communication technologies change traditional, mass-mediated publics. In this view, the multiple forms of digital communication add to the mass-mediated public sphere: The public sphere now contains the diversity of mass media, the Internet and mobile media. Thus, the public sphere now encompasses all forms of mediated communication, resulting in more complex structures.This contribution argues that the current “relational turn” promises new avenues to understand what changes within public spheres in a digital era. Relational sociology shares its roots with network theories, but it focuses on the edges, the links between nodes, thereby overcoming the nodocentrism of network approaches. Relations are seen as the constitutive elements, molecules of society and public spheres. In a relational paradigm, all analysis of public spheres begins with social relations. This means that it is no longer necessary to define a new “space” for new forms of interaction, such as virtual public spheres, digital public spheres or networked public spheres. Instead, we add new forms of interactions and social relations that constitute public spheres. In this view, social relations within public spheres are diversified, not public spheres as such. The argument continues with a discussion of different types of social relations: chains, triads and categorical pairs.In connection with public sphere theories, social relations can be differentiated as public, semi-public and private. Based on the notion that public communication, whether personal or impersonal, always requires an addressee beyond the closest circle of friends, family and acquaintances, public social relations are defined as relations containing strangers. In this perspective, private social relations take place between social entities that know each other and are shielded from strangers. Public social relations, on the contrary, take place between social entities that are (still) strangers to each other and, in principle, open for participation. If private social relations must not encompass strangers, and public social relations must encompass strangers, then semi-public social relations can encompass strangers: either as addressees or only as observers and otherwise passively involved social entities. Thus, semi-public social relations are delimited, as are private social relations (not open for everyone), but the demarcation is permeable for strangers. The public sphere contains only specific social relations based on communication: those that can encompass strangers and those that must encompass strangers. Thus, we can define the public sphere as a dynamic configuration of social relations of various types that encompass strangers.It is argued that with the waning dichotomy of public and private, semi-public social relations are a major consequence of the current transformations within public spheres. In connection with the different kinds of relations introduced above, we then discuss private, semi-public and public chains, triads and categorical pairs, illustrating them with examples.A focus on communicative relations that constitute public spheres allows to understand—across micro, meso and macro perspectives—how different platforms and their affordances impact the formation of social phenomena, e.?g., how protest publics emerge from low-threshold interactions and below the radar of mass media. Semi-public relations are key: Public spheres are no longer built only on addressing as many strangers as possible (in the form of an audience), as was and is the modus operandi of mass media. Social media enable individuals to communicate beyond their private networks: friends of friends, weak ties bringing visibility, relevance, reach for information from non-redundant, socially distant sources. Semi-public communicative relations enable the formation of protest groups from Facebook groups of friendship circles (e.?g., the German right-wing nationalist movement Pegida), proliferate “fake news” and stimulate public discourse through hashtags (e.?g., #metoo). A relational perspective of semi-public communication allows for a better understanding of viral phenomena. Due to the current transformations of the public sphere, we do not only experience more semi-public communication, but a diversification of semi-public communicative relations.     

„Der Pranger der Schande““The Pillory of Shame”

We investigated whether the publication of names and profile pictures of several Facebook users posting hate comments against refugees in the German tabloid Bild on 20th October 2015 caused a change in content and style of comments posted on Bild’s Facebook page. We used the spiral of silence and the theory of reactance as a theoretical framework. A quantitative content analysis of all Facebook comments concerning refugees on several days before and after the publishing of the Bild intervention was conducted. The dependent variables were the comment’s valence and rhetorical style. Although the number of hate comments against refugees decreased slightly after the Bild intervention, analyses indicated that valence became more negative. The observed effects diminished over time.     

Parlamente in non-fiktionalen und fiktionalen AngebotenThe portrayal of parliaments in non-fictional and fictional TV-programs

Parliaments are the hearts of democracy. This is where negotiations between different political actors on different levels take place, where negotiation processes are consolidated and where binding decisions for our society are made. We are currently witnessing both an increase in the importance of media coverage for political communication and a fragmentation of the audience’s exposure to it. This article analyzes how non-fictional and fictional TV-programs depict the logic behind the working method of the parliament. Based on a comprehensive theoretical discussion, a quantitative content analysis of parliamentary reporting in Berlin direkt and the depiction of parliamentary procedures in the Danish TV-series Borgen was conducted. Results show that both Berlin direkt and Borgen depict the procedural character of parliamentary negotiation processes and therefore help the public gain a better understanding of parliamentary procedures.     

Neue Medienumgebungen,andere Auswahlkriterien?

Due to the wide range of diverse media content in today’s high-choice media environment, decisions on sampling methods are mandatory for content-analytical research projects. While including some objects of study into their analysis and excluding others, researchers influence the results of their investigation. Until now, methodological contributions have rarely discussed such cases of selection bias. In this article, we focus on content-related criteria of selection and propose a framework for the systemization of various dimensions of selection. Along the distinction between a diagnostic and a prognostic epistemic goal, we differentiate between a media-centric and an audience-centric dimension. For each dimension, various criteria of selection are discussed. We argue, that future content-analytical research projects could – depending upon the study’s objective – start from this systemization in order to define the particular set of objects of study. By doing this, researchers can adequately counter a less prominent source of error in content analyses, i.?e., the error of coverage.     

What you tweet is what we get?

Twitter has a high presence in our modern society, media and science. Numbers of studies with Twitter data – not only in communication research – show that tweets are a popular data source for science. This popularity can be explained by the mostly free data and its technically high availability, as well as the distinct and open communication structure. Even though much research is based on Twitter data, it is only suitable for research to a limited extent. For example, some studies have already revealed that Twitter data has a low explanatory power when predicting election outcomes. Furthermore, the rise of automated communication by bots is an urgent problem of Twitter data analysis. Although critical aspects of Twitter data have already been discussed to some extent (mostly in final remarks of studies), comprehensive evaluations of data quality are relatively rare.To contribute to a deeper understanding of problems regarding the scientific use of Twitter data leading to a more deliberate und critical handling of this data, the study examines different aspects of data quality, usability and explanatory power. Based on previous research on data quality, it takes a critical look with the following four dimensions: availability and completeness, quality (regarding authenticity, reliability and interpretability), language as well as representativeness. Based on a small case study, this paper evaluates the scientific use of Twitter data by elaborating problems in data collection, analysis and interpretation. For this illustrative purpose, the author typically gathered data via Twitter’s Streaming APIs: 73,194 tweets collected between 20–24/02/2017 (each 8pm) with the Streaming APIs (POST statuses/filter) containing the search term “#merkel”.Concerning data availability and completeness, several aspects diminish data usability. Twitter provides two types of data gateways: Streaming APIs (for real-time data) and REST APIs (for historical data). Streaming APIs only have a free available Spritzer bandwidth, that is limited to only one percent of the overall (global) tweet volume at any given time. This limit is a prevalent problem when collecting Twitter data to major events like elections and sports. The REST APIs do not usually provide data older than seven days. Furthermore, Twitter gives no information about the total or search term-related tweet volume at any time.In addition to incomplete data, several quality related aspects complicate data gathering and analysis, like the lack of user specific and verified information (age, gender, location), inconsistent hashtag usage, missing conversational context or poor data/user authenticity. Geo data on Twitter is – if available at all – rarely correct and not useful for filtering relevant tweets. Searching and filtering relevant tweets by search terms can be deceptive, because not every tweet concerning a topic contains corresponding hashtags. Furthermore, it is difficult to find a perfect search term for broader and dynamically changing topics. Besides, the missing conversational context of tweets impedes interpretation of statements (especially with regard to irony or sarcasm). In addition, the rise of social bots diminishes dataset quality enormously. In the dataset generated for this work, only three of the top 30 accounts (by tweet count) could be directly identified as genuine. One fourth of all accounts in this dataset generated about 60% of all tweets. If the high-performing accounts predominantly consist of bots, the negative impact on data quality is immense.Another problem of Twitter analysis is Internet language. While Emojis can be misinterpreted, abbreviations, neologisms, mixed languages and a lack of grammar impede text analysis. In addition to low data quality in general, the quality of tweet content and its representativeness is crucial. This work compares user statistics with research articles on SCOPUS as well as media coverage of two selected, German quality newspapers. Twitter is – compared to its user count – enormously overrepresented in media and science. Only 16% of German adults (over 18 years) are monthly active (MAUs) and merely four percent are daily active users.Considering all presented problems, Twitter can be a good data source for research, but only to a limited extent. Researchers must consider that Twitter does not guarantee complete, reliable and representative data. Ignoring those critical points can mislead data analysis. While Twitter data can be suitable for specific case studies, like the usage and spread of selected hashtags or the twitter usage of specific politicians, you cannot use it for broader, nation-based surveys like the prediction of elections or the public opinion on a specific topic. Twitter has a low representativeness and is mostly an “elite medium” with an uncertain future (concerning the stagnating number of users and financial problems).     

Digitale Perspektiven in der Kommunikations- und Mediengeschichte

In the discussion about the future of communication and media science in digital times, this article focuses on the position and perspective of communication and media history. The challenges, problems and potentials associated with digitization are illustrated using the example of historical press research. Within the media ensemble of classical mass communication, the periodic press in particular benefits from the retrospective digitization of historical media and their digital edition in databases and portals. For historical press research, digitized newspapers and digital newspaper portals represent an originally new, because increasingly digital research situation: Digital newspaper portals as a novel, originally digital world for newspapers not only facilitate the path to newspapers and their contents, they also open them up as digital resources machine-readable and thus open up completely new paths for research—not least supported by digital methods.The main objective of this article is to discuss the epistemological-methodological problems and the practical operationalization of digitally framed or supported research processes in historical press research and to present concrete perspectives of knowledge and research strategies for practice. With this aim in mind, the paper discusses three points:(1.) Methodological and practical consequences of historical press research in digital research environments. With the digitization of newspapers and their digital reproduction in newspaper portals, their source character shifts essentially in three dimensions: They are edited and indexed digitally and their complete content is made accessible through optical character recognition. This makes previously unimportant technical aspects such as data formats, portal interfaces, search algorithms and programming interfaces very relevant for the methodology of historical press research. A primary methodological effect of the digital reorganization of newspapers in data and portals is the reversal of the usual reading practice: from “top down” to “bottom up”. With the help of “keyword searching”, newspapers can now be searched comprehensively and transversely to the order of the newspaper original. Nevertheless, there is a warning against an all too naïve and uncritical usage of digitized newspapers and newspaper portals. In practice, some problems and risks are crucial for the conception of historical newspaper research in digital research environments: Besides a hardly standardized and in large parts “wild”, because often uncoordinated and selective digitization of newspapers, the newspaper portals are different in their conception as well as characterized by different content, technical, legal and entrepreneurial conditions.(2.) Historical newspapers as digital sources in practice. The methodological and technical framework are fundamental and far-reaching for the further practical use of newspapers as digital sources in research. In each research step, it must be considered that digitized newspapers are genuinely new and, depending on the quality and depth of digitization, very complex sources with information gains and losses compared to the originals. Newspapers are not simply digitized, they are digitally constructed and differ in this construction from each other. In this respect, historical press researchers are increasingly becoming “users”. However simple and uncomplicated newspaper portals may be in practice, one must incorporate the implicit functions (hidden in algorithms, data and code) and the limits of these knowledge engines and their “correct” use into the research process. Combining and mediating classical hermeneutic methods with search technologies is an essential moment in the practical handling of digitized newspapers.(3.) Historical press research and digital methods. In the light of the new research situation which is emerging with digitized newspapers and newspaper portals, it is obvious that historical press research should increasingly open up to the possibilities of digital methods. In the digital method discussion of historical press research, one concept in particular forms a central point of reference: Franco Moretti’s concept of “Distant Reading”. Basically, “Distant Reading”—and this is what makes this perspective so interesting for historical press research in dealing with the considerable metadata and full text volumes of digitized newspapers—is about the quantitative-automatic indexing of large text corpora using methods and techniques of “Text Mining”. Digital text methods are thus seriously changing the way we look at texts and the research practice with texts such as newspapers: In parts, they automate and accelerate reading processes, produce “new” text extracts by the computer, generate new interpretation contexts between individual text, corpus and condensate, and thus set new orientation points for “close reading”. Computers and digital text methods thus do not relieve researchers of interpretation. Rather, they constantly challenge them to interpret in a continuous interplay in order to give meaning to the text patterns discovered by machines.In spite of all these advantages, digital methods have so far only been used sporadically in historical press research. For this reason, finally a digital workflow for research processes in historical press research will be presented, which illustrates and summarizes essential challenges, problems, solutions and potentials of digitally framed or supported research in press history.     

Bereichernd oder belanglos?

Although participatory press photography has existed for decades, its institutionalization by tabloid journalism is a relatively new phenomenon. The most popular example in Germany is constituted by the “reader reporters” of the tabloid newspaper Bild. Supporters of participatory press photography hope for an enrichment of news coverage while its critics consider the photos as insignificant. This paper tries to clarify this controversy on the basis of news value theory. It presents the results of a census of reader reporter photographs and their adjacent articles. This paper tries to answer the question of whether selection and prominence of the photographs is oriented toward societal or individual relevance. It can be shown that selection is dominated by “soft” news factors while prominence is mainly influenced by “hard” news factors. The latter are also attributed to the photographs via the adjacent text. The results can be transferred to other forms of participatory journalism. They support the hypothesis of a complementary rather than competitive relation between participatory and professional journalism.