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.     

„Infotainment“ in der Presse

This paper answers, by means of a content analysis of three regional daily papers, the question of whether political journalism in regional newspapers is more entertaining today than it was in 1980. On the level of articles, increased entertainment can consist of using specific design elements. On the thematic level, topics that are entertaining per se (e. g. human interest topics) can take the place of or occur in addition to political information. In all the papers that were examined, political articles possess a larger potential for entertainment today than they did in 1980. Additionally, the percentage of political information has decreased, while the number of articles on human interest topics has increased. Finally, this paper discusses how that result is to be evaluated from the point of view of the theory of democracy: “Infotainment” can be beneficial in some circumstances. Therefore, entertainment should not be disparaged in general; one needs to be careful when assessing it normatively.     

Politik mal anders: Die Politikdarstellung in „Harald Schmidt“ im Kontrast zur „Tagesschau“

Politics on television is no longer reserved for the news media; it is rather increasingly expanding into formats with their main focus on entertainment, e.g. late night comedy. However, so far research in German-speaking countries has more or less neglected these programs and their potential for political discourse. This article focuses on the specific characteristics in the depiction of politics in the German late night comedy Harald Schmidt and compares the results with the news-show Tagesschau. The interest is on the share of political issues, on the political actors and their depiction and on the presentation of the political stories. The quantitative content analysis includes all weekly episodes of one season of Harald Schmidt (2009/10), and for each episode the three preceding episodes of the Tagesschau. As expected Harald Schmidt has a lower share of political issues than Tagesschau. With regard to the selection of political actors, the late night comedy favors individual and national actors and focuses more frequently on private aspects. The presentation of the political stories is characterized by a lower degree of information, a higher degree of personalization and less balanced comments.     

„Ich glaube, die Deutschen hassen mich“

Based on attribution theory, we assume that readers’ opinion formation (perception of victim’s personality, causal attribution, attribution of responsibility, emotional reactions) in the case of abductions in foreign countries is influenced by newspapers’ presentations of the victim’s altruistic versus egoistic reasons for travelling. Moreover, we assume that reasons for travelling can be conveyed either by verbal or by visual information. To prove this, we conducted an experiment on a fictional abduction by adapting the case of Susanne Osthoff, a German archaeologist kidnapped in Iraq in 2005. The results, indeed, show that verbal media content heavily influences readers’ opinions: When a newspaper article suggested altruistic reasons for travelling, readers attributed more positive character traits to the victim, held the victim less responsible for being kidnapped and for paying ransom money, and felt less anger and more sadness. In contrast, visual information only shaped readers’ opinions when there was no verbal information about the victim’s reasons for travelling available in the text. The causes and consequences of these findings are discussed.     

„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.     

“企业”乎? “公用”乎?

从本期开始,我刊将增设“邮海杂谈”这个栏目,以发表邮政各方面的议论性散文。要求文章题材广泛,篇幅短小,文字犀利、明快,方式灵活多样,具有一定的知识性和趣味性(字数不超过800字)。这样给广大邮政职工以丰富的精神营养。以下发表三篇短文希望大家喜欢,并踊跃来稿。     

Gibt es Hinweise auf einen „Enke-Effekt“? Die Presseberichterstattung über den Suizid von Robert Enke und die Entwicklung der Suizidzahlen in Deutschland

Considerations that media reports about suicides might be followed by additional suicides have a long tradition. The existence of the so-called “Werther effect” is by now internationally well confirmed—especially for press reporting. The effect seems to be even stronger when celebrity suicides are reported. In Germany, not long ago, the suicide of football-international Robert Enke caused high public attention. The paper examines the German press coverage of Enke’s suicide with regard to compliance with media guidelines on suicide reporting and analyzes possible changes in suicide rates in the wake of the reporting. It concludes that German print media do not respect the guidelines in a substantial part of their suicide articles. In addition, significant increases in total suicides and suicides by similar means are found.     

„Politische Kommunikation“: Kern und Rand des Begriffsverständnisses in der Fachgemeinschaft

Terms and concepts are both premises and results of research. Controversies about the basic concepts of a discipline prompt scientific advancement. The aim of this paper is not to put forward an authoritative definition of “political communication,” but—based on prototype semantics—rather to work out what the core of the understanding of this concept is within the scientific community, and what the margin. This is also a test for a method of analyzing the understanding of concepts in general. The basis is a dimensional analysis of the concept of “political communication,” in which a four-dimensional basic structure established by deduction was tested by means of a content analysis of textbook definitions. This leads to a tool for a factorial survey to empirically analyze students’ and lecturers’ understanding of this concept (n = 161). The findings were: At the heart of the understanding of the concept are communication participants deeply involved in the political system in a context of mass media communication. Differences in content and consequences of communication have no influence on the understanding of the concept, and the differences between students and lecturers are small. Comparisons between countries and longitudinal studies are possible on this basis.     

Die Auswirkung des Schlüsselereignisses „Silvesternacht in Köln“ auf die Kriminalitätsberichterstattung

Key events captivate the attention of the news and the public. Previous research has shown that key events even influence news coverage that is not directly related to the key event. In fact, key events may increase the amount of news coverage about similar events. We investigated whether the key event “New Year’s Eve in Cologne” elicited a substantial effect on crime coverage. We hypothesized that the mentioning of foreigner-related attributes (foreigner, migration background, North African, and asylum seeker) has increased due to the key event. A content analysis of German news coverage supports this assumption. Therefore, the key event influenced journalistic selection decisions (i.?e., selection of events or selection of event attributes) that ultimately altered actual news coverage. This finding has important societal implications: The German press council recommends to only report on the nationality of offenders if there is a “justified reason.” As revealed by the present study, the key event influenced journalistic decision making and thus actual news coverage. This is an important finding because previous research indicates that the mentioning of foreigner-related attributes in crime articles can contribute to negative beliefs and attitudes toward foreigners and asylum seekers. This may ultimately influence the public debate about this issue.     

员工“欲壑难填”怎么办?

“在满足员工需要的时候,应把握一点:说到不如做到,要少说多做;即使做了也不要形成惯例,要给员工一种感觉:这是随机的。”     

是“过渡”还是“冒进”?

“过渡”者,是旧事物转变为新事物所必经的一个渐进的阶段,是从不完善到逐渐完善的一个发展过程。 社会发展有“过渡时期”,生物发展有“过渡形态”。实际上所有事物的发展都有过渡,不过有的不太明显而己。 前几年实行的邮件分拣封发“指定转口局”制度,据说是作为向“邮区中心局”新制度“过渡”的一种办法。但是实行以来,令人感到疑惑,这是不是“过渡”?     

“无理由申告”观止欤?

时下，在有关邮政优质服务的一些新闻报道中，或在某些邮政优质服务先进单位的经验介绍中，“无理由申告”可谓是一个频繁出现、使用率颇高的时髦字眼儿。一时间，大家似乎是纷纷于此就邮政优质服务应达到的标准达成了共识。乍听起来，确乎顺理成章，无可挑剔，但细细思之...     

省会邮政局为什么“穷”?

邮政资费调整以后,邮政企业的日子过得怎么样了? 说来令人难以相信,从省会邮政局反馈来的信息,说明这些纯邮政企业不但没有从资费调整中得到实惠,反而陷入了成本加大、“利润”降低,越来越穷的困境。 奇怪。调整邮政资费本来是一件盼望已久的好事,希望借此使邮政摆脱困境,但是为什么这项专为解决邮政困难的政策落到省会邮政局头上却变成了另外一种结果?个中原委值得深思。     

面对“假日经济”电信怎么办?

眼下,双休日加上国家法定的节假日,一年下来休息日多达１１０天左右。于是,“假日消费”、“假日经济”等便成了经济学家们“上口率”最高的一个词儿,成了商家新的经济增长点。细想起来,这确实有个中道理。你想啊,一年中人们有近三分之一的日子闲着没事儿,当然就要出去走走,逛街、旅游、上网……这么一来,当然就要花钱啦。总之,节假日人们的消费欲望要比平时强烈得多,花钱也大方得多。按说,电信是“假日经济”的先行者和探索者。早在若干年前,我们就实行了节假日国内长途电话半价优惠。近年来,又推出了“九州夜话”和节假日国际、港澳台电话…     

谁是“主管局长”?

日前，记者到某县局采访商函业务。向局长说明来意后，那位局长漫不经心地说：“你去找我们主管局长。他主管业务。”本以为很快就可以进入采访专题，谁知这位局长的话，使这次采访有了新的选题，也便有了如下这篇文章。“找主管局长。他主管业务。”言下之意，这位局长不...     

“网”上有什么?

某县局营销人员到一家公司去宣传网上新业务，客户随口问道：“网上有什么？”这位营销人员反复只讲一句话：网上有许多新鲜东西。此外，便支吾其词，不知再讲些什么了。这种情况恐怕不会少见。时下有多少电信营销人员能对自己的各种业务，特别是科技含量较高的新业务，说出个子丑寅卯呢？这反映出我们一些电信营销人员新业务知识的贫乏。上面提到的这位营销人员，只会讲网上有许多新鲜东西，而对“新鲜东西”又说不清道不明，自己对“新鲜东西”不感兴趣，客户也就更不感兴趣了。目前，许多电信新业务没有得到有效开发，并非用户真的不需要…