The effects of deregulation, changed customer requirements and new technology on the organisation and spatial patterns of the air freight sector in Europe

Customer requirements, new technologies and the deregulation and liberalisation measures of the last 15 years have had a significant influence on market structures in air freight transport in Europe. The study examines the sector using the concept of global production networks. It describes the reorganisation in various dimensions. Firstly, there is the development from single air freight forwarders to global networks of firms. Secondly, we find a reorganisation of inter-company relations. Thirdly, airlines around the world organise their air traffic as a hub system. This lends added importance to the selected hub airport, and puts pressure on them to enlarge. As spatial consequences there is greater competition among international airports.     

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.     

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.     

Rating versus ranking: What is the best way to reduce response and language bias in cross-national research?

We propose solutions to two recurring problems in cross-national research: response style differences and language bias. In order to do so, we conduct a methodological comparison of two different response formats—rating and ranking. For rating, we assess the effect of changing the commonly used 5-point Likert scales to 7-point Likert scales. For ranking, we evaluate the validity of presenting respondents with short scenarios for which they need to rank their top 3 solutions. Our results – based on two studies of 1965 undergraduate and 1714 MBA students in 16 different countries – confirm our hypotheses that both solutions reduce response and language bias, but show that ranking generally is a superior solution. These findings allow researchers to have greater confidence in the validity of cross-national differences if these response formats are used, instead of the more traditional 5-point Likert scales. In addition, our findings have several practical implications for multinational corporations, relating to issues such as selection interviews, performance appraisals, and cross-cultural training.