"This chapter reviews the major lines of research on five prominent concepts of political communication research linked to the cognitive effects of political mass media: Knowledge gains and gaps, cultivation, agenda setting, priming, and framing. Basic ideas, typical methodologies, key findings and the cognitive processes behind the concepts are discussed in detail, common conceptual roots are identified, and key methodological challenges are highlighted. Finally, some of the overlaps and differences between the approaches are discussed in order to take a step toward a more integrative and coherent view of cognitive media effects in political communication. The chapter argues that both empirical and theoretical advances are needed to get to a better and less fragmented understanding of cognitive media effects in political communication." (publisher's description).
"This chapter reviews the major lines of research on five prominent concepts of political communication research linked to the cognitive effects of political mass media: Knowledge gains and gaps, cultivation, agenda setting, priming, and framing. Basic ideas, typical methodologies, key findings and the cognitive processes behind the concepts are discussed in detail, common conceptual roots are identified, and key methodological challenges are highlighted. Finally, some of the overlaps and differences between the approaches are discussed in order to take a step toward a more integrative and coherent view of cognitive media effects in political communication. The chapter argues that both empirical and theoretical advances are needed to get to a better and less fragmented understanding of cognitive media effects in political communication." (publisher's description)
Analysen sozialer Ungleichheit bleiben meist auf einzelne Nationalstaaten beschränkt und beziehen nur objektive Ungleichheitsindikatoren ein. Selten wird dagegen gefragt, ob das Aufweichen nationalstaatlicher Grenzen zu einer Transnationalisierung wahrgenommener Ungleichheit führt. Mittels einer Analyse der Medienberichterstattung in deutschen Grenzregionen versuchen wir Antworten auf diese Frage zu finden. Sie zeigt, dass grenzüberschreitende Wahrnehmungen sozialer Ungleichheit existieren und für die Einschätzung der Lebenslage der Bürger relevant scheinen - allerdings in regional unterschiedlicher Weise. An den deutschen Grenzen zu Tschechien und Polen wird die schlechte Einkommenslage im Nachbarland als Gefahr für den eigenen Lebensstandard interpretiert. An der deutschen Westgrenze wird die Besserstellung der Nachbarländer hingegen eher als Maßstab präsentiert, auf dessen Basis die Gleichstellung mit den Bürgern der Nachbarländer gefordert wird.
"This paper reviews research on the role of communication in political socialization. Starting from a basic definition the impact of different agents (family, peers, school, mass media) and communicative processes (interpersonal vs. mass communication) on various outcomes of political socialization (i.e. political knowledge, norms and values, attitudes, participation) is discussed. It is argued that research has amply demonstrated the role of media and communication as agents of socialization. However, the paper highlights that changes in parental generations, the media landscape, and in adolescents themselves provide good reason to revisit questions of how communication impacts how adolescents develop into citizens in democratic societies. Finally, the chapter addresses several aspects that researchers should consider in their future work on political socialization." (publisher's description)
"This paper reviews research on the role of communication in political socialization. Starting from a basic definition the impact of different agents (family, peers, school, mass media) and communicative processes (interpersonal vs. mass communication) on various outcomes of political socialization (i.e. political knowledge, norms and values, attitudes, participation) is discussed. It is argued that research has amply demonstrated the role of media and communication as agents of socialization. However, the paper highlights that changes in parental generations, the media landscape, and in adolescents themselves provide good reason to revisit questions of how communication impacts how adolescents develop into citizens in democratic societies. Finally, the chapter addresses several aspects that researchers should consider in their future work on political socialization." (publisher's description).
"This chapter discusses attitudinal effects in political communication. It is argued that mass media are most influential in shaping political attitudes compared to direct experience and interpersonal communication. Furthermore, the role of message (e.g., tone, framing) and source characteristics (e.g., credibility) as well as elaborative vs. peripheral information processing is discussed. Based on a review of relevant studies, the chapter distinguishes between media effects on attitudes towards the political system (e.g., media malaise hypothesis) and towards parties, candidates, and issues and discusses respective findings. The chapter also critically reflects on factors moderating or mediating attitudinal effects as well as on methodological issues. Although attitudinal effects of political communication have been shown by numerous studies, the author argues that scholars should especially take a dose look at media effects on party identification and issue preference in the future and more frequently use innovative research designs to further improve our knowledge of attitudinal effects in political communication." (publisher's description)
"This chapter reviews research on the long-term development of political communication, mainly focusing on the changes occurring over the last decades. The overview first discusses conceptual, theoretical and methodological issues, addressing trends like mediatization and professionalization as well as several phase models developed to describe changes of political communication. Then, the author reflects upon the evolution of mass media and political communication, including technological, organizational and economical changes and their consequences for political media content and political journalism. After that political communication is looked at in a broader perspective of political and social changes which both condition and stimulate the transformation of political communication (e.g., Americanization, modernization, globalization, localization). Finally, the political consequences of this transformation are touched upon by discussing recent trends in election campaign communication." (publisher's description)
"The reaction to the Fukushima-catastrophe by the Japanese political class reveals a deeply rooted system crisis. A return of government and parliament to former patterns of political decision making and traditional patterns of energy policy is not possible and not acceptable. A change of policy perspectives, however, is requested by the majority of voters, citizen groups and mass media. Instead, the governments of the Democratic Party of Japan as well as the strongest Opposition party, the Liberal Democratic Party, stick to traditional patterns of a widespread use of nuclear energy by proposing the reactivation of nuclear reactors for up to 40 or even 60 (!) years. A way leading out of this crisis should instead be based on a combination of energy saving, environment protection and a consequent, risk minimizing energy policy. In short: Japan must invent itself as a new innovative society." (author's abstract)
In politischen Diskursen auf Microblogs stehen einzelne Beiträge zunächst einmal für sich. Erst die Kontextualisierung einer Äußerung ermöglicht adäquate Schlussprozesse. Hashtags erfüllen hierbei eine wesentliche Funktion: In Twitter können sie als Kontextualisierungshinweise verwendet werden, um Wörter zu markieren und Zusammenhänge herzustellen. Hashtags bieten den NutzerInnen von Microblogs die Möglichkeit, Diskurse zu verfolgen, an ihnen teilzunehmen, sie zu gestalten, sie umzudeuten, neue Diskurse zu kreieren, aber auch sie zu ignorieren oder sie zu umgehen. In der politischen Twitterkommunikation erhalten Wörter durch Hashtags ein neues Gewicht: Diskurse werden über sie identifiziert und strukturiert und erst durch sie ist es möglich, thematische Kohärenz, Sequentialität, Intertextualität und damit Diskursivität zu erzeugen. Die Beispiele aus der Twitterpraxis zeigen, dass die Veränderung der Akteurskonstellationen weitgehende Folgen für die öffentliche Kommunikation haben kann. Nicht nur die professionell Beteiligten wie JournalistInnen und PolitikerInnen, sondern auch interessierte BürgerInnen können an Diskursen teilnehmen und diese aktiv gestalten. Öffentliche Wörter, wie im beschriebenen Fall das Hashtag "#aufschrei", machen den Diskurs zugänglich und sichtbar zugleich. Darüber hinaus symbolisieren sie das Diskursthema – hier: Alltagssexismus – und ermöglichen einen gesellschaftlichen Diskurs über massenmediale Themensetzungen hinaus. Interessanterweise nehmen Massenmedien diese Diskurse wiederum auf, so dass Twitter sowohl ein Medium ist, in dem Anschlusskommunikation zu diskutierten Themen einer massenmedialen Öffentlichkeit betrieben wird, als auch ein eigenständiges Diskursmedium, dessen Agenda seinerseits von den Traditionsmedien aufgriffen wird.
