Suchergebnisse

1\. Introduction 5 2\. Theorizing Issue Publics in National and Transnational Contexts 6 2.1 Who Are the Organizers of Issue Publics in Europe? 7 2.2 Rethinking the Nature of Mediated Public Spheres 8 3\. Analyzing Networked Issue Publics in Nations and the EU 10 4\. Research Design 13 5\. Methods 15 6\. The Case of EU Fair Trade Advocacy Networks 16 6.1 Determining Whether There is A Cross-national EU FT Network 17 6.2 Public Engagement in the EU Networkt 18 7\. The Case of National Level FT Networks in the UK 21 7.1 Issue Framing in the UK Network 23 7.2 Does the UK FT Network Refer to the EU? 23 7.3 Evidence of Opportunities for Direct Citizen Engagement 24 8\. The Case of Germany 26 8.1 Issue Framing 27 8.2 EU References 29 8.3 Citizen Engagement 31 9\. Does the EU Respond to This Bottom-Up Communication? 31 10\. Conclusion: Two Different NGO Spheres 31 Literature ; The gold standard for discussing public spheres has long been established around mass media, with the prestige print press given a privileged place. Yet when it comes to a European public sphere, the mass media are also problematic, or at least incomplete, in several ways: relatively few EU-wide issues are replicated in the national media of EU countries, the discourses on those issues are dominated primarily by elites (with relatively few civil society voices included in the news), and public attention is seldom paid to EU issues beyond a select few (money, agriculture, political integration, scandals), creating a distant 'gallery public.' At the same time, many important political issues such as trade and economic justice, development policy, environment and climate change policy, human rights, and military interventions, among others, are being addressed more actively by networks of civil society actors both within and across EU national borders. These networks utilize the Internet and various interactive digital media to publicize their issues, engage active publics, and contest competing policy perspectives not only within specific issue ...

"Können Nachrichtenorganisationen dazu verpflichtet werden, dem öffentlichen Interesse zu dienen? Und selbst wenn Regierungsinstitutionen Standards öffentlicher Verantwortung befolgen, wie sollten diese Standards beschaffen sein? Unterminieren die engen Beziehungen von Nachrichtenorganisationen und mächtigen Politikern, über die sie berichten, solche Standards? Diesen Fragen wird mittels einer Analyse der Berichterstattung zu Forderungen der Bush-Regierung nach einer Invasion im Irak und späteren Dementis der Erlaubnis von Folter nachgegangen. Die Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass die US-amerikanische Presse mittlerweile so eng mit der Regierung verbunden ist, dass sie zentrale politische Entscheidungen nicht in Frage stellen kann, sofern sich nicht auch innerhalb des politischen Systems eine effektive Opposition gegen diese Politiken entwickelt hat. Dieser Befund korrespondiert mit den Resultaten anderer Studien: Die US-Presse kann in Phasen, in denen der Regierung Fehler unterlaufen und Kritik für eine Demokratie notwendig erscheint, nicht unabhängig berichten. Die Auswirkungen auf andere Mediensysteme werden diskutiert." (Autorenreferat)

The Twitter Revolutions of 2009 reinvigorated the question of whether new social media have any real effect on contentious politics. In this article, the authors argue that evaluating the relation between transforming communication technologies and collective action demands recognizing how such technologies infuse specific protest ecologies. This includes looking beyond informational functions to the role of social media as organizing mechanisms and recognizing that traces of these media may reflect larger organizational schemes. Three points become salient in the case of Twitter against this background: (a) Twitter streams represent crosscutting networking mechanisms in a protest ecology, (b) they embed and are embedded in various kinds of gatekeeping processes, and (c) they reflect changing dynamics in the ecology over time. The authors illustrate their argument with reference to two hashtags used in the protests around the 2009 United Nations Climate Summit in Copenhagen.

AbstractThis study investigated cross-sex best friendships in the experience and expression of jealousy within romantic relationships. Survey data (N = 346) revealed engaged-to-be-married individuals, compared to single, dating and married individuals, have the most negative attitudes regarding cross-sex best friendships. Results further indicated preventive jealousy experience is a predictor of rival-focused jealousy expression, and reactive jealousy experience is a predictor of both constructive and destructive jealousy expressions. Findings also suggest attitudes toward cross-sex best friendships can mediate the relationship between how jealousy is experienced and expressed in relation to reactive jealousy experience and destructive jealousy expression. Implications are discussed regarding how cross-sex best friendships can adversely affect romantic relationships.

We explore the educational potential of social networking sites (SNS) for developing civic engagement among young people. Following a consideration of contextual matters we discuss four key issues in the development of civic engagement through social media: the extent of use of social
media; civic engagement and possible congruence with SNS; the processes and outcomes that could be experienced by students and teachers for educational purposes when using social media for civic engagement; and, whether or not those processes may lead to improved achievement and attainment.
We argue there is a need for research that discovers what motivates young people to use social media for civic engagement, what they do when so engaged and what perceived and actual impact occur as a result of such interactions. That research should lead to clear recommendations to enhance
civic engagement for those who are currently involved as well as others.

The gold standard for discussing public spheres has long been established around mass media, with the prestige print press given a privileged place. Yet when it comes to a European public sphere, the mass media are also problematic, or at least incomplete, in several ways: relatively few EU-wide issues are replicated in the national media of EU countries, the discourses on those issues are dominated primarily by elites (with relatively few civil society voices included in the news), and public attention is seldom paid to EU issues beyond a select few (money, agriculture, political integration, scandals), creating a distant 'gallery public.' At the same time, many important political issues such as trade and economic justice, development policy, environment and climate change policy, human rights, and military interventions, among others, are being addressed more actively by networks of civil society actors both within and across EU national borders. These networks utilize the Internet and various interactive digital media to publicize their issues, engage active publics, and contest competing policy perspectives not only within specific issue networks, but across solidarity networks involving other policy issues, and with political targets at national and EU levels. This dimension of the EU public sphere has received relatively little attention from observers, and when it has been explored, it is often dismissed as less inclusive, and therefore less significant than the somewhat reified mass media model. This analysis compares networked, digitally mediated public issue spheres with the mass mediated model, points out ways in which the two types of public sphere are complementary, and also shows how networked issue spheres may be the sites of greater citizen and civil society engagement in keeping with more classical models of public spheres.