Suchergebnisse

As part of a symposium commenting on by Stanley Rothman, Seymour Martin Lipset, & Neil Nevitte's "Does Enrollment Diversity Improve University Education?" (2003), the political & policy environment in which such studies are conducted & their results received is examined to identify reasons for the backlash against the authors' findings. Their conclusion that racial diversity negatively impacts educational quality is not one that the US academic or political community wants to hear; similarities are drawn to other studies with unpopular results that have been attacked, concluding that "diversity rarely extends to ideas that challenge the canon of beliefs.". 4 References. K. Hyatt Stewart

Das Fach Kommunikationswissenschaft hat sich an amerikanischen - wie auch britischen und deutschen - Universitäten fest etabliert und expandiert ständig. Bei der konkreten Beschreibung des Fachkerns herrscht allerdings fast überall die gleiche organisatorische und terminologische Unübersichtlichkeit. Vor diesem Hintergrund versucht der Beitrag den Stand der politischen Kommunikationsforschung als globales wissenschaftliches Projekt zu beschreiben und aufzuzeigen, wie die zukünftige Forschung von einer internationalen Perspektive profitieren könnte. Argumentiert wird, dass die Potentiale der internationalen Kommunikationsforschung bislang bei weitem nicht ausgeschöpft wurden. So erwies sich der Rückgriff auf große Gesellschaftstheorien wie die Weltsystemanalyse, der Cultural Studies-Ansatz oder Kritische Ansätze als wissenschaftlich wenig ertragreich, weil sie von problematischen a priori-Setzungen ausgingen. Plädiert wird zum einen beim internationalen Vergleich statt in Nationen in Kulturen zu denken, zum zweiten faktische Unterschiede zwischen den Kulturen anzuerkennen und diese zum dritten als unabhängige Erklärungsvariablen für die komparative Kommunikationsforschung zu machen. (RG)

It is contended that much contemporary public opinion scholarship is really polemic rather than actual research. Although the necessity of polemic in some professions is acknowledged, it is asserted that public opinion researchers must strive to test hypotheses rather than develop arguments to support conclusions. It is argued that public opinion scholars should concern themselves with evaluating the reliability, validity, & adequacy of evidence. It is subsequently claimed that tests of explanations & the use of null hypotheses distinguish scholarship from polemic. Problems with the deductive nature of critical analysis approaches to public opinion are discussed; specific attention is directed toward the failure of critical communication research literature to account for mass media operations in nonadvanced capitalist nations. The turn away from Karl Marx's works to those of Jurgen Habermas by current critical analysis scholars is viewed as a positive development for international communication studies; nevertheless, the need for such scholarship to resist the lure of polemic is stressed again. 25 References. J. W. Parker

This essay finds major trends that can be identified from the diverse studies in international communication: Anglo-American dominance (but with increasing competition); a resurgence of culture, including global culture; the triumph of independent journalism; and the growth of some powerful media moguls around the world. The essay outlines key questions for researchers to ask of their own studies, and sketches some parameters for scholars seeking to make major contributions to the field of international communication.