The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society

PART ONE: MASS COMMUNICATION AND SOCIETY Public Communication and Public Interest Contested Territory Media Performance Traditions of Enquiry The `Public Interest' in Communication PART TWO: MEDIA PERFORMANCE NORMS Performance Norms in Media Policy Discourse The Newspaper Press Performance Norms in Media Policy Discourse Broadcasting A Framework of Principle for Media Assessment PART THREE: RESEARCH MODELS AND METHODS Media Organizational Performance Models and Research Options PART FOUR: MEDIA FREEDOM Concepts and Models of Media Freedom Media Freedom From Structure to Performance Media Freedom The Organizational Environment PART FIVE: DIVERSITY Varieties and Processes of Diversity Taking the Measure of Diversity Media Reflection Media Access and Audience Choice PART SIX: OBJECTIVITY Concepts of Objectivity A Framework for Objectivity Research Measuring Objectivity News as Information Measuring Objectivity The Evaluative Dimension of News PART SEVEN: MASS MEDIA, ORDER AND SOCIAL CONTROL Media and the Maintenance of Public Order Policing the Symbolic Environment Solidarity and Social Identity PART EIGHT: MEDIA AND CULTURE Questions of Culture and Mass Communication Cultural Identity and Autonomy Whose Media Culture? PART NINE: IN CONCLUSION Changing Media, Changing Mores Implications for Assessment

Media performance : mass communication and the public interest / Denis Mcquail

Posting comments on the news is one of the most popular forms of user participation in online newspapers, and there is great potential for public discourse that is associated with this form of user communication. However, this potential arises only when several users participate in commenting and when their communication becomes interactive. Based on an adaption of Galtung and Ruge’s theory of newsworthiness, we hypothesized that a news article’s news factors affect both participation levels and interactivity in a news item’s comments section. The data from an online content analysis of political news are consistent with the hypotheses. This article explores the ways in which news factors affect participation levels and interactivity, and it discusses the theoretical, normative, and practical implications of those findings.

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Discussions in the comments section: Factors influencing participation and interactivity in online newspapers’ reader comments

Im echten (analogen) Leben sind wir eher selten offenen Beleidigungen oder Hass ausgesetzt. Im Internet hingegen lesen wir deutlich häufiger wütende, hasserfüllte Kommentare, Snaps, Tweets und Posts gegen uns oder gegen andere. Für diesen Hass im Netz gibt es den Begriff "Hate Speech". Hate Speech ist ein Phänomen dem rund zwei Drittel (67 Prozent) der Onliner schon einmal begegnet sind, wie eine forsa-Umfrage im Auftrag der Landesanstalt für Medien NRW (LfM) zeigt.

What about Hate Speech

The study of climate change communication has become an important research field. As stakeholders such as scientists, politicians, corporations, or NGOs increasingly turn to the Internet and social media for providing information and mobilizing support, and as an increasing number of people use these media, online communication on climate change and climate politics has become a relevant topic. This article reviews the available scholarly literature on the role of online and social media in climate communication. It analyzes how stakeholders use online communication strategically, showing, for example, that climate scientists and scientific institutions do not seem to be major players in online debates about climate change and climate politics. Furthermore, it highlights the characteristics of online climate communication, outlining, for example, that although (or because) many stakeholders participate online, this does not lead to robust scientific information or better debates. Eventually, the review assesses what is known about the uses and effects of online climate communication, showing that impacts on the broader public seem to be limited so far. Research desiderata are identified in the end, and directions for further studies are shown. WIREs Clim Change 2012, 3:527–543. doi: 10.1002/wcc.191

This article is categorized under: 

Perceptions, Behavior, and Communication of Climate Change > Communication

Online communication on climate change and climate politics: a literature review

Today, universities and research organizations are expected to present themselves as service enterprises that cater to the needs of the customer and give a modern impression to compete internationa...

Promoting Science on the Web Public Relations for Scientific Organizations—results of a Content Analysis

Although most Turks in Germany belong to the second or third generation of immigrants, they have retained the social, cultural, and religious identity of their country of origin. This article deals with this double identity of young Turks in Germany and their language-bound exposure to television, radio, press, and the Internet. Telephone survey data are presented regarding the integration and media use of Turks in Germany. The survey was carried out in 2006 on behalf of the public broadcasting station of North Rhine-Westphalia (Westdeutscher Rundfunk, WDR). The analyses identify and describe different types of integration of Turks and investigate the relationship between their level of integration and their demographic profile as well as their patterns of media use. Causal analysis was focused on the question how different strategies of acculturation influence the use of mass media.

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Types of Integration, Acculturation Strategies and Media Use of Young Turks in Germany

In recent debates on offensive language in participatory online spaces, the term ‘hate speech’ has become especially prominent. Originating from a legal context, the term usually refers to violent threats or expressions of prejudice against particular groups on the basis of race, religion, or sexual orientation. However, due to its explicit reference to the emotion of hate, it is also used more colloquially as a general label for any kind of negative expression. This ambiguity leads to misunderstandings in discussions about hate speech and challenges its identification. To meet this challenge, this article provides a modularized framework to differentiate various forms of hate speech and offensive language. On the basis of this framework, we present a text annotation study of 5,031 user comments on the topic of immigration and refuge posted in March 2019 on three German news sites, four Facebook pages, 13 YouTube channels, and one right-wing blog. An in-depth analysis of these comments identifies various types of hate speech and offensive language targeting immigrants and refugees. By exploring typical combinations of labeled attributes, we empirically map the variety of offensive language in the subject area ranging from insults to calls for hate crimes, going beyond the common ‘hate/no-hate’ dichotomy found in similar studies. The results are discussed with a focus on the grey area between hate speech and offensive language.

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From Insult to Hate Speech: Mapping Offensive Language in German User Comments on Immigration

Communication research highlights deficiencies in the media’s representation of migrants. The study at hand analyzes these deficiencies from the perspective of the migrants concerned: How do they perceive their representation in the media, especially on television? And how do they assess the perceived situation with regard to immigrant integration? This topic has been examined in a qualitative pilot study based on six group discussions amongst migrants and Swiss citizens with an immigration background in the German-, French-, and Italian-speaking parts of Switzerland. The results show a high discrepancy between the desire for more presence and participation on the one hand, and the wish to stand in the spotlight less often, on the other hand.

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Ethnic Minorities in the Mass Media: How Migrants Perceive Their Representation in Swiss Public Television

A stereotype is commonly understood as a generalizing image of individuals (or groups of individuals) who are not evaluated according to their individual characteristics but rather according to their group membership. The stereotype concept has three dimensions: categorization, value-neutral generalization, and negative generalization. The media representation of racial and ethnic minorities is highly relevant in the context of social integration of groups and minorities into mainstream society. In the literature on media representation of minorities, a common observation is their low visibility or marginalization as well as their negative generalizations and contextualization.


Keywords:

mass media;
minorities;
representation;
social integration;
stereotypes

Joachim Trebbe

Papers

Promoting Science on the Web Public Relations for Scientific Organizations—results of a Content Analysis

Types of Integration, Acculturation Strategies and Media Use of Young Turks in Germany

From Insult to Hate Speech: Mapping Offensive Language in German User Comments on Immigration

Ethnic Minorities in the Mass Media: How Migrants Perceive Their Representation in Swiss Public Television

Media Representation: Racial and Ethnic Stereotypes