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The media audience becomes more and more interested in participating in the news production process and the evaluation of journalistic work. Thus, participatory journalism fills imortant niches that traditional media cannot fill because of market pressure and profitability issues. Since participatory journalism can be seen as a chance for traditional media, we need to know more about it. Hence, we conducted a standardized quantitative online-survey among participatory journalists in Germany and compared our findings with results from the most recent German journalism study. Our basic research question is: How do participatory journalists differ from professional journalists, regarding their attitude towards journalistic ethics, journalistic quality, concerning motivations, perception of their identity and self-concept etc. Our study has identified significant differences but also similarities between participatory and professional journalists. Results suggest that despite significant differences between participatory and professional journalists it cannot be denied that participatory journalists contribute to public opinion building. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the heightened relevance of international contexts, governments increasingly aim to communicate with foreign audiences to convince them of their policies. These strategies can be regarded as part of a nation's public diplomacy. More specifically, they can be called mediated public diplomacy since it is their main goal to distribute messages through foreign media. This paper analyzes the communication during the European migrant crisis as one of the most salient transnational issues in 2015/16. Herein, the paper compares Germany's and Hungary's mediated public diplomacy, their main topics, frames, and their reliance on information subsidies. Through a comparison with the related coverage in CNN and Al- Jazeera it shows that there is a relationship between the (1) reliance on information subsidies and a (2) correspondence between media agenda and the agenda in the mediated public diplomacy. The media's frame building, however, seems to be unaffected by the application of information subsidies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to explore which factors trigger whether and how national media open up for communication flows dealing with European issues. So far research has highlighted factors that explain commonalities in debates between countries as a result of European competences and events. This paper makes an attempt to understand why a specific European issue is debated in a country, but disregarded in another or why issues are debated differently in different countries. Three hypotheses are developed that specify how the national level colors the domestic adaptations of a common European input. To find evidence for the impact of national levels on European debates, a network analysis is conducted for the German and French media reporting and commentating on EU enlargement and a common European Constitution. This network analytic concept of public debates allows for an actor-based and relational explanation of agenda-building processes. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses how Germany and the United States construct Arab or Islamic actors in print media articles around the 9/11 attacks. The analysis focuses on two central questions: Who appears in the media & how are the actors constructed? What self-image is implicitly communicated? One hypothesis is that Arab or Islamic actors are constructed as geographical, cultural or political others. This construction draws an in-group definition for the self via the othering of characteristics that are ascribed to the Arab or Islamic actors. The created image can implicitly serve as an identification platform for the reader as an in-group member. The Arab or Islamic other portrays the behavior or characteristics that deviate from socially favored norms and values. By doing what is not preferred or allowed the other actors help the society (i.e. the self) to remind itself of these norms and of what its own national or trans-national, Western identity is based upon. The analysis covers 8 weeks before and 4 weeks after the event and includes 6 print media. The paper introduces four of the major types of actors and illustrates them with a few examples. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Around the world, markets are increasingly affected by convergence as a result of ongoing internationalisation. Many industries have become global and national borders are no longer of significance, which is especially true for member states of the European Union. However, publishing markets are partly exempted from this process. An increasing number of publishing companies internationalise and enter foreign markets. Despite this development publishing markets remain geographically limited. Coalescence in publishing industries has not taken place due to cultural and linguistic barriers. Newspaper and magazine markets as adequate examples are object of investigation within the scope of this paper. More specific, this paper focuses on media economic analysis of newspaper and magazine sectors in Denmark and Germany. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the history, functions and the formats of the U.S. presidential debates 2004 and the TV-duels in the German Federal Election Campaign 2002. The major result of this comparison is that the German TV-duels are by far different from the U.S. presidential debates. The paper suggests that the German debates follow a logic of their own which is intentionally directed at serving the politicians' and especially the broadcasting media's interests, and not those of the German voters.

The paper describes the system of press instructions with which the Nazi government tried to mnaipulate the public In Germany between 1933 and 1939. Shortly after their seize of power the new political leaders began to edit such instructions. After looking to the organization of this process it is shown how the number of instructions grew over the years. In the core of the paper the types and forms of instructions are analysed. They ranged from strict suppressions to friendly requests. Additionally the paper includes an eye to the system of press instructions that was introduced later under the communist government in the German Democratic Republic. There have been obvious similarities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based primarily on communication science literature available and taught in the German-speaking world. Firstly, it should be noted that this contribution to the theme of the conference is not finalized but is an ongoing work in progress. By the actual conference date, theoretical deduction will have been complemented by first empirical results on the themes presented here. By then the respective borders referenced in this paper will also have been examined and positioned within the context of their theoretical basis. Editorial departments of newspapers in Switzerland, Germany and the USA will have been analyzed empirically, allowing for comparison. The link to the conference theme of "Communication in Borderlands" is established by presenting two borders. On the one hand, "personal borderlands" are identified as different wishes and requirements of newspaper management and newspaper staff within existing organizations. On the other hand, this paper assesses "disciplinary borderlands"; how these can be made accessible and usable for communication science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

September 11 2001 was an "extreme event" in terms of news values research. An analysis of peoples communicative activities on this day can reveal how communicative networks and mass media work under extreme conditions. This paper presents findings from a German study in 2002. Results from telephone interviews with 1460 persons show that the diffusion of the news followed patterns known from other extreme events. Special attention was paid to sources of information about the event, the use of these sources over time and to further activities of information on this day. In the second part of the paper a comparison with data from studies in the US show that media have special strengths and weaknesses according to the local time of the events: news spread faster in Germany in the afternoon by means of television than in the US, while interpersonal communication was more important in early morning America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study explores the repercussions of news media in German science-policy by attending to the concept of mediatization and focusing on structural adaptations of organizations that are relevant stakeholders in the German science-policy constellation: political parties, advisory boards, funding organizations, universities, non-academic research organizations, and disciplinary associations. Results are based on 35 semi-structured in-depth interviews with decision makers within those organizations. This paper identifies similarities and differences considering the extent of mediatization and mediatization strategies, introducing the differentiation of progressive and defensive mediatization strategies. Results provide a typology of science-policy stakeholders and explain differences between the various types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In modern democracies, trust in government is a key indicator of political legitimacy and stability. Drawing on theories of media effects, this paper investigates whether traditional media use has a negative (media-malaise-hypothesis) or a positive (virtuous-circlehypothesis) impact on trust in the national government. For that reason, the study introduces an enhanced measurement for trust in government and suggests a serial-mediation model. To test the model empirically an online survey with 1115 German respondents was conducted. The results suggest that traditional media use has a positive direct impact on trust in government. The positive effect is further mediated by people's evaluations of politicians and their evaluations of political processes. In addition, there is a positive serial-mediation effect of traditional media use on trust in government that runs first through evaluations of politicians and second through evaluations of political processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes which of the various strategic, structural and individual factors explain the use of online campaigning in Germany and compares the influence of these explanatory variables in national, state and local elections. In addition to these predictors, the paper suggests that candidates' beliefs in internet effects also explain the extent of online campaigning. Based on candidate surveys of three German elections in 2009 and 2010 (national, state and local election), the results show that particularly strategic and structural variables, such as party membership or the perceived share of indecisive voters, explains online campaigning. Internet-related perceptions were explanatory in a few cases at the state and local levels. If candidates think that other candidates campaign online they feel obliged to use online media during the election campaign. However, genuine political predictors are still very significant at all federal levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Media channels and news sources have multiplied on cable and the Internet, and many of these sources, especially in the U.S., have clear ideological and partisan profiles. This raises the specter of partisan selectivity and audience fragmentation, or partisan "segregation." The paper investigates this phenomenon in Germany and finds strong evidence of partisan selectivity at the information level based on an information board experiment. At the media level, however, this is clearly not the case. Using representative survey data, the paper investigates media use and bias perceptions of German voters during the 2009 election campaign. The media bias of specific media sources is measured both by direct bias perceptions of survey respondents and as the relative share of readers or viewers with partisan identifications with left-of-center and right-of-center parties. The results suggest that the traditional mainstream media channels still dominate the campaign coverage while the Internet plays only a marginal role in Germany so far. The case for partisan segregation is exceptionally weak, not due to a lack of demand, but due to a lack of supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the transformation of media structures and possible effects on public communication from 1960 to 2005. To build a basis for the evaluation of trends and situations in the various models of media and politics (Hallin/Mancini 2004), this paper will systematically analyze and compare the cases of Austria, Germany, and Switzerland (democratic-corporatist), Great Britain (liberal) and France (polarized-pluralist), by classifying media suppliers and media supply with an etic approach. By this, we can show the large (but not necessarily linear) transformation of media structures: differentiation of the press from its former political and social ties, more press concentration and generally more tabloidization. Against the background of increasingly commercialized media systems, this paper argues for a research design that connects the structural and content side of the media, presenting indicators and first results of an ongoing comparative content analysis. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper "Writing the History of the Discipline: A Sociology of Science Approach to the History of Communication Research" provides an approach towards a disciplinary historiography which is founded on the sociology of science and helps to systematically and transparently describe and explain the development of communication research. The aims of our paper are to reflect on how the intellectual and the social dimension of science and its environments are related to each other, to reflect different factors of disciplinary development, to provide a system of categories for research, and finally to discuss whether historical research is compatible with theoretically deduced proceeding. After a brief discussion of different approaches in German and American historiography of mass communication research - such as intellectual, biographical and institutional approaches - we develop and explain an integrated model of disciplinary historiography that meets the demands of social sciences: theoretical foundation, methodological reflection and transparency. In a third step we discuss whether the principles of social-scientific research, especially theoretically deduced proceeding, are compatible with those of historiographic inquiry. It will be important for us to consider that our approach has to be sensitive to historical circumstances. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last years "religion" went a more and more important topic in German media culture. A break for this was the election of the German pope and the catholic World Youth Day - both impressive media events. But also looking at the Internet and computer games religion is a topic again. Based on large scale empirical studies on the World Youth Day (2005) and present "digital religious worlds" (2007), the paper argues that we can understand "branding" as one dominant pattern of the mediatisation of religion: Firstly, mediatization implies a pressure on different religions to communicate themselves in a quantitative perspective across different media. Only if a "religious offer" exists like a brand across the different media it has a chance to present itself "in the centre" of media cultures. Secondly, mediatization means that religious contents do lose their "sacred", "exclusive" space of communication. The communicative space of the present media is increasingly a commercialised space of product competition. Therefore branding refers to the necessity of a self-presentation in the present media. In discussing this, the paper contextualises the process of "mediatization of religion" critically in its interrelation to a "commercialization of religion". ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the debate about the future of public service broadcasting in the UK and Germany. Under the impact of new media technologies and political de-regulation, a 'paradigm shift' has occurred towards a 'market model' of broadcasting regulation. Yet, public-service broadcasting in these countries enjoys a strong legitimacy and an institutional entrenchment underpinned by path dependency of public policy, and in Germany's case a constitutional-legal commitment to public-service broadcasting. In both countries, though more so in the case of the BBC, public broadcasters have met the challenge of the new media by developing a range of new services. Despite coming under the close scrutiny of the European Commission competition authorities, the expansion strategies of the public service broadcasters have so far not been impeded from that quarter, though they have been compelled to define their remits more clearly and make their funding arrangements transparent. The paper argues that the BBC has benefited from special advantages. It is viewed not simply as a public service broadcaster, but both as a key driver of new digital media and also as the UK's 'national champion' in the global media marketplace. To this extent, it has enjoyed a greater licence than have the German public broadcasters to expand the range of its new media activities. Hitherto, German policy makers appear to have been more traditional in their thinking about the nature of the public serrvice remit and more swayed by the commercial communications lobby, though this may change in light of recent developments. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to outline fundamental aspects of the ethics of PR within a theoretical-analytical framework in the first part of the paper. This is achieved on the basis of some major ethical problems and an analysis of potential conflicts that are relevant to PR and which are reflected in different ethical approaches, in particular, individual and organizational ethics or the ethics of responsibility and the ethics of conviction (Max Weber). Problematic ethical issues are defined and structured systematically in a model which distinguishes between different relationships. An overview of the status of research in the German-speaking context on the topic of PR ethics facilitates provisional statements appertaining to the awareness and acceptance of ethical codes in Germany.Some important results of a recent survey of 2,312 German PR practitioners are presented. This survey was carried out in 2007 and focused on aspects of PR ethics, on the acceptance and the degree of familiarity with ethical guidelines in Germany's professional field of PR practitioners, on the significance of morally induced goals and professional self-understandings or professional identities. It could be shown how important truthfulness is seen for German PR practitioners and which - specifically ethical - reasons are evaluated as problematic for the industry. On the basis of a debate about tie-in deals in Germany that currently reached a level of intensity results about the acceptance and legitimacy of such procedures within the professional sphere are also introduced. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reports considerable changes in content and style of German election coverage between 1990 and 2005. The findings are based on a content analysis of the main evening news of the four major television channels, spanning five Bundestag elections and focusing on the portrayal of the chancellor candidates. During the observation period television has immensely expanded its coverage of the candidates. Simultaneously there was an increase in the visualization of candidate portrayal. German television news conveys an increasingly lively, colorful and exciting picture of the election campaign. The changes partially fit into the pattern of convergence (i.e., a mutual assimilation of public and commercial channels). As well as studying the change in style, our analysis also looks at some specifics of the 2005 election when for the first time a woman was contending for the office of chancellor. Our comparison of the television image of the candidates contradicts the presumption that a woman competing for chancellorship might come off worse in the news than her male adversary. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While literature on melancholy in the European, especially German, context is readily available, research on melancholy in a contemporary American context is limited. When American melancholy is addresed, its focus is primarily in the realm of psychology and aspects of depression or sadness. Not only has there been little formal research on melancholy in contemporary America, it appears that the state of melancholy is antithetical to American values of success and progress. Germans, on the other hand, have been willing to address melancholy as an issue in the context of German culture. Does this mean then that only Germans are melancholic? Certainly not. This paper examines themes of melancholy in two films -- the German film, "Gegen die Wand," and the American film, "Sideways." The analysis indicates surprising similarities in melancholic themes in these two contemporary and popular films. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Instant Messaging has become one of the major applications on the Internet. It supports textual, fast-paced one-to-one communication and it can facilitate the establishment and maintenance of interpersonal relations. The paper presents some of the findings of a research project in Germany on the users and uses of Instant Messaging. We focus on how Instant Messaging is incorporated into interpersonal communication, how it affects relationships and the identity construction during the communication process. We also discuss the impact on communication inside of groups and what role Instant Messaging communication plays there. We will touch on several questions: Are fictional identities common in Instant Messaging communication, and what gratifications can they promise? What role plays Instant Messaging in groups of online gamers or high-school students? What can we learn about the network-building features of Instant Messaging? The data we present is based on 54 qualitative interviews, 8 group discussions and a web-based survey with more than 10.000 participants, collected in 2003. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a considerable amount of evidence to suggest that the political preferences of voters are influenced by the condition of the domestic economy. This paper examines the assumption that the connections between one specific economic development - namely unemployment - and the public’s voting preferences are mediated by the way in which the television news cover unemployment. Using a time series analysis approach (August 1994 ? September 1998) with monthly aggregated data, it is shown that the media follow negative conditions in the labor market more closely than positive conditions. Although the television coverage fails to exert a direct effect on voting preferences, it does exert an independent and indirect effect through its impact on the public?s perceptions of candidates, party competence, and the importance of unemployment as a national problem. Television inadvertently disadvantaged the mainstream parties and helped the radical right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different environments impose different constraints on communication. In noisy environments, people naturally begin to communicate with gestures. This process may be observed between people in workplaces that are characterized by noise, heavy machinery, and distance between work stations. Previous research has documented that in certain environments workers spontaneously develop gesture codes to facilitate communication, allowing them to transmit messages either against noise or across distance. In this paper, I explain how I explored the possibility of creating and implementing a gesture code to help improve factory communication at a fish factory in France. This goal was met with challenges, however. Although communication with new gestures during practice runs allowed selected workers to communicate a specific message more efficiently in terms of response times, the actual implementation of a gesture code between two teams in situ was unsuccessful. In my discussion of this intervention, I will also report on data collected at a chocolate factory in Germany where the goal was also to create and implement a gesture code although this proved unnecessary. My work could be of interest to researchers working in the field of language and social interaction and also to workplace practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agenda-setting approach traditionally deals with news coverage. However, there is also evidence that fictional entertainment can have an impact on the public's agenda. Our paper builds on those findings and focuses on a specific part of agenda-setting: the role of fictional entertainment in the process of intermedia agenda-setting. Using the feature film The Day After Tomorrow as an example, a time-series analysis was conducted to determine the impact of the film on news media coverage in Germany. Findings show that the film not only had a short-term effect on German news coverage of climate change but also an, albeit weak long-term effect. The effects remain when controlling for real-life events and the news input (indicated by the number of news agency reports). On the whole the results prove that political communication research needs to further consider and examine the political impact of fictional entertainment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comparative study of the deliberative qualities of television news programs in three different types of democracy: a multi-party parliamentarian democracy (Germany), a two-party, presidential democracy (the U.S.), and a defective authoritarian democracy (Russia). An analytical model is developed that (a) specifies important empirical criteria for measuring the deliberative qualities of television news and (b) develops bivariate causal explanations for these features drawing on structural and cultural aspects of the political and media contexts in the three countries. A large-scale content analysis of ten news programs in the three countries was conducted to test the hypotheses. Results show that Russia differs markedly from the other two countries but that three distinct models of mediated deliberation emerge. In addition, the deliberative value of public-service television channels is clearly demonstrated. In conclusion, we call for more comparative work on the democratic performance of the news media in different settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Germany has become notorious for its rather rigid approach on media regulations for protecting minors, particular from audio-visual media such as movies and video games. One of the most recent reforms of the Juvenile Protection Law demanded the increase of the size of age ratings label on movie and video game covers. This paper analyzes the effectiveness of this reform for the perception of age rating labels by relying on a 2 (old vs. new age rating label) x 2 (parents vs. children) experimental study using eye-tracking technology. A total of 52 parent-child-dyads took part in the study. We found that the new legislation has led to an increase in the perception of age rating labels both for parents and children. For the adolescents we find evidence for forbidden fruit effects, though, enhancing the attractiveness of age inappropriate media content due to the increase in the salience of age rating labels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The US and German movie industry has to cope with an increasing loss of movie goers in the last years. As alternative forms of home entertainment technology become increasingly popular, mainly the amount of younger people among movie goers declined. The rediscovery of 3D-technology is recently seen as a key growth driver for the movie industry. To date, this technology attracted mainly younger audiences. Still, elderly people are among the growing segment of movie goers. The present study explores in how far 3D-technology is potentially of interest for elderly media users. Based on TAM and adoption research, a research model on elderly peoples' acceptance of 3D-technology is deduced. For the empirical test of the model an explorative paper-pen survey among German people over 50 years was carried out. Results indicate that the perceived usefulness and costs (willingness to pay) are factors for the acceptance of 3D. Furthermore, possible 3D settings that may attract elderly media users were explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we discuss how the relationship between professional, participatory and technical communication on the Internet can be described in theoretical and empirical respect. Initially an overall framework is presented in which three types of relations are distinguished: competition, complementation and integration. These are more general patterns also found in media evolution. Then we present key findings of a research project in which we explored online journalism in Germany. The results of a newsroom survey draw a multilayered picture of professional journalism, social media and (news) search engines. 183 editors-in-chief of online newsrooms participated in the study, which took place in 2007 (response rate: 44%). We found little evidence that weblogs or other social media are turning out to replace the traditional form of journalism as a profession. It seems to be more likely that they complement one another in different ways (source, follow-up communication of audience etc.). That is also true for (news) search engines which are important instruments for investigation and monitoring in newsrooms. Besides this, we observed that the integration of participatory formats like weblogs into professional news websites is expansive. Therefore, the study also reflects on the following questions: What kinds of features have already been implemented? How do newsrooms manage user contributions on their sites? And what effects from user participation can be observed? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Straubhaar's 'concept of cultural proximity' (1991) argues that audiences in general prefer national entertainment products to foreign ones, for instance Hollywood productions, because of greater familiarity (in terms of language and culture, Hallenberger, 2002) aswell as lesser 'cultural discount' (Hoskins & Mirus, 1988). Accordingto domestic television ratings this thesis holds true for Germany aswell. In Germany, however, we experience an increasing audience fragmentation: Whereas national products are very popular with older viewers, younger ones, especially those with higher education, preferUS-American content (Zubayr & Gerhard, 2010), particularlyseries/serials (Gerhards & Klingler, 2009). In this paper we look at cultural proximity from an audience point ofview: How do spectators perceive cultural proximity or cultural discount and how important is this perception for their evaluation ofnon-nationally produced series. In May 2010 we conducted an online survey with 3404 German students to address this question. Firstly,our results confirm that most do indeed prefer US-American TV series.For their evaluation of TV series, aspects of cultural proximity aresecondary, instead characters and production values are paramount. At the same time, however, preference of US-American series is in fluenced by national identity - but with counterintuitive effects: The more patriotic a German student rates him- or herself, the more foreign series he or she watches. Consequences of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes the development of the free media system in East Germany since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The mass media were part of the peaceful revolution in East Germany in 1989 and contributed to the end of the socialist regime. In addition to political and social upheavals there was a fundamental restructuring of the media system in East Germany that followed the reunification of Germany. The task of media policy was to convert the previously state-controlled media system into a pluralistic media landscape which contributes to the success of democracy. This paper now focuses on the question whether media legislation was adjusted to the regional needs of the emerging Eastern German federal states or whether it has just been copied from the West. Experience from this transformation process - 20 years after the transformation - might also be useful for other states which go the path of democratisation and grant their media more freedom. For the analysis of the transformation process literature, original sources, documents and archives have been taken into consideration. In addition, 435 interviews with experts - former and current persons in charge in the media and politics - were conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the presence of different types of gender roles (working and nonworking, functional, and dominance) in 1861 advertisements coming from German, Polish and American magazines published in 2007. A primary contribution of the paper is the cross-cultural comparison and the inclusion of two European countries in which gender roles in magazine advertising have not been studied previously. All sampled ads were content analyzed and comparisons between genders were carried out separately for each genre in every country by chi-square analysis.Our main results suggest that women and men are shown in different roles in magazine advertising. In particular, women are by comparison to men heavily underrepresented in recreational and family roles in most of the magazines analyzed. The most common nonworking roles for both men and women are decorative and actors are mostly presented in a symbolic association with the product. As far as dominance is concerned, equality between the genders is the most frequently found relationship in ads from all magazine genres. Finally, we have found a clear standardization of the portrayed gender roles across magazine genres in all studied countries and very few similarities across different genres within individual countries. This result suggests that each genre portrays a unique set of gender roles. Hence, the collapsing of genres as it has been common in previous research may have hidden some underlying differences in gender roles between genres. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper traces "difficult guests" who violate the tacit rules that guide interactions between media people and non-media people. One of them is the trainer of the German national soccer team who, in an interview, dismisses journalistic work as "unbelievable rubbish". The second case studies Jon Stewart accusing the hosts of CNN's Crossfire of "partisan hackery". The third case explores an interview with a German ex-hostage in Iraq who voices her preference for Al Jazeera on German television. My goal is to theorize the appearance of such "media rebels" on television. Using the media events (Dayan & Katz, 1992) and media scandals (Lull & Hinerman, 1997) approaches as starting points, I suggest that a media incidents theory can be developed. This emerging concept introduces a new class of media occurrences which perform, it is argued, a much more critical function for citizens in today's media-saturated societies than both media events and scandals. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Looking at France, Germany and the UK, the paper examines the impact of globalization, new media and deregulatory pressures on national 'cultural policy toolkits' for the television sector, namely public service broadcasting, media ownership rules, subsidies and investment and scheduling quotas. There is evidence of competitiveness motivated deregulation of media ownership rules in all three cases. Other than that though, the countries' cultural policy toolkits appear robust and demonstrate a striking degree of path dependent policy-making. Some aspects of UK television policy are certainly redolent of deregulatory competition and the UK approach has progressively relieved the private sector of the kind of regulatory burdens imposed by the French approach. Similarly, when private commercial television was introduced in the mid 1980s the subsequent decade saw fierce regulatory competition between the German Länder to attract media investment, leaving the private sector comparatively free of regulatory obligations. Yet, in the UK and Germany public service broadcasting, the principal element of the cultural policy toolkit, has remained comparatively well resourced. The French case is a paradox. The adaptation of the protectionist French system of programme quotas and subsidies to the digital age could be seen as upward regulation. France exhibits a particularly strong political commitment to a distinctive and elaborate regulatory and interventionist cultural policy toolkit. It has aggressively championed a global struggle to defend national cultural identities in the face of the domination of American production. Yet, public service television and national television production are weak in comparison with its more 'liberal' neighbours. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the question is addressed whether the economic news coverage affects the public's perceptions of the state of the economy. Economic perceptions are an especially interesting case study for communication scholars because both first-hand observations and economic news coverage are available as information sources. It is assumed that news coverage has stronger effects as media dependency grows and the availability of first-hand information declines. Furthermore, media effects are expected on the perception of national economic matters, while the personal environment is observed directly. In order to test these assumptions, a time series analysis of economic perceptions, economic news coverage and real business development in Germany 1998-2007 is performed. The empirical results reveal support for the assumptions. National economic situation and labor market are perceived solely via the mass media; consumer prices via both mass media and first-hand observations; and the personal financial situation mainly via first-hand experiences. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the question is raised whether journalism at its beginnings was indeed a profession only for men. The leading question, therefore, can be surmised as: Is historical journalism a gendered profession? Or do we approach journalism with gendered research patterns, so that we produce and reproduce a gendered academic discourse on journalism? In order to give some answers to these questions, I will first present the results of a research project dealing with the cultural, social and work-related positioning of women writers in German-speaking countries at the end of the 19th century, which is based on a complete census collected between 1896 and 1898. In a second step, the occupation and opus of those women writers who worked for periodicals will be analysed along established concepts of journalism in order to illustrate how women are systematically excluded by dominant concepts of what journalism is and journalists actually do. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I examine the ways in which Israeli soldiers who refuse to serve in the Occupied Territories utilize spatial representations and metaphors to legitimate their acts of dissent. Military refuseniks construct the Territories as a space of pollution, irrationality, disorder, and death, with the fear expressed that these qualities might seep into Israeli space and contaminate it; they employ metaphors of movement to portray the transition from "here" to "there" as a shift into an alternate universe; and they appropriate hegemonic conceptualizations associated with three culturally loaded spaces - the prison, the Jewish settlements in the Territories, and Nazi Germany - to attempt to destabilize the existing discursive spatial order. The intertwining of subversive and dominant frameworks of thought in refusenik discourse and their cultural implications are discussed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments all over the world have responded to the offer of violent and sexual-themed video games by inaugurating regulatory bodies. Still, video games with content that is deemed unsuitable for children are played even by young children. With a focus on the situation in Germany the aim of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, the current state of literature on the importance of age ratings for the regulation of video games is scrutinized. Therefore, the focus is on the German rating systeme by the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK) [Entertainment Software Self Control]. This scheme is compared in particular to the American Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) scheme and parallels with the Pan-European PEGI-system (Pan European Game Information) are drawn. On the other hand, results from an exploratory survey study on the preferences for video games among German 8 to 12 year olds are presented (N=1703), arguing that the preference for video games that are - based on the German USK-code - not suitable for them is a widespread phenomenon in particular among boys. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops and tests a new multi-dimensional index - CAMPROF - that is designed to measure and compare parties' use of professionalized campaign communication techniques during elections. Based on the extant literature we identify and operationalize the essential components of this new form of campaigning to create a 30 point index that is applied to the case of the 2005 German federal election. The results show the CAMPROF index is successful in capturing variance in parties' engagement professionalized campaigning and able to produce rankings that correspond to apriori expectations about how well the parties would perform. The findings are significant in providing preliminary confirmation of the index's capacity to measure new modes of voter contact and outreach by parties and candidates as well as providing new insights into the party-level dynamics that may be driving the current wave of campaign modernization. The opportunities and challenges involved in wider application of the measure to cross-national research are discussed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the end of World War II, radio and television journalism was a key tool of reconciliation between former enemies France and Germany. Today, the reconciliation framework of transborder journalism is gone. Gone, too, are border checkpoints, as the Saarland, Lorraine and Luxembourg attempt to unify their transborder region. This paper looks at the potential and the challenges as broadcast journalists act as cultural mediators in the SaarLorLux region. Through analysis of in-depth interviews, this study investigates how these journalists articulate their professional and regional identity. The historical legacy of transborder journalism in this area forms a foundation for such work. But in other respects, individual passion and commitment seem to support the existence of border-transcending journalism. This case study highlights the tension between tradition and a precarious future. These findings are valuable for understanding shifting notions of regional identity and of what it means to be a journalist. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Muhammad cartoon controversy conflict catalyzed numerous debates on the topics of freedom of the press, its limits, and the balance in accordance with other human rights. This study analyzes this discussion about freedom of speech in 3 German newspapers. It concentrates on the thematic focus of discourse content and its fluctuations in the course of time. Thereby, 5 argumentation patterns are identified: Articles approving limitations of freedom of speech or disapproving them (religious limitations play a major role in these 2 clusters), articles concentrating on censorship, articles concentrating on other endangerments of freedom of speech, and articles discussing the general necessity for safeguarding freedom of speech. Furthermore, the viewpoint of the media, which do not only report on the discussion but are affected by it themselves, is analyzed. The media use editorial pages to express their disapproval about limiting their freedom. Reasons for freedom of speech and its advantages hardly occur in the German media. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study applied the functional theory of political campaign discourse to three televised debates in Germany during 2002 and 2005; results are then compared with content analyses of political leaders' debates from America and Israel. Overall, acclaims were the most common function, followed by attacks and then defenses. Policy was addressed more often than character in these debates. The incumbent candidates acclaimed significantly more and attacked less than the challengers. The incumbents used past deeds significantly more often to acclaim - and less to attack - than the challengers. These patterns are consistent with analysis of American and Israeli political debates, suggesting that the situation facing candidates for political office may incline them to produce discourse with important similarities that transcend national borders. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the background of prior (US) research and theory on gender differences in public relations and the extraordinarily high feminization trend of the German agency sector, we decided to investigate the roles of ‘new’ gender stereotypes and the organizational context for women’s careers in PR. We hereby present one very recent German qualitative study and its findings on this matter. Long interviews were conducted to allow thirteen female public relations experts to explain their view on women’s situation in PR in general, and to describe their own careers. Findings reveal the evolution of a ‘PR bunny’ stereotype that adds a negative touch to the female image as ‘natural born communicators’ and support the argument that women prefer (1) the organizational culture of PR agencies, (2) agency-specific job tasks, and (3) agency-specific work processes. Possible consequences for female PR practitioners and PR as a profession are discussed – beyond the boundaries of national research. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public trust defines a specific type as well as result of trust building processes that has been insufficiently analyzed by the current public relations research. Based on a case study, the authors develop and specify elements of a theory of public trust. Thereby, they identify social phenomena (trust factors) and mechanisms (discrepancies), which affect trust building processes. The presented empirical data are extracted from a recent and very important case in Germany that examines the loss of trust in the former chief executive officer of the Federal Employment Office (BA). The findings not only show that the mechanisms of public communication processes and processes of public trust building are strongly interdependent, but they provide as well relevant insights in the way of managing such situations of public crisis. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Five days in advance of the 2005 German national election experts and native and novice respondents were asked to predict the outcome. An experimental manipulation consisted of providing poll information in the form of a figure to half of the questionnaires of the non-expert sample. The results show that (1) experts were overconfident but not necessarily more accurate than non-experts in making predictions, that (2) pre-election poll information improved the forecasting ability of novice outsiders, and that (3) partisan preferences biased the forecasts to a small degree (projection effect). ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comedy shows are a popular form of television entertainment. Lately, a new type of comedy show has emerged in Germany: the so-called Ethno-Comedies, i.e., comedy shows containing mostly ethnic and interethnic jokes. This study presents selected results of the first qualitative content analysis of the forerunner of ethnic comedy shows in Germany, the show Was guckst du?!. Focusing on the central issues of ethnic humor and stereotyping, it provides examples of ethnic and interethnic jokes and explains mechanisms how peculiarities of ethnic groups can be employed in order to create humorous effects. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship of the world to the USA and vice versa became a global topic at the very latest after September 11, 2001. Plenty of empirical data indicate that there is a growing resentment against the US not only but very obviously in Europe. From the perspective of communication studies, it can be assumed that the media play a fundamental role in spreading and establishing such stereotypes and preconceptions. In particular media dependency and cultivation effects can be expected. The authors conducted a survey to clarify how the use of the media affects relations between Germans and the USA as well as how it affects the spread of anti-American stereotypes. The results show that the tendency is towards a negative stereotypical image of the USA by the Germans. Furthermore anti-Americanism seems to be an elite attitude, as people with higher education and higher political interest tend to agree with negative stereotypes more frequently. The assumption that such stereotypical images are shaped by the media can be confirmed, even if the detailed results are somewhat different than originally assumed. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research focuses on the various roles that media play in the lives of young immigrants from the FSU in Israel and in Germany who found themselves at the crossroads between three cultures: the host culture, the Russian, and the global youth culture. This situation provided an opportunity to investigate the roles of different media in the process of young immigrants settling into their new country, preservation of their original culture, and development of new cultural leanings. Semi-structured interviews with 60 families who immigrated to Israel and Germany between 1990-2003 were employed. The interviews were conducted with children individually as well as in a focus group comprised of family members in order to investigate the dynamics of family interaction that surround media consumption. The interviews addressed domains such as: media consumption habits, the role of the media in children’s social lives, and the role of the media in family conflicts. The functions of media for mastery of the host language and maintaining control of the Russian language were found to be a central theme in all spheres of life. As the children seek to fit into their new host-land, they employ the host media to accelerate their language learning as well as to signal the forming of their new identity to parents and friends. At the same time, they are involved in a variegated relationship with media in Russian that can include avoidance, active resistence, but also actively seeking them, as a declaration of a choice of identity. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a study which compared the influence of news factors on foreign news coverage in Mexico and Germany. Research that refers to the theory of newsworthiness and their international or intercultural validity is rare, limited to small samples or only take poorly operationalized news factors as a basis. Daily national newspapers in Mexico were analyzed according to foreign news stories, assigned space, position within the newspaper and the news factors.

While research on televised debates predominantly focuses on their direct impact on voters' political beliefs and behavioral intentions, the question of whether debate effects are stable over time has been largely ignored. With data collected in the context of the 2002 German televised debates we demonstrate that evaluations of the candidates' debate performances are highly instable. The reason is that voters compare their own perceptions to the views represented in their social networks and the interpretations provided by the mass media. To avoid dissonances, they adjust their opinions in accordance with the other information channels. While interpersonal communication is more important for the adjustment process after the first debate, mass communication had a greater impact in the context of the second debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An old and basically unsolved problem is whether political media coverage causes political mobilization or political alienation. Both of these contradictory assumptions seem to have been verified to the same extend by empirical studies. Yet, both theories are mostly examined by one time surveys which do not justify the claim that recipients’ evaluations were really caused by media coverage. As a consequence, it remains unsure which of these assumptions is correct. This study is concerned with the influence of political media coverage on individual changes in recipients’ judgments on politics. We employed a combination of the methods of content analysis of television news and a panel survey conducted in six waves within a period of over three years. Content analysis data and survey data were then linked for each individual recipient. Recipients who had obtained predominantly positive information about politicians and political parties via television news four weeks prior to an interview did not develop a more positive political attitude. However, those recipients who had received predominantly negative information developed a less favorable view on politics. Causes and effects of these results will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]