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The rise of National Socialism in the late 1920s and 1930s happened within democratic societies with well-developed media systems. This gives rise to whether an increasingly right-wing press climate aided the emergence of National Socialism. Based on a comparative analysis of post-election reporting in German and Austrian newspapers, this paper argues that changes in the spectrum of opinion-leading media and in the relations both between them and with the opinion-following media can serve as indicators of a democracy at risk. Utilizing sociometric theory, it is hypothesized that in times of severe democratic crisis, the gap between elite-dominated, opinion-leading media and mass newspapers widens; reciprocal orientation among the opinion-leading media is lessened; and, finally, the composition of this group changes in favour of radical political forces. There is empirical evidence for all assumptions, reflecting a growing significance of extreme right-wing positions in the political information environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms are important regional identity anchors. Accordingly, acquisitions by foreign companies are publicly discussed regarding the gains or losses in regional prestige that they bring about. However, the perception and evaluation of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in public discourse has so far only been marginally analysed. The study therefore examines the interpretation and evaluation of inward and outward M&As in Vienna between 1999 and 2016 by highly reputed local print media providing comprehensive business coverage. The three main approaches are differentiated according to their valuing of the regional impact of M&As – an orthodox, a heterodox, and a relational perspective. These perspectives are operationalized in terms of the concept of 'framing', which refers to the aspects of an issue that are emphasized in media coverage to elicit a certain interpretation and thus, to make the issue socially relevant. The results show a regionally 'uneven' media reception, which is expressed in the application of different frames to inward and outward M&As. Over time, and particularly during the crisis since 2009, the heterodox frame seems to have dominated media evaluation. Hence, the arguments on inward and outward M&As still differ: the implications for the own region seem to influence media evaluations of M&As. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 2017 Austrian national election campaign, political parties that had traditionally focused on press releases and conferences to influence the media's agenda made extensive use of Twitter for the very first time. This study examines the impact of the parties' Twitter campaigns on the substantive issue agendas of five leading legacy media outlets. Compared with the impact of parties' news releases, the results show that, on an aggregated level, Twitter feeds significantly increase the parties' agenda-building power, but are not influenced by the media agenda – with the exception of the personal accounts of the top candidates (particularly the new leader of the winning conservative party), who follow the media agenda to a significant extent. On an individual level, incumbent parties are the most successful in using Twitter, while small parties suffer from interactions with other parties in communicating their issue priorities (which is in line with the 'normalisation thesis'). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting with considerations on the ongoing transformation of broadcast journalism borne by technological, economic and societal changes, the study aims at clarifying the role of Austrian community media in relation to the public and commercial sector. Setting out from the assumption that legal documents codify social change, and hence are barometers for collectively recognized conceptions and norms and of the changes they undergo, all Austrian legal texts and funding guidelines concerning broadcasting were subject to a comparative analysis with respect to their underlying perceptions of the societal role of broadcast media. The analysis has shown that there is no longer a broadcast journalism as such, but rather that several images of the role of broadcast journalism and conceptions of its function exist side by side. Different conceptions of democracy are perceptible as the basis of their legitimacy and they reflect the change from a traditional representative model to a participatory conception, such as is especially widespread among younger generations. Alternative forms of broadcast journalism, as practiced by community media, are thus acquiring greater significance: forms that no longer treat media communication as one-directional, but rather as fundamentally participative offerings - in order to encourage and empower people to become aware of and responsible for their social environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As election campaigns changed substantially in Western countries, it is generally hypothesized that this change in campaign communication is rooted in a revolution in communications, with the media rejecting its former role as mere transmitters and becoming a major actor in the campaigning process. Regarding the analysis of the “mediatization of politics”, Strömbäck presented a four phases model which offers a way to explore such a process in an explicit and systematic fashion. The resulting struggle between political parties and the media over who shall control the agendas of campaigns forces politicians to adapt to and, finally, to adopt media logic. By operationalizing these four phases in order to allow for empirical research, we investigated the roles of the news media and the political parties in Austrian campaign communication in the last four decades. Taking the agenda-setting power as an indicator for changes in this relationship, our study is based on the concepts of agenda-building and policy agenda-setting as extensions of the agenda-setting model. To establish party and media agendas, a content analysis was conducted on news releases of all Austrian parliamentary parties, the main evening newscasts of all Austrian broadcasters, as well as the political coverage of two quality papers and two major tabloids during the “hot phase” of the campaign. For examining the “struggle over agendas”, a time-series cross-section design (including data on 20 different policy dimensions) was applied. First results are based on the analysis of five election campaigns in 1970, 1983, 1990, 1999, and 2008. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the emergence of the mass press in late nineteenth-century Austria, newspapers provided the main forum for public discourse, and journalism became a source of power. Thus, investigating the participation of women in journalism can also be seen as an analysis of power in the sense of control over (information) resources. Based on one of Foucault's concepts, the study differentiates between changes in the distribution of power inside journalism ('power to') and those forces that had sufficient power ('power over') to promote the involvement of women in the business of daily journalism in Austria during one of its heydays in the 1920s. The editorial line, which provides the central rationale for journalistic action, and market orientation, which provides the main rationale for entrepreneurial action, are considered as the two main factors capable of influencing the participation of women in journalistic power. Furthermore, we ask for biographical circumstances, which promoted women's career opportunities within this male-dominated business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports key findings from a comparative survey of the role perceptions, epistemological orientations and ethical views of 1800 journalists from 18 countries. The results show that detachment, non-involvement, providing political information and monitoring the government are considered essential journalistic functions around the globe. Impartiality, the reliability and factualness of information, as well as adherence to universal ethical principles are also valued worldwide, though their perceived importance varies across countries. Various aspects of interventionism, objectivism and the importance of separating facts from opinion, on the other hand, seem to play out differently around the globe. Western journalists are generally less supportive of any active promotion of particular values, ideas and social change, and they adhere more to universal principles in their ethical decisions. Journalists from non-western contexts, on the other hand, tend to be more interventionist in their role perceptions and more flexible in their ethical views. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]