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In times of crisis, the spread of conspiracy myths increases since people seek answers to complex questions. Besides societal aspects, social media platforms, especially messenger services, have been identified as a positive driver for spreading conspiracy myths. Much research focused on whether right-wing populist attitudes correlate with belief in conspiracy myths resulting in inconsistent findings. We show that different anti-system attitudes and corresponding digital media usage can promote the affinity towards conspiracy myths apart from right-wing attitudes. With this paper, we first want to sharpen the terminology on ‘conspiracy myths’ and develop a scale to measure affinity towards conspiracy myths in different dimensions. We second use this scale to investigate different mindsets of conspiracy in the Swiss population. Third, we want to find out how the dimensions correlate with messenger usage. Based on data from a representative population survey in Switzerland from November to December 2020, we investigated different affinities towards conspiracy myths, represented by far-left, far-right, populist, anti-elitism, general anti-system attitudes and science skepticism. We then used the six dimensions in a cluster analysis and identified five typological mindsets. About 30% of the population accordingly have higher affinities towards conspiracy myths than the rest. Our study also highlights the potential role of messenger services in spreading conspiracy myths. To a certain extent, Facebook Messenger and Telegram usage show a robust correlation with the different dimensions of the affinity towards conspiracy myths. In contrast, WhatsApp usage does not show a robust correlation.

IntroductionIn times of war, sourcing becomes a major challenge for journalists. Information is often unavailable because access is restricted or because reporting on the ground is prohibited, too dangerous, or even simply too costly for media having to work with limited resources. Which sources actually shape the news is a highly relevant question because news media still constitute the main channel of information for many citizens, especially when it comes to wars abroad. For a long time, scholars have diagnosed a dominance of official sources in war coverage but have not analyzed whether this is still the case with the advent of social media platforms, which potentially offer journalists other sources. Moreover, the integration of social media sources, such as Twitter or Telegram, is just one of many interdependencies in hybrid media environments. We aim to provide a more holistic understanding of sourcing practices in times of war by analyzing to what extent information from government and military sources, social media, other news media, and news agencies is featured as a main source in reporting on the war in Ukraine.MethodsIn our paper, we examine how 13 online media in Switzerland cover the war in Ukraine during the first 3 months after Russia's invasion—an example of a period in which journalists must typically identify reliable sources for reporting on the events surrounding such a war. Using a manual content analysis of 1,198 news articles, we analyze the sourcing practices that are visible in the reporting.ResultsOur results clearly show that information from other news outlets and social media and, above all, from news agencies plays an important role. Structural features of media types lead to distinct sourcing practices. Heavily commercialized, advertising-based media rely on news agency reports, other news media, and social media much more than subscription media or public service media. However, in all media types, actors from the government and the military are the most important source type.DiscussionOur study reveals patterns old and new in terms of sourcing practices war coverage in a European country not participating in, but affected by, the major war in Ukraine.

Online media environments have changed the way young people access news. Despite much research on the topic, the expectations of journalistic news by young adults who have turned their back on traditional news media remain unclear. We use a novel multimethod qualitative online study design to investigate the perceived quality, functions, and expectations toward journalistic news of young adults in Switzerland who use social media as their main source for news and rarely consume traditional media. Nineteen young adults between 20 and 25 years of age with different educational levels participated in our study in May 2020. Our results show that even though the participants only occasionally use traditional news media channels, they still consider journalistic news relevant and appreciate quality standards of professional journalism such as actuality and veracity (Swart 2021b). Among the functions of news, the participants highlighted sociability and identification. Exchange and discussion of news are, thus, of high relevance online but also offline. Also, the participants show a high affinity toward news on mobilizing topics, which are of interest to themselves and their peers, and motivate them to engage with news more intensely. According to the participants, news should be attractively prepared, such as with audiovisual formats and easy to understand and integrate into everyday life. The participants also expressed a preference to consume news articles from different media brands within a single platform. Our study outlines a fruitful path for comprehensive qualitative research with innovative online tools.

In this article, we analyse how various macro- and meso-level factors influence news media’s provision of hard news, an important element of media quality. The research draws on a content analysis of more than 100,000 news items between 2015 and 2019 from 53 print, radio, TV, and online news outlets in Switzerland, a small state with three linguistically segmented media markets, each of which is partially influenced by a large neighbouring country (Germany, France, and Italy). The research design takes into account the multi-dimensional character of hard news and allows for analysis with explanatory factors on different levels: On the meso-level, ownership types complemented with media types, and on the macro-level language regions of different market size. Findings show large differences in the importance of hard news overall and these findings are consistent across the three dimensions of hard news (topic dimension, focus dimension, style dimension). Hard news orientation differs especially between private and public media, but also within privately held media outlets, and less so within public media, which points to a general quality culture embedded within public media organizations. Thus, rather than by language region and the according media market size or by ownership types, quality differences can be best explained by media types.

Inspiriert von seinem beeindruckenden Werk wagen wir in unserem Beitrag, eine breite Klammer um diejenigen beiden theoretischen Perspektiven, die Kurt Imhof zeitlebens am starksten beschaftigten: den sozialen Wandel moderner Gesellschaften im Licht offentlicher Kommunikation zu erschliesen (Offentlichkeit und sozialer Wandel) sowie den strukturellen Wandel der Offentlichkeit selbst zu ergrunden und im Hinblick auf seine gesellschaftlichen und demokratischen Folgen zu reflektieren (Strukturwandel der Offentlichkeit). Weil Kurt Imhof immer daran gelegen war, seine Ideen nicht einfach zu replizieren, sondern kritisch weiterzuspinnen und auf aktuelle Transformationsprozesse anzuwenden, entwickeln wir in unserem Beitrag eine offentlichkeitssoziologische Theorie des sozialen Wandels, die erstmals intendiert, die beiden genannten theoretischen Perspektiven zu einem Gesamtmodell zu verbinden. Ebenfalls bezweckt dieser Beitrag, die gewonnene theoretische Perspektive auf den jungsten Wandel der modernen Gesellschaft anzuwenden. Wir wollen zeigen, wie der soziale Wandel im Gefolge der globalen Finanz- und Wirtschaftskrise in eine neue Gesellschaftsphase hineinfuhrt, die wir als digital-solutionistische Ara bezeichnen wollen.

Die demokratietheoretische Qualität von Newsinhalten auf sozialen Medien ist vor dem Hintergrund der Digitalisierung der Öffentlichkeit von gesellschaftlicher Relevanz. Können jedoch Newsinhalte von hoher Qualität genügend Engagement erzielen, um in den Social Media Strategien aufgenommen zu werden? Dieser Beitrag analysiert die Publikationen von fünf Schweizer Online-Newsmedien auf Facebook und verbindet demokratietheoretische Qualität mit der Intensität der Nutzerreaktionen (Engagement), gemessen als die Summe von reactions, shares und comments. Die Analyse zeigt eine positive Korrelation zwischen niedriger Qualität und hohem Engagement: Je geringer die Themenrelevanz und je weniger professionell die Artikel, umso höher das erzielte Engagement. Leitmedien können jedoch mit qualitativ hochstehenden Inhalten hohes Engagement auslösen, was auf die Relevanz der Medientypen verweist: Einordnungsleistung, d.h. die informative Tiefe eines Artikels, hat einen signifikant positiven Effekt auf Engagement im Fall des qualitativ hochstehenden Medientitels NZZ., Jahrbuch der Publizistik- und Kommunikationswissenschaft