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The aim of the special issue is to present theory-conscious studies of selected facets of digital cultures of evaluation across a broad range of discourses on the social web. At the same time, bringing together papers from linguistics, literary studies, and digital humanities, it is our aim to take stock of common denominators, but also differences, in method and theory, instilling discussion for a cross-disciplinary data-driven and data-intensive inquiry of valuation and evaluation within “data humanities”. The types of discourse covered will include online lay book reviews on platforms such as Goodreads and LovelyBooks, as well as reviews of non-literary “products“ such as cooking recipes, restaurant reviews, and concerts.

Mit dem digitalen Zeitalter ergeben sich für die Geisteswissenschaften neue methodologische Möglichkeiten, deren Wurzeln jedoch weit zurück reichen. Am Anfang steht der Index, der inzwischen mit viel weniger Aufwand als früher zum Volltextindex wird. Mit der anschliessenden „Verdatung“ werden Sprachdaten verrechenbar und damit anders nutzbar. Welche Rolle können Bibliotheken in einer verdateten Welt spielen? Der folgende Beitrag betont nicht nur die technischen Möglichkeiten, sondern auch die Probleme, spezifisch aus geistes- und kulturwissenschaftlicher Sicht. The digital era produces a whole range of new approaches for research in the humanities whose origins, however, can be traced far back. Their very source is the index, which can take the form of a full text index much easier than before. By turning text into data it becomes computationally tractable and can be used in novel ways. Which role can libraries play in a digitized world? This paper explores technical possibilities but it also points to problems specific for arts and social sciences.

Regelmässig wird zunächst in deskriptiver Weise dargelegt, dass sich der Staat (oder alternativ: die Verwaltung oder das Verhältnis von Staat und Gesellschaft) gewandelt habe. Gestützt auf diesen Befund wird sodann implizit oder explizit gefolgert, dass der neuen Wirklichkeit eine Anpassung des Rechts zu folgen habe. Aber hat sich der Staat wirklich gewandelt – und falls ja, inwiefern? Generally speaking, we start with a descriptive presentation of the fact that the state (or alternatively the administration, or the relationship between the state and society) has changed. On the basis of this finding, we conclude (implicitly or explicitly) that the law must be amended to take account of the new reality. But has statehood really changed – and if so, in what ways?

Abstract What kind of language is typical of the mass media coverage of a scandal? Which linguistic means have the effect of scandalizing a public person like a politician? The study presented in this paper uses corpus linguistic methods to investigate a specific scandal in recent German politics: Federal President Christian Wulff was accused by the media of not having informed transparently about a private loan he had taken out. Further allegations of corruption presented by the media resulted in his resignation after only two months. The paper shows how automatic language pattern analyses of a corpus of articles about Wulff in two leading German newspapers reveal the typical patterns used in a discourse of scandalization. Additionally, also characteristic grammar features like tempus forms are incorporated in the analysis. The texts scandalizing a person use more patterned language than other news texts on politics. The patterns reflect the characteristic speech acts of scandalizing like accusing, informing, or speculating on the political future of the scandalized person, but also speech acts like defending and regretting. The use of tempus shows that scandalizing texts are more dynamic and vivid compared to other political coverage.