Das "Kommentariat" : Rolle und Status einer Öffentlichkeitselite

Im Mittelpunkt des WZB-Papers stehen die „Meinungsmacher“ der überregionalen Qualitätszeitungen in der Bundesrepublik. Die Kommentare dieser „Leitmedien“ wer-den im politischen System intensiv wahrgenommen. Die Themenpräferenzen und Mei-nungen der Kommentatoren dienen als Hinweise auf allgemeine Stimmungen in der Bevölkerung und auf die Durchsetzbarkeit konkreter Entscheidungen. Auch in öffent-lichkeitstheoretischer Perspektive stellen Kommentatoren einen besonders herausgeho-benen „Sprecher“-Typus dar. Im Gegensatz zu anderen Sprechern, die um Medienauf-merksamkeit konkurrieren, besitzen Kommentatoren ein entscheidendes Privileg: sie produzieren nicht nur Themen und Meinungen; sie können selber dafür sorgen, dass ihre Äußerungen tatsächlich öffentlich werden. Angesichts der öffentlichkeitstheoreti-schen und politischen Bedeutung der Kommentatoren überrascht, dass das „Kommenta-riat“ in der bisherigen Forschung eine merkwürdig unbeschriebene Größe geblieben ist. Auf der Basis einer schriftlichen Befragung und persönlicher Gespräche mit Kommen-tatoren der Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung, der Süddeutschen Zeitung, der Frankfurter Rundschau, der Welt und der tageszeitung gibt diese Studie einen Einblick in die wich-tigsten Charakteristika dieser Sprechergruppe. Wer sind also die Meinungsmacher der deutschen Qualitätspresse? Wie viele Journalisten umfasst diese Öffentlichkeitselite und welche sozio-kulturellen Profile kennzeichnen sie? Wie sehen die Zugangschancen aus? Handelt es sich um einen vergleichsweise offenen Kreis von Journalisten, die von Zeit zu Zeit kommentieren, oder um eine abgeschlossene Gruppe von Vordenkern der Nati-on, die dauerhaft und fast ausschließlich mit der Meinungsproduktion betraut ist? Was sind die Kriterien für den Zugang zu dieser Öffentlichkeitselite und wie unterscheiden sich die Zeitungen in Hinblick auf die Zugangschancen? Und führt die Auswahl der Kommentatoren zu Themenspezialisierungen oder Meinungsoligopolen innerhalb und möglicherweise auch zwischen den Zeitungen?The WZB-paper focuses on the “opinion makers” of the national quality newspapers in Germany. The press commentaries are closely observed by the political system. The issues and opinions brought up in the opinion section serve as indicators for the general sentiment of the public and the popularity of certain policies. From a theoretical point of view, commentators are regarded as a very special type of actor in the public sphere. In contrast to other actors in public communication who have to compete for media atten-tion, they enjoy a significant privilege: Not only do they produce messages for public debate, they also decide which messages are eventually publicized. Considering their public and political influence it is rather surprising that neither sociology nor communi-cation research has investigated this group of communicators. This paper presents re-sults of a survey and in-depths-interviews with commentators of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Rundschau, Welt and tageszeitung and thus provides an insight into the characteristics of this group. Who are the “opinion makers” in the leading national quality newspapers? How many journalists belong to this elite of actors in the public sphere and what are their socio-cultural profiles? To what degree and how is access to the opinion section restricted? Do commentators form a closed circle of national masterminds permanently producing opinions or do they rep-resent a rather open group of journalists who among other articles also write commen-taries from time to time? What are the recruitment criteria for commentators and in which ways do the national broadsheets under study differ in terms of access gain? And finally: Does the selection of commentators lead to issue specialization or even opinion monopolies within and across the newspapers

The Galam Model of Minority Opinion Spreading and the Marriage Gap

In 2002, Serge Galam designed a model of a minority opinion spreading. The effect is expected to lead a conservative minority to prevail if the issue is discussed long enough. Here we analyze the marriage gap, i.e. the difference in voting for Bush and Kerry in 2004 between married and unmarried people. It seems possible to interpret this marriage gap in terms of the Galam model.Comment: 6 page

Legal guardians understand how children with the human immunodeficiency virus perceive quality of life and stigma

AIM: This aim of this study was to describe how legal guardians assessed health-related quality of life and HIV-related stigma in children with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) compared to the children's own ratings. METHODS: A cross-sectional nationwide study was performed to compare how 37 children aged from eight to 16 years of age with perinatal HIV, and their legal guardians, assessed the children's health-related quality of life and HIV-related stigma. Data were collected using the 37-item DISABKIDS Chronic Generic Module and a short eight-item version of the HIV stigma scale. RESULTS: Intraclass correlations indicated concordance between the legal guardians' ratings and the children's own ratings of the child's health-related quality of life and HIV-related stigma. There were no statistically significant differences between the ratings of the two groups and gender did not have any impact on the results. Both groups indicated that the children had concerns about being open about their HIV status. CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicated that legal guardians understood how their children perceived their health-related quality of life and HIV-related stigma. The results also indicated the need for interventions to support both the children and legal guardians when it came to disclosing the child's HIV status

A 27-year review of mergers and acquisitions research in 27 leading management journals

This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge on mergers and acquisitions (M&As) by providing a systematic review of over 500 academic articles across 27 management journals over a 27-year time frame. There appears to be a mixture of empirical and conceptual articles, with a larger proportion being empirical but an increasing number leaning towards a conceptual nature. Our findings show that most studies follow a quantitative approach and use large samples, mostly originating from existing databases. There is an emergence of thematic areas related to the strategic factors influencing M&As, but with the human dimension, gaining increasing attention over time.authorsversionpublishe

Exploring the acceptability and feasibility of a preconception and diabetes information app for women with pregestational diabetes: A mixed-methods study protocol

Background Women with diabetes are at increased risk of adverse maternal and fetal outcomes. Preconception care can improve pregnancy outcomes and is paramount to minimise complications, but, current provision is sub-optimal. Mobile technology, particularly smartphones and apps have the potential to improve preconception care provision but research is lacking in this area. The need to use modern technologies to improve preconception care knowledge and awareness led to the development of a Preconception and Diabetes Information app in stage A of this study. Objective The aim of this paper, stage B of the study, is to explore the feasibility and acceptability of the Preconception and Diabetes Information app to improve preconception care knowledge and attitudes in women with diabetes, and explore the potential for wider implementation. Methods A mixed methods study design adopting a quasi-experimental approach will assess women’s knowledge and attitudes related to preconception care, and level of patient activation (knowledge and confidence for self-management of health) before and after the 3 month intervention period. A log of activity will be used to determine engagement with the app and semi-structured interviews will explore women’s experiences. Conclusions This is the first study to explore the acceptability and feasibility of a Preconception and Diabetes Information app for women with diabetes. The app has potential to change the way preconception care is delivered, improve pregnancy outcomes and be widely implemented in both developed and developing countries. This is important given the considerable shortfalls in current preconception care services in the United Kingdom and around the world

Social media and young people’s involvement in social work education

While service-user involvement in social work education generally is increasing, young people’s involvement has, to date, been limited, and as such their voice is missing. Social media potentially offers mechanisms for addressing this, widening young people’s participation. This article presents the findings of research, conducted in partnership with young people, exploring different types of social media currently available that may have the potential to be used in social work education to provide young people with a voice. Using methods developed from systematic review processes, the research set out to find, synthesise and collate these different resources. The findings suggest social media could provide an appropriate mechanism for enabling young people to share experiences relevant to social care. However, whilst some resources do exist, there are fewer than expected. A need is identified to develop new sustainable ways of enabling young people to have a voice. Current approaches were found to replicate barriers associated with service provision being compartmentalised, service led, and framed by eligibility criteria. Recommendations are made for a united response from social work education institutions supporting approaches that give ownership to young people themselves whilst promoting sustainability and continuity

An archaeology of borders: qualitative political theory as a tool in addressing moral distance

Interviews, field observations and other qualitative methods increasingly are being used to inform the construction of arguments in normative political theory. This article works to demonstrate the strong salience of some kinds of qualitative material for cosmopolitan arguments to extend distributive boundaries. The incorporation of interviews and related qualitative material can make the moral claims of excluded others more vivid and possibly more difficult to dismiss by advocates of strong priority to compatriots in distributions. Further, it may help to promote the kind of perspective taking that has been associated with actually motivating a willingness to aid by individuals. Illustrative findings are presented from field work conducted for a normative project on global citizenship, including interviews with unauthorized immigrants and the analysis of artifacts left behind on heavily used migrant trails

Public sector innovation, e-government, and anticorruption in China and India: insights from civil servants

Both China and India are adopting information and communication technologies to facilitate openness and transparency in their governments, and hence reduce corruption. Distinctive from their traditional anticorruption approaches, is the innovative e-government approach an effective solution to corruption in these two large developing countries? This paper addresses the question through comparative in-depth interviews with 44 mid- or senior-level officials in the public sector in these two countries. The first study of its kind, our research shows that civil servants in both countries overall think positively about transparency and technology in reducing corruption. However, to what extent these innovative measures will be effective is conditional on various factors, such as political willingness, income inequality, and infrastructure readiness. What is worth noting is that the Chinese respondents were more positive regarding the role of transparency, whereas the Indian respondents were more positive about the role of technology, which may reflect the different facilitators of corruption and the constraints of anticorruption in China and India

A theory of mobile library service delivery

Research indicates there is widespread acceptance that nomadicity of library users is a phenomenon that will continue to increase; however, mobile learning is a resource that relatively few academic libraries appear to be taking advantage of. This paper presents a model developed during an investigation using a grounded theory approach into factors that may contribute to the delivery of library services to mobile technologies. A sample of 42 professionally qualified library staff from the Australasian vocational education and training (VET) sector was investigated to determine how confident and capable library staff believed they were to respond to technology advancement challenges and the training and support required for that response. The resulting theoretical model explains the impact of mobile technologies on library services and highlights the complex factors contributing to mobile technology acceptance at both an organisational and individual level. The presence of a series of catalysing impacts forms a central core and their management can enable an organisation to move from a position of uncertainty to one where the consequences of mobile technologies have been normalised

Perspectives on the ‘silent period’ for emergent bilinguals in England

This paper draws together the research findings from two ethnographic studies (Drury, 2007; Bligh, 2011) as a means to problematize the ‘silent period’ as experienced by young bilingual learners in two English speaking early years settings in England. Most teachers and senior early years practitioners in England are monolingual English speakers. The children (regardless of their mother tongue) are taught through the medium of spoken and written English in and through all subject areas. Bilingual learning through the mother tongue is not only disregarded in most schools in England but is actively discouraged in some. Three emergent bilingual learners were re-examined as case studies. Suki and Adyta (Bligh, 2011) of Japanese and Punjabi decent and Nazma (Drury, 2007) of Kashmiri descent were observed whilst they each negotiated new ways of knowing within and through an English pre-school setting. Sociocultural insights into how these young children employ their silenced mother tongue to negotiate their learning creates a fuller and richer portrait of the emergent bilingual learner both in and outside of preschool. These collaborative research findings present the silent period as agentive (Drury, 2007) and as a crucial time for self-mediated learning (Bligh, 2011) within the early years community of practice