Media Consumption and Regional Perceptions of Global Climate Change: Findings from Germany

Global climate change has been one of the most urgent problems confronting humanity in recent years. However, there are intercultural and intracultural differences in perceptions both of the dimensions of global climate change and the necessity of fighting it. It is assumed that these perceptions depend heavily on the quantity and quality of media coverage and individuals’ media usage. To test how media consumption interacts with sociodemographic variables in affecting perceptions of global climate change, a regional survey was conducted in the southwest of Germany. A representative sample of 753 persons was interviewed face-to-face in February 2008. The study provides differential insights into the relationship between predispositions, media consumption, and orientations towards global climate change. Results show that media effects are relatively small and subordinated to attitudinal predispositions such as interest in climate change and personal concern about it. In addition to that, it is demonstrated that media can affect attitudes on global climate change both in a positive and in a negative way

Idealmaße österreichischer Abgeordneter

"In jüngster Zeit hat die persönliche Komponente in politischen Entscheidungsprozessen, in der politischen Berichterstattung und im Rahmen der Politikbeobachtung zusehends an Bedeutung gewonnen. Dabei scheint die politische Elite zunehmend in ein Spannungsfeld zwischen jenen Anforderungen, die für Erfolg im Bereich der Politikherstellung von zentraler Bedeutung sind, einerseits und den Bedürfnissen der (medial durchtränkten) Arenen der Politikdarstellung andererseits geraten zu sein. Vor diesem Hintergrund stellt sich die Frage, an welchen Rollenbildern sich PolitikerInnen heutzutage orientieren. Eine Antwort hierauf liefert eine repräsentative Umfrage unter den Abgeordneten des Nationalrats und der neun österreichischen Landtage. Die Befunde unterstreichen, wie komplex das Profil eines idealen Politikers bzw. einer idealen Politikerin aus Sicht der betroffenen AkteurInnen ist. Sie deuten auf eine Verschmelzung von ehemals 'rollennahen', politischen und 'rollenfernen', darstellungsbezogenen Eigenschaften hin." (Autorenreferat)"In recent years, political decision-making processes, political media coverage and citizens' observation of politics have become increasingly personalized. It seems that political elites are more than ever torn between politics-oriented demands of the political sphere and performance-oriented demands of the (media-saturated) political public. But at which ideal measures do politicians orient themselves nowadays? A representative survey among delegates of the 'Nationalrat' and of the nine Austrian 'Landtage' offers first empirical answers to that question. The findings point out how complex the profile of an ideal politician is, as it is being perceived by the respective actors. The authors also find an amalgamation of attributes, which can be labeled as 'role-near' political attributes, and 'role-distant' performance-related skills." (author's abstract

Media Consumption and Regional Perceptions of Global Climate Change: Findings from Germany

Global climate change has been one of the most urgent problems confronting humanity in recent years. However, there are intercultural and intracultural differences in perceptions both of the dimensions of global climate change and the necessity of fighting it. It is assumed that these perceptions depend heavily on the quantity and quality of media coverage and individuals’ media usage. To test how media consumption interacts with sociodemographic variables in affecting perceptions of global climate change, a regional survey was conducted in the southwest of Germany. A representative sample of 753 persons was interviewed face-to-face in February 2008. The study provides differential insights into the relationship between predispositions, media consumption, and orientations towards global climate change. Results show that media effects are relatively small and subordinated to attitudinal predispositions such as interest in climate change and personal concern about it. In addition to that, it is demonstrated that media can affect attitudes on global climate change both in a positive and in a negative way

Nur ZiB und Krone? Medienorientierungen österreichischer Abgeordneter

"Angesichts weitreichender Veränderungen im gesellschaftlichen und medialen Umfeld politischen Handelns erhöht sich der Druck auf die VolksvertreterInnen, die »richtigen« Kanäle zu bedienen, um im Kontakt mit den BürgerInnen und WählerInnen zu bleiben. Dabei ist die Frage, welches die 'richtigen' Medien- und Kommunikationskanäle sind, sowohl von individuellen Prädispositionen als auch von institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen abhängig. Das wird deutlich, wenn die aktuellen Medienorientierungen österreichischer Nationalrats- und Landtagsabgeordneter miteinander verglichen werden. Hierzu wurde im März 2012 eine repräsentative Online-Befragung durchgeführt. Diese fördert nicht nur unterschiedliche Medienorientierungen, sondern auch distinkte Medientypen unter den Abgeordneten zutage. Demnach stellen sich die ParlamentarierInnen unterschiedliche Medienmenüs in ihrer Außenkommunikation zusammen." (Autorenreferat)"In view of some fundamental transformations in the social and media environments of political action, political representatives have come under pressure to choose 'adequate' channels in order to stay in touch with their citizens and voters. The choice of 'adequate' media and communication channels depends on both individual predispositions and institutional settings. This becomes apparent, when the current media orientations of Austrian national and regional parliamentarians are compared, which was the focus of a representative online survey of Austrian politicians that was carried out in March 2012. The findings reveal not only different media orientations among Austrian political representatives, but also distinct types of media. As a basis for their external political communication, the parliamentarians compile diverse media menus." (author's abstract

Der Fall Grasser im Spiegel der Boulevard- und Qualitätspresse

"Politische Affären und Skandale sind ein prägender Bestandteil sowohl moderner (Medien-) Gesellschaften im Allgemeinen als auch der politischen Kultur Österreichs. Deren Analyse lässt Rückschlüsse auf das Verhältnis von Politik und Journalismus zu. Vor diesem Hintergrund wird im vorliegenden Beitrag die Rolle der Printmedien im Prozess der Skandalisierung des Falles Grasser in der vergangenen Dekade exemplarisch untersucht. Im Zentrum steht eine vergleichende quantitative Inhaltsanalyse der Berichterstattung zweier Qualitätsmedien ('Der Standard' und 'Die Presse') und des reichweitenstärksten Boulevardblatts ('Kronen Zeitung'). Die empirischen Befunde verdeutlichen, dass die Printmedien unterschiedliche Positionen im Zuge der Skandalisierung Grassers einnahmen. Die Qualitätsblätter unterscheiden sich hierbei klar von der 'Kronen Zeitung'. Die Medien scheinen (immer noch) nach unterschiedlichen Logiken zu operieren. Eine mitunter unterstellte Boulevardisierung der Berichterstattung der Qualitätspresse hat in diesem spezifischen Fall folglich nicht stattgefunden." (Autorenreferat)"Political affairs and scandals represent immanent parts of modern (media) democracies in general and they have impregnated Austria's political culture in particular. Analyzing political scandals allows drawing inferences about the relationship between politics and journalism. Against this background, we take a closer look at the example of print media and the role they played in scandalizing the case of Karl-Heinz Grasser. Methodically, we rely on a quantitative content analysis of the coverage of two quality newspapers ('Der Standard' and 'Die Presse') and the most popular tabloid paper ('Kronen Zeitung'). Our results show that the media took different positions in scandalizing Grasser. We identified a clear distinction between the quality press on the one hand and the tabloid press on the other. Seemingly, they (still) operate according to different logics. As a consequence, the often assumed trend of a 'tabloidization' of the quality press cannot be verified for this specific case." (author's abstract

The professionals speak: Practitioners’ perspectives on professional election campaigning

Faced with some fundamental changes in the socio-cultural, political and media environment, political parties in post-industrialized democracies have started to initiate substantial transformations of both their organizational structures and communicative practices. Those innovations, described as professionalization, become most obvious during election campaigns. In recent times, the number of empirical studies measuring the degree of political parties’ campaign professionalism has grown. They have relied on a broad spectrum of indicators derived from theory which have not been tested for their validity. For the first time, we put these indicators to a ‘reality check’ by asking top-ranked party secretaries and campaign managers in 12 European countries to offer their perceptions of professional election campaigning. Furthermore, we investigate whether any differences in understanding professionalism among party campaign practitioners can be explained by macro (country) and meso (party) factors. By and large, our results confirm the validity of most indicators applied in empirical studies on campaign professionalism so far. There are some party- and country-related differences in assessing campaign professionalism too, but the influence of most factors on practitioners’ evaluations is weak. Therefore, we conclude that largely there is a far-reaching European Union-wide common understanding of professional election campaigning

Towards hypermedia campaigning? Perceptions of new media's importance for campaigning by party strategists in comparative perspective

This paper analyses strategic thinking around election campaign communication in a rapidly evolving media environment, characterized by the rise of digital communication channels and online social networks as new tools of political campaigning. Using an expert survey with campaign managers of 68 political parties within 12 European nations, representing both old and new EU member states, the study investigates the perceived importance of different types of communication platforms in meeting campaign objectives, especially with regard to differences between new and direct modes of campaigning in comparison to traditional campaign channels. The attributed significance to these various channels is then analysed against a range of variables on macro (country) level as well as meso (party) level. The results suggest that while some differences can be observed in regard to the perceptions of particular types of social media between individual strategists working for parties as well as between strategists working in new and old EU member states (e.g. Facebook is seen as more important in younger democracies), overall we can see a relatively high level of homogeneity in the perceived importance of campaign communication in the sample. The data point to the embedding of new communication platforms within election campaign strategies across most nations and parties; this indicates that the move towards ‘hypermedia' campaign style, integrating both old and new campaign tools and communication platforms, is now becoming a standard feature of professional campaigning strategy in Europe