The missing crisis – European citizens, the media and communication about the crisis

If one takes into account media coverage on the various European crises, one could easily assume that citizens’ trust in the European project is being severely eroded. The news media do not only routinely present a scene of constant threat to and destruction of national economies, but also provide citizens with an overwhelming amount of coverage on the various crises. This coverage contains large amounts of irritating, contradicting and not least highly specialised information. It is thus not surprising that questions about what exactly is at stake, how to understand and overcome the crisis blur into the image of one constant crisis. At the same time citizens may now identify less with the European project, as the common currency, a core symbol of a shared Europe, threatens to breakdown

Kartläggning av e-post till studievägledningen vid Myndigheten för Sveriges nätuniversitet

Undersökningen är utförd på uppdrag av Myndigheten för Sveriges nätuniversitet och avser att granska, kategorisera, samt analysera e-post inkommen till myndigheten. Rapportens fokus ligger på den e-post som kommit till studievägledningstjänsten

The effect of two body positions on tidal breathing

The effect of two different body positions on tidal breathing. Key words: Tidal volume, body positions, administration, inhalation therapy, inspiration volume Background Inhalation therapy is becoming a more habitual way of distributing different types of drugs. Several factors are important to consider for optimising inhalation therapy. Physiotherapists play a key role in inhalation therapy. Earlier studies have shown some benefit from a seated, slightly forward leaning position during inhalation. In light of this, physiotherapists have often recommended this position during inhalation therapy, as opposed to a supine or semi-recumbent position in a hospital bed. Aim The aim of this study was to explore if the quality of breath and inspiration pattern is affected in different body positions. A second aim was also to simulate and analyze how different inhalation patterns could influence drug deposition in a device for aerodynamic size fractionation of aerosol clouds Study design Clinical study. Method and measuring instruments 11 participants were included in the study. Their spontaneous tidal breathing was registered in 2 body positions using a mass flow measurer. Inspiration volume, max flow and breaths per minute was calculated for a total of 66 registrations; each registration lasted 10 seconds, 3 registrations were recorded per participant and position. Drug deposition would have been analyzed in vitro through aerodynamic size fractionation of aerosol clouds. Results were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Ethical considerations This study was approved by the advisory committee for research ethics in health education at Lund University. The participants were given verbal and written information about the study and signed a consent form before participating. Participation was voluntary. Result Considerable variation of inspiration volume, max flow of inspiration and breaths per minute was seen on an individual level. The second aim was not analyzed due to no significant difference on a group level between the semi-recumbent and the seated position. Conclusion In spite of variation of inspiration values on an individual level, the differences on a group level were clinically insignificant when comparing the two body positions. With a different population, such as patients with respiratory disorders, results might have differed. For specific patient groups further studies are required. From the results of this study, we can conclude that the healthy adults’ tidal breathing was not affected in a seated position or a semi-recumbent position

Surveillance and privacy as emerging issues in communication and media studies. An introduction

Surveillance and privacy are two closely related issues that continue to move into the heart of communication and media studies. With contemporary mediatization and datafication of societies, surveillance and privacy play an increasing role across all communication and media subdisciplines and thus advance to being a core theme in the field. Considerations on data collection and analysis, on the one hand, and managing individual and organizational information boundaries, on the other hand, are subject to mundane, everyday media practices. Both relate to customer data, provided for instance in offline and online shopping or with car tracking data. Another key concern is social media communication, as there is an increasing awareness and knowledge on the massive collection of data by large technology companies. Not least, being a member of digital societies implies a certain loss of control over personal data. This special issue joins contributions which illustrate that surveillance and privacy play multiple roles in mediated communication across all these fields of human action

Localizing the Politics of Privacy in Communication and Media Research

While previous communication and media research has largely focused on either studying privacy as personal boundary management or made efforts to investigate the structural (legal or economic) condition of privacy, we observe an emergent body of research on the political underpinnings of privacy linking both aspects. A pronounced understanding of the politics of privacy is however lacking. In this contribution, we set out to push this forward by mapping four communication and media perspectives on the political implications of privacy. In order to do so, we recur on Barry’s (2002) distinction of the political and the politics and outline linkages between individual and structural dimensions of privacy. Finally, we argue that the media practice perspective is well suited to offer an analytical tool for the study of the multiple aspects of privacy in a political context

The Politics of Privacy—A Useful Tautology

While communication and media studies tend to define privacy with reference to data security, current processes of datafication and commodification substantially transform ways of how people act in increasingly dense communicative networks. This begs for advancing research on the flow of individual and organizational information considering its relational, contextual and, in consequence, political dimensions. Privacy, understood as the control over the flow of individual or group information in relation to communicative actions of others, frames the articles assembled in this thematic issue. These contributions focus on theoretical challenges of contemporary communication and media privacy research as well as on structural privacy conditions and people’s mundane communicative practices underlining inherent political aspect. They highlight how particular acts of doing privacy are grounded in citizen agency realized in datafied environments. Overall, this collection of articles unfolds the concept of ‘Politics of Privacy’ in diverse ways, contributing to an emerging body of communication and media research

How we live and what we need: What life is like for children and adolescents in Germany. Bertelsmann Stiftung Children’s Worlds May 2020.

Researchers at the University of Frankfurt wanted to find out what life is like for kids in Germany. For example, they were interested in discovering if children and adolescents in Germany have every- thing they need, if there are people who look after them and if they feel safe. This German part of the study is called Children’s Worlds+. How was the study carried out? The researchers went to a number of schools to interview 3,500 students between the ages of 8 and 14. That’s quite a lot for one study. They also spoke with groups of children and young people between the ages of 5 and 20. And then there was a team of young experts assembled by the Bertels- mann Stiftung – the YExTeam. These kids looked at the results of the study and commented on them. That makes Children’s Worlds+ a very large study. It not only provides information about the children and young people who were interviewed, it also allows the researchers to draw conclusions about how all children and adolescents in Germany are doing and what they need. Or as the researchers say, it is a “representative” study. What did the researchers discover? A whole lot. And since they found out so much, the researchers put all the answers into groups. They sorted the results into different dimensions, which reflect what children and adolescents in Germany need to live well. There are four dimensions. The entire study is actually a thick book. We’ve taken the most important results and summarized them in this brochure. The language that researchers use is often complicated, so we’ve tried to explain things in a way that is clear. After all, it’s important that children and adolescents themselves understand the results. The researchers met with children aged 8 and older. Since younger kids might not want to read so much, and older children and adolescents might want a little more information, we’ve structured everything like this: In each part of the brochure, there’s a section called “Simply Put” which explains the most import- ant results in simple language. Anyone who wants to know more about what the researchers discovered can just keep reading

(De)centralization of the global informational ecosystem

Centralization and decentralization are key concepts in debates that focus on the (anti)democratic character of digital societies. Centralization is understood as the control over communication and data flows, and decentralization as giving it (back) to users. Communication and media research focuses on centralization put forward by dominant digital media platforms, such as Facebook and Google, and governments. Decentralization is investigated regarding its potential in civil society, i.e., hacktivism, (encryption) technologies, and grass-root technology movements. As content-based media companies increasingly engage with technology, they move into the focus of critical media studies, especially digital society and technology research. Moreover, as formerly nationally oriented companies now compete with global media platforms, they share several interests with civil society decentralization agents. Based on 26 qualitative interviews with leading media managers, we investigate (de)centralization strategies applied by content-oriented media companies. Theoretically, this perspective on media companies as agents of (de)centralization expands (de)centralization research beyond traditional democratic stakeholders by considering economic actors within the “global informational ecosystem” (Birkinbine et al., 2017). We provide a three-dimensional framework to empirically investigate (de)centralization. From critical media studies, we borrow the (de)centralization of data and infrastructures, from media business research, the (de)centralization of content distribution

Die Presselandschaft in Polen: Strukturelle Rahmenbedingungen und zentrale Konfliktlinien

Seit dem Zusammenbruch des kommunistischen Systems hat sich die polnische Presselandschaft außerordentlich dynamisch entwickelt. Trotz konzentrierter Besitzstrukturen im Bereich der politischen Tages- und Wochenpresse - diese befindet sich zu einem großen Teil in den Händen deutscher Medienkonzerne - hat sich ein vielfältiges Medienangebot etabliert. Auch die politisch-rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen für journalistisches Arbeiten sind im Großen und Ganzen als positiv zu beurteilen - der Zugang zu Informationen ist ebenso gewährleistet wie der Schutz der Meinungsvielfalt. Probleme wie zurückgehende Leserzahlen, Boulevardisierung der Medieninhalte und zunehmender finanzieller Druck auf Journalisten sind auch für westeuropäische Medien gut bekannt. Darüber hinaus sind für die polnische Presselandschaft spezifische Konflikte prägend, die um ideologische Lagerbildung und politische Einflussnahme seitens der Journalisten kreisen und das Vertrauen der Gesellschaft in die Presse als kritischer Politikbegleiter immer wieder erschüttern

'Doing Nation': journalistische Praktiken der Nationalisierung Europas

Inhaltsanalysen der europäischen Zeitungsberichterstattung zeigen, dass sich eine zunehmende Transnationalisierung der Öffentlichkeiten europäischer Länder vor allem in Form eines geteilten Beobachtens der EU-Politik in Brüssel ausmachen lässt. Gleichwohl bleibt eine solche europäische Öffentlichkeit 'mehrfachsegmentiert'. Erstens besteht eine nationale Segmentierung, indem Brüssel vor allem aus nationalstaatlicher Perspektive verfolgt wird, und zweitens haben wir eine transnationale Segmentierung unterschiedlichen Typen von Zeitungen der Qualitäts-, Boulevard- und Regionalberichterstattung. Ziel des vorliegenden Arbeitspapiers ist die Erklärung der nationalen Segmentierung europäischen Öffentlichkeit mittels einer Untersuchung journalistischer Produktionsmuster. Wir argumentieren, dass nationale politische Diskurskulturen als 'sozio-kulturelle' Unterbauten von Öffentlichkeit zu national unterschiedlichen Mustern der Artikulation von EU- und Auslandsnachrichten führen. Wenn Journalisten also über Auslands- und Europathemen berichten, dann tun sie dies aus einer nationalen Perspektive. Im journalistischen Arbeitsalltag geht es darum, Anknüpfungspunkte für die Erfahrungs- und Sinnhorizonte der nationalen Leserschaft herzustellen und so das auswärtige Geschehen im nationalen Kontext zu verorten. Das Arbeitspapier befasst sich mit solchen Praktiken der Nationalisierung Europas in transkulturell vergleichender Perspektive auf Basis qualitativer Redaktionsstudien bei 23 Qualitäts-, Boulevard- und Regionalzeitungen in sechs EU-Ländern (Dänemark, Deutschland, Frankreich, Großbritannien, Österreich, Polen). Hauptbefund ist, dass unabhängig davon, um welche Zeitung in welchem Land es sich handelt, über Europa mittels spezifischer Nationalisierungspraktiken berichtet wird. 'Doing Nation' bezeichnet dabei sowohl ein länderübergreifendes Gesamt von Handlungsmustern, das die Journalisten aller Länder realisieren; allerdings segmentiert entlang länderspezifischer Ausprägungen bzw. nationaler politischer Diskurskulturen. -- Content analyses of newspaper debates on European issues reveal a process of multi-segmented transnationalization of public spheres: While the critical discussion of EU politics is intensified within each country, the resulting European public sphere remains nationally and transnationally segmented: First, reporting on Europe occurs from a national perspective, and second, different types of quality, tabloid or regional newspapers report differently on European issues. The aim of this working paper is to explain the national segmentation of the European public sphere. Therefore, we had a close look at the practices of journalists producing newspaper media coverage. We argue that national political discourse cultures, conceived of as 'socio-cultural' foundations of public spheres, result in different patterns of articulating European and foreign issues in journalistic practice. Journalists report on Europe and foreign countries from their respective national perspectives. In their everyday 'doing nation' journalists articulate news content in a way that a reader living in a given country will be able to relate it to his own national experiences. Nationalization thus refers to the journalistic practices of embedding foreign issues in the context of one's own nation. The working paper presents the results from qualitative newsroom studies conducted within 23 quality, tabloid and regional papers in six EU-countries (Austria, Denmark, Germany, France, Great Britain, Poland) aiming at the description of cultural patterns in the production of EU and European foreign news. Our findings indicate that journalists in all countries report on EU- and foreign issues by employing specific nationalization practices. However, there are national differences in the specific way of their articulation which relate to the national political discourse cultures.