How terrorist attacks are presented in the news of CNN, Al Jazeera, the BBC, and ARD

The article analyzes to what extent news reporting on terrorist attacks globalized, regionalized, or country specific. We compare coverage on four terrorist incidents in the main news shows of the US edition of CNN, of Al Jazeera’s Arabic language service, of the British BBC, and of the German ARD. The analysis shows cross-national similarities in several dimensions: the analyzed media devote nearly identical amounts of attention to the four events, employ similar stylistic devices to describe them, and evaluate them similarly. At the same time, there are notable differences. These differences are not found between Western channels and Al Jazeera – as proponents of a ‘clash of civilizations’ might expect – but between CNN and Al Jazeera on the one hand, and the BBC and ARD on the other. The former interpret the attacks as an expression of a global “war on terror”, whereas the latter see them as criminal attacks by a few individuals against the human civilization itself

The European Union's idea of gender equality and its support among citizens of 27 European countries

"This article first describes the European Union’s idea of gender equality and its im-plementation into European policies. The second section analyses the extent to which citizens of different European countries support the idea of gender equality. The em-pirical basis for our analysis is the “Eurobarometer 63.1” from 2005. The descriptive findings show that while a majority of European citizens support the idea of gender equality, there are substantial differences between individual countries. In the third section we explain these differences by referring to the country’s level of moderniza-tion and degree of politically institutionalised gender equality, as well as the respon-dents’ religious orientation and level of education, among other factors." [author's abstract

How Strong is European Solidarity?

In recent years, a series of crises have hit the European Union (i.e., the Eurozone crisis, the sovereign debt crises, the Great Recession, the refugee crisis, Brexit). Such precarious times have challenged solidarity both between European citizens, as well as between the Member States of the EU. The current paper investigates the degree of European solidarity in the European Union in the light of these developments. The paper describes the preliminary findings of a recent research project conducted on European solidarity. We surveyed citizens of 13 Members States of the EU about their disposition toward (European) solidarity. An upcoming book will offer an elaborate theoretical framework about the existence of European solidarity. Additionally, this book will also presents detailed results from the project and indepth discussion of the findings. However, we decided to publish some of the descriptive results beforehand in the form of this report as the major findings of our study have high public and political relevance. The development of recent crises has been rather fastpaced, and is in contrast with the long wait that comes with the publication of academic texts. So, the latter process hinders the most important information to reach the public and policy makers as soon as possible and this report wishes to remedy it slightly. In Chapter 1, we will elaborate on the conceptual framework of our study. By European solidarity, we understand a form of solidarity expanded beyond one’s own nation state; recipients of solidarity are other EU countries, or citizens living in another EU country. In the first part of Chapter 1, we systematically distinguish between four different domains of European solidarity: (1) Fiscal solidarity, defined as citizens’ willingness to support indebted European countries financially. (2) Welfare state solidarity, defined as citizens’ strong agreement to support those in need - unemployed, sick, and the elderly - regardless of where they live in the EU, and to reduce inequality between rich and poor people in Europe. (3) Territorial solidarity, the willingness to reduce inequality between poor and rich EU countries. (4) Finally, the refugee crisis has raised the question of (4.1) external solidarity, defined as the support for the EU to grant asylum to refugees coming from outside of EU, and (4.2) internal solidarity, defined as a strong agreement with how Member States should share the burden of distributing refugees among themselves. In the second part of Chapter 1, we define different criteria for determining the strength of European solidarity. In Chapters 2 to 5, we will apply the explicated criteria for the existence of European solidarity to each of the four domains of solidarity. By doing so, we can determine the strength of European solidarity in each domain of solidarity. As this report aims at giving a first overview of some of our results, we will apply two of the four theoretically developed criteria of European solidarity to the four domains only and present the corresponding descriptive results. Overall, our analyses reveal some unanticipated findings. Europeans altogether display a notably higher level of solidarity with citizens of other EU countries and EU states than many politicians and social scientists have so far presumed. This especially applies to the support of people in need (welfare state solidarity) and the reduction of wealth inequalities between rich and poor European countries (territorial solidarity), but also to the domain of fiscal solidarity. On top of this, European solidarity turns out to be more established than the global one. However, this optimistic view is not valid for the domain of solidarity with refugees. Whilst citizens of western and southern European countries support both, the acceptance of refugees and the fair distribution of the incurring costs and burdens be-tween European countries, the majority of people in eastern European countries do not share this point of view

Legitimation durch Massenmedien? Die öffentliche Thematisierung der Humangenomforschung im Ländervergleich

"Kontext: Die Entwicklung der modernen Biowissenschaften lässt vormals feste Definitionen der Natur des Menschen brüchig werden. Entsprechend waren biowissenschaftliche Themen in der Vergangenheit oft Gegenstand öffentlicher Debatten. In diesen Debatten werden auch die Grenzen wissenschaftlicher Forschung neu justiert. Entsprechend versuchen unterschiedliche Akteure, darin zu Wort zu kommen und mit ihren Argumenten und Deutungen ihre Positionen zu begründen. Eines der massenmedial prominentesten bio-wissenschaftlichen Forschungsfelder war die Entschlüsselung des menschlichen Erbguts. Fragestellung: Wir haben den massenmedialen Diskurs über diese Humangenomforschung in Qualitäts-Tageszeitungen und im Internet in Deutschland, Österreich, Frankreich, den USA und England mit einer systematischen Inhaltsanalyse rekonstruiert. Dabei haben wir drei Dimensionen medialen Erfolgs unterschieden: In welchem Ausmaß gelingt es Akteuren, zu Wort zu kommen (Standing)? Welche Bewertungen der Humangenomforschung dominieren? Welche inhaltlichen Deutungsmuster werden zur Interpretation der Humangenomforschung und zur Untermauerung der Bewertungen verwendet (Framing)? Deskriptive Ergebnisse: Der Ländervergleich zeigt deutliche Gemeinsamkeiten. In allen Ländern konzentriert sich die Berichterstattung auf Ereignisse aus der Wissenschaft. Wissenschaftler, namentlich Humangenomforscher, und ihre politischen und wirtschaftlichen Unterstützer dominieren das Standing. Dementsprechend fallen auch die Bewertung des Themas und seine Deutung aus: Humangenomforschung wird eher positiv dargestellt, als wissenschaftliche Errungenschaft mit positiven medizinischen und wirtschaftlichen Effekten. Kurz: Die Verfasser finden eine länder- und medienübergreifende Hegemonie der Befürworter der Humangenomforschung. Erklärung: Sie haben über qualitative Interviews versucht, diese Hegemonie zu erklären. Dabei haben sie sich auf zwei Modelle für öffentliche Meinungsbildungsprozesse bezogen. Das Agenda Building-Modell geht davon aus, dass Medieninhalte durch das bestimmt werden, was Redaktionen von medienexternen Akteuren erhalten. Das medien-konstruktivistische Modell betrachtet die mediale Öffentlichkeit als von Journalisten konstruiertes Bild einer Realität. Sie können zeigen, dass sich die gefundene Hegemonie wohl v.a. durch die Aktivität extramedialer Akteure erklären lässt: durch die unterschiedliche Ressourcenausstattung der befragten Akteure und durch ihre unterschiedlich ausgeprägte Präferenz dafür, sich überhaupt in die Debatte einzumischen. Literaturhinweis: Gerhards, Jürgen und Schäfer, Mike Steffen (2006): Die Herstellung einer öffentlichen Hegemonie: Humangenomforschung in der deutschen und der US-amerikanischen Presse. Wiesbaden: Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften." (Autorenreferat

Promotion of mixed protonic–electronic transport in La5.4_{5.4}WO11.1−δ_{11.1− δ} membranes under H2_2S atmospheres

Catalytic membrane reactors (CMR) based on H$_2$-separation membranes can improve the performance of thermodynamically-limited reactions such as high-pressure steam methane reforming, ammonia cracking, non-oxidative aromatics production, and water gas shift reaction (WGS). In these industrial processes, the membrane surfaces are typically exposed to steam, CO$_2$, CO, H$_2$S, and hydrocarbons in combination with high temperatures. Therefore, the membrane materials require long-term thermo-chemical stability under the mentioned conditions. Stability in H$_2$S is of outstanding importance since its presence, even at ppm level, gives rise to substantial surface poisoning and decomposition of most materials. Here we characterize the influence of H$_2$S on the crystalline structure, lattice composition, and hydrogen-transport properties of La$_{5.4}$WO$_{11.1−δ}$, one of the reference protonic membrane materials. The incorporation of sulfide ions in the crystal lattice is ascertained from XRD, XPS, FESEM, WDS, EDS, and FIB-SIMS analyses. UV-vis spectroscopy and EIS measurements illustrate the effect of the incorporated sulfur in the transport properties, i.e., vigorously promoting the electronic conductivity mediated by the concurrent partial reduction of tungsten cations (W$^{6+}$). The rise in electronic conductivity allowed an H$_2$ flux of 0.042 mL cm$^{−2}$ min$^{−1}$ to be reached at 700 °C for a ∼700 μm-thick membrane, in contrast with negligible H$_2$ permeation in H$_2$S-free conditions