"Der Klimawandel ist eine der größten Herausforderungen unserer Zeit. Schulen tragen eine große Verantwortung, junge Menschen mit dem nötigen Wissen über Ursachen und Lösungsmöglichkeiten auszustatten. Die Studie des Instituts für ökonomische Bildung (IÖB) zeigt allerdings, dass Schülerin
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nen und Schüler in der Schule nur wenig zu Themen wie dem Emissionshandel, der Ökosteuer oder anderen Markt- und Anreizlösungen erfahren. Auch die Perspektive von Verbrauchern und Unternehmen wird selten berücksichtigt. Nur wenn diese Bildungslücke geschlossen wird, sind junge Menschen in der Lage, politische und ökonomische Lösungsvorschläge adäquat zu bewerten." (https://shop.freiheit.org)
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"Contemporary journalists face a multitude of external pressures and threats, ranging from political and commercial interference to online harassment and increasing anti-press hostility. This empirical article examines how the hybridization of the media environment is reflected in journalists’ exp
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eriences of external interference. The article also explores the factors in journalists’ working environment that support their ability to maintain their external autonomy against interference. The article is based on an applied thematic analysis of 31 semi-structured interviews with Finnish journalists supplemented by 4 background interviews with organizational stakeholders. Four major developments were identified in the analysis: (1) a proliferation of publicity control, (2) an increasingly contested public sphere, (3) societal and political polarization, and (4) the personalization of journalism. The autonomy of journalism was supported by a combination of (1) journalistic professionalism, (2) internal confidence within journalistic organizations, and (3) communication and support measures. The findings suggest that the hybridization of the media environment has intensified the external interference and pressure journalists encounter in their work. These, in turn, increase the workload and mental strain related to journalistic work, having the potential to cause fatigue, chilling effects, and self-censorship in the long run." (Abstract)
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"The report is the output of a RSE-funded project on how journalists in Scotland undertake their work in the digital age from the point of view of cyber security and surveillance impacts. This research interviewed ten journalists from Scotland, from various beats, locations, and employment backgroun
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ds (including freelance, editorial, broadcast, etc.) during July and August 2022. Interviewees were asked about their perceptions of cyber security threats, surveillance, and their knowledge of cyber security. They were also asked about other related issues that affected their work, including defamation, harassment, and data protection." (Abstract)
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"Trust in the news has fallen in almost half the countries in our survey, and risen in just seven, partly reversing the gains made at the height of the Coronavirus pandemic. On average, around four in ten of our total sample (42%) say they trust most news most of the time. Finland remains the countr
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y with the highest levels of overall trust (69%), while news trust in the USA has fallen by a further three percentage points and remains the lowest (26%) in our survey.
• Consumption of traditional media, such as TV and print, declined further in the last year in almost all markets (pre-Ukraine invasion), with online and social consumption not making up the gap. While the majority remain very engaged, others are turning away from the news media and in some cases disconnecting from news altogether. Interest in news has fallen sharply across markets, from 63% in 2017 to 51% in 2022.
• Meanwhile, the proportion of news consumers who say they avoid news, often or sometimes, has increased sharply across countries. This type of selective avoidance has doubled in both Brazil (54%) and the UK (46%) over the last five years, with many respondents saying news has a negative effect on their mood. A significant proportion of younger and less educated people say they avoid news because it can be hard to follow or understand – suggesting that the news media could do much more to simplify language and better explain or contextualise complex stories.
• In the five countries we surveyed after the war in Ukraine had begun, we find that television news is relied on most heavily – with countries closest to the fighting, such as Germany and Poland, seeing the biggest increases in consumption. Selective news avoidance has, if anything, increased further – likely due to the difficult and depressing nature of the coverage.
• Global concerns about false and misleading information remain stable this year, ranging from 72% in Kenya and Nigeria to just 32% in Germany and 31% in Austria. People say they have seen more false information about Coronavirus than about politics in most countries, but the situation is reversed in Turkey, Kenya, and the Philippines, amongst others." (Summary, page 10)
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"This article explores the public value of community media in Austria. Though they fulfil various important functions in civil society, they do not enjoy the same legislative recognition and financial funding like other public-value-generating broadcasters do. For this study five normative functions
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have been developed to measure the community media’s public value: the articulation function, the participation function, the complementary function, the media literacy function and the strategies in media convergence function. In thirteen focus groups with members of fifteen Austrian community media, the strong institutionalization of the sector became just as apparent as the existence of a commonly shared self-perception. The normative functions are strongly anchored in the daily routine of the participating programme makers. So, community media in Austria clearly generate public value." (Abstract)
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"Social media influencers promote not only products and brands but also their opinions on serious topics like party politics or climate change. These so-called digital opinion leaders may exert a powerful impact on their followers’ political attitudes. Accordingly, we explore new directions to exp
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lain how influencers’ communication is related to political outcomes by proposing the concept of perceived simplification of politics (PSP). We argue that PSP may fuel political cynicism but also stimulate youth’s interest in politics. We also explore important boundary conditions of these associations. We use data from three studies, a two-wave panel survey of adolescents (NT2 =294), a cross-sectional survey of young adults (N=632), and a two-wave panel survey of young adults (NT2=496) in Germany between 2019 and 2020. Findings of all three studies show that the frequency of exposure to social media influencers’ content increases PSP. In Studies 1 and 2, PSP is related to higher political cynicism, while in Study 3, this relationship is restricted to influencers’ communication about environmental topics and gender equality. Furthermore, Studies 2 and 3 suggest that PSP also increases political interest—yet this association requires a certain level of parasocial interaction (PSI) with the influencer and is contingent on specific political topics." (Abstract)
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"This thematic issue asks about the role of religions and religious actors and conspiracy theories/theorists in democratic and authoritarian regimes in general. Special attention is given to the current Covid]19 pandemic, since the relevant state of emergency obviously endorses the persuasiveness
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of conspiracy theories and makes the comparison with religions necessary. In this respect, the challenges religious prejudices and conspiracy myths imply could even shed light on the problem of whether democracy or authoritarianism is the best regime to fight the Coronavirus successfully. The articles at hand answer these issues from interdisciplinary areas, particularly from political science, sociology, social psychology, and history." (Editorial, page 132)
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"The book evaluates unique civic challenges, responsibilities, and opportunities for media worldwide, exploring pandemic social norms that media promote or discourage, and how media serve as instruments of social control and resistance, or of cooperation and representation. These chapters raise sign
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ificant questions about the roles mainstream or citizen journalists or netizens play or ought to play, enlightening audiences successfully about scientific information on COVID-19 in a pandemic that magnifies social inequality and unequal access to health care, challenging popular beliefs about health and disease prevention and the role of government while the entire world pays close attention." (Publisher description)
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"This edited volume focuses on the lived experiences of children during the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak in the spring of 2020, their knowledge and emotional reactions, the adjustments they made in their everyday lives, and the strengths and skills they developed in response. A central theme
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of inquiry is the place media held in all of these aspects: the roles they played for children’s informational, emotional, and social needs, how these have changed under the pandemic circumstances, and the media competencies children developed in utilizing and controlling the media in their lives. The book is based on responses of 4,200 children ages 9-13 to an international survey administered in 42 countries as well as additional complementaries localized studies. Comparative dimensions are central to this unique collection of chapters, along geographical and cultural lines, as well as gender, age, class, health, and refugee status. With 40 authors from around the world, this book highlights the potential of media to assist children and their families in times of crisis as well as their potential drawbacks." (Publisher description)
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"What kind of information are refugees looking for? Who do they communicate with? What ICT, social and digital media do they apply? What are their motives to use particular devices or services, from Facebook and WhatsApp to YouTube and TikTok? Are gender- as well as age-dependent differences to be o
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bserved? To answer these questions, data have been collected through an online questionnaire, interviews, as well as a content analysis of an online platform for refugees." (Publisher description)
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"Zwischen 1975 und 1990 machten tausende Menschen in ganz Westeuropa mit freien Radiosendern auf ihre Kultur, ihre politischen Ansichten und ihre Interessen aufmerksam. Sie erreichten über ihre Rundfunkstationen Millionen Zuhörer. Der Strukturwandel war dabei in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, den
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Niederlanden und Belgien der Stimulus hinter dieser radiophonen Entwicklung. Wie aber sahen die Klänge des Strukturwandels aus? Wie setzten sie sich in Westeuropa nach dem wirtschaftlichen Boom der 1950er und 1960er Jahre fort? Welche Auswirkungen hatten die freien Radiosender auf die Medienlandschaft? »Der Klang des Strukturwandels« gewährt spannende kulturelle, gesellschaftliche, politische und wirtschaftliche Einblicke in einen Zeitabschnitt bewegter europäischer Geschichte. Ob in Arbeiterstädten, auf dem Land, Jugendliche, öffentlich-rechtliche Rundfunksender oder dynamische Akteure der Medienindustrie - alle interessierten sich für das freie Radio!" (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Cold War media cultures are typically remembered in terms of an East-West binary, emphasizing conflict and propaganda. Remapping Cold War Media, however, offers a different perspective on the period, illuminating the extensive connections between media industries and cultures in Europe's Cold War E
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ast and their counterparts in the West and Global South. These connections were forged by pragmatic, technological, economic, political, and aesthetic forces; they had multiple, at times conflicting, functions and meanings. And they helped shape the ways in which media circulates today—from film festivals, to satellite networks, to coproductions. Considering film, literature, radio, photography, computer games, and television, Remapping Cold War Media offers a transnational history of postwar media that spans Eastern and Western Europe, the Nordic countries, Cuba, the United States, and beyond. Contributors draw on extensive archival research to reveal how media traveled across geopolitical boundaries; the processes of translation, interpretation, and reception on which these travels depended; and the significance of media form, content, industries, and infrastructures then and now." (Publisher description)
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"Whereas France owned the second most important empire in the world in 1945, the colonial domination paradoxically leaned very little on radio broadcasting. It was not until 1954 that the French governement, under the impulsion of Pierre Schaeffer, inventor of the “musique concrète,” launched a
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strong effort to build an overseas broadcasting network. However, that lasting endeavor took place while the French African colonies went into a phase of quick evolution toward independence. It immediately challenged the radiophonic project that colonial authorities had designed and forced French and Africans stakeholders to adapt their strategy according to the new context." (Abstract)
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"Soziale Medien wie Facebook, YouTube, Instagram oder Twitter sind wichtige Werkzeuge der politischen Kommunikation geworden. Politikerinnen und Politiker genauso wie ehrenamtlich Engagierte nutzen sie, um über ihre Ziele zu informieren und Unterstützung zu mobilisieren. Bürgerinnen und Bürger k
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önnen mit ihrer Hilfe an gesellschaftlichen Debatten partizipieren und ihre eigene Meinung einbringen. Zugleich können die Regeln und Mechanismen der sozialen Medien aber auch zu Filterblasen, Echokammern und Hassrede führen. Dieses Buch beschreibt allgemeinverständlich, wie Politikerinnen und Politiker soziale Medien nutzen, wie soziale Medien Meinungsbildung und politisches Engagement verändern, und wie wir diese Entwicklungen gesellschaftlich einhegen sollten, um unsere Demokratie nicht zu gefährden." (Buchrücken)
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"This book offers a critical and systematic survey of the study of religion and digital media. It covers religious engagement with a wide range of digital media forms and highlights examples of new media engagement in all five of the major world religions. From mobile apps and video games to virtual
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reality and social media, the book provides a detailed review of major topics including ritual, identity, community, authority, and embodiment, includes a series of engaging case studies to illustrate and elucidate the thematic explorations, considers the theoretical, ethical, and theological issues raised [...] Thoroughly updated throughout with new case studies and in-depth analysis of recent scholarship and developments, this new edition provides a comprehensive overview of this fast-paced, constantly developing, and fascinating field." (Publisher description)
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