Media Situation Research Articles

New media and the war in Afghanistan: The significance of blogging for the Swedish strategic narrative

The new media situation gives fuel to increased competition between narratives. In the sphere of security this poses challenges to government strategic narratives. Scholars, drawing on findings from the Anglo-Saxon sphere, suggest that the new media activism gives rise to counter-hegemonic narratives that thrive on and through social media sites. We argue that the emergence of counter-narratives in the sphere of security depends upon a few key dynamics that might vary with political context such as political culture, the size of the blogosphere, the debate in mainstream media and socialization processes within the military organization. Our case study of Swedish blogging about Sweden’s military contribution to the International Security Assistance Force mission in Afghanistan suggests that blogs are mainly used to sustain – and not to challenge – the governmental narrative. This invites us to question the significance of new media platforms as counter-hegemonic forces in communities beyond the Anglo-Saxon sphere.

Book Review: God, Jews and the Media: Religion and Israel’s Media, by Yoel Cohen

God, Jews and the Media: Religion and Israel's Media. Yoel Cohen. New York: Routledge, 2012. 258 pp. $135.00 hbk.This is a book to have on hand if you are trying to fathom the media situation (and even the political situation) in Israel. There is some serious reading here, but with enough anecdotes spread about to lighten the load.The author wants to show how the Jewish religion and the Jews of Israel have been influenced by the media age. He also wants to show how the media in Israel have been influenced by religion, which turns out to be a more interesting topic overall. Everyone, of course, has been influenced in one way or another by the media, but Cohen's book shows how religion has a strong influence on Israel's media and through the media (where he says most Israelis get much of their information about religious groups) on Israeli society in general. This influence may be growing. There may be a loss of reli- gious identity in the Western democracies (particularly in Europe), but the author sees an actual growth of religion in much of the world, especially in Israel. A huge majority of Israel's Jews feel at least some attachment to Jewish tradition. More and more young Jews identify themselves with the most conservative Jewish group, the Haredim.Cohen suggests God, Israel, and lsrael's media are intertwined, especially in the minds of the Haredim (or Pious Ones). In the preface, he not so subtly suggests that these most conservative religious elements in Israel will go to any lengths to use the media to promote a religion-based society despite the hopes of the nation's founders for a secular society. Cohen uses the tale of a highly promoted media interview of God by Israel's Chief Rabbi (a political appointee, he notes!) that fails to come off when God does not show up. Cohen is showing some authorial courage here as conservative reaction to much milder comments on religion have brought harassment and even physical attacks.The book focuses on the influence of the Haredim. Cohen justifies this by pointing out that with only 9% of the population, the Haredim get 43% of media coverage devoted to religion. Religious stories with a political connection get especially heavy coverage. Cohen suggests that the ultraorthodox Haredim are media stars because their distinctive black garb gives them visibility and their political clout gives them significant power in Israeli society. This is the reverse of the situation in the United States, he points out, where mainstream religions get most of the media coverage.As in the United States, the general population in Israel gets knowledge of its minority religious groups, in this case the Haredim, from the general media. But these ultraconservative Jews see the general media and even democracy itself in conflict with the values of the Torah and deal with them only grudgingly. …

Beyond information and utility: Transforming public spaces with media facades

Media facades (often characterized as a building's digital skin) are public displays that substitute dynamic details and information for usually static structures. SMSlingshot is a media facade system at the confluence of art, architecture, and technology design in the context of urban human-computer interaction. It represents a participative approach to public displays that enlivens public spaces and fosters civic and social dialogue as an alternative to advertising and service-oriented information displays. Observations from SMSlingshot's implementation at festival exhibitions provide insight into the roles of scale, distance, and the spatial situation of media facade contexts. The lessons learned apply to most public-display situations and will be useful for designers and developers of this new medium in urban spaces.

Constructing the Past: Introductory Remarks

Among most transformational theoretical advances in study of cultures in recent decades has been exploration of memory. Since Maurice Halbwachs's groundbreaking studies of what he termed collective memory (memoire collective; 1925, 1950), with its emphasis on social construction of memory, what is sometimes characterized as social remembering has been addressed from many different perspectives, and correspondingly described in many different ways, each characterization freighted with important theoretical concerns: ethnic memory, with its focus on role of memory in pre-literate societies (e.g., Le Goff 1988); cultural memory, that is, handing down of meaning over many generations, as distinct from shorter communicative memory (e.g., Assmann 1992, 2006; Erll 2005); creation of national identity and cultural memory through memorials, places of memory (Nora 1984-92, 1989; cf. Assmann 1995, and essays in Ben-Amos and Weissberg 1999). Increasingly important in disciplines of many different sorts in recent decades, this consideration of memory and its usefulness as a tool in approaching human history and culture has also been applied in recent decades to aspects of medieval Scandinavia (e.g., Jesch 2001; Hermann 2009; Harris 2010). And cultural memory studies in particular-the branch of current memory theory that, broadly speaking, investigates the interplay of present and past in socio-cultural contexts (Erll 2008, 2)--has begun to make an impact on our views of Old Norse culture, revealing potential of this emerging theoretical framework for opening new perspectives on our understanding of Nordic Middle Ages (e.g., Glauser 2000; essays in Hermann, Mitchell, and Agnes S. Arnorsdottir, forthcoming). The authors of essays in this special issue of Scandinavian Studies look to contribute to this same discussion, addressing question from a particular perspective, namely, how a focus on memory, in combination with various other methodologies and approaches that fill intellectual kit bags of Scandinavian medievalists, alters our understanding of Old Norse world and cultural goods deriving from it. With a consideration of how memory studies can and should intersect with diverse theories we use in cultural analysis, these essays examine memory's crucial role in construction of, and society's preoccupation with, past in Nordic Middle Ages. Importantly, discussions here do not focus on problems of historicity, that is, what actually happened at some point in past, but rather on how past was constructed, valorized, recontextualized, re-enacted, and otherwise placed by each succeeding generation into a changed contemporary framework that gave past meaning. With their focus on memory, discussions in these essays challenge some of most conspicuous and complicated debates in study of Nordic Middle Ages-debates that, when it comes to textual material, are often concerned with source-critical investigations that are frequently articulated in inadequate dichotomy of history versus fiction. Emphasized in these essays is immense relevance for medieval Scandinavian cultural memory of two seismic shifts in nature of Nordic world: (1) introduction of Christianity and gradual change of faith in Scandinavia, as Conversion introduced new perspectives and new conceptual frameworks into North; and fact that these changes, in turn, presented an enormous challenge to writers and clerics in explaining function, meaning and content of pre-Christian past; and (2) subsequent advent of writing and altered media situation, a development that had a deep impact on transmission of past and offered radically new ways of accessing past. Although cultural memory-studies form core basis for this collection, discussions relate these studies to, and combine them with, theoretical stances that contribute in other important ways to inquiry of medieval Norse culture (e. …

Usage and appraisal of educational media by homeopathic therapists – A cross sectional survey

BackgroundDuring recent years the market for homeopathic education media has increasingly diversified with old (books, seminars) and new media (video-seminars, pc-programs, homeo-wiki and internet-courses). However, little is known about homeopaths’ preferences in using educational media and their requirements of this topic.AimThis survey was designed to gain a better understanding of the usage and appraisal of educational media by homeopaths.Methods192 homeopathic practitioners (GPs and health practitioners) at a educational conference were asked to answer a standardized questionnaire covering the topics “formal education and context of work” (9 items), “homeopathic practise and usage (24 items), “utilization of educational media” (9 items) and “favoured attributes for educational media” (11 items).ResultsOut of 192 homeopaths who attended the conference, 118 completed the questionnaire (response rate 61.5%). For their continuing homeopathic education they predominantly indicated to use books (scale value from 0 = never to 2 = always: 1.72) and seminars (1.54) whereas journals (0.98) and the internet (0.65) were used less often. The most favoured attributes concerning medical education media were reliability (1.76), relevance for clinical practice (1.74) and user friendliness (1.6). Less favoured attributes were inexpensiveness (1.1), graphical material (0.92) and interactivity (0.88).ConclusionsThe survey illustrates the current situation of medical education media in homeopathy. Although there are parallels to earlier research conducted in conventional GPs, homeopaths are more likely to refer to classical media. New education tools should be designed according to these preferences.

From remediation to convergence: looking at the Portuguese media

The digitalization in the journalism sector and the emergence of the Internet have transformed media convergence into a new field of research. In a first stage, researchers were centered on convergence processes in the newsroom, namely in questions related with entrepreneurial reorganization (KETTERER et al., 2004; QUINN, 2005) and journalists’ professional routines (SALAVERRÍA, 2003; MASIP; MICÓ, 2009; VERWEIJ, 2009). However, it was soon understood that convergence influences a larger area: the migration of traditional media to the Internet and the rapid technological evolution showed that convergence was a transversal phenomenon that also happened in the contents field (CÁDIMA, 1999; QUINN; FILAK, 2005), news distribution (BRUNS, 2003; CABRERA, 2010) and information consumption (BOWMAN; WILLIS, 2003; JENKINS, 2006; SUNDET; ESPEN 2009). The present work is centered on the study of contents convergence, attempting to produce an accurate portrait of thePortuguese media situation.

Discounts and couponing sites communications through Facebook

El crecimiento experimentado por el comercio electrónico y las plataformas 2.0 ha venido acompañado por el surgimiento y desarrollo de portales caracterizados por ofrecer a los usuarios la compra de productos o contratación de servicios con llamativos descuentos o promociones. El objetivo de este artículo se centra en el estudio de la comunicación que llevan a cabo los llamados portales de couponing a través de sus espacios en la red social Facebook. Se parte de la hipótesis de que estos portales se limitan a volcar la información sobre las ofertas, descuentos y promociones en la red social y generan poca conversación con sus seguidores, a pesar del popular seguimiento que tienen entre los usuarios. La metodología se basa, por una parte, en la investigación documental de publicaciones de los ámbitos profesional y académico, repasando la situación actual de los medios sociales, revisando la evolución vivida por el comercio electrónico y estudiando las particularidades del social commerce, y en el análisis de case studies de los principales portales de descuentos y cupones, por otra. Tras este análisis, queda demostrado el principal uso que los portales de couponing hacen de su presencia en Facebook, como mero canal de difusión y generación de tráfico hacia las ofertas y descuentos, limitando a ello el uso de este entorno colaborativo y ofreciendo escasa conversación con el usuario.

Franchise company digital communication: use and presence on social media

El artículo se centra en el estudio de la presencia de la empresa de franquicia en los medios sociales, analizando las estrategias de comunicación empresarial y publicitaria que llevan a cabo en plataformas como Facebook o Twitter. Se parte de la hipótesis de que la empresa franquicia todavía tiene escasa presencia en los espacios 2.0 y que, en general, se limita a volcar información de otros canales, generando poca conversación con sus seguidores. La metodología se basa, por una parte, en la investigación documental de publicaciones de los ámbitos profesional y académico, repasando la situación actual de los medios sociales, y en un estudio exploratorio a partir del análisis de case studies de las principales empresas de franquicia, por otra. Los resultados del estudio nos obligan a hablar del escaso aprovechamiento que la empresa franquicia está haciendo de las bondades de las plataformas 2.0, por lo que se cumple la hipótesis de partida. El crecimiento experimentado por estos espacios en los últimos años y las ventajas que, por las peculiaridades de la empresa franquicia, el Social Media Marketing puede aportar a su estrategia de comunicación y publicidad, obligan al desarrollo de una estrategia clara y definida desde la central de franquicia que determine la presencia de cada uno de los franquiciados en las redes sociales.

Tilting at Windmills? The European Response to Violations of Media Freedom in Russia

AbstractThis article is a study about the measures that European organizations take in response to violations of media freedom in Russia. Despite vigorous efforts, the media situation has not improved considerably. What are the reasons for the apparent inefficiency of the European enforcement mechanism? To overcome the tangle of sometimes contradictory historical, sociological, philosophical, and mere pragmatic explanations, one has to distinguish obstacles at the conceptual level from obstacles at the level of implementation. I will argue that insistence on a specific Russian mentality and another idea of freedom of expression in the Russian context is a mere rhetorical trick of the ruling political forces to hide the lack of democratic commitment in Russia and to avoid criticism from the West. Whereas these 'ideological' reasons—or, at least, their historical necessity—can be rejected, 'practical' reasons for the small impact of European measures cannot be denied. When exclusively addressing those responsible in the Russian government, European organizations underestimate not only reluctance by the Russian authorities but also the complexity of the whole situation. Without a change of journalistic behavior and some institutions closely connected with the work of journalists—and, most notably, a comprehensive alteration of public opinion—it is improbable that the situation of the media will change in the future.

Making Media Public: From Discussion to Action?

By the summer of 2008, it had become clear that a crisis in media was under way in Canada. The media giant Canwest was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, local television stations were being closed, thousands of media workers had been laid off, and community radio and television were barely supported. At the same time, publics linked through social networks were producing and distributing a growing range of their own content through new media. Old media had collided with new technologies, national policies were facing global political and economic challenges, and the need to develop new approaches to media models had become urgent. Although these questions were being debated in some communities—among academics, labour unions, media producers and policy activists, for example—in various media, and at the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), we felt there was a pressing need to increase dialogue between and beyond these groups. For all of these reasons, we organized the Making Media Public conference. Our aim was to bring people together to critically assess the current media situation, to envision ways of building sustainable media models that address the experiences of diverse Canadians, and to increase public contributions to and dialogue about policymaking. The conference, held at York University from May 6 to 8, 2010, was designed to enable sustained analysis of the current media crisis and to gain insight into the challenges and opportunities for transforming media in Canada. We were able to bring together a range of publics that does not usually have opportunities to gather for discussion: academic researchers, media workers, policymakers, union members, community members, alternative media producers, students, and media educators. As academics and graduate students who have actively participated in the production of alternative media and policy engagement, our aim was to dissolve the boundaries between academic researchers and those involved in media production and policy development, both large-scale and community-based. We hoped the conference would

Poder, control y educación de los cuerpos

El estudio parte de una breve mirada al transcurso del poder, hasta la complejización de la dominación en la actualidad; posteriormente, asume el control de los cuerpos, tal y como lo propone Michel Foucault, traducido en la situación de los medios de comunicación y la educación, para generar posibilidades de reflexión como sustento de un proceso pedagógico de resistencia sensible al control de los cuerpos.

Media Literacy and Universal Access in Europe

The promotion of media literacy as way of increasing access to the range of services available via today's media and communication technologies is currently an emphasis in Europe's information society policy debates. The notion of media literacy heralds a shift in the communications policy arena, especially with regard to media access as a policy goal. Taking into account the situated origins of the inherited regulatory concepts of access, this article argues that the way in which we operationalize media access must reflect how individuals engage with convergent electronic media services. It proposes a context- and user-sensitive approach, where the situation of media (non)users is assessed in terms of the technological and social infrastructure needed to support their access to particular media services.

The Media for Democracy Monitor applied to five countries: A selection of indicators and their measurement

For the present inquiry of the performance of the news media as watchdogs of democracy in five countries (the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, Lithuania), the bulk of the data was collected via desk research. Additionally, the researchers sought to fill any remaining gaps with complementary information gathered from interviews with media professionals, from a variety of publications such as official government documents, scholarly articles, and websites of the media institutions investigated in the study. Overall, the year of reference for the evidence collected was 2006. Furthermore, in the spring of 2008, expert interviews were conducted with key people whose inside knowledge has helped the researchers to evaluate and comment on a number of indicators. The picture that results from the following country-specific section is far from complete, as only a small selection of indicators (three indicators for each of the five respective countries) is discussed in detail. Within the principle of freedom, the F3 freedom indicator ‘internal rules for newsroom democracy’ looks into the autonomy of the individual members of the editorial staff. There can be no objective reporting of the news if the newsroom’s freedom is restrained. The F3 indicator applied to the media situation in the five countries studied here seeks to ascertain whether any formal rules have been established within the editorial team. An example of such a rule might be a regular procedure for appointing the editor-in-chief: Is a democratic arrangement in place that takes the opinion of all the reporters on the staff into account? Furthermore, it is relevant to investigate whether the procedure, if any, is correctly followed.

Kenneth Rexroth and Radio Reading

In San Francisco also began the now fabulously successful oral presentation of poetry. For years, in fact from long before the war, there have been more poetry readings every week in San Francisco than I for one have ever been able to keep track of.... Poetry is an art of speech, and it can only be helped by its restoration to immediate contact with a living audience. Kenneth Rexroth New 1961 Now [clears throat] I'll read from my own uh recent poems. A book called In Defense of the Earth. Both of these books by the way are published by New Directions. [um] Also this is Kenneth Rexroth reading his own poetry [laughs] the uh midway in the program. Kenneth Rexroth Poetry, on KPFA 13 January 1957 ON 13 JANUARY 1957, RADIO STATION KPFA Berkeley broadcast Kenneth Rexroth reading from his two new books of translations and original poems: 100 Poems from the Chinese (1956) and In Defense of the Earth (1956). His reading was part of a weekly series that broadcast local poets reading their own work. The postwar San Francisco literary milieu that Rexroth indexes in the first epigraph, and the multiple literary circles that emerged in and traveled through the Bay area in the period, have often been discussed in terms of their interest in oral performance, speech, jazz, and breath-based composition modes, but radio broadcasts are not often discussed in relation to this orally-engaged scene. Mid-twentieth-century radio poetry archives in general are difficult to obtain, often buried in non-catalogued materials or simply lost, but radio readings were part of the aural environment that characterized literary networks and collectives such as those forming in postwar San Francisco. KPFA, the first station of the listener-sponsored Pacifica radio network, began broadcasting in 194 9; showcasing literary innovation was part of its mandate (Land 3), an aim that translated into the station hosting local and international writers, airing controversial poems and debates such as over Allen Ginsberg's Howl in 1955, and supporting Rexroth's sustained literary and cultural discussions over the airwaves. In this essay, I posit Rexroth's 1957 radio broadcast as integral to his engagement of the poetics he describes above as oral and immediate and situate the recording of his broadcast in relation to the cultural contexts and media situation in which it participated. My interest in investigating Rexroth's radio reading in relation to its broadcast context stems from my attempt to articulate a broad-based methodology for to recorded readings. In addition to engaging strategies of reading for sound patterns, structures, and audio textual elements and strategies of close listening to vocal markers of performed poems such as intonations, pitch, tempos, accents ... grain or timbre of (Bernstein 13), my essay is interested in thinking through how Rexroth's broadcast poems circulated in the postwar culture of sound and contribute to an understanding of Rexroth's poetics of speech. I hear the recording of Rexroth's radio reading as part of the fabric of a KPFA day of broadcasting, part of the radio oeuvre of a popular broadcaster, part of a sustained critique of oppressive social forms, and part of the articulation of a poetic community. Radio, and KPFA in particular, participates in the dynamic presentation of oral poetry central to postwar Bay area literary scenes. Radio also provides a slightly different presentation and reception context and media situation than a reading by an embodied voice at a coffee shop or jazz bar. (1) Recordings of poetry readings can at times seem disconnected from the cultural contexts and media conditions in which they have and continue to circulate, especially when one is to an isolated recording of several poems on compact disc fifty years after they were performed or broadcast. In focusing on one particular radio recording, I hope to explore how the process of to poetry recordings is enhanced by thinking through the particular set of conditions in which the recording was produced and by examining some of the media, literary, political, and cultural resonances of the voiced poems. …

Newsrooms in conflict: journalism and the democratization of Mexico

Hughes, Sallie. Newsrooms in Conflict: Journalism and the Democratization of Mexico. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006. 286 pp. $24.95. Do you know who Carlos Slim is? Most people do not. A Mexico City-based telecommunications tycoon, he has been recognized recently as the world's richest man. Besides that, Sallie Hughes, an assistant professor at the University of Miami, suggests that this multi-billionaire has the potential to reverse the growing democratization of Mexican journalism. But this dire possibility is not the focus of her meticulously researched book, Newsrooms in Conflict: Journalism and the Democratization of Mexico, which chronicles how Mexico's traditionally authoritarian media system became democratized. From 1980 until the 2006 presidential election, the country's newsrooms evolved into what Hughes calls a hybrid system consisting of three models of journalism. She calls the model that she is most interested in civic-oriented journalism. It should not be confused with what is referred to as civic journalism in the United States. Some civic-oriented newspapers, such as Siglo 21 (Century 21), are new, but others, such as Mexico City's oldest newspaper, El Universal, have been on the scene for a long time. Hughes says Mexico's civic newsrooms were assertive, covered a diversity of political opinions, and were autonomous from the government by the mid-1990s. They took on the functions of watchdog and advocate for their readers and gave voice to opponents of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (Institutional Revolutionary Party or PRI), the political party that controlled Mexico for more than seventy years. Civic-oriented newspapers ultimately became part of the reason PRI finally crumbled and lost control. The press system's other new model, represented by the networks and many major newspapers, is what Hughes calls the market-driven model. It also played a part in PRI's downfall, not for ultraistic reasons but because of its profit-driven attempts to respond to what the market demanded. The final model that she identified is the inertial and adaptive authoritarian model, which is either imposed from above or by journalists who support the regime. It lacks newsroom autonomy and has a passive approach to newsgathering. Hughes has an intimate knowledge of Mexican media, having worked as a journalist there for twelve years, but she brings more to her research than observation, networking, and familiarity. Her impressive, well-researched analysis of Mexico's press system includes an interesting combination of sociology, ethnography, content analysis, interviews with editors, and surveys of journalists. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the following topics: journalism in Mexico and other Latin America countries; the connection between politics and the media; the role of the press as a watchdog and/or advocate; and the fragile situation of media in countries that experience swings between democracy and authoritarianism. …

The contribution of Swedish-language media in Finland to linguistic vitality

The Swedish-language media landscape in Finland is exceptionally rich. It forms one of the institutions that underpin the cultural position of the Swedish-speaking Finns and the use of Swedish in Finland. This example has yet, however, been given only little attention in sociolinguistic research. Based on secondary data of mass-media audience research, this article analyzes the situation of Swedish media in Finland with regard to production and reception in relation to ethnolinguistic vitality and offers conceptual tools for linking the analysis of media consumption to sociolinguistic concepts. The nine daily newspapers, two radio stations, and Swedish-language television channel put at the service of this relatively small population provides an ideal test case for how extensive media supply interacts with linguistic vitality. The role of minority media has been rapidly and significantly changing over the past decades due to the fragmentation of media spaces and diversification of media reception. With the complexity of hybrid identities, factors such as age, gender, class, and regional and language identities are taking on increasing importance. In this new media environment, the viability and relevance of Swedish-language media will be determined by the degree to which the presence of Swedish language is a criterial attribute of the identity of the Swedish-speaking Finns.

In search of a new marketing and sales strategy in the print media business: a Balkans case

The purpose of this case is to present news media situation in a transitional environment. The media industry worldwide is experiencing a significant change in a major business direction, from the acknowledged servant of public interest, toward the increasing commercialisation of the sector, where media organisations become a profit generator for its owners. Those changes in the strategic orientation of the media industry require different business strategy and highly sophisticated management approaches. The transitional context makes this process more complex because of the undeveloped media regulation, up to the recent political heritage and influences, changes in cultural values, weak economic situation and lower customer income than in EU countries, poor accompanying infrastructure of media research and monitoring entities, etc. The presented case encompasses the situation of acquisition of the major Croatian newspaper, with emphasis given to the marketing issues of strategic planning, competitor analyses, positioning and branding, sales management and distribution.

Political Journalism the Zimbabwean Way: Experiences from the 2000 Election Campaign

The 2000 parliamentary election was the first Zimbabwean election in which the media situation gave the opposition against ZANU PF president Robert Mugabe a fair possibility to inform the voters about their politics. Radio and TV organised in ZBC was, to be sure, still controlled by ZANU PF, but toward the end of the 1990s a few newspapers opposed to the regime had been established. This paper will, based on my study of the 2000 election campaign (Waldahl 2004), discuss some of the political consequences of this new media situation. More specific I will address four questions: In which way did the new media situation influence the election campaign agenda? What did the media tell the voters about the two main opponents’ politics for the coming years? How did the media present the violent aspects of the election campaign? What picture did the media give of ZANU PF and MDC, and of their leading politicians? The paper will then conclude with a few general comments about the consequences of a competitive media situation for the conduct of a free and fair election.

Mediated political cleavages: Zimbabwe's 2000 election seen through the media

The 2000 parliamentary election was the first Zimbabwean election in which the media situation gave the opposition against Presider t Robert Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU (PF)) a fair possibility to inform the voters about the political situation in the country. Even if ZANU (PF) still controlled radio and television, a few newspapers opposed to the regime had been established toward the end of the 1990s. This article discusses three political consequences of this new situation: Which way did the new media situation influence the election campaign agenda? How did the media present the conduct of the election in the light of generally accepted democratic rules? What did the media tell voters about the political violence that took place during the election campaign?

Einleitung

The current situation of media and communication practice and the academic disciplines concerned with these domains is characterized by a multiplicity of approaches specific to individual disciplines and schools. The methodological scope corresponds to the dynamics of transformation processes in media industry, society and in those fields of research engaged with these changes. The institutional establishment of media studies and media-oriented higher education curricula, and the extension or reorganization of philology and literature departments, as well as institutes for theatre, film and television studies into larger teaching and research departments under the heading of communication or media studies is currently in rapid progression. There is no doubt that the tendency of media studies to transgress disciplinary boundaries and to constitute itself as an autonomous field of studies has to be seen in the context of overarching developmental trajectories in media politics and media technology, and the respective social responses they provoke. On the other hand, this tendency demarcates a stage or an episode in the transformation process of the humanities, in particular their media-oriented branches which draw increasingly closer to the social sciences, adapting theories, methods and results from communication studies, psychology, sociology, education studies, or market research. These developments establish not only a significantly increased demand for academic research and data on specific media from the perspectives of all disciplines concerned but also a demand for research and data made available in a problem-oriented way, that is with relevance for both practice and application. These demands cannot be met by literary, television or music studies only, nor by (media-) psychology, media sociology or any other ›hyphenated discipline‹ because in view of the current omnipresence and growing convergence of media as well as increasingly media-based constructions of reality, multimediality and multidimensionality are already inherent to the issues in question. This outline of the subject has been the guiding perspective of a conference titled ›Conceptions of Media Studies‹, held at University of Siegen from November 22nd to November 23rd, 2002, by the Institut für Medienforschung (Institute for Media Research), and sponsored by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). Conceived as a contribution towards clarifying problematic issues and encouraging communication between the different fields of research, the conference offered a platform for presenting and debating different conceptions of media studies as already established in recent years at German universities. Since media-oriented approaches belong to different disciplines, the agenda was structured around existing research priorities and disciplines. The aim of the conference was to elucidate the conceptual frameworks of various forms of media research institutionalisation from the points of view of and informed by the interests of the respective disciplines and fields of practical application, and to show trajectories in the context of further transdisciplinary research and teaching. This volume documents the proceedings of the conference. The individual referents’ contributions represent, in their respective degrees of elaboration, positions and precise perceptions of those disciplines involved in the symposium. Each of the four panels — cultural studies, film and television studies, communication studies / social sciences (LiLi 132), informatics / design (LiLi 133) — is introduced briefly by the panel chairs and the discussion leader, and supplemented by the main points of the subsequent discussions. Gebhard Rusch’s concluding essay summarizes the conference results.