Edition 1/2023, Review

Richard David Precht, Harald Welzer: Die Vierte Gewalt. Wie Mehrheitsmeinung gemacht wird, auch wenn sie keine ist. [The Fourth Estate. How majority opinion is formed, even if it isn’t one.]

Reviewed by Beatrice Dernbach | In fall 2022, Richard David Precht and Harald Welzer’s book Die Vierte Gewalt [The Fourth Estate] hit the media sector like a hurricane. In my three decades of teaching and research in media and communication studies and many years working as a journalist in newspaper editorial offices, I cannot remember another book on media ever having spent months on the bestseller lists or having triggered such outrage in the sector.

Edition 1/2023, Review

Alla G. Bespalova, Horst Pöttker (eds.) (2022): Mediensysteme in Deutschland und Russland. Handbuch. [Media Systems in Germany and Russia. Handbook.]

Reviewed by Jürg Häusermann | Alla Grigor’evna Bespalova was born in 1956. I imagine that she grew up reading Komsomol’skaja Pravda, listening to songs on Radio Mayak, and watching Soviet television shows. Horst Pöttker, born in 1944, was just learning to read when the first editions of the newspaper Bild appeared. Following the Manual of Journalistic Genres, they are now presenting the result of their collaboration, a collection of essays and materials entitled Media Systems in Germany and Russia.

Edition 03/2022

Editorial

Dear readers,

Even in liberal democracies, barely a day goes by without someone getting into a heated debate and accusing someone else of endangering press freedom or freedom of speech. Upholding these freedoms is a good thing, of course. But unfortunately, it is often done as a crude maneuver in the fight between different opinions – a strategic exaggeration used to cloud the view of the true dangers.

Edition 03/2022, Paper

Internal freedom of the press revisited On the current need for regulation of media ownership power from the perspective of German media journalists

By Uwe Krüger, Pauline Köbele, Mascha Leonie Lang, Milena Scheller and Henry Seyffert / This article traces the lines of conflict from the heyday of the Statute Movement [Statutenbewegung] to a re-framing of internal press freedom within publishing houses over the past few decades: from an instrument of democratizing media outlets to one for assuring journalistic quality. Lastly, this article discusses the findings of a qualitative survey of twelve German media journalists on their political opinions and ideals regarding the powers of media owners and managers.

Edition 03/2022, Paper

Counter digital revolution, disinformation, and journalistic constraints in Arab media

By Sahar Khamis and Khalid Al-Jaber / This article tackles the exploitation of new media, and the laws and regulations governing them, by Arab authoritarian regimes to crack down on opponents, act­ivists, and journalists, oftentimes under the mantle of fighting disinformation, using a plethora of techniques. It also illustrates how disinformation could spread rapidly through governmentally orchestrated campaigns via new communication tools, causing serious political consequences and high risks to activists and journalists, while aiding counter revolutions.

Edition 03/2022, Paper

Environmental reporting in Ukrainian media The importance of communicating environmental science to raise public environmental awareness

By Olha Harmatiy / Raising people’s awareness about the environment is mandatory in order to deal with growing threats and challenges to the environment. The role of news media as a main source of knowledge about the environment for wide audiences and a social platform for the formation of public environmental awareness and culture is significant.

Edition 03/2022, Paper

»Radio women in queer jobs« The construction of women broadcasters in the American trade magazine Broadcasting 1931-1939

By Stine Eckert / For more than 90 years, the magazine Broadcasting (now titled Broadcasting & Cable) has been one of the most influential trade publications for American radio. A qualitative textual analysis of its coverage between 1931 and 1939, when radio became commercialized, found that the magazine rarely mentioned women working in radio production and management. Women who had such roles were framed as outliers.

Edition 03/2022, Essay

An ideal hobby garden (for me) Communication studies’ forays into media regulation

By Roger Blum / Absurdly few experts from communication science and media law participate in the bodies of media regulation – in press councils, broadcasting councils, television councils, audience councils, media councils – and in the media in ombudsman’s offices in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. That is a shortcoming. Knowledge of fundamental rights and media law, media ethics, journalism, media structures and media effects research would help to find meaningful solutions.

Debate, Edition 03/2022

Pact with the devil

Henning Eichler interviewed by Wolfgang Scheidt / Henning Eichler’s latest study, »Journalism in social networks. ARD and ZDF under the spell of the algorithms,« was conducted on behalf of the Otto Brenner Foundation and examines the conflict between public value and platforming. In an interview, its author explains how algorithmic methods of working and platform logics influence journalistic content. Eichler – a radio journalist at Hessischer Rundfunk and Deputy Professor of Media Sciences and Digital Journalism at Hochschule RheinMain – calls for greater transparency from the operators of advertising platforms and a code of digital ethics for social media editorial offices.