European Media-Public. Comparing Analysis of the News-Coverage in Daily Newspapers of several EU-Member States: description
Document Actions
Prof. Markus Behmer, Department of Communication Sciences, LMU - Sven Engesser, M.A., Department of Communication Sciences, LMU - Dipl. Journ. Annika Rechmann, Department of Communication Sciences, LMU - Dr. Jeffrey Wimmer, Department of Communication Sciences, LMU
In the process of political unification and economic coalescence the formation of a genuine “European Public” is increasingly evoked or even demanded. European Public is meant as a public network for exchange of information, opinions, and ideas, with the possible aim to constitute a trans-national European identity. Utterance and also precondition for an European Public is a European Media-Public. Media-companies today often act internationally. For example, German press-companies have leading positions on the Polish or Czech market, while British investors join German media-companies, and Scandinavian publishing houses of complimentary-newspapers expand across Europe. In addition, broadcasting-concepts are adopted and exploited on the entire continent. Blockbusters even are produced for a worldwide market.
Hence, while in the field of media-economy internationalizing and globalizing processes emerge, the content of media-products more often refers to a much smaller framework. Particularly contents of media with news on a daily basis differ extremely: several studies prove that even the coverage of leading media-products is mainly concentrated on national or regional topics and subject matters. Meanwhile, intentions to establish for example a “European Newspaper” never succeeded.
The aim of the seminar consists of four focal points: (1) The first phase is intended to define a theoretical framework. Doing this, the present stage of research related to the complex topic of “European Media-Public” will be compiled. Introducing lectures by the instructors as well as short presentations held by students will serve to illustrate the “European Area of Communication” and to provide an overview of the development of the European press-market. Finally, methods of comparative analyses of public will be introduced and specific studies will be demonstrated. (2) The second section of the seminar sets its focus on certain press-markets. Small groups of students will each illustrate the press-market of one EU-member state. Additional short portraits of one or two newspapers of each country will be provided by each group of students. The selection of states will be orientated on foreign languages spoken by the students. At least Germany, Austria, Great-Britain, Ireland, and France will be considered. Italy, Spain, and one eastern European country were preferable included also. (3) During the third phase a small quantitative content analysis will be conducted. Each newspaper selected will be examined in respect of its topics within one week of news-coverage. (4) Finally, in section four, a consensual concept for a qualitative content analysis of news-coverage will be designed. Hereby, the coverage of certain topics in politics, culture, and society (or sports), which are content of all papers conducted, will be compared. (The exact selection of topics will be grounded on most recent structure of topics.) In Venice, the precise methodical procedure and the topics will be discussed and defined. Furthermore, first corresponding impressions will be collected. The refined elaborations are planned to be substance of final papers which will be written by the students as extra-work after the end of the seminar. The best way to carry out this research is by a one-week intensive course. A course on a weekly basis merely offers the opportunity to discuss current research thoroughly and critically and develop ideas and research proposals jointly. The course will be held in English.
Target group: Advanced students resp. qualification phase.
Certificate: Presentation in part 1 or 2, creation (and implementation) of a research design (part 3 and 4), seminar paper.
Maximum number of students: 20
References: Brüggemann, Michael et al. (2006): Segmented Europeanization. The Transnationalization of Public Spheres in Europe: Trends and Patterns; TranState Working Paper 37, Bremen, URL: http://www.bruegge.net/openaccess.php.
Esser, Frank/Pfetsch, Barbara (Hrsg.) (2003): Politische Kommunikation im internationalen Vergleich. Grundlagen, Anwendungen, Perspektiven. Wiesbaden.
Hafez, Kai (2005): Mythos Globalisierung. Warum die Medien nicht grenzenlos sind. Wiesbaden.
Hagen, Lutz M. (Hrsg.) (2004): Europäische Union und mediale Öffentlichkeit: Theoretische Perspektiven und empirische Befunde zur Rolle der Medien im europäischen Einigungsprozess. Köln.
Hallin, Daniel/Mancini, Paolo (2004): Comparing Media Systems. Three Models of Media and Politics. Cambridge.
Holtz-Bacha, Christina (2006): Medienpolitik für Europa. Wiesbaden.
Langenbucher, Wolfgang R. / Latzer, Michael (Hrsg.) (2006): Europäische Öffentlichkeit und medialer Wandel. Eine transdisziplinäre Perspektive. Wiesbaden.
