Ethik in der experimentellen Forschung

Die meisten empirischen Studien in der Sozialwissenschaft (mit Ausnahme z. B. von Inhalts- oder Dokumentenanalysen) arbeiten mit Menschen. Das ist auch bei allen Varianten des sozialwissenschaftlichen Experiments so. Wenn empirische Forschung mit Menschen arbeitet, hat sie eine besondere Verantwortung: Sie muss das Wohlergehen, die Rechte und Interessen der teilnehmenden Personen berucksichtigen. Bei Experimenten trifft das sogar in besonderer Weise zu. Denn hier werden Menschen nicht nur befragt oder beobachtet, sondern „manipuliert“ (vgl. Abschn. 5.3).

Once a journalist, not always a journalist? Causes and consequences of job changes from journalism to public relations

Increasingly, journalists do not find permanent jobs and seek work in related fields, often in public relations. However, the two professions differ with regard to some of their normative functions: whereas journalists should report objectively and without bias, public relations practitioners are supposed to represent their clients’ particular interests. Hence, shifts from journalism to public relations have the potential for conflict. This study analyzes whether these shifts cause inter-role conflict and examines the reasons for the job changes. We conducted 17 qualitative semi-structured interviews with former journalists from Germany who have permanently transitioned into public relatio…

Kausalität und Untersuchung kausaler Zusammenhänge

Das vorherige Kapitel explizierte, dass ein Experiment eine empirische Untersuchungsanordnung zur Uberprufung von Kausalannahmen ist. Entsprechend dreht sich bei der experimentellen Forschung alles um Ursache-Wirkungs-Beziehungen. Man will mit Experimenten nicht nur herausfinden, ob zwei Sachverhalte zusammenhangen, sondern auch wie diese zusammenhangen, also welches Ereignis der Ausloser ist und welches die Folge davon.

The disclosure paradox: how persuasion knowledge mediates disclosure effects in sponsored media content

Persuasion knowledge is an established construct in the explanation of recipients’ coping with persuasive communication. It gains particular importance when persuasion attempts are covert. This is ...

Corporate lobbying: Role perceptions and perceived influence on political decisions of public affairs professionals

Abstract This study aims to provide insight into public affairs professionals’ role conceptions and perceived influence on political decision making. We conducted a quantitative online survey with 238 corporate public affairs professionals in Germany who worked either “in-house” at a corporation, for an industry association, or in a public affairs consultancy firm. Based on their main stakeholder orientation (clients, political actors, or society) and primary objectives (mediator, expert, or advocate), a cluster analysis categorized the professionals into four main roles: persuaders, advisors, coordinators, and mediators. Although acting in line with ethical norms and being transparent abou…

Grundlagen experimenteller Forschung

In der kommunikationswissenschaftlichen Forschung begegnen wir oft Fragestellungen, die sich mit dem Einfluss von Medieninhalten auf Rezipientinnen und Rezipienten beschaftigen. Dies konnen beispielsweise Wirkungen von Werbung, Filmen, journalistischer Berichterstattung oder politischen Kampagnen sein.

Communicating Brand Personality

Validität und Varianten von Experimenten

Die vorherigen Kapitel haben aufgezeigt, was ein Experiment ausmacht und wie man dadurch Kausalzusammenhange identifizieren kann. Hat man sich entschieden, ein Experiment durchzufuhren, muss man sich um die Umsetzung Gedanken machen. Denn Experiment ist nicht gleich Experiment: Es gibt verschiedene Varianten von Experimenten, die sich neben dem Ort, an dem sie durchgefuhrt werden, vor allem in der Kontrolle uber die Experimentalsituation sowie der Realitatsnahe der Durchfuhrung und damit der Generalisierbarkeit der Befunde unterscheiden.

Presentation of CEOs in the media: A framing analysis

Chief executive officers as representatives of their companies are increasingly the focus of attention from both the public and the media. The head manager represents the company and in some cases even personifies it. The growing exposure of chief executive officers has turned some of these individuals into celebrities and media stars. Some studies have shown that the image of the chief executive officer is closely linked to that of the company. However, the presentation of chief executive officers in media coverage has received little research interest. The present study aims to fill this research gap by conducting a content analysis of two German newspapers and one magazine published from…

Advertising in disguise? How disclosure and content features influence the effects of native advertising

Abstract Native advertising has recently become a prominent buzzword for advertisers and publishers alike. It describes advertising formats which closely adapt their form and style to the editorial environment they appear in, intending to hide the commercial character of these ads. In two experimental studies, we test how advertising disclosures in native ads on news websites affect recipients’ attitudes towards a promoted brand in a short and long-term perspective. In addition, we explore persuasion through certain content features (i. e., message sidedness and use of exemplars) and how they affect disclosure effects. Results show that disclosures increase perceived persuasive intent but d…

News Selection Within Customer Magazines

Customer magazines blur the boundaries between journalistic reporting and organizational information. On the one hand, customer magazines are intended to communicate the interests, brands, products, and services of an organization. On the other hand, their topics, style, and layout resemble those of journalistic publications, from which readers expect independent and objective reporting. While customer magazines are distributed in high numbers throughout different industries and play an increasingly important role in the media landscape, they have hardly been the focus of researchers to date. It is therefore quite unclear how editorial decisions are made within these publications. This stud…

Journalism or public relations? A quantitative survey of custom publishing editors in Germany

Abstract Custom publishing, the production of content that is edited in a journalistic manner for organizations, is a fast-growing professional field located at the intersection of journalism and public relations. These corporate (or organizational) publications, as a form of strategic communication, assist with organizations' image cultivation and aim to communicate their particular interests. However, in their stylistic, optical, and thematic composition, they resemble journalistic publications from which readers expect unbiased, objective reporting. This article focuses on the editors of these corporate publications, who must take into account the rules and norms of two different fields …

The paradoxical effects of communicating CSR activities: Why CSR communication has both positive and negative effects on the perception of a company’s social responsibility

Abstract Supporting societal goals and sustainable developments can help a company to be seen as socially responsible. This corporate social responsibility (CSR) must be communicated effectively as too intensive communication could negatively affect the company’s perception. These negative effects may be caused by an imbalance between the amount of CSR communication and the actual extent of CSR activities. Two experiments show that increased CSR communication has a negative indirect effect on perceptions of a company’s social responsibility, mediated by persuasive intent and reactance. However, depending on the extent of a company’s actual CSR activities, there is also a countervailing dire…

Deep Impact? How Journalists Perceive the Influence of Public Relations on Their News Coverage and Which Variables Determine This Impact

Journalists perceive 25% to 80% of their coverage to be influenced by public relations (PR). However, there is hardly any research on what factors determine where on this wide spectrum an individual journalist will fall. This study analyzed the extent and source of the perceived influence of PR on news coverage via a quantitative survey of German journalists. On average, participants perceived over one third of their work to be influenced by PR, and a number of variables were found to be associated with the degree of this impact. Role conceptions as populist mobilizers and newsroom conventions discouraging excessive reliance on PR decreased the influence of PR on news coverage. Secondary e…

Media Effects: Cumulation and Duration

The cumulation of media effects describes a process during which numerous (often, but not necessarily, small) effects accumulate over time as individuals use a certain medium or specific media contents repeatedly. Cumulative effects are especially central in forming individuals' perceptions of reality and are therefore a central premise in several theories and approaches that explain media effects (e.g., cultivation, agenda-setting, or spiral of silence). Whereas effects of single stimuli typically persist only in the short term, cumulative effects of media messages are long-term effects. This entry theorizes on the processes occurring between the short-term effects of a single stimulus and…

Vorbereitung und Durchführung von Experimenten

Hat man die Planung eines Experiments abgeschlossen, beginnt die sogenannte Feldphase und damit die konkrete Durchfuhrung des Experiments. Damit ist die gesamte Zeitspanne der Datenerhebung gemeint, also die Dauer vom ersten bis zum letzten Versuch. Der Begriff Versuch beschreibt dabei den Zeitraum von der Begrusung bis zur Verabschiedung eines Probanden.

Ein Leitfaden für die praktische Durchführung von Experimenten

Zum Abschluss des Buchs mochten wir Ihnen noch einen Leitfaden fur die praktische Durchfuhrung von Experimenten an die Hand geben. Dieses Kapitel wird den prototypischen Ablauf einer experimentellen Studie – von der ersten Idee bis zur abschliesenden Reflexion – vorstellen. Dabei erinnern wir Sie noch einmal an verschiedene Fragen, die sich Forscher und Forscherinnen in den unterschiedlichen Phasen eines experimentellen Forschungsprozesses stellen mussen.

Auswertung von Experimenten

Wenn Sie in diesem Kapitel angekommen sind, haben Sie Ihr Experiment schon durchgefuhrt und die Daten liegen vor. Das Grobste ist also geschafft. Jetzt kommt ein sehr spannender Teil: Die Auswertung der erhobenen Daten.

Experimentelle Designs und Manipulation

Im vorherigen Kapitel haben wir verschiedene Varianten von Experimenten kennengelernt und uns mit interner und externer Validitat beschaftigt. In diesem Kapitel geht es um die konkrete Ausgestaltung unseres Experiments, also darum, wie wir unsere unabhangige Variable manipulieren und in welcher Form wir diese Manipulation den Versuchspersonen prasentieren.

Powered by public relations? Mutual perceptions of PR practitioners’ bases of power over journalism

Public relations practitioners depend on journalists to report information, and journalists count on public relations practitioners to provide information. This mutual dependence gives the two parties a degree of power over each other that can be wielded if certain resources are available. However, there are many unanswered questions about how public relations exerts power over journalists and how these influence attempts may affect news coverage. We differentiate six bases of power that public relations practitioners may use to influence journalists. To test the use of these bases of power, we conducted a quantitative survey among German journalists and public relations practitioners. Our…

Faces of companies: Personalization of corporate coverage in crisis and non-crisis periods

Journalists need to make complex economic issues comprehensible for their readers. One possibility to do so is using personalization and putting company representatives (e.g. CEO, spokesperson) instead of the company as an organization in the focus of their work. Especially in times of crisis, the use of personalization could increase because crises are often associated with great uncertainty and complexity. Therefore, this study examines personalization in corporate coverage during crisis and non-crisis periods. To this end, we analyzed the coverage of four different German print media before, during, and after six selected corporate crises using a quantitative content analysis. The study…

Fake News als Gefahr für die öffentliche Meinung?

Der Umgang mit sogenannten Fake News, also bewusst gestreuten Falschinformationen, ist eine zentrale Herausforderung fur Journalist*innen, Politiker*innen, Regulierungsbehorden, aber auch fur Unternehmen und andere Organisationen. Obwohl derartige Falschmeldungen ein altbekanntes Phanomen sind, mit denen sich der Journalismus seit seinen Anfangsjahren auseinandersetzen musste, gewannen sie in den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten deutlich an Relevanz. Dies resultiert insbesondere aus der Verbreitung sozialer Medien: Traten Journalist*innen bis Ende der 1990er Jahre noch als entscheidende Gatekeeper auf, die Informationen pruften, kritisch hinterfragten und ihnen Relevanz und damit Nachrichtenwert be…

Messung der Variablen

Experimente uberprufen kausale Zusammenhange zwischen Sachverhalten der sozialen Realitat (vgl. Kap. 1 und 2). Genauer gesagt erkunden sie den Einfluss einer oder mehrerer unabhangiger Variable(n) auf eine oder mehrere abhangige Variable(n). Eine Frage im Rahmen eines kommunikationswissenschaftlichen Experiments konnte z. B.

Effects of Equivalence Framing on the Perceived Truth of Political Messages and the Trustworthiness of Politicians

Recent studies in psychology have shown that the framing of a message affects judgments about its truth, as negatively framed statements are perceived as more trustworthy than formally equivalent, positively framed statements. The current work examines this effect in the contexts of political communication and public opinion. The results of three experiments show that equivalence framing affects both the perceived truth of political messages and the trustworthiness of its source, and that one cause of this effect is that recipients have learned to associate negativity with news and positivity with persuasive communication through media exposure. Consequently, we find that positively framing…