"The relationship between the sound industry and its audience is influenced by the widespread use of smartphones as the primary means of accessing the internet. This has led to a transformation in media logics, particularly among young people in Colombia, as they adapt to an evolving ecosystem that
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is redefining the creation, production and distribution of media. The objective of this research is to determine the significance of podcasts in the information consumption habits of listeners/users and to examine how this digital innovation is positioned in the content offer of radio and independent producers. The study employs a mixed methodological approach, including a case study that involves the administration of 190 surveys to young people, the review and listening of digital repositories of podcast platforms and the conducting of fifteen interviews with podcast producers. The main conclusion drawn is that podcasts are revitalizing audio content on-screen, connecting young people with information and the reality of their environment." (Abstract)
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"Das Handbuch bietet einen umfassenden Überblick über die Gegenstände und Theorien der Rezeptionsforschung. In den 37 Beiträgen wird ein systematischer Zugang zum State of the Art der jeweiligen Thematik aus einer kommunikationswissenschaftlichen Perspektive gelegt. Die umfassend aktualisierte u
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nd erweiterte 2. Auflage befasst sich in vier Teilen: (1) mit grundlegenden Konzepten der Medienrezeption, (2) mit Fragen der Zuwendung und Selektion, (3) mit spezifischen Phänomenen und Erlebnisweisen und (4) mit den wichtigsten Kontexten der Medienrezeption. Moderne Medienwirkungstheorien kommen ohne die Betrachtung von Rezeptionsprozessen nicht mehr aus. Im Handbuch werden daher die Prozesse vor und während der Mediennutzung im Detail betrachtet." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"In recent years, IMS has seen a steady increase in the number of its media partners forced to flee their home countries to avoid persecution and closure as the democratic space globally has shrunk. IMS expects this trend to continue, with “exiled media” becoming the main – and, in some cases,
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only –source of public interest journalism for audiences in more and more countries. This situation, along with the likely drop in development assistance by some of these exiled media’s main funders, calls for a more strategically coherent and creative response from IMS and our colleagues in the media development sector. The briefing paper Navigating instability provides an initial framework for this response, based on learning from the support IMS’ programmes have provided to exiled media over 20-plus years. With additional input from exiled media leaders, IMS’ Exiled Media Working Group has identified five phases of transition and evolution that media appear to go through between deciding to leave their home country and either returning home again or permanently settling in their host country; a long and often stormy journey, fraught with risks and uncertainty and involving many twists and turns. Crucially, Navigating instability shows there is light at the end of the turnnel – there are media that survive exile and eventually return home, often stronger and wiser having spent years – sometimes decades – away and ready to play a leading role in transforming their country’s media, once opportunities allow. This calls for a long-term approach that enables exiled media to chart their journey with less jeopardy and more certainty. Navigating instability illustrates each phase of exile through the eyes of media leaders experieincing the situation first-hand, and outlines the support that IMS can provide media partners during each phase. The briefing paper also presents a set of recommendatons to the media development sector, our donors and other policy makers on how we can collectively address the gaps in our support to exiled media." (https://www.mediasupport.org)
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"Die vorliegende Studie untersucht die Entwicklungen der Diasporagemeinschaften aus Osteuropa, die in Deutschland und seinen östlichen EU-Nachbarländern seit 2020 an Größe und Bedeutung gewinnen – bedingt durch politische Krisen und Repressionen im autokratisch regierten Belarus und Russland u
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nd den Krieg in der Ukraine. Die Studie beschreibt Herausforderungen, Bedürfnisse und Potenziale dieser Gemeinschaften und fragt, inwiefern emigrierte bzw. im Exil lebende Kulturtätige als „Brückenbauer:innen“ den kulturellen Austausch in Zeiten von Konflikten und schrumpfenden Handlungsräumen (shrinking spaces) unterstützen und die interkulturelle Verständigung nachhaltig fördern können. Analysiert werden sowohl gruppenbezogene Rahmenbedingungen und Formen der deutsch-belarussischen, deutsch-russischen und deutsch-ukrainischen kulturellen Zusammenarbeit als auch länder- wie gruppenübergreifende Strategien und Projekte, die die einzelnen Diaspora-Vertreter:innen in Verbindung bringen (können) und dialogfähig sind. Das Hauptaugenmerk liegt dabei auf (1) der Einbindung der osteuropäischen Kulturtätigen in den deutschen Kulturbetrieb, (2) möglichen internationalen Kooperationen auf EU-Ebene und (3) dem Erhalt zivilgesellschaftlicher Räume in Herkunftsregionen und im Exil." (Zusammenfassung)
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"The discrepancy between children’s actual amount of viewing time and parents’ accounts of their concerns, rules, and parental mediation choices has been documented in empirical research, and typically interpreted through the lens of the Uses and Gratifications theory – showing how parents cha
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nge their attitudes towards screen media in order to satisfy their own needs. Based on a qualitative longitudinal research project, including app-based media diaries, with 20 families with at least one child aged eight or younger, we aim to make two contributions to the literature. With regard to theory, we aim to highlight the heterogeneous and contingent ways of balancing the place of digital media in children’s lives that arise from parents navigating screen time discourses, social pressures, and daily schedules. With regard to methods, we argue for the combination of qualitative data and app-based media diaries to contextualise and interpret potential discrepancies between reported screen time and parental anxieties or hopes about digital media." (Abstract)
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"Algorithmic news recommender systems (NRS) are present in many digital platforms. A decade after Eli Pariser introduced the infamous ‘filter bubble’ hypothesis, empirical evidence challenges the assumption that recommendation algorithms predominantly create homogeneous opinion environments. Stu
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dies indicate that algorithmic platform use may amplify users’ political polarization. Whether the link between platform use and polarization can be causally explained by ideological news filtering, however, is still an unanswered question as rigid causal designs to test the notion of ‘filter bubble’ effects are still largely lacking. To fill this gap, we conducted two experimental studies in Germany (n = 1,786) and the U.S. (n = 1,306) with running NRS selecting news items based on the political orientation and political interest of its users. For both national contexts, results indicate that an NRS with a bias towards users’ political preferences increases ideological polarization among politically moderate individuals, supporting the notion of ‘filter bubble’ effects for this group. No such pattern could be found for affective polarization. Yet, in the German data, affective polarization among moderate users was reduced by a politically balanced NRS (as compared to a randomized news diet), while the same NRS increased affective polarization of politically extreme participants. We discuss the democratic implications of these findings against the backdrop of increasing digital news consumption." (Abstract)
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"This article conceptualizes the critical online diasporic infosphere as an online space constituted by diasporic media, exile media, and overseas-based influencers who share an oppositional orientation toward the home state. The infosphere proffers a constant stream of critical information and pers
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pectives to users in both the diaspora and the home country. Drawing upon theorizations of alternative media and counter-publicity, this study examines the role of the diasporic infosphere in sustaining a counter-public in a home country undergoing rapid autocratization. Analysis of an online survey in Hong Kong shows that a distinction between diasporic information sources and domestic information sources underlies people’s information consumption and sharing via social media. Consumption of diasporic information sources relates to lower levels of political trust, the pro-democracy stance, negative feelings about the contemporary political environment, and perceptions of legal and political risks. Consumption of domestic media sources relates to such variables in the opposite manner." (Abstract)
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"Die Vielzahl von Informationen und Nachrichten, die täglich über unterschiedlichste Kanäle verbreitet werden, können für Nutzerinnen und Nutzer eine Herausforderung darstellen. Nachrichtenvermeidung (News Avoidance) kann die Folge sein. Wie der Reuters Digital News Report 2024 zeigt, ist das I
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nteresse an Nachrichten in der Mehrzahl der teilnehmenden Länder in den letzten Jahren tatsächlich merklich gesunken (vgl. Newman und andere, 2024 sowie Newman und andere, 2023). Die zunehmende Zahl an Nachrichtenquellen und die große Vielfalt an Nachrichten und Informationen (High-Choice-News-Avoidance-These) ist laut der Studie von Karlsen, Beyer und Steen-Johnsen (2020) jedoch nicht alleiniger Grund, warum Menschen Nachrichten vermeiden. Vielmehr spielen sowohl Faktoren auf Seiten der Nachrichten (beispielsweise bestimmte Themen; Negativität) als auch individuelle Merkmale der Nutzerinnen und Nutzer eine wichtige Rolle. Nachrichtenvermeidung ist vor allem in Krisenzeiten häufiger zu beobachten. Schäfer, Betakova und Lecheler (2024) untersuchten intentionale Nachrichtenvermeidung und konnten zeigen, dass diese durch spezifische Themen, wie zum Beispiel die COVID-19-Berichterstattung, verstärkt wird, und spezifischen Motiven – zum Beispiel Informationsüberlastung – geschuldet ist." (Seite 1)
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"Inequalities in news use and political participation exist among young people from (dis-)advantaged backgrounds which challenge the idea of informed citizens that can participate in democratic processes. Relating to self-actualizing (AC) and dutiful (DC) citizen identity paradigms and performative
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citizenship, this study investigates information and engagement practices of low-educated young people. The results from ten focus groups N = 46 with young Germans (14- to 22-year-olds) conducted in 2023 show four analytical networks that are mostly related to AC qualities. Contact and potential engagement with political information result from incidental news exposure on social media platforms. Participants’engagement practices are characterized by exchange on political topics in interpersonal contexts as well as little participation experience and limited self-efficacy. Participants’ critical perception of media coverage comprises a limited representation of relevant topics and perspectives as well as a discouraging presentation of news. Group differences and explanations for participants’ limited engagement are analyzed." (Abstract)
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"Extant research on migrants’ media use and trust has delivered mixed evidence on whether, and in which ways, migrants stay loyal to their homeland news media and/or develop trust in host-society media, particularly when the narratives of the two types of media clash. To advance this strand of res
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earch, this study scrutinizes how an audience group with migration background, who lived the first part of their lives under authoritarian rule but then relocated to a democracy, negotiates trust in their multilingual, transnational news environments. Specifically, we conducted semistructured interviews with forty-two Russian-speaking first-generation migrants living in Germany in 2021. As we find, distinct understandings of the concept of “truth” played a pivotal role in how our participants negotiated trust in their transnational news environments. We distinguish broadly two understandings of “truth”: (1) “truth” as a category grounded in factual evidence and (2) “truth” as a nonevidence based category grounded in values, emotions, or identities. Illustrative for the second understanding, some participants felt a strong moral obligation to believe Kremlin-sponsored media as they perceived these organizations as representing their homeland, independently of whether their news coverage was factually accurate or not. The two understandings of “truth” also affected how and where participants sought for what they considered the “truth.” In the “Discussion” section, we argue that particularly the non-evidence-based truth-understandings formulated by our participants, and the ensuing truth-seeking strategies are conducive to the reach and persuasive impact of Kremlin-sponsored content among Russian speakers living abroad." (Abstract)
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"Despite the proliferation of IT applications worldwide, Indigenous knowledge remains marginalized in the mainstream information technology (IT) and Information Systems (IS) discourse. This special section explores tensions and opportunities at the intersection of Indigenous knowledge and digital te
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chnologies, emphasizing the need for culturally sensitive, inclusive, and ethical approaches to technological innovation. Bridging IT and Indigenous knowledge systems can foster environmental sustainability, digital equity, and social justice while preserving rich cultural heritage. This editorial introduces the special section, which presents ground-breaking research demonstrating the role of IT in Indigenous financial inclusion, culturally sensitive partnerships, and community empowerment. It also calls for increased interdisciplinary scholarship to advance IT solutions that respect and amplify Indigenous voices. By recognizing Indigenous knowledge as a pillar of sustainable innovation, IT and IS research can contribute to a just and inclusive technological future." (Abstract)
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"This paper examines the role that community radio can play in a refugee camp, with particular focus on community building and social cohesion among young people. The article introduces the experience of RefFM in Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya. Findings from four focus groups with young refugees in Kaku
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ma shed light on both the uses and perceptions of the radio station among Kakuma youth. They also present insights into the design of radio-based interventions for humanitarian agencies working in refugee camps. In particular, reflections are offered on how “refugee community radio” programming can be developed to strengthen the ties between different communities living in the camp, and particularly among young people, while addressing the critical needs of a displaced population." (Abstract)
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