Emotions in Political Journalism: A Cross-Country View
Funded by: Austrian Science Fund (FWF – Der Wissenschaftsfonds)
Duration: 2023-2026
PI: Folker Hanusch
Collaboration: Melanie Haberl • Dominik Hokamp
While traditionally ignored by journalists, politicians and scholars alike, emotions play a crucial role in political communication. Politicians regularly employ emotional appeals in their communication with the electorate, while journalists may also use emotive language in their reporting. Scholarship has also more recently paid attention to journalists' and politicians' emotional states as both groups deal with massive changes in their professions. Yet, we still have an incomplete understanding of the role that emotions play in the relationship between journalists and politicians. In addition, little comparative work has been conducted on this phenomenon.
To better assess how political journalism is evolving today, this project examines the individual, relational and cross-national aspects of such emotional management. In doing so, it will conduct longitudinal in-depth interviews with political journalists and politicians in Austria and the Czech Republic, focus groups and content analysis, as well as innovative interactive tools. Key questions the project examines include what kinds of emotions political journalists and politicians perceive in their work, what role these emotions play in their interactions with one another, and how each side manages their emotional responses.
Further, the cross-national comparison between two countries that exhibit some differences but also similarities in terms of their political journalism, the projects will identify the role national factors play in these processes. The project is thus expected to generate much-needed knowledge about the role of political communication in both countries.
From Core to Periphery: Boundaries of Journalism
Funded by: Austrian Science Fund (FWF – Der Wissenschaftsfonds)
Duration: September 2022 – August 2025
PI: Folker Hanusch
Collaboration: Phoebe Maares • Kim Dana Löhmann
The digital age has led to fundamental change across many parts of society, including one of its key democratic institutions, journalism. Nowadays, everyone with an internet connection can fulfil some of journalism’s functions like providing information and analysis, but also political parties, companies, and many social media influencers are increasingly providing products that are quite similar to journalism in appearance, content, and function. As a result, it has become very difficult to identify who is a journalist, or what qualifies as journalism. While scholarship and public discussions have begun to examine these new phenomena of what is often called peripheral journalism, we still have an incomplete understanding of how traditional journalists view these newcomers, how the newcomers themselves view journalism, and, crucially, what the audience actually thinks about them. Such an understanding is important, however, because it addresses essential definitional questions that have implications for public and policy discussions about the kind of journalism a society may want, how it can be supported, as well as how its quality can be measured.
To examine these issues, this project will employ a multi-method approach using in-depth interviews with traditional and peripheral journalists across Austria, as well as focus group discussions with a wide range of Austrians about their views of journalism. In this way, we can better understand the jurisdictional claims and mutual relations between producers and audiences of journalism. The project is thus expected to generate much-needed knowledge about the phenomenon of peripheral journalism and how it challenges traditional journalism. By taking a broad view across specializations such as politics, economics, lifestyle and sport, it will paint a nuanced picture of the transformation in which journalism finds itself, thereby contributing to highly-relevant scholarly, policy and public discussions about the role of journalism today.
Audience expectations of news in the digital age
Funded by: Austrian Science Fund (FWF – Der Wissenschaftsfonds)
Duration: June 2022 – May 2025
PI: Folker Hanusch
Collaboration: Clara Juarez Miro
Increasing numbers of people have started to avoid the news because they have lost trust in mainstream media, and experience today's news as too negative and even irrelevant for their personal lives. One reason for this is the growing divide between what journalists deliver to their audiences, and what audiences actually expect from the media. Part of this problem has been a normative focus in journalism on political news, which is often held as the only true form of journalism, at the expense of other forms, such as sports or lifestyle journalism. That is, both scholarship and the media industry have historically focused on political journalism as holding most value and authority in society, compared to other forms of journalism. Audiences, however, typically consume a wide range of journalism, and are often also interested in news that has more direct relevance for their everyday lives. Beyond politics, this may include news media content on food, health, travel, beauty, fashion, and technology, among other aspects of life. In fact, many of these facets can be political, which makes it difficult and even unnecessary to continue to separate the political from everyday life. For this reason, we still need to better understand how audiences actually define journalism and what it is that they expect from it. This study addresses these questions by conceptualizing journalism in its wide variety of outputs, in order to find out what makes news valuable and meaningful to people. To do so, a range of innovative methods will be used, including observation of news consumers, asking them to formulate their views in letter form as well as in digital diaries, and by conducting focus groups and a representative survey of the Austrian population. It is expected that the project will generate much-needed knowledge for scholarly understanding of news consumption processes, feeding into crucial debates about media trust and credibility. The project will further contribute crucial practical knowledge that informs policy discussion on how journalism and media stakeholders can more effectively meet audience expectations to increase trust and news engagement.
Journalism under Duress: Risk and Uncertainty in a Changing Mediascape
Funded by: Austrian Science Fund (FWF – Der Wissenschaftsfonds)
Duration: April 2021 – March 2024
PI: Josef Seethaler (Austrian Academy of Sciences) • Folker Hanusch (national project partner)
Collaboration: Ramona Meier
The project investigates risks and uncertainties journalists are facing in Germany, Austria and Switzerland as well as around the globe. Its aim is to better understand the ways in which journalism adapts to and copes with different levels of risk and uncertainty in the three countries and in different political, socio-economic, and cultural contexts. The major goal of the study is to compare results across the three German-speaking countries as well as across a wide range of societies, to trace developments over time, and to identify key factors that drive cross-national differences in the way journalists conceive of, and deal with, risk and uncertainty. In addition, the project continues efforts to track the state of journalism in Germany, Austria and Switzerland as well as the situation of journalism around the world, as was the case in previous waves of the Worlds of Journalism Study.
Berichterstattung Kriminalstatistik
Funded by: Bundesministerium für Inneres der Republik Österreich
Duration: 2012 – 2013
PI: Cornelia Brantner
Collaboration: Andreas Hess
Status: Completed
The study, commissioned by the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI), analysed reporting and discourse on crime statistics in eleven Austrian daily newspapers, as well as in two dailies in each of Germany and Switzerland. It also looked at user debates in selected online newspapers. Using quantitative content analysis, all articles on crime statistics during the investigation period from June 2008 to May 2012 were reviewed at article level and in terms of their respective messages.
Evaluierung der Presseförderung in Österreich
Funded by: Bundeskanzleramt der Republik Österreich
Duration: 2011 – 2012
PI: Hannes Haas
Collaboration: Bernadette Kneidinger • Christian Steininger
Status: Completed