englischDo pictures on television affect our perception of reality? Cultivation research has been dealing with this question since the 1970s. Through a systematic comparison of heavy and light television viewers, cultivation researchers explore how television shapes long-term perceptions of social [...]

englischOne of journalists’ key tasks is to decide which events are worth being covered in news reports. How do journalists deal with the vast flood of information which their editorial offices receive every day? What criteria do they employ to make such decisions and what determines the value of an [...]

englischWhy do we assume that others are heavily influenced by the media, indeed even more so than we are ourselves? What effects does this assumption have on our own thinking and behaviour? Research into the third-person effect, which by now is regarded as one of the key concepts in research [...]

englischWhy do humans deal with certain problems and ignore others? Why does politics address certain issues and neglect others? Why do certain subjects suddenly become irrelevant after having been the focus of public discussion? The concept of ‘agenda setting’ provides answers to these questions. [...]

englischHow do we interact with newsreaders, stars and other media figures who appear on television and in other forms of the media? How do our relationships to them develop? Research on parasocial interaction and relationships strives to answer these questions. The second edition of this textbook [...]

englischWhat are opinion leaders? How do they exert social influence? What effects do they have on the formation of opinions? How is opinion leadership in online contexts different from opinion leadership in direct social interaction?

This book presents an overview of opinion leadership as a social [...]

englischGatekeeping is one of the most prominent approaches of news selection. Originally, the approach focuses on the question what information is selected by journalists for public distribution via mass media and which factors are affecting this information selection. New and diverse forms of [...]

englischMany people spend a considerable amount of their time using media. Presence denotes the experience of being in this mediated environment – either alone or with some other (human) being, even when one is physically situated in another. In a similar vein, involvement denotes the intense [...]

Besteht die sogenannte Mediengesellschaft aus gut informierten Bürgern? Geht mit der Verfügbarkeit des Internets ein Abbau von Wissensdifferenzen einher? Der Band gibt eine fundierte, knappe und anschauliche Einführung in die theoretischen Grundlagen, methodischen Zugänge, empirischen Befunde und [...]

Wie nutzen Menschen die Medien im Alltag? Und wie werden Medien alltäglich? D.h. welche Prozesse der Einordnung dieser ursprünglichen „Fremdkörper“ in die vorhandenen Wertewelten, die existierenden Routinen, etc. finden statt? Diese Fragen beschäftigen den Domestication- bzw. Domestizierungsansatz. [...]