@article{MackJanduraMaurer2025, author = {Mack, Matthias and Jandura, Olaf and Maurer, Marcus}, title = {The effects of constructive journalism: Towards a theoretical framework}, series = {Journalism}, journal = {Journalism}, publisher = {SAGE Publications}, issn = {1464-8849}, doi = {10.1177/14648849251395798}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:hbz:due62-opus-58634}, pages = {1 -- 20}, year = {2025}, abstract = {News media coverage mainly focuses on problems and conflicts, resulting in unintended negative consequences for democracy and journalism itself. Constructive journalism aims to address these issues by emphasizing solution-oriented reporting. However, research on its effects remains inconsistent, mainly due to vague definitions of constructive journalism and a lack of theoretical foundation. This paper first proposes a content-centered definition of constructive journalism, suggesting three dimensions: balance, matter-of-factness, and focus on solutions. Using a series of established theories, we then present a theoretical framework that models the impacts of the content dimensions in a chain of effects from emotions to cognitive and conative variables. Our approach offers a systematic basis for future research by enabling experimental analysis of operationalizable and empirically separable content dimensions and by integrating research on constructive journalism into a variety of established media effect theories. Thus, we meet the demand for a stronger theoretical focus and aim to clarify constructive journalism's impact on audiences.}, subject = {Journalismus}, language = {en} } @article{MaginKoestersJanduraetal.2025, author = {Magin, Melanie and K{\"o}sters, Raphael and Jandura, Olaf and Weiß, Ralph and Stark, Birgit and Udris, Linards and Klein, Miriam and Riedl, Andreas A.}, title = {Viewpoint Diversity, Balance, Deliberativeness: Assessing the Media Performance of Migration Coverage Multi-Dimensionally Based on Deliberative Democratic Theories}, series = {Mass Communication and Society}, journal = {Mass Communication and Society}, publisher = {Informa}, issn = {1520-5436}, doi = {10.1080/15205436.2025.2461082}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:hbz:due62-opus-51020}, pages = {25}, year = {2025}, abstract = {The issue of migration is highly salient in public debates in many countries. Given this salience and the risk of political instrumentalization, often by actors from the far right, it is important for citizens to receive high-quality, differentiated information on the migration issue. This touches upon the question of media performance. While there is abundant research on the media portrayal of the migration issue, this research strand is, surprisingly, hardly linked to research on media performance. We establish this link and present an innovative, sophisticated framework for standardized content analyses on migration. It combines three standards of media performance that are key to deliberative democratic theories—viewpoint diversity, balance, and deliberativeness—and utilizes value frames and the sociological concept of idea elements to measure viewpoint diversity and balance. A first empirical test of our newly developed approach, taking Germany as a case, shows noticeable differences in the media performance of 11 outlets analyzed. This test proves the applicability of our framework, which provides a valuable starting point for future comparative research on the media performance of migration coverage across countries and over time.}, subject = {Meinungsvielfalt}, language = {en} } @article{MaginStarkJanduraetal.2023, author = {Magin, Melanie and Stark, Birgit and Jandura, Olaf and Udris, Linards and Riedl, Andreas and Klein, Miriam and Eisenegger, Mark and K{\"o}sters, Raphael and Hofstetter Furrer, Brigitte}, title = {Seeing the Whole Picture. Towards a Multi-perspective Approach to News Content Diversity based on Liberal and Deliberative Models of Democracy}, series = {Journalism Studies}, volume = {24}, journal = {Journalism Studies}, number = {5}, publisher = {Taylor \& Francis}, issn = {1461-670X}, doi = {10.1080/1461670X.2023.2178248}, pages = {669 -- 696}, year = {2023}, abstract = {By providing diverse news content, news media are key for a well- functioning public sphere. However, agreement on how to measure news content diversity is lacking. Research often refers to democratic theory as normative reference point, but different models of democracy understand news content diversity differently. Our study makes a unique, innovative contribution to this field: (1) We develop a methodological framework for measuring news content diversity, that is a set of comprehensive measuring instruments that derive different operationalizations of topic and actor diversity each from liberal and deliberative democratic theories. (2) Considering that a good public discourse requires more than diversity, we analyze news content diversity in the context of four other journalistic standards: neutrality, rationality, discursivity, and civility. (3) We prove the applicability of our measuring instruments by means of a standardized content analysis of six German news media as a case study. The different quality profiles of these outlets our analysis reveals are explained by their different functions in the media system. Our study shows how important a multi-perspectival normative approach to news content diversity is, both empirically and theoretically. Future studies on news content diversity should make their normative foundations transparent and derive their indicators purposefully therefrom.}, subject = {Demokratie}, language = {en} }