Stuck in First Gear: The Case of German Political "Blogosphere"

Authors

  • Stine Eckert Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland
  • Kalyani Chadha Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland
  • Michael Koliska Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland

Keywords:

political blogs, Germany, national context, blogging, new media adoption

Abstract

Germanyis a technologically advanced democracy with free media and high levels of literacy, yet political blogging has not developed as rapidly inGermanyas in theUnited Statesor other European democracies such asFranceandPoland. Using data obtained from in-depth interviews with 28 leading national and regional political bloggers in Germany in spring 2011, this study identifies a complex combination of factors that these bloggers say have impacted the emergence of political blogging in Germany: fears associated with Internet technologies; hostility of traditional news media toward blogs; continued trust of the population in traditional news media, notably public broadcasting; and legal challenges faced by political bloggers.

Author Biographies

Stine Eckert, Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland

Stine Eckert is a Ph.D. candidate in the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland. She is researching the intersections of media, culture, and gender as well as the extent of a democratic potential of social media from an international comparative perspective. She received her MS from Ohio University after studing at the University of Leipzig, Germany.

Kalyani Chadha, Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland

Kalyani Chadha, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism where she also directs the Media, Self and Society.  Her research focuses on the implications of new media technologies, with a particular emphasis on international contexts, media globalization as well as journalism in India.  Her work has appeared in journals such as Media, Culture and Society, Global Media and Communication and South Asia History and Culture and the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media.

Michael Koliska, Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland

Michael Koliska is a doctoral candidate at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland. His research focuses on the implementation and effects of transparency in communication. His research agenda also includes visual communication and the impacts of new media technologies on everyday behavior. Michael holds a master's degree in Sociology from Otto-von-Guericke University of Magdeburg in Germany and a master's in Journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Before joining the University of Maryland, Michael worked as a journalist in Germany, the UK, China and the US.

Downloads

Published

2014-02-14

Issue

Vol. 8 (2014)

Section

Articles

License

The International Journal of Communication is an academic journal. As such, it is dedicated to the open exchange of information. For this reason, IJoC is freely available to individuals and institutions. Copies of this journal or articles in this journal may be distributed for research or educational purposes free of charge and without permission. However, commercial use of the IJoC website or the articles contained herein is expressly prohibited without the written consent of the editor. Authors who publish in The International Journal of Communication will release their articles under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd) license. This license allows anyone to copy and distribute the article for non-commercial purposes provided that appropriate attribution is given. For details of the rights authors grants users of their work, see the "human-readable summary" of the license, with a link to the full license. (Note that "you" refers to a user, not an author, in the summary.) This journal utilizes the LOCKSSsystem to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries and permits those libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration. The publisher perpetually authorizes participants in the LOCKSS system to archive and restore our publication through the LOCKSS System for the benefit of all LOCKSS System participants. Specifically participating libraries may:
  • Collect and preserve currently accessible materials;
  • Use material consistent with original license terms;
  • Provide copies to other LOCKSS appliances for purposes of audit and repair.
 

Fair Use

The U.S. Copyright Act of 1976 specifies, in Section 107, the terms of the Fair Use exception: Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include:
  1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
  2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
  3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; &
  4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors. In accord with these provisions, the International Journal of Communication believes in the vigorous assertion and defense of Fair Use by scholars engaged in academic research, teaching and non-commercial publishing. Thus, we view the inclusion of “quotations” from existing print, visual, audio and audio-visual texts to be appropriate examples of Fair Use, as are reproductions of visual images for the purpose of scholarly analysis. We encourage authors to obtain appropriate permissions to use materials originally produced by others, but do not require such permissions as long as the usage of such materials falls within the boundaries of Fair Use.

The International Journal of Communication encourages authors to employ fair use in their scholarly publishing wherever appropriate. Fair use is the right to use unlicensed copyrighted material (whether it is text, images, audio-visual, or other) in your own work, in some circumstances. We consult the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Scholarly Research in Communication, created by the International Communication Association and endorsed by the National Communication Association, and you should too. If you have any questions about whether fair use applies to your uses of copyrighted material (whether it is text, images, audio-visual, or other) in your scholarship, simply include your rationale, grounded in the Best Practices, as a supplementary document with your submission.