Progress in technology has enabled new and innovative ways to produce and apply media content for information and entertainment purposes. Acceptance and dissemination rate of new distribution channels are essentially determined by contents. At the same time, these new distribution channels and the choice of information being accessible individually, continuously and at many places, determine what contents are produced. This is equally true for new media contents and for contents produced for traditional mass media.
Communicators and recipients play a much more direct and emancipated role in production and distribution of media content today. They use media differently than they did a decade ago. It seems that the fields of information and entertainment are presently changing in general. Classical fields such as political communication and news production are affected. In educational and organizational contexts the computer and the Internet profoundly changed communication structures (teaching and instruction online; e-leadership). Regarding entertainment, standardized, and increasingly individually customizable contents promise long term success. They are decodable against the background of multidimensional entertainment concepts.
The new trends have left their marks. The analyses and case studies in this volume reflect these changes. Communication researchers from all over Europe, the U.S.A., and Asia present results, interpretations and perspectives on the European and the international media market.


Contents

Part One
Reaching Out for the Public: The Political Elites and the Media

N. Gagnère, L. L. Kaid:
Political Broadcasting in the 2002 French Presidential Election: Appeals and Effects for Young Voters

A. M. J. van Hoof, J. Kleinnijenhuis, D. Oegema, J. A. de Ridder:
National Conditions Perceived As "Purple Ruins”: Shifts in Voting and the Origins and Effects of Issue Considerations

J. Maier, T. Faas:
Debates, Media and Social Networks; How Interpersonal and Mass Communication Affected the Evaluation of the Televised Debates in the 2002 German Election

R. Marcella, G. Baxter, N. Moore:
The Impact of Information and Communication Technologies on the Communication of Parliamentary Information in the United Kingdom

D. Gelders:
Politics by Trial Balloon: An Increasingly Important Media Strategy of Policymakers

J. Rosenbaum:
In the EU’s Image: Transformation of Broadcasting in Five Central and Eastern European Countries


Part Two
Information Content in Traditional and New Media

T. Balas, S. Lehman-Wilzig:
The Editorial Gap Between Ideal and Real: Do Television News Editors/Journalists Broadcast
What They Believe Their Audience Wants?

M. Pantti, J. Wieten:
Infotainment for Breakfast: The Production of Early Morning News Shows

G. Dell’Orto:
The U.S. via the Net: The Death of (Critical) Distance?

B. T. Scott:
Patriotism as a News Value in Transitional Nations

C. J. Pardun, J. D. Brown, T. Kachgal:
How Big Is Their World? U.S. Adolescents’ News Media Consumption

R. K. Long:
School Violence, Crisis Management, and the Media


Part Three
Entertainment in Non-Interactive, Interactive, and Mixed Media Environments

A. Schorr:
The Psychology of Romantic Love and the New German Telenovelas: A Functional Analysis

L. Nyre:
The Interactive Sublime: Obstacles to Dialogue in Digital Broadcasting

S. Sandhu:
Digital Games: The Relevance of a New Media Genre for Communication Research

A. Schorr:
Interactivity as Entertainment Content: Conceptual Roots, Definitions, and a Pilot Study

A. Spagnolli, L. Gamberini:
Action in Hybrid Environments: Why Technical Interferences Do Not Necessarily "Break” the Virtual Presence


Part Four
Communication in Educational and Organizational Contexts

M. C. Bocarnea, L. D. Grooms,K. Reid-Martinez:
Technological and Pedagogical Considerations in Online Learning

M. J. Poole:
Participation, Negotiation, and Sociability: Building Online Communities of Practice in Preservice Teacher Education

L. Davis Browning, J.-O. Sørnes, A. Steinar Sætre,K. Stephens:
A Garbage Can Model of Information/Communication/Technology Choice

S. Seltmann:
Computer-Mediated Communication and Leadership in Organizations (E-Leadership)

A. Schorr:
Generativity: The Key to Marketing Strategies Targeting Female Midagers


2006, 528 pages, ISBN-10: 3-89967-179-1, ISBN-13: 978-3-89967-179-7, Price: 45,- Euro