Merja Mahrt

Twitter and Society

Since its launch in 2006, Twitter has evolved from a niche service to a mass phenomenon; it has become instrumental for everyday communication as well as for political debates, crisis communication, marketing, and cultural participation. But the basic idea behind it has stayed the same: users may post short messages (tweets) of up to 140 characters and follow the updates posted by other users. Drawing on the experience of leading international Twitter researchers from a variety of disciplines and contexts, this is the first book to document the various notions and concepts of Twitter communication, providing a detailed and comprehensive overview of current research into the uses of Twitter. It also presents methods for analyzing Twitter data and outlines their practical application in different research contexts.

The Value of Big Data in Digital Media Research

This article discusses methodological aspects of Big Data analyses with regard to their applicability and usefulness in digital media research. Based on a review of a diverse selection of literature on online methodology, consequences of using Big Data at different stages of the research process are examined. We argue that researchers need to consider whether the analysis of huge quantities of data is theoretically justified, given that it may be limited in validity and scope, and that small-scale analyses of communication content or user behavior can provide equally meaningful inferences when using proper sampling, measurement, and analytical procedures.

Science blogging: an exploratory study of motives, styles, and audience reactions

This paper presents results from three studies on science blogging, the use of blogs for science communication. A survey addresses the views and motives of science bloggers, a first content analysis examines material published in science blogging platforms, while a second content analysis looks at reader responses to controversial issues covered in science blogs. Bloggers determine to a considerable degree which communicative function their blog can realize and how accessible it will be to non-experts Frequently readers are interested in adding their views to a post, a form of involvement which is in turn welcomed by the majority of bloggers.

The Attractiveness of Magazines as “Open” and “Closed” Texts: Values of Women's Magazines and Their Readers

This study examines the widespread notion that people turn to media to find reinforcement for their personal values. Based on a representative sample of subscribers to womens magazines, the article investigates relationships between readers’ own values and the values they ascribe to the magazine. For some titles, selective exposure to a periodical that presents values close to their readers is observed. For others, readers disagree on magazine values to an extent that indicates considerable room for interpretation of a magazine as an “open” text. Some womens magazines seem to allow their readers to project their own values onto the published contents rather than presenting a clear-cut, “objective” value pattern that could steer exposure.

YouTube-Hits zwischen Diversifikation und Integration

Eines der wesentlichen Merkmale von Onlinemedien und -plattformen im Vergleich zu Massenmedien ist ihre quasi unendliche Grose und inhaltliche Vielfalt. Nutzer finden wesentlich mehr Angebote, die ihren Praferenzen entsprechen, und Anbieter konnen auch mit Nischeninhalten noch ein Publikum ansprechen.

What Are Values

Values have been called the central integrative concept that could bring all social sciences together (e.g., Kluckhohn, 1951; Rokeach, 1973; Schwartz, 1992). They are part of many theories, from psychological approaches to personalities and individual differences, to studies of social learning and socialization, to comparative studies of cultures, to theories of (political) modernization and human development. Subsequently, the literature on values is extensive and stretches across a wide variety of disciplines.

Values and Media Use among the Highly Educated

Using media channels selectively should not only depend on the values one holds but also on one’s perception of what values different outlets represent. I assume that education could be an important contingent condition here—the more educated an audience member is, the more he or she should be familiar with the intricacies of the media landscape, its diversity and changes, and the more accurate his or her concept of values in the mediated offer should be, at least in principle. More educated people, then, should show stronger relationships between their values and a specific choice of media.

Aim and Scope of the Study

The present study investigates an important aspect of the relationships between individual values and media use: What values lead one to prefer certain media channels or outlets and certain types of content?

Values and Genre Preferences

Content analyses of values within certain genres (see section 2.3.1) suggest that what values are presented on one TV channel, for example, may very well differ across types of programs, times of the day, week or even year. “Channel effects” continue to influence users in their choices, which could be due to an editorial policy, principally furthering specific values. But most media outlets are probably not that monolithic in terms of the values they display in their programs or stories. Inevitably, even the most conservative medium has to contain some less conservative content—which then may be sought by those who do not feel as conservative as other members of the audience. So, specific programs within media channels should actually be more closely related to one’s values than one’s channel preference. Maybe the role of values for channel preference is dwarfed by their impact on genre preference. This is why in the third step of the analysis I will leave the use of media outlets and its relationship with audience values and turn to a less aggregated level of the mediated offer—content genres within a specific channel.

Audience Values and Media Use

Before we turn to the first research question and hypothesis, values as the independent variables will be explored. Figure 5 gives the amount of people who found the seven values tested in this study important in each year. As stated above, these seven items allow to study two important value dimensions for Germans: social values and materialist ones. The items “social justice,” “helping others who are in need,” being totally committed to one’s family/being available for one’s family, committing to one’s family,” and “a life determined by Christian faith/religion, strong faith” tap a social value dimension that is about being there for others and complying with charitable ideals. People who find “social advancement,” “a high income, wealth,” and “willingness to perform/delivering a good performance” important, on the other hand, are more interested in their own (materialist) well-being and advancement. (However, one can very well, and for good reasons, be a caring family-person and be interested in a high income.)