Ruben Konig

Explaining the relationship between Christian religion and anti-semitism in the Netherlands

This paper addresses the question as to why many Christians hold prejudice against Jews. We try to find out whether, and to explain why the relationship between Christian religion and anti-Semitism in the Netherlands is inherent to Christian religion, spurious, or suppressed. We offer a theoretical model that combines the explanation of Glock and Stark and suggestions made by their critics. We test this theoretical model using data from a 1990-91 national Dutch survey (n = 1,134). Our findings indicate that the relationship between Christian religion and anti-Semitism is largely spurious, due to the breadth of perspective of people on social reality. However, Christian religion still is one of the determinants of secular anti-Semitism. We found no evidence of a suppressed relationship.

Orthodox religious beliefs and anti-semitism: A replication of Glock and Stark in the Netherlands

The Glock and Stark theoretical framework on Christian beliefs and anti-Semitism implies that orthodox religious beliefs perpetuate secular anti-Semitism via particularism and religious anti-Semitism. Several critics have argued that the major weakness of this study is its failure to examine explanatory variables other than religious beliefs. This paper addresses these issues using data from a 1990-91 national Dutch survey. Although the results tend to support the assumption that nonreligious variables are far more important to the explanation of anti-Semitism and, too, that they attenuate the impact of Christian orthodoxy, the effects of the latter are by no means spurious. The most important conclusion of this paper is therefore that there still is, in Holland at least, a religious factor at work, albeit a modest one, generating anti-Semitic beliefs. Numerous studies have documented that people who consider themselves to be Christians are more likely to be anti-Semitic than those who are not religious. Despite the large amount of data that has been collected on this issue, however, the problem of whether and, if so, how and to what extent Christian religion per se engenders less compassion for Jews has never really been solved. Ambiguity remains because most studies have not been theory-guided, and consequently their findings were purely ad hoc. Further, in studying religion and its role in supporting anti-Semitism, one must always consider the possibility that nonreligious variables may create spurious patterns of relationships. Relatively little research has yet been done, however, to determine their confounding influences in order to support or challenge the assumption - held by many but made explicit by a few - that the Christian churches are conducive to anti-Jewish sentiments in their members. This paper examines the role orthodox Christian beliefs play in religious and secular anti-Semitism in the Netherlands, using data from a 1990-91 national Dutch survey. The study was triggered by the recent revival of hostility towards Jews across much of western Europe. Many of those who try to understand this upsurge emphasize anti-Semitic prejudice deeply entrenched within European Christian culture and history as the core of the problem. We therefore decided to examine whether vestiges of this legacy remain in Holland to

Mapping Media Literacy: Key Concepts and Future Directions

This chapter examines how different researchers define media literacy (i.e., what people need to know about the media and their use to be deemed media literate). As opposed to previous reviews, this chapter attempts to structure the multitude of definitions using a schematic representation of media production and use. Such a construction provides a thematic overview of diverse definitions of media literacy. Thus, it specifies key aspects of the media and their use in terms of media literacy and corresponding emphasis in the media literacy literature. This analysis reveals that the vast majority of researchers consider understanding how media content is created to be a central aspect of media literacy. Scholars treat the ability to handle the media in a constructive manner as far less important, and the media literacy literature virtually ignores the fact that media producers are prone to media influence. Furthermore, this chapter indicates that little has changed in the field of media literacy in the last few decades, with the majority of the dimensions of media literacy present in definitions utilized in the 1970s and 1980s. Finally, this chapter also identifies the features of media literacy that require additional investigation, such as the relationship between media literacy and Internet-based technologies.

On the Use of Television News: Routines in Watching the News

The use of television news by large audiences is a rather common experience in modern society and, consequently, television news use is often supposed to be a rather simple, uniform act. From an action theoretical point of view, however, media use is conceived as a form of social action, and the use that people make of television news is regarded as a complex phenomenon. According to the action theoretical view on the use of television news, an appropriate concept of television news use should not only refer to internal an external actions of self-conscious audience members, but should also take into account the social and situational contexts in which news watching is embedded. The so-called interaction situation consists of more than just a television set and a viewer watching the news. The present study addresses some dimensions of the interaction situation of using television news; that is, characteristics of the ways in which people routinely structure the social and situational contexts surrounding their daily news watching, are explored. Using data from a 1994 national survey in the Netherlands (n=969), routines in everyday use of television news are explored and socio-cultural profiles of everyday news watching are described. This study focuses on (I) the existence of such routines in watching television news, (2) the relationship of these routines with variations in other aspects of mass media use, and (3) the correlations of these routines in daily television news watching with individual and social background variables. Two specific routines in everyday news watching can be discerned and clearly distinguished from three more general routines in watching television.

In ads we trust: Religiousness as a predictor of advertising trustworthiness and avoidance

Purpose – This paper aims to provide insight into the relationship between religiousness, trust in advertising and advertisement avoidance. Design/methodology/approach – A survey of 4,984 participants from the USA, the UK, Germany, Spain and France was conducted. Findings – This paper shows that religiousness is a (negative) predictor of avoidance of advertisements in traditional and digital media and that advertisement trustworthiness mediates this effect. Higher perceived trustworthiness of advertising among the more religious people leads to less advertisement avoidance. Less religious people trust advertising less and, consequently, show higher advertisement avoidance. The role of religiousness is explained by a positive relationship between religiousness and perceived advertisement trustworthiness because of religious people’s general conformity to authority and because of religion’s emphasis on the good of fellow human beings. Research limitations/implications – One limitation is that response bias ...

Partners' influence on each other's television exposure: Dominance or symmetry?

Abstract In this study we analyzed to what extent partners who share the same household affect each others exposure to television. With the use of linear structural equation modeling we analyzed data from a large scale representative survey in The Netherlands (n = 697 couples). Results indicate that both men and women influence their partners exposure to television. When people spend much time watching television, their partners are also likely to spend a lot of time in front of the television. These influences on each others exposure were of equal magnitude for both men and women. Finally, we found a strong socialization effect of parental viewing in the family of origin.

Patterns in television news use

In this study we explore patterns of television news use, using data from a national survey on Media Use in the Netherlands conducted in 1994 (n = 969). Results indicate that people are much more likely to prefer watching television news selectively and attentively than watching the news while simultaneously engaging in other activities. Moreover, the chances of this preference for watching the news selectively and attentively are even greater for men, older people, and people endorsing well-informed citizens values. They are somewhat smaller for women, younger people, and people without well-informed citizens values. No evidence of interaction among these determinants was found. Contrary to our expectations, education, occupation, and having children do not seem to influence self-reported patterns of television news use. A possible explanation for the difference between men and women, is the subjective definition of home as a sphere of leisure for men and a sphere of labor for women, which traditional role-expectancies may still engender. A possible explanation for the inclination of older people and people with well-informed citizens values to prefer watching the news selectively and attentively, may be found in a relatively strong feeling that watching the news is important.

Does location congruence matter? A field study on the effects of location-based advertising on perceived ad intrusiveness, relevance & value

We investigate the effect of location-congruent mobile messages on perceived intrusiveness, value, and relevance through a field experiment using the Experience Sampling Method (ESM). We developed a mobile application for undergraduate students, featuring campus news and information concerning class schedules. This application also included daily ads for the University restaurant, which were either location-(semi)congruent or location-incongruent. Immediately after viewing the ads the app presented a short questionnaire to the participants for a period of four weeks, thereby measuring their perceived intrusiveness, relevance and value of these ads. During these four weeks daily ads were sent to 40 students, resulting in 107 responses from 23 participants. The results show that our participants perceived location-(semi)congruent ads as significantly more valuable and relevant, whereas no significant results were found for perceived intrusiveness. By investigating LBA in a field-study based on ESM utilizing participants own smartphone devices this study corroborates the presumed effects of location-(semi)congruency on marketing relevant ad perceptions. Field experiment examines how individuals react to Location-Based Ads (LBAs).In situ data collection via ESM using a context-triggered sampling design.Location (semi)congruency has a positive influence on perceived relevance and value.LBA has no significant influence on perceived ad intrusiveness.Intra-individual variations are significant with all three dependent variables.

Mediaoverdracht in het ouderlijk gezin: de gevolgen van ouderlijke mediasocialisatie voor huidige lees- en televisievoorkeuren

This study analyses the intergenerational transmission of book reading and television viewing preferences. Central are the long-term effects of the parental media example and parental media guidance activities during one’s childhood on adult highbrow and lowbrow media preferences. We used information from the Family Survey of the Dutch Population (FSDP 2003, 2009) on 2,539 Dutch respondents born between 1955 and 1984. Estimating structural equation models provided insights into the lasting effects of parental reading and television socialization. Disentangling direct and indirect effects of parental media socialization showed that both imitation and guidance are important in the intergenerational transmission of media preferences. Our results suggest that imitation is the main mechanism underlying the media socialization process. Yet, parental media guidance and a child’s school success partly mediate the imitation process. Foremost, this study demonstrates that parental media socialization activities during childhood have lasting effects on a person’s current media preferences.

Changing culture, stable structure: Segmented pluralism on the Dutch airwaves

ABSTRACT In this contribution we deal with the contradiction between changing culture and stable structure, i.e., the phenomenon that a social structure that developed to accommodate a certain culture may remain stable over a long period of time, even when that culture changes. We do so for the case of the Dutch public broadcasting system, that was designed in the 1920s to fit with the segmented pluralism of Dutch society, in which a number of religiously and ideologically different groups had to peacefully co-exist. In the mid-1960s, Dutch society started to change rapidly and segmented pluralism started to wane. The public broadcasting system, however, hardly changed until today. First we explain how structure and culture initially matched and how the concept of path dependency can explain how over time culture and structure can grow apart. Then, with data of six national surveys between 1979 and 2005, we explore the possible cultural grounds for the fact that the segmented public broadcasting system has outlived the segmented pluralism of Dutch society that it was originally designed to match.