COVID-19 and Everyday ICT Use: The Discursive Construction of Old Age in German Media

Background and Objectives Media discourses have the power to construct and perpetuate positive and negative aging images and influence public and individuals’ attitudes. This study aims to critically examine the media portrayal of older persons’ everyday information and communication technology (EICT) usage during the first and second waves of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Research Design and Methods A total of 51 articles published in 3 leading German newspapers between March 2020 and November 2020 were identified from the LexisNexis Academic database. Data were analyzed employing critical discourse and thematic analysis. Results EICT use was associated with youthful, consumption-orientated, and active lifestyles, while nonuse was constructed as failures on the policy or individual level. The pandemic seemed to have acted as an amplifier, further exacerbating and perpetuating stereotypical, dichotomous, but also empowering aging images. Discussion and Implications Neoliberal rational and binary distinctions of active users and nonusers opened and encouraged critical discussions on positive aging trends, the concept of the third and fourth ages, and aging-and-innovation discourses. Moreover, the crucial educative role of the media in raising awareness about power imbalances and reducing EICT-related ageism is stressed.

Diverse Effects of Mass Media Concerns about Immigration: New Evidence from Germany, 2001 - 2016

Media discourse is often seen as an important condition of people's attitudes and perceptions. Despite a rich literature, however, it is not well understood how media exposure influences attitudes towards immigrants. In contrast to previous studies, we argue that people rely on 'availability heuristics' shaped by mass media. From that point of view, it is the specific content of media discourse on immigration that affects people's concerns. We use 'Structural Topic Models' to classify media content of more than 24.000 articles of leading German newspapers from 2001 to 2016. Utilizing 'linear fixed effect models' allows us to relate a person's concern towards immigration as reported in the German Socioeconomic Panel to prevalent topics discussed in print media while controlling for several confounding factors (e.g., party preferences, interest in politics, etc.). We find a robust relationship between topic salience and attitudes towards integration. Our results also reveal that specific topics with negative contents (e.g., domestic violence) to increase concerns, while others (e.g., scientific studies, soccer) decrease concerns substantially, underlining the importance of available information provided by media. In addition, people with higher education are generally less affected by media salience of topics.

The representation of Yusra Mardini as a Refugee Olympic Athlete: A sociological analysis

Summary This article explores the representation of Yusra Mardini as a refugee Olympic athlete. Her participation in the 2016 Olympic Games is analyzed through different areas of programming of the mass media and, specifically, through Mardini’s autobiography, documents of the International Olympic Committee, and German newspapers. A qualitative content analysis is carried out and a systems theoretical framework applied. The results reveal that Mardini’s refugee background was both an obstacle and an advantage for her career within the sport system. The establishment of the Refugee Olympic Team generated positive response from the International Olympic Committee but also exposed contradictions in its inclusion rules. The newspapers showed a strong interest in Mardini and presented her as a hero, downplaying her performances and emphasizing her life story. Following an analysis of the interconnections between these different representations, the discussion turns to the mechanisms that go beyond the inclusion of Mardini in professional sports and focuses on the latent information within the materials.

On the Record: Sissieretta Jones and Black Feminist Recording Praxes

In this article, I examine how Sissieretta Jones (frequently described as America’s first Black superstar, among other superlatives) strategically leveraged her European performance reviews in order to increase her listenership and wages in the United States. Jones toured Europe for the first (and only) time from February until November in 1895. According to clippings that she provided to African American newspapers, the singer performed at the renowned Winter Garden in Berlin for three months. Sissieretta Jones also claimed that she performed for Wilhelm II, the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, at his palace and was subsequently presented with an elaborate diamond brooch for her performance. Afterward, the singer told the African American newspaper the Indianapolis Freeman that she would like to live in Europe permanently. Her biographers frequently cite the success of this trip and its symbolic importance for African Americans. And yet, evidence of these events in the archives of major German newspapers is elusive and contradictory at best, if it exists at all. Nevertheless, after the much-hyped tour, her career would take many twists and turns. Sissieretta Jones eventually performed in venues like Carnegie Hall and Madison Square Garden. She was the highest-paid Black female performer of the nineteenth century and a role model for future generations of Black performers.

SEMANTIC AND STRUCTURAL PECULIARITIES OF TRANSLATING PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS WITH MONEY COMPONENT (BASED ON MODERN ENGLISH AND GERMAN ECONOMIC TEXTS)

The purpose of the paper is to summarise and present semantic and structural peculiarities of phraseological units with MONEY component translation, based on modern English and German Economic texts. Methodology. The survey is based on comparison of semantic and structural peculiarities of phraseological units with MONEY component, that can be used in modern Economic texts in English and German languages and main methods of their translation into the Ukrainian language. For research of features of phraseology units with a component on denotation of MONEY translation we analysed 164 English phraseological units with the structure of word-combinations, that were investigated and described the main ways of their translation and 103 phraseological units from the economic articles of German newspapers. The analysis of the economic articles gave possibility to carry out thematic classification of phraseological units with the component-name MONEY in English (money, penny, cent, dollar, pound, cash) and German languages (Geld, Mark, Euro, Cent), within the framework of that the groups of phraseological units are distinguished with sema composition of the meaning. According to semantic classification English and German phraseology units with a MONEY component were divided into such groups: on denotation of riches and profit, wastefulness and charges, feelings and looks of man, relation of man to money, poverty and lack of money and on denotation of currency and bank transactions. The percentage ratio of semantic groups of English and German phraseological units with MONEY component in the economic sphere is represented on diagrams. Basic methods of phraseological units translation that are used by translators for the achievement of maximal adequacy of translation are distinguished. Among the methods of English phraseological units translation with a MONEY component the following one are distinguished: selection of equivalent, analogue, by the method of literal and descriptive translation whereas German phraseology units with a MONEY component are translated by phraseology and unphraseology methods; to phraseology the method of selection of eauivalent or analogue is taken, to unphraseology correspond calquing and descriptive translation. Carried analysis of features of English and German phraseology units with a MONEY component into the Ukrainian language translation did possible the reflection of research results by means of the diagram.

COVID-19 IN THE LEXICALSYSTEM OF THE MODERN LANGUAGE

The given article examines the vocabulary in social discourse, which has gained relevance in connection with the disease of the century Covid-19. The analysis is based on four articles from the German newspapers Süddeutsche Zeitung and Tagesschau. For comparison, information is provided from a review of British and American newspapers in October 2020. The lexical units are components and fragments of discourses that, in the last decade, have attracted more attention of not only philologists, but also scientists from other areas of the social sciences and humanities. Language units are divided into specific semantic categories. The article illustrates specific factual material, and also compared their semantic derivation with facts extracted from authoritative dictionaries. Since some linguistic units, due to their "freshness", do not have time to find their place in dictionaries, their semantic categories are determined in contexts. In addition, linguistic units are categorized into specific thematic types and semantic categories.

I connettivi perché e weil come introduttori di enunciati autonomi nei giornali di oggi

The aim of this paper is, first of all, to outline the contemporary uses of causal structures in Italian writing, focusing on some less canonical syntactic and textual manifestations. These non-prototypical constructs will be, then, compared with the corresponding ones in German. The analysis that will be presented are based on qualitative and quantitative data derived from corpora of Italian and German newspaper writing. As far as the Italian language, the paper will focus on the causal connective perché: after presenting its frequency of use compared to the other causal connectives, we will discuss some of its most common syntactic and informative-textual configurations, with particular reference to the case in which perché introduces an independent utterance, preceded by a strong punctuation mark. Right this last use will be observed also in German newspapers, thanks to a preliminary survey that will focus on the causal connective weil. For both languages we will consider the frequency of this peculiar use, as well as its possible forms and textual functions, in order to highlight analogies and differences between German and Italian.

More than a marginal phenomenon: Relevance and content-related aspects of mediated sport scandals

SummaryThe salience of mediated scandals today is deeply linked with the formation of norms and values in our society. This is a particular challenge for the field of sport as the compliance with norms and values is of particular relevance in this social area. The paper shows the extent of scandalization in sport reporting and discusses possible implications for sport. Therefore, it offers a definition and typology for sport scandals. It indicates why sport scandals might have a fundamental share of overall scandal reporting today in comparison to other fields of society. The paper further emphasizes content-related aspects such as celebrity status, sport discipline and type of sport scandal. In the empirical portion, a quantitative content analysis of all reported scandals in three German newspapers over a period of one year is provided. Implications of the findings for athletes, organizations, and society are discussed.

Solidarity in the Public Sphere: A Discourse Network Analysis of German Newspapers (2008–2017)

Multiple crises in the EU have sparked a renaissance of the concept of solidarity. However, discursive approaches to solidarity and the public understanding of solidarity have hardly received scholarly attention. Empirical research on solidarity is rather centered on welfare institutions as well as on individual attitudes and behavior. To shed new light on solidarity in public discourse, we investigate in which policy fields the term is most often used, which actors refer to it and how different types of solidarity are covered in the German public discourse. We investigate the coverage of solidarity in four German newspapers (<em>Die Welt</em>, <em>Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung</em>, <em>Süddeutsche Zeitung</em>, <em>Die Tageszeitung</em>) from 2008 to 2017. By deploying the discourse network methodology with 306 claims in 230 news articles, we analyze the co-occurrence of actors and issues over time. Our results indicate a varying set of issues in which solidarity occurs, a rather stable actor visibility, across time and a context-dependent use of different types of solidarity. Government actors, civil society actors as well as citizens drive the solidarity discourse showing that institutional as well as non-institutional actors make use of solidarity in their public actions regarding political protest, financial issues and migration. The study provides novel insights into the interdependence of actor and issue visibility and sheds new light on solidarity in media discourses.