Articles

Reinhold VIEHOFF
Introduction to Media and Commmunication Studies at the University of Halle-Wittenberg

Anne BARTSCH and Susanne HÜBNER
Towards a Theory of Emotional Communication
Abstract: In their paper, "Towards a Theory of Emotional Communication," Anne Bartsch and Susanne Hübner outline a model of emotional communication where emotional communication is conceptualized as a process of mutual influence between the emotions of communication partners. To elaborate this general notion further, four working definitions of emotional communication are introduced, each of which is based on a different theory of emotions. In the second part of the paper, an integrative framework is proposed that reconciles the four working definitions and their underlying theories of emotion. According to this framework, emotional communication comprises three interrelated levels of complexity: 1) innate stimulus-response-patterns, 2) associative schemata, and 3) symbolic meaning. Finally, Bartsch and Hübner discuss how emotional communication can be described in terms of general communication theory, and conclude that the three complexity levels are heterogeneous with regard to definitional issues in general communication theory. Hence, emotional communication cannot be subsumed under a single theory of communication. Taken separately, however, each complexity level of emotional communication can be related meaningfully to approaches in general communication theory.

Claudia DITTMAR
Television and Politics in the Former East Germany
Abstract: In her paper, "Television and Politics in the Former East Germany," Claudia Dittmar analyzes how in the former East Germany (GDR) while television audience was restricted severly by government, at the same time West German broadcasts acquired a substantial audience and what the impact of these broadcasts had on the audience. West German television programs enjoyed a high level of popularity with the East German population, thereby posing the greatest competition to the GDR's own television stations. As a result, GDR television was forced to counteract the impact of West German television. Dittmar discusses how the West German media were accused of attempting to influence the East German audience ideologically and how the leadership of the GDR sought this to prevent by all means. The resulting competition on the airwaves forced the television stations of the GDR to adapt to the wishes of its audience, even if this meant that entertainment won the upper hand over the mediation of socialist politics and policies: Popular programs of West German television were countered with programs of mass appeal produced in the GDR.

Kathrin FAHLENBRACH
Aesthetics and Audiovisual Metaphors in Media Perception
Abstract: In her paper, "Aesthetics and Audiovisual Metaphors in Media Perception," Kathrin Fahlenbrach presents a model of audiovisual analysis where focus is on audiovisual aesthetics perceived physically and affectively. Fahlenbrach starts out from the assumption that image and sound are inseparable in audiovisual media and must be treated as a unit, a "synchresis" (Chion). Fahlenbrach proposes that only this premise is able to cover the pre-consciously perceived elements sufficiently, namely the sensorial and affective structures of audiovisual aesthetics. Fahlenbrach articulates some aspects for an audiovisual aesthetics that concentrate on the interfaces between audiovisual perception and audiovisual design and employs to this end the Aristotelian concept of aisthesis. Following the theory of cognitive metaphors (Lakoff and Johnson), Fahlenbrach assumes that audiovisual codes and signs always rely fundamentally on schemata of physical and affective experience. Following George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Fahlenbrach regards the mapping of physical schemata onto acoustic, visual, and, respectively, audiovisual elements in the media as a metaphorical process. Drawing on an example of film sound, she explains how filmmakers project acoustic qualities onto visual Gestalt patterns and thereby construct audiovisual metaphors that we recognize immediately and long before we reflect on them, that is, they activate meanings that rely on basic experiences of our body.

Florian HARTLING
The Canonization of German-language Digital Literature
Abstract: In his paper, "The Canonization of German-language Digital Literature," Florian Hartling discusses "Net Literature," a relatively young phenomenon, that has its roots in experimental visual and concrete poetry and hypertext. With the use of new media technology, this new genre of literature has acquired much interest and is now considered to be one of the most important influences in contemporary art. Not only does Net Literature connect sound, video, and animation with interactivity and allows new forms of artistic expression, it also impacts significantly on the traditional functions of the literary system. Hartling suggests that, in relation to Net Literature, the notion of the "death of the author" gives birth to the "writing reader." Hartling presents the results of his study where he applies the concept of "canon" to German-language Net Literature and where he attempts to find out whether, in this new form of literature, a "canon" has already been formed. Based on Karl Erik Rosengren's framework of "mention technique," a sample of German-language reviews of Net Literature was analyzed. The study intends to test the applicability of Rosengren's method to the analysis of Net Literature, that is, whether it is valid to use a method that was originally developed for the empirical study of the traditional literary canon for the study of an emergent Net Literature.

Gerhard LAMPE
A New Look at Robert J. Flaherty's Documentary Art
Abstract: In his paper, "A New Look at Robert J. Flaherty's Documentary Art," Gerhard Lampe challenges the general view of documentary film director Robert J. Flaherty's work. In film studies, it is generally assumed that Flaherty ignored cinematographic developments and kept repeating himself by telling his stories of mythical battles of the individual against the powers of nature in always the same old-fashioned way. He is said to have improved his "photographic eye" with the help of improved lenses and more detailed shots; nevertheless, he did not show any interest in editing problems and sound recording. By comparing Flaherty's Nanook of the North (1922), Moana (1923-25), and Man of Aran (1934), Lampe shows that the continuity-editing-system and 180° system which emerged in Hollywood at the time of the transition from silent to sound production was also adopted by Flaherty in his films. Lampe argues that Flaherty in fact modernised his cinematographic style after shooting the semi-documentary "Paramount"-film Taboo (1929-30) with Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau.

Detlev NOTHNAGEL and Gilda VERA AGUIRRE
Mental Models of Communication and Television Advertising
Abstract: In their paper, "Mental Models of Communication and Television Advertising," Detlev Nothnagel and Gilda Vera Aguirre discuss the question whether and if so, how and to what extent television advertisement spots differ cross-culturally. In contrast to the majority of studies on this topic, Nothnagel and Aguirre concentrate on a protocol-based formal analysis that is statistically oriented. In a more general perspective, the relation between face-to-face communication and communication mediated by technology is scrutinized. Provided that there are important differences, one hypothesis would be that they originate in habits of communication older than those found in technically-mediated communication. That would, at least in part, presuppose a transfer between different media, linking the organization of speech with that of pictures, etc. As only comparative studies are suited to address these questions, two samples are compared in the study, contrasting German and Ecuadorian examples of data. In order to avoid an overestimation of cross-cultural differences and to get a handle on content-related fluctuations, intercultural differences are measured in a parallel fashion.

Sadashivam RAO
An Analysis of Websites of Bi-national Heterosexual Couples
Abstract: In his paper "An Analysis of Websites of Bi-national Heterosexual Couples," Sadashivam Rao discusses the design of world wide web homepages of bi-national couples. Rao shows how such websites become locations of the re-invention of notions of culture, generating a particular practice of representation, namely that of "hyphenating." Rao contends that the subjects of personal homepages enter the domain of the internet as entities already embedded in many other domains of discourse such as those of nationalism, culture, and media. Further, Rao proposes that this specific genre of websites reflects traces of these discourses. Of course, in the process of the website design itself, the artefacts used undergo changes in that they might be transformed or combined together to derive new forms or generate new meanings. In this manner, the world wide web becomes an arena for the expression, reification, and recreation of already existing discourses.

Steven TÖTÖSY de ZEPETNEK
Imre Kertész's Nobel Prize, Public Discourse, and the Media
Abstract: Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, in his paper, "Imre Kertész's Nobel Prize, Public Discourse, and the Media," discusses aspects of media coverage in German-, Hungarian-, and English-language newspapers and magazines of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Literature, awarded to Imre Kertész. The perspective of Tötösy's analysis is to gauge the importance and impact of media coverage comparatively in the three cultural and media landscapes. Based on selected examples from newspapers and magazines with an international scope, Tötösy argues that the reception of Kertész's Nobel Prize suggests the convergence of the media (as the message) and the contents of the message within public discourse, resulting in Kertész's role as a public intellectual despite his reluctance to assume this role. Tötösy demonstrates that the media discourse reveals significant differences in the reception of the prize, pointing to different stages in democratic values in the context of the relevance of the Holocaust today. In addition, the media reception reveals how far a particular society accepts (Germany, the USA, and Canada) or rejects (Hungary) the historical relevance of Kertész's work as unique in the literature of the Holocaust.

Reinhold VIEHOFF
Media Icons of War and the Instrumentalisation of Images in US-American Media Today
Abstract: In his paper "Media Icons of War and the Instrumenalisation of Images in US-American Media Today," Reinhold Viehoff argues that the destruction of Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad in April 2004 by the US army represents an attempt to instrumentalise the logic of mass media as a strategy of public diplomacy. Viehoff explains the logic of mass media and public diplomacy of the US government and US media today in the context of the history of the destruction of monuments as played out on the landscape of media during and following the demise of the Soviet empire. Viehoff proposes that the media images of the toppling of Hussein's statue is linked, historically, to the iconic representations of the divestiture of Central and East European dictatorships. Further, the divestiture of tyranny of the Soviet empire and its media images have been capitalised on in the strategic media image construction of the deposition of Hussein's government of tyranny. Based on specific examples of media images, Viehoff analyses the process in which the iconisation of images occurs in the case of Hussein's divestiture. In his conclusion, Viehoff proposes that the strategy of media and its icons used in the US media suggest misguided intentions. These misguided intentions are due to particularities in the processes of reflection in current US-American media systems.

Book Review Article
Martin GRIMM
New Books in German Media and Communication Studies

Bibliography
Martin GRIMM
Selected Bibliography of German-language Books in Media, Communication, and Cultural Studies (2000-2005)