Abstimmen oder Schwimmen? Plebiszitarer Sport und synchronisierte Wahlen. [Sink or swim: Plebiscitary sport and synchronised voting.][In German]

This chapter starts from the observation that new sporting attributes are growing up unnoticed in popular entertainment and ‘reality’ TV. They celebrate not individual heroics but spectator-oriented teamwork which must look effortless and stylish. Instead of objective measurements – ‘faster, higher, stronger’ – winners are picked by voting and consumer choice. Sport and media are converging and integrating. As they do so, what counts as sport, why it is valued, and what it symbolises for contemporary culture, are all changing. I take these changes to be emblematic of something emergent in the culture at large as the modernist paradigm shifts towards a new consumerist paradigm. This is symbolised in new sports, of which the paradigm example is synchronised swimming. The chapter traces these changes via the career and legacy of the Australian swimming and fashion pioneer Annette Kellerman.

Comparing international television news : the case of violence presentation in Germany, Great Britain and Russia -- [in German : Gewalt in internationalen Fernsehnachrichten - eine komparative Analyse medialer Gewaltpräsentation in Deutschland, Großbritannien und Russland]

This is an important book that ought to launch a debate about how we research our understanding of the world, it is an innovative intervention in a vital public issue, and it is an elegant and scholarly hard look at what is actually happening. Jean Seaton, Prof of Media History, U of Westminster, UK & Official Historian of the BBC -- Summary: This book investigates the question of how comparative studies of international TV news (here: on violence presentation) can best be conceptualized in a way that allows for crossnational, comparative conclusions on an empirically validated basis. This book shows that such a conceptualization is necessary in order to overcome existing restrictions in the comparability of international analysis on violence presentation. Investigated examples include the most watched news bulletins in Great Britain (10o'clock news on the BBC), Germany (Tagesschau on ARD) and Russia (Vremja on Channel 1). This book highlights a substantial cross-national violence news flow as well as a cross-national visual violence flow (key visuals) as distinct transnational components. In addition, event-related textual analysis reveals how the historical rootedness of nations and its symbols of power are still manifested in televisual mediations of violence. In conclusion, this study lobbies for a conscientious use of comparative data/analysis both in journalism research and practice in order to understand what it may convey in the different arenas of today’s newsmaking.

The causal effect of income on health: Evidence from German reunification

We investigate whether therewas a causal effect of income changes on the health satisfaction of East and West Germans in the years following reunification. Our data source is the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) between 1984 and 2002, and we fit a recently proposed fixed-effects ordinal estimator to our health measures and use a causal decomposition technique to account for panel attrition.We find evidence of a significant positive effect of income changes on health satisfaction, but the quantitative size of this effect is small. This is the case with respect to current income and a measure of ‘permanent’ income.

Georg Calixtus and the Humanist tradition

Georg Calixtus (1586–1656) was a Lutheran theologian, prominent in the German lands during the first half of the seventeenth century. Existing research focuses on Calixtus‘ contributions to religious and theological debates, particularly in regard to his role in the Syncretistic Controversy of the latter half of the seventeenth century, and in regard to his unique position as a Lutheran who aspired to reunion between the different Christian confessions. This thesis problematises this focus on Calixtus by theologians and ecclesiastical historians, and argues that the genesis and transmission of his ideas cannot be fully appreciated without considering his relationship with the broader intellectual milieu of early modern Europe. It does this by exploring Calixtus‘ interaction with the humanist tradition, in particular by reconsidering his relationship with Isaac Casaubon (1559–1614), and by exploring his work in light of intellectual movements that were taking place outside the Christian church. In so doing, this thesis argues that Calixtus made contributions to early modern thought that have been overlooked in the existing literature. It also becomes apparent that much research remains to be done to gain a more accurate picture of his place in the early modern intellectual landscape, and of his legacy to later generations of scholars.

YouTube versus the national film and sound archive: Which is the more useful resource for historians of Australian television?

This article compares YouTube and the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) as resources for television historians interested in viewing old Australian television programs. The author searched for seventeen important television programs, identified in a previous research project, to compare what was available in the two archives and how easy it was to find. The analysis focused on differences in curatorial practices of accessioning and cataloguing. NFSA is stronger in current affairs and older programs, while YouTube is stronger in game shows and lifestyle programs. YouTube is stronger than the NFSA on “human interest” material—births, marriages, and deaths. YouTube accessioning more strongly accords with popular histories of Australian television. Both NFSA and YouTube offer complete episodes of programs, while YouTube also offers many short clips of “moments.” YouTube has more surprising pieces of rare ephemera. YouTube cataloguing is more reliable than that of the NFSA, with fewer broken links. The YouTube metadata can be searched more intuitively. The NFSA generally provides more useful reference information about production and broadcast dates.

Client intentions and Bruno Taut’s Glashaus

An often overlooked aspect concerning the Glashaus is the significant influence exerted by the client in the design of the building. In an intentional endeavour to create an exhibition pavilion that best showcased their glazed products and construction technologies, the German Luxfer Prism Syndicate both commissioned and majority financed the Glashaus. It would therefore seem strange that the official histories of the Glashaus would rather record the utopian, romanticised and arguably imagined intentions of Bruno Taut as the architect, as opposed to the reality of the client’s intentions. This paper offers a reinterpretation of the Glashaus from the perspective of German Luxfer Prism Syndicate. This reinterpretation is achieved through an investigation that primarily concentrates on the glazed areas of the Glashaus where the German Luxfer Prism Syndicates products were most evident. Using the arguments initially presented by Dietrich Neumann as a foundation, this research is additionally interwoven with inquiry into diverse aspects such as patents filed by the Luxfer group of companies and a close examination of the original black and white photographs of the Glashaus. A dramatically different understanding emerges when the Glashaus is argued from the perspective of the client; an understanding that is cold, hard and commercial as opposed to utopian and romanticised. As a result, this research makes a contribution to the current debate concerning the Glashaus and the re-evaluation of the histories of the modern movement.

“They’re My Two Favourites” versus “The Bigger Scheme of Things” : pro-Am historians remember Australian television

This chapter reports on eleven interviews with Pro-Am archivists of Australian television which aimed to find out how they decide what materials are important enough to archive. Interviewees mostly choose to collect materials in which they have a personal interest. But they are also aware of the relationship between their own favourites and wider accounts of Australian television history, and negotiate between these two positions. Most interviewees acknowledged Australian television’s links with British and American programming, but also felt that Australian television is distinctive. They argued that Australian television history is ignored in a way that isn’t true for the UK or the US. Several also argued that Australian television has had a ‘naïve’ nature that has allowed it to be more experimental.

Pro-Am curators of Australian television history : how is their practice different from that of professional television historians?

Eleven Pro-Am curators of Australian television history were interviewed about their practice. The data helps us to understand the relationship between professional and Pro-Am approaches to Australian television history. There is no simple binary – the lines are blurred – but there are some differences. Pro-Am curators of Australian television history are not paid for their work and present other motivations for practice – particularly being that ‘weird child’ who was obsessed with gathering information and objects related to television. They have freedom to curate only programs and genres that interest them, and they tend to collect merchandise as much as program texts themselves. And they have less interest in formally cataloguing their material than do professional curators of Australian television history.

Making orchids – Gardening an intersex experience on videotape [In German - Orchideen Züchten. Eine inter Erfahrung auf Film]

In 2004, my thirtieth year of life, I began to develop and produce a documentary about the lived experience of being intersex. At the time, I didn’t ever expect the film would be autobiographical in nature. I’d known I was intersex since I was 17, and aware of my difference for many years prior, and I’d been making and presenting documentaries for almost as long, yet the idea to expose myself so publicly was frightening to me. However, I realised I couldn’t expect others to step in front of the lens when I didn’t have the courage to do so myself. The final result was Orchids: My Intersex Adventure, which maps my intersex journey from shame, stigma and secrecy to self‐acceptance. The film has now been broadcast on television sets around the world. It has also won many awards and appeared in numerous film festivals....

Valuing those close to us : A comparison of German and Australian quality newspapers’ reporting of death in foreign news

A number of studies into the coverage of death have provided some evidence of journalists giving preference to events from certain regions and to certain types of death. This comprehensive evaluation of how two German and two Australian newspapers cover death specifically in foreign news finds clear evidence that journalists primarily look for events in countries which are culturally proximate to their own. The cultural proximity thesis here includes links such as cultural, political, economic or linguistic connections with a country. Some important national differences in how journalists at the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung, The Australian and The Sydney Morning Herald report on death were also identified. These could be traced to some important cultural differences between the two countries, underlining the need for more research which locates culture at the core of news analysis.

Mediating orientation and self-expression in the world of consumption : Australian and German lifestyle journalists' professional views

Despite having experienced rapid popularity over the past two decades, lifestyle journalism is still somewhat neglected by academic researchers. So far mostly explored as either part of wider lifestyle programming, particularly on television, or in terms of individual sub-fields, such as travel, fashion or food journalism, lifestyle journalism is in need of scholarly analysis particularly in the area of production, based on the increasing importance which the field has in influencing audiences’ ways of life. This study explores the professional views of 89 Australian and German lifestyle journalists through in-depth interviews in order to explore the ways in which they engage in processes of influencing audiences’ self-expression, identities and consumption behaviors. The article argues that through its work, lifestyle journalism is a significant shaper of identities in today’s consumer societies.

Friends or followers? The relations between German soccer clubs and their fans on Twitter

This paper shows how soccer clubs from Germany’s first division have started to use Twitter. Analysis is based on tweets from and to club accounts as well as on follower numbers, and specific clubs are selected for case studies. This approach reveals that Twitter mirrors the conflicts between professional sports and traditional fandom.