Projects

Based on a concept of human rights commitment that includes both a cognitive (rejection of human rights restrictions) and an affective component (concern for the victims of human rights violations), the present paper uses Latent- Class Analysis in order to differentiate different forms of consistent and inconsistent human rights orientations, and relates them to participants’ assessments of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The results of the study indicate that a consistent human rights commitment promotes pacifism, reduces moral Disengagement and counteracts anti-Palestinian as well as anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic attitudes. At the same time, however, it exerts pressure to take a position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it supports partisanship for the Palestinians, and it strengthens the tendency to dramatize foreign affairs and to call for action against Israeli policy. Nonetheless, it reduces the tendency to a one-sided attribution of guilt to Israel and decreases anti-Israeli attitudes that are directed against Jews in general and/or that tend to restrict the rights of the Jews.

Filmischen Aufarbeitungen des Holocaust wurde wiederholt vorgeworfen, kontraindizierte Effekte zur Folge zu haben. Aufbauend auf dieser theoretischen Kritik wird ein Kodiermanual zur Inhaltsanalyse von TV-Dokumentationen und Filmen über den Holocaust vorgestellt. Dieses untergliedert sich in vier Bereiche zu (1) Quellen und Perspektiven, (2) Bezug zur Opferseite, (3) Bezug zur Täterseite und (4) formale Kriterien. Anschließend werden die Ergebnisse einer Inhaltsanalyse von sechs Filmausschnitten über den Genozid an den Juden während des NS-Regimes berichtet.

The present paper documents the questionnaire and results of a survey in Germany, with data collected during June – November 2010. Using probabilistic item response models, the survey analyzes the structure of anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist, anti-Israeli and anti-Palestinian attitudes and studies how they are distributed in the German population. It reconstructs the mental models according to which participants make meaning of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it differentiates between different forms of Israel-criticism and it investigates the effect of participants’ human rights orientation on anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist, anti-Israeli and anti-Palestinian attitudes, as well as moral disengagement and pacifism, knowledge about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the way how participants position themselves to the conflict. Due to the complexity of the survey and the limited space available in peer-reviewed journals, it will be published in a series of articles, each of them focusing on theory, methodology and results of another aspect of the study – and even there, it will not be possible to report all of the statistical details that are reported here in an uncommented way.

There is increasing criticism of Israeli policies in the German public that in political discourse is frequently attributed to a resurgence of anti-Semitic attitudes. As one of the factors assumed to be responsible for this, publicists have pointed to the impact of media reportage. Scholars have criticized the coverage of the Middle East conflict as biased in favor of the Palestinians, and even documentaries about the Holocaust have been accused of reproducing the “Nazi view” of the Jews and thus of encouraging anti-Semitic stereotypes.
This criticism should be taken seriously. Nevertheless, there is little empirical research on how criticism of Israel is related to anti-Semitism, how the media report on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, how media audiences react to this media coverage, and whether Holocaust documentaries actually have a "boomerang effect" that encourages anti-Semitism.
The present paper outlines the theoretical and methodological basis and design of an ongoing research project intended to answer these and other research questions.

Der israelisch-palästinensische Konflikt ist in Deutschland in mancherlei Hinsicht von besonderem Interesse. Auch die Medien berichten regelmäßig darüber. Inwieweit lassen sich nun Rezipienten durch die Berichterstattung beeinflussen? Um herauszufinden, welche Interaktionen zwischen medialen Frames und individuellen Frames entstehen, wurde 2010 ein Experiment durchgeführt. Als Treatment dienten sechs Zeitungsartikel. Wichtig waren bei ihrer Herstellung vor allem ihre Qualität und Vergleichbarkeit. Dieser Aufsatz beschreibt das Vorgehen bei der Texterstellung und evaluiert Güte und Vergleichbarkeit des Treatments.

The present paper discusses the potentials and limitations of Peace Journalism (PJ) and exemplifies them with the results of (1) a recent survey of the mental models (individual frames) according to which Germans interpret the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, (2) a comparative analysis of the German press coverage of the second Intifada and the Gaza War, and (3) an experimental study on how the German public copes with the frames that are offered by the media.
According to the author’s understanding, PJ is not a variant of advocacy journalism, but a means to fulfil the quality norms of journalism in cases of conflict and crisis. Most journalists try to do their best to produce quality journalism. Since they share the same beliefs as the rest of society, however, in an antagonistic situation they often end up with one-sided coverage that does not live up to these norms. The only way out of this dilemma is to learn to accept facts before they are interpreted. Accordingly, the first rule for journalists who aim to facilitate such a process of social learning is to mistrust the plausible, and the second rule is, to ask the right questions.
In order to accomplish this, journalists need to refrain from the media’s focus on negative news, they need to refrain from a superficial balancing of their reports, and they need to avoid over-simplification. If they succeed, they will find an audience that appreciates their coverage as less biased than conventional war reporting. If news recipients already side with one party or the other, however, they may reject PJ as biased in favor of the opposing party. Nonetheless, in the long-run PJ may contribute to a society’s co-construction of reality in a more beneficial and productive way.