Tijdschrift voor Communicatiewetenschap - Volume 41, Issue 1, 2013

Dit nummer van het Tijdschrift voor Communicatiewetenschap bevat vijf artikelen. Twee artikelen zijn geschreven door auteurs uit Vlaanderen en drie artikelen zijn van de hand van Nederlandse auteurs. De gebruikte onderzoeksmethoden variëren van surveys, inhoudsanalyse en meta-analyse tot critical discours analysis.Het eerste artikel is geschreven door Denis Wegge, Heidi Vandebosch en Steven Eggermont en de gepresenteerde studie relateert offline sociale relaties op school aan cyberpesten bij jongeren. Zowel de invloed van de sociale positie op slachtofferschap, als de verhouding tussen slachtoffers en daders worden bestudeerd. Hiervoor is een survey uitgevoerd onder 12-tot 13-jarigen van een volledig eerste jaar van een secundaire school. Uit de sociale netwerkanalyse blijkt dat zowel positieve als negatieve onderlinge relaties in een schoolcontext een impact hebben op online pesten.Noortje Slot, Esther Rozendaal, Eva van Reijmersdal en Moniek Buijzen hebben onderzocht of kinderen (9-12 jaar) het doel van reclame in online sociale netwerken (Habbo) begrijpen en in welke mate zij gevoelig zijn voor de mening van leeftijdsgenoten met betrekking tot merknamen die in deze netwerken ingebed worden. Zij presenteren dit onderzoek in het tweede artikel in dit nummer en zij beschrijven hoe deze variabelen het verlangen naar de geadverteerde merken in online sociale netwerken beïnvloeden.In het derde artikel stellen Lien De Cang en Katia Segers de vraag centraal hoe de Belgische radio-omroep N.I.R. in het pretelevisionele tijdperk (1930-1953) op bestuurs- en directieniveau reflecteerde en invulling gaf aan zijn centrale missie tot publieke dienstverlening. Hiervoor hebben zij een kwalitatieve inhoudsanalyse van beleidsdocumenten en geschriften van directieleden uitgevoerd. Met het onderzoek tonen zij een paternalistische visie omtrent PSB (public service broadcasting) alsmede verdeelde opvattingen over het publiek en over hoe het publiek bediend moet worden.Inge Verdonschot en Johannes von Engelhardt analyseren de representatie van de watersnoodramp in Pakistan (2010) op de Nederlandse televisie. Zij baseren zich op het theoretische en methodische kader van Chouliaraki (2006) voor hun ‘critical discourse analysis’ naar de representatie van deze watersnoodramp. De analyse laat zien hoe het nos Journaal binnen het spanningsveld tussen communitarianisme en kosmopolitisme betekenis geeft aan de ramp, waarbij de hiërarchische oppositie van het Westen tegenover de Pakistaanse Ander duidelijk intact blijft.Tot slot presenteren Piet Bakker en Peter Vasterman in het vijfde artikel de resultaten van hun meta-analyse van de communicatiewetenschappelijke studies die in de periode 2006-2011 zijn verschenen over Geert Wilders. Zij beschrijven welke methoden en theorieën dominant zijn binnen dit onderzoek, en welke media en welke aspecten van de relatie tussen Wilders en de media aan bod komen. Daarnaast wordt gekeken of er conclusies te trekken zijn over ‘Wilders en de media’ na bestudering van deze grote hoeveelheid onderzoek.

Offline networks, online bullying: a social network analysis of cyberbullying in a school context

Young adolescents increasingly bully each other in ‘cyberspace’, which has raised a significant amount of academic attention. The present study contributes to this body of research by linking cyberbullying to young people’s offline social relationships. It considers the influence of social position on victimization, and the interactions between online victims and perpetrators. For this purpose an entire grade of 174 pupils, age 12 and 13, was surveyed. The pupil’s social networks were analyzed to predict who is being victimized and by whom adolescents are cyberbullied. Results indicate that victims of cyberbullying have fewer mutual friends at school, regardless of traditional bullying involvement. In contrast, their number of mutual ‘best friends’ does not significantly differ. Furthermore, cyberbullying proves to be a true extension of offline bullying; victims are being bullied by the same perpetrators offline and online, which is particularly problematic. In sum, offline relationships and interactions do influence online bullying.

Advertising in online social communities for children: persuasion knowledge and susceptibility to peer influence

This study explored children’s level of persuasion knowledge and peer influence susceptibility concerning advertising in online social communities and investigated how these variables affect children’s desire for brands advertised in these communities. A descriptive correlational study was conducted with 148 Dutch children (ages 9-12) to explore their responses to the popular online social community Habbo. Results showed that (1) children have a fairly good knowledge of advertising in online social communities, yet hold relatively positive attitudes towards it, and (2) claim to be not very susceptible to peer influence regarding brands, and (3) the most important predictors of children’s desire for advertised brands in online social communities are a low critical attitude and high susceptibility to peer influence regarding brands advertised in the community. The theoretical contribution of the study and implications for the development of appropriate advertising-related policies and interventions are discussed.

How to serve the audience? The Belgian National Radio Institute (N.I.R.) in search of putting into practice the public service remit through its music and audience policy before the era of television (1930-1953).

This article questions in what way the Belgian radio-broadcaster was searching how to put into practice the central public service remit through its music and audience policy from the start of the institute in 1930 till the launch of television in 1953. Departing from a theoretical reflection on the concept of Public Service Broadcasting, this article presents the results of a qualitative content analysis of policy documents (minutes, annual reports) as well as writings of key members of the N.I.R.-staff. It reveals a shared paternalistic vision on the public service remit as well as oppositional views upon the audience and how to serve it.

Representations of suffering between adventure news and agency news.A critical discourse analysis on the representation of the 2010 Pakistan floods on Dutch television.

In July 2010, unprecedented floods hit Pakistan, leaving millions of people homeless and affecting the lives of over 18 million people. Based in the literature on media representations of non-Western disaster, this study investigates how Dutch news media covered this particular instance of distant suffering. A critical discourse analysis was conducted, exploring the ways in which the event was presented and explained to Dutch audiences during the first month of the crisis in the NOS Journaal and the telethon ‘Actie Pakistan’. Building on Chouliaraki’s analytical model (2006), the study shows how specific modes of representation might have served to disallow or facilitate moral engagement of the spectator. Analysis also reveals how Dutch media gradually moved from reporting on the crisis as ‘adventure’, towards humanitarian ‘emergency’. Simultaneously, by playing in on the Otherness of the Pakistani people, asymmetrical dichotomies between the passive distant victim and the Western spectator are upheld.

Wilders and the role of the media

Between 2006 and 2011 more than forty empirical studies were published about the Dutch populist Geert Wilders and the role of the media. This article examines which methods and theories are dominant in these studies, and which media and which aspects of the relationship between Wilders and the media coverage are the topics of these researches. We also ask what kind of conclusions can be drawn from this large amount of research. At first glance, journalism studies academics use a variety of methods and theories but further analysis shows skewedness within this variety with content analysis of print media forming the bulk of the research. There is also a preference for framing research. The media attention for Wilders shows a wave-pattern, with a strong focus on deliberately created incidents. Media, however, seem to be unable to ignore these events.