FOR 1381: Political Communication in the Online World

网络媒体的扩散——从在线报纸和搜索引擎到博客和视频门户——在一定程度上以前所未有的速度改变了生活各个领域的交流。这也被认为适用于政治，特别是在选举活动和公众参与方面。围绕“Web 2.0”这个关键词有很多猜测，从一个极端到另一个极端：一端是对救赎的期待，另一端是对厄运的期待。正是在这种背景下，研究小组打算回答这样的问题：政治传播可以在多大程度上因网络媒体而改变，以及这反过来对政治产生了什么影响。回答这个问题的框架是一个模型。该模型的中心是政治传播的变化——参与者群体（公共、政治组织和媒体组织）之间在社会、时间和空间方面以及内容方面的传播关系的结构性变化。一个先决条件是媒介的变化- -由于在公共、半公共和非公共传播中利用互联网的潜力，媒介在社会中的功能得以扩大。政治传播的变化从个人、组织和社会的角度对政治产生相关影响，从而有助于政治变革。研究股设定了三个目标：(1)对政治传播发展的调查应采取经验性、纵向研究的形式，从而形成多方面的总体情况。这意味着不同的分析视角——个人的、组织的和整个社会的——和不同的方法——特别是调查、内容分析和组织分析——需要相互联系。在此过程中，在线传播领域的许多理论方法将被测试并组合成一个由许多模块组成的中等范围理论。(2)本研究单位是政治传播学国际研究领域初级研究人员具有博士学位和国家博士学位资格的地方之一。(3)通过一个以主题为中心的研究人员网络，一种创新的组织形式将在被划分为较小部分的学科（如传播学）中得到检验。研究股包括七个分项目。通过从专业分析的角度分析政治传播变革、媒介变革与政治变革之间的关系，将整体问题转化为更具体的问题。

The diffusion of online media - from online newspapers and search engines to blogs and video portals - has changed communication in every area of life to a degree and at a rate hitherto unknown. This is also believed to apply to politics, especially with respect to election campaigns and public participation. There is plenty of speculation around the keyword "Web 2.0", ranging from one extreme to the other: at the one end an expectation of salvation, at the other end an expectation of doom. It is against this backdrop that the Research Unit intends to answer the question in how far political communication can be proved to change due to online media and what impact this, in turn, has on politics. The framework for answering this question is a model. The centre of the model is the change in political communication - structural changes in the communication relations between the actor groups (public, political organisations and media organisations) with respect to social, temporal and spatial aspects as well as with regards to content. One prerequisite is the media change - the extension of the media repertoire in society as a result of the use of the potentials of the Internet in public, semi-public and non-public communication. The alteration in political communication has a relevant impact on politics from individual, organisational and social perspectives and thus contributes to political change. By the Research Unit, three objectives have been set: (1) The investigation of the development of political communication should take the form of empirical, longitudinal studies, which result in a multi-faceted overall picture. This means that various analytical perspectives - those of individuals, of organisations and of society as a whole - and different methods - in particular surveys, content analysis and organisation analysis - need to be interlinked. In doing so, a number of theoretical approaches in the field of online communication will be tested and combined into one middle range theory made up of many modules. (2) The Research Unit is one of the places where junior researchers are qualified for the international research field of political communication - in the form of doctorates and state doctorates. (3) By means of a thematically focussed network of researchers, an innovative form of organisation will be tested for disciplines that are divided into smaller sections such as communication studies. The Research Unit includes seven sub-projects. Each will turn the overall question into a more specific problem by analysing the relations between the change in political communication, media change and political change from a specialised analytic perspective.