Framing Femicide

Femicides are topics frequently covered by the media, and journalists use different frames when reporting on such lethal acts of violence against women. This chapter addresses the media coverage and framing in German online press articles of two femicides with victims of Romanian ethnicity. The research presented used as methodology thematic content analysis, along with media framing analysis. In the chapter, the results of this study are discussed, that is, the characteristics of media coverage and content related to the killings of the two Romanian women in the German press are analysed, the main frames used by the media in their reporting on the femicides are pointed out, and the extent to which journalists use in their narratives techniques of blaming the victims is examined. Moreover, the chapter investigates whether the media report the crimes against women as singular facts or address them in the broader context of social problems, and contribute, in this way, to the increase of public awareness and social responsibility towards them.

No Common Ground: A Spatial-Relational Analysis of EU-China Relations

It is no secret that EU member states cannot come to terms on a unified China-policy. Most studies on EU-China relations come to the conclusion that disagreement exists and that this fragmentation is utilized by Chinese foreign policy in a kind of divide and rule strategy. However, the question as to why the EU members disagree has not been answered satisfactorily. This paper investigates the reasons for this discord from the perspective of the core-periphery theory. We illustrate how the spatial position of nations within Europe–in a geographical and political sense–shapes their outlook on China. As a case study to illustrate the differences in the outlook on China of among EU member countries, we analyse the discourses on Chinese COVID-19 vaccines in the Hungarian and German press from April 2020 until summer 2021. We argue that these differences have their grounds in the spatial-relational positioning at either the core or the semi-periphery of the EU. Based on our findings we suggest that a sustainable EU China-policy has first to address these differences in foreign policy outlook and then find a common ground.

ANALYSIS OF THE CONTEXTUAL FACTORS OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF CHINA'S NATIONAL IMAGE IN THE GERMAN MAINSTREAM MEDIA DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

National image is a clear information perception of a country in the international community, reecting a country's international inuence and comprehensive national power. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the dramatic changes in the international order and landscape. As a result, there is a widespread perception in the West that the current international order has not only encountered serious challenges from emerging powers but has also led to confusion in the perception of globalisation within the West. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the breadth and depth of attention paid to "China" in the German mainstream media have continued to rise. This study will further investigate how the image of China is constructed in cross-cultural media communication, based on the national image of China in German mainstream media coverage of China during the COVID-19 Pandemic and ideological analysis of the discursive contexts in which it is produced. This paper is basically structured as a review of the traditions and rules of the German press, an analysis of the operational characteristics of the German press industry under the COVID-19 pandemic, the social impact of German media coverage on China, and an analysis of this news production mechanism, followed by an analysis of the game between the Chinese and Western value systems and discourse power displayed by the German media during the COVID-19 pandemic, an analysis of the value orientation of the German media towards the construction of China's national image. This is followed by an academic exploration of the background and public opinion effects of the " China Phobia ". This paper also examines the changes in the social structure of Germany as a result of the pandemic, Sino-German and Sino-European relations in the context of the Sino-American conict, and the evolution of a sense of "sovereign Europe" and the current international order.

Necessity, Norm and Missing Knowledge

This study examines modal verbs in German press coverage of COVID-19 during the first phase of the pandemic. The data basis is an 18-million-word corpus of newspaper articles. For analysis, a sample is drawn from the total number of modal verbs in the corpus and these are categorised according to their discourse function. The corresponding annotated data are analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. For this purpose, the study draws back to Kratzer’s concept of conversational backgrounds. It turns out that in addition to normative speech backgrounds, goal formulations can be found above all. Normative backgrounds are evoked, on the one hand, to address official rules and their effects and, on the other hand in appeals and demands, to refer to social norms that are assumed as common ground. The fact that teleological backgrounds play a relatively large role indicates that the normalisation perspective is of great importance as a regulative in the crisis discourse. More positive than negative determining factors are indicated and uncertainty markings occur comparatively rarely. This points to successful crisis communication in this discourse phase.

What is terrorism (according to the news)? How the German press selectively labels political violence as “terrorism”

Baghdad, Christchurch or Paris: Over the last years, many cities were the location of extremist attacks – but only some incidents were covered as “terrorism”. Journalists selectively attach the label to particular acts of political violence. This study analyses how characteristics of attacks and their perpetrators influence whether news media portray incidents as terrorism. Based on attacks between 2012 and 2018 ( N = 86,668) and their coverage in the German press ( N = 5411), the study finds that highly lethal incidents in Western countries are more likely to be called terrorism. Moreover, news more often portrays violence by Islamist extremists as terrorism than attacks by right- or left-wing extremists. Small or inconsistent effects emerge when comparing violence by lone actors to those by groups and domestic to international terrorism. The study illustrates that news is highly selective in which acts of political violence are presented as terrorism, which may foster stereotypes and prevent policy responses towards different forms of extremism.