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Where do parties talk about what? Party issue salience across communication channels
Get PDFPolitical parties address the public through multiple communication channels simultaneously, but this is not reflected in contemporary research. It is largely unclear how party competition plays out across different communication channels and whether issue salience strategies depend on the channel used. In order to answer this question, this article trains a state-of-the-art language model (BERT) on labelled manifestos and applies it for cross-domain topic classification of press releases, parliamentary speeches and tweets from parties and individual party members in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. The results show that certain channel characteristics influence parties' issue salience. The extent to which a party addresses its issue preferences (ideal agenda) is moderated by the degree of centralised communication (party vs. individuals) and the presence or absence of a pre-given agenda, whereas a channel's primary audience (direct vs. mediated channel) plays a much smaller role than expected. These findings illustrate the complexity of party competition in contemporary multi-channel and hybrid media environments
Let's talk populist? A survey experiment on effects of (non‐) populist discourse on vote choice
Get PDFPopulism research has found much scholarly and public attention alike in recent years. Most research has focused on how populism can be defined, assessed or even measured. Even though there are emerging studies on populist messages, few of them have paid attention on causally identifying ways in which discourse can affect support for populist actors. This article positions itself within this gap and aims to answer which discursive elements make (non‐)populist messages appealing to varying groups of people. To answer this research question, I conducted a novel survey experiment on vote choice in Germany from December 2020 to January 2021 with N = 3325. Respondents were asked to choose between two candidate statements that displayed varying discursive elements. Thus, the experiment causally tested whether people‐centric rhetoric, blame attributive languages or populist style focusing on language complexity drive the populist vote. Results show that a neutral form of blame attribution, namely towards politicians, had the highest probability of driving vote choice, irrespective of respondents' underlying ideological preferences or populist attitudes. Simple language nearly always has a negative effect on vote choice, whereas people‐centrism adds a positive touch. These results show that there may be an increasing dissatisfaction with democracy that is voiced by blaming political elites for the malfunctioning of society
Factors associated with mild cognitive impairment and dementia amongst the oldest old: findings based on the nationally representative "Old age in Germany (D80+)" study
Get PDFParticularly among the oldest old, there is restricted knowledge regarding the factors associated with mild cognitive impairment and dementia using data from large, nationally representative samples. Thus, our aim was to address this knowledge gap. Methods: We used data from the nationally representative "Old Age in Germany (D80+)" study covering community-dwelling and institutionalized individuals in the entire country (n = 2,555). Mean age was 85.5 years (SD: 4.2), ranging from 80 to 100 years (61.7% of the participants were female). The DemTect was used to measure cognitive impairment in terms of probable mild cognitive impairment and probable dementia. Sociodemographic, lifestyle-related, psychosocial and health-related independent variables were included in the multinomial regression analysis. Results: In the analytic sample, 57.8% of the individuals did not have cognitive impairment, 24.2% of the individuals had mild cognitive impairment and 18.0% had probable dementia. Regression analysis identified some sociodemographic (e.g., advanced age, being male, lower education), lifestyle-related (lower cognitive activities), psychosocial (higher loneliness and absence of meaning in life), as well as health-related (e.g., functional impairment) factors associated with probable MCI and probable dementia. Loneliness was only associated with these outcomes among women, but not men. Discussions: Based on large, nationally representative data, this study revealed several factors associated with probable MCI and dementia - which enhances our current understanding mainly based on small or selective samples. Conclusions: Such knowledge may help to address those at risk for cognitive impairment. Longitudinal studies are required to gain further insights
Minority government in Japan: limited scope for foreign policy initiatives
Get PDFIshiba Shigeru became prime minister of Japan in October 2024, after unexpectedly winning the leadership of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). His long-desired success came with a bitter aftertaste, however. After a poor showing for the LDP in the lower house elections at the end of October 2024, Ishiba now heads a minority government. His party is mired in crisis over the largest political funding scandal in decades, while upper house elections are scheduled for the summer of 2025. Domestic politics will undoubtedly demand Ishiba's attention in the coming months - at a time when the country faces tremendous foreign and security challenges. (author's abstract
Virtues in Political Practice: Insights From an Interview Study With Swedish Parliamentarians
Get PDFWhich virtues, and why these, are most important for politicians? While philosophical discussions on virtues in politics are extensive, empirical investigations into the virtues politicians themselves value remain limited. This article addresses this gap through in-depth interviews with 74 Swedish parliamentarians. Analyzing these interviews using a structured multi-level coding approach, I make three main claims. First, the cardinal virtue in the Swedish parliament is the ability to separate ideas from those who hold them; this principle is seen as vital for fostering political trust within parliament and with the public. Second, virtue pluralism is essential within parliamentary and party groups as the virtues politicians prioritize depend on the broader virtue composition of their group. Third, virtues can be categorized into five key themes - entrepreneurial, social, integrity, wisdom, and craftsman - reflecting the multifaceted nature of parliamentary representative roles and responsibilities. Collectively, these findings underscore the interdependent nature of virtues in political practice, where the value of specific virtues is shaped by group dynamics and the presence or absence of the cardinal virtue. This study provides novel empirical insights into how national political leaders perceive and value virtues in politics, contributing to the literature on political ethics, representation, and leadership
Detecting Covid-19 Fake News on Twitter/X in French: Deceptive Writing Strategies
Get PDFMany who believed Covid-19 fake news eschewed vaccines, masks, and social distancing; got unnecessarily infected; and died. To detect such fake news, we follow deceptive writing theory and link French hedges and modals to validity. As hedges indicate uncertainty, fake news writers can use it to include falsehoods while shifting responsibility to the audience. Whereas devoir (must) emphasizes certainty and truth, falloir (should, need) implies truth but emphasizes external factors, allowing writers to shirk responsibility. Pouvoir (can) indicates possibility, making it less tied to truth or falsehood. We tested this model with 50,000 French tweets about Covid-19 during March-August 2020 via mixed response analysis. Tweets with hedges or the modal falloir were more likely than others to be false, those with devoir were more likely to be true, and those with pouvoir showed no clear link to truth. Tweets of users with verification, more followers, or fewer status updates were more likely to be true. These results extend deceptive writing theory and inform fake news detection algorithms and media literacy instruction
Intergeschlechtlichkeit in pädagogischen Kontexten: Biografische Erfahrungen in Familie und Schulzeit
Get PDFIn pädagogischen Kontexten lässt sich eine Entkonzeptualisierung des Themas Intergeschlechtlichkeit feststellen, die hegemoniale Zweigeschlechterdiskurse stabilisiert und zu pathologischen Selbst- und Fremdpositionierungen intergeschlechtlicher Menschen führt. Die in der Studie erhobenen biografischen Erzählungen intergeschlechtlicher Menschen verweisen auf vielfältige Normalisierungs- und Tabuisierungspraktiken in Familie und Schulzeit. Mart Enzendorfer rekonstruiert diese als Silencing-Strategien. Pädagogische Kontexte können aber auch als zentrale Subjektivierungs- und Bildungsräume fungieren, in denen eine inter*inklusive Konzeptualisierung Potentiale für alle geschlechtlichen Subjekte eröffnet
Spracherleben und Identität: Selbstverortung, Zugehörigkeit und Handlungsmacht junger mehrsprachiger Erwachsener im Schweizer Kanton Graubünden
Get PDFDie Sprachenvielfalt des Schweizer Kantons Graubünden zeigt sich nicht nur in den drei angestammten Sprachen Italienisch, Rätoromanisch und Deutsch. Sabrina Sala beleuchtet erstmals die komplexe Mehrsprachigkeit der Region vor dem Hintergrund zahlreicher Dialekte und Migrationssprachen. Sie konzentriert sich vor allem auf das Spracherleben mehrsprachiger junger Erwachsener aus dem italienischsprachigen Teil Graubündens und zeigt auf, wie Sprache Identitäten formt sowie widersprüchliche und wandelbare Mehrfachzugehörigkeiten hervorbringt. Das vielfältige Wechselspiel zwischen Sprache(n), Bildungsverläufen und Identitätskonstruktionen eröffnet so neue Einsichten in die sprachlich-kulturelle Realität junger Menschen aus Graubünden