Journal of Social Science Education
(JSSE) 2-2008/1-2009
ISSN 1618-5293:
Making Politics Visible
Guest Editors: Anja Besand, Christoph Bieber
Benjamin Drechsel
Journal of Social Science Education 2-2008, pp. 3-13.
Abstract
Political science in the German-speaking world is only concerned
peripherally with pictures. In the course of the “iconic turn” during
the 1990s visual political communication became an issue of more
weight, but other disciplines like art history still have more
competence when it comes to analysing pictures. Thus, the basic
question remains: How can we achieve a sustainable “iconic turn” in
political science and civic education? The article proposes an answer
in three parts: Its first chapter describes the relationship between
political science, civic education, and visual communication in the
German-speaking world. The effort to map this scattered research
landscape ought to be a contribution to its transnational connectivity.
The second part reflects on the special “power of pictures”. It argues
that pictures probably have specific persuasive power, but nonetheless
are neutral political tools (just like words). Obviously they can be
exploited by liars, but quite as well they can serve as helpful
information resources (e.g. in civic education). Finally, the third
chapter claims that political science should try and learn from
visually more competent disciplines like art history or communication
science. All in all this leads to the final conclusion that political
communication research should turn its attention to pictoriality.
Diana Owen
Journal of Social Science Education 2-2008, pp. 14-24.
Abstract
Election campaigns are regular opportunities for heightened
political engagement and socialization. For many young people, politics
becomes most visible and concrete during electoral contests. However,
campaign media, at least in the United States, typically have not
targeted young voters with messages that enhance their participation
and turnout. In fact, much traditional election media coverage of youth
has emphasized their lack of interest and involvement, and thus works
to discourage the development of activist political orientations. With
the evolution of new types of dynamic and populist media formats, such
as blogs and social/political networking websites, young people have
greater opportunities to establish a presence in election campaigns on
their own terms. This piece will explore how new developments in
campaign media are changing the relationship of young people to the
electoral process.
Patrick Rössler
Journal of Social Science Education 2-2008, pp. 25-34.
Abstract
Youth surveys permanently prove a general disenchantment with
politics and politicians, leading to a decrease in participation and,
as a consequence, a drop in voter turnout. Threatening the foundations
of our democratic society, it is assumed that one way to get out of
this vicious circle can be to enhance motivation and self-efficacy
among young adults. This study looks at the potential of tailored
campaigns that make politics visible for first-time voters, in order to
increase their knowledge about current affairs, interest in political
issues, and, subsequently, the willingness to vote. On occasion of the
elections held for both the State and the European parliament in 2004,
effects of a specially designed campaign were tested in a
quasi-experimental design. 128 students of different high schools and
vocational schools in the German state Thuringia obtained a 90-minute
course unit on the election’s background, including a major part that
required the visualization of politics in a wall newspaper. Results
indicate that a singular intervention is not able to counteract
disenchantment with politics in general, but to raise short-term
intentions to go to the polls.
Renate Müller, Marc Calmbach, Stefanie Rhein
Journal of Social Science Education 2-2008, pp. 35-45.
Abstract
Youth and politics as well as pleasure and politics are often seen
as bad matches. Accordingly, today’s youth is diagnosed as generally
indifferent towards politics. We suggest, that politics in youth
cultures can only be made visible by looking at it from a different
angle: from the perspective of reconcilability between work, politics
and pleasure. This article provides and discusses a theoretical
framework for the analysis of the connections between them in youth
cultural contexts. Increasing medialisation and globalisation make
cultural symbols accessible to almost everyone. This results in a
“devaluation” of style as a marker of distinction and self-positioning.
We argue that this devaluation of style causes a shift of focus onto
ostensibly non-stylistic aspects in youth cultures – i.e. onto
commitment, work or politics. Youth cultures can therefore be viewed as
contexts in which self-professionalisation, self-education and
self-socialisation take place. Even though within the field of youth
culture research, youth-cultural activities are therefore no longer
considered to be merely recreational activities or pastimes, youth
cultural participation still means the pleasure of sharing certain
cultural activities and, beyond this, the pleasure of resistance. We
suggest that understanding the – in some ways unexpected und partly
still unexplored – connections young people establish between work,
politics and pleasure provides insight into new forms of their
political commitment.
Ralf Adelmann
Journal of Social Science Education 2-2008, pp. 46-55.
Abstract
In a famous quote Marx said: “Hegel remarks somewhere that all great
world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He
forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.”
Today
one would like to add, that film, television and computer games alter
the historic event through modern visualizations of the past. Not only
the historic facts and personages appear more than once, but also the
representation of history multiplies itself in visual reconstructions,
re-enactments and simulations in the media. What happens to history and
its epistemology when it becomes an audiovisual experience? What are
the different visual modes of knowledge production in historiography?
Which uses of history become part of popular media culture? These
questions are the starting point for an analysis of current examples of
'histotainment' and theoretical considerations about popular
historiography.
Kathleen Arendt
Journal of Social Science Education 2-2008, pp. 56-73.
Abstract
The role of politics in the life of adolescents is a topic intensely
discussed in different fields of academia – usually claiming a lack of
interest in political issues among youth. State-of-the-art research is
shifting to assessing the role of entertaining media content in this
process reflecting on the changing depictions of the political along
the lines of infotainment and political entertainment. This article
focuses on the latter and discusses the question, how elements of
politics are or could be displayed in entertaining, narrative formats,
and how this could affect knowledge, attitudes and behavior. The line
of argumentation is based on the conceptualization of
Entertainment-Education (EE) as a form of strategic communication. EE
describes the intentional design and implementation of a media message
into entertaining narrative content based on social cognitive theory
and the assumption of vicarious learning by observing role modeled
behavior. The article discusses findings from EE interventions outside
politics and links them to the issue of youth and politics.
Claudia Raabe
Journal of Social Science Education 2-2008, pp. 74-85.
Abstract
The development of individualism, distinction and pluralism has not
simply slipped by the every-day life of children and youth. Today they
are moreover understood as humans, who take an active role in their
social life.
On the threshold from being a child to becoming an adolescent, children
find themselves in a state of radical change, during this process they
look out for possibilities of orientation. Accordingly questions of
orientation are no longer mainly/principally asked within a personal
environment, but increasingly outwards; for example towards the media.
Television is still today the main form of media and presents an
attractive source of orientation from which the youth today summon up
their symbolic materials for their structuring of life. Adults to whom
the children relate most closely and educationalists have their own
opinion of what is important regarding the social orientation of the
children. However which subjects of social orientation interest today’s
youth? This question follows the existing work related to the
background of the living situation. Which programmes are they viewing
and which subjects of social orientation are in their favourites?
Michael Wehner, Sebastian Reinkunz, Isabel Flory
Journal of Social Science Education 2-2008, pp. 86-97.
Abstract
Impudent, disrespectful and packed with slapstick comedy – this is
the most prominent and most controversial cartoon family in TV history:
The Simpsons. Critics complain about the decay of manners and the
offensive humor of the show. There is considerable potential for civic
education in the yellow universe of The Simpsons, however. On the basis
of three Simpsons-episodes this article analyzes the depiction of
elections and electoral races in a media democracy. This analysis aims
at extracting critical positions from the satiric presentation of
debates, media events and political rhetoric and connecting them to
real campaigns in Germany and the USA. The examples are supposed to
illustrate that The Simpsons do provide critical access to
understanding campaigns in media societies – despite all satiric
exaggeration of real events. Furthermore, the article shows that the
series does not only comment critically on almost any event of social
relevance, but also, more importantly, how we can make these comments
work in civic education.
Flooh Perlot
Journal of Social Science Education 2-2008, pp. 98-111.
Abstract
Web 2.0 is one of the later innovations in Internet-related
developments. The term expresses less a new piece of technology but
more new ways of using the Net; weblogs and social networks like
myspace are among the most prominent examples of Web 2.0. Its
catchphrase may be: you control your own data.
Web 2.0 gimmicks bear new possibilities for young people, which are
the heaviest users of the Internet, not only to get political
information, but also to show and share their views and opinions. It
also gives politicians a way of presenting themselves without any
interference. In both ways it can contribute to a process of making
politics visible.
Besides assessing some data about political Internet usage the
article tries to show some opportunities as well as problems related to
making politics visible in Web 2.0.
Peter Rauch
Journal of Social Science Education 2-2008, pp. 112-118.
Abstract
The 1999 rampage at Columbine High School, and the high-profile school
shootings that preceded it, dramatically heightened pre-existing
cultural anxieties about the consumption of violent media in childhood.
In particular, videogames received unprecedented public scrutiny, and
even now the spectre of Columbine continues to hang over any discussion
of violent videogames. When Rockstar Games, developer of the
ultraviolent
Grand Theft Auto series, announced
Bully,
a similarly styled game that would take place in a school, controversy
predictably ensued. Rockstar made no effort to dispel this controversy,
and might have actually encouraged it, but the game itself bears little
relation to an archetypal school shooting. As a text,
Bully
represents a much different narrative of adolescence, one that
questions the morality of adult institutions and problematizes the very
idea of “growing up.” This essay compares and contrasts
Bully
with other narratives of youth violence, ranging from the popularly
accepted telling of the Columbine shootings to William Golding’s
Lord of the Flies.
Nina Mahrt
Journal of Social Science Education 2-2008, pp. 119-131.
Abstract
This article examines juvenile comics that deal with politics as a main
topic. These comics introduce and develop politicised themes and topics
in varying ways and their individual approaches to politics will be
discussed and analysed. The first example, the German
Micky Maus-Magazin
series, occasionally uses political matters to create new comical
stories. In the issues discussed here, democratic processes in the
fictional city of Duckburg are described. The second example,
Andi,
published by the Interior Ministry of the State of North
Rhine-Westphalia, aims at civic education. This comic explores the very
real issues of rightwing extremism and rightwing propaganda within a
fictional framework. The third example,
Persepolis
treats political issues in a serious, but not primarily
pedagogical, way. It offers a personal viewpoint on the Iranian
revolution in 1979. By reflecting on Iranian society, the Iranian
author puts forward new perspectives on the country which are quite
opposite to those that are typically represented in Western countries’
daily news.
All three comics provide varying degrees of understanding on politics
and political processes. Since each example combines elements of
entertainment with political information, they will be analysed within
the theoretical framework of what Dörner defines as
politainment.
