Terror warnings, fake news, spectacles and scandals in real time - the networked world has wound itself up into a nervous frenzy, where everything has become visible: the banal and the terrible, the uninhibited abuse and the anonymous attack. Translated for the first time into English, Digital Fever analyses the patterns of outrage and agitation that have come to define social media and the Internet, exposing their devastating impact on our notions of truth, debate, authority and power. In this endless cycle of outrage, Poerksen argues that the intelligent use of information must become part of the general education provided by schools: the digital society must be transformed into an editorial one. In order for democracy to survive, we must as a society achieve media maturity. A blazing tour of the contemporary landscape of fake-news, echo chambers, disinformation, manipulation, and the turbulence that democracy is undergoing, this book not only analyses this digital economy of outrage, but serves as a guiding light to overcome it.

Journalismus soll mundige Burger informieren und doch sein Publikum unterhalten, soll schonungslos recherchieren und gleichzeitig Profite erwirtschaften. Journalismus soll die Auflage und die Einschaltquote steigern - und trotz vielfaltiger Abhangigkeiten und Zwange stets unabhangig sein, den Idealen der Aufklarung und dem Ethos der Wahrheit verpflichtet. Journalismus lebt von der Distanz - und von der Nahe, von der Zuspitzung und von der Einordnung, von der Schnelligkeit und der Genauigkeit, von der Kreativitat und der Routine. Es sind die Paradoxien, die unvermeidlichen Konflikte und die heimlichen Schizophrenien der Profession, die von fuhrenden Fachleuten aus dem In- und Ausland beschrieben werden. Entstanden ist eine theoretisch herausfordernde, empirisch fundierte und die Praxis reflektierende Analyse jener Widerspruche, die bestimmen, was Journalismus und Journalistik leisten sollen - und was sie tatsachlich leisten koennen.

The reputation of the powerful and the powerless, of enterprises and states, can be destroyed in record time. In order to illustrate these considerations, this book describes recent case-(hi)stories, discussing public figures such as Tiger Woods and Anthony Weiner, the powerful and the helpless that suddenly find themselves in a worldwide pillory.

Constructivism has been traded as a new paradigm by its advocates, and criticised by its opponents as legitimating deceit and lies, as justifying a trendy post-modern "Anything goes." In this book, Bernhard Poerksen draws up a new rationale for constructivist thinking and charts out directions for the imaginative examination of personal certainties and the certainties of others, of ideologies great and small. The focus of the debate is on the author's thesis that our understanding of journalism and, in particular, the education and training of journalists, would profit substantially from constructivist insights. These insights instigate, the claim is, an original kind of scepticism; they provide the underpinnings of a modern type of didactics oriented by the autonomy of learners; and they supply the sustaining arguments for a radical ethic of responsibility in journalism. Bernhard Poerksen, b. 1969, after six years as professor of journalism and communication studies at the University of Hamburg, is now professor of media studies at the University of Tubingen, Germany. He studied German, journalism and biology in Hamburg and the USA (Pennsylvania State University), worked as a trainee with Deutsches Allgemeines Sonntagsblatt, and has been active as a journalist and an author of books for over ten years. His essays and commentaries, reports and interviews, appear in many daily and weekly newspapers. He has also published numerous articles in scholarly journals and books; his books on cybernetics and constructivism (e.g. Understanding Systems, with Heinz von Foerster; From Being to Doing, with Humberto Maturana; The Certainty of Uncertainty. Dialogues introducing constructivism) are available in German, English, Spanish, Danish and Italian versions. In 2008, Bernhard Poerksen was voted 'Professor of the Year' in the category Humanities, Social and Cultural Studies.

Die Autorin untersucht die Texte rechtsextremer Bands und Sanger/-innen. Beim Erstkontakt Jugendlicher mit der rechtsextremen Szene ist die Musik haufig "Einstiegsdroge Nr. 1". Die Liedtexte vermitteln die rechtsextreme Ideologie auf wirkungskraftige Weise; dies kann auf unterschiedlichen sprachlichen Ebenen beschrieben werden. Das Buch zeigt am Beispiel metaphorischer Ausdrucksformen, wie die rechtsextreme Ingroup Abwertungsstrategien gegenuber den von ihnen abgelehnten Outgroups sprachlich vollzieht. Auf Basis von uber 5500 Texten wird deutlich, wie ganze soziale Gruppen von der rechtsextremen Szene als nichtmenschliche Entitaten konzipiert werden. Die spezifischen, fur die Metaphorik genutzten Domanen leisten einen substantiellen Beitrag zur ideologisch motivierten Argumentation der rechtsextremen Sprecher "gegen den Feind".

This book presents the views of the founders of constructivism and modern systems theory, who are still providing stimulating cues for international scientific debate. The conversations turn on the results of brain research, the breaks through of cybernetics, the linguistic determination of thought, and the intrinsic connection between epistemology and ethical practice.