Parapsychology and Frontier Areas of Psychology in the Printed Media: A Comparative Diachronical Analysis
Our project investigated, whether press reports on parapsychology and frontier areas of psychology have changed substantially in recent decades. We suspected, that a structural analysis would show that the mentality towards and the meaning ascribed to those areas has changed. This issue was investigated by using selected newspapers and magazines (BILD, BILD am Sonntag, and DER SPIEGEL).
There were 1698 records in all concerning articles from the magazine DER SPIEGEL appearing in the time period from 1947 to 1999. Another 723 records contained information about articles from the newspaper BILD from 7 collected annual sets (1952, 1960, 1968, 1974, 1982, 1990 and 1998). 213 records came from articles of the weekly magazine BILD am Sonntag, which were part of a total of 43 serials on parapsychology and frontier areas of psychology. On the basis of other studies on press reports and frontier areas of psychology a category system was made. This category system was optimized a step at a time because of unforeseeable new demands during data input resulting from the wide variety of the collected data. The articles were filed in a chronolical order and recorded in a data base (ACCESS). The aim was strong differentiation in the categories affording the possibility of investigating the data under different points of views and to use the data base for other investigations after the termination of this project. In addition to the surface structure (title, author, dates of publication, size, illustration, thematic categories, journalistic style) elements of the deep structure were recorded. Such elements were the evaluation of the reported contents (attitude of the author), the functions of the reported contents (entertainement, information etc.), and the personalisation. The data of the surface structure were largely "hard" facts. They were recorded by the scientific assistant Ute Scherer. For the analysis of the deep structure we performed some ratings, which necessitated the reading of the whole texts and required a good knowledge of the relevant thematic areas. In order to achieve standardization and interrater reliability, 30 records were rated by Ute Scherer and myself separately. After comparison and discussion 30 more records were rated separately. Once, the interrater reliability was satisfactory, the ratings of the other records were done by myself. For all of the three investigated print media diachronic changes in press reports on parapsychology and frontier areas of psychology could be proved.
There were, however, strong differences in the diachronic development of particular categories (e.g. ufos, astrology, psi, alternative healing methods etc.). The press reports in BILD and BILD am Sonntag were different from those of DER SPIEGEL. In the former one finds some certain arbitrariness of attitude about the reported contents and, as well, the aspect of sensation is given priority. Regarding DER SPIEGEL, we found a critical and rationalistic attitude remained unchanged almost without exception through the whole investigated time period. This attitude seeks to prevent the reader from a differentiated examination of issues on parapsychology and frontier areas of psychology by often adopting bias along with simplifyied models of explanation from the "sceptics", and by ignoring or depreciating alternative interpretations. The three data bases, which resulted from the project, are provided in the intranet for use of the IGPP-staff. Some "instructions for use" and commentary on the categorization were attached.
Project Leader: Prof. Dr. Johannes Mischo
Staff Member: Dr. Gerhard Mayer
Publications:
Mayer, Gerhard (2004). Phantome – Wunder – Sensationen. Das Übernatürliche als Thema der Presseberichterstattung. Sandhausen: Gesellschaft für Anomalistik. [Phantoms - Miracles - Sensations. The supernatural as a topic in the printed media]
Mayer, Gerhard (2003). Über Grenzen schreiben. Presseberichterstattung zu Themen aus dem Bereich der Anomalistik und der Grenzgebiete der Psychologie in den Printmedien Spiegel, Bild und Bild am Sonntag. In: Zeitschrift für Anomalistik 3(1), S. 8-46. [Writing about frontiers: Press coverage on issues of anomalistics and the frontier areas of psychology]
Mayer, Gerhard (2003). Grenzgebiete im Blick. Berichterstattung zu Themen aus dem Bereich der Anomalistik in SPIEGEL und BILD. Skeptiker, 16(3), 84-97. [Frontier areas focussed: Press coverage on issues of anomalistics in the German printmedia SPIEGEL and BILD]
