Streaming for Talents: The Impact of Mass Media on Professional Images

European Union’s economics face significant skill shortages in professional fields essential for their societies’ security and welfare. This especially accounts for the sectors law enforcement and health care. Reasons for shortages of skilled labor are multifaceted. Next to the retirement of older generations from the workforce, factors reach from an unattractive perception of the professional field over stereotypes to the unawareness about the existence of professions and positions. When tackling skill shortages, it is crucial to understand that occupational images play a key role in attracting new generations to careers in law enforcement and health care. One main source of such occupational images are mass media. Against this backdrop, the joint research project investigates how fictional and non-fictional media exposure influences the occupational images of police officers and nurses in Denmark and Germany.

Danish Project Presentation

• Updates

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  Completion of the first survey wave

  On September 13, we collected the last quantitative data for our first panel wave with our project partner, the Police Academy of Lower Saxony in Germany. Over the past year, we have collected data from 477 Danish and 914 German future police officers. The collected data provides a solid foundation for our longitudinal study and will allow us to look for initial impact indicators of media use on the professional image of police officers.
   

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  Presentation of First Results at the Danish Police

  After a first year of joint research, we met with the Danish and Lower Saxony police forces on May 29 for a work exchange at the Danish Police Academy in Brøndby.

  The day began with the presentation of the first preliminary results by Jochen Kinast and Johannes Riis. The quantitative part of the data shows first indicators of effects of entertainment media and social media on the image of the police in Denmark. Qualitative data furthermore points to the importance of specific media role models.

  Katja Driesel-Lange then introduced the current state of research on the career orientation of young adults. In her presentation, she focused on those factors that have a significant impact on career choices.

  After an informal lunch, the Danish police presented their research findings on the next generation of potential police officers. This was followed by a discussion on how best to approach these new potential recruits. The two social media managers from the Danish police then presented their strategies for reaching the new target group and making more young people aware of career opportunities in the police.

  Finally, Lower Saxony State Police outlined their new project “Generation Zukunft Polizei”, which also focuses on getting more young people interested in a career in the police force. Here the social media manager of the project also presented their current TikTok and Instagram campaigns.

   

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  Presentation of preliminary findings at Københavns Projessionshøjskolen

  On May 28, we presented first preliminary results to our project partner Københavns Professionshøjskolen (KP) on Campus Tagnsvej. The reported findings represent our first year of research on the impact of mass media on the professional image of nurses in Denmark. Present at the well-attended meeting were among others the scientific and educational heads of KP’s health care faculty. Principal investigator Jochen Kinast and Johannes Riis gave an initial overview of the media usage of over 760 nursing students of the first panel wave. Moreover, first indicators of media effects were presented. Thereafter, Katja Driesel-Lange provided crucial knowledge on fostering the career development of young adults. The meeting concluded with an extended discussion on the portrayal of nursing staff on Danish and international media. The second panel wave will be surveyed an autumn of 2024.

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  Think Tank Kick-Off at the Police Academy Lower Saxony

  The kick-off meeting of the think tank of our partner project Generation Future Police of the Lower Saxony Police Academy took place on March 21. The project is primarily concerned with the questions of how the attractiveness of the Lower Saxony State Police Force can be increased and how declining application figures can be counteracted. Among other aspects, the project is particularly looking at the potential of social media in employer branding and recruitment. Next to Chief Inspector Matthias Schwarze and Chief Superintendent Kristin Peter, Jochen Kinast was invited to give a presentation. The input gave a brief overview of the current status of media effects research in the police sector in Germany and Denmark. Moreover, first descriptive results from our current survey at the Lower Saxony Police Force were presented. In the afternoon, various workshops were offered on the topics of advertisement, recruitment procedures, police education and initial deployment.

  Link to partner project : https://www.pa.polizei-nds.de/startseite/wir_uber_uns/organisation/generation_zukunft_polizei/
   

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  Stillingsannonce

  Forskningsprojekt Streaming for Talents analyserer mediernes indflydelse på politi- og sygeplejerskestuderendes opfattelse af deres fag. Projektet er dansk-tysk og søger en studentermedhjælper til indsamling, kvalitetssikring af transskriptioner, kodning og analyse af kvalitative data i form af interviews. Ansættelsen er i første omgang på seks måneder (med mulighed for forlængelse i tilfælde af merbevilling), en fleksibel arbejdstid på 24 timer i måneden med start i juni.

  Hvad vi forventer:

  - Erfaring med at indsamle og kode kvalitative data i form af interviews

  - Akademisk indsigt i mediegenrer- og unges brug af medier

  - Modersmålsniveau i dansk

  - Kendskab til eller interesse for IT-værktøjer som MAXQDA

   

  Hvad vi tilbyder:

  - At få erfaring med at arbejde i et internationalt og tværfagligt forskningsmiljø

  - at få indsigt i, hvordan mediefremstillinger påvirker vores opfattelse af en profession på tværs af landekulturer

  - vederlag efter en tysk honoraraftale

  - fleksible og selvstændige rammer for arbejdet

  - mulighed for ophold på universitetet i Münster i Tyskland (hvis det ønskes)

  Sådan ansøger du:

  En motiveret ansøgning (cirka en halv side) på engelsk

  Curriculum vitae på engelsk

  Sendes som en samlet PDF-fil til streamingfortalents@uni-muenster.de

  Ansøgningsfrist: 20. maj 2024

• Research Institutions

  

   

  University of Münster: Faculty of Education and Social Sciences
   

  

  University of Copenhagen: Department of Communication

• Research Partners

  

  Danish Police: Politi

  

  Polizeiakademie Niedersachsen

  

  Københavns Professionshøjskole: Institut for Sygeplejerske- og Ernæringsuddannelser

  

  UKM: Bildungsinstitut für Pflege und Gesundheit

• Publications

  Kinast, Jochen; Gehrau, Volker; Driesel-Lange, Katja. 2023. ‘Police Careers in Series and Reality: The Influence of Police Series on Career Expectations of Law Enforcement Students.’ Polizei und Wissenschaft 2023, Nr. 2: 2–16.

  Jochen Kinast. 2023. ‘Legal series and legal careers: Investigating relationships between watching the legal drama Suits and law school enrollment.’ Studies in Communication and Media 12, Nr. 2/3: 183–205. doi: https://doi.org/10.5771/2192-4007-2023-2-3-183.

• Talks

  Kinast, Jochen; Riis, Johannes (2024): ‘The Impact of Media on the Occupational Image of the Police in Denmark’. Career Lead 2024: European Scientific Network on Career Guidance (Adam Mickiewicz University), Adam Mickiewicz University, 27.6.2024.

  Kinast, Jochen (2024): ‘The Impact of Mass Media in Times of Skill Shortage Crises’. SMiD 2024 “Media (and) sustainability: Crises, paradoxes, and potentials” (Sammenslutningen af medie- og kommunikationsforskere i Danmark), Aalborg Universitetet, 2.5.2024.

  Kinast, J., Riis J. & Driesel-Lange, K. Streaming for Talents: The Effects of Mass Media on Occupational Images [Conference Presentation]. WIN.BO Jahrestagung 2023, Bremen, Germany.

• Project Principal

  Dr. Jochen Kinast

• Funding

  University of Münster: Graduate School Living.Diversity

• Duration

  May 2023 – July 2027