Christian Wengert receives MedienAlumni Münster e.V. prize for the best master’s thesis in 2017

(23.07.2018) In his master’s thesis, Christian Wengert investigates the question of explanatory factors for the willingness to express opinions on controversial political topics on public situations – and answers it a more comprehensive and differentiated manner than many previous studies, explains the jury.

In a pointed examination of theory and empirical findings of the “Spiral of Silence” and other explanatory factors discussed in the literature, the author initially concludes that especially positive use-incentives (Nutzenanreize) have a stronger impact on willingness to publicly express one’s opinion than anticipated negative sanctions.

Before Wengert’s work, there was no theoretical model, that systematically took into consideration the situative effects of expected negative sanctions. In his model, the willingness to publicly express one’s opinion depending on societal (e.g. climate of opinion), situative (incentives, possible sanctions) and actor-related influences (predispositions).

He then empirically operationalized the influencing factors developed in the model, in a quantitative online-survey. Using the topic “video surveillance on public spaces” an example, Wengert can show that e.g. that i.a open expression of opinion is rather influences by positive gratification expectations (Gratifikationserwartungen) such as e.g. the prospect of an increased self-worth or an entertaining conversation, while the avoidance of public expression of opinion is rather influenced by negative expected sanctions but also by insufficient use-incentives. Moreover, Analysis shows that the general willingness to speak in public situations is strongly depending on how certain the respondents feel about their own opinion (Meinungssicherheit).

The MedienAlumni Münster e.V. jury consists of scientists and communication professionals: Dr. Joachim Preusse, Marie-Luise Stepping, Carlo Teichmann and Anna-Maria Volpers.
Christian Wengert received the MedienAlumni Münster e.V. prize of 500€ during the graduation IfK ceremony on July 20th, 2018.

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