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TRANSFORMING COMMUNICATIONS – STUDIES IN CROSS-MEDIA RESEARCH

editors
Caja Thimm
Mario Anastasiadis
Jessica Einspänner-Pflock

MEDIA
LOGIC(S)
REVISITED
Modelling the
Interplay between
Media Institutions,
Media Technology
and Societal Change
Transforming Communications – Studies
in Cross-Media Research

Series Editors
Uwe Hasebrink
Hans Bredow Institute for Media Research
University of Hamburg
Germany

Andreas Hepp
ZeMKI, University of Bremen
Germany
We live in times that are characterised by a multiplicity of media:
Traditional media like television, radio and newspapers remain
­important, but have all undergone fundamental change in the wake of
digitalization.
New media have been emerging with an increasing speed: Internet
platforms, mobile media and the many different software-based com-
munication media we are recently confronted with as ‘apps’. This pro-
cess is experiencing yet another boost from the ongoing and increasingly
fast sequence of technological media innovations. In our modern social
world, communication processes take place across a variety of media.
As a consequence, we can no longer explain the influences of media by
focusing on any one single medium, its content and possible effects. In
order to explain how media changes are related to transformations in
culture and society we have to take into account the cross-media charac-
ter of communications.
In view of this, the book series ‘Transforming Communications’
is dedicated to cross-media communication research. It aims to sup-
port all kinds of research that are interested in processes of communica-
tion taking place across different kinds of media and that subsequently
make media’s transformative potential accessible. With this profile, the
series addresses a wide range of different areas of study: media produc-
tion, representation and appropriation as well as media technologies
and their use, all from a current as well as a a historical perspective. The
series ‘Transforming Communications’ lends itself to different kinds
of publication within a wide range of theoretical and methodological
backgrounds. The idea is to stimulate academic engagement in cross-
media issues by supporting the publication of rigorous scholarly work,
text books, and thematically-focused volumes, whether theoretically or
empirically oriented.

More information about this series at

http://www.springer.com/series/15351
Caja Thimm · Mario Anastasiadis
Jessica Einspänner-Pflock
Editors

Media Logic(s)
Revisited
Modelling the Interplay between Media
Institutions, Media Technology
and Societal Change
Editors
Caja Thimm Jessica Einspänner-Pflock
Department of Media Studies Department of Media Studies
University of Bonn University of Bonn
Bonn, Germany Bonn, Germany

Mario Anastasiadis
Department of Media Studies
University of Bonn
Bonn, Germany

Transforming Communications – Studies in Cross-Media Research

ISBN 978-3-319-65755-4 ISBN 978-3-319-65756-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65756-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017951533

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction
on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and
information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication.
Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied,
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 Contents

1 Media Logic or Media Logics? An Introduction

to the Field 1
Caja Thimm, Mario Anastasiadis
and Jessica Einspänner-Pflock

Part I Theorizing Media Logics

2 The Media Syndrome and Reflexive Mediation 11

David L. Altheide

3 Media Logic and the Mediatization Approach:

A Good Partnership, a Mésalliance,
or a Misunderstanding? 41
Friedrich Krotz

4 The Logics of the Media and the Mediatized

Conditions of Social Interaction 63
Stig Hjarvard

5 Mediatization as Structural Couplings:

Adapting to Media Logic(s) 85
Mikkel Fugl Eskjær

v
vi Contents

6 Media Technology and Media Logic(s): The Media

Grammar Approach 111
Caja Thimm

7 Media Logic as (Inter)Action Logic—Interaction

Interdependency as an Integrative Meta-Perspective 133
Katrin Döveling and Charlotte Knorr

Part II Media Logic in Context: Politics, Journalism,

Institutions

8 On the Media Logic of the State 159

Jens Schröter

9 Media Logic Revisited. The Concept of Social Media

Logic as Alternative Framework to Study Politicians’
Usage of Social Media During Election Times 173
Evelien D’heer

10 Perceived Media Logic: A Point of Reference

for Mediatization 195
Daniel Nölleke and Andreas M. Scheu

11 News Media Logic 2.0—Assessing Commercial News

Media Logic in Cross-Temporal and Cross-Channel
Analysis 217
Maria Karidi

12 New(s) Challenges!—Old Patterns? Structural

Transformation and TV News in a Mediatized World 239
Mirco Liefke

13 Algorithms and Digital Media: Measurement

and Control in the Mathematical Projection of the Real 265
Tales Tomaz

Index 287
 Editors and Contributors

About the Editors

Caja Thimm, Ph.D. is Professor for Media Studies and Intermediality

at the University of Bonn, Germany and Head of the project
“Deliberation on the Net” which is part of the DFG priority program
“Mediatized Worlds” (funded by the German Science Foundation). Her
main research interests are online communication theory, social media,
organizational, and political communication online.

Mario Anastasiadis, Ph.D. is scientific coordinator of the Graduate

School “Digital Society” at the University of Bonn, Department of
Media Studies, and research associate in the project “Deliberation on the
Net,” which is part of the DFG priority program “Mediatized Worlds”
(funded by the German Science Foundation). His main research interests
are online communication theory, social media, political communication,
and popular culture online.

Jessica Einspänner-Pflock, Ph.D. is a researcher and lecturer in the

field of digital communication, i.e. political communication in social
media and online privacy. She has published on the subject of Twitter in
election campaigns, online PR, and adolescents’ sense of privacy in the
digital world. Jessica received her Ph.D. from the University of Bonn,
Germany, in 2015 in the area of Media Studies.

vii
viii Editors and Contributors

Contributors

David L. Altheide, Ph.D. is Emeritus Regents’ Professor on the fac-

ulty of Justice and Social Inquiry in the School of Social Transformation
at Arizona State University, where he taught for 37 years. His work has
focused on the role of mass media and information technology in social
control. His most recent books are The Media Syndrome (Routledge
2016), Media Edge: Media Logic and Social Reality (Lang, 2014),
Qualitative Media Analysis (2nd edition, Sage, 2012), and Terror Post
9/11 and the Media (Lang, 2009). Dr. Altheide received the Cooley
Award three times, given to the outstanding book in symbolic interac-
tion, from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction: In 2007
for Terrorism and the Politics of Fear (2006); in 2004 for Creating Fear:
News and the Construction of Crisis (2002); and in 1986 for Media Power
(1985). Dr. Altheide received the 2005 George Herbert Mead Award
for lifetime contributions from the Society for the Study of Symbolic
Interaction, and the society’s Mentor Achievement Award in 2007. He
was selected as a Fulbright Specialist in 2011.
Evelien D’heer is a researcher working at the department of
Communication Sciences at Ghent University in Belgium (iMinds –
MICT). Her research focuses on the impact of social media on the rela-
tion between politicians, mass media, and citizens. In addition, she is
interested in the conceptual understanding of social media and the usage
of social media as a method for social-scientific research.
Katrin Döveling, Prof., Dr. Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt,
Institut für Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft. Research inter-
ests include online communication, media reception and effects, media
theories, media sociology, media psychology, and international research.
Mikkel Fugl Eskjær Associate Professor at the Department of
Communication, Aalborg University, Copenhagen Campus. Research
areas include environmental communication, international communica-
tion, and mediatization theory. He has published empirical and theoreti-
cal articles on mediatization (MedieKultur, Nordicom Information) and is
co-editor (with Stig Hjarvard and Mette Mortensen) of The Dynamics of
Mediatized Conflicts, (NY, Peter Lang, 2015).
Stig Hjarvard, Ph.D. is Professor of Media Studies at the Department
of Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copenhagen.
 Editors and Contributors ix

His research interests include mediatization theory, news and journal-

ism, media history, media and globalization, media and religion, and
digital book publishing. He is chief editor of the journal Northern Lights
(Intellect Press) and chair of the ECREA Section on Mediatization. Stig
Hjarvard is a prominent proponent of the institutional perspective on
mediatization and he has written and edited numerous books, includ-
ing The Mediatization of Culture and Society (Routledge, 2013) and The
Dynamics of Mediatized Conflicts (co-edited with Mette Mortensen and
Mikkel Eskjær; Peter Lang, 2015).
Maria Karidi is a post-doctoral research associate at the Department
of Communication Studies and Media Research at the University of
Munich. Her research focuses on media reality constructions (including
both media logic research and discourse theory), as well as comparative
perspectives on media systems and media freedom around the world.
Charlotte Knorr, M.A. is a research assistant at the Institute for
Communication and Media Research, Department for Empirical
Research on Communication and Media, University of Leipzig,
Germany. In her research she focusses on the theory of online commu-
nication processes, especially in the context of Issue Attention Cycles and
Media Framing in the face of (socio-semantic) network and linguistic dis-
course analysis.
Friedrich Krotz, Dr., phil., habil. is Emeritus Professor in
Communication and Media at the University of Bremen in Germany.
He currently works as a Senior Fellow at the newly founded Centre for
Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS) at Bochum, also in Germany. He
works on the fields of Mediatization research, media sociology, method-
ology, and theories of communication and the media. In recent years, he
was the founder and coordinator of the priority programme “Mediatized
worlds”, financed by the German Research Foundation (DFG) (cf. www.
mediatizedworlds.net). Currently, he is writing books about the results
of this work and about communication in the upcoming mediatized
world.
Mirco Liefke is a researcher at the Institute of Sociology at Goethe
University Frankfurt, Germany and assistant to Thomas Scheffer, full
Professor for Sociology with an emphasis on Interpretative Social
Research. He studied sociology, theatre-, film- and media studies and
law and is currently working on a Ph.D. project about ethnography of
x Editors and Contributors

a major German TV channel’s newsroom. Other fields of interest are

influences of social media on the coverage of international conflicts,
the mediatized fabrication of political positions, and journalism facing
another structural change of the public sphere.
Daniel Nölleke, Dr., phil. studied communication science, politics,
and history at the University of Münster. He completed his studies in
2005 (MA) with a final thesis “Former athletes as experts in sports cov-
erage on television”. After that, he started working as a teaching and
research assistant at the department of communication at the University
of Münster. From 2009 to 2011, he carried out a research project on
“Dealing with scientific evidences in media coverage,” which was funded
by the German Research Foundation (DFG). In 2012, he finished his
dissertation entitled “Experts in Journalism”. Research interests include:
Mediatization of Social Fields, Perceptions of the -Logic and Influences
of Journalism, Science Communication, Sports Communication.
Andreas M. Scheu, Dr., phil., Ph.D. in communication studies at
the University of Munich (2010). He coordinated a research pro-
ject on the mediatization of science policy (funding: German Ministry
of Education and Research, 2010–2013). He was a research assistant
at the Department of Communication of the University of Münster
(2013–2016); managing editor of the ICA affiliate journal Studies in
Communication | Media (since 2014); and head of a comparative research
project on the mediatization of organizations in health, law, politics, and
science (funding: German Research Foundation, since 2016). Research
interests include: Mediatization, science communication, history and the-
ories of communication studies, and qualitative methodology.
Jens Schröter, Prof., Dr., phil., habil. has been chair for media stud-
ies at the University of Bonn since 2015. From 2008 to 2015, he was
professor for multimedial systems at the University of Siegen. He
was director of the graduate school “Locating Media” in Siegen from
2008 to 2012 and has been a member of the DFG-graduate research
center “Locating Media” at the University of Siegen since 2012. He
was (together with Prof. Dr. Lorenz Engell, Weimar) director of the
research project “TV Series as Reflection and Projection of Change”
from 2010 to 2014. He is a speaker of the research project (VW founda-
tion; together with Dr. Stefan Meretz, Hanno Pahl, and Manuel Scholz-
Wäckerle) “Society after Money” that started in 2016.
 Editors and Contributors xi

His main research topics are: Theory and history of digital media,
theory and history of photography, theory and history of three-dimen-
sional images, intermediality, copy protection, media theory in discussion
with the critique of value, and TV series. April/May 2014: “John von
Neumann”-fellowship at the University of Szeged, Hungary. September
2014: Guest Professor, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies,
Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China. Winter semester 2014/15:
Senior-fellowship at the research group “Media Cultures of Computer
Simulation”, Leuphana-University Lüneburg. Recent publications
include: 3D. History, Theory and Aesthetics of the Transplane Image, New
York/London/New Delhi/Sydney: Bloomsbury 2014; (Ed.) Handbuch
Medienwissenschaft, Stuttgart: Metzler 2014.
Tales Tomaz is an assistant professor on Media and Communications
at the São Paulo Adventist University. He has a Ph.D. in Media and
Communication Studies from the University of São Paulo. His research
deals with technology, alterity, and communication in Martin Heidegger.
In 2015 he was granted a scholarship from CAPES (Coordination for
the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel, from Brazil) and
DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) for a year as visitor
researcher in the Martin-Heidegger-Institut at the Bergische University
of Wuppertal (Germany). His latest work is the text “Alterity and
Technology: Implications of Heidegger’s Phenomenology,” in the book
The Changing Faces of Alterity (edited by David Gunkel, Ciro Marcondes
Filho and Dieter Mersch, London, Rowman & Littlefield, 2016).
 List of Figures

Fig. 4.1 The reciprocal relationship between mediatization

and mediation 66
Fig. 4.2 Media as part of an inter-institutional system:
Broadcasting as an institutionalized practice influenced
by the logics of other institutions, the family, the market,
the nation-state, and politics 73
Fig. 4.3 Mediatization as interaction between media logics
and the logics of other social and cultural domains 74
Fig. 5.1 Structural coupling between media system
and social system 94
Fig. 6.1 Functional operator model of twitter 128
Fig. 7.1 Interaction interdependency 139
Fig. 7.2 Interaction interdependency as key in media logics 145
Fig. 8.1 The CIE 1931, 2˚ observer chromaticity diagram
showing the color gamut of a color copier,
standard RGB and the gamut of the combination
of a HeNe laser (633 nm), an Argon laser (514 nm),
and a HeCd laser (442 nm) 166
Fig. 8.2 Example of Photoshop refusing to carry out the command 170
Fig. 9.1 A continuum from mass news media logic
to social media logic 175
Fig. 11.1 Comparing commercial News media logic characteristics
over time and between offline and online channels 228
Fig. 11.2 Comparing News topic over time and between offline
and online channels 230

xiii
xiv List of Figures

Fig. 11.3 Comparing journalistic style over time and between

offline and online channels 231
Fig. 12.1 News Program. Scan of the original schedule,
collected during fieldwork in the news room 248
Fig. 12.2 First news report concerning OSCE incident in. Scan
of the original AFP news feed, collected during
fieldwork in the news room 248
Fig. 12.3 Organization of category devices in partly
overlapping word fields 254
Fig. 12.4 Russia Today 259
Fig. 12.5 Financial Times 260
 List of Tables

Table 4.1 The logics of the media expressed in a general

sociological vocabulary and understood as the totality
of institutional rules and resources, including
both cultural and societal aspects of rules and resources 71
Table 4.2 Mediatized conditions of interaction: Media dynamics
following three dimensions or metaphors of media:
Amplification, framing and performative agency,
and co-structuring 78
Table 7.1 Media logics. Perspectives, issues, and focal points 142
Table 10.1 Analytical categories and the systematization
of media logic for secondary data analysis 204
Table 10.2 Sample of organizations and interviewees 205
Table 12.1 Categorization of group A 250
Table 12.2 Categorization of group B 251

xv
 CHAPTER 1

Media Logic or Media Logics?

An Introduction to the Field

Caja Thimm, Mario Anastasiadis

and Jessica Einspänner-Pflock

In 1979, David Altheide and Robert Snow developed the concept of

media logic. Originally following the idea of creating a theoretical frame-
work to better understand mass media formats and the media’s impact
on institutions and social behavior, the focus was on the mass media sys-
tem of television, radio, and newspapers and its power to influence and
even transform society. Although the authors primarily concentrated on
the functionalities and implications of media logic in the political sphere,
their overall objective was an analysis on how “social institutions are
infused with media considerations” (Altheide, 2011, 122). From a critical
perspective on mass media, their main argument was about an “underly-
ing media logic that dominates our increasingly mediated (or mediatized)

C. Thimm (*) · M. Anastasiadis · J. Einspänner-Pflock

Department of Media Studies, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
e-mail: thimm@uni-bonn.de
M. Anastasiadis
e-mail: anastasiadis@uni-bonn.de
J. Einspänner-Pflock
e-mail: jep@uni-bonn.de

© The Author(s) 2018 1

C. Thimm et al. (eds.), Media Logic(s) Revisited,
Transforming Communications – Studies in Cross-Media Research,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65756-1_1
2 C. Thimm et al.

social order” (ibid., 119). In this sense the original media logic concept
can be understood as a term for media-infused formal and informal rules
entailing multiple transformations in the social world. On that basis, the
interrelation of technology, institutions, actors, and formats of media was
at the core of media logic and its formative impact on society.
As the media landscape as such has changed dramatically since the
early days of research on media logic, the concept has become an impor-
tant approach in communication and media studies and has just recently
evoked new research activities. Its strength lies in the combined assess-
ment of theorizing and empirically analyzing the features of media and
media formats in their consequences for both individual and institutional
contexts. For this reason, a large part of research resting on the media
logic framework addresses the core question if, and how far, different
societal fields change due to the formal and informal rules of a media
logic, which also can set the direction of social behavior and perceptions.
While the more traditional perspective focuses on the influence of
media institutions and the respective media logic on other systems and
societal fields, a socio-constructivist approach discusses the role media
logic plays for social interaction, media appropriation, and media usage.
On both levels, extensive theoretical and empirical research deals with
the interplay between media and other social domains, such as politics
(Esser & Strömbäck, 2014; Klinger & Svensson, 2015; Landerer, 2013;
Meyen, Thieroff, & Strenger, 2014), culture (Siapera, 2010), journalism
(Dahlgren, 1996; Korthagen, 2016), or sports (Duncan & Brummett,
1987). In European communication science, the media logics approach
is also being discussed within the framework of mediatization (Krotz
& Hepp, 2011; Hepp, 2012; Couldry & Hepp, 2013). In this respect,
media are regarded as ‘modifiers of communication’ (Krotz & Hepp,
2011, 137), while the model of media logics is seen as a concept which
helps to understand how mediatization processes come into place.

1.1   Media Logics in a Digitized World:

A New Plurality of Logics
The advent of new technologies, the rise of the networked media, and
a constant emergence of new media applications and platforms call for
a reconsideration of the media logic concept. Nowadays, in an increas-
ingly digitized, globalized, and networked world, powerful media struc-
tures and technologies influence people’s daily routines in many respects.
Digital media have become embedded into many human activities.
 1 MEDIA LOGIC OR MEDIA LOGICS? AN INTRODUCTION TO THE FIELD 3

This multifaceted media environment calls for a new and critical reflec-
tion on the media logic approach in order to include the paradigm shift
from curated media to user-generated media content, just to name one
of the most decisive parameters of technology change. In an era of
technology as “disruption,” we need to ask more precisely where these
disruptions occur and how the subsequent changes can be described.
Regarding the present media landscape, we can see the integration of
media in various social contexts and an increasing complexity of the
resulting consequences. So more than ever, this development calls for
critical reflections on the idea of a single mass media logic. One major
challenge, both for theoretical and empirical perspectives on the con-
cept, is to reflect on the diversity of several media logics at play instead
of focusing on one single, mass media–related logic. Overall, a variety of
(partly overlapping) media logics seem to be in effect—especially against
the backdrop of digitalization and the “power of the internet.”
The ubiquity of the internet and networked media does not only influ-
ence people’s communicative practices in their private and professional
lives, but media environments themselves are changed, transformed, and
further developed by their appropriation in various social and cultural
contexts: Human actions redefine and reconfigure the media themselves,
another unprecedented technological development. Particularly, social
media pose questions as to what the formal and informal rules of digital
media formats will develop into (Van Dijck & Poell, 2013). While the
internet can empower users to connect with peers and engage as critical
consumers or politically active citizens, they also, to some extent, change
the media environment by means of their individual actions and interests.
At the same time digital media can have critical implications for the for-
mation of a public sphere, as discussed in the course of the filter bubble
(Pariser, 2011) or echo chamber effects (Sunstein, 2001; Vaccari, 2012).
Furthermore, the internet brings the logics of algorithms and filters into
play (Klinger & Svensson, 2015), which are mainly programmed and
controlled by commercial organizations and institutions.
Not only the growing importance of platform and networked media,
but also the partial loss of relevance of curated mass media content in
favor of personalized content, calls for a reflection. The challenge is to
describe more precisely what and how the media logic concept can con-
tribute to the understanding of mediatization processes with numer-
ous media technologies, formats and actors blending into one another.
Remodeling, adapting, and maybe deepening the concept media logic
for the digital age consequently poses an important challenge, in order
4 C. Thimm et al.

to better understand the interplay between media and media related

institutions. Hence, one of the aims must be a better understanding of
mediated social control means in a digital environment of ubiquitous
connectivity, all-embracing digital networks and more and more frag-
mented forms of media usage.
This challenge was taken up by the contributors of this book, who
all reflect on the concept of media logics from their specific perspective.
Some employ a very critical position; others regard in more detail how
the concept should be developed and changed in order to grasp the new
role that digital networked media play in people’s lives all over the globe.

1.2   Content of the Book

The volume presents findings from the conference “Media Logic(s)
Revisited: Modeling the Interplay between Media Institutions, Media
Technology and Societal Change,” which took place at the University
of Bonn (Germany, Department of Media Studies) in September 2015.
Researchers from various disciplines, such as media and communication
studies, sociology, political science, and philosophy provide insights into
their theoretical and empirical perspectives on the media logic approach.
Consequently, the aim of the book is to contribute to the ongoing
debate about media logic in the light of current developments at the
intersection of traditional media, digital media, and its different forms of
appropriation.
The first part of the book focuses on theoretical perspectives on media
logic. After having conceptually refined his original approach of media
logic, David L. Altheide opens the discussion in part one of the book by
presenting the concept of the Media Syndrome. He emphasizes the preva-
lence of media logic in our social life and argues that global political events
today become mediated and are shaped by media formats. By that, they
are a resource for another level of mediated experience, through which our
sense of reality is altered as we become oriented to the mediated.
The strong influence of the media logic concept especially applies to
the context of mediatization related research because it draws attention
to the actual modalities by which a certain social domain becomes medi-
atized. In Chap. 3, Friedrich Krotz draws a theoretical line between
media logic and mediatization by discussing and systematically analyz-
ing the relation between both approaches. In this course, he argues that
 1 MEDIA LOGIC OR MEDIA LOGICS? AN INTRODUCTION TO THE FIELD 5

both approaches share some similarities, but are very different regard-
ing their conceptual starting points and facets of media. The media logic
approach originally focused on the influence of TV on the mediation of
political communication, which is one of communication studies’ most
central concerns, while the mediatization approach focuses on media
change and its consequences for everyday life, culture, and society in a
much broader sense. Even though Krotz emphasizes how helpful the
media logic approach can be to analyze how TV and mass media trans-
form political communication, he also raises the question whether and
how far the term logic might be misleading.
From an institutionalist perspective on mediatization, Stig Hjarvard
discusses in Chap. 4 how various forms of media logics contribute to
social interaction and how the logics of social network media can be
conceptualized as a part of mediatization allowing a further integra-
tion of system world and life world. He underscores his position by an
empirical analysis of social network media and their role in face-to-face
interactions.
In Chap. 5, Mikkel Fugl Eskjær proposes a re-interpretation of
the concepts of media logic and mediatization based on systems the-
ory. His focus in particularly is on the notion of structural coupling. It
is argued that mediatization as structural coupling allows for a plurality
of media logics. This is also being applied to a case study of the media-
tization of six Scandinavian NGOs. On the basis of six in-depth inter-
views with communication directors of Danish NGOs it is discussed in
what ways organizations adjust to media demands or rather strategically
integrate media logics into their communication plans.
Caja Thimm discusses in Chap. 6 the interconnectedness of technol-
ogy, user behavior, and culture based on a critical assessment of the con-
cept of “technological determinism.” She redefines the concept of media
logic within the context of interactive media and offers a systematic
approach for the analysis of media logic and media usage. Thimm’s con-
cept of “media grammar” is based on the idea that media form their own
grammar in a specific environment with their own affordances that relate
to certain usage patterns. By drawing on the example of Twitter, it is
shown that an approach to new media logics needs to take into consider-
ation users’ creative appropriations of technology. Thimm thus concludes
that the pragmatics of technology can be seen as a baseline in order to
understand the character of the digital society.
6 C. Thimm et al.

In Chap. 7, Katrin Döveling and Charlotte Knorr focus on a meta-

analysis perspective on media logic. They discuss how the interdependencies
between different systems and corresponding structures, logics, and actors,
can be conceptualized and which theoretical and empirical consequences
result. Further developing the concept of media logic, a systematic approach
is conceptualized which outlines the interdependencies of producers,
users, and consumers as networked transactions in a network society. The
chapter elaborates different concepts of media logics focusing on interactiv-
ity as a central category to integrate various media logics perspectives.
The second part of the book deals with theoretical as well as empiri-
cal approaches to media logics in different societal contexts such as insti-
tutions, politics, and news media. Firstly, Jens Schröter emphasizes in
Chap. 8 the importance of the concept of mediality for analyzing media
logics. According to Schröter, one should not conceptualize media as a
system of its own, as proposed by a systems theoretical perspective, in
which mass media form a subsystem of society. Rather, it has to be taken
into account that all institutions are fundamentally based on media infra-
structures. The chapter draws on the example of nations, their medial
infrastructure of identity documents, and the historical development of
defense policy as the media monopoly of the state.
In Chap. 9, Evelien D’heer conceptualizes social media logics as net-
work media logic by empirically analyzing politicians’ presentations on
social media platforms in the run-up to the 2014 federal elections in
Belgium. Drawing on an analysis of 19 electoral candidates’ Facebook
and Twitter accounts, as well as on in-depth interviews with them, she
finds that politicians not only adapt their messages to appeal to journal-
ists but also try to negotiate between online popularity and the presenta-
tion of their political views. This means that the presentation of a more
“human” self and dialogue with citizens is balanced with the instrumen-
tal usage of social media in favor of politicians’ candidacy.
In Chap. 10, Daniel Nölleke and Andreas M. Scheu introduce and
discuss the concept of perceived media logic against the background of
mediatization theory. The authors argue that, in order to analyze media-
tization as a facet of social change, it is necessary to focus on peoples’
perceptions of what constitutes media logic. After developing their theo-
retical perspective of mediatization as a pull process, the chapter dem-
onstrates, based on qualitative data gathered in 36 in-depth interviews
with experts from politics, science, and health, how various perceptions
of media logic are in effect.
 1 MEDIA LOGIC OR MEDIA LOGICS? AN INTRODUCTION TO THE FIELD 7

Chapter 11 deals with the question of news media logic and its dif-
ferent characteristics. Maria Karidi examines the development of media
reality constructions as they appear over time, as well as between online
and offline channels. Based on theoretical concepts of actor–structure
dynamics and drawing from a quantitative content analysis of German
newspapers and TV programs, as well as online news websites, Karidi
finds that German news media tend to be more commercially oriented
in 2014 compared to 1984–1989 as they integrate more aspects of con-
flicts, celebrities, scandals, negativity, and personalization within their
reportage. The author concludes that the altered (media) structures
and constellations might have significant consequences for the opinion-
forming process in Germany.
Based on the theoretical background of the structural change of the
public media sphere, Mirco Liefke in Chap. 12 analyzes German TV
news coverage during the Ukraine conflict in 2013–2014 arguing that
mass media’s monopoly of coverage has begun to sway and its inherent
logic has changed and adopts to new circumstances. He demonstrates
how established mass media face new challenges caused by an ongoing
structural change of the public sphere by applying Harvey Sack’s appara-
tus of Membership Categorization Analysis (MCA) to the analysis of TV
news coverage.
In Chap. 13, Tales Tomaz uses a techno-philosophical approach to
discuss digital media logics. It is argued that not only our comprehen-
sion of human life nowadays has been simplified to algorithmic processes
due to the emergence of big data but that algorithms are becoming “the
real”. The discussion draws on a review of Heidegger’s and other phi-
losophers’ work on the logic of the being and the logic of the real, both
based on the mathematical. Main argument of the author is the idea that
the mathematical is at the core of Western thought.
In the course of these thirteen chapters various theoretical and empiri-
cal perspectives on media logic are being discussed, showing that the
concept is a vital part of media and communication research.

References
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Journal for the Philosophy of Communication, 3(2), 119–136.
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tions. Arguments. Communication Theory, 23, 191–202.
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Dahlgren, P. (1996). Media logic in cyberspace: Repositioning journalism

and its publics. Javnost – The Public, Journal of the European Institute for
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Duncan, M. C., & Brummet, B. (1987). The mediation of spectator sport.
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Korthagen, I. (2016). Science, Journalism and Media Logic. Rathenau Institute.
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tization works and why ‘mediatized worlds’ are a helpful concept for empiri-
cal mediatization research. Empedocles: European Journal for the Philosophy of
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Landerer, N. (2013). Rethinking the logics: A conceptual framework for the
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Meyen, M., Thieroff, M., & Strenger, S. (2014). Mass media logic and the medi-
atization of politics. Journalism Studies, 15(3), 271–288.
Pariser, E. (2011). The filter bubble. What the internet is hiding from you. New
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Siapera, E. (2010). Cultural diversity and global media. The mediation of differ-
ence. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Sunstein, C. (2001). Echo chambers. Bush v. Gore. Impeachment and beyond.
Princeton University Press.
Vaccari, C. (2012). From echo chamber to persuasive device? Rethinking the role
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Van Dijck, J., & Poell, T. (2013). Understanding social media logic. Media and
Communication, 1(1), 2–14.
 PART I

Theorizing Media Logics

 CHAPTER 2

The Media Syndrome and Reflexive

Mediation

David L. Altheide

2.1  Introduction
Contemporary life has been transformed by the media and its embedded
logic, rhythms, and content. We are caught in a perpetual and rapidly
evolving media wave breaking toward the edge, a vortex that is guiding
and defining our experiences and changing how we think of ourselves
and others. It is a crisis of order and meaning fueled by media logic,
expansive information visual technology, and fear that has taken us to the
edge of what is familiar and is eroding trust and social order. During an
appearance on a US “fake news show,” The Daily Show (July 21, 2015),
President Obama got serious about the role of the media in our time:

I think that what is understated is the balkanization, the splintering of the

media generally, so it is hard for us to get one conversation, you’ve got
folks who are constantly looking for facts to enforce their existing point of
view as opposed to having a common conversation, and I think that one of
the things we have to think about is how do we join in a common conver-
sation about something other than the Super Bowl. (cc.com)

D.L. Altheide (*)

Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
e-mail: David.Altheide@asu.edu

© The Author(s) 2018 11

C. Thimm et al. (eds.), Media Logic(s) Revisited,
Transforming Communications – Studies in Cross-Media Research,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65756-1_2
12 D.L. Altheide

Increasingly, we are not just programmed, but are a program—or at

least parts of one or more—and guide and evaluate our social perfor-
mances in popular culture terms and criteria, most of which, reflect the
mass media as well as social media. I call this the “media syndrome”: The
media syndrome (MS) refers to the prevalence of media logic, communica-
tion formats, and media content in social life. The media syndrome might
include individual personas and identities, social issues, and political
actions that are modeled on media personalities and characters that are sit-
uated in entertainment oriented public and popular culture scenarios that
are depicted and constituted through media logic, including information
technology and communication formats (Altheide, 2016). The cumula-
tive impact of more than fifty years of massive communicative changes is
that our media have become more instant, visual, and personal. This is a
change in our world, and it has fundamentally changed the global order.
Modern living is situated in mediated contexts of communicated expe-
rience that conveys emotionally-charged meanings of relationships, con-
tested desirability, personal and social crises, and conventional narratives.
Consider individual identities: A Twitter app, “Live On,” promises that
“When your heart stops beating, you’ll keep tweeting” (liveson.org).
The app operates by mining one’s tweets and then applying an algo-
rithm. It is not only individuals who can gain immortality through the
media syndrome, but entire countries, like Kosovo, can gain legiti-
macy, if not official existence, through digital communication formats.
Despite Kosovo’s five-year struggle for independence, neither the United
Nations nor the European Union would recognize its sovereignty. But
Facebook did when its software permitted users to identify themselves as
citizens of Kosovo. Deputy Prime Minister, Petrit Selimi, stated, “Being
recognized on the soccer pitch and online has far greater resonance than
some back room in Brussels.” And Kosovo is not alone: other regions
seeking independence and recognition, such as Catalonia and the Basque
region in Spain, and Palestine, have their own Facebook domain names:

The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, lauded the move, through

a spokesman, telling Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, that Google ‘put
Palestine on the Internet map, making it a geographical reality.’ (Bilefsky,
2013)

Social realities are bound up with the communication order operating

at the time. Events are defined culturally through a process of symbolic
 2 THE MEDIA SYNDROME AND REFLEXIVE MEDIATION 13

construction, including putting parameters or brackets around various

actions, decisions, policies, that constitute an “event.” But more impor-
tantly for our purposes, events are given meaning through symbolic
communication to audiences, who, in turn, interpret and selectively
edit certain features, aspects, and nuances of the event. Consider a few
examples.
In November 2014, the Sony Corporation was hacked by an organ-
ization “Guardians of Peace,” a North Korean pseudonym, which
revealed internal emails, released trailers of movies in production, and
threatened more damage and even violence if a comedic movie, “The
Interview,” about a plot by the CIA and a journalism team to assassinate
the President of North Korea, was shown. One character stated, “It’s the
first rule of journalism: give the people what they want.” Sony pulled the
movie from theaters, despite President Obama’s caution against giving
into international censorship and blackmail. The movie was shown a few
days later to large audiences, including a substantial Video On Demand
audience.
Popular culture entertainment logic has sustained the Discovery
Investigation Network as it slides into low-budget reenactments of hor-
rific crimes slathered in sexual goo, a kind of “murder porn,” being
shown in 100 million homes in 157 countries. Such programming builds
on the popularity of a host of crime shows in the USA, such as NCIS,
CSI, Law and Order, etc., but at a fraction of the cost. So weird is the
audience receptivity to murder porn, that a Southpark episode had its
miscreants concerned about parental viewing: “the vile and despicable
trash that our parents are watching on cable television.” The network
president claimed that this brand is well on its way: “if we can be a place
where viewers can consistently know that regardless of the hours, regard-
less of the day, that they will always be able to flip to this network and
know that they are going to get a story of the mystery, crime, suspense
genre.” (Emily Steel, January. 4, 2015).
Horrific diseases in other countries are seldom seen on American
news reports, but Ebola was different. Devastatingly lethal in several
west African countries (e.g., Liberia, Sierra Leone), Ebola had claimed
only one US citizen, whose symptoms were misdiagnosed during a visit
to an emergency room, and who was sent home. But this got a lot of
media play. Despite clear statements that it could only be transmitted
through exchange of bodily fluids, hundreds of images of dead Africans
led some politicians to quarantine US medical workers, who returned
14 D.L. Altheide

from treating patients abroad. Ebola virtually disappeared from US

news reports by the end of November 2014, despite its expansion in
West Africa.
Analysis of the coverage of Ebola and other problems suggests that
more information has produced little understanding. While the empha-
sis is on American culture, the arguments about entertainment and the
implosion of our information order seem to be globally appropriate. We
have a lot of news, but little understanding of the world and each other.
Indeed, I suggest that our social condition reflects our media condi-
tion. I argue that this is because of the organization, structure, and use
of the mass media and media logic. Information technology has greatly
changed, but so has the culture that embraces and reflects it. The foun-
dation of media logic, mediation, and mediatization has taken center
stage. As communication scholar Marian Adolf stated:

Society, then, exists mainly as a mediatized representation or itself (if

it ever was something else)…it is the media that offer us new ways and
means and new spaces and temporalities of communicating. We cannot
theorize mediatization without the media, and a notion of what is they are
doing to communication action. (Adolf, 2013, 160–161)

The mass media and the information technologies and formats that
transport and emphasize images, sounds, narratives, and meanings are
crucial components of this meaning-making process. The mediation pro-
cess involves the construction and use of media logic to provide order
and meaning in the mass communication process that will be anticipated,
understood, and shared by various audiences. As many scholars have
noted, “effective communication” is a bit circular, where the messen-
gers—such as journalists or policy makers—take into account the audi-
ence members’ awareness, familiarity, sophistication, and preferences for
certain kinds of messages over certain media. The trick, then, is essen-
tially to give the audience a wholesome batch of what they expect, along
with sprinklings of something new—the “newsworthy” event in ques-
tion. And once the new combinations are set forth, widely accepted, and
even institutionalized in future practices for journalists, on the one hand,
and audiences, on the other hand, they basically become a kind of a gate-
way for how later events and issues will be set forth. Increasingly, certain
events funneled through media logic (new technologies and formats)
become gateways to other mediated events. Thus, communication and
meanings become reflexive.
 2 THE MEDIA SYNDROME AND REFLEXIVE MEDIATION 15

Experience is located in a cultural ecology of communication

(Altheide, 1994). I stress cultural, because different communication
cultures—which may differ from even national contexts—are organized
according to patterned principles of engaging in meaningful interactions
shaped by the time, place, and manner of social activities. These, in turn,
increasingly are reflexive or the information technologies and formats
that have been incorporated into activities, if not shaping the activities
themselves. The guiding rules of thumb typically involve formats for the
recognition, anticipation, presentation, and use of information.
A reflexive mediated culture refers to a second-order experience and
familiarity with media and information technology. A first-order or pri-
mary involvement occurs when we anticipate and approach events as
though they are governed and produced by media logic that is appro-
priate for the time, place, and manner in a particular cultural context.
Familiarity with the interaction of media principles in everyday matters
provides a baseline of a mediated “natural attitude” experience (Schutz,
1967). Now the content reflects the process or the production of the
new experience and expectations.
The media edge has emerged from the way in which the media logic,
formats and “entertaining grab” have evolved on a platform of fear, dan-
ger, excitement, and risk. Visual experience and expectations are key,
especially of events and activities associated with fear. This also makes us
more vulnerable to propaganda and manipulations. Our sense of reality
is altered as we become more oriented to the visual, which, in the case
of crime and crisis reporting, becomes all too familiar, anticipated, and
quickly merged with hundreds of other images intertwined from mov-
ies, news reports, and documentaries, as well as numerous urban legends
stressing mayhem, conflict, and danger. And fear. Fear about the poten-
tial risks that engulf our personal and social horizons. But it is entertain-
ing, fun, adventuresome, and, if the TV and movie producers are correct,
audiences crave it.
The visual has been altered to fit the parameters and format of the
screen:

As a consequence of the screen’s influence, we internalize a new experi-

ence of space and time. The screen alters the communication matrix, not
by changing the structure of or reinventing the physiology of the ear but
by providing a different sensory experience. The screen links visual, audi-
tory, and kinesthetic elements, altering one’s experience of time, space, and
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The Stretcher Bed may be Stuffed with Browse or
Leaves, or Suspended from Poles and Stakes to
Make a Camp Cot
Food Bags with
Friction-Top Tins to
Fit Them, in Which
Lard, Butter, Pork,
Ham, and Other
Greasy Necessities
are Carried
 A Pack Basket with a Waterproof Canvas Lid and Cover,
Having Straps to Go over the Shoulders, Is a General
Favorite with Woodsmen and Guides

The Compass Is by Far the Most

Useful Instrument for the Woods,
but Any Reliable and Inexpensive
Watch may be Carried

A Good, Tempered Knife Should be

Worn at the Belt

When Going Light the Belt Ax is Used

 The Cooking Kit may be of Aluminum or Steel, All
Nesting within the Largest Pot, and may Include a
Folding Baker, or Reflector, with Bread Board in
Canvas Bag, a Wood Salt Box, and a Water-Tight
Can for Matches
Folding Candle
Lanterns are the
Most Convenient for
the Woods and They
Give Sufficient Light
for Camp Life

The Camper’s Outfit

The personal outfit should include only the most useful articles,
and each member of the party should be provided with a dunnage
bag of canvas to hold bedding and clothing, and a smaller, or “ditty,”
bag for keeping together the toilet and other personal belongings
which most everyone finds necessary for everyday comfort. A
mending kit, containing a few yards of silk, linen, and twist; a length
of mending cotton; buttons; a few needles and pins, both safety and
the common kinds, should not be overlooked. The veteran usually
stows away a bit of wire; a length of strong twine; a few nails and
tacks; rivets, etc., for emergency use, and it is surprising to the
novice how handy these several odds and ends are found while in
camp. A compact tin box will form a convenient place to keep them
and will take up little room in the dunnage bag. A medicine case and
a first-aid outfit are well worth packing; the smallest cases containing
a few of the common remedies will fully meet the camper’s needs.
When carrying food by canoe or pack basket, the canoe duffel and
provision bags are a great convenience, enabling the outer to carry
different foodstuffs in a compact and sanitary manner. Food bags
may be had in different sizes, and friction-top tins may be purchased
to fit them; and one or more of these liquid-proof containers are
desirable for transporting lard, butter, pork, ham, and other greasy
necessities. The food bags slip into the larger duffel bags, making a
very compact bundle for stowing away in a canoe or pack harness.

Carrying List for the Camp Outfit

For permanent camps, take the wall tent with fly, although the
Baker or camp-fire styles are also good. When traveling light by
canoe, the canoe or protean tents are recommended. When going
very light by pack, use the forester’s or ranger’s tent. Sod and floor
cloths and mosquito netting are optional.
The cooking kit may be of aluminum or steel, all nesting within the
largest pot. Include a folding baker, or reflector, with bread board in a
canvas bag, a wood salt box, and a water-tight can for matches.
Furniture for the permanent camp consists of a full-sized ax,
double-blade or tomahawk style with straight handle, in a protecting
case, whetstone and file for keeping the ax in shape. A shovel and
saw will be needed when a cabin is built. A canteen may be
included, but is not required on most trips. A folding candle lantern is
the best for the average trip, but an oil, or acetylene, lantern may be
used in a fixed camp. Cots, folding chairs, tables, hangers, etc., are
only useful in fixed camps.
A pack basket with a waterproof-canvas lid and cover, having
straps to go over the shoulders, is a general favorite with woodsmen
and guides. Canvas packs or dunnage bags may be used if
preferred. There are two sizes of food bags, one holding 5 lb. and
another of 10-lb. capacity, with draw-strings at the top, and these are
the best for carrying provisions.
Pack harness, with a tumpline to go across the forehead, is
needed when the outfit must be carried on portages, etc. This may
be omitted when pack baskets are used. Packing cases of fiber may
be used for shipping the outfit to the camping ground, but ordinary
trunks, or wood boxes, will answer as well.

The Personal Outfit

An old ordinary suit that is not worn too thin is sufficient. Corduroy
is too heavy for the summer and too cold for winter, and canvas is
too stiff and noisy for the woods. Cotton khaki is excellent for the
summer, and all-wool khaki, or mackinaw, coat and trousers are
comfortable for winter. Wool is the best material for undergarments
in all seasons. Two sets of garments will be sufficient, as the
washing is done at night. Be sure to have the garments large enough
to allow for shrinkage. Light-weight cashmere is the best material for
socks during summer, and heavier weight for the winter. Three pairs
of ordinary-weight and one pair of heavy-weight will be sufficient. A
medium-weight gray-flannel overshirt, with breast pockets having
button flaps, is the woodsman’s choice. On short and light trips one
shirt will do. A light-weight, all-wool gray or brown, sweater is a good
thing to carry along, it is easily wetted through and a famous brier
catcher, yet most woodsmen carry one.
The regulation army poncho is more suited to the woods than a
rubber coat or oilskins. The larger-size poncho is more bulky to pack,
but may be used as a shelter by rigging it up with poles, lean-to
fashion. A poncho makes a good ground blanket also.
A medium wide-brimmed hat, in gray or brown, is better than a
cap. A gray, or brown, silk handkerchief should be included to wear
around the neck to protect it from the sun and cold. Only few novices
will carry one, but not so with the regular woodsman, The moccasin
is the only suitable footwear for the woods. The “puckaway,” with
extra sole, is known to most woodsmen. A pair of larrigans—ankle-
high moccasins with single sole—are suitable to wear about the
camp.
Each member of the party carries his own knapsack, or ditty bag,
in which such things as brush and comb, toothbrush, razor, towel,
medicines, stationery, etc., are kept. The extra clothing is carried in
its own canvas bag.
 Each member of the party carries a pair of woolen blankets. Army
blankets in tan color are serviceable and inexpensive.
A good, tempered knife should be worn at the belt, preferably one
without a hilt and having a blade 5 or 6 in. long.
A small leather pouch containing a few common remedies, such
as quinine, laxative, etc.; and a small first-aid outfit should be
included in each camper’s personal pack. Also a small leather pouch
containing an assortment of needles, darning cotton, buttons, and a
length of heavy silk twist is a handy companion.
A few sheets of paper and as many envelopes, a notebook, pencil,
and a few postal cards, are usually carried, together with an almanac
page of the months covering the intended trip.
The compass is by far the most useful instrument in the woods,
but any reliable and inexpensive watch may be carried.
Many woodsmen carry a small hatchet at the belt, and on trips
when but the few necessities are carried the belt ax takes the place
of the heavier-weight tool. The tomahawk style gives two cutting
edges and is therefore the best tool to carry. A leather or other
covering case is needed to protect the blades.
A small tin box containing an assortment of rivets; tacks; a bit of
string; brass wire; a few nails; a couple of small files; a tool holder
with tools; a sheet of sandpaper; a bit of emery cloth, and any other
small articles which the sportsman fancies will come in handy, may
be carried. It is surprising how often this “what not” is resorted to
while in the woods.
The odds and ends of personal belongings, as a jackknife; pipe
and tobacco; map of the region visited; length of fishing line and
hook; a few loose matches; match box; purse; notebook and pencil;
handkerchief, etc., are, of course, carried in the pocket of the coat.
 A Camper’s Salt-and-Pepper Holder

A camper will find a very clever way to carry salt and pepper by
using a piece cut from a joint of bamboo. A piece is selected with the
joint in the center, and the ends are stoppered with corks.
 A Simple Self-Contained Motor
To say that the subject of this article is the simplest motor in the
world is not to overestimate it, for the apparatus is not only a motor
reduced to its essential elements, but combines within itself its own
source of electric power, all without the use of a single piece of wire.
The experiment is very interesting and instructive and will well repay
a careful construction along the lines indicated, even though not in
strict accordance with the dimensions given.
The first step is to procure a permanent magnet, about ³⁄₈ in. in
diameter and 6 in. long. If such a magnet cannot be conveniently
secured, a piece of tool steel with flat ends should be hardened by
heating it to a dull red and plunging it in water, and then strongly
magnetized. This may be readily accomplished by slipping a coil of
insulated wire over it through which the current from a storage
battery or set of primary cells is passed. If these are not at hand,
almost any electrical supply store will magnetize the steel.
 A square base block with neatly beveled corners is now in order,
which is trimmed up squarely and a hole bored centrally through it to
receive the lower end of the magnet. Procure a neat spool and make
a hole in it large enough to pass over the magnet. Glue the spool to
the base after locating it in the exact center.
 The outer and larger cylinder is of copper, or of brass,
copperplated on the inside. It is cup-shaped, with a hole in the
bottom just large enough to permit the magnet to be pushed through
with a close fit, to make a good electrical contact. The magnet may
be held in place by having it closely fit the spool and the copper
cylinder, and by soldering the heads of a couple of small tacks, or
nails, to its under side and driving them into the spool. Coat the
magnet with pitch, or paraffin, from the top down, and around its
connection with the bottom of the cylinder. The small thimble shown
at the top should be of brass or copper, and while one can be easily
formed of sheet metal and soldered, it is not improbable that one
could be made in seamless form from small article of commerce. In
the exact center of the under side of the top of this thimble, make a
good mark with a prickpunch, after which a small steel thumb tack
should be filed to a fine needle point and placed, point up, exactly
central on the upper end of the magnet, to which it is held with a little
wax. The smaller cylinder is simply a piece of sheet zinc bent into a
true cylinder of such a size that it may be sprung over the lower end
of the thimble. This done, it is only necessary to slip the zinc over the
end of the magnet until the thimble rests on the thumb tack, and then
pour some dilute muriatic or sulphuric acid into the outer cylinder
after which the thimble and attached zinc will begin to rotate. The
required strength of the acid and the resulting speed will depend
upon the nicety of suspension and the trueness of the rotating zinc
cylinder. The zinc will have to be changed, but the copper undergoes
no deterioration.
 The Tricks of Camping Out
By STILLMAN TAYLOR

PART II—Cooking in the Woods

Cooking in the woods requires more of a knack than equipment, and

while a camp stove is well enough in a permanent camp, its
weight and bulk makes this article of camp furniture unsuited for
transportation by canoe. Patent cooking grates are less bulky, but
the woodsman can learn to do without them very nicely. However,
the important item which few woodsmen care to do without is the
folding baker, or reflector. The baker is folded flat and carried in a
canvas case, including baking pan and a kneading board. The
largest size, with an 18-in. square pan, weighs about 5 lb., and the
smallest, with an 8 by 12-in. pan in aluminum, only 2 lb. In use, the
reflector is placed with the open side close to the fire, and cooking is
accomplished evenly and well in any kind of weather. Bread, fish,
game, or meat are easily and perfectly cooked, and the smaller size
is amply large for a party of two or three.
A Cooking Range Fashioned from Two Green Logs Laid in a V-Shape with a
Few Stones Built Up at the Wide End over Which a Fire is Made of Hard-
Wood Sticks

The camp fire is one of the charms of the open, and if it is built
right and of the best kind of wood, cooking may be done over it as
well as over a forest range. Many woodsmen prefer to build a
second and smaller fire for cooking, and although I have never found
this necessary, excepting in large camps where a considerable
quantity of food must be prepared, the camper can suit himself, for
experimenting is, after all, a large part of the fun of living in and off
the woods.
A satisfactory outdoor cooking range may be fashioned by roughly
smoothing the top and bottom sides of two green logs, and placing
them about 6 in. apart at one end and about 2 ft. apart at the
opposite end. At the wide end a few stones are built up, and across
these, hickory, ash, and other sticks of hard wood are placed. The
reflector is placed close to the coals at this end, and the fire is built
between the logs, the broiling and frying being done at the narrow-
end opening. Woods that burn slowly when green should be used for
backlogs and end logs; chestnut, red oak, butternut, red maple, and
persimmon being best adapted for this purpose.
The hard woods are best for cooking and heating, since they burn
more slowly, and give out considerable heat and burn down to a
body of glowing coals. Soft woods are quick to catch fire, burn
rapidly, and make a hot fire, but burn down to dead ashes. Hickory is
by far the best firewood of the North, in that it makes a hot fire, is
long-burning, and forms a large body of coals that gives an even and
intense heat for a considerable length of time. Next to hickory comes
chestnut; the basket oaks, ironwood, dogwood, and ash are the
woodsman’s favorites. Among the woods that are easy to split are
the red oak, basket oak, white oak, ash, and white birch. Some few
woods split more easily when green than after seasoning, and
among them are hickory, dogwood, beech, sugar maple, birch, and
elm. The most stubborn woods to split are the elder, blue ash,
cherry, sour gum, hemlock, sweet gum, and sycamore. Of the softer
woods, the birches make the best fuel; black birch in particular
makes a fine camp fire, and it is one of the few woods that burns well
when green. The dry bark of the hemlock makes a quick and hot fire,
and white birch takes fire quickly even though moist. Driftwood is
good to start a fire with, and dry pine knots—the limb stubs of a dead
pine tree—are famous kindlers. Green wood will, of course, burn
better in winter when the sap is dormant, and trees found on high
ground make better fuel than those growing in moist bottom lands.
Hard woods are more plentiful on high ground, while the softer
woods are found in abundance along the margins of streams.
A Green Pole Placed in a Forked Stick Provides a Pot Hanger for a Noonday
Meal

For cooking the noonday meal a small fire will suffice to boil the
pot and furnish the heat sufficient to make a fry. Simply drive a
forked stick in the ground and lay a green stick in the fork with the
opposite end on the ground with a rock laid on it to keep it down, and
hang the pot on the projecting stub left for this purpose. A long stick
with projecting stubs, planted in the ground to slant over the fire at
an angle, will serve as well. Let the pot hang about 2 ft. from the
ground, collect an armful of dry twigs and plenty of larger kindling
sticks. Now shave three or four of the larger sticks and leave the
shavings on the ends, stand them up beneath the pot, tripod fashion,
and place the smaller sticks around them to build a miniature
wigwam. While the pot is boiling get a couple of bed chunks, or
andirons, 4 or 5 in. in diameter, set and level these on each side of
the fire, and put the frying pan on them. When the pot has boiled
there will be a nice bed of coals for frying that will not smoke the
meal.
When the woodsman makes “one-night stands,” he will invariably
build the fire and start the kettle boiling while he or a companion
stakes the tent, and as soon as the meal is prepared, a pot of water
is started boiling for dish washing.
 For roasting and baking with the reflector, a rather high fire is
needed and a few sticks, a yard or more long, resting upright against
a backlog or rock, will throw the heat forward. When glowing coals
are wanted one can take them from the camp fire, or split uniform
billets of green, or dead, wood about 2 in. thick and pile them in the
form of a hollow square, or crib. The fire is built in the center of the
crib and more parallel sticks are laid on top until it is a foot or more
higher. The crib will act as a chimney, and a roaring fire will result,
which upon burning down will give a glowing mass of coals.
Camp cookery implies the preparation of the more simple and
nutritious foods, and in making up a list it is well to include only the
more staple foodstuffs, which are known to have these qualities.
Personal ideas are certain to differ greatly, but the following list may
be depended upon and will serve as a guide.

Provision List

This list of material will be sufficient for two persons on an outing

of two weeks. Carry in a stout canvas food bag 12 lb. of common
wheat flour. The self-raising kind is good, but the common flour is
better. It is well to bring a little yellow, or white, corn meal, about 6
lb., to be served as a johnny cake, hot, cold, or fried mush. It is fine
for rolling a fish in for frying. Rice is very nutritious, easily digested,
and easy to cook. It is good when boiled with raisins. When cold, it
can be fried in slices. About 3 lb. will be sufficient. Oatmeal is less
sustaining than rice, but it is good for porridge, or sliced when cold
and fried. Take along about 3 lb. About 2 lb. of the self-raising
buckwheat flour should be taken along, as it is the favorite for
flapjacks or griddle cakes. Beans are very nutritious, and about 2 lb.
of the common baking kind will be required, to boil or bake with the
salt pork. For soups, take 2 lb. of split peas. They can also be served
as a vegetable. Salt pork is a stand-by, and 5 lb. of it is provided and
carried in friction-top tins or a grease-proof bag. It should be
parboiled before adding to the beans or when fried like bacon. The
regulation meat of the wilderness is bacon, and 5 lb. of it is carried in
a tin or bag. Carry along 3 lb. of lard in a tin or bag, for bread-making
and frying. About 3 lb. of butter is carried in a friction-top tin. For
making rice puddings, take along 1 lb. of raisins. About 1 lb. of
shredded codfish is good for making fish balls. Other small articles,
such as ¹⁄₂ lb. of tea; 1 lb. of coffee; 3 lb. of granulated sugar; 1 pt. of
molasses; 1 pt. of vinegar; 4 cans of condensed milk; 1 can of milk
powder, a good substitute for fresh milk; 1 can egg powder, good for
making omelets or can be scrambled; 1 lb. salt; 2 oz. pepper; 1
package each of evaporated potatoes, onions, and fruits, and 3
packages of assorted soup tablets.
This list is by no means complete, but it will suffice for the average
person on the average trip, since the occasional addition of a fish or
game will help to replenish the stores. When going very light by
pack, only the most compact and nutritious foods should be
selected, while on short, easy trips the addition of canned goods will
supply a greater variety.

Woodcraft
A Limb Supported at an Angle over the Fire Is Another Means of Hanging the
Pot

While shooting and fishing and camping out are chapters in the
book of woodcraft, the word is generally defined to mean the knack
of using the compass, the map, and in making use of the natural
signs of the woods when traveling in the wilderness. If the camper
keeps to the beaten paths and does not stray far from the frequently
used waterways, he needs no compass, and sufficient knowledge of
the ways of the woods may be acquired from the previous articles,
but if the outer ventures into an unknown region the value of more
intimate knowledge increases as the distance to civilization
lengthens, because it will enable him to keep traveling in the desired
direction and prevent the “insane desire to circle,” should one
discover he has lost the trail.

The Emergency “Snack” and Kit

 The woodsman well knows that it is an easy matter to stray farther
from camp than he intended to when starting out, and that it is a
common enough occurrence to lose one’s bearings and become
temporarily lost. To prepare for this possible emergency and spend a
comfortable night away from the camp, he carries in his pocket a
little packet of useful articles and stows away a tiny package
containing a small amount of nutritious food. When leaving camp for
a day’s hunting and fishing, the usual lunch is, of course, included,
but in addition to this, the woodsman should carry a couple of soup
tablets, a piece of summer sausage, and some tea. Wrap this in
oiled silk, and pack it in a flat tin box. It will take up very little room in
the pocket.
The emergency kit is merely a small leather pouch containing a
short fishing line; a few fishing hooks; 1 ft. of surgeon’s adhesive
plaster; needle and thread; a few safety pins, and a small coil of
copper or brass wire. These articles, with the gun and a few spare
cartridges, or rod; a belt knife; match safe; compass; map; a little
money, pipe, and tobacco, make up the personal outfit without which
few woodsmen care to venture far from camp. In addition to the
above, I carry a double-edge, light-weight ax, or tomahawk, in a
leather sheath at the belt and a tin cup strung to the back of the belt,
where it is out of the way and unnoticed until wanted.

The Compass

A small pocket compass affixed to a leather thong should be

carried in the breast pocket and fastened to a button of the shirt. An
instrument costing $1 will be accurate enough for all purposes. Many
of the woodsmen as well as the Indians do not use a compass, but
even the expert woodsman gets lost sometimes, and it may happen
that the sun is obscured by clouds, thus making it more difficult to
read the natural signs of the wilderness. The compass is of little
value if a person does not know how to use it. It will not tell in what
direction to go, but when the needle is allowed to swing freely on its
pivot the blue end always points to the magnetic north. The true
north lies a degree or more to either side. In the West, for instance,
the needle will be attracted a trifle to the east, while on the Atlantic
coast it will swing a trifle to the west of the true north. This magnetic
variation need not be taken into account by the woodsman, who may
consider it to point to the true north, for absolute accuracy is not
required for this purpose. However, I would advise the sportsman to
take the precaution of scratching on the back of the case these
letters, B = N, meaning blue equals north. If this is done, the novice
will be certain to remember and read the compass right no matter
how confused he may become on finding that he has lost his way.
The watch may be used as a compass on a clear day by pointing the
hour hand to the sun, when the point halfway between the hour hand
and 12 will be due south.