Media and Minorities

186
Georg Ruhrmann
xenophobic attacks, civil society organizes candlelight vigils and marches,
and corresponding pictures are broadcast around the world on television.
But, a serious political discussion of integration and disintegration is only just
beginning.
The media do not systematically process and disseminate the results of
social science research and trans-national and cross-cultural comparative
studies that are relevant to immigration policy. When they do, they do not reliably
disclose the information that ensures that common criteria for the objectivity
of research have been satisfied, things like the research’s sponsors,
its investigators’ financial relationships with them, and the contractors it employs.
And they often only vaguely describe the objectives of studies or the hypotheses
being tested. For these and other reasons, the public, and often the
politicians themselves, knows little about the implementation of scientific results
in political decisions. Relevant questions that remain unasked include: Is
this an applied study or basic academic research? How are data collected and
surveys given? Are methods chosen on the basis of theory and, if so, what is
the basis? Are samples representative?
Politicians and policy advisers are frequently not interested in the methodology
of social scientific research on the integration of immigrants and
minorities or its lack. However, it is important that they become interested
if scientific research is to be instrumentalized as a basis for political
decisions.28
Excursus: Evidence and the Quality of Scientific Studies
Although the role of research in evidence-based political decision-making has
been studied for more than 20 years, German decision-makers are only now
beginning to appreciate the importance of at least international research.29 In
the current debate over immigration and integration, however, its findings
28 Roger A. Pielke, Jr., “Lessons from 50 Years of Science Advice to the US President,” in
Wissenschaftliche Politikberatung im Praxistest, eds. Peter Weingart and Gert G. Wagner
(Weilerswist: Velbrück Wissenschaft, 2015), 51–66. For a critical social-theory perspective,
see Colin Crouch, The Knowledge Corrupters: Hidden Consequences of the Financial
Takeover of Public Life (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2015).
29 See Nancy Cartwright and Jeremy Hardie, Evidence-based Policy: A Practical Guide To
Do It Better (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012); John D. Brewer, The Public Value
of the Social Sciences: An Interpretative Essay (London: Bloomsbury, 2013); and Simon
Bastow, Patrick Dunleavy, and Jane Tinkler, The Impact of the Social Sciences: How Academics
and Their Research Make a Difference (Los Angeles and London: Sage, 2014);
see also Credible and Actionable Evidence: The Foundation for Rigorous and Influential
Evaluations, eds. Stewart L. Donaldson, Christina A. Christie, and Melvin M. Mark (Los
Angeles and London: Sage, 2015).
© 2016, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen
ISBN Print: 9783525300886 — ISBN E-Book: 9783666300882