About the Author

Axel Kuhn

E-Mail: axel.kuhn@fau.de

Axel Kuhn currently leads the project “Debate, Pamphlet, or Propaganda? Political Culture Magazines in the Political Culture of the Berlin Republic (1991–2022),” funded by the German Research Foundation. PhD 2008; Habilitation in 2017; 2020–2022 substitute for the Chair of Book Studies at the University Erlangen-Nürnberg. His publications and research refer to the transformation of media, media theory, digital media, and publishing. His main research interests are book and magazine culture, reading culture, reading media, the publishing industry, and their digital transformation.

Contributions by Author: Axel Kuhn

Issue 16
political reading
political magazine design
reading research
multimodality
materiality

Political Reading Artifacts

A Conceptual Approach on Characterizing a Certain Way of Reading

In 2021, the German Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence services) classified the political magazine Compact—an unofficial organ of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) political party—as a right-wing, extremist publication that spreads conspiracy theories, as well as anti-Semitic, and Islamophobic content. The implication that reading Compact contributes to its readers refusing democratic principles, discriminating against minorities, and exhibiting racist nationalism reveals strongly incorporated norms regarding the necessity and influence of political reading in Western democracies.