• Source: Stefan Weber (media researcher)

Stefan Weber (born 14 June 1970 in Salzburg) is an Austrian media researcher and writer. Weber has been called a "plagiarism hunter" (Plagiatsjäger). He has uncovered cases of fraud in theses while in other cases his public accusations turned out to be wrong.




Biography


Weber studied journalism and communication science at the University of Salzburg and subsequently worked in Salzburg as a journalist and university lecturer. In 2005 he completed his Habilitation at the University of Vienna. Weber blames personal conflicts for not being able to pursue a further academic career.
When Weber discovered in 2005 that a Tübingen theologian, in 2004, had copied approximately half of his doctoral thesis more or less verbatim from Weber's own 1996 thesis, he launched a public media campaign to draw attention to the problem of plagiarism in academia. The Tübingen plagiarist had his doctoral degree retracted in July 2005. In addition, he received a criminal court sentence in 2007.
In 2007, Weber co-authored a Google-critical study, and published the book The Google-Copy-Paste-Syndrome.
Weber publishes comments on plagiarism issues on his Blog für wissenschaftliche Redlichkeit and runs a business that offers investigations into scientific theses and resumes as well as related public relations works.




Public plagiarism allegations


Weber has raised allegations against several high-profile public personalities. While Weber has uncovered a number of plagiarism incident, he has been criticized for his methods and his conclusions with critics accusing him of running campaigns based on misrepresentations due to personal motivations. Silvia Ettl-Huber, professor of economics at a University of Applied Sciences criticized Weber for defining plagiarism as a deviation from his own standards which leads to i.e. repeated quotes of a single author being accused of plagiarism.
In 2007, Weber accused the then minister of science Johannes Hahn of having copied "dozens of pages" of his dissertation. An examination conducted on behalf of the University of Vienna found that Hahn had not appropriated works of other authors and concluded that the thesis was likely compliant with the then valid citation style which was also suggested by the supervisor of the thesis Peter Kampits but would not comply with modern rules for citations. In 2020, Weber found that the general manager of a subsidiary company of the Burgtheater had wrongly claimed to hold a doctorate in mathematics. In 2021, Weber discovered sections in the dissertation and diploma thesis of then minister for labour Christine Aschbacher, which consisted of nonsensical rants that lacked grammar and scientific standards. As a consequence, Aschbacher resigned from her office. In 2024, Weber claimed that the editor-in-chief of Süddeutsche Zeitung had plagiarized her dissertation and had fraudulently copied journalistic articles. An examination of the dissertation conducted by the University of Salzburg found "no relevant scientific misconduct", a review by Süddeutsche Zeitung found that in about two thirds of the cases, Weber had found texts which other websites had copied from Süddeutsche Zeitung without identifying that Süddeutsche Zeitung was the original publisher. Other parts of texts Weber had accused of plagiarism were commonly quoted facts, official statements or general definitions In the aftermath, Weber was accused of advancing a smear campaign run against Süddeutsche Zeitung and its staff by right-wing internet activists.
In June 2024, Stefan Weber was convicted in the first instance by the Salzburg regional court (Landesgericht) in the case of Oliver Vitouch v. Weber for defamation under section 6 of the Austrian Media Act in conjunction with the Austrian Criminal Code. The judgment is not final.




Publications


Monographs (in German):

Nachrichtenkonstruktion im Boulevardmedium. Die Wirklichkeit der "Kronen Zeitung" (Passagen, Vienna, 1995), ISBN 3-851-65163-4
Die Dualisierung des Erkennens. Zu Konstruktivismus, Neurophilosophie und Medientheorie (Passagen, Vienna, 1996), ISBN 3-851-65245-2
Wie journalistische Wirklichkeiten entstehen ("Schriftenreihe des Kuratoriums für Journalistenausbildung", Vol. 15, Salzburg, 1999)
Was steuert Journalismus? Ein System zwischen Selbstreferenz und Fremdsteuerung (UVK Medien, Konstanz, 2000), ISBN 3-896-69293-3, reviewed by Matthias Kohring
Medien - Systeme - Netze. Elemente einer Theorie der Cyber-Netzwerke (Transcript, Bielefeld, 2001), ISBN 3-933-12777-7, reviewed by Alexander Görke
Non-dualistische Medientheorie. Eine philosophische Grundlegung (UVK, Konstanz, 2005), ISBN 3-896-69474-X, reviewed by Armin Scholl, reviewed by Roland Graf
So arbeiten Österreichs Journalisten für Zeitungen und Zeitschriften ("Schriftenreihe des Kuratoriums für Journalistenausbildung", Vol. 18, Salzburg, 2006)
Das Google-Copy-Paste-Syndrom. Wie Netzplagiate Ausbildung und Wissen gefährden (Heise/"Telepolis" at dpunkt, Hannover-Heidelberg, 2007; 2nd revised edition 2009), ISBN 3-936-93137-2, reviewed by Dennis Deicke, reviewed by Steffen Büffel
Die Medialisierungsfalle. Kritik des digitalen Zeitgeists (Edition Va Bene/"Eine Analyse", Vienna-Klosterneuburg, 2008), ISBN 3-851-67209-7, the author in talk with Britta Bürger concerning his book
Editorships (in German and English, selection):

Was konstruiert Kunst? Kunst an der Schnittstelle von Konstruktivismus, Systemtheorie und Distinktionstheorie (Passagen, Vienna, 1999), ISBN 3-851-65357-2, reviewed by Christian Huck
Theorien der Medien. Von der Kulturkritik bis zum Konstruktivismus (UVK at UTB, Konstanz, 2003; 2nd revised edition 2010), ISBN 3-825-22424-4, reviewed by Lars Rademacher, reviewed by Wilhelm Schwendemann, reviewed by Sven Grampp and Jörg Seifert, reviewed by Stefan Höltgen
With Alexander Riegler (eds.): The Non-dualizing Philosophy of Josef Mitterer. Brussels-Dresden 2008, ISSN 1782-348X (Special issue of "Constructivist Foundations", http://www.univie.ac.at/constructivism/journal/3/3)
With Alexander Riegler (eds.): Die Dritte Philosophie. Kritische Beiträge zu Josef Mitterers Non-Dualismus (Velbrück Wissenschaft, Weilerswist, 2010; 2nd edition 2011), ISBN 3-938-80888-8, reviewed by Peter Strasser, reviewed by Andrea Roedig
With Alexander Riegler (eds.): Non-dualism: A Conceptual Revision? Brussels 2013, ISSN 1782-348X (Special issue of "Constructivist Foundations", http://www.univie.ac.at/constructivism/journal/8/2)




External links


Literature by and about Stefan Weber in the German National Library catalogue
Website of Stefan Weber Archived 2012-12-15 at the Wayback Machine
AntiPlag Austria Archived 2013-04-25 at the Wayback Machine




References

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck
• Daftar masalah matematika yang belum terpecahkan
• Stefan Weber (media researcher)
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