The far reaches of Journalism in a German landscape

By Ollie Standen

Media, in general, is defined as “the means of communication, such as radio and television, newspapers, magazines, and the internet, that reach or influence people widely” (Dictionary.com, 2018). Journalism, as a major branch of the media, plays a crucial role in informing and educating the public through these various channels. From a broad perspective, journalism is essential to society due to its wide reach, real-time reporting, and ability to keep audiences informed with up-to-date information.

In terms of the German landscape of journalism, there are multiple branches where people enjoy listening or reading about topics they are interested in. That being via radio stations such as M94.5 or old fashioned print media such as the Süddeutsche Zeitung. These platforms allow news to spread quickly and efficiently to inform and educate the people of Germany about on going global situations that may be arising. If you look at these to media institutions of Germany, they both target different audience with different goals, however have similar aims in educating people. If we look at M94.5 for example, it is more geared towards a younger demographic, around 18-25 (those who are in their studies for example) due to the programmes and music they offer. As well as the internal programmes set out for students who are interested in going into radio. This involves students (interns) coming in pitching an idea or topics for a show and being able to produce it. This type of systems helps reach their audiences demographic due to the hosts being of similar ages, meaning that they can stay relevant and hip to keep that audience retention level high. By using this system with interns heavily involved it creates opportunities for those studying to build a future within the radio community as well as keeping the radio station on trend with journalistic reporting on current trends.

However, if you compare the approach of the SZ to educating people, it follows the more stereotypical news outlet. They, themselves, have different specialised journalists (for example, sports) who focus on that segment of the newspaper. By doing this, it benefit the audience as well as the newspaper as they can allows rely on the journalism to be precise and clear due to the specialisation of the journalists. Therefore, allowing them to educate their audiences on the topic of choosing in a reliable matter. In terms of opportunities as well for younger audiences, just like M94.5, the SZ offers an internship scheme where students can come in and work on newspaper stories and see how to operate in that journalistic environment where they discuss news stories and what should be on the cover. If you apply Donsbach and Patterson theory (2004) looking at “Passive-active dimensions” (Hanitzsch, 2007) and “neutral-advocate dimensions” (Hanitzsch, 2007) they have less creative freedom than that of M94.5 due to the political affiliation of the newspaper as well as the limited space they have to work with. On the other hand, they still maintain a good level of engagement due to their commitment to producing high quality news to educate people in.

To conclude, looking at the media landscape of Germany, I think they do well in the form of educating society, due to the plethora of channels and news sources they can choose from and the accessibility of content. Also, in the forms of creating opportunities for those within the society who want to become journalistic writers with countless internships available to them creating a good space for the future, with plenty of fresh ideas coming into the institutions.  

Bibliography

Dictionary.com. (2018). The definition of media. Www.dictionary.com. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/media Hanitzsch, T. (2007). Deconstructing Journalism Culture: Toward a Universal Theory. Communication Theory, 17(4), 367–385. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.2007.00303.x