Category: Paper

Edition 2/2025, Paper

Cooperation despite competition Working processes and potentials for conflict in an investigative research network

By Jessica Kunert, Luka Simon and Volker Lilienthal | The journalistic cooperation in the investigative research network of the German public broadcasters NDR and WDR and the national daily Süddeutsche Zeitung has not yet been scientifically examined with regard to internal working processes (workflows and standards) and possible problems and conflicts (journalistic research, objectives and financing). In this article, we analyze the form of cooperation of the research network on the basis of its structures and degree of organization. We interviewed nine journalists in the network, using qualitative, guided interviews. The results of the internal working processes show that research teams within the network come together to work on specific topics and benefit from each other’s qualifications and approaches. In-depth discussions and firm agreements are essential. Problems and conflicts arise mainly from the different levels of human and financial resources required by the newsrooms, as well as from the high organizational effort involved. It is clear that the journalists value the network above all for the variety of topics and the high quality and quantity of the research results. As a form of cooperation, the investigative research network we examined is a success that is supported by a large number of implicit rules. In addition to the internal structures, the accusation of distortion of competition – raised due to the cooperation between two public and one private media – needs to be discussed.

Edition 2/2025, Paper

Non-profit journalism in Germany A survey on funding, safeguarding independence and working methods

By Sebastian Gall and Uwe Krüger | In the wake of digitalization and the economic media crisis, a new field of journalism has emerged aiming to compensate for the weaknesses of traditional news media: non-profit journalism. Instead of being financed by sales and advertising revenue (or broadcasting fees), it is primarily funded by small donations, membership fees or foundation money. However, the attempt to operate independent of market logics and to work solely in the public interest raises new questions, especially with regard to maintaining independence from donors. It also poses challenges for media organizations with regard to fundraising. This article uses ten guided interviews with employees of non-profit editorial offices to examine how their work differs from that of editorial offices financed by the private or public sector and what strategies they use to meet the above listed challenges. The results show 1) that the work differs positively from that of a traditional editorial office, especially relating to the choice of topics, research time and organizational structure; 2) that most of the organizations studied use only one type of funding; and 3) that the feared influence of large donors on content apparently does not take place, but that on the contrary, foundations supporting journalism are sometimes even more concerned about maintaining distance to the editorial offices than the other way around. At the same time, it should be noted that only few media organizations employ fundraisers, which means that this work falls onto the shoulders of management, editorial or layout staff.

Edition 2/2025, Paper

Publicity and transformation through the thematization of non-thematization The German project Initiative Nachrichtenaufklärung and its contribution to transformative communication studies

By Jörg-Uwe Nieland and Hektor Haarkötter | Anyone who might be wondering why the discipline of communication studies receives little attention in media in the form of »public scholarship« must critically question the media’s function to set thematic agendas, by applying theories and methods inherent in science. For almost 30 years, the Initiative Nachrichtenaufklärung (INA) e.V. has been taking on the task to question the media’s function to set themes by confronting the influence of AI and disinformation as well as the power of platforms and the powerlessness of recipients and scholarship. In the spirit of transformative public scholarship, the initiative publishes an annual list of severely neglected news topics after joint research and discussion by scientists, journalists and experts. Educating the public about news is here understood and practiced by providing criticism of the lack of thematization and suppression of news and discourse. In this sense, neglected news is also a category of disinformation. This article presents the research findings on »negative news value theory«, »agenda cutting« and »junk news«.

Edition 2/2025, Paper

Memorializing women journalists Obituaries on women journalists’ role performance

By Ella Hackett, Teodora Tavares and Gregory Perreault | Obituaries, though seemingly straightforward, hold deep reflections for the role of women journalists. Through the lens of metajournalistic discourse, this study explores obituaries of women journalists (n=1064) from the United States. The analysis finds that the memorialization of women journalists reflect on their role as advocates in and outside of the newsroom. In doing so, they not only redefine their profession, but work to champion societal advancement and gender equality.

Edition 2/2025, Paper

»I believe that journalism is in urgent need of change« On the relationship between academic journalism training and journalistic practice

By Gabriele Hooffacker and Nicola Moser | Generative language models and AI tools have become essential tools in journalism – used in data analysis, research, translation, idea generation, and much more. How will the use of tools like ChatGPT impact the shape of journalism as a profession, and its academic teaching? Analysis of these expert interviews shows that ChatGPT and similar AI tools are already playing a role in academic journalism training. But while university teaching assumes that generative language models will not fundamentally change the shape of journalism, but merely expand it, the practicing expert interviewed sees a fundamental shift in the relationship between editorial offices and audiences. He also describes how the use of AI tools has long become common practice in editorial offices.

Edition 1/2025, Paper

Policing the narrative A critical discourse analysis of reporting on the #BlackLivesMatter social media movement

By Alfred J. Cotton III and Jeffrey Layne Blevins | Protests emerged worldwide during the summer of 2020 in response to the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on May 25, 2020, who was murdered two months after the Louisville Metro Police Department killed Breonna Taylor. The #BlackLivesMatter hashtag has trended on social media and reignited a nation-wide social justice movement, all during a global pandemic. Our study is a critical discourse analysis on how news media quote, source, identify and misidentify members of the Black Lives Matter movement as it took shape on social media during June 2020, as reported in four US newspapers.

Edition 1/2025, Paper

Getting the truth out The professional practices and roles of Central European foreign correspondents covering the war in Ukraine

By Teodora Trifonova and Joy Jenkins | The study examines the professional practices of foreign correspondents reporting on the war in Ukraine for Central European media. In-depth interviews with representatives of leading media organizations in Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary (N = 11) show that the correspondents distrust the Ukrainian authorities as a source of information and are skeptical of local Ukrainian fixers. They see themselves in a conflict between their personal convictions and journalistic standards, as they are not neutral towards the war but try to remain objective in their reporting. The influence of Russia has been noticeable in all three countries since the start of the war.

Edition 1/2025, Paper

Diversity in journalism An empirical analysis of gender, age, and origin in German newspaper journalism

By Roxane Biller, Seraina Cadonau and Marion Frank | Diverse and sensitive journalistic reporting is only possible where there is a diversity of staff in editorial offices. Previous studies demonstrate the relevance of the topic. The question guiding the research behind this paper is whether the composition of newspaper editorial offices is sufficiently diverse to reflect the population as a whole. The focus is on three characteristics of diversity: gender, age, and origin. The authors are also interested in the differences between newspapers of different political orientations and between the levels of editorial office and leadership positions. A total of 1,503 data sets from six editorial offices of national newspapers, collected from publicly accessible secondary data and from primary data requested personally, were analyzed.

Edition 3-4/2024, Paper

On common words and uncommon things An analysis of the comprehensibility of German television news

By Sophie Wannenmacher | How easy is TV news to understand? This paper analyzes thirty news items broadcast between November 2022 and December 2022. The items and presenting analyzed come from the following news programs: The 8 p.m. edition of tagesschau on ARD, Sat.1 Abendnachrichten (renamed :newstime in June 2023 (cf. Weis 2023)), RTL Aktuell, logo! on the KiKa children’s channel and heute at 7 p.m. on ZDF. As well as investigating the programs using three models of comprehensibility, the speaking rate and other language parameters were also analyzed and compared with one another in detail. The analyses show logo! and heute to be the two easiest programs to understand, followed by Sat.1 Nachrichten and RTL Aktuell. tagesschau was the most difficult to understand on average within the period observed.