Vera Katzenberger (2024): Zwischen Anspruch und Wirklichkeit. Kompetenzen und Ausbildung für professionellen Journalismus. [Between aspiration and reality. Competencies and training for professional journalism.]

Reviewed by Gabriele Hooffacker

What do the next generation of young journalists believe they are facing? Did academic journalism training prepare them adequately for the reality of the profession? »Digitalization has changed journalistic training, careers and processes at regional media companies. But there are deficits,« states Oliver Haus­tein-Teßmer (Haustein-Teßmer 2024: 68).

What could be more obvious than to ask those starting out on careers in journalism about their experiences? And could this provide perspectives on the worrying observations that fewer and fewer university graduates are choosing a journalistic profession?

In her 2022 dissertation, now published in book form by Herbert von Halem Verlag, Vera Katzenberger looks at this issue in a two-part study, divided into a qualitative and a quantitative survey. Her integrative orientation framework is the field theory of Pierre Bourdieu, with its key terms field, habitus and capital. The empirical findings make for fascinating reading.

In the first section of the study, 25 people were interviewed: 16 women and 9 men aged between 21 and 32 years (161ff.). They had between one and six years of professional experience. Almost all had a university degree, mostly in journalism or media studies. Only one of the interviewees entered the profession via a school of journalism, having not completed their degree. All had completed multiple internships before joining the profession (cf. 164).

The interviewees took a sobering view of the situation. »All in all, it seemed like the original idea of journalism as a creative, varied, socially relevant dream job […] was shaken quite soon after they begin their careers. The impression was that the professional reality caught up with them early in their careers« (171). The interviewees were concerned by the decreasing level of trust in journalism and by the low view of journalism’s credibility (cf. 182). This was accompanied by hostility on social media or the public realm (cf. 184).

Do the young journalists feel prepared for the digitalization of the profession? In their answers, they place less importance on training in specific digital tools and more on being open towards technology. One needs to be generally »very open and flexible towards new technology,« said one interviewee (186). Dealing competently with the different platforms is important, she said (cf. 189). Journalists need to be able to produce content for all media and platforms, from print to podcasts to Instagram reels.

Which parts of this did the young journalists learn in their university training? In summary, they viewed the background knowledge on the media system and media history as helpful, but emphasized that what they took away with them was largely ethical guidelines (cf. 196). Universities of applied sciences were especially likely to be assessed positively in terms of their practical relevance (cf. 200).

In the second section of the study, those new to the profession were surveyed online. A data set of 228 persons remained after data cleansing. The age range here was larger than in section I. All but 2.7 percent had either a university degree (81.7 percent) or at least a university entrance qualification. The majority of those surveyed stated that they were satisfied with their training, although the picture was more mixed for individual segments. 68.5 percent stated that »journalists are increasingly confronted with mistrust and hostility in their work« (250).

Vera Katzenberger sums up the findings of the two sections of the study as follows: »Once they had begun their careers in the field of journalism, in the view of the young journalists surveyed at the time of the survey, it was above all technological developments relating to social media, smartphones and algorithms, economic influences and profit expectations in the editorial offices, as well as low prestige of journalism and hostility towards journalists and journalism, that shaped the journalistic field and limited or even endangered its autonomy« (291).

She diagnoses not only a dialog deficit, related to audience-oriented forms of presentation, but also an innovation deficit regarding technological developments (cf. 294). Ultimately, the study does not provide an answer to the question of whether university-based journalism training qualifies students more for the market or for following the development critically in media and society. But it clearly shows that the work conditions of those surveyed – low pay for a high workload and a lot of responsibility – are extremely demanding.

Vera Katzenberger’s study is highly recommended to anyone who currently works in journalism training, as there is a need for improvement in this field, too (cf. Dernbach 2022). In particular, the deficits named provide important orientation for further developing curricula at universities and schools of journalism.

However, one thing that even the best journalism training will be unable to change in the short term is the audience’s observable loss of trust in the media and the associated hostility that journalists (and university teachers) face. One can only hope that dedicated young people will continue to come forward for a career in journalism and work long-term for lively, critical journalism. The framework conditions need to be right for this. Vera Katzenberger has clearly shown where the deficits lie.

About the reviewer

Gabriele Hooffacker, Prof. Dr. phil., (*1959), is co-editor of Journalism Research and teaches at Leipzig University of Applied Sciences (HTWK Leipzig). Hooffacker edits the textbook series »Journalistische Praxis«, founded by Walther von La Roche (1936-2010) and published by Springer VS. Contact: g.hooffacker@link-m.de

References

Dernbach, Beatrice: Ausbildung für Journalismus. In: Löffelholz, Martin; Rothenberger, Liane (eds.): Handbuch Journalismustheorien. Wiesbaden [Springer VS] 2022, pp. 475–487

Haustein-Teßmer, Oliver: Wie die Digitalisierung die Journalismusausbildung verändert. In: Hooffacker, Gabriele; Kenntemich, Wolfgang; Kulisch, Uwe (eds.): Neue Plattformen – neue Öffentlichkeiten. Wiesbaden [Springer VS] 2024, pp. 67–78

Translation: Sophie Costella

This review first appeared in rezensionen:kommunikation:medien, 10 December 2025, accessible at: https://www.rkm-journal.de/archives/25269

About the book

Vera Katzenberger: Zwischen Anspruch und Wirklichkeit. Kompetenzen und Ausbildung für professionellen Journalismus. [Between aspiration and reality. Competencies and training for professional journalism.] Cologne [Herbert von Halem] 2024, 393 pages, EUR 24