Embedded Journalism Made in French-speaking Switzerland
The French-Swiss magazine L'Hebdo is getting up close and personal with parliamentary candidates. Its journalists accompany the politicians in their daily lives, stay overnight at their homes, and write about it on the website «Blog&Breakfast.» A new form of election coverage has been born.
The French-speaking Swiss magazine L'Hebdo gets up close and personal with parliamentary candidates. Its journalists accompany the politicians in their everyday lives, spend the night in their homes and write about it on the "Blog&Breakfast" website. A new form of election reporting is born. Information in the context of election campaigns needs new impulses, writes the NZZ. This is where the French-speaking Swiss magazine L'Hebdo has recently made its mark. L'Hebdo already caused a stir last year when its journalists took it in turns to visit a Paris suburb rocked by unrest and also reported from there via the Internet. Now, since May, the magazine has been sending its reporters to the homes and apartments of Swiss parliamentary candidates, where the journalists also spend the night in order to get closer to the candidates and reveal their ambitions, talents, characters and doubts. Reports are published on a website called "Blog&Breakfast" (www.blogandbreakfast.ch).
The idea for this journalistic experiment initially provoked laughter among the staff, Titus Plattner, the editor responsible for "B&B", told the NZZ. However, a serious debate quickly developed about the limits of political journalism and most defended the idea as an original way of talking about politics and closing the gap between politicians and citizens. "Reporters and politicians are always close, we are just exposing this fact," said Plattner.
And so the journalists write several stories a day and, in addition to Google Maps, also place photos or videos in which the candidates explain their positions in one minute. The journalists accompany the candidates in their everyday lives, but still respect their privacy. Private matters are only published if they are of political importance. This is reportage in its purest form.
Plattner considers the possibility of spatially locating blog posts using maps and aerial photographs to be groundbreaking. As he told the NZZ, he is of the opinion that in future all news items will not only be provided with the place and date, but also with the time and GPS coordinates. This would improve the transparency of the information and make it easier to assign it to individuals. According to the NZZ, the "Blog&Breakfast" experiment is also an attempt to sound out the possibilities for the press in the online future. Many journalists are still unsure about the new technical equipment (usually a laptop with a wireless Internet connection, a photo and video camera, a cell phone and a tangle of cables and adapters). With a little practice, however, everyone was able to overcome these hurdles.
The idea for this journalistic experiment initially provoked laughter among the staff, Titus Plattner, the editor responsible for "B&B", told the NZZ. However, a serious debate quickly developed about the limits of political journalism and most defended the idea as an original way of talking about politics and closing the gap between politicians and citizens. "Reporters and politicians are always close, we are just exposing this fact," said Plattner.
And so the journalists write several stories a day and, in addition to Google Maps, also place photos or videos in which the candidates explain their positions in one minute. The journalists accompany the candidates in their everyday lives, but still respect their privacy. Private matters are only published if they are of political importance. This is reportage in its purest form.
Plattner considers the possibility of spatially locating blog posts using maps and aerial photographs to be groundbreaking. As he told the NZZ, he is of the opinion that in future all news items will not only be provided with the place and date, but also with the time and GPS coordinates. This would improve the transparency of the information and make it easier to assign it to individuals. According to the NZZ, the "Blog&Breakfast" experiment is also an attempt to sound out the possibilities for the press in the online future. Many journalists are still unsure about the new technical equipment (usually a laptop with a wireless Internet connection, a photo and video camera, a cell phone and a tangle of cables and adapters). With a little practice, however, everyone was able to overcome these hurdles.
