Populist pit bull alert

Column From the observer to the doer: How journalists take the initiative instead of observing political actors Everyone knows this textbook classic
Journalism student: "Dog bites man" is not news, "man
bites dog", on the other hand, is one. The message is so rare that it alone
for this reason alone has a high sensational and novelty value.
As plausible as the example may be - the journalism textbooks
should all be rewritten in the meantime. Because at the latest since
a few weeks, we also know in Switzerland that at least
Fighting dogs can very well make the headlines. After they were
a few years earlier in Germany and Italy the summer slump
filled this time here in the country in the
Pit bulls and Rottweilers on countless front pages in the run-up to Christmas
her teeth.

Thanks to the tabloid Blick, the dogs even turned out to be downright
as suitable for campaigning: After three pit bulls in Oberglatt near Zurich
a six-year-old Turkish boy to death, the police were
at the instigation of the Blick editorial team in Switzerland within three
Weeks 175,000 signatures for an immediate ban on fighting dogs
collected. Journalists therefore not only have the textbook rule except
but have once again stepped out of the role of the "marker" in
the role of the "doer". Instead of observing political actors,
they have launched a political initiative themselves.

But even before fighting dogs hit the headlines
Anyone would have to raise doubts as to whether the classic example of "man
bite dog" was indeed a clever choice. At the very least, you should ask
whether the message was really newsworthy. Because in this
variant - in complete contrast to the sad events in
Oberglatt - "only" about an entertaining, but ultimately irrelevant
"soft news".

The Ticino television journalist Aldo Sofia has therefore created the well-known
Example modified: "Dog wags its tail" is not a
message, "tail wags the dog", on the other hand, to a large extent
newsworthy. If the tail wags the dog, this should be
According to Sofia, this awakens journalistic instincts.
To stay in the picture: The monstrous thing about the Blick campaign was
not the demand for a ban on fighting dogs. They can and must be discussed in
of democracy can be discussed and decided as a matter of course.
The way the tail wagged the dog was monstrous. The
The tabloid has populistically subordinated all those elected parliamentarians
put under pressure and pilloried by the people who
legislative initiative did not willingly applaud. The publicist
Roger de Weck warned a long time ago that not
politicians such as Blocher, Haider, Le Pen or Bossi are populists,
that endangered democracy, but the tabloid media. The
Blick's pit bull campaign impressively illustrated this observation.
confirmed.

 

Stephan Russ-Mohl heads the European Journalism Observatory at the University of Lugano.