Corrupt journalists?

This was recently discovered by Transparency International as part of an annual representative survey. For the first time, editorial offices are in a worse position than public administration and parliament. In an Allensbach survey, journalists have for years been in the bad company of politicians and bankers in terms of their professional reputation, far behind doctors and nurses, teachers and craftsmen. Americans also complain heavily about the media's decline in performance and loss of credibility. The Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) recently found that almost a third of them have already changed their news provider as a result. In a previous PEJ study, 80 percent of respondents complained that journalists were often "influenced by powerful people or institutions" and 75 percent said they were "unable to report accurately".

In addition, the Pew Research Center recently conducted a survey on who the US population believes is most likely to "contribute to the common good": The military, teachers and doctors topped this ranking, with journalists, managers and lawyers in last place. Overall, journalistic credibility has been going downhill for years, even decades - and the downward spiral has apparently accelerated in recent years.

Where does that come from? Certainly the upheavals brought about by the Internet. Since audiences have come to expect "everything for free" online and advertisers have been able to reach their target groups more precisely on Google, Facebook & Co than with conventional mass media, the pressure to save money has become increasingly absurd for many editorial offices. Young journalists and freelancers in particular are being mercilessly exploited - and are dependent on additional sources of income in order to survive, which also makes some of them corruptible. There is far less research capacity in the editorial offices themselves than there used to be. The daily bombardment of press releases and PR messages that are "pushed" into the media has increased dramatically. In addition, a gray area has emerged in front of the editorial offices: In many cases, journalism can no longer be clearly distinguished from public relations because freelancers work in both areas.

However, journalism's loss of credibility is probably also due to the fact that journalists like to apply double standards: They demand accountability and transparency from others at all times; when it comes to their own business conduct, however, it is precisely these virtues that are lacking. A large-scale comparative EU-funded research project led by Susanne Fengler (TU Dortmund University) has investigated the question of how journalists in twelve European and two Arab countries view their own misconduct. The results, which were recently presented in Brussels, are very illuminating in their ambiguity. A total of 1762 journalists were surveyed.

In all the countries surveyed, they consistently acknowledged the accountability of the media, but as soon as it became concrete, they would much rather be accountable to their "own conscience" than to any self-regulatory bodies such as press councils, ombudsmen or even superiors. The answer that, in case of doubt, they believed they were "fully and completely" accountable to their sources rather than their audiences was also astonishingly honest. Only in Spain and Jordan did respondents give the answer stipulated in the journalistic codes of ethics - that loyalty is first and foremost due to readers, listeners and viewers.

The loss of credibility probably also has something to do with the fact that the media "explain" all sorts of things, but hardly anything about themselves. With the exception of a few quality newspapers, reporting on journalism and the media is almost non-existent, and on television there are almost only comedy formats on the subject (such as the "heute-show"). Unfortunately, schools are also struggling with media studies, and those who know too little about the media industry cannot make differentiated judgments.

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