To the point: Quality in journalism
Complaints about the lack of quality in journalism are a perennial topic. Media scholars express concern, and some journalists long for the good old days, when there were far more people and far more time available for research, and the results were therefore bound to be better.
Federal councilors even advise abstinence from the media: "My advice to people is: don't even look at the newspapers, throw them away! You quickly forget what's in them anyway." Original statement by our Defense Minister Ueli Maurer to the magazine Klartext.
The situation seems so serious that even the full Federal Council will have to discuss the state of the Swiss press in June. This was triggered by a postulate from Hans-Jürg Fehr, an SP National Councilor from Schaffhausen. Entitled "Securing press diversity," it said: "The Federal Council shall report to the Federal Councils within one year on the situation of the press in Switzerland and its prospects for the future." The Federal Office of Communications (Bakom) was quickly given the task of investigating the matter. The report is now available. We can't wait to see what comes of it.
The quality discussion among media researchers in their ivory tower will not stop, and the critical reactions from the press will not be long in coming. Especially because the research report is not beyond all doubt. Norbert Neiniger, the Schaffhausen publisher and editor-in-chief of the Schaffhauser Nachrichten, made this point excellently in an article in the NZZ of March 29. Another point of criticism is that those actually affected, i.e. the newspapers or their industry association Schweizer Medien, were only marginally involved. The definition of journalistic quality is not as simple as some critics imagine.
Or is it? Medienspiegel.ch reported on an ad on Ron Orp in which the company Adastra Medien, which produces thematic supplements for Blick and Tagi, among others, is looking for "typists". The requirement profile in brief: People who are willing to write, who are not too good for anything. And so the ad reads: "Are you able to present even rather boring topics in a lively manner? Are you not too shy to include 'surreptitious advertising' in your text? Are you a sports/outdoor afin (please note the spelling ...)? Dare to write a travelogue without having done the trip yourself?"
At least they are looking for typists and not journalists.
Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief
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