The magic mountain gives birth to media mice
While most corporate leaders in Davos dutifully feigned concern, many journalists were in a state of genuine panic. So the WEF did yield one insight after all: The global economic crisis is, at least here in Switzerland, also a national media crisis. Op-ed by Oliver Classen, media spokesperson for the Berne Declaration. Classen was in Davos last week as coordinator of «Public Eye,» an organization critical of the WEF.
Journalistic two-tier society
Despite having a home advantage, Swiss media executives are at most allowed to take over the moderation of one of the far less prominent Open Forum panels, as Susanne Wille or Hannes Britschgi did this year. Here the global players CNN, Reuters or Wall Street Journal (whose new publisher Rupert Murdoch also acted as co-chair of the WEF this time), there marginalized national and regional media: this journalistic two-tier society is naturally reflected in the quality of reporting. There are two reasons for this "Davos Gap", which was particularly noticeable in 2009: limited access to the top shots and staffing. By way of comparison: while half a dozen hardened reporters are scurrying through the corridors of the congress center for the FT, a likeable but inexperienced young journalist is serving the German-speaking Swiss regional pool, consisting of Südostschweiz, Landbote, St. Galler Tagblatt and Aargauer Zeitung. In addition, the colleagues from the salmon-colored Finanzblatt hoard all the exclusive party invitations without which you can't get any relevant (off-the-record) quotes in this environment.
Frustrated in Davos
It's not surprising, but it's still frightening: instead of discussing (the lack of) recipes to combat the recession, the Davos bar talks with Swiss press representatives primarily revolved around their own job anxiety. In times like these, when publishing red pencils are once again in full swing, everyone is out for themselves. However, the discussion was less about current or pending redundancies and more about the fundamental uncertainty as to whether the reasons for this are structural or cyclical in nature. The sense of helplessness in this regard was palpable even after the third beer and corresponded eerily with the collective shrugging of shoulders in the congress center. Nevertheless, some colleagues made a hopeful pilgrimage to an industry panel entitled "Fragility of the Fourth Estate" with Steve Forbes, Thomson Reuters CEO Thomas Glocer and WPP boss Marin Sorrell. Instead of new clues, however, this elephant panel only provided "arrogant platitudes", as one frustrated sda representative summed it up. Unfortunately, he was not allowed to write it down.
Suppressed dissenters
In this respect, it was probably a representative WEF event, but at least the flip side of the dominance of Anglo-Saxon business media was discussed: As amplifiers of both bullish euphoria and bearish depression, they form a communicative cluster risk and a liberal opinion cartel in which dissenters hardly get a chance to speak. The "Davos lemming effect" diagnosed (unanimously!) by the Tagi and NZZ does not stop at the leading media. Incidentally, this also applies to the arrogance of power. In one of his dreaded commentaries, FT editor Gapper recently expressed the view that regional media are "completely dispensable both politically and economically", even in times of faltering globalization. It would become critical for our democracy if "journalistic premium quality" could no longer be refinanced. In addition to intellectual arrogance, such assessments show above all that even the magic mountain only gives birth to media mice.
