Self-cannibalization and quality decay
The «Quality of the Media» yearbook presents Switzerland as reflected in media research. Guest commentary by Stephan Russ-Mohl, director of the European Journalism Observatory at the University of Lugano.
The miracle occurred in the middle of the summer slump, but even this did not help it to receive the media coverage it deserved: a group of researchers led by Zurich media sociologist Kurt Imhof has published the first "Quality of the Media" yearbook for Switzerland. On 373 pages, it meticulously documents how journalism and the media are developing.
According to the authors, the outlook is bleak: the internet is increasingly absorbing the attention of young people - at the expense of traditional media, i.e. the press, radio and television. Online and offline, a "free culture has established itself that is driving the cross-media multiple use of media content and is tantamount to the self-cannibalization of paid media in the press sector". In terms of content, soft news, all-round journalism and low-quality media are on the rise. Of all things, "in the age of globalization, world observation is dwindling", the national and, above all, the regional are being revalued, "aspects of life, advice and entertainment" are coming to the fore.
Of course, we already suspected this beforehand. But now it has been confirmed with facts and figures: Switzerland is no longer the "island of the blessed". A lot of it reads as if the researchers were describing the decline of the media in the USA - and not here on our own doorstep.
The research group wants to make the "decline in quality" of the information media transparent and help ensure that the "competition for advertisements leads to a competition for journalistic quality again". Above all, however, it wants to finally create a platform for an "empirically based debate on quality". This is an important first step. We need to continuously record how the media are changing, what hype they are generating and what damage and benefits they are causing. Without such an annual description of the state of affairs, based on the model of the American "Project for Excellence in Journalism", journalists and media managers will be groping in the fog when it comes to self-observation.
It is exemplary that the research team has so far financed its work from a variety of civil society sources. Among the donors that Imhof highlights at the beginning of the book, however, there are no media companies - which shows how little interest the industry has in seriously addressing its own quality problems.
What is needed now is an independent analysis of this kind for the entire German-speaking world. It is alarming that, according to Imhof, the usual funds for university research funding cannot be tapped for such a vital project. It would be time for these funding institutions (SNF in Switzerland, DFG in Germany, FwF in Austria), but also the scientific academies or the Max Planck Society, to address the issue.
What is also alarming with regard to the state of public opinion is how the study was discussed in the reader comments even on "serious" websites, such as Nzz.ch: There it was hardly about findings, but rather politicized and polemicized about where and how Imhof should be classified in the political spectrum. The intention is clear: if he is pigeonholed sufficiently far to the left, there is no need to deal with the findings of the researchers. This is also more reminiscent of the polarizing American talk (un)culture than of the rule-free discourse among reasoning (educational) citizens that Habermas once wished for and which was at least partially successful for a long time in Switzerland, a country characterized by concordance.
The quality of this debate also shows that it is already five past twelve. Ultimately, the future of journalism is also about the future of our democracy and society.
The study is available on the Internet: http://jahrbuch.foeg.uzh.ch/Seiten/default.aspx
According to the authors, the outlook is bleak: the internet is increasingly absorbing the attention of young people - at the expense of traditional media, i.e. the press, radio and television. Online and offline, a "free culture has established itself that is driving the cross-media multiple use of media content and is tantamount to the self-cannibalization of paid media in the press sector". In terms of content, soft news, all-round journalism and low-quality media are on the rise. Of all things, "in the age of globalization, world observation is dwindling", the national and, above all, the regional are being revalued, "aspects of life, advice and entertainment" are coming to the fore.
Of course, we already suspected this beforehand. But now it has been confirmed with facts and figures: Switzerland is no longer the "island of the blessed". A lot of it reads as if the researchers were describing the decline of the media in the USA - and not here on our own doorstep.
The research group wants to make the "decline in quality" of the information media transparent and help ensure that the "competition for advertisements leads to a competition for journalistic quality again". Above all, however, it wants to finally create a platform for an "empirically based debate on quality". This is an important first step. We need to continuously record how the media are changing, what hype they are generating and what damage and benefits they are causing. Without such an annual description of the state of affairs, based on the model of the American "Project for Excellence in Journalism", journalists and media managers will be groping in the fog when it comes to self-observation.
It is exemplary that the research team has so far financed its work from a variety of civil society sources. Among the donors that Imhof highlights at the beginning of the book, however, there are no media companies - which shows how little interest the industry has in seriously addressing its own quality problems.
What is needed now is an independent analysis of this kind for the entire German-speaking world. It is alarming that, according to Imhof, the usual funds for university research funding cannot be tapped for such a vital project. It would be time for these funding institutions (SNF in Switzerland, DFG in Germany, FwF in Austria), but also the scientific academies or the Max Planck Society, to address the issue.
What is also alarming with regard to the state of public opinion is how the study was discussed in the reader comments even on "serious" websites, such as Nzz.ch: There it was hardly about findings, but rather politicized and polemicized about where and how Imhof should be classified in the political spectrum. The intention is clear: if he is pigeonholed sufficiently far to the left, there is no need to deal with the findings of the researchers. This is also more reminiscent of the polarizing American talk (un)culture than of the rule-free discourse among reasoning (educational) citizens that Habermas once wished for and which was at least partially successful for a long time in Switzerland, a country characterized by concordance.
The quality of this debate also shows that it is already five past twelve. Ultimately, the future of journalism is also about the future of our democracy and society.
The study is available on the Internet: http://jahrbuch.foeg.uzh.ch/Seiten/default.aspx
