Who cares?
Comment: According to Oliver Classen, the self-inflicted crisis in media journalism is (also) a threat to our information society.
Commentary According to Oliver Classen, the home-made crisis in media journalism is (also) a threat to our information society. And it was only logical that it came from the "Old Aunt". After all, its editor-in-chief recently declared (WW 39/02) that the NZZ understands and treats its weekly media supplement - "in contrast to other papers" - not as a trend section of the nineties, but as a constant companion to the industry.This is probably particularly pleasing for the responsible NZZ department head, who can now observe even more calmly from the high seat of his anachronistic job security and read the riot act with more relish. He did the latter at the end of January when he called "the media journalists"
in corpore was suspected of contributing significantly to its own weakening through its penchant for navel-gazing and "spreading half-truths within the industry".
No question: Swiss media sites and services provide plenty of evidence for this vanity and tabloidization thesis. Last week alone, for example, the Tages-Anzeiger denounced for the umpteenth time "internal bans on thinking" at Weltwoche, while the Mittelland-Zeitung sold details about the Tamedia "Express" rights deal that had been known for some time and were also irrelevant to the MZ audience as prime news,
- Weltwoche staged an equally unimportant and unsavory cockfight with the Schawinski/Wigdorovits correspondence,
- and the Klein-Report even found the divorce of the Löpfe editors-in-chief worthy of a lead story.
Four examples, one question: Who cares? The wider public certainly doesn't. And the rumor mills of publishers and editorial offices are boiling even without such media fuel.
Instead of examining industry-specific vices such as the cult of celebrity, sensationalism and ideological resentment, media journalism itself is falling prey to them. The increased pressure on the job market and profiling at best partially explains and excuses this regrettable development.
However, the self-disavowal of second-order observers and the dissolution of many media departments (also) due to this is tragic for our media society. As its complexity increases, so does its need for transparency and self-reflection. It is doubtful - again with the NZZ - that media stories that are tied to current events and scattered throughout the newspaper can meet this need for orientation.
> Oliver Classen, Editor
in corpore was suspected of contributing significantly to its own weakening through its penchant for navel-gazing and "spreading half-truths within the industry".
No question: Swiss media sites and services provide plenty of evidence for this vanity and tabloidization thesis. Last week alone, for example, the Tages-Anzeiger denounced for the umpteenth time "internal bans on thinking" at Weltwoche, while the Mittelland-Zeitung sold details about the Tamedia "Express" rights deal that had been known for some time and were also irrelevant to the MZ audience as prime news,
- Weltwoche staged an equally unimportant and unsavory cockfight with the Schawinski/Wigdorovits correspondence,
- and the Klein-Report even found the divorce of the Löpfe editors-in-chief worthy of a lead story.
Four examples, one question: Who cares? The wider public certainly doesn't. And the rumor mills of publishers and editorial offices are boiling even without such media fuel.
Instead of examining industry-specific vices such as the cult of celebrity, sensationalism and ideological resentment, media journalism itself is falling prey to them. The increased pressure on the job market and profiling at best partially explains and excuses this regrettable development.
However, the self-disavowal of second-order observers and the dissolution of many media departments (also) due to this is tragic for our media society. As its complexity increases, so does its need for transparency and self-reflection. It is doubtful - again with the NZZ - that media stories that are tied to current events and scattered throughout the newspaper can meet this need for orientation.
> Oliver Classen, Editor
