Journalism 2020

In order of appearance

Topic 1 “New Qualities of Journalism”

Keynote Contributions

• Phil Meyer (University of North Carolina /USA)

How Quality Journalism Can Survive in the Web 3.0

Quality journalism is influential journalism exercised in the public interest. The Web has undermined it in two ways:

1. The Web makes advertising cheaper, thus eroding traditional means of support for quality journalism.

2. By increasing information clutter, the Web makes it more difficult for quality journalism to reach its intended audience.

In the U.S., the first problem is already being addressed with innovative forms of funding, mostly by charity. But the problem of getting the messages to an attentive public remains unresolved. We must find ways to support general media, where deliberation over public policy usually takes place, and to recognize quality among the multitude of free agents who practice journalism on their own, without institutional support.

• Alan Rusbridger (Editor-in-chief of The Guardian /GB)

Panel Contributions

• José Garcia Avilés (Universidad Miguel Hernández / ESP)

Why Journalism is Failing: the situation in Southern Europe

Quality journalism continues to be a scarce good which requires a lot of work, dedication, intelligence and access to sources. The digital environment of media convergence provides many elements to satisfy these needs. Only journalists and companies that develop open, participatory storytelling and make connections with their readers are in a position to succeed. Some media companies in Southern Europe are slowly adapting to a new production system. However, a series of structural problems keep journalism from thriving in this region. To some extent, these problems consist of professional practices that inhibit reporting. Equally important is the increasing isolation of much of the profession from large sectors of the population. Most traditional media have lost their connection with their public, and have turned into private businesses, too close to political and economic power.

• Andy Kaltenbrunner (Medienhaus Wien /A)

“Journalism is in trouble.” This is how Phil Meyer begins his U.S.analysis on “The Vanishing Newspaper” in 2004. This statement rings even more true for Central Europe in 2010. German and Austrian journalists react with what they do best: critisize and complain in search of a culprit to blame. Of course there are many culprits.  For instance the world economic crisis, the EU- and national media-policies that do not support sustainable efforts of quality in journalism,  media markets with (excessively) high concentrations of ownership across Europe encouraging quality-related issues in small markets and countries, and of course for the past 20 years there is competition from digitalisation, the World Wide Web and still unclear convergence processes in technology, business, media and professional journalism.

But through all of this we can also see the possibilities. The financial crisis accelerates overdue changes in the production processes of news media and provokes open and broad discussion about self-images and the social meanings of journalism never heard before. The lack of intelligent regulation of media-policies in countries like Austria gives opportunities to develop new media in modern settings for one more open society. The narrow oligopoly of central European media markets means less competition but allows traditional journalists in print, radio and (public) TV some extra time for new self-discovery. Digitalisation and the Web give new hope for journalism in one more open civil society, using new channels and interacting with the public. Journalism 2020 will be quite different. In the Vienna conference 2010, let us see the recent data and research results of our host’s national journalism situation and extrapolate them together with international comparison and a bit of optimism.

• Antoni Maria Piqué (Consultant/ ESP, Latin America)

South America evokes an image of eternally unfulfilled promises of development and wealth. Promises shattered by populist politics, corrupt politicos and lousy policies, lack of quality education and crumbling infrastructures, poor development, an unsafe legal environment and a whopping level of social inequality.

Keep believing this and only this and you will lose a great opportunity to learn how the media industry copes successfully with such an environment. To cite some cases:

• How a sports newspaper evolved into a a sports tv channel and radio station with a huge community involvement
• How an agricultural-based country managed to put a computer in the hands of all third-grade students and their teachers, thus creating a new generation of digital users
• How a newspaper founded in 1870 and now at the summit of its power is currently planning the step-by-step termination of its print editions to move online… (seriously)
• How traditional newspapers started to grow readers for their brands out of the C and D groups by actually providing journalism that cares for these groups rather than considering them irrelevant

For all its woes – real and imaginary – you must take South America more seriously in the immediate future. Within 15 minutes at Journalism 2020, Vienna, you will understand why.

• Michal Glowacki (University of Wrocław/ PL)

Between autonomy and instrumentalization.
Professionalization of journalism in Poland

The 1989 social and political transformation of Poland had a huge impact on its journalism culture and level of professionalization. The transformation of journalism was supported by technological development, increased competition, convergence and the transnationalization of communications. Many researchers have already acknowledged difficulties when applying Western models of journalism to post-communist countries. This presentation will further address specific features of Polish journalism and evaluate its quality 20 years after the collapse of communism. Main components of the presentation will be focused on levels of autonomy, ethics, the impact of media ownership and current trends in development. Is there a special model for Polish journalism? What are perspectives for the future?

Topic 2 „Credibility – the Neglected Nr. 1 Quality of Journalism“

• Susanne Fengler (Technische Universität Dortmund /D)

Do we need a new ethics code for online journalism? Can cyber-ombudsmen help preserve journalistic credibility in the Internet era? In the digital age, new questions about media credibility arise – and new instruments have been developed to hold the media accountable. Media websites and bloggers focusing on the media have the potential to add substantially to the plurality of voices watching over the independence and quality of journalism and media, and foster participation of citizens in media discussions. On the other hand, examples from the United States show how easily media criticism online can turn into cyber-mobbing of journalists. The statement will give an overview over innovative media accountability instruments in Europe and summarize results of recent studies.

• Scott Maier (University of Oregon /USA) with Colin Porlezza (Università della Svizzera italiana /CH)

News Accuracy and Credibility: Trans-Atlantic Perspectives Journalism research in the U.S. has long monitored the accuracy of newspapers. An empirical assessment of fact-checking in the European press, however, is lacking. To address this gap, the European Journalism Observatory (EJO) recently completed a study of news accuracy in Swiss and Italian newspapers. Replicating U.S. research, news sources assessed the accuracy of 1000 news stories published by five newspapers in each nation. The results indicate factual errors in Swiss and Italian newspapers are as prevalent if not more prevalent than in their U.S. counterparts (though the Italian results are tentative due to a small response rate). On both sides of the Atlantic, media accuracy is of great importance, as news credibility demonstrably declines with the frequency and severity of errors.

• Matthias Karmasin (Medienhaus Wien /A)

CSR in the Media Industry: Between Marketing and Credibility

The media’s role as the fourth estate is an important factor in criticizing economic developments, scandalising managerial behaviour and raising ethical concerns in public debate on the nature and structure of the globalised economy. The mediated debate on business ethics and CSR has had an impact on the perception of corporate social responsibility as well as on the integrity on managers. But did it impact the CSR of media enterprises as well?  Carroll/Buchholtz (2000, S.36f.) summarizes the new imperative for business: “Make a profit, obey the law, be ethical and be a good corporate citizen.” CSR understood as “the commitment of business to contribute to sustainable economic development, working with employees, their families, the local community and society at large to improve their quality of life” is up to date.

The EU-Commission wants to promote CSR in order to make Europe the leading sphere for CSR and many initiatives trying to balance responsibility and business performance (e.g. Carroll/Buchholtz 2000, Ulrich 2001, Noll 2002, Göbel 2006 Karmasin/Litschka 2008) are in the works. Elements of CSR strategies are: Community relations, consumer protection, diversity, ethical business practices, health and safety, labour rights, strategic philanthropy, working conditions. The paper examines if the (due and legitimate) criticism and the calls for ethical behaviour of managers and the CSR of the modern corporation had an impact on the media industry. Do the critics apply the same standards to themselves? Do they only call for a balance of ethical and economic rationality if others are concerned, thus creating an ethical sauce to sell crisis or disturbed audiences while keeping from entering the ethical debate themselves? Is the call for “a more humane, more ethical and a more transparent way of doing business“ (Marrewijk 2003: 95) heard in the media industry? Is CSR a way to ensure credibility and to safeguard journalistic quality?

• Klaus Meier (Technische Universität Dortmund /D)

Trust and Transparency

Transparency is a new buzzword in the media industry. New transparency models — such as the “transparent newsroom“ — due to interactivity, immediacy and archiving capacity in the Internet, offer greater potential than classical instruments like ombudsman, the open assessment of sources in newspaper features or the correcting of errors in the next newspaper issue. We analyse different perceptions and instruments of transparency, categorizing them in a three-dimensional matrix model consisting of: traditional or digital approach; one-way or interactive communication; openness in the journalistic product or in the journalistic process. We assume that transparency strengthens trust when journalists and newsrooms disclose their practices to their audiences. But does transparency really beget trust? The first results of a scientific experiment attempt to answer the question of which form of transparency actually leads to more trust.

Topic 3 „The Future of Professionalism in an Environment of Laymen?“

• Sylvia Egli von Matt (maz Schweizer Journalistenschule /CH)

I will start with two theses and focus then on the needs in education and midcareer-training – meaning actually the preparation for the future.

Thesis 1:  We will have a fruitful coexistence between professionals and laymen.

Thesis 2:  This coexistence is a big challenge for the professional journalism – makes it more interesting, but forces also to much more quality.

Theses 1: The fruitful coexistence: Technological development and social change initiate and support new form of public, especially public laymen communication. Laymen communication gets more and more professionalised. Let’s think at keywords like certain regulations, factors of success or web-reputation.  Laymen establish themselves as important voices for certain topics in a partial public. They are laymen in Journalism, but specialists in some topics.

Thesis 2: The challenge:

Professional journalism has a great future, if we watch the good layman communication and learn from it. If we want to keep journalism as a profession – and we do have to keep it for serving the democracy – we have to become more professional, we have to become better. We have to reflect our role and to know what hat we are wearing.  We have to save our biggest capital: the credibility. It’s essential for a surviving.

Final question: How do we have to teach young journalists to make them ready for an uncertain future? And what do we offer established professionals to keep them fit for that future.

Journalism becomes even more challenging. The debate about Journalism education should start with reflections about the selection.  If we want to sale our content in the future again, we must deliver am additional benefit for our costumers, something they don’t get for free.

Means, we need the very best in that profession.

Concerning educational topics:

If we believe in the future of quality journalism, we have to be aware that the core principles remain as they are today: Critical thinking, creative reporting, good writing. Or in other words: Elementary remain investigation, media ethics and media law, news-writing and storytelling.

Journalists need of course to think in multimedia terms and must know the attributes and opportunities offered by different media – platforms.

But the most important aspect is – her too – the attitude. Journalists have to be really professionals – with high competence for reflection.  And the willingness to adopt new developments, if they make sense. And – at the same time, to fight for working conditions that allow professional standards, professional work.

• Barbara Eppensteiner (Okto /A)

Citizen journalism did not begin with the Internet, rather the practice dates back to the 1920s. My presentation questions the types of citizen journalism that existed before Web 2.0 and if there is any connection between what was utilized before and after its emergence.

Coming from a traditional participatory medium (cable television), my focus is on how these open access offers had to change or react to the new possibilities of producing media content for everyone.

Do they still have a future in this context, competing with YouTube, IP-TV, the Internet and so on?

How must they act, which concepts are employed, how must they adjust to this new situation and which concepts provide them with a certain degree of relevance?

Who are the people willing to spend so much leisure time producing television programmes and does their work have any influence on the professional sector?

• Bruno Ingemann (Nordjyske Medier /DK)

Progress back to materiality

In the future, professional skills will be required to help people navigate the information overload even more than today.

Rapid changes in technology can improve methods of gathering and spreading news.

Today, anyone can have his or her own media outlet and act as an editor. Journalists have lost their professional news monopoly and must struggle to make a living.

Rapid changes in consumer behaviour force newsroom staffs to be innovative in understanding and communicating with audiences.

• Alexis Johann (Wirtschaftsblatt /A)

The professionalism in journalism will experience dramatic changes in the future. Skills that made individual journalists and news organisations successful in the past are not necessarily required to attract audiences in the future.

Online audiences (“Digital Natives” and “Printnets”) follow links recommended to them by networks of friends. For some news organisations these link-environments create revolutionary changes.

In the online world the “most read” news features dominate professional ratings by journalists. If a news item was not on Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter, it is hardly noticed at all. And the “click rate” of a Web article has a direct business implication to the news organisation.

Thus, options to click, “like/dislike” and “retweet” information return to the newsrooms and begin to change the news production process. This may lead to a journalism that takes a more functional approach to quality. Hence, future audiences will get more of what most people want.

Professional news organizations were among the few who could guarantee the discussion and production of diverse news subjects on a commerical level. Until now. The challenge for them will be how to maintain this diversity in the future.

Topic 4 „…and who will be paying the bills?“

• Cinzia Dal Zotto (Université de Neuchâtel /CH)

The professionalization of media management as newspaper business angel

Advertising and reader markets are declining in large parts of the developed world. The ongoing digitization of media channels is leading to an even wider range of consumer and advertiser choice. Because their budgets for time and money are finite, tough competition has spread among the different media channels as well as within individual media. This has obviously put the long time successful newspaper business model under extreme pressure.

Newspaper publishers have started to react to these changes. The Internet has already become a standard publishing channel. Many new product launches, product makeovers, and provisions of value-added services for readers have emerged. When looking at the future, publishers see a clear trend towards more cooperation. However, publishers seem to have a lack of clarity on strategic orientation and way of thinking. They are still focused on the traditional printing business, and cost saving is their main target instead of value creating innovations. In order to create value, publishers need to monitor market developments and develop parallel business models based on new business opportunities offered by new technologies. This requires the professionalization not only of journalists but also of media managers.

• David Röthler (Consultant /A)

Crowdfunding

The crisis of financing quality journalism must be overcome with new ideas. Experiments with crowdfunding and micropayments for journalism are beginning. Crowdfunding is, in general, closely related to crowdsourcing.  It is defined by the cooperation, attention and trust of those who network to pool money together, usually via the Internet, in order to support efforts initiated by other people or organisations.

Crowdfunding is an innovative and still experimental approach to finance online content, and is  applied Web 2.0 paradigms.  My contribution is to present and discuss current examples.

• Romanus Otte (Die Welt /D)

Back to the Future – Old skills for new markets

The main challenge for print media companies (like Axel Springer) is not that we lose readers to the internet. We are reaching even larger audiences in the web than on printed paper.

Today the main challenges are that we lose revenue and that we lose a direct business relationship with our readers.

We lose ad revenues because of the decoupling of journalism and advertisement.

We lose revenues for content for a number of reasons including new competitors, changing habits and personal mistakes.

To meet the challenge we have to

* be open to new revenue models and new commercial cooperation
* fight for every “lousy penny” in every market* create digital products worth paying for
* establish convenient micropayment systems
* keep our readers as our customers and to maintain control of the business relationship

• Hermann Petz (Moser Holding /A)

Hermann Petz will approach different strategies and considerations often discussed concerning substainable business models in the media branch.

Focus is on the financeability of content to sustain quality journalism. His assumption is that publishers conducting quality print media combined with well-made online platforms can be optimistic. Print has a future! The Moser Holding CEO will support and highlight his assumption and other themes referring to the regional media enterprise he manages.

• Stephan Russ-Mohl (Università della Svizzera italiana /CH)

Two complementary business models will characterize the future of journalism: the Ralph Lauren strategy and the Tom Sawyer strategy. Concerning high-quality journalism, there is no alternative to the Ralph Lauren model and the pay wall required to sustain the ecosystem of well-researched, professional journalism alive. But there is also the justified hope that marketing and moral persuasion concepts, if applied strategically, will be able to induce the necessary shift in behavior.
”Yes we can”…

To survive, rather than serving millions of users all over the world for free, quality newspapers will have to focus on an elite readership. With all the persuasive power of modern marketing combined with newsrooms’ direct access to large publics, the industry will be able to mobilize money needed for high-quality journalism – neither from charities nor government, but from us, the readers and users. That is of course, if we can no  longer click our way through the Guardian, the New York Times or the Neue Zürcher Zeitung for free.