Reader reporter

Reader reporters are people who offer the print or online media texts and images for publication or provide information on topics or events. They are not journalists with relevant media-specific qualifications.

history

Before the emergence of modern journalism with a defined system of editorial offices and journalists , contributions in publications could not be differentiated into amateur and journalist contributions. From the 19th century, the journalist developed as a profession that was mainly practiced by academics . At the beginning of the 20th century, however, the increasing need for information was increasingly covered by the recruitment of untrained informers as news providers.

20th century

Jens-Christian Wagner describes in a historical perspective the use of reader reporters by the striker as an example of public denunciation.

In the 1960s, West Berlin newspapers offered a fee of DM 20 for reports to the editors.

In East Germany , daily newspapers also liked to use regional reporting, and a system of people's correspondents was set up for this purpose. There were no topic requests and no fee for the published articles.

The use of reader reporters as information carriers has its roots in the concept of citizen journalism . The reader reporters often serve as a quick route to current information. In addition, their use increases the reader's loyalty to the newspaper format.

21st century

While reader reporters used to mainly provide information and text contributions that could be edited, the trend is towards the use of the reader as photojournalist or video journalist .

Since mid-2006, Stern and BILD have been calling for large-format photos to be sent in and honoring their published photographs. BILD is currently offering 50 to 250 euros per picture from a reader reporter. "The reader reporter is an unbelievable extension of the research and reporting options and at the same time enormously increases the reader-magazine loyalty", explained Nicolaus Fest , former member of the Bild editorial team. The Star offers to the tariffs of the picture for submissions Mittelstandsgemeinschaft Photo Marketing -based compensation, which is about 140 euros. Other media such as the BBC or the Saarbrücker Zeitung reject payment for so-called user-generated content . The contributions of reader reporters are often editorially revised and rewritten in the tabloid area.

In addition to the Internet and newspapers, television stations also use pictures and video material sent in by amateurs, unless professional recordings are available, first on CNN after the 2004 tsunami . You weren't called a reporter . In a continuation of the concept, Andre Zalbertus uses hobby reporters as live reporters for local television center.tv . At the end of 2009 he expanded the concept again to include a community of amateur reporters with their own paid press card.

The portal myheimat.de takes a different approach: regional newspaper publishers can use the news that were written on the site by free hobby authors for a license fee to generate microregional content by printing myheimat articles with author identification in their daily newspapers, city magazines or advertising papers. Myheimat's articles are currently being printed in 23 daily newspapers and advertising papers as well as in 31 independent city magazines with a current total circulation of over 1.3 million copies (as of April 2010).

The Gießener Zeitung , published since 2008, describes itself as “Germany's first interactive newspaper”.

The daily newspaper Berliner Morgenpost started a big campaign in 2012 to attract reader reporters from the Berlin neighborhoods or districts. The aim was to report current and regional events including the provision of a photo in the online edition of MoPo by the reader reporter. As a work aid, the selected 20 or so people received an iPad , for which the Morgenpost paid the fees for use; there were no other payments. With the sale of the daily newspaper to the Funke media group , the reader reporters were silently dropped, the editor-in-chief of the online division announced in a circular in July 2014: “A break for the reader reporters”. In addition, all posts were deleted. The attempt of several committed reader reporters to achieve a continuation or at least a reasonable conclusion failed.

In the area of data journalism in particular , volunteer reader-editors are once again gaining importance through the outsourcing of data analysis to users, known as crowd sourcing .

criticism

Experts are particularly critical of the use of image material contributed by reader reporters. The German Journalists Association stated that the work of well-trained and professionally working photo journalists would be devalued by the use of material by amateur photographers .

The Bonn initiative Quality in Journalism wrote in October 2006: “Citizens reporters collect information about people without having sufficient knowledge of personal rights , data protection , the conditions of undercover research and ethical standards of journalistic work. Citizen reporters (...) are themselves exposed to incalculable liability and criminal risks. "

When Transrapid -Unglück that of a native image published photo of one of the firefighters, while a picture -Leserin circled with a hobby pilots despite there temporarily imposed flight ban over the crash site and hindered the rescue helicopter.

The President of the German Fire Brigade Association fears even more problems with onlookers and recommended firefighters not to take any private photos or films at the scene.