Local journalism

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Local journalism is the journalism department responsible for local issues. Local journalists take care of reporting on local politics, regional culture and sport as well as club life and events that are of particular importance for their region.

history

The history of local journalism begins with the invention of printing by Johannes Gutenberg . In this way information about local events could be disseminated. This was done first through leaflets . As the first weekday newspaper, the Incoming Newspapers from Leipzig appeared from June 1, 1650. However, local journalism was limited to information about marriages and deaths, as the public was more interested in world affairs. Only with the invention of radio and television did the department boom, as newspapers had to offer more information than the new media in order to win over readers. Another development followed after the Second World War . The reasons for this were political and social in nature. Every new newspaper had to be licensed by the occupying powers. The licenses were given primarily to local newspapers . In terms of society, the influx of refugees created an increased need for information for local news in order to be able to make contacts in the surrounding area. The new era of newspapers began on January 24, 1945 with the appearance of the Aachener Nachrichten . Other media followed. After the license obligation ended, most of the local newspapers were bought by large publishers, as this type of newspaper could not establish itself economically. What was left was the header with a combination of the local section, which is produced on site, and the cover section with national reports and world events, which was designed by the central editorial offices . Further competition within the discipline came from the 1970s onwards with advertising papers that were completely financed by advertising . The development is currently shaped by the Internet . Changes in consumer habits have forced daily newspapers to be just as present in traditional business as they are in the digital world. Blogs and websites open up new opportunities for founders .

Local journalism for newspapers, radio and television

About 60 percent of the editors of newspapers in Germany are local journalists. In television (around 8 percent) and radio (around 10 percent) this is significantly less. Almost exclusively local journalists or freelance freelance workers work for the free and freely distributed advertising papers. However, these newspapers are seldom divided into traditional sections. Not every newspaper, TV or radio station has a section that is specifically called “local”. The work of local journalists falls into other areas or additional broadcast formats in radio and television for regional reporting.

Larger media and publishing houses still maintain local editorial offices or regional offices in the most important cities in the respective country. These employees are often local journalists with permanent employment or contractually bound but freelance correspondents. Furthermore, there are independent local newspapers in the sense of a home newspaper (local newspaper), the economic existence and circulation of which is usually associated with a free advertising paper. As a rule, these local editors only evaluate and publish information that is provided by associations, press spokesmen for local parties and associations or PR agencies for the local economy and the service industry.

Working methods in local journalism

Local journalists are the group of journalists most likely to be referred to as reporters . While some journalists for the departments feature or politics and economy more of their work, telephone, newspaper, book or Internet research as well as in press conferences spend, the local journalist with notepad and camera often must be in place of the action, about which he reported. He is often assigned a role of identification in the local community as a representative of the local newspaper for which he reports. This reporting is usually done by freelance journalists. Their earning potential is often below the subsistence level and the minimum wage. Text fees between 8 cents and 10 cents per line and image fees between 3.50 euros and 8.50 euros are not uncommon.

Reputation and importance of local journalism in the print media

In principle, local journalists can perform a social task by reporting on local politics, on social, economic and cultural events and developments on site. In fact, the (printed) diversity of opinion is decreasing through concentration processes . The supply of independent journalistic units, i.e. independent editorial offices, is also decreasing. One-newspaper circles arise . Many monopoly newspapers also pay low fees and offer poor working conditions, which affects the quality of the journalistic content and the reputation of this important task. As a result, a “courtesy journalism” is often produced in that, for example, about club parties, company anniversaries or birthday parties of local politicians in the sense of a court report is reported uncritically.

Institutions to promote local journalism

The Federal Agency for Civic Education has been dealing with issues of local journalism since the mid-1970s. Recommendations for the professionalization of local journalists and for the quality assurance of their reporting are passed on in seminars and publications. The Federal Office has published the magazine Drehscheibe since 1981 . The magazine collects articles and thus acts as a source of ideas for the local editorial team. A current dossier of the local journalist program of the BpB shows new developments in local journalism.

The Initiative Tageszeitung e. V. , an association mainly of newspaper publishers, addresses the target group of local journalists with seminars.

The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung annually awards a local journalist's prize , in which outstanding articles and concepts from a year are awarded and published in a documentation. The following newspapers have received this award in the past:

Recent developments

It is becoming apparent that tasks that previously fell within the remit of the local journalists of the daily newspapers will more and more be taken over by data journalists in the future.

Example: If a traditional local journalist is informed about a construction site that will obstruct road traffic for a few weeks, he puts a corresponding message in his newspaper. Data journalists, on the other hand, transfer the report to a database that can be accessed over the Internet. Anyone who is puzzled while walking through the streets and feels the need to find out something about the construction site can then call up a city map on the Internet on which the construction site is entered and can also access information on the likely duration of the construction work. The pioneer in local data journalism in Germany is the “Frankfurt design” initiative.

gallery

Typical topics in the local section of a daily newspaper

  • Street party

  • Performance show

  • Regional infrastructure

  • traffic accident

  • Laying of the foundation stone

  • Opening ceremony

  • Club life

  • cultural event

  • Civic engagement

  • Honor

  • Commemoration

  • Funeral service for dignitaries

literature

  • Siegfried Weischenberg u. a .: The prompter of the media society. Report on the journalists in Germany. UVK, Konstanz 2006, ISBN 978-3-89669-586-4 .
  • Sonja Kretzschmar, Wiebke Möhring and Lutz Timmermann: Local journalism compact knowledge journalism, Vs Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-53115-249-3 .
  • Fritz Wolf: Salto bars. Potential opportunities for the local public. On the situation of local journalism. MainzerMedienDisput, FES Journalist Academy 2010.
  • Horst Pöttker / Anke Vehmeier (eds.): The misunderstood department. Problems and Perspectives of Local Journalism , Wiesbaden 2013.
  • Norbert Jonscher: Contents and deficits of the local section in the German daily press. Content analytical findings and considerations for improving local reporting by daily newspapers in the Federal Republic of Germany , Göttingen 1989.
  • Martin Welker / Daniel Ernst: Local - basic knowledge for media practice , Herbert von Halem Verlag 2012, ISBN 978-3869620206 , 224 pages.
  • Local journalism. 250 years of "newspapers" in Dortmund - historical and current perspectives. "Heimat Dortmund. City history in pictures and reports", issue 2/2019. ISSN 0932-9757 (special issue with 8 articles by Astrid Blome and others)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Local Journalism: History - accessed June 12, 2020
  2. ↑ Local Journalism: Outlook - accessed on June 12, 2020
  3. ^ FES: Media from Citizens for Citizens
  4. ↑ Study on local journalism
  5. ^ U. Stock: die medien republik: Soft topics, cheap texts. In: zeit.de. September 15, 2005, accessed December 15, 2014 .
  6. ^ Otfried Jarren: Political Communication in the Democratic Society. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 1998, ISBN 978-3-531-12678-4 , p. 29.
  7. ↑ Local journalism dossier
  8. ↑ Shaping the Frankfurt initiative
  9. ^ Archives of the former press photographer Andreas Bohnenstengel
  10. ↑ Local journalism on the network research homepage