Consumer journalism

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Consumer Journalism is a division of Journalism and branch of economic journalism that appeal to the consumer oriented and consumers and deals with everyday-related products and services.

Formats, dissemination and purpose

Often it is a report , tests , comparisons , columns , evaluations , interviews , purchase recommendations and tips for z. B. Discount campaigns and / or reviews of individual products or services. New releases and trends can also be highlighted. Consumer journalism is used in print media , television and radio , in photojournalism as well as on internet portals and is sometimes also spread as cross media .

Consumer journalism is supposed to help citizens to make better purchases based on the price-performance ratio , to avoid a bad purchase and to promote consumer protection , in which the citizens can find out about the product or service in advance.

Delimitation and overlap

Since consumer journalism often focuses on individual specialist areas and target groups (e.g. IT products or home improvement supplies) and is published in specialist magazines , it can also be part of specialist journalism . If journalism also has an advisory character, it is also referred to as advisory journalism . In contrast to utility journalism , consumer journalism is more concerned with the consumer than simply providing information. According to Armin Wolf, the generic term for advice and consumer journalism is "service journalism" and according to Andreas Eickelkamp "utility journalism". There may also be overlaps with travel journalism .

history

The roots of consumer journalism can be found early on in certain fields, e.g. B. in travel journalism. It first achieved a broad base in the wake of the economic boom of the economic miracle after the Second World War .

On October 9, 1962, the German government founded the Stiftung Warentest in Germany. She has published the results of services and products in the magazine test since 1966 . Other consumer magazines followed. With the spread of radio and television, relevant consumer magazines developed there. With the advent of Web 2.0, professional consumer journalism is in competition with user ratings, blogs and portal pages.

Criticism and dangers

Consumer journalism can be abused, for example by buying or manipulating positive ratings from the responsible companies. Furthermore, products in the form of unmarked or poorly marked product placement can be marketed as undetectable advertising . An article that appears journalistic can be a PR article that has been commissioned by a PR agency . Qualitative and serious consumer journalism is therefore a source of information and not an advertisement and adheres to the criteria of quality journalism .

The form of journalism is also accused of treating the topics too superficially and banally, sometimes with clickbaiting , and of devoting itself to the same topics several times over the year. Since the product life cycle is getting shorter and shorter, consumer journalistic works on product groups have to be written more often.

Profession and Research

There is no mandatory training to become a consumer journalist and, in principle, lateral entry is possible. However, a degree or training can be an advantage or even be required, especially if the journalist has acquired specialist knowledge for a particular branch and branch or economy . Many agencies also require an internship . There is no journalism school in Germany that teaches consumer journalism .

Consumer journalism is scientifically investigated at the Institute for Consumer Journalism at the East Bavarian Technical University of Amberg-Weiden .

Importance and competition

For many Germans, the consumer journalistic part is an important part of a journalistic medium. Consumer journalism competes with comparison and rating portals , social networks , blogs and web videos on the Internet.

Web links

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Consumer journalism : underestimated or overestimated? December 1, 2018, accessed September 26, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b Items to be reported. Retrieved September 26, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Fascination. Retrieved September 26, 2019 (German).
  4. ↑ Media genres. Retrieved September 26, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Günther Rager: Newspaper journalism: empirical readership research . UVK Verlagsgesellschaft, 2006, ISBN 978-3-89669-503-1 ( google.de [accessed on September 26, 2019]).
  6. ↑ Mike Friedrichsen, Martin F. Brunner: Perspectives for the general-interest magazine . Springer Science & Business Media, 2006, ISBN 978-3-540-49434-8 ( google.de [accessed September 26, 2019]).
  7. ↑ history. Retrieved September 26, 2019 .
  8. ↑ a b Journalism between autonomy and utility. Retrieved September 26, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Quality criteria. Retrieved September 26, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Outlook. Retrieved September 26, 2019 .
  11. ↑ lateral entry. Retrieved September 26, 2019 .
  12. ↑ General information. Retrieved September 26, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Voluntary service. Retrieved September 26, 2019 .
  14. ^ School of Journalism. Retrieved September 26, 2019 .
  15. ↑ https: //www.institut-verbübersjournalismus.de/. Retrieved September 26, 2019 .
  16. ↑ meaning. Retrieved September 26, 2019 .