Seitenhistorie

Chapter One: Intro

Who WE are

This course unit will give you an introduction to the German media system. It is part of a series of online lectures on media systems in the Arab World and Europe. These are produced by the leading media studies institutes in the respective country brought together by AREACORE, the Arab European Association of media and communication researchers.

This session on the German media system has been produced on behalf of the institute for media and communication studies at Freie Universität Berlin. With 9 professors and 1300 Students on undergraduate, master and doctoral studies level it is one of the biggest institutes in Germany and features the expertise to tell you more about the German media system.

Student Questions

Student questions: What questions do you have about the German media system?

Q1: Is the number of audience high for TV, newspapers, radio, and online comparatively?

Q2: I have a small question about press freedom. How is it protected and something about it?

Q3: So I have a question about the foreign media ownership. I would assume that after the fall of the wall, are there changes in foreign media ownership in Germany. And if there is so, what are the main key players and stakeholders?

Structure of the lesson

We hope to answer some of those as well as your questions by our lecture.

• First, we will give you a historical overview

• Second we will provide more general information on German society and its current challenges

• Third, you get an overview of the overall structure of the media system

• Fourth, we will tell you about the political and legal framework of the media

• Fifth, the economic context such as ownership structures are explained

• Sixth, we will give you more information about the state of journalism                         

• Last but not least we talk about the digital infrastructure and Internet use in Germany

You can get more information and find lectures on other countries on our website www.areacore.org.

But now: let's get started!

Chapter Three: Society & Areas of Conflict

For visitors, Germany tends to seem peaceful, safe and excessively tidy. In fact, Germany has relatively low crime-rates and hasn’t experienced much inner state-violence since World War II. Autochthonous minorities like the Sorbs in the East or the Danish in the North are granted specific right to protect their culture and ensure political participation. But still there are lines of conflict in the German society:Even more than 20 years after the German reunification the division between East and West Germany remains.

During the reunification, there had been massive transformations in the former GDR that took place in a very short period of time. Many of these changes still have ramifications until today. Most obviously, there is still an income gap between the former east and the west, but there are also con siderable cultural differences. E.g. in their media usage patterns, east Germans watch in general more TV, prefer private channels over public broadcasters and read fewer nation-wide newspapers in general. Possible explanations are a higher focus on entertainment and a lack of trust in political institutions compared to west Germany. Besides this, the question of how to deal with the socialistic past and its heritage is a matter that remains subject to debate in the German media landscape.

A development with unpredictable long-term effects is the “demographic shift”. Birth rates are quite low in Germany, so a transition to a more and more elderly society seems inevitable. This poses major challenges towards the social systems and the economy, but also has an effect on media.Traditional media such as TV, radio and print media are still dominating. Also media content caters often to the interests of the elderly.

An undissolved area of conflict is the adequate representation of migrants and minorities in German media. The biggest migrant community in Germany are Turkish and Germans from Turkish decent. Tens of thousands were invited to come to work in (West-) Germany as so called Gastarbeiter (Guest workers) during the 1960s. Since then, there has been a constant, often paternalistic debate about the problems of integration and alleged segregation. Existing problems are often framed by German politicians and the media as being connected to Islam. Especially in the light of recent developments, like the rise of ISIS and growing refugee movements, the image of Muslims has worsened and people of Turkish or Arab descent are perceived as a threat. Islamophobia is once again on the rise and is expressed through populist mass-movements like PEGIDA but also in extremist right-wing terrorism like in the so called National-Socialist Underground.

However, it is also a major debate in the media:

Interview: Rana Göroglu (Mediendienst Integration)

Unfortunately they [Germans  are represented mostly negative. But this doesn’t only concern topics revolving around Muslim and Islam but generally most of the issues because negative headlines simply sell better.And unfortunately this applies also to issues regarding Islam and Moslems.

But I do also believe that journalists tend to reproduce stereotypes. There is a dominating negative image of Muslims and Islam in the society also partly due to this negative coverage and I think it’s hard to break this circle.

There has been a shift in this image since 9/11. You could say “the Muslims” are the new “foreigners”. Back then there was a lot reporting about “the foreigners” and all problems like problems with integration, “retrogressively”, worse graduation results and everything connected to that. This image was more and more superimposed in the past years by “the Muslim”. When we have negative reports then mostly about “the others”.

So the Muslims are mostly those “others” we report about.

Chapter five: Media Use

Despite the spreading of the internet, television remains the most widely used medium in Germany. In fact, the average use further increased until last year. In 2014, the average German watched around 4 hours of TV per day. Second most used is radio broadcasting, slowly losing importance but still remaining an essential part of the media menu of the Germans.

In particular in the morning hours, Germans listen to the radio. Newspapers are used less extensively; in 2014 on the average people spend only 23 min per day reading newspapers. However, it is still important considering newspapers are mostly used for informational purposes and not for entertainment.

The internet usage is steadily increasing. Compared to other Western countries, Germans seem to be more reluctant – more than 20 % don’t use the internet at all or only rarely although there is almost complete internet infrastructure coverage.

Interestingly and due to media convergence and mobile media use, overall media usage significantly increased – the average German spends more than 10 hours per day consuming content from any type of media.

Interview: Prof. Dr. Martin Emmer (Professor for Media Studies at Freie Universität Berlin):

Q: But where do we get such detailed data about the German media usage from?

Basically, there are two types of research: First is more case study orientated dealing with small groups of people, exploratory research.This is something that is done for example by companies which try to develop new formats for example for TV shows. They usually do kinds like that; focus groups for example, qualitative interviews or things like that.

Then there is that highly standardized research, which usually is used for evaluating market shares of media. That’s necessary for developing the “currency” for selling advertisements and refunding production. And then third is scientific research. That is something that we are doing at university.

We use a lot of methods, often a mix of methods in order to answer specific research questions.

Statistics_Media Use.pdf

Chapter six: Media Politics

According to the world press freedom index 2015 of the NGO “reporting without boarders”, Germany is among the freest countries for journalist in the world, coming in at rank 12. Freedom of speech, as well as press freedom, is established as a fundamental right in article 5 of the German Grundgesetz – which is our constitution. Drawing from the experience of the instrumentalization of media during World War II, the constitution prevents the state from owning mass media or interfering into them.

Concerning newspapers and other print media, there is no need to obtain a license to publish. Every person can simply decide to publish a newspaper and do it. The journalistic profession itself does not require any sort of certificate or qualification – basically anybody can call him- or herself a journalist.

But the boundaries of press freedom are not unlimited. Article 5 also protects individual rights or the well-being of the youth according to civil or criminal laws. Wherever individual interests conflict with fundamental rights, each case has to be settled in court individually. German courts tend to uphold press freedom, in particular when it comes to satire and expressions of opinion.

The German Press is self-controlled through the “Presserat”, an institution where the public can complain about press coverage. However, this institution has very little power as it has almost no possibilities to sanction anyone – it is more an upholder of ethical standards. The quality of the press itself shall be regulated by the market and competition, which poses the threat that the press tends to follow market interests.

Broadcasting is a slightly different matter. As it requires huge capital and effort to start a broadcasting channel and frequencies are limited, privately owned broadcasters have to obtain a license from the “Landesmedienanstalt” – a public-corporatist body in each federal state in Germany. These bodies shall ensure a certain “inner pluralism” in each channel’s content. Private channels are obliged to present a diversity of opinions and to respect the “human dignity”. Full programs have to devote a certain amount of their program time to news.

If they do not comply with the conditions, their license might not be renewed.

Licenses for new channels can also be denied if the company behind the new channel has already a combined market share of more than 30% or its cross-media ownership in both the print and broadcasting market would give the company a dominant position in the German media sphere. For example, in 2005, Springer publishing house was denied to take over the second biggest private broadcasting company ProSiebenSat1 AG.

This press-friendly legal framework doesn’t mean everything is perfect for German journalists. Reporters without borders criticize various problems in Germany, e.g. state surveillance and bureaucratic hurdles to obtain official information.

Chapter seven: Media System & Public Broadcasting

Germany is the 4th biggest economy in the world with a per Capita GDP more than 45.000 USD per year. With such a high purchasing power in mind, it seems only natural that most of the privately owned media is financed through ad-sales. Television and daily newspapers generate the most income in advertising media. This has different implications: privately owned TV-channels rely almost exclusively on ad-sales, therefore above all depend on good ratings. This causes constant discussions about quality and ethics of private TV-programming.

Newspapers generate on average 40% through ad-sales and around 60% through subscription and copy sales. The dependency on ad-sales is less than compared to private broadcasting, but since the press’ normative claim of spreading political information to the public, this relationship can still be  problematic. As revenues increase with a higher circulation, but production costs remain nearly the same, the ad-financed system favors press-concentration and monopolization.

Another relating problem is the possible influence of ad-clients on newspaper content. Through increasing financial pressure, many journalists are tempted to blur the borders between advertisements and articles or sometimes articles are only published because they synergize with an ad in order to please the client.

To avoid this problem for public broadcasters, they are financed by a fee every German household has to pay. From approx. 18€ per household per month, all the different public service broadcasters like ARD, Deutschlandradio or arte are financed. The KEF (Kommission zur Ermittlung des Finanzbedarfs der Rundfunkanstalten = Commission for defining the financial need of public broadcasters), a commission whose members are appointed from the prime ministers of each federal state calculate this fee, which is constantly disputed and subject to court proceedings. However, up to now, the fee which makes up most of the budget of the 9.1 billion Euro (and is the highest budget of a non-commercial media company world-wide) the public service broadcaster has been secured. Public service broadcasters are only allowed to include advertisement or product placement for certain events like football games or during specific time frames of the day.

Circulations of the traditional print-products are decreasing and so do the ad-revenues. For this reason many think that the future lies in different financing models. Today, there is another big question to be answered: How to finance Online-Media? Online offers of Germany’s newspapers have been traditionally free of charge for users, but the ad-sales do not generate nearly as much as their print-counterparts. The reason for this is that online-ads are much cheaper, but the editorial effort remains the same. Through the creation of online news-portals, many publishers created competitors for their own traditional press-titles. 

Interview: Prof. Dr. Klaus Beck (Professor for Media Economics at Freie Universität Berlin):

Q: Online-Journalism is getting more and more popular. Why is it so difficult financing it?

First thing to say is: Maybe there are successful because they are free. So people are not willing to pay for them. That’s a great problem for professional journalism financing. And the appropriate way to finance quality journalism for a long time was advertising. But advertising isn’t working very well in the online sphere because advertising is very, very cheap and the reason for that is that everybody knows that advertising has only limited effects. That’s true for television and broadcasting media and print papers as well. But now we have the opportunity to measure that. We know exactly that it’s not working very well. That’s why the prices are so low. And that’s the problem to get enough advertising money for that.

Q: What about different financing models like crowdfunding?

I think the crowdfunding platforms have to face one problem, because they very much depend on the success of a specific news or article or contribution. And so if they would like to get more money, they have to select the pieces which are selling very well. And for the journalistic side, it’s a problem because it means a kind of marketing effect. So I have to write in a way, in a manner, that is good for selling this article and maybe it’s still independent but that’s not so clear. So you very much depend on the concrete payment.

Q: Especially Axel Springer is pushing forward a paid-content-model. Will it be successful?

Probably yes. Because I think even though advertising is not the real way to finance quality journalism, all the users have to learn that they have to pay for journalistic content as they did some years, some hundred years before since the foundation of the printed press. And paid content probably would be the model of success for the future.

Statistics_Distribution Broadcasting Fee.pdf

Statistics_Ad revenues.pdf

Journalism is not a protected profession in Germany and free of access. Anybody can call him- or herself a journalist. There are some associations like the German Journalists’ Union who are allowed to issue individual press cards to those who proof that they are contracted by media. However, besides the advantage of getting easier access to press conferences, there is no legal status connected to that.

A study has come up with a description of the typical German journalists according to the statistical average: „the typical German journalist is a 41 year old, middle-class man, holding an academic degree, working in press, living in a committed relationship and earning around 2300€ a month. In fact, journalism is still dominated by men. Whereas more younger journalist are women than men, the percentage of male journalist gets higher with age. Leading positions are mostly held by men. Women earn significantly less than men.

This is partly due to “glass ceiling” effects and underrepresentation in leading positions, but women receive also less money for the same work as their male counterparts. The average age of German journalist is on the increase, most of them are between 36-45 years old and only one third is younger than 36. It seems that because of the media crisis fewer people are getting into journalism.

Those who do however, vary greatly in their way of education. Only a minority of German journalists went to an academic school or studied journalism. But the majority holds an academic degree and did an internship or traineeship.

Interview with Rudolf Porsch (Deputy Director of the Axel-Springer-Academy)

Q: What are the advantages of a journalism school like the Axel Springer-Academy?

Porsch: We are very mass market orientated. We are not academic orientated. If you are interested in an academic approach than you have to attend a university. But if you are interested in practical journalism that is mass market, audience orientated, we offer really a cross-media education, cross-media journalism. And a cross media journalism that has already proven its concept. That means, we do not work “l’art pour l’art”, only for school or for training purposes, we really work for the market. And we prove our quality day by day, minute by minute on the market, on the internet and on the market place out there.

There are tons of privately funded journalism schools, among them a few renowned journalism schools like the Henri-Nannen-School in Hamburg, the German Journalism School in Munich or the Axel-Springer-Akademie in Berlin.

Most German journalists work in newspapers. One third works in television and radio broadcasting. Another quarter write for magazines, the rest is distributed among online media, news agencies and advertising papers. Over the years, the general workload for journalists increased. Economical pressure and advancing digitalization require a broader set of skills and take up more time for additional tasks. Another strong tendency is that more and more freelancer are employed instead of regular employees.

Rudolf Porsch (Deputy Director of the Axel-Springer-Academy)

Q: What skills does modern journalism require?

Porsch: The answer seems to be very easy. The skills you need are the techniques of video, audio and internet. But to be honest, it’s not that easy. Because it means: First, you need these techniques. Within a couple of weeks you can learn that. That’s easy.

But then you need an understanding for your audience. What makes the difference? Not the difference between videos but the difference between a video shown on a screen, on a station screen, on a computer or a video shown on a mobile device on a small screen.

That’s a big, big difference. Both are videos but it’s a big, big difference first in the techniques and second in the expectations of your audience.

That means to your question: what skills? It means first of all, learn the techniques, second learn about your audience. Get a feeling for what your audience wants to have, what your audience needs to get.

And the third thing is: And then, be a journalist, still be a journalist, because the main job of a journalist is to provide the people out there with the information, with the reliable and modern and current information they need.

That hasn’t changed. That is still the same since hundreds of years. Or in other words as Gertrude Stein once said: A rose is a rose is a rose.

I say: A story is a story is a story. That hasn’t changed since Shakespeare. But the way you tell a story that has changed.

The term Civic journalism characterizes a trend to publish content aside from the professional work in a journalistic institution. Often, it is seen as a way to circumvent political restrictions in the media. In Germany, the field of media watch has become more prominent. Several journalists or public intellectuals have made use of blogs to comment on mainstream media discourse or discuss ethical problems. One of the most popular examples is probably BILD-Blog – a watchblog which reveals false news coverage of major German print and online news publications. But aside from a few watchblogs there hasn’t developed a huge blogosphere in Germany yet.

Voxpop: 

Q: What kind of social media do you use?

A1: I don’t use a lot of social media. I use Facebook.

A2: As a typical one like Facebook. And I guess that’s it. Because I do not use Twitter or something like that.

In terms of using social media, Germans are not as enthusiastic as other societies. The by far biggest network used is Facebook, over 50% of the internet users use also actively Facebook. Compared with other European countries, this is below average. The main motivation for using social media is to stay in touch with friends rather than for getting information. Twitter plays also only a minor role and is not widely used.

 Q: What is an aspect of social media that bothers you?

A1: That Facebook is collecting so much data from us. And that’s quite hard.

A2: That people don’t talk so much anymore. They just chat and chat instead of getting together.

A3: How your personal information is in the Internet and anyone can see it and it will stay there forever and you don’t know what will happen.

What is special in Germany is a general skepticism towards social media. According to a poll, 58 % of the Germans don’t trust social media. Reasons are data security and concerns about the protection of privacy. Not only Facebook’s notoriously data-hungry policies, but also the fear that private information can be leaked and has negative effects on their career or private life, concerns people.

In fact, the biggest reason according to a study from 2013 is a general conservatism in their media usage: 74% of the people not using Facebook don’t see any sense in using it.

A1: I do not use actually any Social Media because I think that’s time waste. And also probably that I am not sure what or who is there behind the Facebook side in my computer.