To the point: worthwhile torment

Hardly any daily newspaper, TV or radio station can still be blindly relied upon when it comes to the selection, validity and competent preparation of information. What is put into the public domain is not automatically true and well-checked. The 2014 yearbook "Quality of the Media" confirms the grounding of information depth and competence in Swiss journalism: The Swiss media are getting worse and worse, from SRG stations to subscription newspapers and private television to online portals. There is a lack of relevant topics, no classification. Breaking news instead of background reporting, entertainment instead of information.

Unfortunately, the authors of the study are right. If you want to be well informed, you have to look and listen very carefully, you can't simply rely on any statement, you have to remain alert, ready to bite. There is a great danger of falling for misinformation - not only as a reader, but especially as a journalist. The fact that a false, incorrect or misleading report becomes a source probably happens regularly. But not all sloppiness is as serious as the recent WDR tank picture hoax.

The blame for this quality debacle lies, of course, with the evil journalists, who - fie! - no longer do their job properly. The guild itself is happy to scold its colleagues. Journalists have no understanding at all for such sloppiness. Until they get caught themselves.

What no one thinks about is that producing media has also become a torture. Everyone is crying out for quality, but no one wants to pay for it. Last of all, the readers and the advertisers. Some read, others prefer to advertise in a free newspaper rather than in one of the great flagships of Swiss journalism. Almost every third franc spent on advertising in the 45 largest Swiss newspapers ends up in one of the four free newspapers. Ergo: Whoever is cheap wins. So where should the impetus come from to write high quality? The Pulitzer Prize cannot be won with clean manual work alone. Neither is a higher salary.

What happens when quality no longer pays? When the much-vaunted rethinking among publishers, advertisers and subscribers doesn't set in? When hard-earned facts can be read for free in the blink of an eye, without citation of the source, of course, and misquoted to boot? Let's remain stubborn. If there's no more high-quality journalism, there's no way to stimulate demand for it.

Anne-Friederike Heinrich, Editor in Chief

f.heinrich@werbewoche.ch