"Tagesschau": Audience councils satisfied
SRG SSR's five audience councils spent a week observing the main editions of the daytime broadcasts of RSI, RTR, RTS and SRF. They give these broadcasts a good report card.
They fully fulfill their information mandate within the framework of the public service concession. Despite cultural peculiarities in presentation, there are many similarities.
The five SRG audience councils (SRG.D, RTSR, Corsi, SRG.R and Swissinfo) generally work independently of each other. For national monitoring, however, they work together: The supra-regional exchange of experience is organized by the national working group of the presidents of the audience councils. While the focus in 2011 was on coverage of the federal elections and in 2012 on consumer magazines, in 2013 the working group focused on the main issues of the various SRG daytime shows:
- "Tagesschau" (7:30 p.m., SRF - Television SRF 1)
- "Le Journal" (7:30 p.m., RTS - Television RTS Un/Deux).
- "Telegiornale" (20.00, RSI - Television RSI LA 1).
- "Telesguard" (5.40 p.m., RTR - Television SRF 1)
Hard news" is the most important component of all broadcasts and provides the audience with a good overview of current events. The focus is on political and economic topics. However, the presentation of the information varies from language region to language region. For the watching audience SRF uses graphics and illustrations very well. RSI's "Telegiornale" presents significantly more topics than SRF's "Tagesschau," which reports in a more focused manner. SRF thus relies on an overarching information strategy in which the "Tagesschau" and information programs such as "Schweiz aktuell" or "10vor10" complement each other. "Le Journal" from RTS, on the other hand, offers plenty of space for conversations, opinions and commentary, presented with a great deal of commitment and emotion.
The results of the observations were discussed intensively with those responsible for the broadcasts. They were particularly interested in the view of the audience councils from the other language regions. However, only a few contributions about the other language regions could be analyzed during the observation period (it also plays a role here that it is easier for RSI to report on the other language regions than for SRF due to the relatively greater news potential). In the interviews, further reasons were explained why relatively little could be reported on the other regions during the observation week. The responsible persons made a point of noting that the quality characteristic of journalistic relevance is decisive for whether a topic from another language region is to be reported on. Therefore, the editorial offices would also reject a quota regulation that would be in the service of national cohesion. The audience councils consider actions such as the exchange of the daily foam presenters to be a successful change and would like to see a continuation.
