Relationship between the media and the public highlighted in new book
What role do the media play for the public - and what role does the public play for the media? The Swiss Media Association has published a book that sheds light on this interrelationship from various perspectives.
"Media and the public - between symbiosis and rejection" is the title of the book published by the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Various authors address this question from their respective perspectives and individual titles are presented in more detail. It was presented in Zurich on Monday.
Vonarburg: "Subsidies make you sluggish"
Verena Vonarburg, who recently became Swiss Media Director, addressed the current discussion at federal level about a framework or media funding concept. It would be better "not to provide the media directly with money". Subsidies "make people sluggish and are counterproductive". Politicians are worried, asserting that they want to promote the media more - and in reality they just want to control and discipline them, said Vonarburg. Politicians have the opportunity to intervene to help in other areas. For example, she recalled the importance of cheaper postal delivery. There should be no cutbacks here. And she argued that e-paper subscriptions, like print subscriptions, should benefit from a lower VAT rate. It would be even better if subscriptions were generally exempt from VAT.
Lebrument: "Publisher's book" in times of upheaval
Swiss Media President Hanspeter Lebrument spoke about the long history of the book, the publication of which had been delayed several times. But now it is here, the first joint book published by the publishers in their more than one hundred year history. The "Publishers' Book" is being published at a time of upheaval: former publishing houses have become media companies, there is no uniform business model - everyone is going their own way. With the book, the publishers wanted to make "a substantial contribution" to the discussion on improving the framework conditions for the media. Divided into four parts The 200-page, richly illustrated book is divided into four parts.
The first, "Basics", contains contributions from eight personalities from the media world, including media law expert Urs Saxer, Zug CVP National Councillor Gerhard Pfister and Press Council President Dominique Von Burg. In their articles and interviews, the authors address topics such as media quality and development, subsidies, press freedom and much more. Tamedia Chairman of the Board of Directors Pietro Supino has organized his thoughts according to keywords - from "apocalypse" and "moving image" to "free culture" and "paywall" to "diversity" and "time".
In the second part, "Media System Switzerland", twelve editors-in-chief and one editor-in-chief have their say. They present their respective newspapers or magazines. The spectrum ranges from Weltwoche (Roger Köppel) to the weekly newspaper (Susan Boos). Not only large publications such as Tages-Anzeiger (Res Strehle) and Blick am Abend (Peter Röthlisberger) have their say. Smaller ones are also included, such as the Bote der Urschweiz (Josias Clavadetscher) or the Freiburger
News (Christoph Nussbaumer).
In the third part, "Documentation", media expert Ueli Custer provides facts and figures, statistics and graphics on the Swiss media landscape. He also explains media training in Switzerland - from the primary school learning workshop to further training courses for experienced journalists.
Finally, the last section, "Press Art", explains the book's illustrations and the history of the art collection. Information on the authors, picture credits and the like are provided in the appendix. (SDA)
