German Lang. Media: Fly the Flag!
The German Tracker was a bit distracted from blogging, because he had a week of talks about the Tracker, quality in science journalism, and ways to keep or (even better) improve it.
After a month or so of tracking science journalism in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, I think it is time now to make clear, what the goal of this venture is and is not. First of all, the comments here (even the harsh ones) are NOT meant to be personal criticism of individual journalists at all. This is important, as all of us know, that the budgets differ greatly between newspapers and magazines, online or public broadcast editorial boards. It’s obvious, that it makes a difference, whether you had an hour or a week or a month to prepare your piece. And no critic can see behind the curtains.
Thus, any time the Tracker reviews and offers his opinion about an article, it is meant to be a reminder for the responsible editors, editorial boards or chief editors to fight for a sustainable environment to keep and improve the high standards of science journalism in the German language media. I prefer to hint to good examples, new and astonishing ways of high-quality science reporting. But from time to time criticism seems to be necessary, because we should not just shrug and accept, that we watchdogs can’t bark properly due to the rationalization of air in editorial boards. The audience out there usually cannot easily tell the difference between good and bad barking, especially if the topic involves complicated science.
Not a single science journalist should be quiet about a development, where journalists get less and less time (say: money) to do research, to check quotes, to actually search for new, untold, not “press-released” stories, and, most importantly, judge facts for the public. Especially the judging (show the public, what is scientifically sound and what is not, e.g.) is, what makes journalism valuable (and journalists indispensable), because it helps the reader to find a way through the ever rising amounts of available information. Thus, “peer review within science journalism”, the theme of the Tracker, is in the interest of every single science journalist.
A special goal of the German Knight Science Journalism Tracker is, of course, to provide an (admittedly small) window into the German Language science journalism craft, so that an international audience will get an idea, how the Germans, Austrians and Swiss report about international and local science news.
Last not least, I would appreciate hints to articles (either high or low quality, but online available, please), especially from local/smaller newspapers, as it is obviously impossible for a single Tracker to screen “all that was fit to print” on a single day in German language media.
- Sascha Karberg (back on track next week)
