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Diversity of Journalisms. Proceedings of ECREA/CICOM Conference, Pamplona, 4-5 July 2011
Towards Converging Media Structures?
Bernd Blöbaum, Eva Kanthack and Hannah Middendorf
Department of Communication, University of Muenster, Germany
Abstract
While the term diversity, which today is often used to characterize the emerging media
landscape, is evident in spheres of journalism such as content or audiences, the paper
asks whether the same applies to the structure of media organisations. Therefore,
selected findings of a three-year research project on journalism in Germany which
analyzes the change of journalistic organisations, roles and programs since 1990 will
be presented as well as the research design.
To answer the research question 15 journalists working at leading mass media
newsrooms in Germany were observed for one week each. These observations were
followed by in-depth interviews. All types of media were covered: Print, broadcast and
online journalists described the structure of the editorial offices including the processes
of communication, decision making and coordination.
The findings reveal that new forms of organisation dominate German editorial
departments: 80 percent of the interviewees underlined that decisions concerning what
to publish in which form were made at a newsdesk. This result applied to all different
types of media.
Thus, as for the structure of journalistic organisations changes of the media landscape
did not lead to diversity. During the last 20 years the structure and organisation of news
production happened to be similar throughout different types of media. Hence, the
paper emphasises that change does not necessarily mean diversity: instead,
convergence processes with regard to the structure of editorial offices are a striking
result generated by the research project. Additionally, an increasing cooperation and
collaboration of staff as well as the exchange of media content between the print,
broadcast and online departments of a media company could further be examined –
results that also show convergence developments.
Introduction
Enabling processes of opinion formation, editorial diversity is an important prerequisite
for modern democracies (Rager & Weber, 1992; Weiß 2002). Editorial diversity is,
however, not reduced to media content but also to media structures. In general terms
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