The century of journalism - the history of journalism in Germany from World War I to the age of digitalization (1914-2014)

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Thomas Birkner
• Subject Area: Communication Sciences
• Term: from 2018 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 411073241

• Final Report Year: 2024

Final Report Abstract

Digitalization has not only changed journalism, but also journalism research. Accordingly, the project is located in the Digital Humanities and has set out to analyze the history of journalism in Germany also by analyzing news texts from the past 100 years. The research tools we have developed for this purpose are part of the methodological innovations in the field of quantitative data collection and data analysis and enable the (partially) automated content analysis of news stories regarding the answers to the journalistic W-questions, in particular Who? What? When? and Where? Since the beginning of the 20th century, this form of news has been considered a decisive marker of modern journalism. The analysis shows that the established news structure remained surprisingly stable in German journalism throughout the 20th century, despite wars and dictatorships. In the 21st century, however, this structure seems to have come under pressure as a result of digitalization processes. This is confirmed in the qualitative interviews with journalists from three generations, who see the network structures (and current revenue models for online journalism) as a reason for no longer answering the important W-questions at the beginning of the news.

Publications

• Storytelling im Digitalen Journalismus: Steht die umgekehrte Pyramide im Netz Kopf?“ Pre-Conference im Rahmen der Tagung "Interdisziplinäre Journalismusforschung – Journalismus interdisziplinär" der DGPuK-Fachgruppe Journalistik/Journalismusforschung 2020, Hamburg, 23.09.2020
  Keute, A. & Birkner, T.
  
• Theorietransfer für die Journalismusforschung: Journalismus und Medialisierung. Tagung "Interdisziplinäre Journalismusforschung – Journalismus interdisziplinär" der DGPuK-Fachgruppe Journalistik/Journalismusforschung 2020, Hamburg, 24.09.2020
  Birkner, T. & Keute, A.
  
• From traditional to automated news: How did sports coverage change in the past 100 years? 71st Annual International Communication Association Conference, Denver, USA
  Kunert, J., Birkner, T. & Keute, A.
  
• Historical change and journalistic norms – A hundred years of writing the news. 71st Annual International Communication Association Conference, Denver, USA
  Keute, A. & Birkner, T.
  
• Is the inverted pyramid turned upside down? The structure of news in the digital age. 8th European Communication Conference (ECREA), Braga, Portugal
  Keute, A. & Birkner, T.
  
• Digital wiedergeboren: Die Bedeutung von digitalen Archiven für die Journalismusforschung. In C. Schwarzenegger, E. Koenen, C. Pentzold, T. Birkner, & C. Katzenbach (Hrsg.), Digitale Kommunikation und Kommunikationsge schichte: Perspektiven, Potentiale, Problemfelder (S. 225–245). Böhland & Schremmer.
  Keute, A. & Birkner, T.
  
• History of Journalism. Handbook of Media and Communication Economics, 1-14. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
  Birkner, Thomas
  
• Journalism in the matrix of mediatization. 72nd Annual International Communication Association Conference, Paris, Frankreich, 27.05.2022.
  Birkner, T.
  
• Journalismusgeschichte als Sozialgeschichte. Handbuch Journalismustheorien, 1-15. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
  Birkner, Thomas & Keute, Annika
  
• „Who talks about Climate Change?” Eine Analyse der Interviews mit Klimawandel-Bezug in FAZ und SZ aus den Jahren 2005 bis 2021. Tagung „Climate (Change) Communication“ der DGPuK-Fachgruppe Wissenschaftskommunikation 2022, Ilmenau, 10.02.2022
  Keute, A.
  
• Change as chance and not as crisis: How German journalists evaluate the evolution from analog to digital journalism. 73rd Annual International Communication Association Conference, Toronto, Canada, 28.05.2023
  Birkner, T., Keute, A. & Davydova, A.
  
• Journalismusforschung. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG.
  Meier, Klaus & Neuberger, Christoph (Eds.)
  
• The digital turn from a newsroom perspective – How German journalists from different generations reflect on the digitalization of journalism. Journalism, 25(5), 1031-1049.
  Birkner, Thomas; Keute, Annika & Davydova, Anna