Journalism after all: Professionalism, content and performance – A comparison between alternative news websites and websites of traditional newspapers in German local media markets

Abstract

In light of the problems traditional news organizations are facing in many countries, it has been suggested that journalism's relevance as the sole provider of news in an increasingly networked society is decreasing and that the Internet has given rise to new kinds of amateur, citizen, and participatory forms of content production, changing the nature of traditional journalism and threatening its institutions. The study presented here suggests otherwise. Taking a look at the German local news market and presenting a survey of the alternative news websites that have entered this market in recent years, it suggests that it is not so much journalism's standards and practices -its institutional characteristics -that are changing, but its organizational framework.

Problems of Content Production in Regional Mass Media

“…Researchers in nowadays are worried about the changing nature of journalism in the era new media environment. There are worries about the diminishing role of traditional journalism or, more precisely, traditional journalistic virtues in the process of content production (Harnischmacher, 2014). Looking on the existing researches in local and regional media field, it looks it is one of the stable journalism practice because of its location and functions in the community.…”

“…Contemporary changes in local media are tied with a wider change in the way in which we live our lives, the way in which the economy works, and the way in which politics works (Nielsen, 2015). In addition to the websites of the legacy media, independently produced news sites can be found, with a wide array of appearances from weblogs to community-based forums to semiprofessional and professional online 'newspapers' (Harnischmacher, 2014). It could come one of the challenges for traditional local media market and is called a hyperlocal media that operates in Web 2.0 environment, using different journalistic genres and sources and making concrete social organization.…”

“…In Europe, countries with strong mass media traditions regional journalism, for example, printed press is described as opposite to capital or big journalism. "Even in countries like Germany -with a still 'healthy' local news market, local papers with high circulation, and a majority of professional journalists working in this field -local news tends to be seen as secondary to the national print and broadcasting sector in terms of quality and status", (Harnischmacher, 2014). The situation is similar in science as well.…”

“…"Local news' has certainly not been among the prime research subjects in our field in the past decade. In fact, it appears to be a kind of neglected stepchild of both journalism and journalism research" (Harnischmacher, 2014).…”

“…Especially in the era of new media which is counted as changing environment. Local media researcher Michael Harnischmacher says "there are worries about the diminishing role of traditional journalism or, more precisely, traditional journalistic virtues in the process of content production and one of those forces in many countries is the intrusion of alternative news websites on a local level, which are challenging newspapers' monopoly on local and regional information" (Harnischmacher, 2014).…”