In the Flemish news media, journalists obviously try to write and create their own content. Nevertheless, during the interviews, it became clear that news agencies play a significant role in the news-making process, with common practice being that journalists actually rewrite information provided by news agencies. While leading news organisations try to use agencies as a secondary or tertiary source to complement their research, some smaller news organisations count on them as their main source. The free daily, Metro, solely publishes articles informed by news agencies. Also, in case of breaking news, journalists sometimes choose to publish first directly from a news agency and only later adapt the article to incorporate their own research.
Belga is the most important Belgian news agency. This national news agency is a cooperation between Belgian publishers and the audiovisual media sector, who are its main shareholders. This news agency is also the primary supplier of photos and images (via Belga Image). Despite this, Belga’s importance in Flemish media appears to show a decline, with VRT reporting that they use Belga less frequently. Another national news agency that Flemish journalists use frequently is Inter Press Service Vlaanderen (IPS). The international news agencies Reuters and AP also are important sources of information for Flemish news organisations (VRM, 2019b).
In Flanders, the number of professional journalists shows a decline. In 2019, there were 2,402 professional journalists registered in Flanders, while in 2016, there were 2,686. The Flemish Union of Journalists (VVJ) sees an alarming decline in the number of interns enrolling in journalism. While 138 new interns enrolled in journalism in 2009, in 2019, the number fell to 84 (VVJ, 2020).
The number of Flemish journalists working abroad is also at a staggering low, though the Flemish public broadcaster still has a limited number of reporters residing abroad, for example in China and the US. Flemish journalists with expertise on a foreign country are usually only sent to those countries when there is something really important perceived to be happening. In other cases, Flemish news organisations tend to make use of Dutch correspondents. Resources for journalistic investigation are falling sharply as well, according to a member of the VVOJ (Flemish Union of Investigative Journalism) (VVJ, 2020).
Despite the limited resources for and the decrease in the number of professional journalists, most of the interviewees reported that there was no structural content syndication – one exception was the syndication of content offered by VRT. This service is used by other Flemish media organisations, notably those with no news video in-house (e.g., Mediahuis). Interviewees did, however, admit that a lot of news is reused inside their own news organisations. The content is then adapted to the needs of the audience of the news brand. Academic research into one of the main Flemish media companies has indeed revealed a vast increase in the copy–pasting of news content between 2013 and 2018 (Hendrickx & Ranaivoson, 2019), whereas sharing content between media groups but across borders (in this case between Flemish and Dutch newspapers) is also increasingly common practice.
The same is true for the use of public relations material. Flemish journalists are flooded by public relations messages, but keep their independence and do not let these messages affect their writing. In most Flemish news organisations, there is a clear divide between advertisements and journalistic content. However, we did observe a rise of advertorials, native advertising, and branded content. Still, as a response, the Flemish Council for Journalism has in 2019 reviewed – and sharpened – its guideline regarding journalistic independence from commercial sources. Furthermore, licensed journalists (holders of a press card, see Indicator C5 – Journalists’ job security) are still prohibited from engaging in any form of non-journalistic content production. More common is the intrusion of politicians in journalism: via spokespersons, they try to get their faces on television and in the newspapers (these matters will be further detailed in Indicators F5 and F6 – Company rules against internal and external influence on newsroom/editorial staff, respectively).
Regarding the selection of sources, there was a divided response by the Flemish media. While some journalists claimed they write politically neutral content, others asserted that (almost) every article has a clear ideological or normative background. In a survey from 2018, almost 60 per cent of Flemish journalists situated themselves on the left of the political spectrum (Van Leuven et al., 2019). Especially in the newspaper industry, it was evident that many newspapers have left or right leanings. This sometimes originated from the historical background of the newspaper or a few journalists or columnists within them who possessed a pronounced opinion. The newspapers more open about their ideological position put it forward in their branding and mission statement. The television news broadcasts of VRT and DPG Media are obliged to be neutral, as required by Flemish media decree. VRT still receives a lot of criticism, especially from (extreme) right-wing parties, of allegedly being too left-wing, in line with public broadcasters of other regions and countries. However, the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2020 confirmed high degrees of trust in the news of the Flemish public broadcaster from all political sides (Newman et al., 2020).
In the case of selecting sources that reflect society in terms of gender, age, and ethnic origin, Flemish news media in general still have a long way to go, with much remaining to be done, especially in the representation of ethnic minorities. VRT is an example for other Flemish news organisations of how a fully incorporated diversity policy makes a difference, although having a policy is not sufficient. Ambitions must be aspirational and reflect demographical evolution. The quotas for the representation of women and minorities on the screen are, however, rather low (40% for women, 10% for migrant communities) – specifically those for migrant communities do not reflect society at all (De Swert, Kuypers, & Walgrave, 2019).
