The external influence on media content is a well-known problem and part of the daily business. Our current findings and statements from the interviews with editors-in-chief show that there is a certain danger in downplaying (or justifying) the influence of external stakeholders. According to their statements, they feel pressure from politicians as well as from industry. At the same time, they vow to withstand it successfully and underline their independence.
Altogether, it is correct to say that the media in Switzerland are independent from the direct influence of power holders. There are, indeed, indirect influences – on both sides. The media are willing to and in fact do look over stakeholders’ shoulders. And, vice versa, the media are under the influence of various stakeholders.
A critical look at the interaction between the media and power holders reveals dependencies, at least at some points. Furthermore, the big question of what status the media enjoy within Swiss society and Swiss democracy remains open: namely whether the media themselves constitute a power holder.
The media – or more precisely the attitudes of journalists – are ambiguous. On the one hand, they complain about the pushy attempts of politicians to get attention from the media. On the other hand, they depend on “good stories” from politicians and thus are ready to jump on campaigns that promise controversies and may please the crowd. Furthermore, journalists often have a close relationship to certain politicians, which makes it difficult to maintain a distance.
When it comes to the advertising industry, the dependency is obvious – and onesided. Especially commercial media (free sheets, online media) depend on advertising.
It is not very surprising that editors-in-chief of such commercial media judge the influence of the advertising industry to be non-problematic. After all, they depend heavily on them.
Commercial media have tried to avoid the pressure from the advertising industry with the introduction of pages or programmes where advertising merges with journalism (e.g., advertorials).
In contrast to the commercial media, the public broadcasting media are almost free of advertisement. Public radio has no advertising at all, public television is financed 23 per cent by advertising revenues. In 2009 advertising revenues were 232.8 Million CHF (Source: Geschäftsbericht SRG SSR 2009).
