The representatives of the journalists’ unions are unanimous in their view that the professional standards are high in German journalism, but that the conditions of resources have worsened such that profound investigation is sometimes lacking: “We see significant gaps in resources that affect publications. Almost all the editorial offices we know of are staffed too tightly. Attempts have been made to improve the economic situation by cutting jobs”.
In the Worlds of Journalism Study, the respondents almost unanimously agreed that journalists should always adhere to codes of professional ethics, regardless of situation and context (Hanitzsch et al., 2016). The education of journalists is as high as ever, but working conditions and shortness of time hinder journalists from performing in line with their skills. In 2016, 96 per cent of journalists had a university-entry diploma, and 75 per cent had a university degree, although a slight majority (56%) had not specialised in communication or journalism (Hanitzsch et al., 2016).
The prerequisite of cross-media skills is ubiquitous, and workload has increased because of digital publishing alongside the print version. This is in line with a survey where 44 per cent of interviewed journalists assess their working conditions as rather less good, and 11 per cent even as not good at all (Statista, 2020). This is especially true for daily newspapers and important regional and local papers. Additionally, there are critiques that the level of general education has decreased, and so background knowledge to classify and interpret news events is lacking. In public service media, conditions are considered comparatively better, but a sense of insecurity by political pressure to cut costs in public service media is weighing on working conditions.
Because of reductions in newsrooms, the workload has increased, and time for sound investigative research has been continuously lessened: “Where you used to go and do research for two weeks, let’s say today, six days must also be enough”. Still, two weekly publications, which can be regarded as market leaders, have good working conditions and are esteemed for their investigative power. Some of their investigative successes were the disclosure of the Ibiza video, which forced the Austrian government to resign, the Panama Papers, and disclosures on fraud in health insurances.
The level of self-organisation is high. There are two active competing and cooperating unions of journalists, publishing their own media thematising issues of professionalism and ethics. There also exists additional organisations (Network Investigation, Initiative Quality) working on these topics. According to interviewees from the unions, journalists show a high level of solidarity:
There is good solidarity among colleagues, because everyone sees that the situation as we see it is due to bottlenecks. Our colleagues exercise their profession with such passion that they say, no, we have reached a point here, we cannot go any further.
Public debates about ethical behaviour usually come up when big scandals happen, and are then picked up by journalists, but not initiated by them. For example, a big faking scandal within a leading weekly triggered a huge discussion about how far reportage may be embellished to captivate the reader.
Regular education is given by a tariff agreement stating the conditions of the initial training, which is a two-year paid internship. Journalists’ unions promote the necessity of further education by making it a component of the collective wage agreement.
Gender issues in further education are reported as being underexposed, although the journalists’ unions report a high level of women journalists to defend their claims.
