Journalism Research 2018: How German journalists research today

Blogbeitrag - 24. Mai 18

Personal interviews and press releases continue to be the most important sources for journalistic investigation. This was the outcome of the major survey of journalists “Journalism Research 2018: How German journalists research today” carried out by the dpa subsidiary news aktuell. The full results of the survey are available as a whitepaper free of charge.

Thus, for the overwhelming majority of those surveyed the personal interview continues to be - or is once again - the most important source for their day-to-day research (88 per cent). Press releases are seeing undimmed vitality as well, with 86 per cent saying that they make use of press releases for their research. Almost every fifth journalist believes that their significance has even risen over the past two years (18 per cent). Among journalists younger than 35, company press releases are even the most important source of information (92 per cent).

A small selection of further results of the survey:

  • Social media are now part of a journalist’s daily routine: No other source has gained more influence over the work of German journalists in the past two years than social networks. Even if only just over half of the journalists surveyed see social media as their most important source of information (58 per cent), the social networks have gained increased significance over the past two years for more than half of those surveyed (55 per cent).
  • The demand for multi-media press material has risen further: For close to one in two German journalists (46 per cent) the requirement for pictures has increased in the past two years. The same applies to video: 43 per cent need more video footage for their reporting.
  • Mobile reporting (52 per cent) and data-driven journalism (51 per cent) are for editors the most significant trends for the future. Further relevant topics are live streams (35 per cent) and mobile push notification services (28 per cent).

The full results of the survey are available as a whitepaper free of charge: https://www.newsaktuell.de/academy/wp/research-2018/

About “Journalism Research 2018”:

  • Initiator: news aktuell
  • Title: “Journalism Research 2018: How German journalists research today”
  • Participants: 554 journalists in Germany
  • Method: online questionnaire
  • Period: November 2017