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An obsession with knowing: why Germans love the news
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Content
An
Obsession
with
Knowing:
Why
Germans
Love
the
News
by
Heather
McIlvaine
A
Thesis
Presented
to
the
FACULTY
OF
THE
USC
GRADUATE
SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY
OF
SOUTHERN
CALIFORNIA
In
Partial
Fulfillment
of
the
Requirements
for
the
Degree
MASTER
OF
ARTS
(SPECIALIZED
JOURNALISM)
May
2014
Copyright
2014
Heather
McIlvaine
ii
Table
of
Contents
Abstract
iii
An
Obsession
with
Knowing:
Why
Germans
Love
the
News
1
Bibliography
22
iii
Abstract
In
Germany,
as
in
many
other
countries,
digital
publishing
and
distribution
trends
are
disrupting
the
traditional
business
model
of
newspapers.
Dwindling
circulation,
cuts
to
staff
and
the
closure
of
papers
indicate
a
crisis
in
the
industry.
But
according
to
a
recent
Reuters
report
on
news
consumption
in
nine
countries,
Germany
has
one
of
the
highest
rates
of
interest
in
the
news.
And
85
percent
of
Germans
still
get
the
news
in
some
form
every
day.
There
is
a
strong
tradition
of
news
consumption
in
the
country,
a
“cultural
parachute,”
which
some
predict
will
protect
the
transitioning
news
industry
from
full-‐on
free
fall.
Indeed,
Germans’
preoccupation
with
the
news
can
be
traced
throughout
history,
from
the
world’s
first
printed
newspaper
in
the
then
German-‐speaking
city
of
Strasbourg,
to
the
transformation
of
the
country’s
news
media
after
World
War
II.
But
whether
this
cultural
trait
will
prevail
over
external
forces
of
change
in
the
industry
is
not
as
easy
to
determine.
1
On
a
Sunday
morning
in
southern
Germany,
in
a
house
near
the
alpine
waters
of
the
Chiemsee,
Bettina
Wagner-‐Bergelt
pours
herself
a
second
cup
of
coffee
in
preparation
for
the
day’s
activities.
The
50-‐plus-‐page
weekend
edition
of
the
Süddeutsche
Zeitung
needs
tackling;
and
she
begins,
as
always,
with
the
culture
section.
Except
for
the
rustling
of
paper,
the
house
is
quiet.
Occasionally,
Wagner-‐
Bergelt
reads
a
passage
aloud
to
her
husband
and
teenage
son,
who
also
sit
immersed
in
the
Süddeutsche.
Church
bells
toll
the
quarter,
half,
and
full
hour
–
entire
Sundays
can
pass
this
way,
as
they
have
for
most
of
her
life.
Tall
and
with
thick
hair
in
the
process
of
turning
from
blonde
to
white,
she
relishes
the
familiar
coziness
of
it
all.
“The
newspaper
was
something
that
we
grew
up
with,
it
was
part
of
our
daily
life,”
the
53
year
old
explains.
“My
father
read
it
in
the
morning,
smoking
a
cigar,
and
on
the
weekend
we
spent
hours
reading
newspapers,
everybody
sitting
in
his
corner
in
the
living
room.”
1
It
is
not
hard
to
reconcile
this
image
of
Wagner-‐Bergelt
as
a
young
girl,
half-‐
hidden
behind
one
of
those
oversized
broadsheets
so
common
in
Germany,
with
the
woman
now
flipping
through
a
stack
of
newspapers
in
her
office
on
the
top
floor
of
the
Bavarian
State
Ballet
in
Munich,
where
she
works
as
an
art
director.
1
Bettina
Wagner-‐Bergelt,
interview
with
the
author,
Munich,
Germany,
November
19,
2013.
2
The
building
has
a
Gothic-‐looking
façade
and
is
situated
in
one
of
the
oldest
squares
in
the
city,
not
far
from
the
original
Hofbräuhaus.
Inside,
Wagner-‐Bergelt’s
desk
is
cluttered
with
all
the
minutiae
of
a
modern-‐day
nine-‐to-‐five:
an
empty
water
bottle,
Post-‐It
notes
and
a
kid’s
stick-‐figure
drawing.
In
this
otherwise
unremarkable
office,
the
pile
of
newspapers
covering
her
keyboard
–
all
bearing
today’s
date
–
is
conspicuous.
“I
read
the
Süddeutsche
Zeitung
with
my
breakfast
every
day
and
I
scan
all
the
others
for
news
that
has
to
do
with
my
work
at
the
Ballet,”
Wagner-‐Bergelt
says.
2
But
she
does
not
stop
there.
When
she
thinks
one
of
the
stories
about
a
dancer,
choreographer
or
arts
program
is
relevant,
she
cuts
it
out
and
pastes
it
into
a
large
three-‐ring
binder.
At
least
a
dozen
such
binders
are
lined
up
on
a
bookshelf,
comprising
a
meticulous
documentation
of
the
modern
German
dance
scene,
should
a
need
for
the
information
ever
arise.
At
first,
it
is
difficult
to
know
what
to
make
of
this
laborious
cataloging,
so
anachronistic
and
a
little
obsessive.
In
some
ways,
though,
Wagner-‐Bergelt’s
binders
are
simply
another
manifestation
of
a
national
habit
that
is
evident
at
breakfast
tables,
train
stations
and
sidewalk
cafes
all
over
Germany:
the
widespread
commitment
to
reading,
watching,
hearing,
discussing
and
dissecting
the
news.
Like
many
Germans
of
her
generation,
Wagner-‐Bergelt
began
subscribing
to
a
daily
newspaper
in
her
university
years
and
simply
never
stopped:
“It
was
normal.
2
Wagner-‐Bergelt,
interview.
3
The
people
I
was
around
all
used
to
read
the
newspaper
regularly.
We
would
have
political
debates
about
what
was
going
on.”
3
This
was
in
the
early
1980s,
a
time
halfway
between
the
sweeping
student
protest
movement
of
1968
and
the
reunification
of
Germany
in
1990,
a
period
of
great
social
change.
To
live
in
West
Berlin,
as
Wagner-‐Bergelt
did,
and
not
care
about
what
was
happening
in
the
world
would
have
been
an
anomaly.
For
decades,
cultural
tradition
and
slow
online
penetration
ensured
a
large
and
loyal
audience
for
traditional
media
in
Germany.
Though
this
following
still
appears
robust,
especially
in
comparison
to
the
number
of
“old
media”
consumers
in
the
US,
digital
news
platforms
are
making
headway
in
the
Land
der
Dichter
und
Denker.
4
And
print
newspapers,
which
unlike
public
radio
and
television
programs
are
not
subsidized
by
the
German
government,
have
born
the
brunt
of
this
change.
In
fact,
daily
circulation
of
print
newspapers
has
been
in
very
slow
decline
since
its
high
point
in
1991,
though
this
trend
was
not
cause
for
alarm
until
2009.
Then,
income
from
ad
sales
sank
below
earnings
from
newspaper
sales
for
the
first
time,
and
publishers
scrambled
to
reassess
their
business
model.
5
The
last
five
years
have
seen
paywalls
go
up
on
digital
offerings,
staff
cuts
across
regional
and
national
3
Ibid.
4
The
phrase
Land
der
Dichter
und
Denker
can
be
translated
as
the
“land
of
poets
and
philosophers,”
and
it
is
often
used
as
a
synonym
for
Germany.
5
Anja
Pasquay,
“Zur
wirtschaftlichen
Lage
der
Zeitungen
in
Deutschland
2013.”
Bundesverband
Deutscher
Zeitungsverleger
e.V.,
2013,
www.bdzv.de/markttrends-‐
und-‐daten/wirtschaftliche-‐
lage/artikel/detail/zur_wirtschaftlichen_lage_der_zeitungen_in_deutschland_2013
(13
November
2013).
4
publications
and
the
shuttering
of
the
Financial
Times
Deutschland.
6
The
Federation
of
German
Newspaper
Publishers
changed
the
name
of
its
annual
report
from
the
former
“The
Situation
of
Newspapers
in
Germany”
to
“The
Economic
Situation
of
Newspapers
in
Germany.”
7
In
short:
The
newspaper
crisis
arrived
in
Germany.
Despite
all
of
this,
Germans
demonstrate
an
undeterred
desire
to
access
news
and
information.
According
to
a
recent
Reuters
report
on
digital
news
consumption,
80
percent
of
Germans
say
they
are
interested
in
the
news.
This
was
one
of
the
highest
rates
among
the
nine
countries
surveyed,
outnumbering
news-‐hungry
countries
like
Denmark
and
Japan.
8
And
even
some
Germans
who
do
not
particularly
care
about
the
news
apparently
feel
compelled
to
read
it,
since
85
percent
of
the
population
older
than
14
reports
consuming
news
in
some
form
every
day.
In
the
US,
76
percent
of
Americans
do
the
same.
9
More
than
70
percent
of
Germans
still
regularly
read
a
print
newspaper,
and
over
60
percent
of
14
to
29
year
olds
–
the
hardest
market
to
reach–
regularly
read
a
newspaper
online.
10
6
Cordt
Schnibben,
“Extra,
Extra!
Newspaper
Crisis
Hits
Germany,”
Spiegel
Online
International,
August
13,
2013.
(www.spiegel.de/international/germany/circulation-‐declines-‐hit-‐german-‐papers-‐a-‐
decade-‐after-‐america-‐a-‐915574.html).
7
Emphasis
mine.
8
Nic
Newman
and
David
A.
L.
Levy,
“Reuters
Institute
Digital
News
Report
2013.”
Reuters
Institute
for
the
Study
of
Journalism,
2013,
www.digitalnewsreport.org
(21
September
2013).
9
Newman
and
Levy,
“Reuters
Institute
Digital
News
Report
2013.”
10
Pasquay,
Bundesverband
Deutscher
Zeitungsverleger
e.V.
5
Some
people
see
this
behavior
as
evidence
of
a
“cultural
parachute”
that
has
kept
a
transitioning
German
news
industry
from
full-‐on
free
fall.
11
The
assumption
is
that
Germans’
deeply
ingrained
habits
of
reading
the
newspaper
and
watching
the
evening
news
–
the
widely
popular
Tagesschau
–
will
continue,
no
matter
the
platform.
This
raises
a
fundamental
question:
Why
are
Germans
so
committed
to
getting
news
in
the
first
place?
The
Buzzfeed
of
Seventeenth
Century
Europe
Understanding
the
root
of
Germans’
interest
in
the
news
requires
a
journey
back
in
time
to
the
birth
of
the
world’s
first
printed
newspaper,
which
occurred
in
the
then
German-‐speaking
city
of
Strasbourg.
The
year
was
1605,
the
publisher
was
Johann
Carolus
and
the
paper
was
a
weekly
called
the
Relation
aller
Fürnemmen
und
gedenckwürdigen
Historien.
12
Translated,
the
title
reads,
Account
of
all
distinguished
and
commemorable
news.
The
man
credited
with
discovering
the
birthdate
of
Relation
is
Martin
Welke,
a
press
historian
who
specializes
in
German-‐language
newspapers
published
between
the
seventeenth
century
and
first
half
of
the
nineteenth
century.
Welke
is
the
founder
of
the
German
Newspaper
Museum
in
Mainz,
a
city
made
famous
by
11
Amanda
DeMarco,
“The
Goose
That
Laid
the
Golden
Egg:
A
Brief
Lesson
in
German
Publishing
Psychology,”
Publishing
Perspectives,
May
30,
2011,
accessed
February
15,
2014.
http://publishingperspectives.com/2011/05/german-‐publishing-‐psychology/.
12
Mitchell
Stephens,
“History
of
Newspapers,”
Collier’s
Encyclopedia,
accessed
February
26,
2014.
https://www.nyu.edu/classes/stephens/Collier%27s%20page.htm.
6
Johannes
Gutenberg’s
invention
of
the
printing
press
in
1450.
And
he
is
currently
in
the
process
of
building
a
bigger,
“first
class”
newspaper
museum
in
Augsburg
scheduled
to
open
in
the
fall
of
2015.
Welke
also
holds
the
distinction
of
having
read
every
existing
page
of
German-‐language
newspapers
published
during
the
1600s,
which
number
over
250,000.
If
anyone
can
explain
why
Germans
love
to
consume
the
news,
he
should
be
able
to.
“It
makes
sense
that
we
are
especially
interested
in
the
news.
This
is
where
newspapers
got
their
start,”
Welke
says.
“It’s
not
just
the
fact
that
some
of
the
world’s
oldest
newspapers
were
printed
in
German-‐speaking
regions,
but
also
that
early
newspapers
grew
more
quickly
and
gained
a
bigger
readership
here
than
anywhere
else
in
Europe.”
13
The
Strasbourg
paper
marked
an
irreversible
shift
in
the
way
news
was
circulated
in
Europe,
not
because
it
was
printed
–
Gutenberg’s
printing
press
had
been
mass
producing
Bibles
and
other
literature
for
several
decades
by
then
–
but
because
of
the
regularity
and
variety
of
the
news
it
published.
Before
the
Relation,
people
shared
information
via
pamphlets,
short
books
and
news
ballads,
a
delightful-‐sounding
tradition
of
writing
news
in
the
form
of
verse.
14
But
because
these
publications
usually
appeared
only
once
and
reported
on
only
one
story,
they
did
not
qualify
as
newspapers
according
to
the
common
13
Martin
Welke,
Skype
interview
with
the
author,
February
25,
2014.
14
Stephens,
Collier’s.
7
definition:
“a
publication
that
appears
regularly
and
frequently,
and
carries
news
about
a
wide
variety
of
current
events.”
15
Over
the
next
two
hundred
years,
the
German-‐language
press
became
something
like
the
Buzzfeed
of
seventeenth
and
eighteenth
century
Europe,
in
that
it
redefined
the
format
of
news,
how
it
was
consumed
and
utterly
trounced
the
competition
in
terms
of
readership.
Weekly
news
publications
in
the
style
of
Relation
began
to
appear
in
Berlin,
Hamburg,
Amsterdam,
Vienna,
London
and
other
European
cities.
In
1650,
the
world’s
first
printed
daily
newspaper,
the
Einkommende
Zeitung,
was
published
in
Leipzig.
Just
50
years
later,
more
than
60
German
news
publications
were
reaching
a
readership
of
several
hundred
thousand
people.
By
the
time
revolutionary
Parisians
stormed
the
Bastille
in
1789,
over
186
German-‐language
newspapers
would
have
been
able
to
report
on
the
event,
compared
to
only
three
French
newspapers,
all
based
in
Paris.
16
Not
only
did
more
newspapers
exist
in
Germany
during
this
period
than
in
any
other
European
country,
but
also
they
often
reached
much
larger
audiences.
In
1830,
the
Times
of
London,
which
Mitchell
Stephens,
a
professor
of
journalism
and
mass
communication
at
New
York
University,
calls
“perhaps
the
most
respected
newspaper
in
the
world
at
the
time,”
was
selling
10,000
copies
a
day.
17
Around
the
15
Stephens,
Collier’s.
16
Martin
Welke,
Wir
Zeitungsleser:
Ein
kultur-‐
und
sozialgeschichtlicher
Streifzug
durch
vier
Jahrhunderte,
(Offenburg:
Reiff),
3.
17
Stephens,
Collier’s.
8
same
time,
the
circulation
of
the
Hamburgische
unpartheyisch
Correspondent
was
56,000.
18
But
what
explains
the
early
dominance
of
German
newspapers
in
the
industry?
Why
were
there
so
many?
And
why
did
Germans
seem
to
possess
such
a
hunger
for
the
news
from
the
moment
it
was
first
printed
on
paper
in
Strasbourg?
According
to
Welke,
the
answers
to
these
questions
lie
in
three
historical
factors:
Germany’s
central
location
within
Europe,
its
regionalism
and
its
Protestantism.
19
The
Legacy
of
Martin
Luther
“In
the
early
years
of
newspapers,
right
up
to
the
invention
of
the
telegraph,
editors
relied
on
out-‐of-‐town
papers
and
letters
sent
through
the
mail
for
their
content,”
a
proto
wire
service,
Welke
explains.
“If
the
mail
didn’t
come,
the
news
didn’t
happen.”
20
During
this
time,
several
important
postal
routes
relayed
information
across
Europe,
and
thanks
to
basic
geography,
they
all
cut
right
through
the
German-‐
speaking
provinces.
More
mail
happened
to
flow
through
this
area
than
anywhere
else
in
Europe,
and
thus,
newspapers
abounded.
Moreover,
until
1871,
Germany
existed
as
a
group
of
loosely
connected
states
and
small
kingdoms,
where
individual
rulers
were
largely
able
to
influence
the
18
Welke,
Wir
Zeitungsleser.
19
Welke,
interview.
20
Ibid.
9
politics
of
the
Reich
and
enforce
its
laws
independently.
In
such
an
environment,
historians
say,
a
plurality
of
regional
newspapers
could
coexist
and
thrive.
In
comparison,
the
French
monarchy
had
been
consolidating
the
power
of
regional
rulers
in
the
royal
court
of
Versailles
since
the
sixteenth
century;
thus,
the
relative
weakness
of
its
regional
press.
21
And
then
there
is
Martin
Luther:
Catholic
priest,
father
of
the
Protestant
Reformation
and
pioneer
in
the
war
on
illiteracy.
Luther,
born
and
educated
in
German-‐speaking
lands,
believed
that
good
Christians
had
to
be
able
to
read
the
Bible
for
themselves,
and
he
argued
for
the
necessity
of
mandatory
primary
school
education
in
his
writings
in
the
early
to
mid-‐1500s.
22
“This
created
a
large,
literate
potential
audience
for
the
newspapers
that
began
to
appear
in
the
seventeenth
century,”
says
Welke,
an
expert
on
the
news
media
during
this
time
period.
23
To
be
sure,
there
is
some
dispute
as
to
whether
literacy
became
widespread
in
Germany
during
the
Reformation
of
the
sixteenth
century,
or
the
“Second
Reformation,”
also
called
the
German
Pietist
movement,
of
the
late
seventeenth
and
eighteenth
centuries.
24
According
to
Welke,
illiteracy
was
almost
nonexistent
in
Saxony
and
Anhalt,
the
home
base
of
the
Protestant
Reformation,
by
1700,
25
while
21
Welke,
interview.
22
Richard
Gawthrop
and
Gerald
Strauss,
“Protestantism
and
Literacy
in
Early
Modern
Germany.”
Past
&
Present,
no.
104
(Aug.,
1984),
p.
43.
23
Welke,
interview.
24
Gawthrop
and
Strauss,
p.
32
25
Welke,
interview.
10
other
scholars
have
concluded
that
the
ability
to
read
was
“still
spotty”
in
many
areas
of
Germany
into
the
late
eighteenth
century.
26
This
chronological
discrepancy
could
prove
somewhat
problematic
for
Welke’s
theory,
but
he
claims
that
new
research
in
the
field
shows
higher
literacy
rates
where
the
Lutheran
clergy’s
efforts
to
teach
reading,
writing
and
arithmetic
were
concentrated.
“Only
recently,
we
have
found
records
that
the
clergy
was
going
around
to
the
different
schools
to
make
sure
that
the
teachers
were
showing
up
and
doing
their
jobs,”
explains
Welke.
“This
was
more
in
the
interest
of
the
Church,
which
was
paying
the
teachers’
salaries.
But
within
these
records,
we
found
evaluations
of
students’
reading
ability.
So
we
can
definitively
say
that
literacy
was
spreading
in
Germany
in
the
early
1700s.”
27
A
more
pressing
critique
is
whether
any
of
these
historical
factors
can
still
explain
German
news
consumption
habits
today.
After
all,
the
US
now
has
the
same
literacy
rate
as
Germany,
99
percent,
28
but
according
to
the
2013
Reuters
report
on
news
consumption,
Americans
are
less
interested
than
Germans
in
the
news.
29
Does
this
disprove
any
correlation
between
literacy
rates
and
news
consumption?
And
in
26
Gawthrop
and
Strauss,
p.
53.
27
Welke,
interview.
28
“The
World
Factbook:
Literacy,”
Central
Intelligence
Agency,
accessed
February
27,
2014.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-‐world-‐factbook/fields/2103.html.
29
Newman
and
Levy,
22.
11
the
current
age
of
the
Internet
and
telecommunications,
what
is
the
relevance
of
a
few
ancient
postal
routes?
For
Welke,
the
connection
between
the
Age
of
Enlightenment
and
modern
day
is
simple:
“Starting
in
the
seventeenth
century,
consuming
the
news
and
dissecting
it
with
other
people
became
a
part
of
our
cultural
tradition.
And
like
all
traditions,
it
was
passed
down
from
generation
to
generation.”
30
Anthropologists
call
this
process
cultural
learning
or
cultural
transmission.
“For
many
people,
culture
is
so
internalized
that
we
take
it
as
a
given
–
as
something
we
are
born
with,”
explains
Nancy
Jervis,
an
independent
scholar
who
holds
a
Ph.D.
in
anthropology
from
Columbia
University,
in
an
article
about
the
formation
of
culture.
31
But
that
is
not
the
case:
“As
children,
we
are
taught
language,
gender
roles,
how
to
behave,
what
to
believe
(religion),
what
foods
taste
good
and
so
on.”
32
Following
the
logic
of
cultural
transmission,
it
is
conceivable
that
the
way
Germans
think
about
the
news
today
–
as
a
daily
routine,
as
a
sign
of
maturity
and
adulthood,
as
a
marker
of
education
and
learning
–
has
been
directly
influenced
by
the
thoughts
and
habits
of
many
previous
generations.
In
this
light,
those
ancient
postal
routes
and
the
literacy
movement
led
by
Martin
Luther
provide
a
useful,
even
necessary,
historical
context
for
understanding
the
current
news
culture
in
Germany.
30
Welke,
interview.
31
Nancy
Jervis,
“What
Is
a
Culture?,”
World
Communities:
What
Is
a
Culture?,
2006,
accessed
March
10,
2014.
http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/socst/grade3/whatisa.html.
32
Jervis,
World
Communities:
What
Is
a
Culture?
12
Of
course,
Jervis
makes
no
promises
that
traditions
will
be
passed
on,
unimpeded,
forever.
Outside
influences
–
like
the
rise
of
the
Internet
and
mobile
technology
–
can
cause
cultural
change
to
occur.
“Maybe
the
tradition
of
reading
an
actual
print
newspaper
is
fading,”
Welke
admits,
“but
I
think
the
process
is
happening
more
slowly
here
than
in
other
countries.”
33
Vergangenheitsbewältigung
Anja
Pasquay,
press
officer
of
the
Federation
of
German
Newspaper
Publishers,
knows
something
about
the
changing
habits
of
news
consumers
today.
One
of
her
duties
at
the
Berlin-‐based
organization
is
to
write
the
annual
report
on
“The
Economic
Situation
of
Newspapers
in
Germany.”
For
the
past
five
years,
that
has
meant
acknowledging
the
fact
that
none
of
the
old
publishing
rules
apply,
without
being
able
to
present
a
clear
view
of
the
industry’s
future.
“We
still
talk
about
this
old
notion
of
the
golden
ratio
between
ad
sales
and
subscription
revenue
even
though
that’s
completely
irrelevant
now,”
says
Pasquay.
34
Lately,
the
question
of
where
Germans
are
consuming
their
news,
and
to
a
lesser
extent,
why
they
read,
watch
and
listen
to
the
news
in
the
first
place,
has
been
the
central
question
in
her
career.
33
Welke,
interview.
34
Anja
Pasquay,
Skype
interview
with
the
author,
February
10,
2014.
13
“I
do
think
we
[Germans]
have
a
particular
feeling
of
wanting
to
be
informed
and
to
understand
what’s
happening
in
the
world,”
says
Pasquay.
35
She
is
familiar
with
the
work
of
press
historians
such
as
Welke,
and
like
him,
she
thinks
that
the
long
history
of
newspaper
publishing
in
Germany
explains
why
Germans
today
are
still
so
interested
in
the
news.
But
Pasquay
also
wonders
whether
more
recent
historical
events
might
also
play
a
role:
“It’s
really
possible
that
this
has
something
to
do
with
the
Holocaust,”
she
says.
36
“Yes,
it’s
one
person’s
interpretation,
but
it’s
also
the
first
thing
that
comes
to
my
mind.
If
you’re
not
completely
blind,
deaf
and
dumb
it
would
be
impossible
to
walk
around
a
German
city
without
thinking
about
the
Holocaust
and
World
War
II,”
says
Pasquay.
37
Within
just
a
few
miles
of
her
office
in
Berlin,
dozens
of
burnished
bronze
cobblestones
stand
out
from
the
gray
stone
of
the
city’s
sidewalks.
One
of
them
is
engraved
with
the
words:
Hier
wohnte
Günther
Heinitz,
21.1.1892,
am
3.2.1943
nach
Auschwitz
deportiert,
ermordet
im
Febr.
1943.
(Here
lived
Günther
Heinitz,
born
on
January
21,
1892,
deported
to
Auschwitz
on
February
3,
1943,
murdered
in
February
1943.)
38
Stolpersteine,
or
stumbling
blocks,
as
these
bronze
cobblestones
are
known,
are
a
large-‐scale
effort
to
commemorate
the
individuals
forcibly
removed
from
their
35
Pasquay,
interview.
36
Ibid.
37
Ibid.
38
Observed
on
the
author’s
visit
to
Berlin,
September
14,
2012.
14
homes
and
sent
to
their
death
by
Nazis.
Berlin
has
set
itself
the
goal
of
installing
a
Stolperstein
for
every
one
of
the
city’s
victims
by
the
end
of
2014.
39
In
German,
there
is
a
word
for
initiatives
like
this
one:
Vergangenheitsbewältigung.
It
means
“coming
to
terms
with
the
past.”
The
term
came
to
prominence
in
the
aftermath
of
World
War
II
and
is
particularly
associated
with
the
struggle
of
the
German
people
to
accept
responsibility
for
their
role
in
Nazism
and
the
Holocaust.
Vergangenheitsbewältigung
can
be
seen
at
work
in
the
curriculum
of
German
schools,
where
visiting
Holocaust
memorials
is
common,
and
in
a
certain
genre
of
books
and
movies.
The
novel,
Der
Vorleser,
or
The
Reader,
which
was
made
into
the
2008
film
starring
Kate
Winslet
as
an
SS
guard
on
trial
for
war
crimes,
is
an
example
of
this.
Because
the
country
makes
a
point
of
confronting
its
own
history
head-‐on,
it
can
be
tempting
to
view
almost
everything
to
do
with
German
culture
and
society
through
the
lens
of
the
Holocaust.
Sometimes
this
makes
sense:
The
fact
that
Germans
rarely
display
flags
and
other
symbols
of
national
pride
(except,
recently,
during
international
soccer
matches)
can
be
traced
fairly
reliably
to
a
lingering
mistrust
of
the
kind
of
overt
nationalism
that
gave
rise
to
Adolf
Hitler.
40
39
“Stolpersteine:
The
World’s
Largest
Project
of
Commemoration,”
accessed
February
1,
2014.
http://www.stolpersteine-‐muenchen.de/english.php.
40
Arne
Lichtenberg,
“German
Patriotism
Unleashed
in
Soccer,”
Deutsche
Welle,
June
24,
2012,
accessed
March
10,
2014.
http://www.dw.de/german-‐patriotism-‐unleashed-‐in-‐soccer/a-‐16046796-‐1.
15
And
sometimes
it
does
not:
During
the
past
four
years
of
economic
crisis
in
Europe,
for
example,
German
chancellor
Angela
Merkel
frequently
has
been
depicted
as
Hitler
and
as
a
Nazi
in
countries
on
the
receiving
end
of
the
Eurozone’s
austerity
measures.
At
other
times,
Germany
has
been
criticized
as
being
too
reluctant
to
flex
its
economic
and
political
muscles
lest
any
unfavorable
comparisons
be
made
to
a
megalomaniacal
Third
Reich.
41
Journalists
have
a
mixed
track
record
when
it
comes
to
interpreting
the
influence
of
Hitler
and
the
Holocaust
on
modern
Germans’
everyday
actions.
There
is
a
danger,
perhaps,
in
seeing
connections
to
Nazism
where
there
are
none.
And
yet,
in
conversations
with
nearly
a
dozen
Germans,
of
various
ages
and
occupations,
about
why
they
consume
the
news,
almost
every
single
person
expressed
their
motivation
as
a
sense
of
duty
to
know
what
is
going
on
in
the
world.
“If
you’re
not
informed
about
the
news,
it’s
as
if
you’re
living
slightly
apart
from
the
world.
It’s
unhealthy
in
a
way,”
says
Monika
Singhofer-‐Wowra,
a
human
resources
director
for
a
science
lab
based
in
Heidelberg.
She
watches
Germany’s
nightly
news
program,
Tagesschau,
religiously
and
reads
Die
Welt
most
evenings.
42
41
Stefan
Kornelius,
“On
Europe
Angela
Merkel
sees
no
hope
but
to
press
on,”
The
Guardian,
April
9,
2013,
accessed
March
10,
2014.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/apr/09/europe-‐angela-‐
merkel-‐wont-‐change-‐course.
42
Monika
Singhofer-‐Wowra,
interview
with
the
author,
Ladenburg,
November
24,
2013.
16
The
art
director
of
the
Bavarian
State
Ballet,
Wagner-‐Bergelt,
thinks,
“It’s
very
important
to
read
the
news
so
you
know
what’s
going
on
in
society.
It’s
crucial
so
you
can
vote
for
the
right
people
to
lead
you.”
43
Roman
Fasel,
a
student
at
Ludwig
Maximilian
University
of
Munich
who
is
pursuing
his
doctorate
in
Greek
philosophy,
considers
the
news
a
crucial
way
to
keep
governments
in
check:
“You
have
to
pay
attention
to
what’s
happening
around
you.
Like
with
the
US
and
the
NSA,
for
example.
That’s
some
scary
shit.”
44
Just
two
weeks
earlier,
it
had
been
revealed
that
the
US
tapped
Chancellor
Merkel’s
cell
phone.
The
story
was
still
headline
news
in
Germany.
And
at
an
outdoor
market
in
Hamburg,
two
guys
in
their
late
twenties,
Markus
and
Tobias,
who
are
both
doing
apprenticeships
to
become
painters,
say
that
the
news
is
a
necessity
in
a
responsible
democracy.
45
If
at
first
these
answers
sound
a
little
too
idealistic,
consider
the
fact
that
generations
of
Germans
have
learned
in
school,
at
concentration
camps
and
on
cobblestone
streets
about
the
danger
of
willful
ignorance,
of
failing
to
be
informed
about
Hitler.
In
this
light,
it
seems
plausible
that
Germans’
commitment
to
the
news
is
just
another
way
of
coming
to
terms
with
their
Nazi
past.
Of
making
up
for
an
earlier
generation’s
sins
of
not
knowing
or
caring
what
their
government
was
up
to.
43
Wagner-‐Bergelt,
interview.
44
Roman
Fasel,
interview
with
the
author,
Munich,
November
18,
2013.
45
Markus
and
Tobias,
interview
with
the
author,
Hamburg,
November
26,
2013.
17
News
and
the
Nazis
Jürgen
Wilke,
a
retired
professor
of
communication
and
media
studies
at
the
Johannes
Gutenberg
University
of
Mainz,
is
one
of
the
foremost
scholars
in
his
field.
He
has
studied
every
imaginable
facet
of
German
media,
from
its
coverage
of
Nazi
war
crime
trials,
to
journalism
in
East
Germany,
to
propaganda
in
the
twentieth
century
and
its
role
in
political
campaigns.
46
Still,
he
does
not
have
an
easy
answer
to
the
question
of
whether
Germans
feel,
on
some
level,
a
particular
responsibility
to
be
informed
citizens,
and
whether
this
has
to
do
with
the
country’s
Nazi
past.
“You
have
to
remember
that
newspapers
aren’t
good
in
and
of
themselves,”
he
says.
47
“During
the
Third
Reich,
the
media
was
horribly
abused
and
it
led
people
astray.
It
took
a
long
time
after
the
Second
World
War
for
the
press
to
regain
its
credibility.
In
fact,
it’s
almost
surprising
that
Germans
trust
the
news
media
as
much
as
they
do.”
48
Part
of
this
process
is
described
in
a
2006
study
called
“Mass
Media
and
the
Generation
of
Conflict:
West
Germany’s
Long
Sixties
and
the
Formation
of
a
Critical
Public
Sphere,”
by
Christina
von
Hodenberg,
a
professor
of
European
history
at
Queen
Mary
University
of
London.
She
was
the
first
to
analyze
how
the
German
media
transformed
in
the
aftermath
of
World
War
II,
becoming
more
skeptical
of
the
government
and
its
actions,
and
cultivating
in
the
German
audience
a
desire
for
more
critical
political
coverage.
46
Jürgen
Wilke,
Skype
interview
with
the
author,
March
7,
2014.
47
Wilke,
interview.
48
Ibid.
18
In
the
1950s,
West
German
media
understood
its
role
primarily
as
promoting
social
and
political
harmony
in
the
newly
formed
state.
“This
view
[…]
was
partly
a
reaction,”
von
Hodenberg
writes,
“against
the
sharp
divisions
in
Weimar
political
culture
that
had
contributed
to
the
rise
of
Nazism.”
49
But
as
younger
generations
of
journalists
entered
the
newsrooms
–
both
the
45ers,
reporters
who
were
adolescents
and
students
during
World
War
II,
and
the
68ers,
a
younger
set
of
journalists
who
mostly
came
of
age
after
the
war
–
the
media’s
own
understanding
of
its
purpose
began
to
change.
According
to
von
Hodenberg’s
research,
“Empirical
studies
conducted
at
the
time
agreed
that
a
majority
of
journalists
embraced
a
political
mission
and
celebrated
the
concepts
of
conflict
and
criticism.
[They]
felt
a
‘professional
obligation
to
fight
the
problems
of
this
society.’”
50
Moreover,
von
Hodenberg
finds,
this
new
sense
of
meaning
also
affected
the
way
Germans
came
to
view
the
role
of
the
news
in
their
own
lives.
51
“German
audiences
increasingly
opted
for
the
newer
journalistic
style
that
embraced
criticism,
political
debate,
and
skepticism
towards
government
measures,”
she
concludes.
52
49
Christina
von
Hodenberg,
“Mass
Media
and
the
Generation
of
Conflict:
West
Germany’s
Long
Sixties
and
the
Formation
of
a
Critical
Public
Sphere.”
Contemporary
European
Journal,
15,
(August
2006),
379.
50
Von
Hodenberg,
373.
51
Von
Hodenberg,
395.
52
Von
Hodenberg,
377.
19
Although
von
Hodenberg
does
not
go
so
far
as
to
say
that
German
audiences
became
more
committed
to
consuming
news
after
World
War
II,
she
does
demonstrate
an
inextricable
relationship
between
the
modern
German
news
media
and
the
country’s
collective
memory
of
the
Holocaust.
Germans,
more
aware
than
most
of
what
was
at
stake,
came
to
expect
critical
coverage
of
government
institutions
from
the
news
media.
And
implicit
in
this
transformation,
perhaps,
is
a
sense
of
social
responsibility
to
be
well
informed.
Cultural
parachute
or
free-‐fall?
To
be
sure,
most
media
analysts
and
industry
thought
leaders
who
write
about
the
future
of
news
in
Germany
don’t
usually
talk
about
the
historical
significance
of
Hitler,
or
Martin
Luther,
or
ancient
trans-‐European
postal
routes.
Instead,
many
of
them
are
deeply
preoccupied
with
the
news
habits
of
the
younger
generation.
And
the
biggest
fear
of
traditional
media
providers
in
Germany
right
now
is
not
that
younger
readers
will
get
all
their
news
from
digital
offerings,
but
that
they
will
go
completely
“newsless,”
as
29
percent
of
Americans
under
25
years
old
already
do,
according
to
a
2012
Pew
poll.
53
This
presents
a
startling
alternative
to
the
idea
that
tradition
and
history
can
provide
a
“cultural
parachute”
for
the
failing
news
industry.
Is
this
the
generation
53
Andrew
Kohut,
“Pew
Research
surveys
of
audience
habits
suggest
perilous
future
for
news.”
Pew
Research
Center,
2013,
www.pewresearch.org/fact-‐
tank/2013/10/04/pew-‐surveys-‐of-‐audience-‐habits-‐suggest-‐perilous-‐future-‐for-‐
news/
(1
February
2014).
20
that
will
break
the
chain
of
cultural
transmission?
Anthropologist,
Nancy
Jervis,
writes
that
“all
culture
is
learned;
none
is
inherited.
And
it
is
passed
on
from
one
generation
to
the
next,
which
is
why
schools
and
families
are
so
important
in
cultural
transmission.”
54
If
this
is
true,
then
the
news
habits
of
twenty-‐three
year
old
Nadja
Bergelt,
the
daughter
of
Munich
art
director
Wagner-‐Bergelt,
are
a
good
omen.
Bergelt
lives
in
a
fifth
floor
walk-‐up
in
a
boxy,
bland
apartment
building
most
likely
constructed
in
the
1960s.
Petite,
with
a
long,
light-‐blonde
ponytail
and
an
elegant
profile,
she
sits
at
her
kitchen
table,
reading
one
of
Germany’s
most
visited
online
news
sites,
Spiegel
Online,
on
her
laptop.
There
are
no
newspapers
in
sight.
Bergelt
does
not
subscribe
to
any,
though
occasionally,
she
receives
an
article
clipped
out
of
the
paper
by
her
mother,
Wagner-‐
Bergelt.
She
thinks
the
gesture
is
sweet
and
thoughtful;
like
another
mother’s
version
of
knitting
her
daughter
a
sweater,
or
sending
her
cookies.
But
if
she’s
honest
with
herself,
Bergelt
does
not
really
miss
the
newspaper
all
that
much.
“It’s
not
a
pleasure
for
the
me,
the
way
it
is
for
my
mom
and
dad,”
she
says.
“I
don’t
need
to
spend
all
weekend
reading
it,
or
hear
the
paper
crinkle.”
55
Like
many
Germans
in
her
generation,
Bergelt
likes
the
convenience
of
digital
news:
she
scans
the
headlines
when
she’s
checking
her
email
in
the
morning
and
gets
push
notifications
on
her
phone
if
breaking
news
happens
during
the
day.
All
54
Jervis,
“What
Is
a
Culture?”
55
Nadja
Bergelt,
interview
with
the
author,
Munich,
November
21,
2013.
21
told,
she
only
spends
about
20
or
30
minutes
reading
the
news,
a
pastime
that
she
never
pays
for
because
Spiegel
Online
and
the
other
websites
she
visits
do
not
charge.
56
To
some,
certainly,
this
picture
only
confirms
the
tough
road
ahead
for
news
providers
in
Germany
and
elsewhere.
With
access
to
constant,
free
content
online,
young
people
are
unlikely
to
ever
willingly
pay
for
news
if
they
don’t
have
to.
And
ultimately,
this
is
an
unsustainable
business
model.
But
for
others,
Bergelt’s
habits
are
simply
proof
that
in
Germany
the
cultural
importance
attached
to
reading
the
news,
to
knowing
what
is
happening
in
the
world,
lives
on.
Perhaps
the
news
industry
is
in
for
a
soft
landing
after
all.
56
Bergelt,
interview.
22
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“Pew
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news.”
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Research
Center,
2013,
www.pewresearch.org/fact-‐
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Christina.
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Media
and
the
Generation
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Conflict:
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Germany’s
Long
Sixties
and
the
Formation
of
a
Critical
Public
Sphere.”
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European
Journal,
15,
(August
2006),
pp.
373-‐395.
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Abstract (if available)
Abstract
In Germany, as in many other countries, digital publishing and distribution trends are disrupting the traditional business model of newspapers. Dwindling circulation, cuts to staff and the closure of papers indicate a crisis in the industry. But according to a recent Reuters report on news consumption in nine countries, Germany has one of the highest rates of interest in the news. And 85 percent of Germans still get the news in some form every day. There is a strong tradition of news consumption in the country, a ""cultural parachute,"" which some predict will protect the transitioning news industry from full‐on free fall. Indeed, Germans’ preoccupation with the news can be traced throughout history, from the world’s first printed newspaper in the then German‐speaking city of Strasbourg, to the transformation of the country’s news media after World War II. But whether this cultural trait will prevail over external forces of change in the industry is not as easy to determine.
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Asset Metadata
Creator
McIlvaine, Heather
(author)
Core Title
An obsession with knowing: why Germans love the news
School
Annenberg School for Communication
Degree
Master of Arts
Degree Program
Specialized Journalism
Publication Date
05/02/2014
Defense Date
05/01/2014
Publisher
University of Southern California
(original),
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(digital)
Tag
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Language
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Electronically uploaded by the author
(provenance)
Advisor
Smith, Erna R. (
committee chair
), Bothe, Britta (
committee member
), Cole, K. C. (
committee member
)
Creator Email
heather.mcilvaine@gmail.com
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