Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: A rise in time and cost pressure has led to video news releases (“footage”) becoming increasingly popular in television editorial offices. Footage represents broadcastable video material which is made available to television stations by companies and institutions for reasons of public relations (PR). Its use is, however, problematical since editorial contents can thus be influenced by third parties. Against the background of the intereffication model of journalism and PR the question of the influence of footage on television reporting is explored on the basis of the example of science journalism. To this end, in a case study 44 German science journalists were asked how they dealt with this material. The results lead to the conclusion that footage is handled pragmatically. In addition, within the framework of a contents analysis of transmission data relating to reporting on the Max Planck Society, the influence of footage material over a period of nine and a half months was determined (n=274). It was revealed here that almost one third of the reporting was directly attributable to PR material whereby contributions induced by footage were represented to a greater extent and were longer than reports based on news releases. The influence on private stations was greater than that on public-service channels. This therefore raises the question about binding rules on how to deal with footage.