Research Project: Media Ethics and Youth Press
In the mid 1980ies, Bob Lichter (Chairperson of the Center for Media and Public Affairs in Washington, DC) wrote a seminal book about the values of journalists. He discovered that the values of journalists could be described as East-Coast, metropolitan and liberal – unlike the general set of values shared by the American public. Even more, he found that this values also shows in the broadcasting – even though American media prided itself on its political unbiasedness.
Now with a similar study I would like to research how the values of young journalists in Germany are currently shaped – and how they will look like in 15 years! The German Youth Press is one of the most influential German youth organisations. Surely many of its activities will in 10 or 15 years determine German’s media landscape. So the interesting aspect would be to compare the values of young journalists now and then approach these journalists in 15 years again.
Bob Lichter used two methods: he asked journalists to confirm or deny a list of political statements, and he asked them to look at certain ambigious pictures and describe the situation shown in the picture. Something similar I would also like to do in the study.
Comments and Feedback are welcome!
