Transparency in Journalism: Zeit Online’s Glashaus Blog
It started with the outcry “Lügenpresse” (lying press) at the nationalist Pegida demonstrations in Germany 2014. These cries have waned little over time and the debate about news coverage has been intensified recently by the criticism of the tagesschau in respect to the murder in Freiburg. In this general climate of increasing distrust towards the news media, Zeit Online has started a transparency blog last week.
The Glashaus blog is meant to explain the inner workings of the Zeit editorial staff, the selection of news stories and feature a collection of mistakes for public correction. In its first entry “Willkommen im Glashaus”, Jochen Wegner also elaborates on the timing: apparently, a forum to explain and discuss processes that usually go unnoticed by newspaper readers was much wanted by the majority of the staff for a while, but it was not clear if such a thing would be of public interest. So to speak, the Zeit staff was unsure whether their inner mechanisms were news worthy.
In establishing this blog, the Zeit concurs with the Journalism Code of Ethics as established by the Society of Professional Journalists:
The first three points listed in the transparency section of the Journalism Code of Ethics will apparently be the main focus of the Glashaus blog. Abiding by high standards is mainly done indirectly and exposing unethical conduct would only make sense internally, namely concerning the Zeit, but not other institutions.
So far, three posts have been published on this transparency blog. They are until now mainly concerned with explaining why they do what they do:
Moreover, the articles are clearly inspired by the ongoing debate about crimes committed by refugees and the discrepancy of media coverage and what parts of the public feel should have been covered. Personally, I think that this is a very sensible approach and the posts online yet have been fairly interesting. Other readers have expressed similar opinions towards the Glashaus blog in the comment section of the welcoming post:
I don’t think, however, that this blog, or even this model is a solution to the whole “Lügenpresse” problem. People who feel unrepresented in politics and mainstream media simply have little motivation to read up on transparency efforts of institutions that they have termed crooked and biased. But it can, potentially, keep and enhance the trust of loyal and casual readers and as such is a valuable contribution to the media lanscape.
