A self-designed coding sheet helped to compare the representation of politics and other issues in the evening news of the public service channel ARD and the private channel RTL. Hereby, the following thesis is investigated: what are the differences in news selection and presentation of the two news reportings, and in how far can these differences be said to result from the channels` ownership by their broadcasting system? For the comparative analysis a content analysis was performed. In order to see the difference between public and private broadcasters` news, this paper looks at the news selection and presentation of the two biggest news broadcastings, ARD`s Tagesschau and RTL aktuell. Hence, the news fulfills a very important task that should be protected from misuse in form of strong influence by particular interest groups. issues occurring in their home country and abroad. The news is a very significant means in a democracy, since it informs the public on political, social, economic, etc. The importance of a strong and independent public service broadcasting system, can be exemplified by their news coverage. However, these kinds of measures might decrease the public service broadcasters’ independence from political and economic influences. The European Commission pressures Germany to change its media policy and make the public broadcasting’s tasks more ´transparent`, which means to make a clearer distinction between their public service and commercial activities (Open Society Institute, 2005, p. The Länder governments accuse ARD and ZDF of economic inefficiency and therefore propose a restructuring of the organization (Open Society Institute, 2005, p. In more recent years, an increasingly commercial environment has lead to the criticism that public service broadcasting extends to far into areas that should be left to the free-market. The German broadcasting system is a ´dual system` of public and private channels with different types of funding. Hence, it can be underlined how significant an independent public broadcasting system is for a democracy. These findings suggest that the type of broadcasting system influences the news selection and presentation. This might be due to a younger audience that is appealed to, and due to expectedly higher ratings, which are hoped to attract more advertisers. RTL aktuell for example reports less political topics, in a less balanced and complex way. The findings of an in-depth analysis of both news broadcastings conducted over a period of one week, suggest the major differences to be 1) in the focus on certain news topics, in the reporting style in terms of 2) balance of opinions, 3) complexity of the issue presented and 4) type and way of language used, and finally 5) in the underlying tone or appeal to the audience. These two news programs are broadcasted by two very different German television channels: the privately funded RTL and the publicly funded ARD. In a case study this paper investigates the differences in news coverage of RTL aktuell and the Tagesschau. 6: Data on viewer numbers and market share by Media Perspektiven Abstract 5: Graphical representation of issue types by Media PerspektivenĨ.5. 4: Graphical representation of share of issue formsĨ.4. 2: Graphical representation of share of issue typesĨ.3. Media conglomeration affecting commercial broadcastingĨ.2. Historical Development of the German Broadcasting Systemģ.2.
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