Anna: I spent an entire week not noticing I’d invented a new day of the year. November 31st was actual fake news, but a lot of dumb shit is right now. I’d like to think I am decent at detecting biased sources of information in the US. But when it comes to news outside my own borders, I have absolutely no idea! So, Drop, being not of these bleak and dreary Midwestern….whatever the opposite of a shore is, I would love it if you would talk a little about what news in your land is like, where I presume there is no Fox News equivalent yelling about…I don’t know what your people get riled by, poor watch craftsmanship?
Dropwing: You’re quite right, Anna. Obviously, poor watch craftsmanship is considered high treason in the republic of Switzerland, second only to bad chocolate and crimes against cheese. As for Fox News, indeed that is not (yet) a thing here, fortunately. Neither is, in fact, the 24/7 news cycle, unless you decide to inflict some of those foreign news networks on yourself (not sure why you would do that, but to each their own, I guess).
I suppose the biggest difference to the US is that we have national TV and radio stations, just like the Brits do with the various BBC outlets. They are imperfect, but for the most part, manage to serve as relatively neutral sources of information. Or, if you disagree with the general consensus on their neutrality, at least they are much less inflammatory than Fox News and its relatives. They are also — very controversially — financed by a mandatory broadcasting fee, which pretty much every household has to pay.
There are most certainly biased news organizations, but the big ones tend to be in print or online form (Weltwoche is a rather infuriating example) rather than an entire TV station of right-wing nonsense like Fox News. Even the propaganda TV program by our main right-wing heavy-hitter Christoph Blocker is very niche and on a local channel and nothing like Fox News.
Anna: See, that sounds so much better than what we have here. Even PBS is subject to some regional politics (I’ve worked the phone lines at their pledge drive/auction, so I’m allowed to say that) cspan is the closest we have to a national broadcast but I’m 99% sure you have to have cable to get it. We don’t have to pay licensing fees (I don’t think- maybe that’s what taxes are?) but that also means we have no access without spending $ on cable packages and paper subscriptions. But then again, at this point I get all my news from twitter and the pt. I’ve found that internet access has made broadcast news pretty meaningless in my own life. And it interests me; online is probably the biggest threat to traditional broadcasting-yet I wouldn’t trust the people relying on fox news to navigate through that minefield at all. I’m not sure how one balances primary sources with a lack of critical thinking skills that seems to come with our current news crisis. I mean imagine, getting all your news from a site that started as tv and movie reviews. Who would do such a thing. Over there has the rise of social media contributed to a shift in how vital traditional news formats are?
Dropwing: It has indeed, yes. The traditional media landscape has been going through decline and consolidation for many years now. Our two biggest “proper” newspapers are the Tagesanzeiger (liberal left-ish) and NZZ (liberal centrist/centre-right, depending on who’s writing the OP-Eds). Both have suffered massive declines in the past decade, as has our biggest tabloid, Blick (not that I’m sad about that last one). Easily visible in these plots for the number of copies between 2008 and 2018 for all three publications:
Besides that, many regional offices are also being closed down and journalism is being centralized in bigger offices, leading to a decline in quality local journalism. This goes for newspapers, TV and radio — even our national broadcaster is not immune to it.
Social media has definitely become much more important for political engagement here, though I admit I personally don’t engage much on that front and mostly stick to traditional news outlets to parse the important info of the day — both local and international.
Yes, I know, I’m an Old.
Anna: Well whaddya know, it’s basically the same thing as over here. Local papers are closing or being bought out by people looking to scrap them for parts or influence an election bid in two years. As local coverage dies out, more and more viewers are going to turn towards cable coverage and perpetuate the 24/7 news cycle issues. They say all politics is local, but all news might be worldwide after all.
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