Journalism Research Edited by Gabriele Hooffacker, Horst Pöttker, Tanjev Schultz and Martina Thiele 2021 | Vol. 4 (2) www.journalistik.online 72 Editorial Debate Research papers 144 Oliver Günther and Tanjev Schultz Inspire, enlighten, disagree 74 Marco Braghieri, Tobias Blanke Ten ways to ensure strong journalism and Jonathan Gray in a digital media world Journalism aggregators: an analysis of Longform.org Reviews How journalism aggregators act as site of datafication and curatorial work 151 Michael Haller: Die Reportage: Theorie und Praxis des Erzähljournalismus. 98 Marc-Christian Ollrog, Megan Hanisch [Reportage: Theory and practice of and Amelie Rook storytelling journalism] When newspeople get constructive Reviewed by Steven Thomsen An editorial study on implementing Constructive Reporting at 154 Claudia Mast et al.: »Den Mächtigen Verlagsgruppe Rhein Main auf die Finger schauen«. Zur Zukunft gedruckter Tageszeitungen in der 118 Hans Peter Bull Region [»Keeping a close eye on the How true is media reporting? powerful.«] Of bad practices and ignorance Reviewed by Silke Fürst in public communication 159 Mandy Tröger: Pressefrühling und Essay Profit. Wie westdeutsche Verlage 1989/1990 den Osten eroberten [Press 135 Valérie Robert spring and profit] France’s very own Murdoch Reviewed by Hans-Dieter Kübler Money, media, and campaigning 163 Florian Wintterlin: Quelle: Internet. Journalistisches Vertrauen bei der Recherche in sozialen Medien [Source: Internet] Reviewed by Guido Keel HERBERT VON HALEM VERLAG H H Legal Notice Journalism Research (Journalistik. Zeitschrift für Journalismusforschung) 2021, Vol. 4 (2) http://www.journalistik.online Editors Publisher Prof. Dr. Gabriele Hooffacker Herbert von Halem Verlagsgesellschaft Prof. Dr. Horst Pöttker mbH & Co. KG Prof. Dr. Tanjev Schultz Schanzenstr. 22 Prof. Dr. Martina Thiele 51063 Köln Phone: +49(0)221-9258290 Managing Editor Fax: +49(0)221-92582929 E-Mail: [email protected] Content responsibility (acc. to § 55 Abs. 2 RStV) Represented by: Anna Berneiser, B.A. Herbert von Halem Verlagsges. mbH Executive Director: Herbert von Halem Acknowledgement Registration Court: Köln We would like to thank the Presse-Haus Registration No.: HRB 25647 NRZ Foundation in Essen for their kind support. Registration: Registered in Commercial Register. Registration Court: Köln Register No.: HRA 13409 VAT-ID: VAT-ID-No. according to §27a Umsatz- steuergesetz: DE 172 714 183 Journalism Research HERBERT VON HALEM VERLAG 2021, Vol 4 (2) p. 72-73 ISSN 2569-152X Editorial The long and short of it How long should an editorial be? What amount of text is reasonable? At what point do you, dear reader, get engaged, and when do you stop reading? It may seem that News Feeds, »bite-sized« journalism, and the economy of attention have won. But there is no trend without a counter-trend: extensive articles are also finding their audiences. In the US, the New York Times is consi- dered a pioneer of longform journalism, i.e. narrative pieces whose multimodal online versions are enriched with images and sound, videos, and podcasts. In Germany, for example, Süddeutsche Zeitung with its »Langstrecke« format and Zeit Online feature longer pieces. In her very worthwhile blog, journalist and blogger Sonja Kaute provides an overview of numerous national and international exam- ples of longform journalism. Science also provides new insights into storytelling and scrollytelling. Marco Braghieri, Tobias Blanke and Jonathan Gray examined longform.org, a US web- site that collects and curates journalistic longform articles. Their study not only sheds light on the economic and technological background of the digital long- tail model; but also provides information about the diversity of its sources, pre- dominantly newspapers and magazines from whose archives longform.org gleans its texts, as well as about the topics of such long texts. The fact that a format like longform.org is viable raises the questions about its users. The readership of such longform articles, their motivation, and their modes of reception remain to be studied. The same is true for the recipients of Constructive Journalism, a topic to which Journalism Research has recently been devoting continuous attention (Meier 2018; Hooffacker 2021). The data is more abundant, however, regarding the »master- minds« at editorial departments and the authors of »solution-oriented« articles. Marc-Christian Ollrog, Megan Neumann, and Amelie Rook followed the imple- mentation of Constructive Reporting at Verlagsgruppe Rhein Main, examining how new work methods affect journalists’ notions of their own roles as well as other aspects. Based on the results of their interviews and comparative content analyses, they offer some practical recommendations for action. Journalism Research 2/2021 72 Editorial Hans Peter Bull is also concerned with journalistic practice, but even more so with truth and veracity in media reporting. He deplores campaign journalism that goes after figures like Christian Wulff and Olaf Scholz, partisanship, and a lack of differentiation. To counter Bull’s rather pessimistic outlook and criticism of the »ignorance« of political actors and journalists alike, Oliver Günther and Tanjev Schultz offer a quite constructive set of »10 theses for strong journalism in the digital media world« with the objective of greater journalistic autonomy. The authors of the debate contribution are very clear: »Journalism must not submit to a market and product logic.« Another threat to independent journalism and freedom of the media is the con- centration of political and economic power in the hands of a few. Valérie Robert shows how this trend is at work in France. To her, entrepreneur Vincent Bolloré, who among other things holds a majority stake in the conglomerate Vivendi, is the Rupert Murdoch of France. Like multi-billionaire Bernard Arnault, Bolloré wields political power through media power – which is certain to impact the outcome of the 2022 Presidential elections, in which Marine Le Pen is a confirmed candidate. However, before the citizens of France head to the polls, Germany will hold its Federal Elections on 26 September 2021. We know that Angela Merkel will no longer be available for Chancellor after 16 years in office. What we don’t know is who will end up governing and in which coalition. This issue contains many great tips on good journalistic practices during this hot phase of the election campaign – both for short as well as longer pieces! Martina Thiele, summer of 2021 Translation: Kerstin Trimble Journalism Research 2/2021 73 Journalism Research HERBERT VON HALEM VERLAG 2021, Vol 4 (2) p. 74-97 ISSN 2569-152X DOI: 10.1453/2569-152X-22021-11525-en Research paper Marco Braghieri, Tobias Blanke and Jonathan Gray Journalism aggregators: an analysis of Longform.org How journalism aggregators act as site of datafication and cura- torial work Abstract: What is the role and significance of digital long-form content aggre- gators in contemporary journalism? This article[1] contends that they are an important, emerging object of study in journalism research and provides a digital methods analysis and theoretical engagement with Longform.org, one of the most prominent long-form content aggregators on the web. We pro- pose that Longform.org can be understood as leveraging the datafication of news content in order to valorize the long tail of archived material. Drawing on scraped data from the archive, we undertake an in-depth analysis into the practices of long-form aggregators. While Longform.org exhibits a degree of curatorial diversity, legacy news media outlets tend to be featured more frequently. Accessibility of news media archives is one of the most relevant factors for being featured by Longform.org. Our analysis demonstrates the rele- vant role of smaller digital-only publications, which provide a unique mix of sources. Through a network analysis of scraped tags we explore the composi- tion of themes, including personal, world-political, celebrity, technological and cultural concerns. The data and curatorial practices of such long-form aggregators may be understood as an area of contemporary news work that conditions which past perspectives are more readily available, experienceable and programmable on the web. 1 A similar version of this article has appeared as a book chapter in: Marco Braghieri (2021): Yesterday’s News. The future of long-form journalism and archives. Oxford et al.: Peter Lang. Journalism Research 2/2021 74 Marco Braghieri, Tobias Blanke and Jonathan Gray: Journalism aggregators: an analysis of Longform.org Introduction While in contemporary digital news consumption, »media stories monopolize the attention for a week or so and then are instantly forgotten« (Fisher 2009: 59), news media digital archives are the recipients of a relevant interest over the World Wide Web (cf. Elliott 2012). Such archives are intended here as the result of »journalistic publications, productions or related content […] stored and made available in digital form« (Bødker 2018: 1114). While long-form journalism can also be defined as slow journalism (cf. Le Masurier 2015) and literary journalism, »true life stories that can be read like a novel or a short story« (Hartsock 2000: ix), within contemporary digital news production and consumption, long-form journalism departs from the accelerated news cycle (cf. Le Masurier 2016); values writing standards and research (cf. Le Masurier 2015); searches for originality (cf. Belt/South 2016); and places a range of